Straf is standing over the headless corpse of the stubborn commander, as his guards look on in horror.

「What the fuck?…」 「I didn't even see him move…」 「What are we supposed to do now?」

The men surrounding him mumble amongst themselves, glancing at each other and Straf.

「Well? Anybody?」

He asks, and looks all around. Wherever his gaze turns, the men there take a few steps back in panic. A few moments later, a middle-aged mustached man walks out from amidst the crowd towards Straf.

「Ah, how about you? Want to have a go at it?」

He grins at the man, and the man shakes his head with his hand raised.

「No. I am an officer, I intend to honor Commander Kerul's wishes. May we have some time to pack our camp-?」

The man asks with uneasy eyes.

「Nope, fuck off. Grab food and water, then go back.」

Straf scoffs at the officer, cutting him off.

「…May we at least take Commander Kerul's body for burial back home?」

The mustached man asks pleadingly, pointing his hand at the headless corpse.

「Go ahead. You can take the head for free, too.」

Straf points out the head with his sword, and throws his weapon back into [Portable Storage].

「Will the Redwing troops allow us to leave, though?」

The officer asks as Straf turns to leave.

「Huh? What troops?」

He looks over his shoulder with his brows furrowed.

「…The troops that we were fighting. Did you not run into them? Last we saw them, they were hiding in the treeline up that hill across from us.」

The officer points his finger in the vague general direction where Straf came from.

「Nope. I suppose I'll let them know that you've surrendered. If I find out in an hour that you're still here, you'll become one with the land.」

Straf shrugs, and turns for the exit out of the secure area. The officer gulps nervously at his words, then turns to his men.

「Everyone, listen up!! We are going to honor the duel's result! Take rations and water, then head to the camp below! Spread the word! You have 10 minutes!」

The officer shouts, and Straf walks past the guards at the entrance, heading down the hill.

「…Do you think we'll dodge the latrine duty?」

One of them asks the other, as soon as Straf is out of the earshot…

…

Straf is casually walking across the battlefield. Corpses of the slain litter the road and the grass on the hills. Here and there, the ground is either torn apart, scorched, or otherwise upset in a bizarre fashion.

「Ahhh, man… I really have to walk aaalllll the way back, huh?」

He says to himself, hopping over one of the corpses on the road with his hands in his pockets. He walks past the scorched forest, and further down the hill.

「Halt!」

A man shouts, coming from behind a large boulder off to the side, and two crossbowmen fan out from the rock as well. Straf looks over his shoulder, and realizes another group of bowmen is also keeping their bows notched and ready, but not yet drawn as they stand some distance away.

「Who are you, and what are you doing here!? Are you their officer!? A messenger!?」

The man shouts questions while the crossbowmen have their weapons trained on Straf, kneeling and ready to shoot at a moment's notice.

「Aren't you supposed to be retreating-? Hold on, whose side are you on, again?」

Straf furrows his brows and asks with his finger raised.

「We are the loyal defenders of the Redwing Kingdom! Now answer my question!」

The man shouts back, the bowmen glance at each other.

「Ah, so we're on the same side. Listen, tell the rest of your men to not attack the invaders, they agreed to leave.」

Straf points his thumb over his shoulder at the enemy encampment on the large hill.

「On the same side? How did you enter their camp then!? My scouts saw you! You entered completely unopposed!」

The man points his finger at Straf, and shouts in an accusatory tone.

「Yeah, I'm not sure what was up with that. Either way, I solved the problem. Let them leave, I'm going to tell the queen we won, and stuff.」

Straf starts walking, and the bowmen draw their bows.

「Stop! You still haven't answered my question! Who are you, and what are you doing here!? Answer me, or I'll order them to shoot! I won't let any spies or scouts slip past, even if it's the last thing I'll ever do!」

The man throws his arm to the side, threatening Straf. Straf stops, looking at him with bored eyes and a slanted mouth.

「…Buddy, I just killed their commander, and this is the thanks for the hard work I receive? Why do you think they're all upping and leaving now?」

Straf points his hand at the enemy encampment, and a river of soldiers is flowing out, heading towards the border.

「…What? You killed their commander? How? Why?」

The man lowers his arm, asking Straf with a voice full of disbelief, and eyes full of caution.

