Chapter Text
The sound of bugles and horns calling the citizens of Sterndorf to evacuate or fight raged as the city walls were flooded by the foreign army that tried to capture the capital of a neighboring kingdom. The grand chivalry was well-prepared and robust, and it quickly flooded the lands of the small settlement that barely had any troops to fight back. It was a matter of time until the Fairy Kingdom would begin its assault on the small towns and villages neighboring to its south, as it has already conquered vast amounts of land to its north and west. The legends about the infantry of that dictatorship were numerous, many have said they were so strong and absolute that they never failed to assert their rule in their conquered lands, that everyone who disobeyed would immediately be sent to be judged by the so-called Dictator for Life himself. To the outsiders, he was a rather mysterious figure; he rarely spoke to his people personally, and when he did, he rarely got close to them, instead opting to speak from a high balcony in the Azure Palace, which itself was too an object of various myths.
The capital of the Fairy Kingdom, Feyagrad, was a thriving and mysterious city-fortress located in the middle of a dense forest shrouded in fog, only adding to its unsettling vibe, while Sterndorf was the absolute opposite - located in the middle of a plain, barely having any man-made protection except for a rather short stone wall, with nearly no natural barriers to the North where the enemy kingdom hailed, having only a river to its east, which also connected it to its oppressor’s lands. The tiny army it had was trained well enough, but it was no match for the massive attack flooding its lands.
Illuga, a young adult who was found to be extremely skilled in navigating through conflict and the chaos of war, suddenly found himself entangled in the middle of the conflict as the wailing of the instruments signaling war started ringing in his ears. He was in the town square when it all started, and as soon as the sounds started coming, he knew what was bound to happen. He swiftly ran to the knights' headquarters to arm himself, as he himself was a captain in the army. His companions were already there, armed and ready to fight, and so he put on his heavy armor and grabbed his polearm, after which they marched towards the town’s walls. People around the town were panicking, some were soon to run to the South and seek refuge in another cities, others ran to the headquarters to volunteer in war, and others just ran around helplessly or barricaded themselves in their homes, knowing that their protectors are no match for the enemy they were about to face, hoping that for this passiveness in the conflict they would at least face no consequences during the reign of their soon to be new rulers.
Illuga's 2nd Infantry Company was one of the three independent companies their army had, and those three companies were the only military units that Sterndorf realistically had, making the entire army have no more than 600 people, not counting volunteers. Meanwhile, the army marching towards them was way more organized, and as Illuga and his company got to the walls surrounding the city, they could see countless infantry regiments marching towards them. Some of his subordinates fled upon seeing this, but Illuga could never abandon his people and show such cowardice as they did by their acts of desertion. They passed the gates of the town, going straight at the grave danger that was only hundreds of meters away. Soon enough, several cannons and other artilleries were fired at the other companies that marched alongside the 2nd, obliterating tons of soldiers as the bloodshed had already started. Screams and sounds of explosions raged across the plain, and Illuga could feel he was starting to get overwhelmed from this, but he knew he had to put on a mask for his people and proceed further to lead them.
He commanded his subordinates to start the assault as they ran towards the enemy, trying to split their tight formation into smaller groups, hoping to have a chance at fighting this way. The left and right wing were supposed to shield the rest from the sides as they launched their offensive, trying to pierce through the formation in front of them, and at first they seemed to succeed in that as they managed to strike right in the middle, fighting off and killing some of their foes as they did not expect such an offensive, as the other two companies took a more defensive approach, and they did split their formation in half, but the enemy quickly regrouped and started to surround and break apart Illuga's company. They could tell they were doomed, but they still tried to reform and fight back, which didn't really work as most of the groups were getting killed before they could try to group back up with the rest, the others were successful and managed to group up with others, and somehow the already halved company managed to be back together, now trying a more defensive approach by trying to leave the center of the enemy's forces. They were determined, and that helped them to get back in formation, and they continued fighting under Illuga's command, and against all odds, now with the more defensive approach the company managed to kill off a good chunk of their foes. Some even took their enemy's weapons as they were much fiercer than the ones they had, and soon enough the enemy forces were nearly halved.
"They must've underestimated us", Illuga thought to himself, as it was quite impressive that a company of maybe 200 soldiers managed to reduce a battalion of at least a thousand soldiers so much by themselves. He proudly looked around, but his pride didn't last long as he noticed that the other companies barely held up in their respective fights, and the reason they did was mostly because of the extra volunteers that came around. The reason for their lack of success was the fact that they were underarmed, and Illuga even saw dead bodies with no armor at all, with just a plain, weak sword beside them. The 1st Company to the right did better, and they still had like at least a hundred soldiers, but the 3rd on the left was barely existent by now, as they were the ones who had mortars and cannons fired at them. Fortunately though, it seemed like their foe was out of ammunition by now.
