There were still fires burning in the city that Edward could see from his quarters in the palace. It was a sorry sight to see, but the soldiers who were not occupied with fighting the stragglers were trying their best with the clean-up and firefighting. Though there was only so much they could do to help with firefighting without any fire trucks.

Though, the palace as safe enough now, and had enough of the bodies removed, for some admin staff to start filing in and for some of the offices and quarters to be divvied up. Though a lot of the bullet and blast marks were still present in the corridors and some of rooms. And a mop had been taken to the worst bits of blood.

The north of the palace had apparently been a bitch to take however, with the reason for it soon found.

The duke had based his command centre there and had taken all of the best troops to guard him. Leading to things like Edward finding the king lightly guarded. He was for sure a bastard to the last moment.

But they had managed to capture him alive after the breaching team gave him a hard hit around the head with a rifle stock. A well-deserved injury most would say as well. Though not the end of his punishment for sure. Edward would be making sure of that for one thing.

And he wanted to meet the duke now, especially after his meeting with the king.

William had seemingly been turned into a puppet for the duke by this stage in the war. He was left in the dark about the details of the war and almost completely left out of decision making. Though it didn’t make the man completely innocent in this war and certainly not in how this kingdom was run. Especially considering how the man had seemed to have only made minimal reforms in his time, with most of those reforms relating to trade and the military, with no effort made to give more rights to the common folk.

So, he would be out of a job at the least and potentially in jail for a bit at the most. But Edward did need him for a while longer though.

On the desk in Edward’s room was his laptop with a draft of a letter that would be sent out to every nobleman who hadn’t yet surrendered. And that would be an order from their king to surrender with confirmation from the priest that they weren’t devils, with it signed by both of them. Which should hopefully make it so they were only fighting a handful of independently minded lords who were too stupid to realise how deadly resisting would be. Especially given the new batch of Hellfire R9X missiles they had gotten for the Gremlins.

Any sort of attack any of those nobles or the hidden prince would make, would be rather quickly ended by simply identifying them, and then sending the bladed missile into them. Quick, precise, and with little collateral damage.

But right now, Edward decided he was going to interview Duke Nathaniel. After all, there were some answers he wanted. And a lot of answers at that.

And while Elliot was coming down soon, and would be interviewing some of the prisoners, Edward didn’t want him to see how aggravated he may get with the duke.

So, closing his laptop and straightening his jacket, he got walking.

It wasn’t that far to the chief servants’ quarters that they were using to house the top-level POWs. To Edward it was too good for them, but there was only so much space in the dank and dark dungeons, and they hadn’t gone through all of the cells in there anyway.

So, hence, Nathaniel had been kept in a cellar-based butler’s quarters, with the door locked, a camera placed in its corner and two marines by the door. Though some preparations had been made for Edward’s visit.

So, as Edward stepped into the room, the duke was safely restrained in a chair, hands tied behind his back and legs secured to the chair. His head still had a little dried blood on it, but other than that he was rather clean.

Edward was not the man to take risks, and it was time for the monster in front of him to learn some humility. But it seemed like it would take some time as they made sure to put the first word in, despite his position.

“So, I suppose we got off on the wrong foot…”

Edward’s eyebrow raised, “Oh? In what way?”

“Well, you haven’t let me stay in the quarters that the king gave me for my stay here as per convention. And you have, well, shackled me up like this… Is it really necessary to degrade me like this?”

Edward smiled, the duke’s face eyes going dark as he saw it, “And you’re a dangerous prisoner of war who has committed multiple war crimes and crimes against humanity. It’s not proper to have you inhabit your quarters that, from what I can remember, are going to become the quarters of one of my commanders.”

Nathaniel chewed his cheek, “Now, I have multiple questions here. First, I don’t think it is very polite of a man to take another’s bed while it is still warm, and while the other man is still alive.”

“And you’re a prisoner. If you dislike that I could set you up with my second in command for you to complain to, and he is a man who is nowhere near as civil as I am. “

“Point taken…” Nathaniel groaned, “And secondly, what the fack is a “crime against humanity”? And what is a “war crime”? Nothing is fair in war and a I have no facking clue what crimes would count as the former.”

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Edward smiled. A slightly mad smile that conveyed a hatred of the person who was looking upon it, “They are both things that you have committed soo many of… Such as using civilians as shields, which is a war crime. You used incendiary weapons close to civilians which is a war-crime. You enslaved people through your feudal system which is a crime against humanity. And you…”

Edward leaned in, keeping far enough away to stop the man from desperately trying to bite him, but close enough to get an effect, “And you butcher people like animals while they are still alive for fun as you vivisect them. Its sick and demented to say the least, and all of these crimes combined, will make you meet the gallows…”

Nathaniel’s face turned dark as he tried to make one futile attempt to break free before then resigning. Facing back to Edward, “And how did you find that out?!”

“I have eyes in places you won’t believe. So, we found out about your “hobby” soon enough and every one of our people knows about it too…”

“And you think I’d be treated worse by already hostile daemons and evil angels knowing about that?”

