Altzell was in flames; it was literally in flames although the walls, being made of stones, were fine. On the first glance, it looked like a giant pot that had an intense fire going on from inside with glowing red hot ashes flying about. The fire was so intense that it looked like the whole city had become another sun against swiftly darkening twilight sky. Kamil, who was levitating in the sky at a safe distance, was quite dumbfounded as he observed a city being burnt to the ground. Rubbing the bridge of his nose, he complained, “How did it come to this…”
How it came to be indeed. He was a fair distance away but could still feel the heat from the fire. The gate he could see was wide open, and people, civilians and soldiers alike, were pouring out, trying to escape from the intense inferno. His own army was a short distance away with Raem and Lara in front; they were in progress of crossing a river.
“Constant Egra…, did he get out?” he wondered aloud, not expecting an answer due to the fact that he was in the sky, and there was no one around him.
The chain of events originated from the battle where Kamil’s force clashed with Constant’s. With his force emerging as a clear victor, the enemy army had surrendered after being split into two groups and surrounded. Now accepting surrender would have meant taking all of enemy soldiers as prisoners of war, and Cezary was absolutely adamant against the idea because, in his own words, it would have been, “a gigantic waste of time.” He wasn’t wrong because there were a sizable number of enemies who surrendered. A quick head count resulted in approximately three thousands of enemy soldiers being outright killed on the field, leaving nine thousands as prisoners of war. It would be absolutely ludicrous to handle such a larger number of prisoners indeed. Therefore, what they ended up doing was releasing them on the spot after confiscating their weapons. Even this process took half a day, which was enough time to give Constant Egra to prepare for defense. Hector Ulme and Vincent Blind were found to be in charge of the army. Unfortunately, Lara had killed the latter in a duel during the battle with the former being captured by Raem. Hector was roped and was brought to Kamil and Cezary in a tent by Raem and Lara. He was forced to kneel down by the former.
“Lord Ulme,” Kamil called him out. Hector had fairly long straight hair for a man which reached down to his shoulders and had a rather slender face and figure to go with. His black and shiny hair indicated that the man cared greatly about his hair. In short, the man looked handsome in a different way.
“... Duke.” He was clearly reluctant to speak out. He believed that he joined the winning side. They had the numbers on their side. Biting his lips, he eventually continued, “I am at your mercy.”
The Ulme was originally under the Egra in Keviel. Hector was the founder after he was knighted by Karsten. Being such a young noble house, if they were to become unlanded, they might as well just return to being commoners.
“Sir Waszak, your opinion?”
The tent was temporary. Therefore, there was nothing inside other than a single chair for Kamil to sit on and a red rectangle carpet that was laid down from the exit to the chair. Cezary was standing next to him.
“Does Lord Ulme wish to surrender?” He asked, which was a confusing question. He did surrender after losing the battle. It took a moment for Hector to make a response.
“What will happen to me and my house?”
“Unlike Lord Sprengen, we cannot guarantee that you will retain Vikku,” Cezary declared stoically. He was essentially saying that Hector missed his chance. To be fair, however, it wasn’t as if Hector was blessed with many choices. If he sided with Kamil in the beginning, Constant Egra would have attacked him first. There was little chance that he would have been able to defend his fief until a reinforcement from Kamil arrived. Vikku wasn’t a city where one could withstand a siege for a considerable amount of time.
“I do understand your position, however,” he noted. “You were unable to side with the duke even if you wanted to. If so, then perhaps you should show a token of your loyalty.”
Hector had no idea what he was implying, and neither did Kamil.
Just what is he scheming?
Looking confused, he dared ask with a nervous look, “What… do you want me to do?”
“We could release you, and you will take some of your men back to Altzel. Inform Constant that the battle was lost.” He paused during which Hector gulped. “Then open the gate from inside when we approach.”
It was a daring test of loyalty. If he went along with Cezary’s plan and failed, he wouldn’t probably be alive. If he did make it through, he’d show Kamil that he could be trusted and could keep his land.
“Surely…, you jest?”
Both Kamil and Cezary remained silent on his question. He racked his brain to figure something out to prove his loyalty. He searched for a way that was less dangerous than the solution he was given. Alas, he came to a quick realization that rejecting the choice he was given was likely his last call. He had no leeway to even ask for a different choice, he realized. Letting out a brief frustrated groan, he dropped his head.
“I will do it,” he declared soon after.