「What do you mean how? I just walked in and killed him in a duel, because he was a cocky little shit. And why is because Lia asked me not to just chop their entire army up into minced meat.」

Straf shrugs with his hands, rolling his eyes as he explains himself.

「Lia? Who is Lia? What are you talking about?」

The man blinks, he and his crossbowmen glance at each other searching for answers, but none of them have any.

「Cyce- Queen Cycelia, alright? I told her I'd be back tomorrow, too. Man, what a bother… Couldn't they attack in a few months or something?…」

Straf clicks his tongue and rubs the back of his neck with his palm in annoyance.

「The queen?… The queen sent an assassin to aid us!?」

He exclaims, looking at his men with a grin forming on his face.

「Hey, I said a duel, not an assassination. Go tell the rest of your men to let the enemies go, so they don't start a fight they can't win again」

Straf shrugs with his hands, his mouth grimacing in indignance.

「I knew we wouldn't be abandoned…」

The man says to himself while nodding. The crossbowmen lower their weapons, and the bowmen relax their stances.

「But… This is all the men I have left.」

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

He points his hands at the group of bowmen, and the crossbowmen beside him with a troubled, serious expression.

「Man, you guys got really torn up, huh? Go tell the other units, then-」

Straf scoffs, placing his hands back in his pockets. The man shakes his head.

「There aren't any other units. Most of my men are dead, and the ones you see here are the remnants of the other units. The only men left are the lightly injured, treating those who are severely wounded at our hidden camp.」

The man replies with a grave tone.

「…Yeah, you really got badly torn up. Didn't it occur to you that maybe you should run? You're not stopping an army with whole… What is it? Twenty people? Thirty?」

Straf scoffs, and takes a quick glance at the bowmen.

「We know. We were intent on slowing the advance to buy the troops behind us some time to assemble and fortify. It seems that we have succeeded. When we lost our mages, their assault with magic was brutal, but they were too scared to come near our positions. Sergeant Lucius in particular did a lot of damage. May he and his men be remembered.」

The man nods and explains with a sighful, tired voice.

「I bet they'd be pissed off if they found out an entire army got held up by like 30 guys. Good thing they had no idea what deep operations are, huh? Well, see you around, Mr. Patriot. Maybe you'll get proper veteran treatment for this, and I'll see you working in an inn somewhere for a copper a day.」

Straf grins, and continues along the road down the hill.

「Wait! Are you heading to the capital to deliver the news, then? Come with us to our camp, we have a few horses. I can't leave my men behind, and you'd serve the role of a messenger perfectly.」

The man shouts towards Straf, and Straf stops, looking at him with his brows raised.

「Horses, huh? That's convenient. Not only convenient, it also breaks a cliche. In another world, nobody with a name is actually allowed to ride horses. Horses are for pulling wagons. Let's go.」

He shrugs, and walks up to the man. The group of bowmen comes closer, and the man leads Straf towards and unburnt patch of the forest on a nearby hill…

…

Straf follows the man for roughly 20 minutes through a thick, dark forest.

「Who goes there!?」

A voice from the woods shouts out.

「It's me. We won.」

The man replies, and a young man with bandages over half his face peeks out from behind a tree.

「Sergeant? Won? What do you mean won?」

He asks with his mouth slightly open, blinking in confusion.

「I mean we won. They're retreating. The queen sent support, and he managed to turn them back.」

「We won!? Hey! We won!」

Hearing the news, the young man turns around and shouts further into the forest. He runs deeper inward, and the man calmly follows him. Straf arrives at a small encampment. The tents are covered by sticks, leaves, and generic local foliage. Men with bloodied bandages and cloth wrapped around missing limbs, fingers, or generally their body lay on flax mats on the ground, groaning an grunting in pain, breathing heavily.

Similarly bandaged men, albeit visibly less injured, are taking care of the severely wounded ones. They give them water to drink, or are simply talking with them. Straf looks upon the mangled men with a completely neutral, unfazed expression.

「Don't you have healers? Potions? What happened to all the magic stuff? Does it all disappear when a war starts?」

Straf turns to the man and asks. The man scoffs, returning a grim smirk.

「Believe me, I wish I had a healer at my disposal, but they're just too damn rare. We burned through all the potions we had on hand within the first few hours. Now we're just crossing our fingers that at least a quarter of the wounded survives.」

The man sighs, looking at the rest of the camp with his hands on his hips. The troubled expression on his face remains.

