History tells us that coincidences happen at every moment. Opponents find their rivals, to chase them to the end of time. Great generals clashing with the others in massive battles that might change the course of humanity. People meet people by a bump on the street, or by mere misunderstanding. They might become foes, or friends that cannot be separate, nevertheless flipped the political table to oblivion. In the continent of Atlasia, there is a story similar to this, one that included not just a few, but a dozen of the greatest people in history, all of whom played their role in the war that forever altered the known world.
-Project Aurora, Act 1-
“What is the worrying look on your face, Caesar?”
“Huh?”
Sitting in an armchair behind his working table, Klein Caesar Voyage, a newly employed officer of the Latilian Army, glanced his eyes up from the piles of military reports. He gazed through his glasses around, from right to left, seeking for the individual who spoke to him.
Being one of the youngest high-ranking officers in the state, thanks to his family, a bloodline standing behind only the royal family, but also because he has become commander of an independent legion in the military. Klein Caesar is arguably a highly esteemed individual in the army. His commanding skill is undoubtedly one of the most capable in the kingdom
And along with him in his office, is a person by the name of Belisari Flarius Latila, who’s sitting with both legs hanging on the window right in his office. Belisari is another officer in the Latilian Army. Just like his friend, Belisari is also an aristocrat, who found his way into the military of the country
Two people, aside from the fact that they were both a man, both have the same nationality, nothing about them are similar. Their eye colors are different, Klein has a grayish pair of eyes hidden behind his metal glasses, while Belisari has for himself deep dark black eyes, which he inherited from his mother. Their races aren’t similar either, both are human, yet Klein came from an Eastern race of people called the Grecolatina, just as most of the members of the Voyage family do, while Belisari represents the Remenus people of the Western region, people who once mastered the art of seafaring.
Even their characters are not alike, with Klein usually being the serious person, who always criticizes anyone who does not take things seriously, a characteristic that can be found in Belisari in everyday life. And not to be biased, but even Klein himself admitted it, Belisari is more handsome than him, probably because Belisari is a bit taller.
Yet, they, quite unbelievably, are friends, Klein is Belisari’s childhood friend. Grown up with each other for their entire life, never before, that their friendship was disrupted just by their differences. But there is a thing that Belisari has, that made a distance between him and Klein. His surname is Latila, also the name of his father and the dynasty that is and has been ruling this nation for over a millennium.
Belisari Flarius Latila, the oldest child of the Latilian dynasty, is the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Latila.
“…”
“If you want my answer…Your Highness”-Klein coughs, clears his throat
Their status is the thing that really separates Klein and Belisari. Being next to a future king, one must be careful with their words. So even when Voyage and Latila were friends from their childhood, and Klein is brother of the non-royal highest ranked aristocrat in the country, he still tries to remain a certain distance between him and Belisari:
“...I am worried that there is nothing we can do to change the outcome of the incoming war against Elestovakia, where we are on the losing side. Generalizing every war is not a smart move, Your Highness, especially the one in which we have to face a giant who had beaten us badly before.”
Briefing a bit about the recent history of this world. Elestovakia is an empire, the largest nation in the known world,which has expanded its territory over all of the continent of Atlasia. Ten years ago, that same nation had defeated Latila and many more nations in the continent in a series of various decisive battles. Their army, the Expedition Imperial Army, had pushed the Latilian Royal Army away from the plain of the County of Flemton to the desert of County of Liston, then to the forest of the Duchy of Voyage. In the final act of the war, they marched to the capital region of Latila, where the Latilians made their final stand, to which they barely made it victorious. But the damage was beyond repair, for the Latilians lost too much of what they used to have.
The Kingdom of Latila, from a regional power, lost 95% of its territory in just three months, many more lost their status as independent nations. After the war, the Elestovakians annexed every bit of land they captured, establishing various governor states across the continent in the control of their imperial command.
And with that, the Second Empire of Elestovakia was founded, they continued to pursue their territory expansion ambition. Three years after the defeat of Latila, with the defeat of almost every kingdom, republics and smaller empires in Atlasia, Elestovakia left only three independent states in the entire continent, including their own empire.
