Romulus
If there was one thing that Romulus learned over the last couple of years is that Florian Kosta is a genius and meeting him in Honobor was the best thing to happen to him. From helping him escape the mountains, being a loyal soldier, saving his life when they first met Noah, and now his idea of attacking the enemy's supply lines working better than Romulus could ever have hoped for.
For God's sake, while Kosta was running around the countryside, toying with Smith, Birdmouth surrendered without a fight as they ran out of food, and he proudly entered the city with his 30,000 troops behind him. The gate laid wide open with General Pluto on his knees in front of it held at spearpoint. Romulus smiled as he returned to the city that General Pluto forced him to retreat like a rat from only to return to take his head.
Romulus stepped off his horse at the city's moat and handed the lead to one of the captains. The wind blew in Romulus's face as the joy of not needing to wear a helmet felt righteous. He was king after all, and kings shouldn't wear helmets to protect themselves. That's what their armies are for.
General Pluto's face seemed like it hadn't been washed in days, he avoided eye contact with Romulus. What seemed to be the leader of the mutiny —who looked like a captain—greeted Romulus. "It's a pleasure, Your Majesty," said the captain as he and every other soldier around him kneeled.
"Likewise," Romulus said as he turned his attention toward General Pluto. "How are you doing? Your men treating you well?" Romulus laughed.
"Can you not be condescending for one second?" General Pluto asked.
Romulus told the kneeling soldiers to get back up before continuing. "Well, when you are forced to march up and down a river, dodging patrols, I think one earns the right to be a little condescending."
No one spoke for a little. "What's going to happen now? Burn me alive while you drown me?"
"God, no," Romulus assured. "Though, you are a traitor, not very likable personality, or any use for me now, you are a decent general. That move you pulled on me during the battle had me pretty pissed off for a couple of days."
"You should thank Kosta for the tip," General Pluto smirked. "He left General Smith in quite an interesting mood after King Harbor. In the days after the battle, he told every general about what happened, and if he could tell them personally, he sent a letter." General Pluto shook his head. "For a man I've heard is nothing but stoic and calm, his plain language in the letters seems to perfectly describe what he is feeling inside."
"Yes, I know all about it," Romulus responded. "Back to the matter at hand, I believe you fought bravely. You helped kill Lia, and more importantly, did your best. You shall earn a soldier's death."
Pluto remained silent as one of the captains brought out a headblock and a basket. As his head lay there and Romulus pulled out his sword, he made one more request. "If it wouldn't be any trouble, I would like you to make it official."
Romulus nodded. "By order of the king, you have been found guilty of treason. This is a summary judgment and since it was made by the king, and not a trial, it is subject to the whim and only the whim of the present and future monarchs. The king sentences you to death by decapitation. Any last words?"
General Pluto closed his eyes and relaxed his head onto the block. "For the sake of reunification, end this war fast."
#
Of course, the offer would be too good to turn up for any logical man, but this war wasn't one of logic. When Benito showed up in the days leading up to Birdmouth surrendering, he didn't know how he found him. The man approached Romulus like something was stuck up his ass, and he had ego years of ego to make up for. The men even exchanged some banter about how they almost killed Romulus back in Honobor.
The meeting—which took place in the middle of a field on a scolding day with a herd of bison not far off— became tenser as Romulus became suspects about if Benito came alone, and Romulus's men slowly approached what they deemed to be the devils across the mountains.
Though, when the offer did come, Romulus pretended to contemplate it before answering. "Do you really think that I would believe I have control in this situation?"
"Why, yes of course," Benito answered. "We are aiming to end this war fast so we can establish a healthy relationship with the next government."
"But only if I accept that other offer of yours, yes?"
"It would be a start."
Romulus gave a fake smile and said one last thing before forcing Benito to leave. "Tell your diarchs that once I win this war, I won't need a rumor to get their people to embrace me as their liberator."
#
Romulus never met up with Kosta when he marched north as Kosta sent a letter to Romulus suggesting that he head straight to Wailing Wind to cut off Gatherstorm from the west while he kept Smith busy. It was amazing that Kosta kept running around with Smith never stopping him. Kosta wrote that a couple of times he lost 100 men, but that was about it.
