“The barbarians are asking for parlay?” Molt could barely believe the words his own daughter was speaking.

“Yes, your Majesty,” Pina replied, kneeling before his throne with a small collection of papers in hand.

Pina left Sadera with her knights and a belly full of fire to avenge the Empire against the barbarians. Yet she came back like a whipped dog singing their praises and acting as their glorified courier.

Molt ordered his mages to check her over for any form of mental manipulation or tempering, that she was actively being controlled, even evidence she had been replaced with some homunculus body double, but they found nothing.

Whatever she saw on the other side of the Gate completely convinced her that victory was impossible on the field of battle.

To her credit, Molt had reached a similar conclusion some time ago. He’s simply been waiting for a victory on the battlefield to allow the Empire to negotiate a peace from a position of strength, fragile as said strength might be.

A peace he had no doubt would incur a significant financial cost to it.

But why now? They were winning as far as he could see. Molt could hardly think of a single rational leader who would ask to end a war they were on the winning side of and held such a disgusting overwhelming amount of power over their foes.

But then again, perhaps that was the point. They were winning, decisively even. What better time was there to discuss terms then when they held a blade to the Empire’s very throat? Molt certainly couldn't think of any.

He was hardly going to entertain the thought these barbarians were defenseless, but perhaps they were exhausted. They have expended most of their power in the initial battles and were now seeking terms at the peak of their performance?

Or perhaps they were anticipating the massive wave of Imperial troops destined to be arrayed against them and wished to leave with their record on the battlefield intact?

Molt motioned for Marcus to collect the documents and hand them to him, thankful they were written in the civilized language, to see what exactly these barbarians, Japanese as they seemed to call themselves, wanted.

She told him of her travels while he read the message, a tale of fantastical vistas and marvelous architecture. Of people who use something akin to magic, but adamantly claim it is not. A world of plenty and abundance, where all are treated equally and cared for. A world where martial mastery is tempered by an inflexible aura of duty and justice.

And if that is what she truly believed, then she is more a child then he thought she was. The very concept that the barbarians only showed her what they wanted her to see never seemed to slip into her mind as she regaled her story.

Though she seemingly was smart enough to try and smuggle some of their weapons beyond the Gate on their end, only to be thwarted by an arch that ‘detects metal’. A shame, his alchemists and smiths need all the samples of these barbarians arms they can get.

After all, how could the Empire hope to fight these barbarians if they didn’t understand their weapons?

“How many tons of gold are they asking for?” Molt questioned, having yet to see mention of tribute in the document, simply moral grandstanding, baseless accusations, and flowery language.

He could only begin to imagine how much these Japanese barbarians will demand in exchange for leaving Imperial lands. And that is before taking into account the ransoms to be paid in for the nobles still in their captivity from their initial foray beyond the Gate.

Assuming they still lived.

“None,” Pina replied.

“None?” he parroted, making sure he heard her right. None? What sort of nonsense was this?

“None,” she repeated. “They are unlike any other people we have ever encountered. With wonders and marvels that defy explanation. They have said they have no need for our gold, that they only desire peace and-”

“And our land,” he bluntly interrupted her, finally finishing with the message. As his gaze left Pina’s own signature, he felt a cold anger bubble in him. “You left Sadera with fire in your heart and the goal of seeking out the barbarians beyond the Gate to learn what you could for the benefit of the Empire. Yet you return with a document not only claiming to have given over Italica to them, but have begun talks for peace.”
“Your Majesty I-“ Pina fidgeted under his gaze, perhaps realizing then and there the true gravity of her actions. Or perhaps she simply feared his wrath. “The situation is more complicated than it looks-”

“Ignoring the fact you have no power to entreat with a barbarian people and that this document you signed has no legally binding power without my imperial seal,” he held the paper in question up. “You signed away a swath of territory to them. All for a temporary end to hostilities. Why?”

“We couldn’t have held it even if we fought to the last,” she defended herself. “Your Majesty….Father, if you had seen what power they have at their disposal, if you had seen the destruction they can bring to bear for any battle you’d have given them the city just as I did.”