Ten years forward, after being unable to expand further into the continent, and losing a portion of territory to a nation nearby, the seafaring Kingdom of Milishila, and the steam of their war machine, the eyes of Elestovakia now again fixated on Latila and another nation, which is named Vlenna, the two final independent states in their influential geopolitical zone. Having acknowledged the danger they were in, the Latilians seeked for every international aid possible to arm their country. With war at their doorstep, they had prepared everything, national treasure was almost drained, to build their army to compete with the overwhelming force the Elestovakians were about to unleash on their territory.
However, while that sounded like the Latilians are ready for a victory, that is not the case in this situation::
“Latila and Vlenna are merely cities, city-states, Elestovakia is a whole powerful nation, Your Highness.”-Klein answers him, with a bitter tone in his voice-”We lost the previous war, don’t let me start with that. We were a powerful nation back then. Now we’re hard to detect on the map, and so is our closest ally.”
With the balance of power favoring the Elestovakians, even with foreign support from the enemy that has defeated the Empire, a victory is hard to secure.
“So you just say we have no chance in this war.”
“I didn’t mean that, Your Highness. But unless we could find more allies, which we cannot, the known world nations are either already on our side, or it is Elestovakia, there is no more nation to for us to exploit-”
Belisari makes a point-“We have other races in our war.”
Elestovakia is a great empire, as an empire, they’ve conquered a massive landmass across the continent, including nations of different races. From blood-thirsty intelligent vampires of the old Nosfeturan Empire, to long-living wind-bending expert elves, and fast flyable and maneuverable fliers, citizens of the Aeropostale Republic. In other words, humans of the empire had decimated every other species and became the dominant race. However, they did not perish, but still living in many hidden regions, or simply not in the Empire, and they are waiting for chances to return to their homeland. For a nation like Latila, they are possible allies to say the least:
“But their loyalty is questionable, Your Highness.”-Klein argues
Indeed, they are potential allies. However, not to mention the fact that the vampire community has been unheard of for a decade, because they simply do not exist in Latila as the other races do, but just like Klein has said, aside from the elves originated from O’well, a duchy located in the northern part of the continent, which was part of the kingdom before its downfall, the rest have uncertain loyalty to the state.
"I place my trust in them however."
Belisari moves himself closer to the window, eyes glaring down below.
Latila is as colorful as the paradise itself. Thousands of golden rays sprayed on the sealine, reflecting the light back to the sky. The whistle of wind moving along with the wall of the tower, before blowing away on the wings of the seagull. Peaceful, for the last city of the once mighty Kingdom of Latila, this is heaven.
But Latila isn't just the paradise for humans, but for other highly intelligent creatures in the continent as well. On the streets, among a quarter million Latila inhabitants walking down there, over a fourth of them came from various arcane races in the world. 2700 years after the first flier made his first landing in the coastline of the city, when it was just a small town, not even named Latila yet, this city has rapidly turned itself into a place where non-human and human can live without making conflict. And, along with Vlenna:
"We are their final fortress in this continent.”-Belisari speaks-”It might be a little over-confident for me to say this on behalf of all humans, elves and fliers in Latila, but they will fight along with the country to protect their final homeland from the enemies…"
Said done, declared proudly, Belisari switches off his serious attitude and chuckles:
"Am I sounding like my father now, Klein? Ridiculous, right?"
"Yes, my sister would say so.”-Klein takes a sigh-”But I don’t. Say what you want, Your Highness, we have a higher chance to lose this war, even with the intervention of other races. It is a harsh truth, but truth nonetheless."
Klein is finally done with all of his paperwork, he places them into a sheet and stands up-"Though I do hope that we could win, just like you, that small chance of us being the victors, I will try my best to grab my hand on it…"
"I understand what you want, Klein. Now you heard my confession about the plan for this war. Your job is to somehow drag the vampire kind into our side or win more foreign support."
