Mothers sobbed, hugging the bodies of their dead children, children sobbed over the pale bodies of their parents, men who had lost their wives silently wiped away their tears, and wives wept bitterly because they had lost their husbands. The streets of Itsqueen were littered with the corpses of innocent people, and bloody streams flowed down, forming puddles from which flying crows were not averse to pecking. And although such a gloomy appearance caused incredible horror in the hearts of others, it was nothing compared to the castle, which now looked as if it had survived an assault by an army of thousands.
Rubble was scattered around, torn off parts of bodies, armor and stones, mixed with blood and bones, lay in the middle of the narrow corridors, and on the scarlet-colored grass of the parade ground, people built a mountain from the bodies of the dead to then burn it. Here, almost the entire garrison of two hundred people died from strange invaders, and no one really knows what exactly happened that night.
People only heard some strange sounds of clapping, followed by a flash and lines of fire whistling disgustingly in people's ears. On the bodies of the dead, perforating wounds were visible, as if they had been shot with thousands of small metal balls, tearing their flesh to shreds. No one had time to think about how they all died, since the result of such carnage filled everyone with primal fear.
The ruler of this city, Count Laroy, walked along the corridor of the castle, strewn with bodies in pools of blood, and he could no longer look at the dead, there were too many of them. His gaze seemed to be murdered, he looked so gloomy now. He was truly shocked, not expecting that today someone would attack his city and kill so many people. For him, this was a blow from which it was almost impossible to recover.
Servants and surviving guards removed the bodies and helped those few wounded who had somehow survived the attack by the unknown. They were all shaking in fear and horror, their eyes were bulging and seemed about to roll out. They experienced a real nightmare in reality, if not worse, and it is unlikely that anyone would want to repeat their experience on themselves.
One guard interrogated a survivor trying to find out what happened, but the survivor's words were slurred. He needed to calm down, but he could not remain silent, he must report what he saw.
"M-m-magic…"
He stammered while sitting, leaning his back against the bloody wall.
That's what I thought.
The count thought, clicking his tongue.
They couldn't have died like that, either from arrows or blades. They were clearly magicians and very skilled ones.
"How many were there?"
The guard asked the survivor, and he stammered:
"T-ten people, p-p-probably."
Ten?
The Count was surprised, not believing his ears.
Some ten raiders managed to kill so many people, moreover, they were all magicians, but what kind of magic did they use and how did they hide their presence from Count Laroy himself, a magician of the second rank?
"What did you see? Can you describe their magic?"
"Fire... l-lightning? I... I don't k-know. Flash! And... death."
Fire... lightning... flash... death. It's... strange magic.
Count Laroy thought angrily and made a stern expression on his face.
And even though he kept his cool, everyone around saw how his hand was shaking. While his face was stony, his hands betrayed in him notes of surging fear, bursting through the mask of his hardness.
Who can even afford to send so many mages with strange magic deep into the kingdom?
This was the question Laroy asked himself, and he knew the answer perfectly well.
Empire of Antigone.
Obviously, only a powerful power that has such enormous and unsurpassed power to destroy everything in its path is capable of this. However, being behind the goblin forest and the kingdom of Hippolyta, this country seemed inaccessible, almost fabulous, but now, apparently, this is no longer the case.
The free magician Granid and his companions warned that the Antigone Empire was going to war against the kingdom, but the count did not believe it, considering these words just pathetic excuses of the old wizard, but now the count realized that he was mistaken and now he was convinced that that the Antigone Empire is behind this vile and treacherous attack on him and his possessions.
Moreover, they launched an attack right in the castle, and then wreaked havoc by releasing all the prisoners, including this vile cripple...
Oh Sod!
Lara became worried and decided to give the order right away.
"Locate and capture all prisoners immediately!"
"W-we'll do it now."
Said one of the guards, running away somewhere along the corridors.