“And you couldn't even muster a paltry attempt at resistance? No last stand? Not even the barest attempt at holding Italica? To at least give the barest bit of trouble to their forces? ”

“Any resistance I could have mustered died when I saw a small force of Japanese, aided by the Apostle of Emory Himself, lay waste to the entire bandit army. Thousands died by their metal beasts and strange weapons. Any resistance on our part would have only resulted in the corpse piles being a few bodies higher.” Pina seemed to have regained the smallest amount of her bravado, yet she still looked away when put under his gaze.

“So the scale of death scared you into submission then?” It wasn’t an insult or an accusation, merely a question.

“No- Yes. I mean I-” she fumbled looking for the correct words. “The sight of such destructive power was terrifying, but it was also… humbling,” she finally admitted. “

“Humbling?”

“For all their power, all their overwhelming force, they showed a capacity for mercy I have never seen before to the people of Italica. Despite being fully within their rights to sack the city and claim all within as spoils of war, they did not. In fact, the insinuation offended them. They, the Japanese, are unlike any people I have ever heard of.”

“Oh? And what did their sovereign say on the matter of peace?” He tossed the papers to the side, pages scattering across the marble floor. “After all, you did go to their homeland, did you not?”

“I never met him, not even a member of his court. From what I was told, their sovereign, an Emperor even, wields only ceremonial powers,” Pina explained. “Real power is held by their equivalent of the Senate. Members of whom are the ones who commanded the JSDF through the Gate, and whom I negotiated with.”

“Oh some senators would be quick to pounce on that…” Molt grumbled.

“Your Majesty?”

“I was musing how there are some senators who would be quick to pounce on this chance for a cessation of hostility,” Molt recovered.

“You say that as if you want to continue the war? Even after everything I have said and seen?”

Molt scoffed at the insulation, “unlike some in the Senate, I am not blind to our losses and our precarious situation. Of all the people in the Empire, I alone know how fragile our position truly is.”

Even after being informed of a heavily censored version of events, which either downplayed or wholly omitted the true scale of the disaster at Alnus, the Senate became gridlocked by indecision by extreme views and positions.

At one end, Cassel and his colleagues hiked up their skirts and demanded an end to the war. There has been ‘too much suffering’ they decried, ‘too much death’. That anything was better than an ocean of blood.

On the other extreme, there were those whose voices thundered for a war of annihilation against the Japanese. To pit the whole of Sadera’s might against this foe. To break them, slaughter their peoples, bind the survivors in chains, and salt the very earth beyond the Gate so even the people’s of that world would know the price of defying the Empire.

Of course, the vast majority were somewhere in between, ranging between a temporary cessation of hostility to rebuild the Legions and to learn how the barbarians fight, and those who favored a renewed offensive but of a more limited scale until a doctrine of warfare could be made against them. Yet no consensus on any end has been reached, grinding the bureaucratic apparatus of state to a halt.

Frustratingly, some were using the losses accrued to simply enrich themselves.

Sulla and his ilk chief amongst them, more concerned with counting coppers than actually aiding the Empire. First refusing to grant additional coin to the war effort, going as far as to instruct his men in the provinces of Atlus, Soporati, Laetans, and even some of the colonies to do the same. Then, if that was not insulting enough, having the gall to demand concessions from the throne in return for further funding.

It was a testament to how fragile the Empire was that Molt did not have the man and his cohort executed and have their property seized by force. But to do that would only invite discontent among the Senate, and even further instability at a time where unity was needed.

And Clovis? In public, the man was unusually quiet on the matter, merely offering his personal legions for provincial garrison duty to allow the Imperial legions to join in the war proper. Molt refused of course, since he wasn't stupid or desperate enough to let the man have free reign over even more provinces then he already had.

Disturbingly, Molt had already received reports from agents in the west that the man was rallying his forces regardless. Ostensibly to reinforce the frontier and provide immediate assistance to the Imperial Legions should the barbarians push further into the Empire.

