The Refugees at Yurba Fort

Barbals, who had called himself the second Demon King, had taken his own life, but that did not mean the battle was over.

Soldiers who had followed Barbals were still there, and even after their leader's suicide, they did not stop fighting.

If this had been a war between humans, we could have urged them to surrender and lay down their arms, but things were not so simple between humans and demons.

There were no postwar rules or treaties of any kind between humanity and the demons.

In a war between humans, forcing the enemy to surrender and taking many prisoners is an important strategic act. The more prisoners one captures, the more advantageous the postwar negotiations become, making it possible to demand reparations or territory in exchange for returning them. Since the losing side knows it will not necessarily be killed, it will surrender rather than fight to the death once victory is impossible.

But there was no history of negotiations between humans and demons. The demons had appeared suddenly and were still our hated enemy, invading our lands.

Even if we took demon prisoners, there was no guarantee that the demons would return their human prisoners. The demons, for their part, believed they would be killed if they surrendered and were taken prisoner, so they could not surrender.

Wounded soldiers who could no longer fight might be captured, but surrender was not an option for a nation, army, or organization. In the end, they had only two choices: flee or fight to the bitter end.

And in this battle, we had been unable to defeat every last demon.

We had let a unit of roughly fifty demons escape, one made up of elite Red Armors...