I am not sure if eloy is bluffing or just overconfident.
Between the power of illusions, teleportation and to move through concrete the orphans have, there is no way the royal guards could have stopped anyone from defecting if they would have tried to. Not to mention how easily both Catz and Malhart could restrain the royal guards.

So, Haven was an quite easy side mission. Wait, WHAT?!

I'm sure he's not bluffing about it being the plan. Not so sure why he's constantly so open about stuff like this but on the other hand it's not like he has any reason not to be.

Now, how successful they would have been at it is anyone's guess. I doubt it would have been 'easy peasy' for every case. Maybe they are overconfident under the assumption that they are aware of every power of "their" kids (a faulty assumption as we know) which is still too confident even if it were true, since they weren't ready for Malhart himself and some of his kids.

In any case I'm not even sure that Noah is shocked at the 'slit throat' part since that seems to be par for the course for the empire. Maybe he's shocked that they were being shadowed and yet the royal guard allowed them to get captured without making any effort to save them or inform anyone about it.

@brownie probably overconfident and possibly a little bs especially with what happened with Alex.

@Brownie24128, I don't know, those kids had a bit of trouble dealing with just Gaston who, while pretty powerful, couldn't keep up with Eloy - I doubt any of them could have survived a sneak attack. Malhart and Catz also seem to have had exceptional powers, and a lot of time to prepare - something most Malhart's kids wouldn't have. Plus Eloy is talking about killing Veda's trainees, who at that point couldn't have done anything against a royal guard.

And Noah, you silly, the purpose of that mission was training and testing, of course you would have been watched and of course they wouldn't have helped you (unless the situation was particularly dire, I hope!).

@Eight
They thought it was an easy side mission. They were wrong and had seriously misinterpreted the situation.

Remember y'all: The whole deal about the Royal Guard is that they can equal magic users. We've haven't seen them do it too much, but given its their whole claim to fame, we can assume that a bunch of semi-trained children would've been having a Rough Time.

Friendly reminder that Catz was not in the debriefing of Malhart kids at all, and they were completely blindsided by him.

Another reminder that they were easily handled by Malhart due to lack of info, which...the JSP most likely had tons of. Lmao.

...I am betting five bucks that Royal Guard will start going on about the death threat.
Only for Noah to stop him as he was more interested in fact that Gloria was only one of the places where Empire started collecting magic users.

The love and respect for magic users is ever so heartfelt.
Justopeia is truly just, honk. :^D

I'm pretty sure Eloy is trying his very best to keep his kiddo alive, but can only do so through threats and jabs since he lacks the emotional know to use alternatives.

... That or I'm just projecting my desire for people to be good on an asshole.

my suspicion is that all the guard like Eloy are espers fully trained to kill magic users. Probably made with inflicted magical trama.

I... don't know what I was expecting from the empire's ruthlessness.

Oh, so the empire has the equivalent of the Hannibal Directive? Fitting.

Did Noah pop a stitch there? That looks like blood.

@Brownie24128
I mean... The RGs are shown to be stealthy, observant, and exceptionally fast. Malhart humiliated them, but he isn't everywhere or omniscient - if he was, he wouldn't have let the raid on their hideout happen; and Catz had the initiative in the base attack. RGs maybe don't have a true counter to the kids powers, but they don't really need to - just get in and kill everyone before anyone even realises that a RG is on the scene.

@Silver
Well, letting them get captured was part of the plan to lure out Malhart, no surprise there. He's probably just shocked at how casual Eloy is about the whole thing.

@Giks

We already know that they used gold-coated weapons & have specialized training. If they were espers, magic users would all have been executed long before Veda project lmao.

So when the Vader project sprogs were fighting Malhart's brats in the streets, the Royal Guard were lurking quietly close at hand, doing nothing of use? That sounds like cowardice in the face of the enemy. Again. Has Eloy tried not being a snivelling wretch?

That aside, I get the impression that a number of organisations, the Royal Guard included, really, *really* wanted to sabotage the Vader project (and then slaughter everyone involved), but have largely failed despite their best efforts.

The Royal Guard seem best prepared for more "normal" magic abilities and assassinations. They're capable of winning against most of the project's students in a 1v1 fight, but against especially skilled and powerful free magic or pandemonium magic users (or maybe a particularly exceptional spirit user) lose.

If comparing them to the "Heroes" it looks like they'd be able to trivially defeat Shaders and would be able to take out most low level heroes. But the high ranking ones they'd need to be very lucky against.

@Zed it wasn't illegal to be capable of using magic. It was just illegal getting caught using it. We don't know the process they went through other that when there teacher is mentioned they have knee jerseys fear reaction

I think Eloy is speaking just what he is supposed to say; like: this is the new truth, the past has been changed to fit the narative.
Each branch (military, JSP, royal guard, etc.) is full of overconfidence as well as incompetence (royal guard the least it seems, since they have to serve in the field). So if he says "we were ordered to slit your throats", it could have been a) not the case b) would've been covered up (see a).

But I wouldn't expect Eloy to have any strong feelings to any person in particular. They have been trained and adapted to a ruthless system and I don't think anyone can afford here emotional bonds.

Oceania has always been at war with Eastasi-

I mean- Veda only offered to help with the *Barnrose* Project. There was never a project under Veda's name.

@Nomi

It does look like blood! Good eye!