Judging based on his letters, Kosta seemed to be doing okay mentally, but even the strongest of military commanders could only retreat for so long. Most generals would have wanted to take the initiative back to Smith by this point, but Kosta stayed true and ran around like the world's largest rat.
Following Kosta's suggestion, Romulus rolled into Wailing Wind without a fight. There were soldiers but didn't raise a shoulder at the sight of 130,000 men rolling into the city. Romulus rode into the city's castle and looked down upon the shocked locals as they saw Romulus riding through the streets. Some of the citizens through insults or rocks, but Romulus's soldiers made short work of them soon enough. The city would have plenty of time to get used to its new leadership. At the end of his tour of the city, he found the young earl standing in front of the castle gates hesitantly waiting to find out who this man on an armored horse was.
Romulus ordered that his troops find every man around the city willing to fight for him while he handled things in the castle, and what he meant by handling things was to take the young earl on a walk around. The young earl saw it a thousand times and asked why this strange man who claimed to be the king was walking him around. "I just want to ask you some questions," he said. "You got any siblings?"
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"Well, I have a younger sister, but she died. The maids said that she died of an infection."
"Anyone else?" Romulus asked. Romulus tried to do what he did with Nero when he was younger and showed him all the tricks, like playing hide and seek, tag, and the other games people play with young children, and it reminded him of the younger times he had with Nero. The times he had breaks from the military academy he would drag Nero out of his big library that he was ever so fond of and go around the palace since going into the city was too dangerous. They even got Gala in on some of the action.
After about an hour, Romulus sat in his hiding spot as the young earl looked for him, and he couldn't help but laugh. If he only knew what was going to happen later in life. All the conflict, near-death situations, and even two siblings betraying the natural order of things. When the young earl found Romulus hidden inside a closet, his face was blank in reflection. Only if he wasn't meant to be king, could he have had a happier life. The continent wasn't going to reunify itself, and when his hiding place was found, Romulus decided that playtime was over.
He got out of the closet and sat the young earl down in the nearest chair. "You need to make sure you live," he told the young earl. "If you fall, I can't count on anyone to run this earldom. Can you promise me that?"
The young earl emphatically nodded and thanked Romulus for giving him control of the earldom.
"Oh no, you got it all wrong," said Romulus, pretending to be nice. "You were in charge the whole time. Gala lied to you. Everyone lied to you, but I am now telling you the truth. You are in charge. Remember that and remember who told you this."
He considered killing the young earl and appointing a yes man to the earldom, but if the kid died, he would be able to do that anyway, so he decided to let the kid be. Maybe he had a chance not to end up like Romulus.
#
A couple of days later, a surprise came at the western gates of Wailing Wind. According to scouts, an army of 150,000 men was only about twenty kilometers from the city. They were the reinforcements provided by the Western earls to help Gala in the war and were presumably heading to Gatherstorm before learning about Wailing Wind's fall. Now, scouts reported that hastily made siege equipment dotted the marching columns, and most of the troops seemed to be poorly equipped.
Romulus considered his options. He could settle in for a siege and wear down the enemy. It would be the most obvious option, the safest, but it would destroy the city and not do any favors for Kosta or the drive on Gatherstorm. The second option was to meet them in the field and destroy them. It would cost more men, but the potential of destroying an army of 150,000 poorly equipped soldiers with 130,000 most of which were battle-hardened was too good to pass up.
Romulus immediately left the castle and rode around the city, gathering his troops to head west. No matter if they sat in an army camp, were getting blackout drunk or leisured around the city, Romulus and his captains rounded them up and got them on their way.
It was twilight when Romulus first made eye contact with the enemy. His infantry was lined up in a simple line in front of the city, while his archers and cannoneers sat in the back, and calvary sat on the flanks. It was the most basic and intuitive of battle formations, but against what seemed to be rookie soldiers, it would do fine for now.
Romulus waited for the enemy to do the obvious thing and engage immediately, but it seemed that the army had some sort of an idea of what they were doing and decided to camp for the night and fight in the morning. Romulus chuckled at the sight of them pitching up tents and lighting up torches. Romulus also instructed some of his men to do the same, but this was only to deceive the enemy into a false sense of security and convince them that Romulus also resigned himself to a fight at dawn.
