After the Valeria Empire's army stormed the border fortress and Lyra publicly executed the supreme commander, a portion of the private troops that had once belonged to Duke Grant chose to lay down their weapons and surrender to the enemy.
They even guided the imperial forces along the way, familiarizing them with the city's facilities, asking for nothing more than to keep a single life in the end.
Perhaps Grant had already guessed that this private fortress was unlikely to withstand the imperial assault. Not a single piece of his precious wealth had been left behind in the city.
Even the reserve ratios stockpiled earlier, anything that could be taken was taken; everything else was burned to ashes, leaving Amalia's army not the slightest advantage to seize.
Yet Grant could take the grain and treasure, but he couldn't take the people or the land.