Klein comes to Belisari's right side:
"That's impossible, nobody can do that. But I will try my best."
The flute of cold breeze still blew across the wall, being warmed up by the golden bright light rays from the sun, before flooding into the office where they're standing. So calm, how long could it still be like this, Klein questioned himself, though he already knew the answer.
"Do you have any wishes, Your Highness?"-he suddenly asks the prince on his side
"I wish the vampires could join our ranks as well...What's yours?"
"After the war ended, I wish I could enjoy this city more than I am. That if we win the war"
Klein declared to himself, fully aware that that dream can hardly be true. Even if they actually win, can he live to see that day? He does not know.
"Well, not necessary about the part "after", let's go out then."
"Huh?"
A seagull landed on Belisari's hand, before he gazed his viewpoint at Klein-"The war won't stop coming because you work today, nor come sooner because you spend a day resting. I suggest a visit to the city to clear our mind before continuing working, right Voyage?"
“Really? Right now?”
“Yes. By the way, I have seen quite a beautiful lady down there. Don’t you think you should get yourself a wife now?”
“Wait- Haizz…fine. You got me there- Wait, shouldn’t you too?”-Klein can’t help but let out a long sigh to avoid chuckling upon hearing those words-”You just want to hang around,right?”
“You understand me so well, Voyage”-Belisari releases the seagull out of his palms-”Alright, time to go. See you soon bird.”
Belisari and Klein left the room. Leaving the office empty.
Moments later, a sailboat arises from over the horizon.
**
“The weather is a bit windy..."
On the sailbeam of the cruiser, a person-the boat thief-in her lab coat stretches her vision out far, to the port of Latila through a telescope.
“I see it.”
Putting the scope back on her backpack, she clung on to the rope connecting the pole of the ship to the bottom and jumped down-Splash!-A loud watery noise came as her legs touched on the sinking hull of the boat. She quickly rolls up her trousers and splashes out the water from the ship, one bucket after another:
"I should’ve taken a better one”-She said to herself, while readjusting the sail and continuing to work on repairing the holes.
The ship is still sailing on its own, being pushed by the violent force of the wind toward the bay and the waves. Water leaking through holes is filling up the boat. The girl stopped repairing, she began to grab everything back in her backpack and climb back to the pole, again using the telescope to view the coastal city.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
“2 kilometers 005…, wind at 21 mph. I should reach there within ten minutes”
Klock klock
The sound of wood dragged her attention-”Who’s there?”-The girl turned back with a handmade pistol in her hand,only to find a wooden shipwreck resting by the side of the sea.
“You scared me to death”-She shoved her gun back into the pocket and sailed closer to the ship-”Resting here for a long time, didn’t you”
The old shipwreck broke its sails to answer to her. Suddenly, a very old flag flew out from the flagpole by a wind, before it was towed out and fell into the sea. A flag with white-blue-reddish stripes flag that she recognized immediately:
“Glad to see a compatriot here….May you rest in eternal peace”
She salutes and continues with her ship moving forward to Latila, leaving behind the broken shipwreck and the old Russian Empire flag floating on the surface of the ocean.
**
“Vlennian apples here! Freshest and cleanest apples on the continent!”
The sun shines upon the harbor of Latila. Ships docking side by side, loading and unloading their cargo full of goods and machineries. In the Age of the Merchant Sails, the port was built to keep up with the demand for docking space from foreign merchants that came from far away nations.
“May I try one?"
“Yes, sir, take this then”
After a long time, the port had grown independently into a massive maze-like structure and become a major trade site on the continent. Therefore, more and more ships across many nations began to bring fruits and spices that were once very rare to be seen in the city-state, making them available in large quantities, including Vlennian apples that Belisari is in love with.
And while Klein was wandering around, Belisari is having a good time trying out apples in the market.
“Hmm…fine.”-Belisari mumbles with a full mouth-”I will take two kilograms.How much does it cost”
“Four Denarii,sir”
Putting down four silver coins with his free hand-”Here”-Belisari takes the bag of apples and joins in the crowd of merchants and buyers.
