Astrum Irae

Three days later, the city is finally in sight, and it's big and walled.

In truth, the man and his son were wary of me most of the trip. We never talked much, and the two of them didn't hold many conversations in between themselves either. I don't mind, as it makes perfect sense to be wary of a random stranger with a sword who popped out of nowhere, asking to accompany them.

I spent most of my time during the trip observing the various small villages and farms along the road. Once again, all the fields are mainly filled with corn.

We arrive at the city gate, and a small tax is required to get into the city. I quickly ask the man what a "Ruby" is, and show him the 2 types of coins I have. He singles out the large bronze one and says that the small ones are Sapphires, more valuable than Rubies by 20 times. He also mentions that there are Emeralds- gold coins worth 50 times more than a Sapphire.

He tactfully doesn't even question how I acquired such wealth without knowing the names of the coins.

The tax to enter the city is 5 Rubies, so I pay a Sapphire and get 15 Rubies as change. We enter, and I ask the man if the currency situation is similar in other countries.

"Yes, as far as I know, the island merchant kingdom of Moonshore has trade agreements across the entire world, and mandates that every country in the Union uses the Gemstone Coins as the accepted currency. Apparently, there is even a Diamond coin, worth far more than the Emerald."

"Very interesting. What materials are the coins made of?"

"The Ruby is bronze, the Sapphire is a silver-copper alloy, and the Emerald is ¾ gold, ¼ copper."

Very interesting choices for coins. Bronze- I have never even heard of a bronze coin before. I also wasn't aware of silver-copper or gold-copper alloys before, either. The more surprising news, however, is that a single country managed to unite an entire continent under one currency in this day and age. It should take at least half a year to even get across the whole continent, let alone effectively trade with countries that far away. I wonder how they did it.

The man offers to show me to the enlistment building, to which I graciously accept. We walk through the city and I take the time to observe the everyday sights. The roads and passages leading through the city aren't paved and are made of dirt- much like the roads outside. I see many people walking about, and a smaller number of people trotting horses. To a small bit of surprise, I find that there aren't and carriages in the city. I subdue my questions and carry on, following the man through the weaving roads.

Another thing that I notice is that the building quality is quite poor- similar to the shacks I raided back in that village.

We eventually arrive at a grandiose building located towards the center of the city. Grandiose, that is, if the building is compared to the various shacks spread throughout the city. It is utterly incomparable to the quality of Fort Crusade.

The man says his adieus and takes his boy to sell their carpentry who knows where. I'm not too choked up over their departure and proceed into the building. Inside, I saw a small queue lined up in front of a counter. I sigh and line up behind the last guy.

People come in and out, and eventually it's my turn.

"Name and age please," the man behind the counter says.

"Rigel, 23," I reply.

"Okay," he replies. He writes some things on a piece of rough parchment with a quill and passes the parchment to me. "Go through to back door and into the barracks."

I nod my head and do so. Passing through the back door, I enter an open courtyard very similar to Fort Crusade's. It's walled off by another 'U' shaped building and people are doing various sparring and training exercises.

This time around, I do my business and stay distant from everyone. I get my official uniform and bed, then wait for the inevitable defensive position that I'll eventually receive.

…

10 days later, the call to action finally arrives. The Empyrean armies finally made their move, and they are 2 days away from Hammerwood.

"It's about fuckin' time. Boring as shit here." I get up out of my bunk and get into formation with the other members of my squad. Naturally, I'm not nervous or anxious at all about the war.

The next few hours I'm on border patrol, walking up and down the top of the city wall, looking for anyone sneaking over.

Haha, I never even mentioned that I can use magic, so they gave me a regular job. Well, it was for the best. If too many questions get asked, we may just have a repeat of last time. Despite that, this is still boring as all hell. I can go a few days without doing anything, but it's been almost 2 weeks at this point!

My shift goes without any hitches, and I switch off 6 hours later with someone else. I go back to my bunk and wait for morning to come.

