The Villainess Is My Cute Daughter

Way in the back, the noble lords who had started this whole mess were throwing a fit. They were sitting safely on top of their armored horses, completely out of bow range, screaming at the top of their lungs for the men to stop running and get back into formation.

But no one listened to them.

Everyone who had just survived the arrow volleys had seen exactly how close they were to dying for nothing. They were not going to listen to a bunch of rich nobles who weren’t even in danger. They valued their own lives way more than the measly silver coins they were promised.

In fact, the logic of every single drafted peasant out there basically worked the exact same way.

’How will I get paid if I just die?’

They all knew the harsh truth. The nobles were definitely not going to give that money to their grieving families if they died today. So they saw no incentive to stay and fight anymore.

But they also knew the severe penalty for desertion.

Octavia saw quite a few of the retreating men hesitate and slow down when they heard their noble lords shouting vicious threats of executions and floggings.

Octavia took a deep breath and shouted back.

"Every one of you who is retreating and valuing their lives, Lord Adrian will give you shelter!"

Her voice carried easily over the chaos of the battlefield.

"Do not worry about anything or anyone! Oresfall has a place for everyone!"

Vance, who was standing pretty close to her, violently smashed his guandao against his heavy steel shield and raised it up into the air.

"All hail Oresfall!" Vance screamed.

"All hail Oresfall!" the rest of the armored Oresfall vanguard chanted back in perfect, deafening unison.

And then something completely unexpected happened.

Even though Octavia didn’t expect it at all, the terrified, bleeding soldiers from the other noble territories started yelling the exact same thing. The peasants raised their rusty swords and broken shields, repeating the chant right alongside the soldiers of Oresfall as they ran for their lives.

"All hail Oresfall!"

Hearing that massive, unified shout echo across the bloody field, a weird surge of pride bloomed in Octavia’s chest. She couldn’t help but smile a little bit before she raised her shield and went right back to work.

The noble army of the Crestwall Empire returned to the camp much earlier than anyone expected.

It was actually much, much earlier than expected.

They had just left early in the morning, and it wasn’t even close to noon when the massive formations came dragging themselves back. In fact, it had barely been two full hours since they originally marched out to start the siege.

Adrian was already all smiles as he stood near the edge of his encampment.

Right behind him, standing in massive, disorganized clusters, were more than three thousand men who had just retreated from the war.

According to strict imperial military law, every single one of these drafted peasants would be heavily persecuted, publicly hanged, and killed for treason and for abandoning their posts when their attendance was required.

But they had Adrian standing right in front of them right now.

The nobles were obviously furious. And right on cue, Marquis Draven and Count Frankenstein feigned anger as they furiously marched over to Adrian, acting out the exact script they had planned a few nights ago.

Frankenstein stormed up, grabbed Adrian by the collar of his shirt, and violently shook him.

"Why the hell are you defending them?!" Frankenstein growled loudly for everyone to hear. "And who even gave you the permission to provide them with defense and shelter?! They do not belong to you! They are the people of our territories! What gives you the right to make promises like that on the battlefield?"

Adrian easily shrugged the Count off.

He looked right past Frankenstein and could easily tell that the other nobles gathering behind him were just as furious, if not even more so.

Adrian just let out a chuckle.

"Let me tell you one thing," Adrian said smoothly. "Yeah, they do not belong to me. You are right about that. But they don’t belong to you either. They are not your property. They are not your slaves. And just because they happen to live in a part of your territory, it doesn’t mean you can just blindly dictate their lives and send them to die for nothing."

He crossed his arms.

"Yes, I am defending them. What exactly are you going to do about it? It is not against imperial law for me to defend people who I want to defend."

"They deserted!" one of the barons yelled.

"Yeah, there is a military law that says soldiers cannot leave their post," Adrian agreed, nodding. "But that is only legally applicable to the soldiers who are actually officially working under you."

A noble standing right behind Frankenstein stepped forward.

His face was completely red with rage. He had a bizarrely long mustache that literally hung all the way down to his chest level, and he didn’t even have a beard to match it. His head was also semi-bald, making him look incredibly ridiculous. The man was pretty old too.

He stepped up until he was standing side by side with Frankenstein and aggressively pushed Adrian on his shoulder, shoving him really hard.

But Adrian didn’t even move an inch.

The old noble faltered a little bit when his shove did absolutely nothing, but he quickly regained his confidence knowing that all the powerful nobles were standing right behind him. He knew they were all on his side.

"What the hell do you even mean by that?!" the old noble demanded. "These men are literally drafted militiamen working under us! So we have every right to give them the punishments that they deserve for fleeing!"

Adrian slowly shook his head.

"You are completely wrong."

He looked the old man up and down.

"And whoever you are, I’m sorry, I don’t remember the names of useless people."

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