I Was Mistaken as a Great War Commander-Chapter 207

At noon, Lucy followed the maid Namerias as she was guided through the mansion.

Count Khaledra had summoned her at the appointed time.

“This way, my lady...”

The place Namerias brought her to was a courtyard garden nestled within the estate.

Brilliant sunlight poured down as birds—brought to life by summer—chirped from the branches.

It was an idyllic scene by all accounts, but Lucy felt nothing from it.

If anything, it stirred a faint ripple of discomfort within her, as if someone had tossed a stone into still water.

Count Khaledra...

The man she had once called father—trusted, obeyed—was seated at the center of the garden, a table set before him.

A strange impulse surged within Lucy, but she didn’t show it outwardly.

She clenched her fists, then released them, took a deep breath, and walked toward Khaledra.

Sensing her presence, he looked up from the newspaper he had been reading.

Though it had been ages since they’d last met, Khaledra folded the paper without so much as a flicker of emotion.

“Sit.”

Lucy did as she was told.

Seated, she saw the table was lavishly prepared with food.

It must have been the work of a first-class chef—each dish featured premium ingredients, and their glistening surfaces made it clear that they were seasoned to perfection.

But she felt no hunger.

As she stared at the food in silence, Khaledra set down his newspaper and picked up his utensils.

“Eat. It was all prepared for you. You used to want food like this so badly when you were young.”

“...So you knew.”

A silence settled between them.

Lucy, avoiding his gaze, parted her lips.

“You knew that I liked food like this?”

She was asking why, if he’d known, he’d never once offered her any when she was a child.

During all her time living with Count Khaledra, the only meals she’d [N O V E L I G H T] been given were bland, unseasoned health foods.

They were hardly different from the rations she’d eaten in the lab.

Even on her birthdays, the meals never changed.

So even when she shared the same table as Khaledra, she always ate something else entirely.

As Lucy quietly laid bare that sorrow, Khaledra watched her, then picked up a knife and began cutting into the meat.

“And now you complain about food? You should be old enough to understand by now. Everything was for your sake.”

Such a convenient excuse.

Lucy let out a short, bitter breath before slowly raising her head.

“Were the near-torturous experiments at the lab also for my sake?”

Khaledra’s hand froze mid-cut.

He set his utensils down and met Lucy’s gaze.

In her crimson eyes, resentment shone more clearly than anything else.

“...So, you saw it. Or did Daniel Steiner tell you?”

Now that Lucy knew the truth, there was no point in lying.

“I admit it. That wasn’t for your sake. It was for the Allied Nations.”

“...Then why didn’t you just tell me the truth? Why did you lie all this time, making me believe the experiments were carried out by the Empire?”

“I don’t understand why you’d ask a question you already know the answer to. I didn’t tell you the truth because I knew you wouldn’t follow me if I did.”

Lucy’s eyes widened.

She hated him.

She could never forgive him.

And yet, somewhere deep inside, she had still hoped that Khaledra might offer her a reason—an excuse.

She had wanted to find even the tiniest sliver of possibility to forgive him.

But the man standing before her now was trampling even that last fragment beneath his feet.

“Lucy Emilia. Do I look like a devil to you? Or do I strike you as a hypocrite? I don’t care how you feel. Good and evil are not clearly drawn in this world. I don’t get my kicks from tormenting little girls. But this cruel world always forces my hand.”

There wasn’t a trace of regret on Khaledra’s face.

“If it’s confession you want, then fine—I’ll confess. Objectively, I’m trash. I’ve committed unforgivable crimes. But even if I went back, I would make the same decisions. Because I know those decisions were for the good of this country.”

As Lucy stared at him in disbelief, she suddenly rose from her seat.

“...”

“...”

A heavy silence hung between them as Lucy looked down at Khaledra one last time, then turned and walked away.

She had concluded that there was no point in continuing this conversation.

Watching her retreating back, Khaledra raised a hand to his forehead.

A dull ache pulsed behind his eyes. frёewebηovel.cѳm

Perhaps, in his fury at learning Lucy had saved Daniel, he had spoken too harshly without realizing it.

As he groaned softly with his eyes closed, someone approached.

It was Colonel Sampe, one of the commanders of the assault unit.

He saluted.

“Count Khaledra! As of this hour, we have fully retaken the target city of Fenbark! The estimated number of enemy dead is approximately 320, and we have secured 58 prisoners! Furthermore—”

Khaledra raised a hand to silence him.

