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Kings and vassals. My feudal life
Chapter 2. Stolen bride

Chapter 2. Stolen bride

Late evening

Groups of noblemen were leaving the spacious pavilion that stood in the center of the military camp. Lord Elian and his son were among them. The dinner was over just now.

Anno was full. The grand lord was generous. As usual, there was plenty of food - including rare delicacies - and good wine at the dinner.

Both members of the house Brightbrave headed to their tent, accompanied by a pair of servants and a pair of men-at-arms.

The camp didn't sleep yet. Anno could hear drunken laughter, voices of talking people and sounds of copulation from the tents that they passed by.

There were around three thousand men in the southern army. By the standards of their kingdom, it was a large army. The Fuchs had strained all south to gather and sustain so many men. Such a big army naturally attracted a lot of sutlers. They bought, sold and exchanged different wares and offered many other services to the soldiers but the most common ones were gambling, drinking and prostitution.

As well, the army had its own smiths who repaired broken equipment and priests who treated all wounded warriors.

The military camp of the southerners consisted of many smaller camps of different lords who camped around the grand lord as they wished. Sometimes there were conflicts between noblemen for a place.

Household troops lived in small tents around their lords. They guarded their lieges. Household troops lived in so-called the “inner circle” and all important cargo was stored here, while militiamen and low-ranking servants were positioned around them and lived in the “outer circle”.

As a rule, towns gave two types of militiamen: a crossbowman and a spearman.

Settlements provided their contingents with food (or money to buy it from sutlers) and all necessary equipment.

A militia spearman had padded armor (rarely combined with a chain mail), a simple metal helmet, a long knife, a spear, a metal or leather greave for one leg and a wooden round shield with metal or leather edge. A militia crossbowman had padded armor, a simple metal helmet, a long knife, a crossbow and a leather bolt pouch.

Low-ranking servants consisted of conscripted peasants. They were used as cart drivers and shepherds mostly. Peasants were armed with wooden clubs, stones, pointed sticks and whatever they could take from their homes or find and steal on the way. They didn't have any tents and simply slept on the ground around a fire or under carts.

All backbreaking, dirty work for the army did male captives (local peasants mostly) while young peasant women entertained militiamen and low-ranking servants. The captives lived in the special area and received the bare minimum of food that could be spoiled sometimes.

There was another but much smaller military camp nearby, occupied by sea brothers (or “warlocks” as many called them). They were hired and brought to this war by the grand lord.

Twelve years ago sea brothers had sailed to the Eastern kingdom on their longboats from Foggy land. They traded with the easterners at first, introducing themselves as merchants. But in a few years the flotilla of the warlocks had come all of a sudden and seized one of the biggest kingdom's islands that became their new colony, stronghold and entrepot in the new region. From that moment new waves of armed warlocks followed. They began to raid the kingdom. Many settlements were plundered and some were burned.

Naturally, the kingdom tried to return the island but lost the big sea battle.

Warlocks were sea folk. They sailed along the shores of the Eastern kingdom which was situated on the peninsula. As a result, maritime trade was affected greatly. Merchants of easterners were forced to gather larger convoys of galleys but even this couldn't guarantee safety.

It was difficult to defend the lands for the lords. Warlocks attacked quickly and unexpectedly. No one could feel safe. They entered the rivers boldly and sailed along them, robbing and killing everyone.

People of the Eastern kingdom hated and were afraid of warlocks. Not only because of their numerous raids, there was also the superstitious reason.

Warlocks' bodies were covered with tattoos which were hymns to their gods written in their own languages. But in the eyes of the easterners sea brothers looked like evil sorcerers who were covered by magical symbols, and (as many thought) had sold their souls to the demons. This is how they got their alias “warlocks”.

Reputation of sea brothers was terrible in the Eastern kingdom. That's why when five years ago Theodor the Usurper, the king of Eastern kingdom, offered warlocks to raid the Rowan empire (the neighbor of Eastern kingdom which received its name because the rowan tree was depicted on the coat of arms of their royal family) together, the conclave of the church had gathered and discussed should they or not to excommunicate the king for his proposition to “the sons of the Enemy”. Fortunately, they realized that accepting such a decision could lead to a disaster.

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The sea folk agreed to cooperate and it brought huge profit to both sides. Although it didn't stop warlocks' raids on the Eastern kingdom, they became less frequent. Also, warlocks began to participate in feudal conflicts of the easterners as mercenaries.

From the raid on the Rowan empire the church received a lot of golden and silver utensils, expensive holy books and generous donations. It appeased the church to some extent, though it didn't change their standpoint. Warlocks were terrible heathens that must be converted into believers of Four or they must be eradicated!

Soon lord Elian and Anno had reached their own tent of big size and entered. There were also two smaller tents that belonged to their vassals.

Both male members of the Brightbrave house were met by the servants who hurried to prepare a bathtub.

+++

Next day. Morning

Ignoring cutlery on the table, lord Elian tore off a chicken leg and began to chew it loudly. When he ate like this, it always meant that he was out of sorts.

Anno sat right across his father, holding a golden spoon. At the moment both noblemen were having breakfast. A servant stood next to each of them.

