War is hell.

We like to think of ourselves as heroes, and those we fight as villains…

But the truth is, on the battlefield, there is no room for good or evil. There is only victory and loss. There is only strength and resolve.

As a result, nothing truly good can come out of war.

Yet in spite of that, we still fight. We fight for what we hold dear, what we believe in. We fight because we are willing to endure the hell known as war for a greater cause.

As the Valmese tactician, Nathaniel was no stranger to this fact. From the moment he began his studies, he was taught to secure victory at all costs. He knew there was never such a thing as a clean fight. The enemy would resort to whatever dirty tactics to win, and therefore it would not be considered cheating to do the same.

He also knew that in order to keep his sanity intact, he needed a reason to fight. Some fought for patriotism, others for personal gain, and others to protect their loved ones. Unfortunately he did not have any of those. So he told himself that he fought for an ideal. He was fighting for the common good, and anyone or anything that was in the way of that ideal must be cut down.

A nation trying to invade theirs, a nation trying to conquer the world for their own perverted ends, was no exception.

The war with Plegia had been going on for months, and for all those months, Nathaniel was left baffled. All his strategies, while they seemed fool proof on paper, did not give him the results he was hoping for. Each and every battle for the longest time would result in a stalemate. It seemed to him, and to Valm that this war would go on for years, even decades, if this stalemate continued.

Yet in this one fight, he had managed to turn the tables. There were only a handful of soldiers left, and that too mostly mages, so a hardened pegasus knight could take one down with ease. Nathaniel had several strategies planned out in advance, and for this particular scenario, he knew what to do. He simply needed to send his fastest Pegasus knights up against whatever soldiers that remained and he would leave disposing of the commander to himself.

By the time he had caught up to the commander, he had taken a hostage. Hoping that Nathaniel's compassion would get the better of him, the commander held the woman by the throat, threatening to kill her if Nathaniel's army did not surrender.

Nathaniel knew his game, and he did not fall for it. He drove his sword into the woman's heart, catching the commander off guard, and then took this opportunity to kill him as well.

Even though he thought of himself as a ruthless killer, even though he told himself he sold his soul the moment he began to fight, even though he told himself that he was no longer human… he still had some shreds of humanity left in him.

He realized it the moment he saw the contents of the basket the woman was carrying. If he really was the ruthless killer that he thought himself to be, he would have brought the knife down on the wailing baby.

And he was about to do just that, but his hands began to shake. No matter how hard he tried, he could not bring himself to do it. Was it because the child had potential? Was it because it would be unfair to end the life of something that just came into the world? Was it because he, of all things, felt sorry for it?

Whatever the reason, he decided to sheathe his sword. Then gingerly picked up the child and examined it closely, and was taken aback at what he saw.

Its, or rather, her body was covered in scars. There was a rather distinguishing mark on the back of her right hand, the mark of The Fell Dragon himself. From this he was able to conclude that her mother was most probably a member of the Grimleal clergy who chose to betray the cult.

Upon realizing this, he told himself that perhaps it was for the best that this child was now an orphan. Now she at least had a better future ahead of her. At least now she would have a purpose outside of being used for the whims and fancies of religious fanatics.

After all, she was put into this world to fight, so she would make a fine soldier.