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Chapter C – Your conclusion come.
🕑 Added 2024-07-28 15:20:44 +0000 UTC
68th of Summer 5859
Right below Casamonu Castle, Casamonu
There was a solemn procession going on which Casamonu hadn’t seen the likes of in its long history.
Ye who accompany us, day and night
Deliver us from evil, o’ Divine
We bow before thine boundless magnificence
Ye who is most merciful and kind
As the gates of the castle creaked open, the people hiding inside Casamonu Castle began their march out. It was a slow march of defeat, their heads held low, and their eyes staying away from the dregs who had defeated them. Frontmost were priests accompanying an officer who was acting in the late Sir Korvus’ stead, behind them were soldiers who were carrying white banners, and surrounded by these soldiers were the citizens of the town who had hidden in the castle. They were all silent save for the priests chanting their hymn. Anyone who carried arms dropped it to the ground as they exited, making quite the impressive pile of weaponry around the castle gate.
“That’s quite the impressive performance. It’s as if everyone here was trained on how to surrender.” commented Brown from afar. He and the captains of the League were standing at the end of a corridor formed by the soldiers of the League.
“It’s just how we do it here, captain. The noblemen get instructed extensively on how to conduct effective warfare and surrender courteously when they fail.” replied Vaiz, who was the master of ceremonies for the League in this instance of surrender. “Get ready to receive the delegation, I think they’re marching forward to surrender to you since you’re the commander-in-chief.”
The procession of unarmed soldiers stopped in front of Brown and co. The officer in charge of the surrender asked “Are you the chief commander of these fugitives?”
“Yes, for the time being I am.” replied Brown.
The officer paused, unsure whether to continue speaking or go on with the surrender. “I… May we know who exactly we are surrendering to?”
“The League of Gileadites.”
“No, your name.”
“My name is Isaac… no, I don’t really need to use a nickname anymore, my name is John Brown. But it truly matters not who I am, for I am just a provisionary elected representative of the people behind me. Worry not about the mortal old man standing right before you, worry about the immortal ideals of liberty standing above and beyond you, sir. I will surely die, yet I doubt that liberty will die unless you are to slaughter humanity itself.”
The officer shuddered, though that shudder might have been due to the fact that Brown was taller and much more intimidating physically than him. He thought it surprising to hear such grand words from a commander of savages. “Understood, sir.” The officer cleared his throat, reciting the following lines in a robotic manner “You have fought fairly and achieved victory over us.” The next part however, was genuine and filled with dread “Please have mercy on us as the Divine commands.” He knelt down and extended a key towards Brown, one symbolizing the castle and Casamonu.
“Excuse me, but I’m not authorized to accept your surrender.” Brown stepped aside to let Ayomide take the stage. “She blew open the walls to the city, so I think Captain Ayomide is the one who deserves to take it.”
“Wait, that darkskin?” The officer stopped kneeling down in surprise. “S-Sir, I can surrender to you just fine.”
“You’re surrendering to all the fine folk here. Does it matter who you give the key to?” Brown’s hand slipped slightly towards his broadsword (one he had taken from the late Watanabe Generico). “If you do not wish to surrender, then state it clearly so that we can act accordingly.”
“Uhm…” The officer, and the people behind him, trembled for a split second. He eventually caved-in after a long minute and knelt down in front of the revolutionary catgirls wizard. Surrendering to a darkskin demi-human, and a woman at that, was quite the humiliating prospect for a noble officer. “Please… have mur- mear- mercy on us as t-the Divine commands.”
“I’ll consider having some.” replied Ayomide. She wouldn’t have had any mercy if not for the old man cautioning her about the fact that murdering people willy-nilly wasn’t going to help anyone (something about murder not being okay). The revolutionary catgirl wizard, once holed up in an insignificant maid café in Azdavay, was now holding the keys to the city of Casamonu.
After Ayomide took the key, the surrender ceremony continued on with the soldiers from the castle handing Sir Korvus’ personal banner to the soldiers of the League. The minor noble officers and troops also handed their banners as well. Soon the League was armed with a whole assortment of wildly colored banners that were soon to mean nothing, for the eyes of the Lord grew tired of having to watch all those weird colors flaunting their status around.
