"Explanation?" Lia replied with a cold expression. "What do I have to explain? Did Mr. Erwin not just explain the situation to you? I heard him loud and clear just now."

Onen's eyes widened with shock upon hearing this, and he was completely taken aback by Lia's attitude.

Even Erwin hadn't anticipated there to be such a cold and forbidding side to Lia.

"Do you think we're here to play around?" Lia asked as he swept a cold glance over Onen and the other nobles, then turned to Erwin before instructing, "Kill them all."

Complete silence immediately descended upon the entire scene.

Everyone had fallen silent, so much so that the wound of the wind blowing over the Canston Plain could be clearly heard.

Aside from Erwin, everyone had turned to Lia with incredulous looks on their faces.

Even the likes of Shiba, who had lived in Zans for many years, couldn't help but be bewildered by this turn of events. In their hearts, this was not the person that Elder Lia was.

As for Onen, his surprise was also intermingled with fear and alarm. Never did he think that Lia would issue an order to have them killed, and he certainly wasn't expecting Lia to be so decisive. He felt like Lia didn't care at all that he and his group were all nobles.

This was completely different from the Elder Lia that he was used to dealing with.

"Did you not hear what Archbishop Lia said? Hurry up and execute these fools!" Erwin commanded in an implacable voice as he turned to Shiba and others.

Shiba and his subordinates couldn't help but gulp nervously upon hearing this. After all, killing nobles was something that they didn't even dare to imagine doing under normal circumstances, yet it seemed like Erwin and Lia were treating this like the most mundane of tasks.

"Are you waiting for me to execute them myself?" Erwin asked as he glanced at Shiba.

"No, no," Shiba hurriedly replied with a shake of his head. "There's no need to trouble you, Commander."

He then turned to Bracken and his subordinates with a serious expression as he said, "Did you not hear what the commander said? It's time to have them executed!"

Bracken could see that Shiba was serious about this, and he didn't dare to hesitate any longer as he stepped forward with his men in preparation to conduct the execution.

The nobles were truly stunned now. Never did they think that the commoners that they had looked down on would actually dare to threaten their lives. They were so horrified by this turn of events that their complexions had all taken on an ashen hue.

In the face of life and death, the value of many things was diminished to nothing. Regardless of what status or how much wealth one held, in the face of a cold-faced executioner, all of these things that they normally took so much pride in completely failed to matter.

All of a sudden, someone began to soil themselves.

In the face of the impending threat of death, some of the nobles were beginning to urinate themselves.

Someone among Shiba's subordinates spotted this, and they couldn't help but burst into laughter.

His laughter seemed to be contagious, and soon, all of Shiba's men were chortling with mirth.

A defeated look finally appeared on Count Onen's face. This was the most humiliated he had ever felt, even it was even more humiliating to him than losing this battle.

In particular, as he saw all of the nobles around him fall to their knees with tears and snot streaming down their faces, desperately begging for their lives, Onen was completely rooted to the spot. As it turned out, in the face of death, these people were completely and utterly pathetic. They had completely cast aside their pride as nobles, and Onen was left at a loss for what to do upon seeing this. He didn't know how he was supposed to assess their actions. He had been enraged that Erwin and Lia had swooped onto the battlefield at the tail-end of the battle to steal all the spoils, but in this instant, he suddenly felt like he didn't even have the right to feel enraged.

Erwin was naturally aware that Lia only wanted to scare Onen and the others, so he quickly made a subtle gesture, indicating for Shiba and his men to back down.

"Look at how pathetic you are. You should be ashamed to call yourselves nobles," Erwin said as he pursed his lips with disdain. "Alright, get out of here. We had no intention of killing you here in the first place."

All of the other nobles aside from Onen were ecstatic to hear that they were being spared, and they crawled over to E on their knees before kowtowing against the ground to express their genuine gratitude. Their upper bodies were still bound by ropes, so they could only express their gratitude through such awkward gestures. However, to them, things like pride were no longer important.

Erwin couldn't help but be amused by this. Just a moment ago, these nobles had been denouncing him as a fool and a madman, yet their attitudes had suddenly taken a complete turn, and Erwin was caught completely off guard by this drastic change.

"There's no need to thank me. If you want to thank someone, then thank this esteemed archbishop of the Universal Church," Erwin said as he gestured toward Lia.

The nobles immediately shuffled over to Lia on their knees with grateful expressions upon hearing this. "Thank you, Archbishop Lia. You have our eternal gratitude."

It was as if all of them were followers of the Universal Church who had just received redemption from the Universal Lord.

Turan was watching the unfolding scene from the crowd, and he could tell that Lia's stoic expression was only a facade that he was putting on to hide the awkwardness that he was feeling. With that in mind, Turan was almost unable to suppress the urge to laugh out loud.

Erwin could also tell that Lia was very unaccustomed to something like this, so he turned to Shiba and instructed, "Alright, take them away. Make sure that they're tied up securely, I still have a use for them once we get back to Zans."

"I understand," Shiba replied with a nod, then instructed Bracken and his subordinates to take the nobles away.

Right as Count Onen was about to be dragged away, Erwin stepped to intercept his departure.

"Leave him behind. I have something to discuss with him."

Onen turned to Erwin with a surprised expression upon hearing this, clearly not expecting Erwin to instruct him to stay behind.

...

