Another Worldly Summons

Chapter 50: Lull of Storm

"Your Grace, I'm glad you finally woke up."

"Lupasa..."

Lupasa greeted Ludius, who was curious about his body full of bandages. He could feel the pain and dullness in his body. It may be because of too much fatigue.

"How long have I slept? Before that, what happened to the ASEAN soldiers? And those who are culprits of the blasphemy of harming me? "

"The culprits are already dead, Your Grace. However, the repercussions of what they've done are too big to measure; they're insurmountable. The enormity of the damage they've caused is... Devastating. "

"What do you mean? Lupasa?." Ludius, He immediately darted his eyes on Lupasa. He was curious about what he meant, which was answered by him, after looking hesitant on the things he about to say.

"Your grace, after the attack on the meeting place, while I'm working with the ASEAN outside the mansion, our soldiers reinforced Immediately, once they heard the explosion that caused confusion and death to many, it also abruptly interrupted the negotiation. Right, Your grace?"

"Yes." The Emperor affirmed this based on what he remembered from that moment.

"A few of our men, we have yet to determine whether they are traitors or not, attacked the ASEAN soldiers and negotiators on sight without hearing any commands given. It's at their discretion. This resulted in an eruption of battle between our forces and the escort group of ASEAN negotiators."

The words of Lupasa made Ludius' blood immediately boiled his high. He clenched his teeth. He wanted to scream to the point of his lungs bursting forth, but he restrained himself.

"Where are those fools?"

"My apology, Your Grace. All of them were killed in the first minutes of battle."

"Tch! Fuck those morons! "

The enraged Emperor looks terrifying to the surrounding vassals, except for Lupasa. The success of his attempt to salvage the empire from the ever increasing damage it accumulated from ASEAN's crumbled instantly.

"Is the battle stopped? I'm alive and not in the custody of ASEAN. If they wanted to, they could capture me right away. So, is there a ceasefire? "

"... Unfortunately, there's none, Your Grace. The battle escalated to wide scale city mayhem, according to accounts of our Imperial guards, or should I say, surviving Imperial guards, who tried to stop the fight, but they were ignored or attacked, as either both sides were not in proper rationality during that time to think about it, 3 days ago... We can't tell because our last attempt to communicate with ASEAN ended in peaceful talk without engaging them in combat. However, it seems that some traitors in our ranks, or perhaps non-aligned factions do on their own discretion, pretended to be peace negotiators just to attack the ASEAN when they laid their arms down, so they can't truly trust any of our genuine men tasked to negotiate."

None of Remille's men pull this ruse, but rather those who are unaligned with any faction seeking vengeance; they tried, and were partially successful to bait the ASEAN, but they didn't managed to kill any of the paratroopers and were annihilated instead. This also leads to the paratroopers refusing to associate or negotiate with Parpaldians because they can't tell who is an enemy or not; as a result, they treat everyone as hostile. 

"3...? What the hell, where are we?" Ludius was surprised by events that transpired, also, frozen stiff because it's already been 3 days since the failed negotiations happened and also confused about where they are right now.

"We are still in... A certain base in the colonies to hide you from hostile factions. The ASEAN forces 3 days ago retreated from the city in the morning. In the aftermath of their withdrawal, they left and littered the streets, houses, and other buildings with destruction and over 10,000 dead bodies. To be exact, this morning's tally is about 15,461 dead and still counting. Your Grace."