“The ineptitude of our Vanus leaders is the cause for the defeat of the Republic! No more is it in the interest of the common people of the Republic, nor of the Armies of the Republic to continue the fight for our Vanus overlords. What even is the point of serving these decrepit horned and bloodsucking bluebloods? At least the Imperium has the decency of giving autonomy to its people. At least the Imperium makes the common man pay less taxes. Why should we not surrender then? Why continue the fighting?”
- Letter from one of the generals of the Republican Army before ‘the Great Mutiny’.
+++
+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++
Rousselot City
AUG 4, 1538 CE
“Gentlemen! Order in the council please!” The city’s garrison guards barged into the door of the Rousselot City Council hall. On the sides, the various burghers, merchants, and councilors jeered and protested the decision of the Countess, with many condemning her for daring to bring soldiers inside. The musketeers and soldiers however formed two lines to separate the protesting councilmen and push them back into their benches, as the Countess entered in, her coat draped above her shoulders.
The shouting temporarily subsided, as everyone who was seated respectfully stood up, removed their hats, bowed, and then returned back to their seats. The Countess sighed.
She removed the hat that she wore, a wide-brimmed one with red feathers on top.
Already, murmurs began all across the chamber, as officials began criticizing her new policies or even her own reputation.
“Gentlemen,” she calmly spoke. “I…apologize for barging in and interfering with your privilege, but I believe I must make my position clear on the matters ahead of us. And unfortunately, you have rejected my entrance three times, necessitating this use of…unfortunate force.”
The city officials were finally silenced as her words settled in. Behind, Captain Strobel, Adelyn, and Hans entered forward. Hans especially went in first, just behind the Countess.
“Everyone, I must present to you this man behind me, Lieutenant Hans Hoffman, the foreigner mercenary I have hired—”
“Why do we even—”
Suddenly, the Countess’ voice raised.
“Would everyone please let me speak without breaking the decorum of this chamber? You fools disrespect the halls that govern this city. If you all do not plan on contributing to the betterment of the citizens of this city you claim to serve, then would you please vacate and return to whatever fish stall you belong to?”
Hans looked at the man who attempted to challenge her, and while the Countess didn’t even so much as look at him, the man immediately folded and returned to his seat.
“Thank you,” she walked again, forward into the center. “Now, as I was saying, we have just received the news of the attacks of the so-called ‘Tentacled Eel’ on Count Hainaut-Halm’s territory up north. We have also received news that the beast is apparently on a path to our city at the moment.”
“Why are you planning to close our port and walls immediately?!” One of the merchants shouted. “Our businesses will suffer!”
“Aye, aye!” Another councilor stood up, holding a piece of paper. “Gentlemen, there are also thousands of our own countrymen fleeing the north and using our city as a staging zone to resupply and continue their journey. Why would we deny them this benefit? Would we deny thousands of our own fellow humans the right to be afforded the care and provisions of this city?”
“Heartless! Absolutely heartless!” The chamber shouted. “Get out of here you Vanus woman. We’re not letting our fellow man suffer. And we’re not going to damage the economy of this province any further.”
Another merchant stood up. “Gentlemen, I propose a motion to deny the Countess’ new policies. She had already mismanaged the crisis with the ‘Rat of Pestilence’ earlier. Why shall she have the right to make us listen to her desires?”
Hans tried to approach the Countess as the city council all cheered in approval to the motions of their fellow councilmen. It appeared that they were using every excuse not to place the city back under a lockdown. It was something that they already expected anyway. The city’s businesses suffered greatly during the two-month crisis with the “Rat of Pestilence”, and the Countess’ popularity was at an all-time low.
Worse, while she had the right to propose policy changes and rule, her powers ever since the takeover of the Imperium and the IYC over the Principality of Ygeia stripped her of her right to rule absolutely in her own fiefdom. The Rousselot City Council was a major pro-IYC faction of the county too, due to the fact that the IYC was one of the few major organizations in the Imperium dominated by humans.