The Antigonians killed a huge number of people, guilty and innocent. They did all this for some purpose, but what, the count does not yet know. It is possible that the Empire wants to escalate the situation in the kingdom of Lakuus and provoke unrest, riots and uprisings throughout the country. This was the usual strategy of a country that is going to conquer someone else’s, to come here as saviors, as those who will restore order and peace in these lands, and it doesn’t matter that they can easily capture this country because in this way they will find loyalty among the civilian population. This is how they prepare the ground for their grandiose invasion.
Or maybe they even worked together with the royal council and freed Princess Ilifreeta. Are they really aware of all the royal affairs and are trying to play their own game here? But which one? They decided to put their puppet on the throne? This stupid walking bitch? As crazy as it may sound, it is quite possible.
The Count can already imagine how, in the abyss of chaos, the princess, hated by the people, appears on her own two feet, healed by holy magic, and declares that she has come to save the people from troubles and adversity, bringing with her the holy army. This scenario was even worse than the Count had previously imagined.
NO! No…
The count tried to calm down by shaking his head.
We need to think it over carefully. Is it true that these are Antigonians?
The Count chuckled at his own question.
Sure, who else? But what are they trying to do?
Thinking about this, the count felt extreme horror, stepping over the bodies of dead people. The disgusting smell of blood hit him right in the nose, reinforcing his already heartbreaking fears, but suddenly the count’s gaze caught on something after which he decided to stop. He pushed his thoughts aside and opened his mouth when he saw one girl on the floor.
Her stomach seemed to be ripped open, her intestines were spilling out, streams of blood flowed from her mouth, and her eyes rolled back and turned white, just like her smooth skin. Tears began to flow from Laroy's eyes, his heart began to beat wildly, and it pained him to realize that his only daughter was among the victims of this attack.
"Diana."
The count said with pain in his soul.
Laroy fell to his knees, feeling a huge heaviness in his chest, unbearable pain overwhelmed his entire insides. He felt as if a piece of his soul had been torn from him. All he could do was cry and regret the heavy loss he suffered that day. The Count sat and cried for a long time, he drove away everyone who tried to disturb him or express regret, he had no time for that.
Diana, my daughter... why did they do this to you?
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
The count did not understand pouring out all his tears on his daughter’s body.
Some time passed and the tears in his eyes dried up. Laroi rose to his feet, clenched his fingers into a fist and looked at the bodies of a dozen more dead people with anger in his eyes. He was incredibly angry. His family, his home, his possessions were attacked, he lost the most precious thing in his life, a piece of himself, his heritage, and now Laroy wants only one thing: revenge.
If the Antigone Empire is behind this, then Count Laroy will not stop until this vile, fanatical country perishes in the flames of destruction, anarchy and war. And it doesn’t matter who gets in his way, even if Sod himself, Laroy bury Him too, but the main thing is to accomplish this “revenge.”
“Whoever it is... I will find you and open your skull myself.
Since then, Laroy is no longer the same person as before.
***
The royal family is in custody, the princess is at large and hiding somewhere, and Duke Fellrick could invade the kingdom at any moment and take the throne. I am not against him doing this, because the kingdom needs a king who is not just worthy of this title, but a legitimate king who has authority, charisma and due popularity among the people. We will be ready to give him the throne, but we also know what he will demand in return, namely the murder of all other contenders for the throne, which includes the entire royal family and, of course, Princess Ilifreeta.
This bitch is still alive, and if we don't find her, then we can forget about the deal with Duke Fellrick. We will be ready to exchange the lives of members of the royal family for our lives and continue to occupy seats on the royal council, but without the princess in the palace, the duke will not trust us, which means at the moment he is our enemy.
If we do not catch the princess before the invasion begins, then we must seriously think about the question of how to defeat Duke Fellrick's superior army and at the same time maintain our power. If this happens, then we will have to enter into an alliance with the royal family and the nobility loyal to them, but after that our future becomes very unpredictable. We don’t know whether the royal family will attempt a coup or whether we will still be able to rein them in somehow?