Initial reports said the man has an army of sixty thousand legionaries, with an unknown number of auxiliaries accompanying them. Has he been emboldened by the Empire’s losses to make a power play, or is he simply paranoid of losing his own foothold of power should the barbarians push west?

Though reports say they are more likely to march north then west…

Generals Corbulo, Mithras, and a host of other commanders have assured him that the Heartlands would be able to repel any barbarian incursion. That even now the first cohorts of men were finishing their accelerated training regimes to take to the field proper. Concerns that the reduced training regiment would negatively impact the men’s fighting capabilities were smothered by the fear of the Heartlands being despoiled by a barbarian host.

But after hearing accounts on the field of Alnus, his smiths reactions to what little Japanese arms they have had to examine, the loss of Italica, increased banditry, murmurings of discontent in the Senate and from Vassal states, and further word of the gathering barbarian hordes to the east and north, he worried that the shear strain of all these foes would break the Empire long before any decisive battle was fought.

As illegal as this… document is, if giving some land bought him precisely needed months to rebuild his forces and bring the Empire’s affairs to order, then so be it.

“You will be responsible for them while they are here,” he saw the girl’s face light up. “I am not agreeing to anything, merely that I shall entertain their terms in full. Send word through whatever system you and them set up, and make the necessary arrangements for their emissary to arrive. I shall send word that they be allowed to pass through the battlelines without incident. They may bring a handful of their warriors for their protection at most, and none of their metal beasts are allowed near the city proper.”

“Of course. Yes. Thank you Fath- Your Majesty,” the girl looked as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

“But know this, Pina,” Molt continued, hoping to impress the severity of the situation upon her. “While they are in Sadera, you shall be responsible for them. You will house them. You will feed them. You shall even clothe them if needs be. And should they disturb the peace, in any way, you shall bear reasonability should they violate the terms of this… agreement.”

As the finer details were worked out, and his daughter left the chamber almost skipping, he had Marcus summon his Praetorian Prefect.

Afterall, if the barbarians were to enter his city, there were many preparations to be made to show these invaders just what sort of dragon they were provoking with their glib candor and ridiculous demands.

No doubt Regulus would have something interesting in mind to remind these barbarians of the Empire’s might.

--
--

It was official, Sadera was entering peace talks with the forces beyond the Gate. Pina told me a few hours after she spoke with the Emperor, news of the meeting would soon spread across the city, but for now, there was a sort of calm before the storm.

Whatever Pina said, whatever she saw, and whatever those on the other end promised, seemed to be enough to move the Emperor to at least begin the peace process.

Finally, this insanity can start to come to an end and we can start to move on.

I invited her over to my villa, officially to ‘catch up’ but more because I wanted to lay to rest some concerns I was having about the forces beyond the Gate.

“They are an island nation made up of thousands of islands, but only a few hold most of their people,” Pina cheerfully explained in the sitting room. She put down a map of Japan on the table, pointing at Tokyo, “here is where the Gate is on their end, in the middle of their megalopolis capital city called Toe-Keyo.”

I did my best to smile and nod at all the wondrous sights Pina described about this ‘fantastical’ land. Of the ‘glass towers’, ‘underground roads’, ‘horseless carriages’ and more.

“The Japanese capital, is a truly unbelievable place Tanya,” Pina explained, her enthusiasm almost made it seem like literal stars were in her eyes.

And on and on it went.

I’m certain over an hour went by before she even took a breath.

But I sat there, listening to everything she said, putting on a nice smile. Hopefully not too forced, and nodded along, adding only the occasional quip.

Everything she said seemed normal.

And yet it was all wrong.

Not technically wrong, or that she was intentionally misleading me, but what she described sounded off. She spoke in great length about Japan, and nothing else.

Or more specifically, she didn't talk about anyone else.

I might have been able to just write off Pina forgetting to mention meeting other foreign dignitaries, but when taken in context with everything else she was saying about Japanese this, JSDF that, Diet this, Ser Itami and his fellow warriors, and Japan that, and the sinking feeling I that had been building up for a time turned into a mire of confusion.