He exhaled slowly and cast a sharp glance at Sampe.

“Daniel Steiner. Where is he?”

The atmosphere chilled.

Sampe wiped the sweat from his brow and answered.

“The search is being intensified, but we have not yet located him.”

“So he escaped. If we don’t capture him, then what meaning is there in any of this...”

As Khaledra clenched his jaw, Sampe swallowed hard and spoke again.

“My lord, I believe this operation was not without meaning. We’ve scored our first victory against Daniel Steiner—the so-called Devil of the Empire. And I believe his defeated forces, seeing the difference in strength, will now truly consider abandoning Fenbark.”

At those words, Khaledra lifted his gaze.

“Daniel Steiner? Abandon Fenbark? Don’t be ridiculous.”

His eyes narrowed like a serpent’s, astonished at the suggestion.

“He will come back. Without fail.”

****

At the same time, inside the brigade’s command tent, an operations meeting was in full swing.

“So, what you're saying is...”

Phelp, the intelligence officer, spoke with a look of disbelief.

“...you intend to abandon the bridge?”

The other officers wore similar expressions.

But Daniel nodded with certainty.

“They’ve succeeded in pushing us out of the city. Once they finish securing it, they’ll almost certainly move to reclaim the bridge. Their morale is high, and they have superior numbers. It’s only natural they’ll want to control a strategic point.”

He lifted his command baton and tapped the marked bridge on the operations map laid out across the table.

“When they reach the bridge with their forces, they’ll find the Imperial army nowhere in sight. It’ll appear as though we’ve abandoned the foothold and pulled back entirely. Now, what do you think the Allied command will assume?”

“They’ll believe the Imperial forces have retreated beyond the river.”

“And would they pursue us?”

“Unlikely. They’ll still be wary of you, sir. Instead of advancing, they’ll probably fortify positions near the bridge to prepare for a possible counterattack or ambush.”

The operations officer cut in, visibly anxious.

“Brigade Commander, if I understand correctly... you mean to abandon the bridge and pull back entirely?”

“No.”

Daniel answered without hesitation.

He shifted the baton and pointed to the northern forest region.

“While they remain on edge, guarding against an Imperial force that isn’t even there, we will be here.”

It was a classic deception operation.

Plausible—though dangerously risky, thought the operations officer, who then voiced his concern.

“It’s not impossible, but we can’t expect the Allied forces to remain on alert beyond the bridge forever. They’re bound to deploy aerial reconnaissance. And once they realize there’s no enemy presence beyond the bridge, won’t they redeploy their units accordingly?”

Indeed, once the Allies discovered that Daniel Steiner’s brigade wasn’t on the far side of the river, they would likely initiate wide-area reconnaissance.

And if that happened, the forces hidden in the northern forests would almost certainly be exposed.

But Daniel had already accounted for that.

“I’ll request support from Central Command. We’ll ask them to set up inflatable tank decoys and camouflaged artillery positions in a forest two hundred kilometers past the bridge. I’ve already marked areas that are easily spotted by air patrols. The enemy will discover this ‘fake unit’ and turn back satisfied.”

The room stirred with murmurs as Daniel continued.

“To further fool them, the fake unit will maintain continuous contact with headquarters. We’ll use a frequency that’s easy for the enemy to intercept. If the Allies catch that chatter, they’ll believe it’s real.”

He lowered the baton.

“In contrast, we will cut all communications and move independently into the northern forest. Once our forces are in position and preparations are complete, headquarters will then announce that reinforcements have arrived to support the decoy unit.”

Intercepting this, the Allies will likely conclude they need to strike Daniel Steiner’s brigade before reinforcements consolidate.

A large-scale force will then cross the bridge and launch a direct assault on what they believe is Daniel Steiner’s actual position.

“That’s when we destroy the floodgates upstream.”

The instant the gates are blown and the river floods, it will sever the enemy’s path of retreat to the city.

Even if they later realize the unit was fake, they’ll be cut off.

Fenbark, in turn, will become an undefended shell.

Daniel Steiner planned to seize that precise moment—leading the entire brigade in a charge to reclaim Fenbark.

“The entire operation will be completed within fifteen days.”

As the staff listened in awed silence, Daniel spoke softly.

“In fifteen days...”

His eyes narrowed with a razor’s edge.

“...we will turn Fenbark—occupied by Count Khaledra—into hell.”