"General Lune Grimheart of the Rebellion is dead."

This phrase had become all too depressing to repeat God knows how many times, but as his closest friend and ally, I had no other choice but to say it. To the other soldiers, to Meil, to myself. My best friend had died before he could achieve his goals fully, and in the end I remain. Alone I am not, I still have so many friends and family members alive and well, so why must I feel so lonely?

"Ha-ha, good one." Cecily cradled the baby boy in her arms, "Ed, what the hell? That's a really bad prank, y'know? Now come on, tell him to get his butt over here so he can say greet his boy!"

"A boy, huh..." I stammered towards her, my Eyes tired from all the crying, "Cene. Cene... Grimheart!"

The tears trickled down my face one after another, drip drip, trickle trickle... Before I had realized it, I had fallen to my knees sobbing, my legs refusing to work anymore from our grueling trip back to the base. Soon after Grim stopped breathing, the King and Vivia didn't even give us the light of day to mourn his death properly, as they had their troops advance past our lines. One after another, the troops situated in our trenches started turning against each other, showing us how fickle our relations were from the start. As it were, it seems Vivia had planted a ton of enemy spies within our ranks, all of which had blended in perfectly and ate away at us from the inside out.

"Cene?" Cecily tilted her head, "Wait, don't tell me..."

"Cecily, he's dead." Meil lowered his head, "Cene is the name he wanted to give the child if it was a boy. Edward, Aaron, Pierre and I are the only Generals that made it out. Vivia was a spy, she shot Lune."

"You're..." The reality of the situation started to kick in, "You're lying! He can't die! Auros said he'd look over him and his journey personally!"

What is she talking about? Has Grim met Auros? Hold on, look over him? So he was like that, talking to Gods and even managing to earn their respect, huh... Fuck, that just makes things taste even more bitter. Vivia, the damned bitch, I'll have her head on a stick for this! What the fuck, why did she shoot him?! Now that I think about it, they solve nothing by doing this! She thinks she's royalty or some shit, so she just considers herself invincible, is that it?! Oh, I'll make sure she knows her place, teach her what it means to break a family apart!

"I'll...!" I proudly started declaring my grand plan, only for Cecily to interject just as loudly.

"I'm gonna rip her limb from fucking limb!" She shouted, only to scare the sleeping Cene awake from her loud yelling, "A-Ah, sorry baby! Lookie, everything's alright okay? And you guys, why are you all staring at me like that?"

"Well, it's just, how do I put this..." Aaron made sure to tread lightly, "I mean, you switched so fast from mourning to cussing the princess out, it's kind of surprising is all."

"Hm? Is it? I don't find it surprising at all, not one bit." She explained her bipolar behavior, "Lune and I were heading into the Eye of the storm, the very heart of a war. We knew the risks of coming along, and we steeled ourselves for this."

"Really now?" Pierre darted his Eyes around to make sure we were all hearing the same thing, "So you're not sad about it?"

"Don't get me wrong, of course I'm sad. Actually, I think the full extent of losing Lune still hasn't set in just yet, hence why I'm not bawling my Eyes out as much as I probably should here." She shrugged, "But I think getting revenge takes top priority here. We need to make her pay for what she did to me, what she did to Lune!"

"Aye aye!" We all yelled in unison.

Actually, she kinda stole my thunder when it comes to this declaration of war back there. I don't mean to sound rude or anything, but I was just about to yell the exact same thing. Of course, I agree it's more fitting for her to say it, but I can't help but feel at least a bit salty for not getting to shout my heart out. Uhh, hello? She's his wife and all, but I'm his best friend! I gotta be the one to take charge in this situation!

"Cecily, I think it's time we send you back to Lichtenstelle." I reasoned, "Anna, Arthur and the others have a perfectly good safe haven prepared for you and Cene, plus it's really not a good idea for a woman who just gave birth to walk around so much."

"Ed, what are you saying?" She chuckled, her veins ready to pop.

"Cecily." Meil quietly grabbed her by the shoulders, "Edward is right. It's not safe here, I don't want to have to say goodbye to you as well."

"Yeah, and besides!" Aaron chuckled, "I'm sure Nelly's dying to meet her new baby bro!"

"..."

"A-Ah, right, not the time, I get it..." He backpaddled hastily.

"Alright." She sighed dejectedly, "But I'm not leaving until I see him one last time. I do hope you could bring his body back with you, at least?"

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

Grim's body? Well certainly, we brought him back with us. We plan on giving him a proper burial right under the willow tree in Lichtenstelle, as that's where Marina's at. Oh, but he did mention not to bury him underground before he died, so maybe we should wrap him up and put him in an aboveground stone casket like he did to Marina? Ugh, just thinking about this is making me sick...

"Actually, that's where you come in." Pierre explained, "You and Ed will be tasked with taking him to his final resting place there. After the funeral, Ed will return here and hopefully by then, my brother and the other Generals from ARA should be here to help as well."

