“He who conquered Latila…will have the world”
**
“Long live the Elestovakian Empire!”
A charting voice of a thousands men army awakened Latila while the citizens were in their slumber. Bells ringing across the street, calling for men, women and children to take shelter in Voyage and Flemton fortresses or Latila palace. Those who were lucky enough to live close to the port aboard ships to escape from this city before the chains were fully tied to protect the port from the invaders' warships. One thing every mind in Latila knew at that day: war had come to their land.
In front of Flemton wall, the outer defense line of Latila city, the guards were in fear, as they saw an army of fifty thousand men marching toward where they made their stand. Holding the banners of Elestovakia flutter high in the sky, the invading army trampled on burning flags and corpses of the fallen Flemton defenders.
Offshore, forty warships with catapults are bombarding their beloved city. Hellfire is raining down, but they can’t do anything about it. Latilian warships, despite being equipped with flamethrowers, are very short range, they were easily outmatched by their Elestovakian counterparts. Half of their fleet were sunk without leaving the port.
Outnumbered twelve to one, demoralized by the horror of a defeated army, the remaining force withdrew to the rear of the garrison. They could hold off the Elestovakians for months but eventually this garrison will fall and Latila will be captured.
Yet, command was given, those men were ordered to not abandon their position.
Standing on a wall over the fortification of the city is a young female aristocrat, sixteen years old Lily Sobieski Voyage, who has been waiting here for this moment since when the news of their army’s defeat reached Voyage fortress. She is here, along with her parents and relatives, the entire remainders of the Voyage bloodline and the Flemtones fighting to protect the capital of their country:
“Lily, adjust the gunpowder in your matchlock, don’t let it be faulty.”
Lily’s mother takes the gun from her, inspecting the gunpowder inside before giving it back.
“Thanks, mom.”
“Here they come”
As the invaders bring out their siege engines-the infamous 778 pounder cannons that had decimated Carthagia’s fortification last week-to destroy the garrison’s gate, the defenders on the wall load their guns and ready to fight back. On the opposite, the Elestovakians are having their guns preloaded from far away, so that they could fire them all at once when the fortification gets well within range. The invaders had no cavalry, they were busy dealing with force from the Knights Cathedraller far away from the city, but with the overwhelming force from sheer size of their foot troops, it would be a matter of time before they break through this garrison.
And so, they began laying siege. The Latilian gunners waited for command.
“All units! FIRE!”
From their barrels, hundreds of ammo shells glided into the air. The Latilian force fired wave after wave of bullets upon their enemies. The Elestovakians expected that would happen, they deploy a heavy metal shield to cover the cannons. With their guns fixated on the wall, they began the bombardment on the garrison.
“Hold on something!”
The heavy cannonballs smashed into the city’s defense, crushing numerous men behind these walls and staggered the fortress. The Flemton wall was a marvel of technology, but for ancient times, it wasn’t designed to hold off any modern weaponry like cannons. The wall shakes violently, dropping gunners of their standing points. Yet, the Elestovakians show no mercy, they will keep on bombarding the wall until it submits.
Then, a short moment of silence, the guns need to be reloaded and loaders are rushing to do it. Seizing that rare opportunity, Latilian melee assault cavalry charged at the cannons. From the middle gate of the city, the Konstantine gates, a group of a hundred armed riders take off toward the Elestovakians.
“Good god..."
Overlooking the chaos battlefield created by their horsemen from behind an arrow slit, Lily gazes her vision around at an incoming cannon, a gunner standing side by side to it loading a cannonball into its barrel. Drawing out her matchlock, Lily carefully aims at that man, and pulls the trigger.
Bang!
The ammo released from the rifle barrel flew into the head of the invader, pierced the leather helmet and splattered his blood to the ground. Lily temporarily disabled a cannon with that kill, but not for long, another one came and the cannon continued to fire. Fortunately, a cavalryman cuts him down. The enemy’s position has been broken. Good, she has to keep the momentum by continuing covering the cavalry. Loading her matchlock again with fresh new ammo, Lily exposes her head right a little bit…
Sling!
Suddenly, out of thin air, a bullet came, slicing right into her left eye.
“AHHH!”
The archduchess Lily wakes up from her nightmare, breathing heavily. Looking around her,it was just her bedroom.
The fireplace has long gone off. The rain has stopped since yesterday, and birds are singing outside.
