"Urgh, move out of the way, big guy."
"Please, you must help her!"
"Yeah, yeah, I know."
Yuki took a closer look at the fatal injury, though it was nothing she could not heal with ease. While she did consider saying there was nothing she could do, Yamato would probably be able to tell that she was lying, and technically she did owe Satomi this one favor still. So she healed the wound in her stomach, surprisingly fast and easy too, but that was just what an unsealed angel could do when she did not hold a grudge against someone. Luckily for Satomi, she had never made any advances on Yamato, which could now have been used against her.
As she slowly got back up onto her feet, she hugged Yuki who was reluctantly patting her back until Satomi let go on her own.
"Thank god, you saved my life! I don't even know how to ever thank you for that…"
"I too, owe you a great debt for saving her life…"
"You're both welcome… Now if you'd please let go of me?"
"R-right… Sorry…"
"Now, I'd really like to know where that projectile came from…"
Amael appeared next to her and held Aisha in his arms. Her hair was less floaty than usual and just hanging down onto the ground.
"Milady, Master, something is terribly wrong with her. I caught her falling out of the sky, and she seems incredibly weak."
"Yeah, I can see that… Too bad. I guess bring her back to the Citadel for now. We will follow you shortly anyway."
"Right away."
Anael disappeared again, as quickly as he appeared and Yuki turned back to Satomi and the knight. She also took a couple of steps back and grabbed Yamato's hand again.
"Uh… Where were we? Right… You're that Hero of Light from way back then, right? And you were also at Vancia?"
"That is correct."
"…Okay, whatever. Satomi, now is your time to shine."
"Uhm… Excuse me…? I'm not sure what you want me to do… Did we discuss this earlier?"
"No, but it's part of the plan regardless, right boo?"
Yamato gave her a surprised glance, before resuming the explanation.
"She's right. Satomi must now reclaim the elven throne, and present herself as rightful heir to to the Empire. That was the primary objective in this operation."
"Y-you say that like it's a normal thing to just do!"
"I'm sure you will manage. But without Masami, they have no one that can tell them to stop. You're the only one with a legitimate claim of authority, as daughter of the past empress."
"Where do I even begin with this!? How would they even notice me?"
"Yuki will help you."
"This isn't as easy as you make it seem!"
Yuki reluctantly let go of Yamato's hand and grabbed Satomi's, before flying up with her into the air towards where the two armies met, casting a spell a barrier between them to temporarily force everyone to stop fighting.
"Stage is yours."
"Uh… Right… Anything in particular I should say?"
"They are your people. You gotta know what to say to win them over. But I'd begin with the truth about who you are and what you want."
"Okay… Okay… I got this… You guys hold speeches everyday, and it's no big deal… I've helt speeches before… Lots of speeches… This one is exactly like those… Except there are people trying to kill each other beneath me… And everyone thinks I was killed alongside the rest of the royal family… But aside from that… The exact same…"
"…"
Yuki began amplifying her voice for everyone below to hear her loud and clear.
"Here I go… Uhm, you got something to— Oh, it's alre starting, okay then…"
The confused soldiers looked up Satomi and Yuki, but it was too late to back out now.
"…Dear people, I am… No… Today, I speak to you, as representative of the royal family of the Great Naru Empire, daughter of her Majesty the Empress! Too many of you have fallen today, for a senseless war that could have been avoided if we had not so blindly trusted the words of an evil man… One who did not want the best for our nation and its people. Masami Rio is dead. The man who is responsible for the death of my mother and many more has fallen here today. Yet I know some of you willingly chose to follow him, because he promised you a world of glory and righteousness. One in which elves got the position at the top of all races which they deserve. However, this is wrong and I can prove it. Just look around. Does this look like the path to our destiny? When you look at the corpse next to you, do they look fulfilled? Happy? I reckon they do not… Because I too, feel a deep sorrow for every soul that was lost today… For a war lead by a mad man. He did not even believe the things he said himself! He was but a puppet of a woman, who was not even an elf herself. So I ask you, how pure could his elven supremacy ideology actually be now? You needn't worry, the woman was, alongside him killed and with them the twisted beliefs died which you followed until now. Or have they…? This is what you now must find out for yourselfs. Will you still blindly follow the words of a traitor, who manipulated you all into rebelling against your Empress, your history and your nation, or will you come back to me? Because I forgive you. I will take my mothers place and bring back stability to this nation, and make sure you will never have to experience madness like today ever again. If you accept my forgiveness, and wish to return to me, put down your weapons and retreat."