"Return to Zans at full speed!" Erwin instructed. He had no intention of lingering here any longer than necessary.

Thus, the Universal Church Freedom Army began to march back to Zans at full speed as instructed.

Thus, this unit of only around 800 men was able to claim victory in this battle on the Canston Plain, while suffering close to zero losses in the process.

As the commander of the unit, Erwin was naturally in a fantastic mood, and as he rode along on horseback, he felt as if he were being gently caressed by a passing spring breeze. It wasn't spring at the moment, but that hardly mattered to him. Given the mood that he was in, it didn't matter to him if he was having to ride through scorching summer winds, or being buffetted by a stiff winter gale.

All of a sudden, a cold voice rang out from beside him. "Looks like that little witch didn't teach you enough of a lesson. Otherwise, you wouldn't be able to prance around like this right now."

"You're not here to teach me a supplementary lesson, are you?" Erwin asked with a resigned smile. He was feeling a little sheepish in the wake of what he had done, and he didn't dare to look directly at Onean, so he could only steal a glance at her out of the corners of his eyes.

In doing so, he discovered that Onean was looking completely exhausted with an ashen complexion, and it was clear that she had severely overexerted her magic power.

Erwin's brows furrowed slightly upon seeing this, and he wound his arm around her waist before scooping her onto the back of his steed.

Onean wanted to resist, but she didn't have the energy to do so.

"Are you alright? You're not injured, are you?" Erwin asked with a concerned expression.

"Oh, so you're suddenly worried about me now?" Onean asked as she took a cold glance at him.

"Well, we were facing an enemy attack just now, so I had to focus my attention on that. Surely you understand that," Erwin said, putting on his trademark shameless expression.

"Why do I feel like whenever you encounter a woman with even the slightest semblance of good looks, you always pay extra attention to them?" Even though Onean's voice was quite feeble, the mockery in her words was still very clear and poignant. The look in her golden eyes was also rather feeble and lazy, but Erwin didn't dare to look directly into them.

"You still haven't answered my question. You're not carrying any injuries, are you?" Erwin asked, hurriedly returning to the previous subject.

"I'll be fine," Onean replied with a faint smile, then suddenly pinched onto the delicate flesh on Erwin's waist before giving it a vicious twist.

Erwin immediately threw his head back and let loose a bloodcurdling cry. Sherry and the others, who were following along behind Erwin, were given quite a fright by this, thinking that he had fallen victim to some type of hidden weapon.

However, Erwin indicated to everyone that he was fine, despite the pained grimace on his face, and everyone continued onward as normal.

Only then did a hint of amusement appear on Onean's face.

Erwin was initially holding Onean across his lap, but seeing as she wasn't injured and was only suffering from feebleness as a result of magic power overexertion, he set her upright on the back of his steed and continued riding with his arms around her waist.

"I told you this last time: you're eventually going to be killed by a woman."

"Are you referring to women like Theresa?"

"I couldn't care less what type of woman it's going to be, all I'm telling you is that you're going to die by the hands of a woman someday."

"I just couldn't bear to strike her down," Erwin countered.

"Don't try to explain these things to me."

"Are you saying that I should've killed her here?"

"Would you have been able to kill her?" Onean asked, and this was clearly a loaded question.

"I'm not sure. Maybe I do," Erwin replied with an oblivious expression, pretending to not understand the implications behind Onean's question.

"In that case, it's best not to engage her." Given how intelligent Onean was, she was naturally able to tell that Erwin really had thought long and hard about how to kill Theresa, and she wasn't surprised by this.

"That's true. I was worried that during our battle, she would suddenly turn around and attack you. That would've been quite dangerous."

"I certainly wouldn't put that beyond her." Onean still recalled that even in the presence of so many people during the tea party at Count Onen's manor, Theresa still dared to try a sneak attack on Erwin.

However, a thought then occurred to her, and a displeased look appeared on her face. "Hold on a minute, don't try to change the subject. Do you think I didn't see you getting all intimate with her just now? You were even nibbling on her ear!"

"Well, it looks like I'm wrong no matter what I do," Erwin said with a wry smile.

"To be honest, I'm a little curious."

"About what?"

"Why was she so reluctant to kill you?" Onean asked with a perplexed expression, then turned to face Erwin with a meaningful look on her face.

"Is that supposed to be a surprise?" Erwin asked with a serious expression. "Look at how handsome and dashing I am. It makes sense that she was unable to bear the thought of hurting me after seeing my handsome face."

"I see," Onean nodded with an earnest expression, looking as if she were very much in agreement with Erwin's statement. "In that case, if we encounter other female commanders like Theresa in the future, you can just go and seduce them with your looks. We won't even have to fight them! Doesn't that sound great?"

"I'm not sure that's the best idea," Erwin said with a sheepish smile.

"Looks like she was still just a little girl, after all. It looked like she was quite a capable schemer, but she's still too inexperienced in some areas," Onean sighed.

"You make it sound like you're really wise and experienced," Erwin mumbled in protest.

Onean turned to him with a cold glare upon hearing this. "What did you think I was referring to? I was talking about her understanding of magic."

"Oh, of course. What else could it have been?" Erwin hurriedly replied.

There was a pleasant smile on Onean's face, but in reality, she was gritting her teeth and digging her nails vigorously into the skin on the back of Erwin's hand. "It seems like you really do need to be taught a lesson."