They continued their assault, and although their forces were countable below one hundred now, the battalion to their opposite was no better, and the chances of victory were nearly equal for both sides now, at least as long as the 3rd Company keeps the other battalion busy. Illuga was already planning their next move, which was that after finishing off their work here they would try to merge with the 1st Company to their right and help them, after which they could possibly finish off the third battalion too, although he wasn't sure if this was a good approach. On the other hand, he considered merging with the 3rd as they were barely holding up, and that would hopefully keep the two other battalions away from merging, but the planning didn't last long as he could see more soldiers marching from the foggy forest he could see in the far. They also appeared to carry more ammunition to launch from the mortars, so he knew that the possibility of merging with another company was most likely out of question.
Somehow, after a long battle they managed to absolutely crush their enemy's battalion, and emerge victorious from their clash, and Illuga's call was to merge with the 1st company as soon as possible, as the 3rd was already defeated. He knew that no matter what he did now, the chances of victory were nonexistent as even more soldiers flooded the field, but he wasn't the type of person to retreat and surrender, he was absolutely determined to keep fighting even when that meant dying. His company ran towards the 1st, but that didn't last long as soon enough the mortars were fired once again, this time straight at the 2nd Company, or what was left of it. Illuga could see countless of his companions being crushed by the massive stones launched by their enemy, and soon one crashed right in front of him. It didn't crush him, but when it landed it broke apart into tiny pieces, one of them launching itself straight at him, taking him out and rendering him unconscious.
*****
Illuga woke up some time later, and he couldn't tell how long it had been exactly. He was surrounded by brick walls he recognized by now - it was a cell in the town's prison. His wounds from the war were sloppily taken care of, wrapped in cheap bandages. The cell he was in was tiny: it was all bricked walls with no windows at all on three sides, and on the fourth it was iron bars with a locked door leading into the corridor. He could see other high-ranked people in the nearby cells, such as the 1st Company's captain and the town's chief. Soon, a soldier from the Fairy Army came to his cell and pulled out a key from the pocket of his black coat.
- Get up and turn around - he said sternly as he entered the cell gesticulated to Illuga to do as he said. Illuga decided to do so, mainly as he knew that he was gonna be questioned first, and that would be his only chance to escape or at least learn more about the outcome of the war he fought in. The officer put handcuffs on his hands and started to forcefully bring Illuga out of the cell, which he didn't even protest, yet the officer still treated him as a subhuman by the unnecessary use of force, which the Fairy Kingdom's army was also known for. He was taken down the stairs to a basement of the town's prison, where the interrogation rooms were located in. He and the other man entered the room, and there was another man sitting in front of a desk with files and documents messily scattered across it located in the middle of the room. The man who was sitting appeared to be not much older than Illuga himself, dressed in a similar black coat, trousers and boots as the other officers were. He also had long, blonde hair, black glasses and a black cap with silver decorations. The room itself was cold and had barely any light in it, having only sunlight coming in from a tiny, barred window near the ceiling, and from a small candle on the blonde man’s desk.
The officer sat Illuga down on the empty chair in front of the man, after which he marched towards the door, standing next to it and locking it, most certainly to avoid the captain’s escape in case things would go south during the interrogation, although oddly enough he didn’t appear to carry any sort of a weapon. The man sitting in front of the prisoner started looking through some of the documents he had on his desk, not speaking a word as he did so for not more than a minute.
– Who are you? What do you want from me? – Illuga screamed out, to which the officer guarding the door reacted by stepping forward, seemingly as to use means of force to pacify the man but stopped and stepped back seeing how the blonde one was completely unfazed.
– Answer me! – he repeated, demanding answers right there and then. He was desperate to know the outcome of the war he participated in, yet the man completely ignored him, continuing to read the documents he held in his hands.
– Illuga, huh? – the man finally spoke softly, in a rather mocking manner – Captain of the 2nd Infantry Company? Quite the pleasure to speak to such a high-ranking person, I must admit!
Illuga just scoffed, annoyed by the mockery shown by the person. He pretty much knew the outcome of the war already, but he still wanted to know more, he yearned for the knowledge, yet the man didn’t appear to plan on giving in so easily, or at least not without rubbing his homeland’s defeat in his face first. To the Captain this felt like having salt poured on his wounds beneath the bandages, especially that his moral codex was that if he wasn’t going to win a fight, he would die trying to achieve the victory, keeping his dignity intact, yet the fact he was kept alive was most likely some kind of a mockery by itself; though undeniably Illuga would serve as a valuable resource to the Fairy Kingdom, if they were to soften him up and get him on their side.
