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Chapter XCIX – Your kingdom come.
🕑 Added 2024-07-18 18:24:18 +0000 UTC
68th of Summer 5859
Casamonu Castle, Casamonu
Sir Korvus found himself standing on the ramparts of a wall. These were not the wide, ever-encompassing walls that he was used to. These were shorter, thinner, and much older than the walls of Casamonu. He knew not how old this castle was, just that it was pretty old, and whether or not it would stand up to a cannon. “Who am I kidding?” he muttered to himself. Of course, it won’t. He turned around and looked towards a door leading inside the castle. Korvus could hear a hymn accompanied by a crowd. Priests from the local temple had run inside the castle for protection, and now they were holding service just before the battle. To him, it seemed like a scene right from fiery gospels writ in burnished rows of steel.
“The Demon King is here, and all we can do is stand and watch.” Korvus bowed his head. Only if he had taken his loot and escaped! He’d at least have had a year or two of luxury before the demonic legions took over Gemeinplatz. Now, from atop the hill where the castle stood, he could see a line of fugitives march up and up towards his holdout. Still, he had hope. His men were stationed inside a castle after all. Sure, they could blow open the walls, but the fugitives would have to fight through the castle’s tight corridors if they wanted a quick victory. Korvus only needed a brief respite for his heavily armored retainers to charge out of the castle and blow the fugitives back to where they came from.
Things would be fine.
Korvus would have to calm down now and, after this was all over, he’d piss off to the capital and never return to these accursed borderlands ever again. He made his way into the castle to avoid being shot by a stray javelin. The indoors were truly crowded, with soldiers and other persons of various levels of importance squeezing between each other while navigating the tight corridors of the old castle. The air was oppressive, both from the tight and crowded space and from the feeling of impending doom. It was awfully silent despite so many people being so close together. Even the noblemen had stopped admonishing the occasional person accidentally stepping on and dirtying their shoes. Facing death, all had become equal as they were in the eyes of the grim reaper. Korvus squeezed through, the sounds of the hymn becoming louder as he got closer and closer to the center of the castle.
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
For now, Korvus had nothing to do but wait for the enemy to attack. The men garrisoning the castle would have to deal with it. There was no harm in joining the sermon and praying for a good place in the afterlife if things were to go south. His dining hall had been turned into an impromptu prayer hall, though now was definitely not the time to shout at the priests for having done that without asking him. Korvus sat on the ground, where all the common and uncommon people also were. It was as if some divine power had constructed everything, the siege, the Demon Lord, all of it, just to humble him in this exact moment.
With thine infinite will and wisdom
Ye made all that is above
Below we pray to visit
Thine kingdom to come
Suddenly, an explosion rang out above Korvus’ head. It was outside the walls of the castle, but the explosion was so loud that it felt like Korvus had been bashed on the head. Dust fell from the ceiling, and a few stray bricks fell from the ceiling. One particularly large one landed right next to Korvus, almost killing him there and then. He screamed and jumped away from the brick which reminded him of his mortality. The castle was relatively old, it hadn’t been built with cannons in mind, and his predecessors had only renovated its insides to look fashionable. Castle Casamonu had been the core of Casamonu after all, as the city had been rebuilt around it after it had been burnt down again in time immemorial. Now Korvus was in time memorable, and the castle had proved to be too weak. He got up and grabbed the first soldierly-looking bloke he could find “Get the- get the officers to gather the men, we have to mount an offense to defeat them!”
The nameless soldier bowed and then ran to get his officer. Korvus, ever curious, ran to the walls to see how many were sieging them down. There must not have been much fugitives left, and he remembered that the force he fought outside wasn’t too large. Unless they had somehow pulled out some reserves in the last hour, Korvus still had a chance to win.
There was one slight problem.
“…am I seeing wrongly, or are there a whole lot more men down there?”
Korvus’ vision was perfectly clear.
The League, with their forces gathered from the second gate, had practically doubled their manpower with fresh troops eager to fight. At least they had stopped firing. There was an old man, known to some as Captain John Brown, waving a white flag towards his enemy. “To whoever is responsible for the command of this city, I’d like to parlay with you!” His voice was carried by the wind magic of Ayomide, which allowed him to be heard from far away.
Sir Korvus didn’t have the convenience of a catgirl wizard though. “Get me a white cloth!” Soon, he was waving a white tablecloth in response. “We accept your offer.” he replied to buy some time while his men got ready to attack. The cannon-fire had stopped, replaced by anticipant silence.
“I’d like to read an excerpt from our constitution, the law that our League abides by.” Brown cleared his throat and read the eighth article of the provisional constitution:
Article VIII: No person, after having surrendered himself or herself a prisoner, and who shall properly demean himself or herself as such, to any officer or private connected with this organization, shall afterward be put to death, or be subject to any corporeal punishment, without first having had the benefit of a fair and impartial trial; nor shall any prisoner be treated with any kind of cruelty, disrespect, insult, or needless severity; but it shall be the duty of all persons, male and female, connected herewith, at all times and under all circumstances, to treat all such prisoners with every degree of respect and kindness that the nature of the circumstances will admit of, and to insist on a like course of conduct from all others.
“I can see, from the deserted streets, that many citizens have escaped into your castle. If you surrender now, we’ll treat you and your citizenry according to the aforementioned laws. If you do not surrender and make us bombard your castle, you’ll be responsible for the deaths of the many who reside within. So, for the sake of yourself and others in the castle, I ask you to raise the white flag and surrender your weapons!”
Men atop the castle walls looked at each other and then to their lord. Sir Korvus looked back at the anticipant crowd. “What, do you think we’re going to surrender to a bunch of savages? We-we’ll c-charge at them, and run them down!” The crowd’s lack of enthusiasm gave him a sufficient answer.
“Listen!” Brown continued “We know that it is hard to trust our word, for malignant forces have made you believe that we are here to do evil. Let me say: we have the Hero on our side.” His declaration of having a Hero didn’t exactly do much when he could easily be making it up. “…ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you an unpleasant truth: We either demolish this castle with you in it, which definitely would result in your death, or you surrender and take a chance at life. I ask you: which scenario has a higher chance of you making it out of here?”
Men atop the castle walls looked at each other and to their lord again. Sir Korvus was getting sick of the crowd. “Didn’t you hear me?!” He shouted down at Brown. “We do not negotiate with savage darkskins and servants of the Demon Lord! All of us will die here if we have to!” Sir Korvus, if he was to die, at least wanted to make an example so his bravery and loyalty could be remembered. Even the littlest of prestige, the tiniest crumb, that was worth the countless lives sheltering in the castle. To die standing up with a sword in hand, that was the noble creed.
“Are you sure? We will begin bombardment immediately if you are to not surrender. This is your last chance.” replied Brown.
“Of course, no-” Before Sir Korvus could reply negatively to Brown, the crowd around him began making noise to drown him out.
“Sir, we have been defeated anyways!”
“Sir, just accept an honorable surrender!”
“Sir, just give us a chance to not die!”
Sir Korvus roared back to shut the men up. “You! Don’t you all have weapons, or at least hands to swing back at the enemy? Why are you here, instead of mounting a counter-attack, do you stand here like cowards! I’ll reject the offer; you knaves go down and fight those savages!” He was about to tell Brown to piss off when one of the soldiers next to him jumped to grab him. The crowd followed too, trying to silence Sir Korvus. With so many people on the tight ramparts trying to apprehend him, Korvus was pushed to and fro.
Suddenly, Korvus lost his balance. The wave of people behind him pushed him off the rampart. Gravity did the rest as the once high and mighty Sir Korvus found himself speeding head-first into another world.
