The city lord was very loyal to the princ.i.p.ality and so he did not surrender which of course led to his death. When the news came to the city's inhabitants that the city lord had fallen, some chose to run away or surrender while others chose to fight back.

The Silvaria army hunted down all those that ran away and either killed them if they resisted or brought them back to the city after they surrendered. As for the ones that fought back, they were treated as enemies and quickly taken care of.

After the battle was over, the soldiers immediately started to repair the walls and gates that were damaged. Cecil went to the magic formation array and replaced it with a stronger version of his own creation.

In the city lord mansion's meeting hall, Kaiser was currently confronting the representative that the surrendered civilians had appointed to become their spokesman. Kaiser had already made it clear to the surviving civilians that he didn't want to harm nor force them into anything.

All he wanted was their compliance and cooperation. If he got that, then there won't be any problems. However, if there were any signs of people rebelling or causing unrest among the citizens, then they will be quickly dealt with as if they were enemy soldiers.

"Lord, I have received the consent of all the remaining civilians...we are willing to cooperate with the...Silvaria Army..."

"Good, don't worry, we will treat you all cordially. As long as no one causes unrest among you and you are fully compliant with all our demands, we won't cause you any harm."

"W-We have a condition, however..." The representative hesitantly spoke up.

"Speak," Kaiser nodded.

��Th-those demands... we will comply only on the condition that it does not harm our nation or our wellbeing..."

"Hah, do you take us for monsters? We won't demand anything that'll go against your human rights! We only want you to help in the repairs of the city and to not cause trouble! That is all!"

"Th-that's all?"

"Yes, as for your daily activities you can go about them as you normally would. Just take it that nothing has changed. Only the ones overseeing this city are the things that have changed," Kaiser spoke before he dismissed the representative.

The man was relieved that all they needed to do was help with the city's repairs. He was only a little worried about the 'not causing trouble' part. Many of the survivors who surrendered had lost a family or friend in the sudden attack.

There was no doubt that many were only pretending to surrender so that they could retaliate later when the Silvaria Army was no longer on guard against them. It was a good plan, but unfortunately for him, he was one of the few people who had witnessed Lucia's Apocalypse spell and saw the horror of their city's mages being erased from existence.

"I have to persuade those fools to stop their useless attempts. If they implicate all of us...then that horrifying spell might be turned towards us later!"

Back in the meeting hall, the army's commanders remained in the hall to wait for further instructions. Fatima turned towards her father and asked, "Are we going to continue the operation? We still need to take down the other 4 cities..."

"We'll be spreading our forces too thin that way..."

"Why not just destroy 2 of those cities and relocate the surrendering inhabitants to the other cities we already occupied?" Cecil suggested.

"If we did that, then all the cities would be packed with people...Also, the resulting fallout won't have a good impact on the survivors..." Fatima said.

"Does it matter?"

"Hm?"

"We aren't going to be occupying these cities for long, right? After we take them all down, we're going to regroup the army back at this city before marching towards the capital, right?"

Fatima thought for a moment before turning towards Kaiser and saying, "Cecil does have a point. We aren't here to conquer anything. We're only here to teach the Merkruz Princ.i.p.ality the fallacy of a.s.saulting our Kingdom. If we destroy their cities, the fallout will only affect them, not us."

"It's a little cruel, but if we had lost the war with them, then they would have treated us much worse. We'll go with that then. Once we've received the census of this city, we'll leave a portion of the army behind before splitting the army in two and proceed as we've originally planned," Kaiser said.

"Yes, father!"

"Yes, sir!"

"As for the cities we're going to be destroying..." Kaiser turned towards his daughter and Fatima immediately spoke up.

"We'll be destroying the ones farthest from our current location. One of the cities in the east is a port city so it'll affect the Merkruz Princ.i.p.ality's naval trade routes... I feel bad for the citizens, but they have only their leader to blame..."