– Why did you keep me alive? – Illuga asked, trying to get some information about his foe’s plans for him. He wished to know more, as that would surely help him plan an escape, after which he could try fleeing to another neighboring kingdom, seek asylum there and possibly lead that kingdom’s army against his homeland’s invader.
– It would be reckless to kill such a powerful, determined and nearly victorious leader like you, Captain – the man finally answered instead of ignoring the questions targeted at him – It was never a part of our plan to kill you, or well, the other captains either. But, as you might know, the third did not live up to our expectations.
Illuga’s assumptions turned out to be true. The occupant had planned to take him to the inner kingdom and force him to join their army, which was quite the outcome he had hoped for, as it would open new ways for him to fight against them. He couldn’t act without thinking and just fight them here and now again, so the second-best course of action would be to try gaining their trust, then flee or start an uprising after gaining enough people on his side. On the other hand, he couldn’t just join his enemy’s ranks, that would make him nothing but a traitor in his eyes, and he saw too many of his companions he held so dear die against the army he would end up joining.
– And to answer your previous question, - the man put down the documents he was holding, after which he stood up – My name is Pyotr Yarovit, Acting Governor General of the Dominion of Novozvezdograd.
– Novo- what? - Illuga asked in disbelief, as he could already make a safe assumption of what that name meant.
– Novozvezdograd, new dominion of the Fairy Kingdom. Is the name not self-explanatory, Captain? - the man spoke as he leaned in closer – Or are you just pretending not to acknowledge the reality we’re in, trying to console yourself from the feeling of defeat?
Illuga was speechless. He knew that the Fairy Kingdom culturally assimilated their new dominions, but he never expected it to start so fast. At this rate, it was a matter of days before they would be forced to speak their language.
– It saddens me how you never asked why I am only an “Acting” Governor General, and not just Governor General, but I’ll say it anyway! - the man exclaimed happily, clearly feeding on the young captain’s irritation, hoping to agitate him even more – But beware, this might make you very upset!
– ...What? – Illuga scoffed, annoyed by the man’s demeanor, as he obviously had a superiority complex.
– I’ve been told His Majesty had planned to combine this... whatever this village is with the nearby conquered cities and kingdoms as well and completely strip them off any autonomy, hence why only Acting for now! But once a decision is made, I’ll hopefully become the actual Governor General of the new incorporated land! Isn’t this delightful? – he laughed, clearly amused by his subject’s reactions as he grew red from anger.
– This is insane! You cannot do this! - the white-haired man screamed out as he twitched around in his chair, but his hands being handcuffed behind the chair’s backrest rendered him unable to do anything.
– That isn’t really my call, but you’ll be more than welcome to voice your dissatisfaction about this to His Majesty himself in no more than a few days! - the governor replied calmly as he sat back down, a wide grin painted on his face when he saw Illuga suddenly stop moving and stare at him, trying to hide his fear.
– Oh, how good you have it to be able to meet the Dictator for Life himself! Not many people get this life-changing opportunity, you know? - he laughed, but after that his facial expression became more serious.
– And I’m not even joking, you’re extraordinary, Captain. His Majesty rarely asks to see the prisoners of war himself, usually he leaves the trials and other “boring” paperwork to his subordinates but having heard about how you took an entire of His squadron yourself, he asked for you to be transported to Feyagrad!
– For what purpose? - Illuga asked, again knowing for what purpose he would be sent to the inner lands, but trying to get as many details as possible about his situation before he would be sent on his way there.
– I can’t say for sure, maybe to join the army, maybe the guard if you’re lucky, or maybe simply to be executed by his own hands! I doubt the latter, but you never know – he answered, this time actually sounding curious about this himself. He seemed to think for a couple seconds, after which he stood up again.
– Take him back to his cell! – he ordered the guard who brought Illuga in, who immediately followed his order, once again grabbing the prisoner tightly by his forearm and forcefully getting him up. He then opened the locked door, and carried Illuga out of the room, bringing him back to his cell on the ground floor, locking him there again.
To Illuga’s surprise, his fellow friends who were in the neighboring cells were gone, and as he found it doubtful that they would already be transported to the capital during the time he spoke to the governor, he could already assume the worst, which was that they were sent to be executed, although he tried to tell himself that they were just transported elsewhere so they wouldn’t possibly communicate. For now, all he could do was sit on the tiny, uncomfortable bed that was the only thing in his cell, excluding a primitive toilet which was simply a bucket. He tried to lay down and rest, but he couldn’t stop thinking about what was about to come, and what would happen when he arrived in Feyagrad.