As for Kamil allowing this to occur, he entrusted Cezary when it came to bureaucracy. He was clearly better at it, and that was why he recruited him in the first place. He didn’t always agree with his methods but also knew his humble roots as a mere hunter. In spite of spending most of his youth as a young noble, he still had a lot to learn. To be more precise, he was aware that he was too soft and had other limitations.
Nobody is perfect. That’s what advisors are for.
Of course, whether one would listen to advisors he hired was entirely another matter since historically rulers didn’t often heed advice.
“Untie him and kindly send him his way,” Cezary continued. Pulling out a dagger skillfully, Lara cut the rope that was binding Hector at once. He massaged his arms and groaned a little.
“Lord Ulme, gather your men. They are still near the main camp site, and I am sure that you know what to do next.”
However, instead of standing up and walking out, he got on his four with his forehead touching the carpet.
“Duke, please make me a promise.”
“Go on.”
“If I fail…, if I die, please guarantee that my house will continue to rule Vikku. My child will inherit the city.”
Kamil glanced at Cezary for his approval, and he nodded back.
“Very well, Lord Ulme. I give you my word that your child will rightfully inherit Vikku, should such an event occur.”
“Thank you.” Having said that, he stood up at once. He had a heavy look on his face as he turned round and walked out.
“The dude is going to kill himself,” Lara blurted soon after he walked out of the tent.
“What?”
“He had the look of death in his eyes,” she added. Cezary beamed a satisfied smile on his face upon hearing her.
“Good,” he said. “All the better. I reckon he plans to go down with Constant Egra.”
“Sir Waszak, explain.”
“Constant may not be a genius but he is not a fool, either. I foresee that he will be able to deduce that Lord Ulme defected and I assume Lord Ulme also knows this. Therefore, before being taken down, he plans to take Constant down in order to ensure the survival of his house.”
Folding arms, Kamil downcast his eyes with a solemn look. “Anything for the family, huh…,” he mumbled.
“I dare say that Lord Ulme made a logical choice. Granted, nobody wants to die willingly, but this path will ensure the prosperity of his bloodline. No man in right mind will want to downgrade his house into commoners.”
“His house would retain nobility even if unlanded, no?”
“What good is an unlanded noble house? You’ve seen what they do for a living in Lux, have you not?”
Indeed he did. When Edmund hosted a grand party to reveal him as the heir of the house, many men and women from unlanded noble houses attended… to steal food. The reality was that about 90% of unlanded noble houses were unemployed. With no stable income, they had to do whatever they could to bring food to the table.
“I wouldn’t want my family to have such a fate, either, Sir Waszak.”
“Money is the foundation of happiness, my king.”
Heaving a long sigh, he looked at Lara who was already looking back. Raem was close by.
“He had the look of death, you say?”
“Yeah, he felt like a cornered mouse that was willing to do anything to get out.”
I guess she really is a cat.
“What should we do about Alrez?”
Vincent Blind was the lord who was killed in a duel with Lara. Therefore, unlike Hector, there was no one else to bargain for a deal, at least not at the moment.
“By the way, congratulations on your first official kill, Captain,” Cezary said, leaning forward slightly.
“Thank you, Sir Waszak,” Raem replied with a nod. Lara pointed at herself, looking mighty confused.
“I was the one who killed him,” she blurted.
Chuckling, Kamil pointed out, “Yeah, but you are married. Your accomplishment becomes your man’s.”
“That’s bullshit!” she barked angrily. “I want my own glory!”
“That’s possible. But, if we did that, your husband might not get a city to govern. Are you okay with that?” Cezary told her with a smirk. Her eyes opened wide, and she began to scratch the back of her head with an innocent smile.
“Nevermind what I said.”
He cleared his throat. “Anyway, once this is over, we will demand a representative from the Blind. They can make their argument then,” he noted, taking the topic back.
“What would be the most ideal and worst outcome?”
“The worst outcome would be the annihilation of the house. The best case, for them at least, would be keeping Alrez as theirs. I don’t believe that the worst outcome will come since it can be argued easily that Lord Blind had no choice but to answer Constant’s call to arms.”
Kamil turned his attention to Lara who was standing right by Raem. “Lara, what was your impression of Lord Blind?”
“He was very reluctant to fight. My gut feeling was that he simply wanted to survive. He may have begged for life if he had the chance. He went down too fast. Who’d want to die for a lost cause anyway,” Lara said with a shrug.
“If they knew it was a lost cause, why have this conflict at all?” Kamil wondered aloud, displeased by the fact that this could have been avoided. He felt like wasting precious time.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Constant Egra is simply too powerful to back down. That’s all there is,” Cezary said with a shrug as well. “Too proud to back down also. An old fool, that is.”