I can accept Pina having been brought along on a curated tour of Tokyo, that she was shown only the best aspects of Japan with a quite white wash of the past to paint themselves in the best light possible. Her descriptions of the place sounded almost fantastical, gas-less lights and what not. She even used the word ‘inferior’ to describe Imperial metalworking compared to Japanese craftsmanship.

I’d be tempted to call her out on some of the harsh words describing Sadera compared to Japan, yet I too knew just how stark a difference there was. We were primitive compared to a modern nation.

Still, I will not accept that at no point during her whole visit that some American did not put their foot in the metaphorical door and go into a lengthy introduction about how powerful they were in comparison to Japan.

Honestly it was almost ridiculous that this was the thing that I found too absurd. This was the metaphorical hill I was prepared to die on. Not the dimensional gateway to my old world, but the fact an American official did not introduce themselves to Pina to try and one up Japan.

And yet, there it was.

Pina at least acknowledged that other nations kept ‘emissaries’ in the Japanese capital, but not that she was directed to any of them, or that any one beyond Japan met with her. And that the only military force marching through the Gate now was the JSDF.

The JSDF has never gone beyond Japanese soil, never fought a protracted conflict of any kind. That was the Americans job thanks to the Mutual Defense Treaty. I admit that the SDF would probably have a significant presence in this world thanks to the Gate simply being on Japanese soil, but for them to control it so unilaterally is bizarre.

Yet by Pina’s own words, the base erected at Alnus was a ‘Japanese base’. Not even a Japanese American base. No other foreign nationals. Nothing.

There has to be something I’m missing. Something so subtle I’ve just ignored it, because no Japan that I know of would ever have the political willpower to do something like this on its own.

I had been toying with the idea that this Japan might not be ‘my’ Japan for a while now, but Pina’s words were the final nail in that theory. Now the question has moved onto ‘how different from my Japan’ is this Japan?

“Oh! I almost forgot,” Pina abruptly stopped her talk about the sights and sounds of Tokyo and gestured to her page. I had almost forgotten the girl was even here with how quiet she was.

The girl nodded and brought out a wrapped package, handing it to Pina, who in turn handed it to be me.

“I didn’t want to come back empty handed, so I decided to get you this” she smiled. “The Japanese have these picture books with images so clear you’d think you were looking at them with your own eyes. And in one of their stores, I saw one that showed the world Japan is apart from the heavens. Seeing it, I asked Sir Itami to lend me some of their money to purchase the book for you.”

“Oh, thank you Pina,” again, I hope my words don't sound too forced. From what she described, it sounded like an astronomy book. Don’t know where I was going to put it, since a modern book would absolutely juxtapose the classical architecture and medieval technology around us.

Interesting but hardly-

Rip

“Eh….?” I stared at the cover of Pina’s gift. This….was…..ugh….

“Unbelievable right?” she happily nodded to herself, not noticing my expression. “Images from a realm not even the Gods themselves can enter. In the other world, the Japanese have these things that go beyond the clouds and into-”

“Pina,” I repeated more firmly, almost thinking what she gave me had to be a joke.

It just had to be…

Nothing else could describe what she gave me.

“Yes?”

“I don't think this is what you think it is,” I awkwardly turned the cover to her, showing Pina the drawing of two very fit young men holding each other in the throes of a very explicit embrace…

“Wrong one!” The smut was ripped out of my hands by the blushing princess who covered the image and turned her exasperated ire to her poor page. “Hamilton, this is the wrong one! It was supposed to be the one with the heavenly images, not the…’artwork’ we brought back!”

“W- Well Bozes was carrying all the books you brought back,” the girl defended herself. “I just grabbed the one that wasn't in the pile of the others!”

“It was separated because it was different from the other books of artwork,” Pina fired back, her blush still present.

“W-Well how was I supposed to know that?!”

For the love of….she brought back smut from a diplomatic meeting!

Wait…Books. There was more of it!?

Before this situation could descend into a further comedic act, there was a commotion in the hallway that caught both of our attention.