"General Ysolte, I want you to lead half of our forces to attack the East while I lead the other half to attack the west. My daughter will be coming with you, make good use of her head."

"Yes sir!" A middle-aged man with a bald head stood up from his seat and shouted.

"Cecil, you will go with Fatima. Do your best to support her and General Ysolte!"

"Yes, father," Cecil nodded in compliance.

"How goes the city's repairs?" Kaiser turned towards a particular man and asked.

Cecil saw that the battle reports were over and he quickly stood up to exit the room. Even though it would be good for him to stick around and listen since he was going to be the next 'King', Cecil was very much disinclined to do so.

Kaiser already saw his son standing up but before he could stop him, Cecil had suddenly disappeared using Blink. Kaiser could only sigh at this.

"That boy... it seems he has no problems being the next Patriarch but it looks like he's not so keen on becoming the next King..."

"You can't blame him father...this 'kings.h.i.+p' was thrust upon us when the Regulus Kingdom acknowledged us as a nation..."

"Sigh...what am I going to do with him?"

"Worry about that later, father, right now, you still have the rest of your men to address!"

"Y-Yes... actually, Fatima... dear, you wouldn't mind becoming the Quee—"

"Father, I said, later!"

"Y-yes..." Kaiser sighed in defeat and continued listening to his men's reports. Fatima was acting as his secretary and he saw that she was very fit to rule the kingdom. Cecil was fit to be the family's next Patriarch due to his martial talent, but Kaiser already saw his att.i.tude whenever he mentioned anything about the boy taking over his position as king one day and came to a conclusion... Cecil didn't like it nor did he want it.

******

Cecil reappeared outside of the city lord's mansion and went to find Lucia. He quickly found her helping the civilians.

"Hey, Lulu!"

"Oh, Cel, is the meeting over?"

"More or less..."

"Hmmm... you ran away again, didn't you?" Lucia accurately guessed.

Cecil only shrugged at her in response.

"You should stick around and learn a bit more y' know Cel~"

"Nah, don't wanna."

"...That's kind of unreliable of you, Cel..."

"Dad wants me to inherit the throne...but I don't want it. I can accept being the next heir, but spare me from that. Let Ima or Michael do it. I was raised only to fight and inherit the family's tradition, not some throne..."

"Well... you do have a point...I also don't see my Cel ruling over others as a king! Though, that would be kind of cool then I'd be a queen, ehehehe~" Lucia eagerly said.

Seeing her like that, Cecil bopped her head and said, "Well, you're already going to be a Matriarch, that's the same thing as a queen y' know!"

"Ehehehe~"

The people around saw the couple talking and laughing. Some saw it heartwarming while others thought that they were being obnoxious because they were invaders that had just attacked their city.

A few stepped forward and one of them yelled at the two, "What right do you have to be laughing like that?!"

"Huh?"

"..."

Cecil and Lucia turned towards the approaching people and the leading man yelled at them once again.

"You have no right to be laughing like that! Can't you see how much misery you've caused us?! An attack from nowhere, how cowardly can you people be?!"

Cecil only chuckled in reply and this aggravated the man and everyone else once more.

"What's so funny, huh punk?!"

"We're only giving you people a little payback, what's so wrong about that?"

"C-Cel..."

"Do you really think that only you people are allowed to attack another nation and we aren't allowed to retaliate?"

"So you're a Regulian?!" The civilian cried out.

"Pfft, don't lump us in with those weaklings," Cecil scoffed in disdain.

"Huh?"

"The only person you should be blaming is that foolish ruler of yours. He should have stuck to attacking only Regulus, but instead, he just had to attack a nation that wasn't even hostile to them, to begin with."

"..."

Cecil's words angered the people but they couldn't say anything in response, however, their thoughts were clearly apparent on their faces.

'Hmph, do these people think that they didn't deserve this?'

"Hmph, don't act like you guys didn't deserve this! No one deserves to lose anyone precious to them! The same goes for us! Your foolish ruler attacked us first, what's so wrong with us retaliating?"