Still sweating cold and shivering, Lily tries to stand up from her bed. She grabs on her eyepatch, carefully placing it onto her left eye to cover the scar on her eye. At the age of twenty-six, it’s hard to accept the fact that Lily could be considered an experienced war veteran, but she is one. The war ten years ago, when the Elestovakians unleashed their power upon the northern land, Lily joined in the defense of the city, two months before Latila was relieved by the Milishilians.
On that fateful night, when the Elestovakian army attacked the city, Lily lost her left eye, and then, became an orphan, before being adopted to this family. Long time has gone after the war is over, yet, many nights, the memories of these nights still find their way back in her dreams.
And every time when Lily wakes up from those dreams, she kneels down, making a cross sign with her hands and prays, silently, in the hope that the men and her parents who fell on that day could rest in peace. The prayer lasts until the Knights Catheraller order rings the golden bell on their temples, when the sun illuminates its light on top of the Order's highest flagpole. Then, the prayer stops, Lily stands up and heads to the dining room, if it is just an usual day.
But today, she went to another place. Open the door of the storage close to Voyage palace’s rooftop, Lily looks into it, where Aurora is slumbing, with sheets of papers and tons of strange-looking devices lying everywhere on the floor which has just been cleaned off dust yesterday. As a fastidious person, plus this is also her domain, Voyage can’t help but find it extremely uncomfortable:
“Geeze…”
“Huh?”
Hearing noise coming from the door, Aurora opened her eyes, she looked all around,realizing that this is not her house. Then, she saw Lily looking at her:
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“Good morning.”-Aurora said, then fell back to her bed, continuing to sleep.
“Uh…”
“She hasn't awakened?”
Suddenly, a familiar voice is calling Lily from her right-“Your Highness.”-she turns around and greets the approaching figure, Belisari-”Why did you come here so early?”
“To accompany Aurora back to my palace. By the way, Liliya, I told you to skip the “Your Highness” part, Belisari is fine, you’re older than I am anyway. And it feels rather strange when seeing one that has been always called you by name suddenly changes to calling you by title.”
“Klein would scold me for a while if he found out.”
“Absolutely he would.”
The two look at each other, giggling:
"Ahaha...Belisari, then. Only if Klein is absent. Anyhow, Aurora, wake up, His Highness is here for you.”
“...”
No answer
“You stay here. Let me wake her up.”
Lily entered the room, carefully choosing places to land her feet so that she would not accidentally step on and crush anything important. Now looking closer, those papers lying on the floor were not just any random papers, but blueprints,and there is still a fresh ink smell mixed with burned out scented candles filling the room. She did all of this while I was sleeping? Lily questioned herself. However, no excuse is now good enough for Aurora to continue dozing while Belisari is here for her:
“Hey there”-
Lily chooses the soft method, she pokes at the pile of blankets-"Wake up, it’s morning already. His Highness has come.”
“I am here.”
Aurora slowly awakes, brushing off the dust buildup on her eyes-“Belisari?…”-she noticed Belisari is looking at her from the door-”I…I mean Your Highness, why are you here for this sole individual?”
“Belisari is fine, just consider me as your friend, I don’t mind it, unless Klein is here. Hey Liliya, can you grab me something in the kitchen? I haven’t had anything in my stomach.”
Belisari did have breakfast at home, but he wanted to have some private talk with Aurora. Understanding that intention, Lily nodded:
“Sure.”
After Lily has gone away from his eyes, Belisari turns back to Aurora, the girl is trying to straighten her messy hair with a comb before going off the bed. Walking on the same path Lily took to enter the room, he arrives at the table close to the window, where most of Aurora’s personal stuffs are located, then picks up a small fragment of glass from the table and takes a look:
“This one…''-Belisari shows it to Aurora and asks-”The glass is very clear. I've seen many high quality panels in Ethanolin when I was there two years ago, but this one is on another level. How did you obtain it?”
“From Russia, we know a thing or two about making glass.”
“It looks incredible.”
“I know.”
“Huh…”
After having been excluded from monarch rules, Aurora seemed to have returned to a normal altitude to speak with Belisari.
“You really speak to me like we are friends.”
“Ahh…sorry Your Highness, am I not actually allowed to do that?"
“No no,if I say I don’t mind it then it means I don’t mind it. You can call me whatever you want.”
“Then…”
Aurora stopped for a moment, thinking:
“Belisari Flarius…May I call you Belisarius?”
“Fine for me.”
“Thank you Belisarius for your hospitality hosting me in this comfortable palace.”
“Okay okay. Enough.”
Belisari found himself a comfortable place to sit down. A chair was there at the end of the bed,but it was occupied by Aurora’s backpack, and fully aware of how dangerous those explosive shells inside of it could be, the prince decided not to mess with that thing.