At the same time, he saw Klein walking toward him,with a disappointed expression:
“How so?”
“Can’t find anyone, really. Or you might’ve lied to me.”
“I didn’t lie to you or anything.”-Belisari chuckles-”Anyhow, stay there, I want to buy some Milishilian coffee beans.”
“Hey, shouldn’t we return to your palace now? They’ve probably sent out some men to search for us-”
But Belisari turned right toward the dock anyway, comforting Klein:
”It would take just a few minutes. Eh, don't you see that Elestovakian coffee sucks? They have a bunch of dirt, barely tasty. Unlike those grown in Milishila, the taste is gentler…"
“You sound like a merchant now. Dammit. Fine, I see your point. Go for it by yourself, please, I want to have a rest.”
The prince hung his head in disappointment-“Fine, wait for me here for like ten minutes”-then he handed the apple bags to Klein-”Keep this for me too.”
“Wait! First, promise me that you won’t leave me here okay?”
Klein was referring to many times that Belisari and him hung out, only for them to split up, mostly because of Belisari, and fell to find each other in the crowded port.
“Okay. Stand there, I shall return in ten minutes or so.”
“God knows if you won’t get lost in Latila Port."
Klein said, as he saw Belisari joining the crowd of the bay.
Being a massive port on the continent, probably the biggest, Port Latila is always busy and full of ships. Skipping the central circle bay, which is only available for warships and such, Belisari walks toward the second dock bay just right next to it.
“Here…”
On the left of the port, is the dock space of Elestovakian and Vlennian ships, so the prince skips them again and turns right, following the sign which hung on the ceiling of the inner port to the dock bay of Latilian. Going through another swarm of merchants, a small light ship is waiting with a blue navy-crimson red flag with a golden cross flying high on its pole appearing in the corner of his eyes: Latila. Knowing that the destination is very close, he takes a sprint and jumps to the next bridge. At the end of the bridge, stood a white and blue flag of the merchant cruiser from Milishila mainland.
“Cereus?”-Belisari waves his hand at the captain of the Milisilian ship, who’s standing in his cabin and recognises his customer immediately:
“Yo, Flarius, glad to see you here”-Cereus nodded-”One kilogram as always, right?"
“Yes, and please make it quick, I don’t have much time”
“Okay okay”
Cereus walks to the coffee cargo on a side of the ship, opens it and begins to shovel coffee beans into a bag, which Belisari would use to bring back on land. Belisari, while waiting, sits on the chair of VIP customers:
“Doing good in business, Cereus?”
“Yeah,indeed. Oh,by the way, for some reason my ship is free of tax. I don’t know why, perhaps one of my customers is a high-ranking royal member who loves my coffee so much that he decided to give me some special treatment. Wait, that means I’m a VIP in this country now? Ahaha, sounds ridiculous, right?”
“Indeed”
Belisari always hides his real identity from people outside of his inner circle, including his favorite shop’s keeper.
“So…how things going?”-the merchant suddenly asked
“Still okay, I think so, though recently I can’t really sleep well.”
"Such be it, young man. Heh, unlike me, I’m going to retire soon, this ship will soon be sold…”
"Yeah...hey, what do you think about me buying your ship? Does seven thousand Denari sound good?”
“Seven thousand!?”
Getting a sudden ridiculous deal with Belisari, the captain of the ship can’t help but laugh:
“Funny talking there youngling, this ship is worth less than that when it was brand new. Let’s think about that later. Here you are, extra 0,2 kilogram as you made me laugh-”
Cereus handed the bag of coffee to Belisari, but then his hand suddenly stopped moving. His attention was dragged to a dock space close from here. And around him, the other sailors also looked in that direction as well. As if there was something that had caught them, and there really was.
“Alright, thank you”-Belisari stands up-”Cereus?”
Noticing the look on the ship’s captain and the sailors, curious, Belisari turns around to see what the captain is looking at:
“What are you…What the-”
As the prince looked in that direction, he saw the same thing that the entire harbor was seeing: A sailboat, or at least what’s still floating off it approaching the land harbor.