「Where's the horses?」

Straf asks, and the man nods his head towards a particularly well-built improvised stable. At a glance, it does not look any different than a thick patch of young trees, but on closer inspection it reveals itself to hold three horses.

「Right here. Pick one. They're for officers, and for messengers. If you're going to deliver the news to the queen, I guess you ought to get there quick.」

The man says, looking at the horses within the stable. One of the horses snorts noisily at Straf.

「It doesn't really matter, does it? I'll take this one.」

Straf walks up to the horse in the center, and grabs its reins.

「Alright, be sure to let the queen know we all fought valiantly and died bravely. There's nothing more we could have done with numbers like these.」

He says, and pulls the branch gate holding the horse inside away. Straf leads the horse out, and mounts up.

「Yeah, yeah, I'll tell her you were really bad at listening to your survival instincts. By the way…」

Straf trots a few steps away on his horse.

「…Do you have booze?」

With bored eyes and raised brows, Straf looks over his shoulder at the man.

「Hahahah… Why? You might not make it back if you celebrate victory with us. I have a few bottles of spirits confiscated from the trouble-makers… I suppose we could open them in their name.」

The man chuckles at the seemingly bizarre and out of place question.

「Pour them over the injures of your men.」

Straf says, staring at the man with a bored expression.

「Huh? Why would we?」

Perplexed, the man shakes his head a little.

「So they can get drunk in a funny way. Just trust me and do it.」

Straf shrugs, whips the horse with the reins, and rides out of the forest towards the road, leaving the camp behind…

…

Back at the capital, after sundown…

Lily appears at the top of the bell tower, glaring down at the assembled crowd below. The people are whispering something to each other in the dark, and Lily can clearly see the presence of some vampires in the gathering, unbeknownst to the rest of the people.

「Dwellers of the night, hear me!」

Lily says in a loud, commanding voice as she continues glaring down at the vampires.

「I am Baroness Lily Hemaluna! Per agreement with the human queen, I rule the night of this city! If you are to make this place your home, you are to obey my rule! My word is the law, and the law is sacred!」

She says, and leans slightly onto the bell tower's stone fence.

「Any violations of my rules are subject to any arbitrary punishment I wish, but allow me to warn you right now…」

She glares straight into the crimson eyes of the vampires, pausing for a brief moment.

「…I will be very severe, and death will be among the lightest penalties! Therefore, listen closely! My laws are simple, and any violation will be deemed intentional and a challenge to my rule!」

As she warns the vampires, the humans below look at each other with confusion and worry on their faces. The vampires attempt to remain nonchalant, but they too visibly become unnerved by Lily's promises of zero-tolerance.

「The first law is as follows… No draining or sucking of blood without the human's consent! Any violations will be immediately punished! All humans are to report violators to the human queen!」

A murmur starts in the crowd, as the people begin to discuss something amongst themselves in a hushed tone.

「Second law! No killing, or otherwise harming of humans unless attacked or disrespected! Vampires stand above a mere human, and any disrespect is grounds for slaughtering! If I find that you are abusing this law, prepare to be dealt with accordingly!」

Lily proclaims, glaring at the vampires, and the murmur grows louder amongst the humans. The vampires quietly watch on, and those who have previously spotted one another proceed to take a nervous glance at each other.

「Third! No feeding without compensation! A vampire is not entitled to a human's blood for free! You are to work for the human money, and buy their blood at fair prices! This will ensure that the vampire society works during the night, and the human society works during the day! The city shall never sleep and be an eternal paradise under my rule!」

Lily shouts, and the human crowd seems to be impressed. The murmur grows even louder, and they fiercely discuss something amongst each other. The vampires glance at each other again, unsure how to react.

「That is all! Violate my laws at your own peril! Children of the night, you are my subjects, and as such, I expect eternal loyalty! Humans, go about your petty lives now!」

Lily throws her open hand out, and orders the people. She turns towards the bell tower, and walks downstairs.

「Ahhh… I wish Straf was here to tell me how the speech was…」

Lily sighs, and plunges into a nearby chair.

「…I think it was splendid, Miss Hemaluna-」

「Shut up! Nobody asked you, worm!」

Thud!

The bell tower worker bows his head towards Lily, but she cuts his compliment short with a shout and a glare, slamming her tiny fist on the table…