Course words muffed by the walls, then a short pained cry, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, Coredila threw the door open and marched in. Behind her, one of Pina’s knights nursed her wrist while glaring at the rabbit girl.

“Do I even need to ask?” I questioned.

“This slave attacked me,” the knight growled.

“I had an important message to deliver to you, and I told the girl what would happen if she tried to stop me. She should be glad I was lying,” Cordelia replied to me, seeming to smirk at the knight’s distress.

“You can't just interrupt a meeting between royalty,” the girl countered.

“And knights aren't supposed to whine like children,” turning her head, Cordelia gave the knight a toothy grin. “For the record, I did not attack you. If I did, we’d hardly be having this conversation.”

“Why you damn-”

“Panache,” Pina interrupted the woman, “is anything broken?”

“I- no, your highness,” the knight twisted it about and flexed her fingers, wincing in discomfort, “but it’s sore.”

“Then we’ll just leave it at that,” Pina then turned to Cordeila, “and you best remember the only reason you’re keeping your hand is because you are one of my sister’s favorites.”

“Of course…,” dropping the smirk, she glared at Pina for a moment before leaning towards my ear, cupping it with her hand to prevent anyone from even reading her lips. “Yeah, so, there’s an urgent situation involving those people you have the eunuch and the wolf boy looking for.”

My blood went cold, “how urgent?”

“It’s…pretty bad,” she glanced back over to Pina, “like, you need to come now, bad.”

--
--

“Fuck…” Eloquent, I know.

But what else could I say after quickly sending Pina and her entourage away to let Cordelia drag me to meet Gaius at one of the clinics I set up in the city. An establishment created to treat the bare minimum of illness, and to provide basic relief in the lower areas of the city, than to actually provide proper medical care.

But its existence still increased the health of the area tremendously. Going from nothing, to something, tends to do that.

I left Cordelia and the few guards I brought outside, following Gaius in and was led to a room filled with tarped corpses.

Like I said…fuck.

“Your highness,” a lone figure entered the room and greeted me. One of the apothecaries here, essentially a doctor, but he looked like one of those renaissance apothecaries with the heavy coat and beaked mask. “It is an honor to be in your presence.”

“What happened,” I didn't have time for all the pomp and circumstance.

“Your highness I-”

“I found a number of Japanese in the mines,” Gaius cut off the apothecary and got right to the point, shrugging as the man glared at him. “Most of them are right over there.”

“Most?” There were more of them here?

“The others are resting in a back room,” the apothecary motioned to the adjoining room. “They are unresponsive and their conditions are dire.”

Fuck…..

“What happened?” I pinched the ridge of my nose, dreading what I was about to hear.

“They seemingly died in the mines,” Gaius commented, watching as the apothecary pulled the ragged blanket off the body in the ‘lineup’.

I had seen my fair share of gruesome sights in the Great War, lost limbs from shellfire and the like, but even I felt a brief twinge when I saw the body’s condition. He looked like he’d been mauled by a wild animal.

But the man was unmistakably Asian.

A gloved hand turned the corpse over and gestured across the body’s horrifically raked back and exposed bone.

“I can’t even tell you what killed him exactly, your Highness,” the apothecary explained. “While the scarring here would imply blood loss or exposure from lashings, black lung has been known to kill even the heartiest of men. It could have even been something as simple as exhaustion. I’ve even heard the mines have started to use a practice done in the colonies where they simply import more slaves to replace the dead to keep up production rather than tend to the ones they already have.”

“Men constantly die in the mines,” Gaius continued. “Anyone who could have known him, or the others, will probably be dead in a month, two at most themselves.”

“Where did you find them exactly,” I questioned Gaius.

“Your manservant found these,” the apothecary gestured to all three on the tables, “in a pile together. No doubt bound for some market to be hacked away at and sold by the piece. Assuming some debased necromancer doesn't get his hands on them first.”

“An associate of mine was looking to purchase cadavers for less than… accepted studies when he came across them, your highness”, Giaus quickly explained himself, ignoring the subtle glare from the apothecary. ”He remembered I had asked him about slaves of this sort of look, sent me a note to come by and, well, here we are.”