Kamil never understood “pride”. Perhaps, that wasn’t the right word. He had an understanding of the word, but his comprehension was different. It wasn’t something to die over and was on a low end of his priority list. But he could also see that Constant, being over 70 years old and a former king, would be extremely reluctant to bow down to a teen no matter how prestigious and powerful.
“Our next move? It would obviously be to match Altzel?”
“Yes, the stage is set for a showdown. Whether Lord Ulme is successful or not, what he will create is chaos. That will be our advantage.”
They were about ten days away from Altzel on foot. After resting for a full day, the army marched onwards toward the target city. During the match, he had a chance to have a casual conversation with Edmund and Noah, both of whom were riding on their horses. Kamil had no horse of his own. In fact, Ceres had no horses at all. He was keeping up with them in the air with a levitation spell.
“How goes life?” he asked casually.
Both Edmund and Noah were in full plate armor including helmets. In contrast, Kamil was in his usual attire, a dark blue tunic and dark gray pants with his snake blade acting as his belt.
“No complaints,” Noah answered first with a subtle nod to show respect.
Edmund, instead of simply answering, replied with a question instead.
“I didn’t expect you to care for the Mesurii. It was something even I wasn’t aware of until you brought it up.”
To be fair, he was dealing with his own problems, some of which were shared with Loukia. Beaming a bitter smile, Kamil replied.
“Lord Ludwig’s last moments were engraved in my mind. Make no mistake, however. I do understand that the punishment for the Mesurii was justified. I am not disputing that.”
Edmund’s eyes lost focus as he looked far in instance. He lamented, “I didn’t even know that she wanted to bring the house from the ruin and I am the husband. Yet, you knew. I feel like such a failure of a husband.”
The sight of Loukia shedding tears upon hearing that she would be allowed locating the survivors of her fallen house taught Edmund his oversight.
Kamil attempted to comfort him. “Don’t feel so bad. You had your own problems to deal with.” While he wasn’t wrong, this event made Edmund realize that he had a tendency to grow a tunnel vision when dealing with matters.
“Even at my age, I still have a lot to learn,” he said solemnly.
“By the way, Lord Harga, I plan to grant Vedo to you, sir.”
Vedo was originally under Leonhard’s control. However, when the kingdom was divided up, Constant Egra took control of the city. It would eventually become a lordless settlement soon. As expected, Noah’s eyes lit up.
“You mean that?” And he raised his voice in excitement. Governing two settlements would elevate his house to a semi-powerful one. Given the fact that the Harga was a very young noble house, it would prove to be a significant achievement. After all, both Noah and Greta were marginalized children from their respectable houses.
Of course, why would I lie about such an important thing?
Internally shrugging, he replied, “You have my word. Vedo shall be yours.”
“Greta will be overjoyed,” he said, brimming with a smile.
There wasn’t going to be a reward for Edmund because he already got what he wanted dearly. Besides, the Lux Fenchel was already powerful as they were. Additionally, they would become relatives of the royalty as well. Such was rewarding enough. Besides, Edmund himself bore no further ambitions. He wanted a status quo, and that was it. Noah may soon rule two settlements, but the size was completely different as well. Lux had twice the population than Valet, and Maiava had more than four times more than Vedo. Therefore, the two men may be ruling two settlements each, but Edmund was far more powerful.
image [https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img924/4518/nbKcz8.png]
Altzel was adjacent to a large river, and they had some ships as well along with a pier which was located outside its walls. The river was predominantly used to trade Larok and Fadin via small boats. It did have a bridge nearby, but it was a fragile wooden bridge that was just barely wide enough for a trade wagon to cross. Kamil and Co expected resistance when they would cross the river. It was also possible that they might have burned the bridge down to slow them, in which case they would cross the river by securing ropes from the other end and using them as guidelines to cross the river. This was going to be time-consuming, and thus it was going to be a perfect moment for them to attack. However, as soon as they could see the walls of Altzel, they saw it in flames.
“... What?”
Everyone was rather dumbfounded to see the fortress city they were about to attack was already ablaze.
“Get the men to cross the river right now! I am going to check the city out!” Having barked out the order, he flew high into the sky and started flying toward the city at once.
“Just what is going on?!”
