Problems

Dashing through the forest, the Younger Stanillo attempted to find the Younger Illya, who was missing. He had spent two hours searching for the boy, but there were no signs of his presence, much less of a person living there. Perhaps the rumors he had heard of were false or mistaken relating to what they had seen. He felt worry about the Young Lord’s disappearance, but he was also stressed about the trouble his disappearance brought to not only his public life, but also his private life, with Coria heartbroken at his vile words and sudden disappearance.

Each passing day, his love began to grow for Coria, despite her heart being occupied with another in mind. It must have troubled the Younger Stanillo to love her so much, yet receive little to no reciprocation. However, he did not let this deter him from showing her the kind of man he could be to her. Oftentimes, he offered to raise her child as his own and give the child his name, whether it be a boy or girl.

Love truly triumphs over the senses of man. Oftentimes, love tends to awaken a feeling that cannot be described to those who have not experienced the feeling themselves. It is truly a beautiful thing when it is pure, but when adulterated it can lead to the relationship becoming circumstantial. A relationship lacking the intrinsic emotional bond is a travesty, and in my later years, I discovered my true love at the hands of my fourth wife.

Anyhow, the Younger Stanillo began to be troubled, thinking how troubling it would be if he failed to find the boy before the Elder Illya began to make inquires about him. The Younger Stanillo had been dealing with Stalavat for the last couple of months, but lately he has been doing his best to avoid their envoys. However, his actions have begun a ripple between Stalavat and Belomas’ friendship. It was only a matter of time before the Jarl of Stalavat made her way over, and the fact that they were already deceiving her was troubling enough, but if she learned that the Illya she was to be married to was missing…all hell would break loose.

The Younger Stanillo hated the fact that Fedor and the Elder Illya had deceived the Jarl, and now he had to deal with the repercussions of their deception. In addition to this, the campaign was not going well. It turned out, the Rostov were much stronger than they appeared to be, but it also did not help that he was stuck at home trying to not only find the Younger Illya, but he also found himself trying to fulfill the demands of Stalavat too.

Less than six months and a white streak had begun to develop around the frontal region of the Younger Stanillo's hair, signifying the stress that he was under. At that point, the Younger Stanillo thought it would be a miracle that he lived to see winter. Another hour had passed, yet there were no signs of anybody living in the forest. It was then that the Younger Stanillo thought of the possibility of the Younger Illya committing suicide.

It was a dark possibility, but it was a realistic one at that. Perhaps, the pain was too much for the boy to bear, and he ended it the only way that he could. Somehow, the Younger Stanillo believed that the Younger Illya was not capable of such a thing. He was a boy with so much potential, and he would not leave behind a legacy of that sort, for his child that had yet to be born.

Ideally, the Younger Stanillo secretly hoped he would not appear, for he did not want to go to war with his friend when he learned of the eventual truth. Naturally, he had to put his personal feelings aside as the disappearance of the Younger Illya was a state matter that required his earnest objectivity to the matter at hand. Most importantly, he had to find him for the sake of the Elder Illya, who he had shared a strong bond with ever since they were children. He could not disappoint him now, especially with the boy being a key part of his plans for the village’s advancement.

To some extent, he felt a connection to the boy. Being twelve years his senior, he felt a strong sense of responsibility to protect him and guide him. However, his feelings for Coria troubled him dearly. The Younger Stanillo knew he was in the wrong, but he vehemently justified his actions, trying not to see his actions as an act of disloyalty towards his hurt comrade. He knew the love those two had for each other, yet he continued to meddle in a story that did not involve him. 

Growing impatient, Diana of Stalavat, began to feel belittled and used by Belomas, who had done nothing but give her excuses as to why the Elder Illya had not married her yet. The Jarl of Stalavat was a beautiful woman. To say the least, she was all encompassing. She was elegant in her movement and bold in her speech, which was the most attractive part about her. A woman that demanded her presence to be known, her voice to be heard, and her every command to be heard was alluring to say the least. Beauty is found in her smile, the shape of her frame that warms not only your heart, but your mind that loses all cognitive function at a single glance of her face.