“All, but that one,” the apothecary pointed to the tarped body at the end of the room, “she was found with the others in a pleasure house.”

“The others? You mean the few still alive then?” And it just keeps getting worse.

“Yes” he noted, walking to the last corpse and pulling over the tarp. “While I can hardly tell how those men died, this girl has a more readily apparent cause of death: strangulation.”

He pulled the cloth off the body, bruises and marks littered her body. While less bloody than the other man, it was no less brutal. And as a woman myself, for the second time now, the sight of those dead eyes and handprint-like marks on her neck almost made me shift a bit.

Almost.

“Please note the restraint marks on the wrists,” he held up the girl’s arm. “Given where she was found, and her exotic nature, I can only assume that-”

“I understand,” I shut him up, not needing to hear the gritty details of the sight. “You don’t need to explain it any further.”

“Oh, my deepest apologies.”

That said, I was still faced with the issue of a morgue filled with dead Japanese nationals. Deceased as they are, their bodies show the ‘care’ they had in Imperial captivity. There was already the issue of many Japanese being held here as slaves, but If they are discovered by anyone from Earth, especially in this state…

“Burn them,” I decided, looking into the colored lenses of the man’s mask. “Make sure nothing remains.”

“And the ones in the other room?” he questioned, opening the door.

Three beds line up one after another. The young women were in similar states, scars, swelling, bruising, and welts dotting their faces were the least concerns if their wet, labored, breathing as any indication.

“Remus told me these four girls tried to escape the brothel they were in recently,” Gaius spoke up, providing context to the current sight. “They were caught, and the madam punished them by giving them to clients with the most…. Deviant interests. The boy said it was a miracle only one of them was outright dead by the time he managed to purchase them from the brothel.”

I looked at the trio and their collective weak breathing, and sighed, “how long have they been sleeping for?”

“Hard to say,” the apothecary clicked his tongue as he mumbled something unintelligible behind his mask. “They have been unconscious since your man servants brought them here, nothing I have done has seemingly been able to rouse them.”

“...Would they wake up if they were healed,” I crossed my arms, drumming my fingers in a nervous tick.

“Again, your highness, I cannot truly say one way or the other. “The body can be mended, to a degree, but healing magic can only do so much. Regardless, there will be scarring, mostly of the mind and soul. As much as some may boast about my skill, those are beyond my capabilities. Perhaps if an Apostle were here, one gifted in higher magic, they could be healed. But beyond that…”

“Then how long will they last?”

“Without any intervention? By the week’s end at most. They’ll all either drown when their lungs fill up or simply expire from trauma.” The apothecary gave his prognosis.

Damn it all.

If the Japanese find these people, dying, abused, mentally broken, the results could be catastrophic for the Empire and, by extension, me. There is no doubt they would refuse any sort of surrender of ours at that point, and the general public would demand pounds upon pounds of flesh for this.

If it was a large mass of faceless bodies, with a number so high that the public as a whole could never form an intimate relation to any individual then maybe, just maybe, we could weather the PR shit storm thanks to all the people I managed to get out of harm's way. Some happy news to ignore the bad or at least deaden it.

But now I had to deal with these three brutalized citizens who spent their last days being assaulted in the most graphic of ways imaginable.

One good photo, even the slightest mention of them, and the media circus would be unending. Any calls for a less harsh peace, or even a ceasefire at all, would be drowned out by public anger baying for retribution.

Worse, given the technological gap between Earth and the Empire, there isn't even any war weariness to work off of. How can you get weary of war if you don’t suffer any losses? What push is there to end it if nothing goes wrong for your side?

Even if the flames of revenge were petering off, the sight of these girls will be akin to pouring a vulnerable tidal wave of gasoline to reignite that fire to potentially even greater heights.

Rationally, there is only one option. One clean decision to end the needless loss of life for all parties. Saderan and Japanese alike.

Despite knowing what needed to be done, I find myself irrationally hesitant.

