Year 12.328 After the Founders Autumn 85

Ever since coming to this world, Diaz has wondered what his purpose would be in this world.

Why did he come, why was he given this life? Was it punishment, he wondered, for otherwise, why would he be shown the sad vision of the consequences of his choices in his old life would be? No matter how often he asked for the Lord, God would not answer his questions or alleviate his doubts. Tired of the sadness and lack of answers slowly he immersed himself in his role as a prince of this Kingdom and some of his old hobbies as a self-proclaimed scholar.

Day after day he spent his time reading and learning, more out of habit than duty. He would do his job as a descendent of a royal dynasty and no more, funny even, how close it resembled his old early life. He never enjoyed it, yet he still was royalty and as such should be thankful that he could live such a "easy" life where he could live the most extravagant of lives.

If one difference there was to be had, between his current and old life, was the presence of his new family. He never knew what family love was before. Sure he had kids, but he himself lived a fatherless and motherless life, always surrounded by tutors and politicians, only knowing his parents through pictures. While spiritually he could not consider them family, and while they spent little time with him, these short exchanges felt... pleasant, in a way. A feeling he never had before.

Now, such feelings were making him conflicted.

He was called by Kniva to attend this war so that he could fulfill his duty as a prince in a warring kingdom, much like his third brother. Here he saw the destruction of this war, they were not his people yet he couldn't just feel nothing when the tragedy happened so close, so he did something, even if just a tiny bit to satisfy his conscience.

And now something similar is happening again, Kniva wasn't his father, only biologically, yet Diaz was questioning to himself if he could just leave things as is, knowing this could be the last of their meetings and understanding the severity of the situation by watching the exchange between his Kniva and Totila. Diaz knew Kniva was going to chose a harsh and risky path, one where he knew full well he might not come out alive.

Diaz was originally planning to simply not involve himself too much, to do only what his position demanded of him, as such, doing "something" here could easily lead him to do too much, and so leading him to a bigger role than he planned and once again being thrown in another role he disliked. He had already been an emperor in the past, he ruled for a long time even if that wasn't exactly what he wanted, was that not enough?

"..." These last bits of words echoed in his mind.

'enough? enough for what?' He thought to himself. Didn't he regret the choices of his previous life? would he now, again, not do anything just because he selfishly believed that 'he did enough'? Would he again be still when action is demanded?

These thoughts then spurned Diaz forward, he saw his father taking his brother to sleep, kissing his son on the forehead. Diaz could feel how much this king loved his son, even if their positions demanded much from all of them. Kniva was about to do the same to him? if so... did he love him? This fourth prince, who showed little affection?

This made Diaz take a decision, rather than being taken by his father, he stood on his own and asked for his attention.

“Father, I know how to win this battle.”

A silence spread in the room, the king was speechless, surprised by what his young son just said.

"Win this battle? is this what you just said?"

"Yes, i know a strategy that could give you victory."

It was a completely absurd situation, this young boy of no more than 6 was telling the king that he could give him victory when he and his father-in-law, who was a veteran warrior, could not come up with any good solution to their problem. Of course, hearing this, Kniva took a few seconds to recompose himself and try to amuse his son before he put him to bed. What bad could come from spending a bit of time with his son, who wanted to help him, before the two separated and maybe never meet again?

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"is that so?" Kniva spoke kindly, "Son what kind of plan have you come up with to help me?"

Looking at Kniva´s tone, Diaz could tell he wasn't being taken seriously, still what could he do? A 6-year-old could never be taken seriously regardless of how wise he was. As such DIaz simply ignored his father's lack of seriousness and went to the table where the king and his grandfather were making plans for war.

On the table, there were several large maps and pieces of wood used for war games and simulations, Diaz took the map that represented Arriene and the surrounding regions, looking closely to confirm the local geography. It was exactly as he observed during Totila and Kniva's war planning, the north region of Arrienne would be appropriate for the plan he had in his mind.