"Are you all that petty?!" The civilians lashed out. This only caused Cecil to chuckle back at them.

"Don't forget, you people attacked Regulus because of some petty revenge. Now we're doing it for the same petty reason. You have a problem with that?"

"Guh..."

Cecil eyed the people around him apathetically before walking away.

"Just be thankful that we spared your lives because if it was Regulus who was attacking you today, all of you most likely wouldn't be alive right now."

The people left behind only grimaced at his words and didn't speak up. Lucia saw their expressions and couldn't help but feel a little bit upset by Cecil's cold outburst.

"Lulu, let's go!"

"C-Coming!" Lucia quickly called out. She turned towards the downtrodden citizens and spoke up, "You have to understand. We weren't hostile with Merkruz at all before we were attacked without warning. I'm not saying that retaliation is a good thing but it is something that should be expected. After all, even our nation's people want the unjustified attack on our kingdom to be answered. It may not be the right way but—"

"Lucia!" Cecil called out once more. Lucia bowed in apology towards the people and quickly dashed over next to Cecil.

"...You didn't have to explain anything to them," he said.

"But you went a little overboard!"

"Tsk, if I hadn't come back when I did—"

"I get it! But was it really necessary for you to lash out at them like that?" Lucia cried out in exasperation.

"I didn't lash out..."

"Yes, you did! The Cel I know wouldn't have sounded so petty!"

"..."

"You're still mad at the Merkruz Lord who attacked us. We lost a lot of good people and their families are grieving, I get it, but was it really necessary to say all that to those people back there? They've lost someone dear to them as well and they're the ones grieving now!"

"..."

Lucia let out a breath before continuing, "Cel, you know full well that revenge and killing isn't going to do anyone any good. I know this retaliation was inevitable and it's neither wrong nor right, but we should at least sympathize a little with the people who have survived..."

Cecil let out a breath before saying, "I'm sorry..."

"...I don't want my Cel turning into an apathetic person that doesn't care about the lives of people who don't matter to him. All lives are important, but we kill when we have to," Lucia said as she slowly wrapped her arms around him. "What father-in-law has done today by sparing the lives of the people who have surrendered should be testimony to the fact that even he, as the king of Silvaria, still cares about the lives of another nation's people..."

Cecil thought long and hard for a moment. It was true that he felt a little apathetic of the Merkruz people's plight and grieving. He cared little of what they were going through because the same thing could have happened to his family's Kingdom if he had been too late to stop the Merkruz Army's a.s.sault.

However, what Lucia said was true. All lives matter. Even his father believed this since he spared all the people in the city who were willing to surrender.

'Kill only when you have to... Wow, when did my Lulu become so wise?'

Cecil smiled gently at the girl who was hugging onto him. He patted her head and said, "I understand...sorry for being an idiot..."

"I won't ask you to apologize to them... even I felt a little indignant, but what you said back there Cel was a little too much. It made you sound like the villain..."

"...We did attack them so aren't we considered—"

"Don't get smart with me Cel!"

"Sorry, sorry..."

Cecil pulled Lucia away and began walking towards the city's gates.

"Umm... where are we going?"

"We're heading out. We've got a few other cities to destroy...remember?"

"Huh? But I thought that the operation would start only after the city's repairs were finished!"

"We're only going ahead to scout the next city we'll be attacking. Once we get the exact layout, we come back and help Big Sis formulate her plan," Cecil said.

"...Okay..."

"Don't worry, Big Sis Ima understands about what you said to me earlier much more than I do, if she's got enough info to formulate a plan, I'm pretty sure we can reduce as many civilian casualties as we can."

"Alright, let's get going then!"

"I've already asked Quinn to prepare the Wanderer. Ren and Gabe are guarding Angelia, while Yuna is with Silver. It'll only be me, you, and Quinn who are going."