"He who has never learned to obey will never be a good commander."
- Aristotle
✧
Three children unintentionally converged in the middle of the hall, the world beyond no longer in their eyes. All they could see was a past gone by, a nostalgia so thick that even Cordelia couldn't help but hallucinate for a moment.
For a few seconds, none of them had anything to say. Eloise's upbeat temperament was nowhere to be seen as she desperately tried to rein in her tears. Cordelia and Julius frowned, emotions running high.
From far away, Walker felt his vision warp to another happier, simple time.
Hard marble turned to luscious grass. Chandeliers turned into the boundless sky. Three figures overlapped with three shorter, younger children, bearing a resemblance to one another. But he wasn't so sentimental as to ignore the quickly changing situation.
A scream resounded as a man collapsed to the floor.
'It's begun.'
Within seconds, chaos erupted as the now alert spies quickly grabbed ahold of their bearings and revealed their fangs. As if on cue, they sprinted towards the back of the grand hall, where the Imperial Family was mostly gathered, as well as their closest confidants.
"Draw your weapons!"
Cordelia turned cold as she took control of the guards, who had rushed in upon sensing the disturbance.
"Prioritise the evacuation of the guests. His Imperial Majesty is not such a weakling. I will protect with the Imperial Family."
As he should be. Motes of blue gathered in the monarch's palm as he viciously swung his arm towards the approaching assassins. Some dodged and some were sliced in half by his masterful Projection.
Cordelia closed in, picking off the stragglers. Cool-headed guests joined in as well; they were not so helpless without a weapon.
Clang!
Crossing blades with an opponent, she backstepped and leveraged her superior reach. It was difficult to smuggle in a long-bladed weapon, so the assailants only carried daggers laced with lethal poison. Even so, it was hard to defeat them efficiently. They were grizzled killers and spies, having years of training and experience on her.
It was only made increasingly harder as there were retreating guests screaming their heads off, who had to be protected in case they were used as hostages.
"Tsk."
Cutting down one more, Cordelia lifted her head to see the high-up windows shatter, followed by gas canisters that polluted the air.
"Cordelia!"
Arthur came running, also gripping a sword given to him by a passing guard. His shout distracted her, allowing for a man in black to sneak up and lunge straight towards her heart.
In a display of effortless synergy, she leaned to the side to dodge Arthur's falling blade, killing the other instantaneously. Leaning against each other's backs, they covered their partner's blindspots and became an impregnable fortress. Not too far from them, Kaine had reunited with the other Imperial Family members who were now being escorted away from danger.
Ideally, Cordelia would follow them, but she had been commanded to stay by Julius. Heartless as it was, it was the logical decision.
Her expertise was not as a knight escorting her lord, but as a general commanding her troops on the battlefield.
"It's been too long, Cordelia."
Lips set in a firm line, her sword flickered ferociously as it beheaded the poor man. It took a few seconds before she responded.
"Where have you been?"
He was well-hidden. Her intelligence sources couldn't find even a whiff of him.
"Doing things. Going to places. The usual."
"..."
"Hah... I'm sorry."
"Don't just apologise to me."
Picking up a shield from a fallen guard, he bashed another opponent and savagely sheared through his clothed torso. The princely, imperial aura seemed to dissipate slightly, his old frivolous attitude resurfacing in their reunion.
Cordelia saw Eloise using her healing spells to support the guards, with her brother fending off any opportunistic attackers for her.
"Why aren't you with His Imperial Majesty?"
"He trusts me. Don't worry, I've gotten stronger now, Cordelia. I won't let you thrash me in our matches all those years ago."
Smirking, he blocked a downward slash towards the girl and shoved him back. She followed up with a consecutive quadruple blitz, severing all 4 of his limbs from the stumps.
He whistled, Arthur's smirk widening as she shook her head.
'How can he be like this, even now?'
It was truly baffling for her, who had spent years with him already.
As expected, the home ground advantage and preparedness proved too much for the assassins to handle. Their numbers thinned out gradually, but at a great cost. Even though half of them were knocked out by spike drinks, their willingness to die for their country was surprising as the rest committed what was essentially suicide attacks.
Running head-on into enemy formations, seemingly apathetic to the fact that they were bleeding out rapidly, and killing themselves with poison if they were incapacitated... Cordelia had underestimated the enemy's resolve.
The party, even though it was expected, had been egregiously ruined.
✧
"Your Imperial Majesty, this incident was a colossal mistake on my part, I am fully willing to bear the consequences."
56 people had died, including maids, servants and nobles. Of those, only 2 were of particular note.
Earl Coloumber and Marquis Galem were assassinated at the start of the attack, and it was by no means a coincidence either. Both were nobles of the north who were vassals under the Auster family; their household commanded many knights central to the defence of the northern borders and had fought alongside Cordelia herself.
How they had been killed so fast, nobody really knew. Cordelia lamented their loss silently as she sat in the war room. The Empire secretly descended into a state of emergency without the public knowing any better.
"Troops movements in the north are suspiciously silent. The currently tagged groups are small in scale and we suspect it is a diversion for a larger force to sneak towards the borders. We don't know how that's possible, but it's our biggest conjecture currently."
Generals and military officials hummed and nodded in affirmative. The central figure in all of this, Julius, brooded as well. He had summoned these men and women a few days after the attack in order to decide their next plan of action.
"Investigations and autopsies on the assassins have not revealed anything of importance but judging from the timing of the attack, we believe they were working in conjunction with the Hou Dynasty or Mak'arim Theocracy."