Diaz quickly fixed the spread-out map with weights on the corners and started to create his own simulation of the war games he saw. He placed the wood pieces representing the Lusian troops positioned a little bit further to the north of the city, blocking the way to the way to the city gate. Kniva noted that this was one of the places he and his father-in-law saw as a possible site for a battle, it had several hills on both sides and still some foliage in there, creating a sort of corridor, which would limit the number of enemies coming at them at once, forcing the enemy to fight head-on, negating their advantage in numbers.

Still, the reason why they did not use this idea was that the Lusians did not have enough men to cover the entire corridor effectively, if they tried they would have to leave a part of the formation too thin for the corridor was still somewhat large. They could try to create some makeshift fortifications to compensate but that would still allow the enemy to push them back with the strength of numbers, breaking their lines. Unfortunately, the Lusians were too outnumbered.

As Kniva continued to observe his son he noted that Diaz made a similar formation to the war game he and Totila had made when looking at the north of Arriene as a site of battle, 'looks like Diaz at least was paying attention' came to mind to Kniva.

However, there were some clear differences between Diaz formation and the one he and Totila came up with. He imagined that the kid had simply forgotten what the original formation looked like and where the fortifications laid.

"Son, this is not correct, let me show how I and your grand-father did it"

But before he could approach Diaz, the boy lifted his hand showing his palm signaling for him to wait. A bit surprised the king allowed the boy to continue.

As the minutes passed, the mood of the king changed. Kniva might not be an excellent warrior like Totila but he is more versed than him in strategy and tabletop war games, as such he started to notice that these "differences" in Diaz's formation were not out of a lack of memory nor was he trying to copy Kniva´s, and surprisingly the changes made a lot of sense. Diaz moved the pieces to simulate a battle, following the rules of these war games perfectly.

"Father, This is how you will obtain victory"

By the end of the war game, Diaz showed a glimmer of victory to the King, if the same was to follow it or not was up to him.

"Son... where did you learn all of this?"

Diaz simply looked at the king, not answering him. It was clear he was feeling discomfort because of the question.

"Father... i do not think you have time to dwell on such curiosities."

"Still..."

It was also clear that the king was very confused, unable to comprehend how this 6-year-old had the knowledge he had when his own oldest son, who the king considered competent, still struggled with elaborated strategies on the tabletop game, anyone would have a hard time to accept such an unknown situation.

" Father, please, we do not have more time. "

"..."

It wasn't easy for the king to see the pained look in his son´s eyes, he could see a hint of sadness and perhaps disappointment in them, 'maybe he knew all along this would happen, and still did it' though the king. Thinking this, Kniva could not help but give up on his questioning, his son looked too defenseless.

"Diaz... maybe one day we shall talk about this, but for now... Thank you."

The king embraced his son. Kniva knew his son was odd and oddities were known to be isolated and even abandoned at times, the situation was worst with families of renown, who many times did it much more quietly. 'Maybe that's why he seemed so helpless just now' thought the king. Kniva heard endless stories of families, both noble and common abandoning their kids for fear of the unknown, after all this was a world full of mysteries. Maybe that is what made Diaz so scared.

The reasons for abandonment were varied, possession by demons, curses, mutations, crimes... the reasons were many but superstition fueled the fear of real-life cases leading to paranoia sometimes. Kniva wondered if such a tragedy could have befallen his son in the past, seeing how he used to be prone to both indifference and outburst of emotions. Looking at his defenseless appearance now, Kniva thought that his doubts before were stupid.

The king however was far from heartless, even if his son was afflicted with something he was ready to help him with what he could, so he tried to show some warmth to his son, so his son's fears could be alleviated even if only slightly.

While embracing Diaz the king could feel the boy weirdly stiff, he wondered what the boy was feeling at that moment. When letting go of his son Kniva could not help to give a small chuckle, for the prince was making a very amusing expression.

Saying goodnight to his son, and ruffling his hair a bit. Kniva went to the war council to discuss the strategy his son came up with. With large strides a straight back.