“War. Corruption. Incompetence. Many reasons were there for why a nation came to an end, but regardless of which it was, it was always the people at the lowest rungs of the social hierarchy that bore the brunt of the suffering. This never changed.” - From a dissertation by Leigh Wainwrought, Sociology student at the Levain Institute for Higher Learning, circa 687 FP.
“Thank you again, Milord and Miladies. We would not have even made it without your kind assistance,” said the oldest of the surviving villagers Aideen and the rest rescued. The group had escorted the surviving villagers until they reached their destination, which was a village roughly half a day’s travel from where they ran into the robbers. “We owe you everything.”
“I just wish we had arrived sooner so we could save those others too, but alas,” lamented Aideen with a shake of her head as she signaled that there was no need for thanks and that they were helping out of their own will. A few of the villagers were already dead by the time they arrived, and most of the rest only survived because the bandits had a sadistic streak and wanted to violate their wives and children before the dying ones.
“It can’t be helped, Milady. We are grateful enough for the assistance you had rendered in our time of need, as it is,” said the old villager with a shake of his head. The three families that left with their wagons had reached their destination, a larger village that only seemed to be half-inhabited. The low number of inhabitants meant that there were empty houses they could directly move to, and unused land they could work on.
“Is it common for villages to be in this state?” asked Rhys with some concern on his face after he glanced at the village from afar. His sisters, along with Kino and Celia, were helping the other villagers move in, so only he and Aideen were with the few old villagers by the wagons. The rather desolate conditions of the village was a worrisome one, in his opinion.
“This is already far better than how it was in our old village, Milord,” replied another of the old villagers, this one an old grandmother who could no longer walk unassisted, not even after Aideen helped heal her ailments. “Over there, only the very old who could not afford to move out or the stubborn remained. All those who could move out had gone elsewhere. Our families were amongst the last to do so.”
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“Things have been growing worse since they cast out the Crown Prince back then,” spat out another old villager, a cantankerous old man who was blind in one eye. “There have been more and more bandits spawning out of the woods, and most of the new ones are the ruthless, unscrupulous types, too. Because of them, trade between our villages have been dying out, and the villages as well with it.”
“There are scrupulous bandits around as well?” asked Rhys with some curiosity.
“Aye, there're some bands who only ask for a modest toll fee, and would even escort you through their territory, help keep you safe from beasts and the like. Those lads and lasses were passable,” said the first old man. “Many of them had gone missing of late, though. Couldn’t help but worry about them, especially when the ones who took over their turf were bloody murderers like the animals we ran into back there…”
“This place’s still better off than our old place, Milady,” supplied the old matron. “With the youngsters adding more people we might have enough here to keep going, especially if other places also feel the pinch like we do and move eventually. Many of the villages further out, far from the towns, are the ones most likely to die off like ours, I think.”
“It pains us to have to leave the place we lived all our life in behind, but we had to, in order to keep living,” continued the old woman. “The old ones like us might not have much longer to live and could care less, but our descendants are still young. They still have futures to build and look up to. They at least deserve a chance to fight for that future.”
“You have already done so much to help us, it is a blessing from the Deities, certainly, to send you across our path,” added the one-eyed old man. “Here, at least our children and grandchildren would have a fair chance to restart their lives, and we’re close enough to the nearest town that their guards regularly patrol the main routes leading to it. It is more than we can hope for, to be honest.”
Aideen nodded as she thought about the Empire’s situation. If villages were starting to die off due to the increased banditry within only ten years, then the situation within the nation had likely declined from the reign of the previous Emperor as well, which meant that the Empire was starting to rot upon itself.
With the present Emperor purported to be incompetent and a hedonistic wastrel to boot, improvements during his reign was unlikely, but given the history and strength of the Empire, it should most likely survive the man’s reign, unless his incompetence was truly of astounding proportions and he demeaned the Empire’s foundations himself.
What would likely decide the fate of the Empire would be the successors to the present Emperor. If the Empire received a wise and competent ruler in the next generation or two, then there was still hope for recovery. A path to claim their position as the hegemon of the Alcidean continent once more, as that title had become a questionable one with their decline.
On the other hand, an incompetent or fatuous ruler in the next couple generations might well be the final nail to be hammered down on the Empire’s coffin. An end to a legacy that spanned many centuries and generations.