And on the sail-frame of it, standing a single person…no, not an ordinary person-a white hair woman-clinging on the pole, waiting for her moment to step down on the port.
“Cereus”-Belisari stands up and jumps off the ship-”...I have to go there….sorry”
**
“Here I am”
Right before the quay is higher than her standing point, the white hair girl makes a jump onto the wooden dock:
"Warm…just like in Greece…Rhode? I can’t remember….”
The weather is peaceful, with warm sunlight and clean zero-snow ground, adding to that is a light cool breeze from the sea, completely on a different page compared to where she started the adventure.
But if the description is right, then here is it, the city of Latila that was noted in her ancestors’ book. Cozy and peaceful, with a brand new harbor, she supposed, since the description said that the city used to have a small dock.
“Woo!”
A strong wind blew her silver hair strings into the air, covering her vision with its reflection of sunlight.
“It’s windy here.”
The girl gathered her hair back and tied it to the back, before it dragged too much attention to her. Little did she know, her white silver hair is enough for people to start to notice. A few gossips could be heard far away from where she’s standing, but when the girl looks in that direction, the people pretend like nothing happened.
“Huh…I remember hearing something over there…forget it.”
Deciding to ignore that, the girl turned her step toward the mainland.
But:
(Latin) “Hold on there you.”
Out of the sudden,from behind her back, a loud voice called out for her.
“It’s a Denarii to tie your boat up on the dock.”
(Denarii? The Roman currency?)
The girl turns around and sees a person, most likely a ship keeper approaching her with a note in his hand. Fortunately, he speaks Latin, modern Latin to be specific, a language she mastered:
“Phew…”
Letting out a sigh of relief, she turns back to her sailboat. It’s not like the boat has fully sunken, the pole is still above the water line, and the small flag to know which direction wind flows to is still on it. Yet, it would be over exaggerated if one person called this thing a boat by now.
“And I need to know your name. Nationality even.”
But it seems like the ship guard doesn’t care about that anyway. There will be tax for that. Being not a collector, the girl has no Denarii to pay, but there must be at least one thing in her backpack that could serve as a payment:
“How about this?"-She places down a talent of silver on the note and winks her eyes-”And we forget my name, and nationality?”
(That’s one among many lines I’ve always wanted to say some day)
The ship keeper looks up at her with a glare, but as an unsurprisingly result, he puts down the talent into his bag and turns away.
“Welcome to Latila port, Mrs. Helen.”
“Heh, bribery always works no matter which world we are in”-She said with a light smirk- “Whatever….”-the girl decided to ignore it and explore the city first. Shoving the compass back to the backpack, she sets her foot aboard the shore port, to the Elves District of Latila
**
“Hah…hah…”
It has been two hours since the last time Belisari saw that mysterious “vampire” blend into the city.
At first, the idea of finding a vampire, a creature unique with their silver hair sounds easy for Belisari. They have a unique trait: their iron-carbon hair, created by hundreds of years of drinking blood with high iron levels. With its outstanding silver color, unless she blends within the elf community, which all individuals have light golden hair color, finding that girl should take little to no time.
Unfortunately, it seems like she did go to the Latilian habitant zone for elves.
Maybe, there would still be a chance, better that “vampire” was kept just within that region so he could find her-”God”-He said-”Please let her be there.”
The prince stepped into Elves District, where he stopped and asked every single person on the street whether or not they saw any white hair person with a strange looking coat lurking around the area, but they all replied with a “No”. Can’t blame them, their hair and vampire hair are almost in the same color, it would be hard to notice between the two, and the long coat is Latilian Elf traditional clothes, finding specific one is impossible, and Belisari also has no description for it. To make matters worse, due to their earlier distance, Belisari can’t tell if that girl has other unique traits for it is easier to find her. So, with just two pieces of information, there are not many things that could help the prince to find that vampire.