A beautiful woman is many things. Her hair was like shiny coffee, pouring over her shoulders and reaching her mid-thigh. Her skin was pale and silken, matching the emerald green in her eyes. Her legs whispered to you, inviting you to follow, promising an ever-lasting heaven. Feet with a delightful combination of soft curves and subtle angles. The slender and aligned toes create a harmonious balance, contributing to the vision of the petals of a blooming flower, delicately arranged.

For the first time ever, Diana was making preparations to journey over to Belomas, demanding an answer to her reasonable frustrations with the small town. She had provided them with the resources and manpower for their campaigns in Ugrica and Rostov, but they had yet to give her what she most wanted in the world, a man capable of loving and cherishing her. Her advisors tried to dissuade her from not going, considering the voyage to be dangerous, but she insisted on going to Belomas, believing they could not give her another excuse to her face.

Last month, she ordered Belomas to be informed that they would not be providing them with more warriors or supplies. In addition to this, she threatened to order the immediate recall of all her forces back to Stalavat, if an answer to her requests for marriage were not satisfactory. According to her, the deal was actively being broken by Belomas, who appeared not to follow through with the initial agreed-upon conditions for the deal between the two parties involved. If the marriage did not occur, she threatened to penalize them, insisting that two thirds of the land and booty to be gained in conquests that involved her people were to be given to Stalavat.

If Belomas continued to defy the penalties, she threatened the possibility of war against Belomas. These threats were what stressed the Younger Stanillo out, who considered telling her the truth of who she was set to marry, in an attempt to ease the tensions with the Jarl. However, if he were to tell her, he could still not provide her with the man, due to his disappearance. The Younger Stanillo wished he had brokered the deal with Stalavat, instead of Fedor and Illya sending stand-in’s to negotiate such a crucial deal that they did not plan to execute properly.

For those reasons, the Younger Stanillo quickly went to Mirad, who was the intermediary of the negotiations, to get the full details of the situation. Afterward, he assigned Mirad as his advisor and gave him the power to manage and enforce the law within the village, with limitations on his powers, of course. The Younger Stanillo remained as the regent of Belomas, until the rightful person appeared, the Younger Illya. 

The Younger Stanillo had his hands full not only with Stalavat, but also with Rostov and Belomas. Too many responsibilities were in one man’s place, and this left him unable to command the campaign at Rostov, leading him to also name, Bay, as commander of the forces at Rostov. With the determination of Diana to confront Belomas, a new problem was heading to the Younger Stanillo without him knowing. A problem that could lead to further conflict that could not possibly end well for Belomas.

With the downfall of the Nori, the Elder Illya quickly began to set his eyes on new tribes to conquer nearby. At the age of thirty-two years old, the Elder Illya was aiming to take down the Celgae, a neighboring tribe. The establishment of the base in their newly acquired territory was genius, and it gave the Elder Illya a lot of time to survey the area, in order to pick out his next tribe to conqueror. In comparison to the miracle that was the campaign against the Nori, the campaign against the Celgae took nearly two months and a half.

The Celgae proved to be a difficult tribe to fight against, but they eventually fell to the might of Belomas. The Celgae were neighbors of the Nori over to the south, and they are one of the tribes westwards to Rostov. The conquest of the Celgae opened the path to Rostov for Belomas, and the plan was to conquer all tribes westwards from Rostov. The blueprint for an empire was beginning to form, and the Elder Illya was quite aware of the fact.

With the help of Fedor and Voron Ironside, the campaigning in Ugrica was not as troublesome for the chief. As of right now, the Elder Illya and his army found themselves busy occupying the Celgae. The war was a lot more gruesome, so naturally there was more dysfunction in the villages of the Celgae. Resources were little to none, and so the Elder Illya immediately had Fedor head to the Nori to bring resources and doctors to help out with the injured warriors of the Belgae.

The people were stripped of their weapons and abilities to manufacture any weapons. A garrison was established for the Belgae for their defense and in case they were to revolt. The village had a hereditary monarchy as their form of government, and it was much more simple to find a new king to be appointed. Belgae’s previous king perished in the final battle, and so a successor was necessary. However, this successor was to be picked by the Elder Illya.

