Arcadia's Ignoble Knight: Dark Elf Arc

Chapter 94

The battle ended several hours after it began. After taking the sorceresses to the camp, Caspian and Elincia rejoined their forces and helped battle against the dark elves, while Erica and Derek remained behind to watch the prisoners.

Once the battle was over, Commander Feral and Valen directed their forces to clean up the battlefield. The dark elf corpses were thrown into a pit that several Peacekeepers had dug out. Then they were drenched in oil and burned in a massive pyre. Meanwhile, the humans and elves who had lost their lives were lined up in rows. This was done so they could be identified and so the commander could get an accurate accounting of their casualties.

"We lost 4,500 humans and 1,300 elves," Commander Feral said, reading from a report.

Caspian, Elincia, Maddison, and Valen were standing in the commander's tent with Commander Feral. They were giving their after action reports and deciding on what to do next.

"That technically isn't a large loss," the commander continued. "Considering we were heavily outnumbered, we can consider ourselves lucky."

There was an unspoken "but" in the commander's statement, and Caspian knew that Commander Feral was displeased by how many people had died despite knowing it couldn't be helped. No one said anything in regards to that.

"On the other hand, the enemy lost 10,000 dark elves and 50,000 Knights," Commander Feral continued. "Given that they only have about 250,000 Knights and 50,000 dark elves, we've managed to cut their forces down by quite a bit. These forces also made up the majority of the forces located within Axium. Once we've buried the dead, I plan on moving our forces back to Axium. We'll take care of the remaining enemy there and reoccupy the city."

"What about Lady Sylvia?" asked Elincia. "Were we not supposed to wait to act until we received word from her?"

"The situation has changed," Commander Feral said. "We were attacked by a large force from Axium, and the city is now mostly undefended. Meanwhile, we haven't heard a single word from Lady Sylvia in months. We'd be fools to simply wait around here."

"I have to agree with Commander Feral," Erica said at last.

Elincia frowned a little, but she didn't have any ground to stand on, so she said nothing.

"When do you propose we leave for Axium?" asked Valen.

Commander Feral rubbed his chin and thought for a moment before answering. "We should be ready to leave within the week. We just need to give our dead proper funerals and pack our supplies."

Which meant they had a weak to remain here and say goodbye. Caspian glanced at Elincia and noticed the forlorn look in her eyes, but while she looked sad about leaving Catarina again, he knew that she understood what they were doing was necessary. Now that they had been attacked, they could not just remain here.

"What of the two sorceresses?" asked Maddison. "What will we do with them?"

"I... do not know." Commander Feral shrugged. "My men and I have tried several times to question them, but they will not respond to our words. We did think about interrogating them, but..."

When the man trailed off, everyone understood. The idea of interrogating a sorceress did not sit well with him.

"Perhaps I could try," Elincia offered. "I think I have some idea of what's wrong with them, so maybe if I summon Eir, I can do something."

"You know why they aren't responding to anything we say or do?" Commander Feral asked.

"I believe they were brainwashed," Elincia said, shocking everyone but Caspian. "When me and Caspian fought against Lady Cleopatra, we learned that she had been brainwashed by the dark elves into believing that Lady Sylvia had destroyed her home village. I think the dark elves did something similar to these two."