(Kaleid pov)
The firelight danced across the stone walls, painting flickering silhouettes that reminded me too much of the past.
I stood in the war room, arms crossed, watching as one of Ayaka's new advisors rearranged wooden pieces on the map table. They moved the figurines like pawns, exactly the way she liked them. Precise. Controlled. Sacrificial.
"She's changed", I murmured under my breath, half to myself.
"Sir?" one of the aides asked, pausing mid-motion.
"Nothing", I replied, brushing past him toward the map. "Move the Black Thorn Regiment here", I said, pointing to a pass between two cliff ridges. "That's where they'll expect us least."
The young man nodded and adjusted the piece.
Ayaka Rin… I still remember the first time I saw her, not draped in shadows and command, but in armor too big for her frame, barking orders no one thought she had the right to give. Even back then, there was something terrifying behind those eyes. A clarity. A hunger.
Now? That hunger had teeth.
She trusted me, or so it seemed. Trusted me enough to place me near the frontlines of her next campaign. A fortress nestled in the Vale of Mourning, aptly named, considering what she planned to do to it.
But I couldn't shake the memory. The day she was betrayed. The day her name was carved into the dead. I had been there.
I hadn't stopped it.
And now, I serve her.
"A message from Lady Ayaka", a runner interrupted my thoughts, breathless from the stairs. "She asks for your report, General Kaleid."
I took the sealed scroll, broke the wax, and read quickly. She was accelerating the attack. Of course she was.
"She's not giving them time to evacuate", I said aloud.
"No, sir", the aide replied.
I stared down at the parchment. Her instructions were clear: burn the outposts, scatter the scouts, strike at night when the nobles were drunk on wine and power. There would be no warning. No survivors to send tales to the other kingdoms.
It wasn't war. It was an execution.
I dismissed the men and remained behind, letting the silence settle.
In a quieter moment, I ran a hand over the scar beneath my collarbone, the one she'd given me when she first rose from ruin. She hadn't meant to. I'd tried to stop her from walking into the enemy lines unarmed. She didn't need my protection.
I remember her voice even now. "Let me burn for what they did to me. Let me be the monster they wrote in their tales."
She didn't become the villain. She chose to be.
And I… I followed.
Night fell like a curtain. Our forces moved in silence, cloaked in ash-colored armor and dark leather. The Vale Fortress stood ahead, warm lights glowing from its towers, ignorant of what approached.
"General", whispered one of the scouts. "They've doubled the guard on the north wall."
"Then we strike the south", I said, pointing toward the cliff's shadow. "Scale it. Bring the flame barrels."
The plan had Ayaka's fingerprints all over it, smoke to confuse the archers, illusions from the warlocks to create false gates, poisoned supply crates sent as "gifts" two days prior.
We weren't just breaching a wall, we were unraveling their trust in each other.
As we prepared, I found myself walking through the camp, checking armor straps, whispering words of resolve to younger soldiers, adjusting formation gaps. Not because I had to. But because I remembered what it was like to march without a leader who cared.
"General", a soldier asked quietly, "do you believe she's doing the right thing?"
I paused.
"I believe she's doing what must be done", I replied.
He looked uncertain, but nodded. I didn't blame him. Even I wondered, sometimes, where the line had gone.
The fortress fell before dawn.
Ayaka arrived just as the final screams died out. She didn't flinch at the bodies. Didn't blink at the blood-soaked stones. Her eyes found mine, and for a moment, I saw the girl I once knew.
But it was gone in the next breath.
"Well done", she said, stepping over a corpse. "Send word to General Varra. It's time to ignite the second front."
She turned from me then, black cloak fluttering like a blade's edge.
I watched her go, heart heavy with respect… and fear.
She would tear down kingdoms. Not because she had to. Because she wanted to.
And I would be her sword until the end.
Even if that end meant burning the world.