Tempus Fugit 995
The curtain fell on a forty-year age of peace as war dawned on the continent of Duvedirica once again.
It followed on the heels of Ramza XIII’s abrupt declaration as emperor of the Asvelt Empire, a powerful nation situated in the north of the continent, that he would unify Duvedirica. The empire proceeded to send a large force over the border into the Kingdom of Fernest, another powerful country in the east of the continent, and battle lines were drawn.
In the beginning, it was a war between Asvelt and Fernest—between two great powers—but soon its sparks were flying into the smaller countries in the region. Before long, the war spread to engulf the entire continent.
Tempus Fugit 997
For the peoples of Duvedirica, the war consumed everything. Since the war began neither Fernest nor Asvelt had managed to take the upper hand, but a turning point came when the empire seized the Kier Fortress, Fernest’s greatest stronghold on the central front, upon which they had been pinning their hopes.
Once the nigh-impenetrable fortress had fallen, the empire proceeded like a raging tempest, using Kier Fortress as a rallying point and employing intimidation, conciliation, and whatever other means were necessary to bring the kingdom’s smaller neighbors under its dominion.
Seeing all of this, the United City-States of Sutherland in the south of the continent chose not to interfere in the war. They declared their absolute neutrality, but were in fact secretly colluding with the empire. Citing widespread bad harvests in the southeast of the continent as an excuse, the city-states abruptly ceased exports of food to Fernest. Famine throughout the kingdom followed thereafter, with starvation claiming vast swaths of the citizenry. Fernest had always struggled to sustain itself with domestic produce alone and had relied on Sutherland for seventy percent of its food imports. This lack of self-sufficiency had cost them dearly.
Fernest requisitioned rations from its civilians to send to the soldiers on the front lines, but with food already in short supply, this incited the citizenry to rise up in rebellion. The army was deployed to put down the uprisings, but this only created more unrest in what turned into a vicious cycle. Left facing enemies within and without, the Kingdom of Fernest plummeted in a downward spiral.
Tempus Fugit 998
Report after report of the royal army’s failures arrived at Fernest’s capital. The kingdom had to put everything they had into fortifying their defenses just to hold the line, let alone even consider mounting a serious counterattack. The alliance against them, spearheaded by the empire, grew with each passing day until it threatened to surround the nation completely.
In the midst of this, Alfonse sem Galmond, reigning King of Fernest, made a difficult decision.
He ordered the elite First Legion to leave the last fortification defending the capital and take back Kier Fortress.
Galia Fortress was situated in the west of Fernest, isolated from the capital by the Est Mountains. It marked the final defensive line for the kingdom and was the closest key military outpost to the capital. Further to the west, and to the southeast of Kier Fortress, was Fort Caspar, which had fallen to the empire. The imperial army controlled the towns and villages around Fort Caspar, and the main roads were under perpetual watch by soldiers patrolling along their length. They expected an attack from Galia Fortress any day now, and so were on alert for any movements by the royal army.
Captain Samuel, head of the watch on the Canalia Highway, was on duty when he spotted a young girl, no more than fifteen or sixteen years old, walking in the direction of the royal capital.
Her features were exquisite as a doll’s, her legs were slender, and her long hair like silver thread rippled gracefully with every step she took. A village girl, if the short, tan-colored tunic she wore was anything to go by.
Well, well, thought Samuel. What have we here?
He licked his lips unconsciously, then his eyes caught on the item at her hip. The magnificent scabbard she had belted there was very much not typical of a village girl. It was black, and embellished with delicate, interwoven designs in silver and gold—the sort of thing that would look at home with a powerful noble who liked to throw their money around, or a battle-scarred warrior.
Just the scabbard alone would probably fetch a fine sum. It was obviously an unsuitable accessory for a mere village girl.
And if that’s just the scabbard, I’ll bet the sword inside is one hell of a treasure.
As he pictured the sword sheathed in the scabbard, Samuel smirked. For a moment, it crossed his mind that she might not be a village girl at all, but some sort of thief. But he quickly quashed the thought. It was common knowledge that the imperial army controlled these lands. Well, maybe he was biased because he was an imperial soldier, but even so, surely no thief would show themselves so brazenly in broad daylight.
Samuel tapped the shoulder of the young soldier next to him, a man named Cliff, and pointed at the girl.
“Good news, Cliff. I’ve got your first job for you. Go and detain that girl.”
“Yes, ser!” Cliff replied with a sharp salute. He called out to the girl in a threatening tone.
“You there, girl! Halt!”
No reply. Despite Cliff’s order for her to halt, the girl did not stop.
Given the distance between them, she had to have heard him. And yet, she continued walking as if nothing had happened. The soldiers nearby began teasing their comrade for being ignored.
“Hey, Cliff, be nice! Didn’t your mom teach you how to talk to girls?”
“Yeah, if you huff and puff all scary like that, you’ll send her running!”
Their jeering seemed to get to Cliff. He squared his shoulders, marched over to the girl, and grabbed her shoulder from behind.
“Are you deaf? I said, halt!”
“What?” said the girl. “You were talking to me?” Her eyes were wide with confusion as she pointed at herself. There was no hint of deceit—she appeared to be genuinely surprised. But Cliff apparently didn’t think so. He clicked his tongue in irritation and took another step towards the girl.