“And I think we both know, that you know, I’m not a daemon and you derailed the negotiations! Its rather fucking clear you were trying to leverage this situation by taking the king out of the picture during this war!”

Nathaniel let out a stiff chuckle, “And where did you get that from? As so far, you’re quite the investigator it seems to have gotten all of this…”

“It’s blatantly apparent to anyone paying attention and taking a cynical outlook.”

“And I suppose you’re one of those honourable types who takes this entire loyalty to your king and your god far too seriously?”

“I did use to have a king I swore to, but I never swore to a god. Now I swear to my country, it’s people and my troops. Principles are important, though you’ve made it clear just now that you have none.”

“I have principles. You might think less of them, but they are principles. But they aren’t to protect anyone beneath me like everyone else’s.”

Edward’s teeth gritted as he pulled back, dusting his hands and sleeves, “I will say I won’t miss you when you finally receive the justice you deserve-”

“And you would be killing an emperor.”

“What!?”

The duke smirked, “I’m destined for it. Well, I would have been if it wasn’t for my forces infuriating incompetence and your forces’ rather annoying capabilities.”

“And how high are you?” Edward chuckled, “If we would have failed there, we could have simply surrounded you and sieged you. You’d be trapped while we would get reinforcements and bomb you! You truly have no idea about what we can do, and you rushed straight into a war with us! You are a complete and utter deluded idiot!”

“And you facking dare call me an Idiot! I figured out how you worked! I had the weapons I needed to defeat you, drive you out of here for good, then take over this continent as it’s first emperor! I am the only one who can do this! And you’re going to hang me!”

He laughed. Somewhat like a classical villain, but more restrained. More like an actual person with some form of megalomania.

The admiral could only shake his head, turning around and ignoring the yells of protest from the duke as he exited out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

His fists had been left clenched and his jaw locked shut as his teeth grinded against each other. Half of his mind thinking about what sort of things he’d want to do with the maniac, and the other side firmly rejecting these instincts, recoiling back from them like a frightened animal.

“Edward?”

He whipped his head around, finding the blue and gold flaked green mismatched eyes of Elliot looking at him, concern written across his face.

“S-sorry.” He sighed, “I just got out of a little chat with the duke who we captured and… I need to get away from here…”

“Do you need to go back to your room? I can take anything you need to do from-“

“No, no. I’m alright to keep going on. I need to come with you while inspecting the prison. There might be some things I need to deal with…

“Like what?” Elliot asked, his head cocking a little.

“Nothing that you’d need to help out with. And remember,”

He placed a hand on Elliot’s shoulder, their eyes meeting.

“Some things are above your security clearance, alright? So if I tell you that you need to forget something-“

“Forget it?”

“Exactly.”

The diplomat nodded, his patting his hand on Edward in confirmation.

“Alright, let’s explore a dingy dungeon then…”

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The dungeon was better than the one they found in the keep by the bridge, but not that much better. It was cleaner and a little nicer smelling, but it was also darker, lit only by wall mounted sconces. Along each side of the small group were lines of cells, with stone walls around three of the walls apart from the front which was made of iron bars.

So far, they had seen the usual sets of criminals, POWs and unidentified prisoners that had yet to be classified. Edward thought that they may be opponents of the king or duke, but it wasn’t clear.

Either way nothing had popped out to either of them so far. Though, that did change rather quickly…

As they moved past a cell that had been cordoned off with a large tarpaulin covering it’s front, they found a man.

A man like non other that either of them had seen in real life.

He was tall with royal purple skin, stunning features and a muscular body. However, he was dirty and covered in bruises and scars from what had probably been days of abuse.

To Elliot it was something out of science fiction.

To Edward it was what he had been dreading to find. For the man there fit the description he had been given perfectly.

“Elliot…”

W-What is it? Just this man…”

“I know, now, do you remember what I said to you?”

Elliot’s eyes pried themselves off of the man and to Edward, swallowing hard, “Do you mean the stuff about things above my security clearance?”

“Yeah,” he answered, locking his gaze with Elliot, “So forgot you ever saw this and if anyone asks, just say we got part way through this before you went to get a few papers you needed, alright?”

“You… Never mind, I’ve got that.”

“Go then and do it fast. I need to make some calls now. And you do not want to be there when the people I call down come.”

“Right…”

Elliot swallowed, slow backing away from Edward before finally letting his eyes drift away, then turning around to walk full speed down the corridor. He quickly made his way out of the dungeon and was walking up to the upper floors when behind him he heard the heavy stomping of metal boots. He didn’t look back until he had made his way into his quarters and settled himself down, slumping at his desk while he tried to make his heart settle.

----------------------------------------

“Sir?”

Edward looked up to the lead Blacksuit, “What is it?”

“In our patrols we have found a possible entrance to the headquarters of the underground manufacturers. Just as you called us to deal with this, though it does seem to be filled with hazardous material.”

He sighed, clutching his face, “Get the NBC company and once you have taken this person away, prepare yourselves for an expedition… And I’ll be joining you.”

“Yes sir.”