Quote Originally Posted by fireheart View Post
Not really since the flashbacks indicate Zess at least cares about Rygart and Hodr obviously thought that Zess wouldn't shot if he knew that Rygart was in the golem.

So I'd say they all care for each other and since Hodr said the condition that the royal family has to die wasn't on the paper only conveyed by the messenger chances are that most people no matter which side they belong to don't know about that condition.

So if Zess doesn't know about it then it's not really odd as if Hodr surrenders a lot less blood is spillt and no one really dies, only thing that's odd is that he seems rather high in rank from the way they talk about him so he should know about it.
While Zess cared about them then (he came off in the way the other three described him as a sort of male tsundere), we don't know if circumstances have changed. It's been four years since Rygart left the Academy. A lot of things may have happened since then.

The only two we know for sure that do know about it are the Athens leadership, Hodr, Rygart, and maybe a few of Hodr's generals. Shigyn doesn't.

So I say it is pretty complicated, and like both you and I said, it is odd that Zess doesn't appear to know about it. You just said it more explicitly and took it to the next logical conclusion. If he did know about it, he wouldn't wonder why Hodr hadn't already surrendered. He would know that either choice means their deaths.