However, what the enemy didn't realize was that Romulus kept his army at attention and in their formation. He had a plan to destroy this weak army, but first, he rode up and down the line talking to his men. "Men!" he exclaimed. "I speak to you tonight not as your king but as your comrade. These 'men' only a couple of kilometers think that this shall be a gentlemen's war, but I think we know better than them. We have run around the fields of the south, banged our heads against the wall at Birdmouth, and retreated like rats into the night. But no more! We shall show them what we went through, but unlike the brave men that I march with, they shall perish!" Romulus pulled out his sword and lifted it in the air. "I hold what shall be your best friend for the rest of your life. It may be a sword, a spear, or a cannon, but it is the same, nonetheless. Cherish it! Cherish it with your life, but friendships do not form out of thin air but from shared experiences, and you know what that experience is? It shall be killing the fucking traitors in front of you!
The soldiers gave out a mixture of laughs and cheers. "Remember, if you aim to kill five men, you shall kill three; but if you aim to kill fifty, you shall kill thirty!" Another cheer came out, this time quieter with Romulus noticing that some of the men were getting bored of the speech, so he gathered up his calvary and told them to follow him. They would flank from the north while the infantry would come from the south. A couple of thousand men would stay to maintain the impression that they were setting up camp, and the cannons or archers would not fire unless in the unlikely event that Romulus retreated.
It took about an hour for the cavalry to sneak into the dark to their position. There stood 20,000 men on horses waiting behind a small hill just out of sight of the enemy. Romulus watched as the enemy soldiers got drunk and toppled over campfires. If there was a time to attack, it would be now, and Romulus reached into his saddle, paused to look back at his men, and blew into the horn.
The faces of the enemy soldiers dropped. They could not see it, but they all knew what that horn meant as it was probably the only training they received ahead of their deployment. They watched as Romulus and the endless sea of horses flew through the camp and ruined their merry party before what was supposed to be a morning battle.
Men cried as they tried to grab their gear, but Romulus and his men cut them down. Some of the riders dismounted their horses to grab a torch and burn the tents to the ground. Romulus looked around for the general's tent, but once he found it, it was already burning. The ground soon became mud as thousands of hooves and feet pummeled the ground and any poor person trampled in the action.
After Romulus saw the infantry arrive from the south side of the camp, Romulus excused himself from direct combat in an attempt to organize his troops and minimize losses. Though Romulus soon found that he didn't need to command as by the time he could find a group of enemy soldiers to concentrate on, they were already dead.
When the sun began to rise, the battle was over, and Romulus started to take a tally of the men. They captured 20,000 men, almost all of which switched to their side while the rest were dead. On the other hand, Romulus's army only lost 10,000.
In the days after the battle, Romulus was observed reorganizing his army. Along with cleaning up the battle and their dead comrades, Romulus was also trying to plan a way to take Gatherstorm and destroy Gala's armies, all the while not damaging the city too much. He fell deeper into trying to find a solution with his captains. Dozens of maps were destroyed in the process as the number of pen marks and circling made most of them beyond recognition.
When eight letters came addressed to Romulus, he told the messenger to put them on the side while he continued to try and find a way to destroy the capital, but the messenger insisted saying they had royal seals on them. Romulus sighed, took the letters, and dismissed the messenger. He flipped through the envelopes before coming back to the top one. The messenger wasn't lying; all of them were from earls. He ripped open the first letter and found surrender terms. Romulus remained silent as he read it. "As the earl of Salta, I must take care of my citizens, and I have reached a situation where I must place my pride aside. I have sent many of my loyal soldiers to aid Gala for them to only die. I wish for this not to continue. I would be willing to recognize Romulus as the one true king of the Kingdom of Qar in exchange for sparing my earldom from destruction."
Romulus's eyes widened, and he smiled with his mouth slightly open as he tore open the other letters to find the same message. Eight earls, all of which were located in the northwest of the kingdom, offered to pledge their loyalty as long as they remained on the throne of their earldom.
The captains asked what it was, and Romulus turned to face them. "It seems I don't need to replace eight earls for the moment."
"Which means?" one of the captains asked.
"We're going to win the war."