"Is that so?" She sat back down, "Then I'll wait until the funeral before I can see him. Oh, looks like it's feeding time for little Cene here. Hehe, there, there. I'll give you your milk now."

"..." We stared at her all-over-the-place behavior with blank stares, that is, until she got unsettled.

"You guys, I'm gonna start feeding him now." She made sure to spell it out for us.

"Yeah?" Meil tilted his head.

"You really wanna see that badly, huh?"

"Hm? O-Oh! Our bad!" It finally clicked in our heads after a while, "We'll leave now! Sorry!"

"Hey, want us to close the door?" Meil asked a stupid question in the heat of the moment.

"Of course she does, idiot!" Aaron laughed aloud before slamming the door behind us.

Right, now that we broke the news to her, time to organize our plan of action again. From the start this time, and without showing a hint if mercy in it.

***

Finally sitting back down in our main office, I decided I was to be the one to break the ice first. Clearing my throat with a loud ahem, I gathered everyone's attention to me before telling them all I knew, hoping for us to find some base foundation for our grand plan against the wicked Kingdom of Carmen.

"First of all, I think everyone can agree with this, but just to make sure - our goal is to kill Vivia and Chant, right?"

"Correct." Meil nodded solemnly, "They must pay for what they did, and I'm not speaking just about Lune here, I'm talking about what they did to the world as well."

"Alright, then we all probably know that, as we are, we can't even begin to scratch the surface of their defenses, much less infiltrate their main castle and assassinate them inside. No, for that, we'll need backup, and a lot of it."

"Who you got in mind?" Aaron kicked back in his chair, "Max and Jorgen should be arriving any day now, but who else?"

Right, I have a sneaking suspicion about this, but I think Cecily will just leave Cene in Anna's and Arthur's care before leaving the island with me. I know we told her not to and all, but I know just how she is, and she'll definitely want to avenge Grim, so we can at least account for her being with us. As for the others...

"I wonder if we can get the Gryses to hand us their army as reinforcements." I put my finger to my chin, "Apart from Meior and Lis, who I assume Pierre will call up, Cardina's army should be the most likely to pose a threat to Carmen."

Looking at me with a confused face, Pierre replied, "Huh? Don't just assume they'll give us a helping hand. Talking about both Cardina and Sulfury. Besides, thanks to Lune's deal with Auros, neither side can actively wage wars anymore, and their soldiers can only be deployed within the confides of the three countries for self-defense purposes."

"Ah shit, you're right!" I palmed my forehead, "Crap, the war got stopped a couple years ago by... Grim? Eh?!"

"Right, it's a long story. I'm sure you'll all be pleased to hear he's had quite the impact on our world." He responded with a warm smile.

"Just imagine what all he could have done had we not sent him to the negotiations back then..." Meil muttered from the corner of the room, making everyone awkwardly silent.

Grim, you've done so much for the world, and what has it given back to you? Dammit, Meil's right. Had we not trusted Vivia back then, had we not searched for an easier way out, he would still be alive. And not only that, but he would also live to do even more incredible things, I'm sure of it. Argh, why did he have to die?! FUCK!

"...Meil, the slaves from the prison. Do you know of anyone there who could definitely prove useful to us from there?" Pierre turned to him.

"!!!" His Eyes widened as he got an idea, "There is!"

"Wait, before we get too excited, how many of them are we talking here?" I took a good look at him, secretly peering into his mind using Analyze.

"Just two..." The words flew out of his head, barely slow enough for me to be able to read them as the rest of the thought continued whizzing by, "Strong, smart, capable... Issei... Lee..."

"Never mind how many there are." He awkwardly avoided answering the question, "Quality is better than quantity, Edward. Alright, I'll go send them a letter immediately!"

Thus, the three of us remaining Generals looked on at the suddenly enthusiastic Meil as he ran out of the room, before looking back over to each other and smiling. Looks like he's slowly but surely getting back to his old self, which is good. We shouldn't stay too focused on the past, even Grim wouldn't want for us to mourn and weep over him for too long. Instead, we should get some rest for now. We'll think of a plan tomorrow, but right now I just want to hit the hay.

Telling this to the other two, they agreed and let me go my merry way. Walking through the corridors and over to my room, I happened to walk past the room Cecily was breastfeeding Cene in. At first I wanted to politely knock and see how she's doing, maybe ask her for any ideas she might have regarding this whole debacle, but that was before I had heard her crying on the other side of the door.

"..." I tightly grabbed hold of my chest, the guilt of letting things come to this slowly but surely creeping it's way into my heart, before turning away from the door and muttering, "Let's not..."

Right, how could I have been so naive to think she was okay with hearing her husband had died? I probably would have known this sooner and maybe even could have spoken up about it had I used Analyze on her, but I felt it wasn't appropriate of me to do in the moment. On the other hand, I'm sure right now she's still fighting on, making sure her son is sleeping soundly in the cradle. I say this because her weeping was soft, subdued even. She was obviously trying not to wake him up from his after-milk nap. Fuck everything...