Chapter CXXI – Take heed therefore that the city which is with thee be not abandoned.

25th of Autumn 5859
A field outside of Casamonu City, Casamonu

Mayor Azvaran Earlywatch of Karabush was on his horse, overlooking the army who was marching with him. It was a grand one, over five thousand strong, so grand that its likes hadn’t been seen around the border regions since time immemorial. It stretched along the highway like an enormous snake made of metal and men. Their goal was simple: “Let’s get this slave rebellion over with today.”

“As I have said many times sir, we must be careful” replied the man right next to the mayor. He looked foreign to Gemeinplatz, not as foreign as an otherworlder but foreign nonetheless, with blonde hair that looked way out of place and a tall fur hat with several plumes sticking out of it in a conspicuous fashion. While many found his style ridiculous, nobody would dare mess with a man like him who had a few open scars sitting right on his face. It was Evelyn Gorkiewicz de Habdank, a mercenary captain from lands far away to the Empire. His troops composed most of the mayor’s forces. What the Three Cities, a loose union of Karabush, Bolipoli and Changra, lacked in military might they made up with numismatic might.

“I know, hence why I brought the biggest military force this part of Gemeinplatz has seen. My cousin, Baha, was routed by these rebels.” Azvaran omitted the part where his cousin rebelled against the rightful count of Casamonu and paid ransom to fugitives. Habdank didn’t need to know that little detail. “Savages they may be, they fight well from what I’ve heard.”

“If they have managed to defeat your lords, then I’m at least pretty certain that they aren’t savages. I look forward to fighting them.”

Azvaran briefly opened his mouth, stopped, and then reluctantly nodded at Habdank’s statement. “It’s a shame that the Empire has come to this.”

“It means more work for me, so I can’t complain.” Indeed, Habdank couldn’t, considering that he was getting a premium to be dragged all the way here.

“It means more work for me, so I can complain” said Azvaran, adding a drawn-out groan to the end. “Look at what happened at Casamonu, all the chaos… The fugitives have raided Karabush too, though thankfully the Chancellor’s order brought an end to that. Clever that guy is, I’m not too mad at him rounding up all the chair-warmers. I’d have done so much earlier if I had the authority.”

“I heard about the proclamation. A friend, a captain from another mercenary company, was paid a generous sum to put down a few rebellions near the capital.” Habdank had wished to get such an easy job, but then the pay was pretty good here in Karabush, so he couldn’t complain at the end.

“We might have to keep you around to do the same in Casamonu. Only the Divine knows how much of a pain it’s going to be to establish order back in the county… At least, it’ll be worth it to erase such a shame on our house.” Azvaran also didn’t need to mention how nice it’d be to have another county under his influence.

With such idle conversation the army of Karabush rode forth, passing… nobody. “Have the fugitives slaughtered all the peasants?” asked Azvaran as the army passed yet another abandoned village. The houses were still intact, as if they had been left yesterday, and a few unharvested crops still remained on the fields. It was eerie, enough to run a shiver up the mayor’s spine, thinking about what sort of mass killing must have occurred for everyone to have disappeared from rural Casamonu. More and more villages popped up as they got closer to the city, yet there were no souls to be seen. The army looted what few crops they could on the way, as was standard conduct for warfare in Gemeinplatz.

Eventually Casamonu itself showed up on the horizon. It’s walls, old yet respectable, towered over the men who had already mentally settled down for a long siege. A messenger from the army of Karabush ran towards the walls with a white flag, shouting “The mayor of Karabush extends his mercy to you if you surrender now… hello. Hello? Is there anyone up there?” No response. The walls were empty.

Azvaran was baffled “Is this some sort elaborate of trap?”

Habdank too found himself confused “I’ll get the sappers to break open the gate.”

With Habdank’s orders a group of men carrying carpentry tools, such as saws and axes, marched forth and began chipping at one of the grand wooden gates that served as an entrance into the walls. Normally these sappers would get paid double as they risked life and limb to breach the walls and pioneer attacks during sieges, but this time the only thing threatening them was boredom and confusion. It took an hour, where the army of Karabush sat around and watched, before a man-sized hole was torn through the gate.

The sappers entered through the breach, finally expecting that they’d be shot at to earn their pay, but no. There wasn’t anybody to shoot at them, or greet them, or anybody in general to do anything. Casamonu seemed like it had died a sudden death, and the army of Karabush had now arrived for the autopsy.

“Perhaps they are hiding in Castle Casamonu, over there.” Azvaran helpful pointed at the top of the hill where the castle could clearly be seen.

“I doubt that they’d abandon these enormous walls just to retreat to an old castle without a fight. Be careful-” Habdank’s words were interrupted by his horse tripping on a tight rope that had been lain on the ground, blocking the road. He was about to utter a curse, but that too was interrupted by an explosion that occurred near where they entered. “What the-”

“An ambush… no, a simple trap!” There were no enemies to be seen still, but turning back, Azvaran saw a giant mess of men on the ground and destroyed road work mixed in together. “They must have somehow rigged the road with gunpowder, watch out for any rope on the ground!” Thankfully the damage wasn’t as bad as the explosion made it sound, most men were shaken up or injured rather than dead, but it did its job of making sure that they marched slowly to watch their step, packing them tightly.

Habdank suddenly stopped his horse “Another rope. Men, be careful!” Even more slowly the army jumped to the other side of the road, and after a stressful few minutes, the men made it to the other side while their comrades waited for them. The rope was still intact. “Phew. We managed to avoid th-” Again, Habdank was rudely interrupted by an explosion, this one much larger than the last one. Azvaran and Habdank managed to avoid being injured thanks to being in the front, but their man at the back were again lying in pain as the fire and smoke of the gunpowder slowly petered out to reveal the damage. A whole lot more men were injured or dead thanks to being so tightly packed together, perhaps a thousand of them made not for action in a brief moment. Suddenly, Habdank realized that such cartoonish rope traps weren’t possible, unless “they must still have somebody in here lighting the explosives under the road, the rope is just a distraction!”

“Then we must find the perpetrator!” exclaimed Azvaran.

“No, there are far too many buildings to search, and who knows how much time we’d waste looking for someone who has already done their job. If it’s one or two people, then it’ll be like searching for a needle in a haystack. We should instead march in a dispersed formation so that an explosion cannot do much damage. They can’t have much more gunpowder at the ready, especially since they seem to have evacuated in a hurry.” Habdank’s assumption proved true as there were no more explosions on the path to the castle.

Surprisingly, when they arrived at the castle, there was someone at the gate. A few were atop the walls in fact. The nobleman at the top of the gate shouted “Greetings sirs, from Yaz Inkwell of Casamonu. The fugitives all left the city, leaving us loyal few. We thank you for liberating our city!” The gates of the castle opened, letting the army of Karabush march in.

Sir Inkwell ran down to greet the mayor. “Oh sir, we have been waiting for the likes of you for a long time! The fugitives… they’re savage bunch, plotting the downfall of the Empire and all that’s good.”

Habdank raised a brow in suspicion “If that’s true, how are you and the people around you alive? Wouldn’t you have been killed by these fugitives?

“Uhm… well, they did show mercy and not kill us? They even let me be elected mayor and-”

Azvaran, not in the mood for being trusting after having met with a few traps on the way, simply replied “I don’t believe you. This is way too ridiculous.” He turned to his army and simply ordered “Lock the people in the castle away.”

It seemed that loyalty to the Empire had not paid off for Sir Inkwell.