Time skip

I was nineteen when I graduated from the West Point and officially became Nonette's personal squire, or rather her errand boy/man servant whatever you prefer.

Life wasn't all like being Nonette's servant and shopping buddy she would train me along from time to time.

However, my skills were starting to catch up with my special abilities, as I was lasting longer and longer each time, even getting a few blows in myself.

But even if I could see her first attack coming, didn't mean I could stop or counter the follow-up.

Still the training proved invaluable, and I felt like I could take on any enemy that I would face in the immediate future to come.

One day a message came to me that I am on a mission to go to the Philippines in 3 days. When I was about to head out, Mary, my butler decided to follow me and thinking of this Mary can be said to be my only friend in this world surprisingly she wants to join me as a soldier in which I never knew so just in case I went to check her record only to realize that she has a good record and even more so she was classmates with Nonette in the military academy if it weren't for her deciding to follow me I wouldn't have noticed it while also realizing that if she didn't stayed as a butler she would've been a high ranking officer already and thinking of this I looked at her face and thinking of all the help she gave me in the past I decided to make her my knight instead in which she readily accepted. Despite feeling suspicious I can't help but accept her since based on my insticts which helped me countless times before I knew she mean no harm.

I was first deployed to Philippines when border tensions between the empire and the Chinese federation were coming to their breaking point with the empire's expansion into the Pacific.

with the rising tension combined with the help of my father's way of negotiation sooner or later a war might happen.

If it weren't for my older brother Schneizel's skill as Prime Minister in keeping us from fighting a war on multiple fronts, I'm sure my father would try and declare war on both the Federation and the EU just to complete his Ragnarok connection as fast as possible.

Which is why I was suspicious as to the motives of my father and having Britannia being here in the first place.

While Japan was a strategic location acting as a buffer between the homeland and the Federation as well has having seventy percent of the world's sakuradite.

Philippines had nothing, no valuable resources, no thought elevators, so this war had no meaning beyond the politics that started it out of pride, nationalism, and manifest destiny that so many believed in.

I couldn't say I was proud of what my country did or how it rules over others in its discriminatory way, but it was effective in its sick morally devoid way.

The economy was good, people believed in their leaders, and the empire boasted the strongest military in the world.

It was thanks to the imperialistic policies and exploitation of the areas it had conquered over its history.

The empire would first take over and replace a countries culture, language, and customs with their own.

Forcing the natives to become honorary second-class citizens of the empire or be forced into poverty and hunger.

Many chose the lesser of two evils and bowed their heads to their new masters in order to sustain their families or life.

Those who didn't were doomed to lives of crime, terrorism, or poverty in the ghettos and ruins of the cities of their past.

In a way, it was an effective way to assimilate as many areas as they had or will.

By taking away people's culture and language, the Empire takes away their identity forcing them to adapt to the empires own social standards to survive.

By doing so, they cut out the very tongues of those who denounce them and force them to speak the language of the conquerors just to survive.

This not only shapes and molds them into submissive citizens, but it also strips them of their previous life.

Because they were either honorary Britannians or they were just a number, not a person or a human being, a number.

They were the labor, seen as like ants that helped moved the industry forward as they built our settlements on top of where their cities used to be.

I knew that was going to happen here, and everywhere else if Britannia would have its way.

Because the empire's war will never end until the whole world is a part of the empire.

But Philippines was not Japan, we were stepping on the doorstep of the Chinese Federation, and they wouldn't give in as easily as the Japanese did.

It started off with an invasion from the south and east of both area 11 and 12 (Japan and the Philippines) into what is known as Indochina a collection of Southeast Asian countries that included Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar.

I was a captain assigned a command of a company of Knightmares and soldiers into Philippines to take the country along with part of the Imperial army.

The goal was to take all of it, but right from the start, it all went wrong, the forces we encountered were well armed and disciplined.

I would soon learn that the Chinese Federation had been supplying the local armies and militias with weapons and their prototype Knightmares.

My first encounter with their new Knightmare frame called the Gun-Ru was a few months into the war.

Too bad they were no match for me and in just a few minutes I obliterated the enemy squad whilist preventing more damage to my company of soldiers. After that we went full offensive which destroyed the entire division of Gun Ru's. During my free time in the past in order to balance my abilities I started studying strategies and tactics in wars together with my adaptability It complements my ability very well.

When I reported back with word of what happened I was lauded with praise for pulling through an impossible situation.

with my merits I was immediately promoted to Commander as a result of my success and took to calling myself Claudius instead of my royal name to protect not only myself but also my forces under me from being targeted by enemy attacks.

The fighting continued for months, and I had developed a reputation of a great fighter and a great synergist which helps those under me to fight more easily.

My name "Claudius" became a terror amongst the Chinese federation along with Filipino insurgents. Whenever they see my knightframe charging towards them they would immediately flee on sight.

I had become a warrior who fought for those beside him as well as seeing the enemy as those who wanted to kill me, so I had to destroy them first.

I saw my enemy no longer as human beings who were trying to protect their families and loved ones, I saw them only as threats that had to be dealt with.

I was broken out of this belief when the campaign came to a hold at an enemy fortress that stopped all progress.

The enemy was a mix of locals and Federation soldiers who had made their way down to help the locals fight us.

