Midland Regular Army

The Holy See's soldiers cannot believe that so modest a force turned back the entire Kushan host, an army in the hundreds of thousands. Recognizing the banner, several men place it: this is the Band of the Falcon, the group that proved decisive in Midland's war against Tudor three years earlier. Studying Griffith's uncovered features, they judge him even more resplendent than before, though Owen privately senses something in that presence that has crossed beyond the human.

The crowd parts to admit the band into Vritannis, where Federico presses Griffith on which side he fights for and where his loyalty lies. It surprises everyone to learn he leads the Band of the Falcon, but the greater jolt comes when he declares himself sworn to Midland's royal house and tasked with driving out the Kushan. On that basis, Griffith insists, every army present falls under his authority, and any that refuse must quit Midland altogether. Doubtful nobles push back, yet he counters that his band is the only standing regular army Midland now has.

Midland's exiled nobles step forward from the throng, and Griffith greets them warmly. They object more sharply than anyone, demanding to know by whose authority he acts. Locus replies for him, sidestepping the question by noting that a regular army exists to aid a kingdom in crisis, which is exactly what the band is doing. Still unsatisfied, the nobles ask how he can claim command when Princess Charlotte, the last known survivor of the royal line, has vanished, and they raise old rumors of his imprisonment for treason. One accuses him of exploiting the war to seize sovereign power, only for the next voice to shatter the charge. Charlotte herself has come. Her arrival throws the assembly into an uproar, and the Midland nobles bow. Anxious at first, she steadies under Griffith's reassuring touch, then declares that the two of them are betrothed and that, by her word, he is now supreme commander of the Midland Regular Army.

The assembled armies identify the newcomers as the reborn Band of the Falcon. Griffith enters Vritannis and reveals to Federico that he serves the Midland royal family and is charged with liberating the kingdom from the Kushan. He claims authority over all armies in Midland, drawing resistance from the nobles. Locus defends the claim, and the exiled Midland nobles challenge it by citing Charlotte's disappearance and Griffith's rumored treason. Princess Charlotte arrives, announces her betrothal to Griffith, and names him supreme commander of the Midland Regular Army.

This twenty-one-page installment of the Millennium Falcon Arc appeared in Young Animal issue eight, dated April 6, 2007. Owen's unease at Griffith's altered aura foreshadows the growing recognition that the returned commander is no longer entirely a man.