When he had heard of the Belgae having another family of rulers, he had them rise to power and expelled the former family from succession. The new family was much in favor of Belomas' presence, as they were eager to abide by Belomas and their every wish. Therefore, the king to succeed his predecessor would be a man, named Ambiorix, a man in his late twenties who was not a warrior by any means. He was a pragmatic individual that was willing to lower himself for the sake of his goals.

Due to his qualities, it made him easier to trust, and he was named the first foreign agent of Belomas to manage, a newly acquired territory of Belomas. At first, Fedor was against this action, but they found themselves with fewer to no men to be their agents in these new territories. In fact, they were still struggling to find an ideal candidate to manage the conquered lands of the Nori. These were the least of their troubles, as the conquest of the Belage led to them learning of the troubles of the Sejuku.

Ambiorix, their new agent, informed them of the coalition of Ugrics that formed a couple of months ago, and how this coalition was challenging the Sejuku’s power at Ugirca, but it also appeared they were targeting the Sejuku ruthlessly for their alliance with Belomas. The main culprits of the coalition were the Frans. Ambiotrix told them, the Frans were not only satisfied with establishing a coalition with four allies. No. They invited other tribes to join, in order to put an end to foreign expansion in Ugrica.

For the first time, the Elder Illya began to worry. The idea of conquering Ugrica did not seem impossible as a task prior, but it was partly because the tribes were so divided amongst themselves that it made the idea feasible to begin with. With the formation of a coalition, it meant they were united against a common enemy, and this new coalition could quickly become a new empire, if the head of this operation were to play their cards right. As it stood, the Frans were to be annihilated immediately. However, he could not do this without the support of Leuca, who currently found herself besieged at the hands of the new Ugric Coalition. Another problem was that they could not risk dividing their forces to fight on multiple fronts, and also protect their territory against the enemy.

Belomas’ resources were beginning to slowly diminish. If this were to continue, it could lead to financial ruin for Belomas. On the other hand, spring was at its peak. They had the time to cultivate their power in Ugrica, but they did not have the manpower nor finances to enroll and pay their soldiers. The absence of the Sejuku and the lack of commitment from Stalavat began to make campaigning much more difficult. There was a much more urgent matter at hand, and it was the concern about the campaign against Rostov that was taking longer than usual to conclude. If the Rostov campaign did not conclude soon, the Elder Illya believed he may have to return to Belomas and figure out what was happening.

In a town not so far from Belomas, Rostov, was established ten years after the fall of the kingdom. The town was founded by a man named Rostov. He was nicknamed as the “just” for his denouement of riches and luxuries, despite descending from the royal line. His poverty was a matter of choice and principle. The man took great pride in his frugal lifestyle.

Oftentimes, he emptied his pockets of any money he had to give to the most unfortunate, leaving him little to no money for himself. Rostov was a man of faith, believing the gods would aid him in his times of despair and how everything eventually would work out for him in the end. To Rostov, it was foolish to worry about tomorrow. People oftentimes mistakenly look forward to a future, believing it to be brighter. However, Rostov denounced this foolish ideology, believing the only way to look at life is to look at the past for wisdom and guidance.

In his day, he was a remarkable statesman and philosopher. As a young man, I indulged in his works, finding him to be a virtuous man. At one point, Rostov held the highest office in the town that he established, but never once did he misuse nor use public funds to enrich himself or his family. Essentially, his actions as statesman set the example for ages to come on what should be expected by a statesman. In the end, Rostov passed away at old age.

At the time of his death, he had left all his lands and property to the people. To Rostov, his sons were not worthy of passing his estate to, as he saw them as dullards and gluttons that could not be satisfied with the riches they had. This angered the sons, and so they refused to pay the funeral expenses for their father, showing to the people that their father had a proper assessment of his son’s. At the expense of the people, Rostov was buried in a modest fashion. In honor of Rostov’s memory, the town was named after him, to forever immortalize him as the town’s founder.