They were held up in a mountain base that was supplied by a winding tunnel network that housed supply lines and civilians from the surrounding villages.

The main invasion force had besieged the fortress for weeks with little sign of progress.

The emperor displeased for our lack of progress sent one of his knights of the round to expedite our progress.

Unfortunately, the one we received was an orange haired psychopath by the name of Luciano Bradley the newly assigned Knight of Ten.

Luciano Bradley was every bit of cruel and sadistic as his character made him out to be, the man didn't care about friend or foe only glory and bloodshed.

When he arrived, he assumed command from the regular forces, as I was too inexperienced while my sister was elsewhere in the country.

His solution to our problem of the fortress was a simple one, "how do you get rid of insects, you call the exterminator."

I watched as he slaughter the people mercilessly, I Looked at them pitifully and finally I just decided to just close my eyes as it might affect my mindset in the future but deep inside my mind he became one of the targets that I would painfully kill.

I'm no hero but that doesn't mean I'm remorseless though I know that nothing good will happen if I throw a tantrum out of nowhere so I just decided to shut up and close my eyes.

But among that you could hear laughter.

It was coming from none other than Luciano himself as he watched his handiwork from his Knightmare.

After a few days, the flames died down, and I went to see the ruins of what seemed to be an impenetrable fortress.

The scent of charred flesh and death permeated as charred bodies littered the place blackened with white powdered phosphorous bleaching the ground.

When I found what we thought was their command center, I saw something I could never unsee.

The roof was partially caved in from the initial bombardment trapping people inside, when we revealed the rubble what we found were, so many bodies huddled together some were just bones, but others still had skin that was charred and horribly burned.

The worst part was we found smaller skeletons with larger ones; these weren't soldiers they were civilians, families who tried to escape the violence of the war only to be burned alive.

At the center of it, there was what looked to be a mother shielding her child from the flames but was instead frozen like a grotesque statue with a face of agony strung across her face.

Thinking of this I can't help but gnash my teeth. Britannians viewed foreigners as trash which filled me with disgust. This event was engraved in his heart and unknowingly changed him but unfortunately he didn't notice it.

After finishing my mission in the Philippines I eventually went back home.

I established myself as one of the best battlefield commanders as I was best at adapting to the ever-changing landscape of battle and leading the troops in battle.

What I also fought in a way was seen as honorable as I never attacked civilians, never terrorized or mistreated the local population, and even allowed soldiers to be awarded and promoted by merit, not by lineage.

My line of thinking caught on and took notice as I was awarded for my exploits in having the highest success rating while having the fewest casualties out of any commander in the war outside of my sister.

Outsiders saw me as a male version of Cornelia, and another great leader for the Britannian army.

I merely saw myself, as doing what I thought was right.

I even attracted more and more soldiers to my command that agreed with my policies.

My "honorable" approach to battle seemed to please most while critics saw my mercy as a stain on the glorious empire's military.

This eventually led me to create the Ouroboros Corps, a strike force that was a first in and last out kind of group.

I was allowed to create the group after the war, which ended a few months later, as we were able to take two-thirds of what we set out to conquer which seemed to satisfy the emperor.

Thus, areas 13-17 were created and settled over the following two years.

Meanwhile, I was building my personal army to act as an extension of myself, because it didn't matter how good of a pilot I got I was still only a single man.

I also got into a more active role in my company Magicka Corporation even having them design my own custom Knightmare.

Thanks to my acceptance of "numbers" and half Britannians I were able to get bunch of talents to create my own Knightframe almost comparable to Lancelot of Suzaku though sadly Lloyd is an incomparably genius and despite the numbers we weren't able to outdone him but I'm still satisfied despite with the results.

In the meantime, I devoted myself to working with charities and finding ways to help the poor in post-war parts of the empire since I don't have anything to do for now

With my reputation and birthright as a prince, I got money from many sympathetic noble families.

Whether it was real sympathy or not didn't matter as I helped directed the money to those in need.

Soon people who were considered numbers were able to receive clean food and water, medical aid, and warm clothes that otherwise they couldn't afford.

Eventually, I was told that my Knightmare was ready, so I went to pick up my new knightmare.

What I got was the sixth generation Knightmare frame named the Merlin. One of the original designers had named it after the Wizard Merlin inspired to be part of Britannia protecting it from the shadows. Merlin is blue knightframe plated with gold. All in all It looks pretty neat.

It was the only other custom sixth generation Knightmare frame other than the Gawain which had beaten my team in building the first float system.

Still Merlin was a beast of a machine ready for multi-purpose combat and to handle anything thrown its way.

The armor was thicker than most Knightmares, reinforced with titanium alloy to better protect the pilot. For weapons it had a custom heat tempest sword, which allowed the user to heat the sword to extreme temperatures to be able to cut through enemy weapons and armor, and an extendable MVS halberd that was stored in the lower back and many more.

All in all, it was a machine that was beyond any other yet besides maybe the Lancelot, Guren, or Gawain

Eventually, I would come to be in command of 100 Knightmare pilots who were at my beck and call and another 2,000 soldiers, engineers, scientists, and doctors that made up my personal forces.

We were deployed mainly to border disputes in Asia and Conflict zones in Africa where my father was thinking of expanding next.