Another 17 hours later, I 'wake up' and get into formation. This time, I'm thrown into the midst of a proper army, and we march off to meet the Empyrean armies head-on. Apparently, Empyrea brought a total of 2 armies on this campaign, so our single army is only going to skirmish for a bit and await reinforcements from the neighboring cities.

After half an hour of marching out of the city, the majority of the entire army is stationed outside of the city, ready to meet the Empyrean forces head-on. The army is in a phalanx formation, with shield-wielders in the front with a layer of pikemen behind. I personally have a pike, but I took my sword with me and put it in a sheath I got during my 10-day stay.

As far as I can tell, the total amount of soldiers stationed in this greeting party of ours is about 10 thousand, which I think is rather large considering the city population. After asking around, there should only be about 10 thousand people living in the city- showing the number of farmers in the countryside that the army consists of.

It's quite queer that the Empyrean armies are making their move at this time of year- all the corn seems to be just about ready to harvest. This fact, alongside my previous experience in the fort, leads me to believe that Empyrea actually has a standing army at all times and doesn't need to enlist the residing farmers in the territory. Using that, they purposely attack at prime harvesting season, leading to a famine.

If that's the case, then this is gonna be a slaughter. We're gonna be crushed. I might just have to slip away if I get the opportunity… I really chose the wrong side. Well, it's not like I had a choice.

While the entire army anxiously awaits our guests, 2 hours pass. That is, until a scout sees the Empyrean forces emerge from the forest 20 miles away. The entire army goes on high alert, and our anti-siege weapons get mounted by the specialists. Our anti-siege weapons are limited, but should prove useful. There are 2 varieties- catapults and ballistae. There are 5 catapults and 2 ballistae. I'm assuming the catapults are more anti-personnel, and the ballistae are anti-siege weapon weapons.

It takes the Empyrean armies another 8 hours to even get within a kilometer of the city. Their forces outnumber us 3:1; our morale is quite low.

The Empyrean armies break away from each other and go slightly to our left and right, resulting in an army being 30 degrees to our left and another 30 degrees to our right. We obviously don't dare move out our defensive positions, and our shield-wielders in the front set up their shields with the pikemen sticking their pikes through the gaps.

The Empyrean forces suddenly charge. A wall of cavalrymen with lances collapses in on us from both sides. They smash through our initial defensive line and pull out wide, passing the army on the outside and circling back around to their original position. Just in that exchange, we lost at least 250 men- 2.5 percent of the original amount.

A similar exchange happens a few times more. Our ballistae pick off a few of the cavalry, and they smash through more lines of our defense. We've killed about 500 cavalries, and they've killed about 2 thousand of our infantry.

The cavalry eventually stops charging. They pull back a ways, and the infantry starts to march in aggressively. They also pull up their catapults and ballistae. At this point, the war is in between the siege weapons. Giant rocks are flying through the air, loud explosions are erupting everywhere, and flying bolts are randomly piercing through people. It's rather hectic, and I have a hard time keeping note of what's happening where.

All the sudden, a bolt hits me square in the face, knocking me into the people behind me. I stumble up and return to where I was, too busy to mind that multiple people just saw me tank a ballista bolt to the face.

After a few minutes spent hectically dodging flying rocks and bolts, the enemy infantry crashes into ours. Lots of clashing sounds ring out, followed by more screaming and yelling than just before. I'm pushed around a bit and find myself just behind the front lines. I panic a bit and shove my pike through a gap in our defenses and stick someone in the eye. He immediately collapses and is trampled down on by his comrades. I have a moment of realization and look down to see that I am also trampling down on mushed corpses. I shake it off and continue to thrust my pike through the gaps until I receive a pike in return. It pushes me back a bit, but I don't mind.

After a while of chaotic fighting, the last few of my 'protectors' fall, and I'm pushed into the front of the army. I receive multiple pikes to various places, so I fall down and play dead. I'm stepped on, kicked and crushed. Bodies start to pile up until, eventually, I'm completely covered by corpses. I'm completely drenched in blood and guts but I pay it no mind and wait until the fighting overhead ceases.

If I can stay hidden for long enough, perhaps I could burst through to their back lines and destroy their mechanisms of war.