Belisari needs a vampire. With that, his way to negotiate with the vampire Nosfeturan community, which has been rumored to still remain in the Alpsles Mountain Range within territory of the Empire, would be much easier. That girl is his key to achieve that. Whatever the price be, he would have that girl, there is just no better option.
But it seemed like it was a difficult task.
“Damn it!"
The Latilian prince kicks a random rock on the street at the witness of many elves and humans, but he isn’t in the mood to care about that. Thinking of wandering all around Elves District alone is a nightmare to begin with, much less finding a single person there that looks like 96% of its population.
“God and Saint Morgan, don’t give me false hope please…”
Belisari looks up, takes another look. The Latilian elves…their hair color didn’t help…
And, over the horizon, the clouds had begun to gather. It is getting dark.
At this point, Klein, if Belisari guessed it right, had returned to the palace to alarm his missing, and they'd probably sent out a few units to capture him back. They may haven't found him yet, but just for now.
It is better to return there before being captured than listening to Klein scolding him all day long, Belisari thinks. Maybe it’s time to go home. What if he tells them about that vampire? Then maybe they might send a whole army looking for her to him. That is a preferable option…
“Maybe next time….”
Belisari turns around and drags his feet toward the Latila palace. He would find her later then-
BAM!*
“What the-”
Suddenly out of nowhere, a deafening noise like cannon fire echoes throughout the entire street, dragging the attention of everyone, including the prince himself. What might cause it? Is that a parade? No, this street is too far from the White Square, but the sound is still awfully loud like it occurred at the next street which is furthest, and if he remembers it right, then there should be no parade today.
That must be something else, Belisari can say for sure. He quickly rotated his head around as fast as he could, trying to locate where the sound came from, by looking at the signal:
There, a column of black smoke began rising over the neighboring street, along with the scent that smelled like…yellow stones around a volcano hole flooding the atmosphere. Drawing out his decorative sword hanging around his waist, Belisari sprinted to the neighboring street through a tight valley at the corner:
“What happened here?!”
To his surprise, he found the remains of a compact explosion at the end of the street, surrounding a group of people lying around it, possibly being blown away by that same blast-“Who caused this havoc?”-The prince quickly ran to comfort the injured men-”You’re going to be okay, just minor damage, I will call help-”
They were mildly wounded, nothing severe enough to endanger their lives. The culprit is merciful, they are not intended to kill anyone, more like just to scare of those people:
“They are raiders, no need to help them. My backpack was almost stolen, there is no mercy needed.”
Suddenly, a female voice came from behind the prince
“Oh ... .whatever, why don’t you report them to the police?”
“It would be too late by then."
“Fine, but-”
Belisari turned around, and he was stunned by what he was seeing.
Standing in front of him is a woman, who is carrying a metal tube to aim it at the injured raider.
That girl has a long white coat, with a strange headwear made out of leather hanging on the head. She is short, around 1m5, so small that the tube she is carrying is a fourth of her size, that the coat she is wearing almost touched the ground despite it was made for a normal height person to wear, and the bag behind her back was the same size as her. Her face looks young, not even eighteen yet, and it was even younger when it came to her personally judging by the look on her eyes.
Her hair is very long, however, almost a meter, and it is reflecting a gentle, not really intense silver light.
“It’s you. You're that vampire!"
“Huh?”
The prince made a cross symbol on his chest (May Saint Morgan protects my sword) before sprinting up forward, leaving behind the injured and charging at the “vampire” standing there with a sword drawn out on his hand.
Caught by total surprise, the “vampire” dropped the tube on her hand and reached for something that looked like a gun. But because of being panicked, adding to that is the ridiculous weight of her backpack, her gun dropped to the ground:
“Wait, what are you doing?”
“You little…”
Belisari continues advancing, the distance becomes shortened, but the girl is still looking for her gun. She found it lying just behind her legs,and picked it up.
“Sto-”
The white hair girl picks up the gun and points at the man approaching. However, she was staggered: Belisari had had his sword drawn on her neck, merely a centimeter from cutting into her throat:
“Stop right there you little vampire frick...”