Julius' own intelligence unit briefs the room's occupants on their findings, their faces turning graver and graver with each piece of news. While Earl Coloumber and Marquis Galem's deaths were not terribly significant in the grand scheme of things, it almost certainly proved the allegiance of the attackers.
"Is this entire incident not the fault of Duke Auster? Her 'security measures' were faulty and resulted in many deaths of our fellow nobleman, yet she still earns the right to a seat here? And she can't even detect these hidden movements of the enemy! How can we trust her to uphold the integrity and defence of the north?!"
Perhaps feeling brazen, a member of the Militant Faction shamelessly grilled Cordelia. The man had lost a close friend in the attack and wanted to vent his sorrow and bubbling anger. Everyone knew his words were unreasonable and filled with fury instead of logic.
"Calm down, Marquis Jacques. We can all agree that Duke Auster's preparations were meticulous and plentiful, but the enemy was already prepared to die. It was unfortunate that we were caught by surprise like that."
Unsurprisingly, a majority of the individuals present were part of the Militant Faction as well, but they were not blinded by anger or greed and thus mediated between the two.
"It is not the time to be pointing fingers. We must figure out the solution to the advancing enemy army. Duke Auster."
"Yes."
"Mobilise your troops. Nearby territories are obligated to send supplies and a detachment of soldiers. We'll hammer out the details after."
"Yes, Your Imperial Majesty."
A series of quickfire discussions followed. The room was sitting on the razor-edge called 'time' as they methodically came up with a resolution.
"Meeting adjourned! Hurry back to your territories. Time is of the essence."
Cordelia left hastily, her cape billowing behind her.
"Your Grace!"
She lent an ear to some of her vassals, nodding and replying coldly.
"Your Grace, I believe that the spoils of war should be divided up this time. We cannot let those vultures in the capital feed off of the blood of our soldiers!"
He was silenced by her sudden change in demeanour.
"His Imperial Majesty supports us in the Imperial Court and battlefield, yet you dare to backstab his generosity like this? Where do you think much of our food and water come from?"
Gulping, the man nodded and turned silent for the rest of the way.
"You're all dismissed. As His Imperial Majesty says, spare no effort in returning faster."
Mounting her carriage, Kuro greeted her as she sat in her seat, huffing.
"What's wrong, Your Grace?"
"Nothing I can't deal with. Don't worry about it."
The carriage lurched forward, hastily bringing its occupants towards the north. In fact, there was a massive movement of resources and manpower in the same direction, all at the same time. From an eagle's eye view, it was like a tsunami of dust and hooves, all converging in the same place.
War was coming.
✧
It was strange that a 13-year-old was commanding an army in the first place. A combination of special circumstances, luck and past events had lead to Cordelia being appointed as Commander in Chief of the Combined Northern Army, with a man named Linden Hastes who was assigned as her Advisor. It was chalked up to her inexperience and age but everyone knew the Imperial Court was pulling some strings. The girl's merits spoke for themselves, if not her skill.
Despite the urgency of the situation, Linden still deferred to the Imperial Court and was challenging Cordelia at every avenue and opportunity.
"That's unacceptable. How can we allow the enemy to advance as we blindly search for them?"
Cordelia stood steadfast in front of the towering man, her figure straight and unwavering. He was of venerated age, possessed white a mane of white hair and a scarred, wrinkled face that belay the owner's grim history. Sighing, all of the officers in the War Room shivered at the girl's dark voice.
"Hmph. What does a brat like you know? Go back home and play with your dolls. Like I said, all we need to do is hole up in the fortress cities and wait for the enemy to attack. We'll encircle them, without having to waste time and manpower on scouts."
"You misunderstand the situation. It's obvious they won't waste their element of surprise on some random frontline city. They'll most likely strike at the heart, where our base of operations is. Even then, it's impossible for our defences to overcome the full force of their army."
"Who cares about that? We can just evacuate and pull troops from other cities to defeat their army."
"And leave the other cities undefended? Are you aware of what you're saying right now?"
Within her pupils shone a deadly glint. On the outside, Cordelia was the picture of calm. She had sat down leisurely, crossing her legs with regal elegance, her voice unperturbed by the spittle flying out of Linden's mouth. Yet, on the inside, she was furiously bubbling, like a volcano on the verge of erupting.
"Dumb bitch. You're meant to stay home and get married, like the sow you are."
A pitch-black ichor seemed to overtake her crimson irises as she smiled serenely.
"Are you affirming your intent to question my authority?"
"Haah? What are you talking about? Just be obedient and leave."
Inwardly, she chuckled. The man was so confident because he was being backed by the pigs in the Imperial Court, but clearly, they hadn't valued him as much as he thought. The accomplices they had snuck into her War Council were persuaded with some blackmail and bribes, and it was evident that they never mentioned any military regulations, especially the one about hierarchy and authoritative powers. That, or the nobles were too dumb to read them.
Splatter!
"A-Ah..."
Gracefully sheathing her katana, she apathetically stared at the writhing man on the floor who was clutching his stump of an arm.
"From hereon, Advisor Hastes is to be stripped of his rights to command and advise in the War Council due to insubordination and disrespect towards his superior officers. I exercise my rights to nullify a vote."
Many officers stoically nodded, while a minority gawked and shook violently.
"Any objections?"
Silence.
"Very well. Someone take him away and clean up his mess. Let's discuss our plans."
2157 words
Written 12/04/21 (DD/MM/YY)