It would be much more convenient if the royal army under our control could cope with both the vassal troops and the army of the duchy, but the reality is that our forces are not enough even against one of the parties to this conflict. We are too weak to resist everyone and therefore we must make concessions to the royal family.
I sat inside my office and dealt with government affairs, essentially fulfilling the role of the king while maintaining rumors that King Leff was still alive and fully ruling the kingdom. At least that’s what the rest of the nobility and commoners still think. Sooner or later, this image will be destroyed and everyone will know the truth, and then all the stones will fly straight at us, and then, in the light of popular indignation, a war will begin, the most terrible war in the entire history of our country. Under no circumstances should it be allowed to happen, and its flame should be extinguished with everything possible.
It would be much worse if we gave power to Prince Monrid, then he would decide to fight the Duke and ultimately lose, his cold corpse would be eaten by worms, and then the worms would eat us too. Power-hungry brats have no place in power; they are still too young, stupid and inexperienced to deal with such important and responsible matters as governing the state. This is not their element, but ours. They would rather dry up the entire royal treasury by spending all the money on feasts, balls, hunts and toys, and there is no need to be so frivolous with this.
While I was working, Dougman, the Privy Councilor, showed up in the office and told me the unpleasant news:
"Your Majesty, I must inform you of the tragedy that has occurred in Itsqueen."
I listened to him attentively, without delaying my work and continuing to write another decree regarding trade duties near the western borders of the kingdom. What Dougman said next made me look up from the table in shock.
"About twenty magicians attacked Itsqueen and killed more than three hundred people, among the dead was the daughter of Count Laroy le Oufric, Diana le Oufric. Presumably the attackers were magicians from the Antigone Empire. This message came from the county of Ideos."
"WHAT?!"
I jumped up from my seat, not believing my ears.
"What the hell?! What are these fanatics doing on our lands?!"
"According to some rumors, the Antigone Empire has conquered the kingdom of Hippolyta and is now planning to invade Lakuus."
"Has the Empire conquered Hippolytus?"
I asked, sitting back down in my seat trying to calm down.
"This is true?"
"We have no direct connection with Hippolytus and cannot confirm this, but if so, then the Empire may well carry out an invasion through the goblin forest."
There are no trade routes through the Goblin Forest, it is a wild area where these small green-skinned creatures live. Many kings of Lakuus tried to put an end to their unpleasant neighbors in the form of goblins, but constantly failed. The goblins had settled there too well for them to be expelled so easily, and therefore, ever since then, the goblin forest has been a forbidden territory where there should not be even a drop of human presence.
If the kingdom was unable to conquer these lands, then the Antigone Empire, in turn, is quite capable of this. They can send tens of thousands of soldiers at us and wipe out Lakuus from the face of the earth.
DAMN IT!
I grabbed my hair, realizing that an even greater threat loomed over us than the rebellious nobility and Duke Fellrick.
If the Empire is targeting Lakuus, then we have no chance to resist them. And if we surrender to them, it will be much worse than any death. Maybe I don’t know what kind of order exists in the Empire, but I know for sure that because of their traditions, they are not friendly with almost all of their neighbors. The Antigonians are fanatically loyal to Sod and will impose this fanatical faith on us, and all those who are not also loyal to Sod they will hang, burn or drown.
The situation is not the most favorable for us: we are threatened by the powerful Empire, which has already attacked Itsqueen, killing many people. Apparently this attack was a message of sorts: «get ready for your pathetic resistance, you still have no chance». They see us as just pathetic bugs, we don't even stand a chance.
"Draun, this has not been confirmed yet."
Dougman reassured me.
"We don't know for sure whether it was really the Empire or someone else."
“Who else has twenty magicians under his command?”
In turn, I asked a rhetorical question.
“Only the Empire and no one else. If they are targeting us, then they have the opportunity to invade the kingdom, that is, the rumors about the conquest of Hippolytus are most likely completely true.”
