"Shepherd. My name is Claude Faucheur."

"Claude Faucheux, second cousin once removed of Duke General Jean-François Boucher Faucheux de Merblanc? I am sure you know who I am." Lucas says. "Here's a gold coin to compensate for making you wait so long." He adds. "Tell me, what is this for?"

"We want to record history sir. We want to understand how you perceive things, knowing that you did not spend your early life here in Fiercœur." Claude replied.

"You will not understand a thing." Lucas replies. "My life is the strangest one you will ever see."

"Why do you say so Shepherd?"

"I do not have plans to stay here, but I stayed anyway."

"Why did you stay here sir?" Claude asks.

"It's bizarre. However, I know that I have been more Fiercœurois than whatever I was before." Lucas answers.

"What do you mean sir?"

"Faucheur, do you wonder why I am called 'Shepherd?'" Lucas' eyes drift to the windows. Where walls once stood, trenches gather. "It is not because I am Lucas Lafayette Marie-Joseph David Moses, Berger, La Voie"

"The soldiers say you guide them. Like a shepherd with his flock." Faucheux responds.

"No, I am like your cousin. A crow, a bear and a wolf at the same time. I decide which sheep die and live. As long as I have a flock to lead, or use."

"You keep giving riddles." Claude claims.

"Your cousin probably did not tell you much about me." Lucas answers. "Ten years ago, I am just another instructor. Teaching soldiers how to fight. Now here, I learned how to be a murderer." Lucas' eyes meets Claude's "I do not regret being a murderer. Nor do I fear anything. Even if you de Merblancs would easily kill me."

"What of the summoning ritual?" Clause asks again.

"That was not a mistake. My only power was to summon objects. Not much but it will help you in the future." Lucas says. "It helped the Cœurvaillant Dynasty to hide tis weaknesses. And your generals and ministers knew it."

"Yet, you remained here. Why?" Claude wants to extract more information.

"I have a few reasons. Fiercœur is worthy of my service. They do not bow to foreign law, and they are not ashamed of what they do." Lucas replied. "They were right to keep me instead of throwing me on the streets."

"Why is that?" Claude asks.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"I think like you. When people of my own country would tell me I am mad, here, I'm perfectly sane." Lucas says.

"There are rumors about your first battle, the Caravandales tried to blot out the sun with their arrows." Claude declares.

"That is not my first battle, it was your cousin's. I knew that you will keep me safe. I knew that the impure blood of the enemies will water the Fields of Fiercœur." Lucas declares back. "Look at how far we have reached. We have conquered our enemies and we can now start colonization."

"Can you tell me about your previous world?" Claude raised a question. "Not even my cousin knows anything about that."

"I loathe it. There, you see a country claiming it stands for freedom, yet, it enforces foreign law on others and itself. Why should I follow that at all?"

"Did you gain freedom?" Claude moves his quill on the parchment.

"Nonsense. I found purpose. There, they preach freedom while being bound by their own chains. But Fiercœur? It forges its own chains so it can hit others with them."

"The records say you refused to summon weapons even against multiple coalitions over the years." Claude stated.

"That is true. Your cousin understood why. Give a man a spear, he will kill someone. Teaching him to forge is different."

"But you did summon things."

"Yes. Tools, knowledge Things Fiercœur can reproduce by itself and itself only. I drew knowledge in mud. Fiercœur is not stupid. It just needed to know how to be its own shepherd."

"Yet they did not question your orders, the built and built." Claude writes even more on his parchment.

"They know what I left behind has forgotten. Progress is also bound by will. Your cousin ordered to keep me alive because I am a mirror. You Fiercœurois want power and results. Where I came from I was considered as cold, or even a burden, but I am what I needed here."

"And what is that?"

"A shepherd that knows when the flock must be culled." Lucas put his hand on the map.

"You tell me of culling the flock. Yet Fiercœur became stronger when you arrived."

"That is because I understood something about the Fiercœurois mentality. Your mentality is focused on effectiveness, whether it would be considered evil or good. If killing the entire enemy city's population works, you will do that without hesitation, but if it fails, you will not think twice about avoiding that. From where I originated, we are bound by morals."

"You speak of morality as chains."

"Morals are not mere chains, they are the entire prison that one builds for oneself. I, you, and we understand that power lies in willpower and its purpose."

"They said you refused to bring weapons that could have won wars in days."

"That is the right decision. I avoided giving a man a fish instead of a boat and net. The way is to forge our own strength, I simply showed the forge. Everything that was used was built by Fiercœurois for Fiercœurois."

"I hear soldiers say you never flinch like my cousin does."

"That is true. Flinching is a sign of weakness. A sign of weakness is a weakness itself. I do not want my troops dead, I want enemy soldiers to die."

"And what do you see now, Shepherd?" Claude gestures to the map.

"I see pieces moving into place." Lucas's finger stops at a point on the map.

"You're planning something."

"I'm doing what I've always done." Lucas straightens up. "I'm showing Fiercœur its own strength. What makes me valuable is that I'm not afraid to be what Fiercœur needs. A shepherd must be willing to cull the weak to strengthen the flock. Must be willing to lead some sheep to slaughter so others might thrive. From where I came from, they would call this barbaric. Here, it is the norm."

Claude's quill scratches across the parchment. "And you feel no regret? No doubt?"

"Doubt is a luxury of those who don't understand their purpose." Lucas picks up a marker from the map. "I was summoned by chance, but I stayed by choice. Because here, in Fiercœur, purpose is pure. Power serves power. Strength serves strength. Everything else is ornamentation."

"Even loyalty?"

"Especially loyalty." Lucas places the marker on a new position. "Loyalty without purpose is just sentiment. The Fiercœurois understand this. It's why your cousin trusts me despite knowing I could summon weapons to destroy his armies. He knows my purpose aligns with Fiercœur's ascension."

Claude sets down his quill. "And what happens when that purpose is fulfilled?"Lucas's lip curls slightly - the closest thing to a smile he's shown. "That, Faucheux, is the final lesson I learned here. True purpose, like true power, has no end. It grows, consumes, evolves. Just like Fiercœur itself. We have conquered so much. May the impure blood of our enemies water our fields!"