The reason for the southerners' invasion in the central region was Marie Wintersinger – the younger daughter of the king. She was considered the sole heir to the throne, although it wasn't 100% true. There was Olivia Dubrulle (former “Wintersinger”), the elder sister, who had married a powerful lord from the Rowan empire around five-six years ago. So far they already had a couple of children. Both were healthy boys. Before marrying, Olivia was forced to renounce her claims to the throne. It was one of the conditions that the nobility of the Eastern kingdom demanded from the king to allow this marriage to happen.

The civil war started around two months ago when Bernhard Fullmoon (grand lord of the north), August Straightarrow (grand lord of the west), Leopold Watersplash (one of the influential lords from the central region) and a few other noblemen killed the king.

There were rumors that the conspirators screamed “Death to the usurper!” when they had burst into the royal chamber. The queen was killed instantly and didn't suffer, while Theodor was stabbed many times in his stomach and limbs. It wasn't a painless death.

The conspirators dared to do that in broad daylight because in the past Theodor the Usurper, the killed king, had also murdered his own uncle to seize the crown. Young Theodor didn't even hide that. Many years ago he liked to boast about what he had done.

The princess was just a prize to the winners. There were rumors that they agreed that she would marry Leopold and he, as her spouse, would get control over the kingdom, and the conspirators would rule together... But there was a problem. Marie had already been a bride of Fritz Fuchs, the heir of the house that ruled the south region.

The conspirators found a solution. The conclave of the church had canceled the betrothal of Fritz Fuchs and Marie Wintersinger and began to organize a royal wedding ceremony. Invitations were sent to the lords of the kingdom.

No wonder the grand lord of the south - Alphonse Fuchs – got furious and called the banners when he had learned what had happened in the capital. The conspirators did the same. A war became inevitable.

Both sides sent their envoys to the East which didn't have their own grand lord. The East was divided into two parts. Each was ruled by its own lord. Whose side they would choose was unknown.

After the king's murder, the central region was thrown into disarray. A large portion of the local lords weren't eager to side with anyone at all. They preferred to remember old grudges. As a result, clashes began to happen here and there around the central region.

“Another one of our men died tonight.” Anno informed his father.

“What's happened?” Lord Elian asked without much interest.

“Bloody flux.”

“Give my order to bury him. Four will care about his soul.” Father ordered nonchalantly.

Anno nodded and they continued to eat. Actually nothing extraordinary had happened.

So far there were not a small number of non-combat losses in the army. Anno didn't know how many men the army lost but their house had already lost five men due to diarrhea, fever, inflamed wounds and some other diseases.

Medicine was in its infancy in this world. For instance, bloodletting, thanks to some surviving ancient medical treatises in which their authors speculated about “bad blood and fluids” and how it was necessary to remove them from the body to get well, was quite a popular method of treating many diseases nowadays. Less popular were mercury and earwax that were used as ingredients in many potions. Also, people applied frogs, leeches and hot metal to their wounds to heal them, used magical amulets to protect themselves from evil magic or simply prayed to the Four to get well.

There were also two unusual deaths in the camp. The first one was funny. A knight from Old Tree died in the arms of a whore. A priest said that the heart of the old man simply couldn't endure “the night of pleasure”. The whore was hanged - just in case. The second one was foolish. A young horseman, being drunk, fell off his horse and broke his neck when he had tried to force his mount to jump over a sheep for a bet.

The Brightbrave house brought over seventy men to the army. Ten men-at-arms were from their personal army; three light cavalrymen and nine light infantrymen (armed with a few javelins, a round shield and one-handed axes mostly) were from the smallholders; three bowmen and four light infantrymen were brought by both vassals; twenty militiamen were given by Woodwall. The rest were armed personal servants and conscripted peasants. The Brightbrave also brought an own smith, a wagon (for keeping personal belongings of lord Elian and his son), ten carts (six were filled with sacks of oat, peas, barley and wheat to the brim, three contained consumables (bolts, arrows and spear shafts mostly) and spare equipment while the last one was used for keeping personal belongings of household warriors), several spare draft mules and some livestock (sheep, cows and chicken in small cages).

After a while Anno finished eating his honey soup. It was made from ground meat which was boiled in water with honey and herbs.

He sipped some wine and thought about the settlements they robbed. Their detachment killed men who tried to resist and raped women. All young, strong and healthy dwellers became captives, the rest were left. Their detachment took all food, livestock and money from the settlements. It wouldn't be easy for the left people to survive. There was a chance that they would starve to death.

In the camp they sold a majority of captured food and livestock to the grand lord who needed to feed the army.

Anno began to eat an omelet, a mix of eggs, chicken meat, spearmint, black pepper, and salt.

It was noisy outside. The army woke up.

Several days back the southerners received the news from Kingfort, the capital of their kingdom. The royal wedding was postponed once again due to a new quarrel among the conspirators. Naturally, their vassals followed the example of their lieges. It was obvious that the alliance was coming apart.

Frankly, Anno wasn't surprised. Many noblemen had arrived in Kingfort. The capital was like a nest of vipers. Everyone wanted a piece of the pie.

Soon both noblemen finished eating and left the tent.