Spring, Year 909 - 5 Years ago, Salutio City, Imperial Palace, Guard Chamber

"Oh, come on!"

A large, armored man laughed while throwing half a dozen dice onto a wooden table. The man opposite him grinned, and his blue eyes glinted as he leaned back.

"Guess your luck with dice is as bad as your luck with women, Decimus."

"Fuck off, Schenk. You're just lucky," Decimus replied and grumbled into his bushy beard.

Schenk was a giant of a man. He was a head taller than everyone else around him while still maintaining a bulky physique. This, combined with the relentless training he received as a royal guard, made him a threat to any intruder.

The man opposite him was only a bit smaller and specially selected as a guard. They were both palace guards of the Salutio Family. The family was the ruling family of the kingdom of the same name. Its history dates back 909 years.

"This guard duty is getting more boring by the hour." Decimus sighed and stretched his limbs.

"As if anyone would ever attack King Aurelius." He shook his head with a smile. "He's too nice."

Schenk nodded, stood up, and grabbed his spear. "He is. But even nice people make enemies. Especially kings."

Then he walked outside to take up guard duty in front of the king's chambers. There he switched positions with another guard and watched the staircase that led to the chamber. The hallway on his left led to the guard chamber where the other guards rested.

Schenk's father was a palace guard as well; he trained him from a young age. He felt very grateful to his father, especially whenever he saw a boy without a father figure to look up to. His wife, Mirabella, was a beautiful woman. He smiled to himself and shook his head.

"I'm one lucky bastard." As he said this, he felt his head tilt forward, and darkness enveloped him.

He woke up an unknown time later and groaned. He was lying flat on the ground, his nose broken and bleeding. He had his eyes closed. His thoughts were still off track, and he was confused.

"Where am I? What happened?" he exclaimed groggily as he propped himself up and wiped his face.

He had been knocked out plenty of times before. His head felt like it was going to explode, and the back of his head hurt like a bitch, as his father would say. Then, after a minute, realization slowly dawned upon him as he saw the doors to the chamber open. He froze in place, and his entire body started heating up and sweating, and his chest felt like he had a knot where his lungs were supposed to be.

"I've been knocked out..." he said stupidly, with eyes wide open like a deer in headlights.

Inside the room, there was darkness and silence, yet a peculiar smell reached his nostrils. He knew it all too well. Blood. He panicked and struggled to his feet, propping himself up with his spear. He couldn't believe it.

'Why me? Why did it have to be me?' he struggled to stand, and his knees started applauding like crazy. Then he slowly took a step inside.

The full moon shone inside the chambers, and everything looked normal, yet the smell became more intense. He saw the bed of the king and his wife with the large splendorous canopy and curtains, blocking his vision. By now, he was even more anxious but slowly walked forward, past a table with fine golden goblets and wine, over a red carpet from the southeast, and towards the bed. He stood before the bed and took a few deep breaths.

'No matter what I do now... I'm fucked. So I can check if his majesty is well regardless...' he consoled himself and pulled aside the curtain. Then, once more, he froze before he collapsed onto the ground, unconscious. On the bed lay the king and the queen, peaceful, in each other's arms. She had her head on his chest.

The only thing off was… a large gaping wound in the throats of both monarchs. They lay in the bed as if nothing ever happened. Yet the thick smell of blood filled the entire room, and the white silk had soaked itself with the dark red color of blood.

They must have held onto each other in the moments they were killed. The open window let in a fresh breeze of air that made the curtains gently sway in the night. King Aurelius had left behind an heir, the 6-year-old Augustus.

Yet the king and his queen weren't the only things that died on that day. Some, even years later, spoke of this day as the end of the Kingdom.

Tiberius Epicrotia, a mighty noble, became regent and drove opposing noble families out of the city. It would be known as the "Fall of Providence" in the history books.

The king is dead, long live the king! … Or not?

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

----------------------------------------

PRESENT

Autumn, 914, Southern Border, Poplia Village

It was a hot autumn day as Faust knelt on the ground in the field with his sickle and harvested wheat. One swing after another, he brought the tool down onto the golden ears, bundling them up and placing them behind himself.

He was a good mile from the village, way out in the fields. His hair was blonde and cut short, his body was skinny and pale. His blue eyes became slits as he looked at the sun. His movements with his sickle were experienced and nimble.

'This is wonderful. I could harvest crops all day,' he thought to himself and laughed.

He was 14 years old. He looked up at the sun and sighed before sitting down to rest a bit after another 15 minutes of work. The sun was starting to set. He started counting how much he had harvested today and nodded satisfied.

'I'm making good progress. If I keep up this pace of harvest, then I will successfully bring in all the grain within time.' He smiled before shouldering his harvest and heading back to the village through the field.

By now, it had become rather dark. The sun had gone down, and as usual in Autumn, darkness set in almost instantly. He was almost halfway back, about 500 meters from the first houses when he noticed something. There was a weird light coming from the village.