Silence filled the battlefield. Looks of uncertainty were passed around, to see it anyone would actually turn around. The first to do so was the Hero of Light, who walked past the Absolute Empire's soldiers and stopped at the barrier Yuki had created. She opened a small section through which he passed, and it closed right behind him again. He towered over the other elves and looked around, before walking past them toward the city behind them. After that, the first other soldiers began to follow him. And then more. And more. Until eventually, every last soldier had turned their back to the Absolute Empire's troops, and was on their way back behind the city walls.
"Bra-vo! That will do just fine. You really do have a way with words, Satomi."
"Thank you, but I'm sure it was nothing to the speeches you hold."
"Actually, I don't have much I'd like to add. My premise would just have been a little different. But that probably wouldn't have gotten as much acceptance, so there's no point in comparing. It's all about the audience."
"Not that I couldn't have phrased it in an elf-appealing way. I simply refused to hold speeches that don't convey Absolute Church dogma. Waste of breath, honesty. As well as disgusting. Kinda like not wanting to touch something because it looks gross, even though I am perfectly capable of interacting with it myself, and then having someone else touch it for me instead. Luckily, that's what straw people like Satomi are for."
Yuki flew back down alongside Satomi, where Yamato was talking to Lucy, surrounded by Stemu operatives.
"…And that was how we neutralized the Hero Rara with relatively little difficulty."
"Seems like you and your team are a success then. Congratulations."
"Thank you, Sir!"
Lucy seemed genuinely excited about the praise, having worked hard for it and now receiving it feeling like a major accomplishment. Which it was.
Yuki however claimed Yamato for herself right away, landing next to him, and pressing her shoulder against his.
"I'm pleased to hear of your success, Lucy. With that out of the way, there shouldn't be anything standing in the way of the continued existence of Stemu. I already have an idea in mind on where to deploy you next, though it might be a bit of a longer stay for part of you. Consider yourself now essential to Operation Permeation-Phase II.!"
"I didn't know there was a second phase for that…"
"That's because it is brand new! Well, technically it's like a special section of the operation, which of course is still ongoing. But never mind all that stuff. We shook celebrate our victory! I will give you the details to the operation later. Oh, and Satomi probably needs to stay here now, yes?"
Lucy turned to Satomi, who she had not interacted with much and mustered her. After her impressive speech, Lucy was confused as to why Yamato allowed her to continue existing alongside him. She figured Satomi was somewhat of a rivaling authority figure to him now. It made her wonder if she would have to assassinate her soon. But since she seemed nice, Lucy hoped that would not be the case.
"Yes, that's right. I would return to the palace now. Worry not, I will have my Hero to protect me from now on. I will come visit you again soon, for I hope we can continue to develop our friendship. Also, I cannot thank you enough for helping me free my nation. You both truly are kind. I will forever be in your debt and cherish the memory of your support going forward."
"Yup, yup, we are the best~ We do need to leave now, since we got something to investigate and aside from that, something else to do~!"
Yuki wrapped around Yamato's arm and gave him a flirtatious gaze, which he tried to ignore but she of course noticed that he noticed her, and moved closer to his face. Her bold advances and implications were however continued to be ignored for now, which she did not mind in the slightest, since she knew he only did so because they were in public. It was part of what made it fun to her.
"Of course, goodbye. Until next time."
"Bye, bye~"
Yamato gave a short speech to the Absolute Empire's troops before entering a carriage. Since she soldiers could not all be teleported back individually to the city they came from, they had to walk and Yamato chose to travel with them, although be it in a carriage. On their way, Yamato and Yuki remained busy inside the carriage, as their activities left Yuki in the mood for cuddling barely clothed and covered by a blanket while lying on top of each other on the seats.
"Operation Permeation… She always uses such cute names for all sorts of things… Even though phase II. as she called it was in fact such a tremendous success until now, and does deserve to be named accordingly. The idea to use Satomi as a temporary ruler for the elves first came to my mind immediately after she told us the story of her predicament. Her parents death was a sad event, no doubt. However it of course also made her allegeable to the throne. So if any other relatives had appeared out of the blue, it could have very well been that we would have had to kill them, preferably outside of Satomi's knowledge. Framing their deaths as part of Masami's doing would have happened almost by itself as well. One might wonder why use a puppet ruler in the first place, when we already had the military power to take their territory right here and now. The central problem is the elves current incompatibility with the Absolute Church, which is why Operation Permeation is so important. The operation is generally about spreading Absolute Church ideology into newly conquered territories, however in this case it refers to a more subtle approach. But I'm sure it will work out just fine. After all, I have you if I ever need additional help with anything…"
Yamato gave her a kiss on the forehead and continued petting her head as she laid there relaxing and feeling as though this was yet another very productive and fun day.