And probably because all of them were on their payroll.
Quite frankly, it was the position of most Vanus nobles that decided to bow to the Imperium by the time the Republic collapsed. They were now either puppets of the Imperium’s Virtus nobles, or puppets of the local human-led autonomous councils.
“Countess Fresnel,” Hans whispered from behind. “Do you have a plan?”
“You need to make your case, Lieutenant,” she calmly replied, not even bothering to look back. “While I’d like to act with authority, my right to rule this county stands on shaky grounds. I do not rule this place by my right but by their pleasure. And if my proposal for enhancing the security of my city is not in their pleasure…then I’m afraid I have no power.”
“Alright…”
The Countess cleared her throat.
“Gentlemen, before anyone votes for any motion, would the council perhaps listen to the man who had saved this city before? I believe we ought to listen to someone who already slayed a demon, before deciding whether or not the demon that is said to be poised to attack our city, is a threat to be taken seriously, or not.”
The council’s leader, who had so far remained in a seated position at the speaker’s table with a neutral expression, nodded.
“The Countess’ request is approved. Sir Hoffman, would you please present yourself before the council?”
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“Aye, sire,” Hans replied as he humbly bowed. The council leader seemed pleased.
“Then please make your case, Sir Hoffman.”
Hans stepped forward.
“Gentlemen, honorable councilors of the city of Rousselot,” Hans started, as he felt eyes stare daggers at him. “The proposal to tighten the security in the council is not a hasty decision taken by Lady Fresnel. Instead, it is a decision made after my advice to the 4th Imperial Ygeia Regiment after the initial reports about the upcoming threat to these lands had been received by the Regiment. While we have decided that defenses shall be prepared up north to receive the attack, and possibly slay the beast, we are also tightening security under the fears that the monster may sneak in.”
Hans paused. It seemed that the councilors of the city were listening to him. He supposed that came with the reputation of being the mastermind of the masterfully done takedown of the Rat of Pestilence.
“Thus, I ask…if these new temporary policies are possible to be approved, hastily, preferably.”
The murmurs around the council grew, and Hans looked around as they all talked amongst each other. The leader of the council studied him for a while, and Hans instinctually kept his back straight under the pressure being pinned on him. Eventually, the man leaned backward.
“Councilors, you’ve heard Sir Hoffman make his case, I now thus ask you, who approves of this motion, say aye and raise your hand.”
The ayes were noticeably silent, with barely even ten raising their hands in support of Hans’ proposal.
He looked down with a deep sigh.
“For those who do not approve, please raise your hand and say nay.”
The rest of the council rose in staunch disapproval of the new policies, drowning out any chances of pushing it forward. The council leader looked at Hans and then to the Countess.
“Sir Hoffman, Lady Fresnel, I’m afraid that the new policies are now rejected by the city council. Please vacate the chambers at once.”
Damn it! I told her to use the soldiers to force the damned vote! All you morons are going to be dead meat within a week. Dead!
But, behind him, the Countess respectfully turned around, as she ordered the soldiers to vacate. Hans naturally followed as the jeers of victory overran the chamber. It seemed that unlike him, the Countess would rather follow the voice of the city’s elites than enforce order by way of steel.
Of course, she would. Unlike me, she barely believes my idea of a sudden internal attack. She doesn’t know.
Defeated, Hans followed them as they exited. This entire thing was going down as a disaster. He knew it already.
“Victory against tyranny!” They shouted. “Victory against tyranny!”
+++
“Our position is worsening,” Hans tried to follow the Countess. “Lady Fresnel, please. You and I know that we have to act. That damned thing can sneak past—”
She suddenly turned around and glared at Hans.
“First of all, don’t get too close to me,” she warned. “Second of all, you have no proof about the possibility of this beast somehow getting through our walls. Demons are monsters. They cannot simply get in that easily. We will intercept it outside. Third…you heard the council, Lieutenant Hoffman. You heard what they said.”