“Now then” began Brown “The regular city folk among you is free to leave. To the noblemen and other wealthy folk: effective from this moment onwards, all of your slaves and indentured servants are free. You are not free to leave the castle until we have held court for each one of you, and your former slaves and servants shall act as witnesses.”
This caused quite the shock among the crowd, with audible gasps and curses flying around. A fight would have broken out if not for the fact that all of their weapons had been taken away a few minutes ago. A voice cried out “You are a lunatic! A demon! What sort of nonsense are you spouting?”
“It is not nonsense. Didn’t you hear the constitution before you accepted surrender? We are to have a fair and impartial trial, and I think those who have served you for years will make for perfect witnesses.” Brown paused for dramatic effect and cleared his throat “Or do you not believe that you have treated your slaves fairly? Are you worried of what’ll happen if they speak up?”
“Please, have mercy! The darkskins are savages without any concept of reason – they’ll just blame us for no real reason!” shouted another person.
“Hey, I’m civilized enough to see that what you are saying is hogwash.” replied Ayomide, and her comrades joined with similar retorts. “Uncivilized are you who put people in chains and pretend to be doing good to them. My patience for your nonsense is wearing thin!”
“We’ll hear your arguments in court, gentlemen.” With this, the League began apprehending the noble men and women of Casamonu. To the onlooking citizens this was a surreal scene. First the men of fair skin had been defeated by those fugitives, then the men of noble blood had surrendered to those who lacked even surnames, and finally now the men of high rank were being taken away by a bunch of former slaves. It was a total inversion of social order, one so shocking that it seemed like the end times had truly come. There was nothing to do but watch with their mouths agape, while some had given up on making reason of this mess to return to their homes and go about their day like usual.
Today, on 68th Summer 5859, Casamonu officially fell out of Imperial jurisdiction.
68th of Summer 5859
Casamonu Castle, Casamonu
Night was falling onto Gemeinplatz, and Casamonu was unusually quiet. Not that it was much lively normally at night: an absence of convenient lighting options (like electricity) meant that life in Gemeinplatz came to a halt by nighttime. However, a curfew declared right after the surrender had meant that there truly was no one out on the streets during this night.
Ayomide was enjoying the brief time of rest before things were to fully kick into gear tomorrow. She was sitting in the former office of Casamonu’s castellan, enjoying the soft seat cushioning her hindsides which had been constantly aching on the long march here. “Life would be so good if not for the gits bothering us…” she thought out loud.
“Work hard to get them off your tail then, young lady.” replied Brown, to whom “taking a break” was a foreign concept. He was already busying himself with going through the records of the former counts of Casamonu to see if there was anything useful. “We haven’t done anything yet. This is the beginning of the beginning at best.”
“O’ old man, will you ever be fully satisfied?”
“Not until I meet the Lord in person, no, and I pray that I’ll be able to meet the Heavenly Father in his chambers without any regrets on my part.”
Ayomide chuckled. “You sure are hard to please.”
“Staying away from greed and being content is a virtue, young lady, but that doesn’t mean one shouldn’t be content if things are not well.”
“Yeah yeah, I get it…”
“That is not to say that I am displeased – I think you all have done excellent work. I’m just cautioning against thinking that we have won and becoming idle while we have an entire Empire to face.” Brown picked up the candle he had brought to his desk for reading. “I’ll be heading to sleep now, there isn’t much use in my going through these records when I can’t read the writing in the first place.”
“I’ll be waiting for Shinasi here. I can make my own light if I need to find my way if need be.”
Brown smiled, though that was barely visible from the dim candlelight. “I tend to forget. We didn’t have people capable of summoning light whenever they wanted back where I came from.”
“Sounds like a boring place to be.” Though Ayomide would have preferred a boring place to Gemeinplatz in all honesty.
“I pray that we can make Gemeinplatz into a boring place to live as well.” Brown opened the door. “Good night, young lady.”
“Good night, old man.”
Brown left with the candle, and the room was dark once more. Not that it mattered for Ayomide, her eyes saw just as well in the dark. She yawned. “Guess I’ll close my eyes and take a nap until Shinasi comes back…”
Tomorrow, a very different day was about to dawn on Casamonu.