The Rostov, unlike Belomas and Stalavat, were professional traders and educators. Oratory was a popular art in the town, and politicians relied on it to move the masses in order to put them in power during elections. Theater was also a common form of entertainment for them. People found the shows to be quite intriguing. Most come to Rostov for an education, often finding their school masters to be excellent compared to those in the East.

Rostov possesses a competent military, but unlike their neighbors, they do not use their military to combat the Ugrics. The Rostov have relations with their Ugric neighbors, who they found to be decent people. Anyhow, three months ago, Belomas began their attack on Rostov. The Rostovs had attempted to mitigate the situation and offered Belomas land to entice them to seize all conflict at once. However, Belomas was not satisfied with the land that was offered, and they replied to Rostov, saying, they not only desired all their lands, but their gold mines also.

Rostov quickly ceased all talks of peace and negotiation with Belomas. They went on to ask Stalavat for aid, but they were denied the aid due to Stalavat informing them that they were allies with Belomas. This left Rostov with little people to get help from, and so they sought out help from not only their Ugric neighbors, but also help from a nation of Rus descent not so far away, the Salaluga, a nation east of Belomas’ border.

Three months under siege had brought the Sejuku to their knees. They suffered an unimaginable agony as their calls for aid continued not to be answered, but most importantly they were beginning to starve. A great number of citizens began to die from starvation. Children were dying at an alarming rate. Newborns did not make it past a month. Parents began to starve themselves to let their children have the little food they had.

Soldiers began to quickly die from not only starvation, but the disease that had emerged due to the number of corpses filling the enclosed capital. On the other hand, Leuca was nearly skin and bones because she refused to eat or drink anything that was not bread or water. To her, she did not deserve to eat until she settled the situation at hand for her people. Polochko tried to persuade her to eat something, but she remained stubborn despite her suffering.

She began to grip onto her face out of agony, mumbling nonsense to herself most of the time. However, this time, she spoke of the possibility of surrender and testing the enemy’s mercy. Polochko fell to his knees, trying to contain his hunger before his lord, but he struggled to do so. Times were rough for those besieged in the capital. It would take a miracle for the Sejuku to come out of this alive...

Another hour passed, still no luck on finding the Younger Illya. For a moment, the Younger Stanillo began to believe that the kid could have left the village. The thought of it made him grumble, as he thought how much of a nuisance this situation was starting to be. At that moment, an unexpected surge of power was sensed by the Younger Stanillo, who quickly became alarmed at the sight of it. In response, he went to grab onto his sword, but before he could reach it on time, a spear pierced the horse that he was riding on in the midst of his search. The horse quickly grew alarmed at what had occurred, leading to the Younger Stanillo losing control of the horse.

The Younger Stanillo fell to the ground, hitting his head on a stump as the horse continued to let out a high-pitched distressed scream. Quickly, the assailant put the animal out of its misery, piercing its brain with another spear. The animal succumbed to the fatal blow, faltering to the ground before the Younger Stanillo. The loud thud of the animal falling to the ground, awoke the Younger Stanillo, who had lost conscious moments before. He was a bit dazed and groggy, but he was able to recognize his assailant. It was none other than the Younger Illya.

The boy was completely unrecognizable. The boy was covered in rags, hair was unkempt, and had a disgusting smell to him. A disgusting smell of rotten flesh and sweat. The Younger Stanillo lifted his torso, telling the boy to come closer. At the sound of his voice, the boy recognized him to be the Younger Stanillo.

“Stanillo…,” I muttered.

“You fool,” the Younger Stanillo said, “You nearly killed me! What is wrong with you!?”

“I—I am so sorry,” I apologized. “Let me help you stand, please.”

“Get away,” the Younger Stanillo replied, “you wild beast!”

The Younger Stanillo was understandably angry at what had occurred, but eventually his anger ceased. He was thrilled to find the boy, but concerned about his appearance. The Younger Illya was happy to have somebody to talk to, but he was not eager to return to his normal life. At that moment, the Younger Stanillo realized he had to have a proper conversation with the boy before anything else...