'What's that? It's night so… oh my god. That's fire! It's burning!' He thought to himself, dropping the wheat and starting to run.

A good 200 meters away from the houses, he could hear women and men screaming and weapons clashing. Weird grunts he had never heard before mixed with the screams and wails the wind carried over. Faust had turned into a statue.

"The village… it is getting raided." He muttered before pictures of his mother, father, and sister flashed into his mind. He gulped, and a tear rolled down his face. He had long since heard of border raids. Orcs or dwarven mercenaries had started raiding after the Fall of Providence. But they had never dared to come so deep into human territory, so he and his family thought they were safe.

'What do I do? What do I do?' He panicked and started thinking. 'I can't go there. I'll just become another victim. I don't even have a weapon… but I can't leave my family there… ' he struggled with himself for what seemed like an eternity before making a decision.

'I'm going to keep my distance and watch. I'm unarmed and can't do anything... not to mercenaries or orcs.' He slumped down and fought his tears as he crawled closer to look.

He was now barely a hundred meters from the first houses, one of which was where he and his family lived. He quickly attempted to run closer but hid when he noticed four orcs moving towards his family that stood in front of their house.

'My father is standing in front of mother and sister... he is trying to protect them with his life.' he felt his heart ache when he thought about it. It was his family after all. His father. His mother. His sister.

The little girl cried bitterly and her mother held her dear, calming her. Faust's father threw a nervous look over his shoulder. Faust could see the resolute expression on his face. He did not show fear in the face of death. Only a grim determination to protect his family.

'Oh, father.'

A lump had formed in his throat when the four orcs slowly drew closer and pointed their weapons at his father. His mother covered behind him with his sister in her arms. They were about to close in on the spearman.

'What do I do? What can I even do? There must be something!!!' Faust thought frantically, but his brain didn't work properly anymore. He couldn't do anything. He knew his father would have wanted him to survive.

Two of the orcs charged forward at his father who promptly killed one of them by stabbing its throat. But he had multiple opponents. The second orc screamed before slashing the man's chest wide open.

Before the beast could slash out another time his father retracted his spear and with all his might shoved it into the head of the armored orc. When Faust was about to celebrate he heard his mother shriek out loud. Then he saw it. An arrow had penetrated his father's face and could be seen sticking out of his eye.

'NOOOOO! FATHER!' tears flowed down Faust's face.

'What will happen to mother and my sister now?' he panicked, yet there was nothing he could do.

'I AM TOO WEAK! IF ONLY I WERE STRONGER! I WOULD SEND THOSE ORCS BACK TO HELL!'

He clenched his fists so hard they bled as the orcs slowly closed in on his remaining family. Then they started screaming like crazy. It sounded horrible. The only thing worse than the orc noise was the heartbreaking wailing of his little sister.

'Why her... she's only 8... why couldn't we just swap places? WHY???'

One of the orcs opened the door of the small wooden cottage and the others pushed the women into the house before throwing the doors shut again.

'What are they doing now? Wait. They couldn't be so cruel. No. They wouldn't...' but before he could finish his thought one of the orcs swung his arm and threw a torch onto the dry straw roof of the cottage.

All thoughts Faust might have had were replaced by a deafening silence. No thoughts. Just pain. He couldn't move or think as the orcs barricaded the entrance.

The fire slowly spread from the roof to the walls and it didn't take long to hear his mother slamming against the door.

"PLEASE! PLEASE LET MY DAUGHTER LIVE! PLEASE!"

The selfless pleading only increased the pain Faust felt. It increased further when her pleadings turned into screeches. Agonized screams. Every single one of them etched themselves into Faust's mind. Each of her screams made his sanity slip further into darkness. Revenge. That's what he needed.

Every scream would be an entire Orc Tribe eradicated he swore to himself. It didn't take long for his sister to join her mother's concert of pain. It took way too long. He could even hear them knocking against the door, trying to escape, but the flames continued to eat away at the house and after 5 minutes the screams stopped.

His thoughts darkened. All that filled them were thoughts of revenge. He wanted to eradicate orcs—all of them.

Nothing could be heard anymore except the fighting and screaming from other parts of the village. His mother and sister were dead, burned to death in their own house. His father was killed attempting to protect them. Faust watched the entire process in tears and finally broke down on the ground. Unable to deal with what he saw.

'I... I...' he stammered.

'Dear mother, dear father... Lilia...' he gave in to the pain and heard their screams over and over again, carving themselves into his mind. Then suddenly… everything was silent in his ears. He couldn't hear anything… but his heartbeat was like a powerful drum.

His entire body heated up, and he clenched his fists until they bled. He saw a picture of his family before him, hugging each other and laughing. Then a beastial laugh resounded in his head as the picture was eaten up by flames.

Exhaustion and mental fatigue took over as he fell over onto the ground. It was all too much for him.

Darkness enveloped him.