The flames were intense and it was spreading fast across a building to another. With almost every building constructed from wood, there was no way for anyone to be able to stop fire from spreading. Perhaps, water mages could have helped, but they were scant in numbers to begin with. He wanted to descend down, but the heat was pretty intense already, not to mention too many unforeseen factors coming into play. He was, after all, fully within an enemy territory. To make the situation worse, it was getting darker. The original plan was to use darkness as a cover to cross the river. Then he saw a gate open, and people, civilians and soldiers alike, pouring out to escape from being burnt alive. It couldn’t have been an act to fool him and his army.
“Constant Egra…, did he get out?”
He would get an answer to the burning question after the night when the city was largely burnt to the ground. His army provided emergency shelter for the local populace as well as providing food. There wasn’t going to be a siege. Raem searched for an answer among the refugees and managed to track down someone from Constant’s court. He was just a low ranking guard but managed to see what went down.
Long story short, Hector set everything on fire. He and his army were allowed inside, but Constant was reluctant to meet him in person. Instead, he attempted to arrest Hector, at which point he ordered his men to set everything on fire. Apparently, he realized that Constant was suspicious of him and proceeded with a plan B. He was determined not to fail Kamil for the sake of his family. A thorough search was made among refugees to find Hector and Constant. Neither was found, and they were presumed dead. The extent of damage from the fire was clearly evident with the sun out. Two thirds of the city was burnt down completely. This included Constant’s manor. It was safe to say that his entire family might have been killed in the fire. The part that wasn’t damaged by fire was due to the fact that it was somewhat isolated due to a small stream which prevented fire from spreading.
“Well, I did not see this coming,” Cezary remarked, looking down from his airship. Kamil was also present.
Kamil said, “Constant is presumed dead. So is Lord Ulme.”
“Lord Ulme exceeded my expectations. He did very well,” he replied with a smile. Kamil had always known that Cezary saw people as mere pawns on a chessboard. It was a stance he could never fully adopt or even support. However, he was aware of the need to be ruthless at times. “I am sure some may have escaped the inferno. But, without Constant, they have no legs to stand.”
“The city is burnt to the ground, however. Have you forgotten that you wanted to take this city for yourself, Sir Waszak?”
“I was planning to burn it down. You do remember the bombs I told you about? I was always going to burn it down for a fresh start. Lord Ulme did it for me, and I am thankful for it since I don’t have to take the infamy.”
I do have to wonder why he went so far to this degree. I am sure that there were other ways he could have survived… Why take such an extreme route?
He would get his answer in a day and half because an airship from the Blind had arrived. A young brunette lady in a modest dress walked down from the airship, flanked by a pair of guards who looked determined to protect their lady. Her name was Nele Blind and her maiden name was Nele Ulme. Yes, Hector Ulme’s younger sister was married to Vincent Blind. She kneeled down as soon as she was in audience with Kamil and pledged an unconditional surrender which he did not accept right away. He dismissed her for the time being and consulted Cezary.
“Did you know that the late Lord Blind was married to Lord Ulme’s younger sister?”
“I did not. It was a minor detail that even I couldn’t obtain, until now.”
“But this does complicate things, no?”
“Indeed, we can no longer punish the Blind house in any substantial way.”
Sparing the Ulme house while punishing the Blind house wasn’t going to work when the first wife of the Blind house was tightly connected to the Ulme house. They were sort of a packaged deal.
Rubbing the bridge of his nose, Kamil muttered, “I can’t help but feel that Lord Ulme knew what he was doing.”
“I am afraid so. He knew that he had to perish to make this work.”
Lady Blind had lost her brother and husband. Punishing someone who had lost so much was going to be a tough call.
“We can punish the Blind, but it will be a bad move politically,” he added. “We do not want you to be known as a cruel and merciless king. The lady has lost too much. It is time to take pity on her.”
“What do you suggest then?”
“Let the Blind continue to rule Alrez. That is pretty much it. It’s a simple gesture, and they will be grateful for it.”
“Any danger for seeds of chaos?”
“The Ulme and the Blind could well become seeds of chaos but probably not in this generation. Their immediate concern would be nurturing their children into adulthood safe and sound. It will be down to the ladies on how they educate their children, and treating them well might prevent them from teaching their children to hate the Fenchel. Regardless, it’s not our job to foresee that far into the future.”
In spite of him stating that it was not their job to see that far into the future, he planned to treat the ladies well regardless. It wasn’t that he was being nice. It was a calculated move.
“Lady Blind, please make yourself comfortable,” said Kamil in his seat after receiving her in a temporary tent. Lara was the lone guard. Cezary opted not to be present and decided to leave everything to him. Nele had dark circles under her ocean-blue eyes, an indication that she was going through a hard time which no one could blame her for. The Ulme and the Blind were on blink literally. Despite being told to make herself comfortable, she kneeled down regardless. She entered alone as well.