Was it some lingering thought in the back of my head reminding me that I was once one of them. Japanese. A vestigial sense of comradery for a people I was now almost three decades removed from.

And yet…

“Give them something for the pain,” finally saying the words that seemed so difficult to get out moments ago.

“As you wish, your Highness. Once administered, I shall pour over what tomes I have at my disposal to see if anything can be done-“

“You misunderstand me,” I cut the man off, speaking through the lump in my throat. “I said to give them something for the pain, I did not ask for them to be healed. Give them enough to make them feel nothing, and let them pass.”

The apothecary looked at me, then nodded. “Apologies then, your Highness. I shall prepare the potions at once.”

“Once they do pass, of natural causes, strip them of anything valuable and burn them along with the others,” I didn't take my eyes off the women as the man moved to carry out my orders.

As the robed apothecary walked out, I heard Gaius sigh aloud.

“How grim,” Gaius mused, watching the healer move down the hall and begin ordering the alchemists to prepare the potions. “But I suppose while kindness can earn silence for a time, death ensures it forever.”

“It’s not even about silence or denying this happened,” I start to walk out, Gaius following close behind. “If the Japanese find them, especially like this, it will only escalate the war to a level you can’t even begin to imagine.”

“Just as the Empire has launched punitive acts for cruelties done to its citizens,” he remarked.

“Exactly,” I decided to walk the eunuch through my thought process. “If the Japanese see their countrymen like this, can you imagine what sort of rage and fury will propel them forward? What will they do to us? What have we done for less? For the sake of the people of the Empire, for the sake of any hope of a quick peace, an end to the war, they cannot be allowed to live and return to their people. If they ever learn of this, let's hope it's after whatever document ends with war is signed.”

“And so death pays for life,” Gaius commented cryptically.

I don’t reply, more focused on my own internal musings as I deal with the uncomfortable realization that I just ordered the murder of three people.

Murder.

I’ve killed many people before, but I’ve never murdered anyone. Despite what allied propaganda may have claimed, I never specially target non combatants or went out of my way to cause undue suffering to civilian populations. Every death caused by my hand has been perfectly within the bounds of the rules of war, lacking as they might have been.

Yes, I have played fast and loose with rules of engagement, even stretching the legality of some actions to their absolute breaking points. But the rules were still followed in the technical sense, if not the ‘moral’ sense. I worked within a system to achieve the best possible results by its own rules, nothing more, nothing less.

Every act was done with dotted ‘I’s and crossed ‘T’s.

Was I cruel? Probably.

Was I aggressive? Absolutely.

But was I some monster who destroyed everything before them for the sake of destruction itself? No.

But here there is no plausible deniability.

No legal loophole to absolve myself of any wrongdoing.

These were not enemy combatants, not spies, not traitors, not even rioting civilians, they were people stolen from their homes and enslaved, brutalized, then murdered. I couldn't even claim I didn’t know about them. I have seen them, I heard the medical professional say they could be saved, and then I told him to murder them regardless.

But honestly, I don’t know what was worse:

My rationalization of the act itself, a war crime to hopefully expedite the peace process and stop any further military actions by, at least, the Japanese forces.

Or the relief I felt when the order was carried out without a single complaint after I clarified my intent.

Heh….

I wonder, have I gone native to disregard life as such, or am I so desensitized to killing from the Great War that it doesn't even phase me anymore?

--
--

“So what’s all that stuff you're pulling?” Private Kenzo looked up from his clipboard at the native man and his wagon, noting the oxen pulling it. His Falmart language skills were a tad rusty, he had quite the accent according to one helpful tutor, but it was enough to talk to someone properly. “Is it for your job?”

“Indeed, I’m a cobbler by trade, ser,” he explained. “A damn fine one too if I may say so.”

“And why are you here,” he noted it down, he assumed a ‘cobbler’ had something to do with shoes given the crudely painted pair on his wagon. He just noted it down regardless.

“Men marching back and forth, leagues upon leagues at a time, it’ll wither away their shoes. There's a good, honest coin to be made. Not that we pray for war, but in times like these our trade is in great demand. No man wants to walk barefooted. Why, I’ve seen some soldiers ready to sell their own mothers for a pair of decent shoes!”

