Most likely his former classmates didnt come alone, since it was an order from the royals/army, high chance the army was behind them.
That or, and that's more likely, he said that in the way that he could protect himself but if they were to retaliate they could aim for the survivors and he...
Not sure if that's really spoiler worthy but well, better safe than sorry since its about the last chapter.
Hope we get a new translator soon enough and thanks for the current chapters.
The publication is, in Japan. It ends with the Volume 4.
"Pub. status" stands for "Publication status", not for the release status of the translated chapters.