“Lady Blind, first of all, the Ulme is safe. I’ve accepted Lord Ulme’s pledge of loyalty. I am saddened that he chose such an extreme method to show his loyalty.”
She didn’t move at all as if demanding to hear the rest of his statement. As a mother, her top priority was her children. She had two daughters with Vincent Blind, which made her position weaker although it was better than having no children at all because, if she had none at all, the Blind would have been removed from power, and they would have little arguments to even make.
“As for the Blind -”
Nele gulped visibly, her eyes fixed at Kamil’s face. He glanced at Lara who was standing by, slightly behind with both of her hands on her back. “That lady over there was the one who ended your husband.”
“I beg your pardon?” She was surprised by the sudden change of the topic.
“My name is Lara. I am the wife of the marshal under Duke Fenchel,” Lara spoke with a very formal tone. He felt as if he was listening to a completely different person, only to realize that she was indeed educated in etiquette. “Your husband fought well. He was an honorable man until the end.”
It was a lie of course. Nele grinned slightly. “I thank you for the white lie. I know my husband. He never wanted to partake in the battle. I didn’t want him to go, either, but he had to. I wanted him to survive even if he had to beg for life. It’s always better to be alive than dead.” Tears gradually filled up in her eyes, and she repeated while resisting to sob, “It’s always better to be alive than dead.”
Lara didn’t argue and simply looked down. Her statement was something that could hardly be disputed. Death would never be a first choice for any mortals. Hector chose death to ensure the safety of his house. He chose a path with the highest chance of success and probably calculated that his death would benefit his sister as well.
“Lady Blind, your house is safe. No further action will be taken.”
Upon hearing him, Nele placed her hand on her chest as she let out a sigh of relief. She shut her eyes and remained still for a moment to get her emotions under control.
“Thank you, Duke. At least, his life was not in vain.”
It was your brother’s life, but you don’t need to know that.
“Please take care of yourself, Lady Blind.”
And she was dismissed and left as soon as possible via her airship which was a very old version.
“God, that has got to be the first version,” he remarked as he clenched his eyes to study the airship. He said so because the pipes were made of iron which was quickly replaced with copper pipes to save costs. Only very early iterations utilized iron pipes.
“It hurts.” It was Lara’s voice which made Kamil look back.
“What?”
“It hurts.”
It was rare for a soldier to meet families of those he had to kill in a battle. No one would blame the soldier for the deed since it was kill or be killed on a battlefield. She had her clenched fist on her chest with her eyes downcast. A heavy expression was on her face. He realized that she was feeling the guilt of Nele’s husband.
“It was either you or him, Lara.” Turning around, he comforted her softly.
“No, you don’t get it. He didn’t have the will to fight exactly. As soon as he realized he had no chance, I felt like he was going to kneel down and surrender, so I finished him before he could speak.” Then she covered her eyes with her forearm with her tiny shoulders shaking. “I should have let him surrender… But the heat of the battle got to me…”
If that was true, then Nele’s words must have pierced a dagger into her heart. She killed a father of two and left his woman widowed. She had the right to feel guilty.
“It’s still not your fault. It was a battlefield. Thousands perished, and even more will mourn for the death of their sons and fathers.”
He recalled what Cezary had told him before at one point and recited to her.
“Peace is built on the blood of others, Lara. It’s the unfortunate truth.”
“You are not making me feel any better, jackass,” she muttered while rubbing her eyes with her forearm. “How you got two women, I will never know.”
He shrugged in response and replied, “Neither do I.”
With Constant presumed dead, the political landscape was altered swiftly. With Kamil taking three fourths of the previous kingdom of Egra, Ceres cemented its place as the de facto faction. Reeva and Tantan pledged their loyalty as soon as news spread.
image [https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img924/8971/ofIvmy.jpg]
However, with rapidly encroaching deadlands, the efforts to reunite the kingdom looked rather foolish. Both Atra and Estana were taking heavy losses against hordes of monsters of their own. If it wasn’t for Elsos that had been holding the line for Ceres, monsters would be right at their doorstep as well. Kamil expected, or hoped, that Leonhard would simply surrender, but he did not. However, he was unwilling to invade Egria because Leonhard’s force was insignificant at this point. He made a decision to put Edmund in charge of a defense force against Leonhard and decided to assemble an army to assist Elsos. It was time to confront the dragon once for all.