After engaging in some more small talk, Kenzo finished writing up the entry forum and handed it to the man, “just follow the main road, then turn left by the red sign with the arrow. You can’t miss it. When you get there, just hand this forum to the guard at the gate, he’ll walk you through the entry process from there. Welcome to Alnus.”

“Oh thank you ser, thank you kindly!”

Seeing the cart ride off, Kenzo sighed.

That would probably be the highlight of his day.

Since the Coda refugees set up the quaintly named ‘Alnus Town’, people from across this part of the Empire have been flocking to it for protection and economic opportunities. A lot of paperwork to be done, and a lot of people to see through.

You’d think being in some fantasy world would liven up a soldier’s life. Fighting monsters, saving princesses, learning magic, hell even dealing with dragons like that one recon team. But no, it turned out it was more of the same. Paperwork, guard duty, patrol, sleep, routine stuff.

Sometimes he wishes he was in one of those Recon Teams. You know, out exploring a brand new world! Anything to deal with the boredom.

The most exciting thing today was seeing that Ministry of Foreign Affairs guy and his escort head off to the Imperial Capital to hash out a peace treaty with them. Supposedly the way was clear and they could pass through the Imperial lines without issue. Their Emperor even gave the order himself.

Regardless, a rapid response team was on call to cover their retreat, just in case.

Still, maybe it was for the best, for all that adventure there were a lot of risks. Sure they can gun down anything they see, but what about things they can’t see? Like magic! Or vampires! Maybe there were more people like that Apostle lady with Third Recon who looked innocent to make you let your guard down until BAAM! They pull out a blade that can chop you in half!

Maybe staying back was the safer-

Then his radio chirped to life. “This is Entryway 3, we have a situation here.”

“Copy that Entryway 3, what do you need?” Kenzo listened into the conversation like a fly on the wall. So much for a lazy day.

“A group of refugees just came to us and we need some help.Their starving and wearing rags.”

“Come again Entryway 3?”

“Their skin and bones sir, never seen them this bad. They need medical help ASAP.”

There was a short pause. “Understood, direct them to Quarantine 3. Medics there will be expecting them.”

“Copy that, sir.”

And then it was silent again.

Another group of refugees, Kenzo grimace. And it sounded really bad this time.

While Alnus is slowly turning into a hub of commerce and trade, it was also attracting long lines of people who came just looking for basic survival. People with nothing but the clothes on their backs and skin on their bones begging for crumbs.

The story was always the same with the worst off groups. Someone or another looted their granaries or burnt their village, all their wealth was stolen, their starving, and they came to Alnus looking for help.

Depressingly normal thing now. They got about one or two groups a day like that. Usually little more than a dozen or so ragged people just looking for help.

While the JSDF controlled Italica, it was still recovering from that bandit army. It barely has enough to keep itself afloat even with JSDF aid packages of food and medical supplies, let alone a big influx of refugees. So most ended up making the journey to Alnus.

And everyone who worked in ‘Entry’ had a story about the refugees. For his part, Kenzo won’t forget the first time he saw a group of them. How a gaunt man broke down crying when he was allowed into Alnus, thanking every God they worshiped that they would live another day. This was even more so for the non-humans, who thought they were going to be put up in some dilapidated ghetto and not with the rest of the people in the ‘normal’ town.

He almost teared up himself with how these poor people treated every token of accommodation and kindness as some great mercy they were being shown. It was heartbreaking that these people had to endure this sort of suffering.

If only there was more they could do to help…

Kezno looked out in the direction of the Imperial capital, or at least the direction the convoy went off in.

Despite knowing better, Kenzo almost hoped that those negotiations would fail so the JSDF could finally have the go ahead to finally put the boot to this monstrosity of a nation.

--
--

“And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.

"And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a denarius, and three measures of barley for a denarius; and thou hurt not the oil and the wine.”

Book of Revelations, Third Seal of the Apocalypse