Dougman's face was hidden under the hood, as always, but his voice, his tone betrayed his anxiety. He was no less afraid of this development of events than I was, and therefore, in a slightly trembling voice, he asked me a question:
"So what should we do?"
"Anything but don't give up."
I answered, crossing my arms at the table.
"We can surrender to the Duke, the royal family, but we definitely cannot surrender to the Empire. They will slaughter everyone here they can: me, you, the royal family, the army, the nobility, the Duke, mercenaries, commoners, they will kill everyone, and stone upon stone They won’t leave us here. We can only fight.”
I took a new sheet of paper and began to write a new royal decree.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
I Draun Rudrin, king of the kingdom of Lakuus, command the following:
1. To Military Advisor Krazhd Faiun - start gathering an army; prepare a plan for the defense of the state from the goblin forest; conduct training for peasants in the use of basic weapons, as well as military discipline; recreate security measures against holy magic; carry out other preparatory activities.
2. Treasurer Mierto Luke - distribute the expenses of the royal treasury; increase tax collection; begin checking tax collectors for concealment of tax revenues; increase the royal trade tax in all cities of the kingdom of Lakuus to the required level; carry out appropriate measures to prepare for military action.
3. Bishop Azann - hold prayer services and all relevant events in order to calm the people from panic; inform the believers as gently as possible about the coming war; convince believers that the enemy is sinful and does not deserve mercy; prepare hospitals in all northern cities of the kingdom and in the capital.
…
…
…
1. To everyone else - I order to begin preparations for a full-scale war with the Antigone Empire.
Signature: Draun Rudrin.
Date: August 3, 1677.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
I conveyed the order to Doguman, and I sat back in my chair, rubbing my fairly sweaty forehead with my palm. I couldn’t believe what was coming, and yet I knew that sooner or later the war would start.
***
The servant knocked on the door of the barracks and began to wait for his master's guests to open the door. Although they were given more appropriate quarters, for some reason they decided to spend that night here. After a couple of knocks, the door creaks open, and the servant sees twenty people in strange dark green clothes with dark multi-colored spots and bags of the same color on their backs. They were clearly going somewhere, and the servant decided to find out where:
"Greetings, have you been here all this time?"
"Yes."
Boris answered standing in the middle of the doorway and asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Did something happen? I heard some noise at night, what was it?”
It seems that the free wizard's companions slept through this tragedy. It's surprising that those magicians didn't kill them. The servant, however, was not in the best mood, it was unusual for him to see how these people felt completely fine when this happened at night. He shook his head slightly and, gathering more air into his chest, told these people what had happened:
"Last night the city was attacked by a group of mages. Rumor has it that they were Antigonians."
"Antigonians?"
Boris was surprised.
"Yes. Looks like the respected Granid was right when he said that the Empire was going to attack our country. By the way, where is he? I don't see him here."
“He left with his student for the capital yesterday. We will now follow them. We have carts booked for today.”
"That's how it is... well then I wish you a good trip."
The servant said and before closing the door he also did not forget to inform.
"And one more thing..."
"Speak."
"Princess Diana... died... I thought you should know."
Boris widened his eyes and swallowed his saliva after hearing such unexpected words. The servant saw complete disbelief in this stranger’s gaze, and it was understandable. The count wanted to bring together the commander of this detachment and his daughter in order to manipulate them, but her death ruined his plans. It is obvious that Boris already felt some sympathy for the girl, and it is not surprising, because few could resist the beauty of the young princess. It's a shame she died like that.
"Is she dead?"
Boris asked gloomily.
"Yeah…"
Both the servant and Boris were silent for some time before the stranger shook his head and said:
"I am very sorry, I mourn the loss of your master."
“I will definitely convey your words to the count.”
The servant said and slammed the door behind him, going to his master’s chambers.
When the servant left, Boris leaned his back against the door and barely whispered:
"What the hell did we do?"