Suddenly, Adelyn placed herself between Hans and the Countess. “Alright, I apologize if he’s acting this recklessly to you, but please do not lecture my subordinate so condescendingly.”
“Young lady, I am simply laying down the reality to him.”
“And Lieutenant Hoffman is simply acting in the best interests of your city,” Adelyn retorted. She turned to Hans. “Lieutenant, come on.”
“Captain, what? I’m still…”
She pulled his hand and dragged him off. “I said come on.”
Hans naturally followed Adelyn’s orders, following her to where she would drag him. Hans looked back, as the Countess sighed, almost just as tired of the situation, until she turned back.
Damn it…I pushed her too hard. Hans thought. I got too desperate.
He definitely placed her in a worse position by making her drag the garrison into enforcing his plans to the city’s elites. But what could he do? These were desperate times. They would be dead within days at this rate.
“Captain, where are we…” The two of them stopped in a deserted area of the Rousselot City Hall. Adelyn looked down.
“I…apologize, I didn’t back you up well in that speech of yours,” she said. “I could have probably helped better.”
“Not your fault, Captain.”
“Anyhow…” She looked at Hans seriously. “Is what you are saying…something true? That whatever that thing is, could suddenly spring up and attack here? That it can sneak through the city walls?”
“Wait, you believe me?”
Adelyn frowned. “Why would you think that I won’t? You’re my fellow countryman, my partner in this entire crapstain of a situation, and the remaining member of E Company that’s with me in this world. Of course, I take your words seriously.”
“I…well, I didn’t know that,” Hans said. “I thought I lacked proper proof.”
“I told you many times, Lieutenant. If you have something to tell, my ears are wide open at all times,” her eyes softened. “Just as you place your trust in me, I place my trust in you. And what you are saying is something unprecedented. Something that’ll affect my damned life. Your life. The life of forty-thousand people in this city.”
I suppose that’s true…
“Hans. Look at me now. Stop looking away.”
Hans looked at her. “Apologies, Captain.”
“As I was saying…look, you killed three demons.”
Hans laughed. “I didn’t kill three. Only one. It was your shots and magic that killed the last two.”
“Yeah, but it was you who planned the tactics to take them down each time,” Adelyn said. “I don’t know what’s so special about that brain of yours, but I know you’re a goddamned ace pilot, which means it must have something special out there—”
“Could be a special kind of damage.”
“Not the time for jokes.”
“I apologize.”
“But, yes. I trust your mind. And if you’re saying we need to prepare now, then for heaven’s sake, tell me how we’re going to prepare. If my job is to strategically position us into the best outcomes in the big picture, I know you’re good at dealing with the tactical field. And I’ve seen your foresight enough to know that you’re good at these things. So…”
She frowned. “What kind of an officer do you think I am to not see where my men are good at?”
“Okay, fine, fine, I get you. I won’t doubt your job assignments for me from now on,” Hans sighed. “Alright…yes, I do think it’s possible. I mean, it’s an eel. What if…you know, it sneaks by sea?”
Hans wanted to slap himself with that. It was made-up bullcrap, but what could he do? Tell her he died because the demon got in by shapeshifting into a semi-humanoid form as it absolutely obliterated them in the process.
“...You do know that even when we close the ports and the walls from refugees, we can’t stop that possibility?”
Hans nodded. “Yeah…well…”
“Still, in that case, you’re right, it’ll still get inside and thus bypass the defenses we’re building outside, forcing us into a tight battle in close quarters,” Adelyn nodded to herself, deep in thought. “Indeed, that’d be disastrous. We’d struggle to maneuver our Wanderpanzers too in order to engage due to civilian panic.”
“Right.”
“Well, in that case then,” Adelyn smirked. “You have me. Well, if it’s just the two of us who believe this threat, then what can we do but prepare, together, hmm?”
…Well, at least he had some progress then.