My Kingdom Building Done Right!

Marco had seen broken men in his life, but he never expected to see so much grief from the proud members of the Gryphon Battalion.

All of them were alive and well. But their eyes were empty, as if they had lost their soul.

Leone had given him a parting message before he went beyond the range of their communication artifacts.

"The Gryphon Battalion of the Kingdom of Britannia is no more, Father. I’ll retreat for now, so please take care."

He had no idea what Leone meant when he left those words to him. And now, he understood.

"Commander Dominic, I’ve come to escort you and your men back to the fortress," Marco said. "We’ve brought horses, so please get on them so we can return. It’s dangerous out here."

"...What’s the point?" Dominic answered, his eyes red from grief. "Just kill me now!"

"Sir, I don’t know what happened to you and your men," Marco stated calmly. "But please continue living. There are still people waiting for you back home."

At his words, Dominic finally remembered the faces of his family members, who were all waiting for his return to the Kingdom of Britannia.

Not just him. The soldiers of the Gryphon Battalion were all exceptional men, so at least half of them were happily married.

Thinking of the families waiting for their safe return, some regained the will to live and called out to their heartbroken comrades to return with them to the fortress.

Dominic heaved a deep sigh before he forced himself to stand up.

"Men, I understand what all of you are feeling right now," Dominic said hoarsely. "However, our comrades have sacrificed themselves so we can live. We must not give up hope just yet. Since we are headed to the Borderlands, perhaps we might see them again."

At the thought of reuniting with their Gryphons, those who were still unresponsive earlier regained a bit of life in their eyes.

Yes. As long as they were alive, the opportunity to meet again wasn’t zero.

One by one, the members of the Gryphon Battalion stood and mounted the horses that Marco had prepared for them.

"Your name is Marco Frontera, right?" Dominic asked.

"Yes, Commander," Marco replied.

"I don’t know if you know this, but Duran seems to hate you," Dominic stated. "He must have sent you here to rescue us, hoping to bring you harm."

"I’ve already suspected as much." Marco nodded. "However, someone still needs to go. I am doing this for the kingdom."

Marco was a righteous person. But he was also a noble.

He knew just what to say at the right moment in order to bring out the best and the worst out of people.

And right now, he needed to be in the good graces of the Gryphon Battalion, which had just lost something important to them.

With this incident, he had managed to form a connection with these broken men, giving them a reason to live.

Aside from that, Marco thought of something else.

If he could form a wedge between Dominic and the two Generals, he might be able to give his son a helping hand in their next confrontation.

Once Dominic and his men were mounted on their horses, they made their way back to Stoneguard Fortress.

The Commander of the Gryphon Battalion knew that he couldn’t escape the punishment of losing one of the most important assets of the Kingdom of Britannia.

Raising and breeding Gryphons was nowhere near trivial. Millions of gold coins had been spent nurturing this elite squad that served as the kingdom’s sword. The sword that cut through the enemy lines from the sky.

Dominic might even be executed after the war.

This loss was something the King and his ministers couldn’t possibly accept unless they managed to gain something significant in the Borderlands.

With this in mind, Dominic understood that he needed to ensure that his men wouldn’t take the fall like him.

He had no excuse for the main army getting ambushed, especially since they were scouting the surroundings from the sky.

Dominic had seen the enemy with his own eyes. However, the more he thought about them, the more uneasy he became.

Their numbers had been small.

No more than five hundred.

And yet, despite their overwhelming numerical disadvantage, they had inflicted devastating losses upon the Britannian Army, bringing the mighty Gryphon Battalion to its knees.

It was a result that should have been impossible.

But the more Dominic thought about it, the more he realized that the greatest threat wasn’t how many enemies they had faced... Rather, what kind of enemies they had encountered.

’Just what kind of force have the barbarians been raising all these years?’ Dominic thought. ’How come we haven’t heard of them? Especially that monster... What kind of creature is it?’

Even now, he couldn’t forget those cold and intelligent golden eyes that locked onto him as if he was a rat that was about to be snatched up from the ground.

It was silent, yet very deadly.

It was like an eagle swooping down to catch its prey, making sure that it wouldn’t slip in its grasp.

That sheer pressure was nothing like anything Dominic had ever felt in his life.

It reminded him of the gaze of the former patriarch of the Helion Family, Lugh, whom he happened to meet during one of their military operations to the north of their kingdom.

That old man’s gaze was like the gaze of an ancient dragon that evoked fear in whoever dared to look at him long enough.

That same kind of threat.

That same kind of pressure.

That same kind of foreboding came from a monster that looked like a golden Demi-Gryphon that stood on two legs like a human.

’Zephira, I will find you.’ Dominic gritted his teeth as he made his vow. "I promise.’

He didn’t know what became of his partner. However, one thing was clear.

Dominic wouldn’t leave the Borderlands until he saw her again.

And little did he know that his men were all thinking of the same thing as well.

They had lost their comrades today, but they refused to believe that they had lost their partners forever.

Somewhere in the vast Borderlands, their Gryphons were still alive.

Their next reunion would be bittersweet.