Arknights' Lock of Heaven

In the end, this was the result of a bloody battle.

My own companions are probably the same way; it's hard to say whether they've been defeated by this reality and given up on themselves.

Meanwhile, His Highness, whom he followed, went to Victoria as the victor and convened his royal court in the foreign capital.

Ha, victor, victor who has gone far away.

Or perhaps, there are no winners at all.

The only loser from beginning to end was all the Sarkaz.

"No, the way you're keeping quiet..." His companion stopped teasing him and looked at Yan Ke with a strange expression.

"I was just joking, do you really have any feelings for that Reunion Movement...?"

"It's just a sigh," Yan Ke said, taking a deep breath as the cool morning air filled his chest, giving him a refreshing feeling.

"I didn't linger there much."

“I told you so,” his companion said without a doubt, “to be honest, they don’t look like they can accomplish anything.”

“We’ve traveled all over the country, we’ve seen it all, oh, Talulah, she’s all talk and no action.”

"Those country bumpkins who've never seen the world might not know, but do you think we don't? Leading a bunch of rabble to attack a city in Ursus... are they crazy?"

"So what if she's good at fighting? Can she defeat an entire army group? Ursus can easily pull out a whole bunch!"

The man said smugly, "I knew she had no chance all along, so I was ready to run away."

"So, what do you think constitutes hope?"

Upon hearing this, Yan Ke asked, almost as if possessed, "Like the two princes of the past?"

"..."

"Ha," upon hearing this, his companion remained silent for a moment, then said self-deprecatingly, "Who knows..."

“Yes,” Yan Ke said, gazing into the distance at the Orville slowly moving forward on the horizon.

"Who knows."

"Hey kid, you've been acting weird today." After a couple of seconds of silence, his companion looked up at him suspiciously. "You're like a philosopher. You're not usually like this."

“I’m telling you,” his companion lowered his voice and leaned closer, “you wouldn’t have,” he said, “accepted 'that' mission, would you?”

“How could that be?” Yan Ke chuckled upon hearing this. “I’d rather not even be considered by them. You know that those kinds of missions… are basically handled by the confidants of important figures.”

“Yeah, I’m being a bit too sensitive, but those kinds of missions are definitely not a good thing.”

Those kinds of missions... infiltration, sabotage, all sorts of things, in short, they're not easy jobs.

Normally, such missions are kept secret, but this mission is just too strange.

Over eight hundred battle-hardened Sarkaz, a force that would put any lord of any territory on high alert, were dispatched all at once.

There are two possibilities.

Either the prince behind them is genuinely cooperating, or...

However, in the first scenario, command could never be handed over to a former adversary.

That crazy old woman, W, used to be Princess Theresa's subordinate.

If it's the former, then a trusted subordinate must be sent down to take command.

The latter... that's really strange. Over eight hundred people, that would have been enough to intercept and kill the ship, yet they managed to sneak aboard... and they even accepted it?

Haven't you heard of the Sarkaz mercenaries' reputation?

How can it be!

Such a strange situation indicates that this matter is definitely not trivial.

That's why I said taking on that kind of task is not a good job.

Seeing his companion's distressed expression, Yan Ke didn't know what to say.

In fact, he knew a little more than his companions.

That was in Chernobog, where I saw someone.

He used to be Theresia's subordinate.

He was wearing Rhodes Island clothing.

Given the current situation, this job... might actually be a matter of life and death...

Yan Ke didn't think that, given the style of the Babel Tower group in the past, they would believe that he and his group were just doing things for money.

If it were only a dozen or twenty, that would be fine, but eight hundred... Sarkaz can only muster a handful of mercenaries of that size these days.

But Babel—no, Rhodes Island accepted it.

That means they are confident they can devour us.

It looks like it'll be another bloody battle...

Recalling the brutal scenes of the civil war, Yan Ke took a deep breath.

The people at Babel were confident, while on their side...

Ha, I guess it's just a pawn His Highness threw out to test the waters.

Let's see how much strength these remnants still have left.

So...

He was quite disappointed.

Extremely disappointed.

Disappointed with the prince he trusted.

She wasn't being used as a pawn; this kind of thing had happened countless times before.

Rather, it's about the current situation, about past promises, and about the future of the Sarkaz...

This disappointment had been brewing in my heart for three whole years! Watching my tribe, which had shown some promise in the past, now slide step by step into the abyss; watching my hopes gradually turn into despair; watching my once glorious heroes flee to distant lands in disgrace…

One rainy night, I was awakened by thunder. Recalling the contents of my dream, I realized that I was calling myself the King of Kazdel in the capital of Victoria.

Don't you find it ridiculous?

There are always people who are still hoping for him to succeed, saying that His Highness must have some grand plan, that His Highness must have a way...

But it's been three years, and apart from summoning the royal court, have you done anything else?!

Even in Kazdel, the homeland of the Sarkaz, aren't you the king here?

Then why not come back?

Aren't you the winner?

Then why leave?

Is the glitz and glamour of Victoria really that attractive to you?

Yan Ke was unaware that he was merely a swordsman.

When Theresis abandoned Kazdel to go to Victoria, he said nothing and simply stayed behind.

To this day, he has never been to Lentinium.

I wonder what big thing the Regent is planning there.

However, even if something important happens, they probably wouldn't tell me if they went there themselves.

After all, he was just a swordsman.

It's been three years. Aside from your increasingly decadent mercenary life, you haven't said a single word to us.

So, perhaps Babel, or rather, Rhodes Island, would be a good place to go.

-

“Eight hundred men, eight hundred troubles,” Xia Yu said as she stood on the bridge of the Orville, looking at the distant camp.

"What, not confident in subduing them?" W glanced at him sideways.

348

“No, confidence is something…” Xia Yu’s expression was subtle.

“I meant subjugation, subjugation!” W chuckled, knowing what he was thinking. “Not killing or beating the subjugation.”

"Of the more than 800 people, at least one-fifth of them are problematic, and most of the rest are just the same group of people who came together to cause trouble and followed the crowd."

"If you really had to kill, how many do you think you'd have to kill? How many of them would be usable?"

"Besides, that old woman Kal'tsit is planning to devour this group. If you kill them and cause them to become disloyal, maybe this mission won't be a problem, but how difficult do you think it will be for Rhodes Island to subdue them later?"

"And if you want to subdue them, don't forget that we have to defend such a large ship. The Sarkaz mercenaries are all scoundrels. How can they submit if you don't show overwhelming strength?"

"If they were to demonstrate... what percentage do you think they would be able to fight after entering Ursus?"

“I know you can fight, but the Ursus people don’t. We can’t expect you to personally handle every little obstacle we encounter on the road, can we?”