A wooden plank protruding out of the wall has only a few metal plates on it. After having those things carefully placed aside, Belisari brushes off the dust and takes a seat:
“So, sorry for yesterday, I have to go home early.Is everything okay here?”
“Can’t complain about anything except the food.”
The steak Aurora had last night was disgustingly thick and tough to chew, and made her stomach hurt. That’s why she couldn't sleep and had to distract herself from the pain by working instead. It was so bad that although she should be grateful for the food, Aurora’s honest opinion about the meal overcame her etiquette:
“Well, sorry about that, I will ask if they could improve it. Hey, how about Liliya, is she good?”
“Liliya? Lily? She seemed like a good person, unlike her scary appearance, although she saw me as a child. Not that I am bothering with that though…How about you? What do you think about her?”
“She’s a reliable senior, I guess so.”
At the same time, Aurora has done with preparing herself to get off the bed. She takes the backpack, burying her hands into it trying to pull out something. Belisari looks with some curiosity, he never saw what Aurora got with her since they first met. Is there anything more interesting than those explosive shells in that bag?
“Anyhow”-he decided to ignore it-”It’s breakfast time, if you don’t hurry up soon the Knights will occupy all the seats in the dining room. Go to the first floor, you should see it around the stairs."
“Uh huh.”-Aurora nodded, hands and face still grinding into the haversack-”I will be there in a moment, you should go first.”
“Is there anything I can help with?"
Belisari wants to help, but at the same time he wants to have a glance at the things inside the backpack.
“No, please just go first.”
“...”
“...”
“Fine, be there soon.”
Said done, the prince turned away and left.
Thirty minutes later
Aurora, Lily and Belisari are now in Voyage’s dining room. The breakfast here is simple, just bread with vegetable soup, which according to Aurora as she later described, is an absolute nightmare to swallow. The bread is hard like hardtack and the soup even has a rotten taste in it.”-Just like British food.”-Aurora complained quietly-”Better to cook by myself next time.”
However, for some reason, Lily and Belisari seemingly enjoyed it like it’s good. Sometimes it’s hard to know what medieval people are thinking when they eat something, Aurora concluded, she will note that later in her diary.
Nevertheless, Aurora still tried her best to finish the meal, risking all the possibility of vomiting the whole breakfast in the dining room. Fortunately, she didn’t. Throwing the empty bowl to the side with a disgusted face, she looks at Belisari, who’s sitting opposite her, saying-"Now may you tell me why you came here so early today?”
“As I said”-to which he replied-”I want to accompany you to my home, the Latilus Latilae Palace and meet my father, King Justinius the First, His Majesty, remember to call him so, and ask for his approval to execute our renovation project. Just simple like that.”
“May I come tag along?”
Said Lily while she was trying to cut bread, she just wanted to have a visit. It has been a long time since her last time in Belisari’s palace:
“I guess it’s okay, the carriage is enough for four people, Aurora, I, you and a bodyguard, though it’s unnecessary to have any guard when you’re onboard. No raider would even dare to come close”
“Is that a compliment?”
“We all know that you’re reliable.”
“Reliable she is, indeed.”
A big and rough hand, covered in a metal gauntlet suddenly placed on Aurora’s shoulder:
“Lily is surprisingly trustworthy to be a personal guard. Anyway, Your Highness, may you introduce me to this particular individual?”
A person appeared behind Aurora, and she almost jumped out of her seat, if it wasn't for her to be frozen by fear. Judging by the shadow of the figure alone, a rough estimation of him is two meters tall, with heavy armor and a matchlock musket. Added to that is a scary low tone voice, this voice is familiar to one of the voices she heard when coming across those black armored men. When combining all of those elements, there only meant one thing: The person who’s standing behind her is a Knights of the Cathedral:
"Take a seat first, Gerald. Don't scare our guests."-Belisari ordered. As an instant effect, the knight releases the girl from his hand. He draws out a chair beneath the table and settles. Aurora takes a glance, this man is double her size at least, what makes him look scarier is those battle scars covering the area of almost half of the elderly face just like Lily, and of course, that black, dirty metal armor:
"Aurora"-Belisari speaks-"This person is Gerald de Payens, commander of the Order of Soldiers of Crossroad Pilgrims and of Montgilsard Cathedral, you might call them..."
"The Knights Cathedraller"-The knight named Gerald cut short his words-"It was an honor knowing you, Aurora Borealis.”