War is a strange thing, humans are not the only species that partakes of the pastime. Ants, bugs and even some mammals use force in large numbers to take over land for resources, mating grounds of even just because they are too large of a population and need more space. And yet, even with all of this we still have the arrogance to believe we are different, that we are special. We are animals, pure and simple and no amount of art or sophistry will ever change that.

- Lyros the philosopher

For all its failures, Golram is a beautiful region. It has a very mild climate, warm but not too hot. The ground is fertile and very flat, perfect for orchards. Many noble families have estates along the shores of the City-State simply for vacationing purposes. These estates are defended by squads of their guard, even when not occupied, in order to deter peasants from occupying them. It keeps their property safe for the most part, but many of those guards are bribed to look the other way.

That was my hope for our travels, staying out in the open was much too dangerous for a party of two. I hoped that my titles and renown would be more than enough to convince a few of the personal guard to allow us to stay in the estates for a night.

In order to reach those beautiful shores, we would need to travel along the most dangerous part of the city-states, the rocky seaside. Small villages dot the seaside every six or seven hours’ journey, and many of those villages were populated by poor fishermen who would kill us simply for the steel in my armour and sword. That does not include what they would do if they knew who the Prince was. I told him as much, but he did not believe me. He lived his entire life in the Capital City, and extreme poverty to him was a noble family that could only afford two large estates. He had never experienced the depth that people can sink to when faced with true poverty. The sort of soul crushing poorness that leads men to murder and banditry just so that they can feed their family. I have seen both the highs and lows of civilization, and I know what people are capable of doing. This would be a very hard lesson that the Prince would learn, and I would have to let him face it alone. This would be a good place to start teaching him.

When we were able to see the first town off in the distance I made up my mind. I decided it would be better that he learn the harsh lessons of this world while I was ready and able to save him instead of caught unaware. It is very hard to always keep your guard up and be ready for everything so if the Prince were able to cooperate a little more, then I would be able to relax just a little bit.

I took the prince aside and gave him a small bag of silver, along with a few simple instructions. He was to purchase exactly what we needed and nothing else, and he should tell no one who he was or how much money he was truly carrying. I knew he would not listen, in fact he would probably try to hire some of these people in order to have them kill me. If he did, I would be ready, if he did not, I would be very pleasantly surprised.

It took the prince roughly an hour to walk to the town. If everything went properly and he did keep his mouth shut, it should take him two hours to purchase everything and then one more to walk back. Three hours in total, maybe four to be safe. I decided that was more than long enough to take a small nap.

Three hours later I woke up, and watched the path from the town. My warhorse was saddled and ready, and my weapons drawn. I waited another hour for the Prince to return, and then two, before I made up my mind that he was in danger.

Whether or not he tried to sell me out to the inhabitants and bribe them, he was my responsibility and I needed to protect him. I suited up in my full plate, with an axe sheathed across my back, and my blade sheathed on my hip. I had not had the chance to replace my broken wooden shield but it would not matter. My plate armour would fend off most weapons they could possibly have, and two drawn weapons are much more intimidating than one. Very few people are able to fight effectively with two weapons, I was not one of those. My training with two weapons was limited to using the second one as a shield, knocking aside attacks. These villagers would not know the difference, they were after all mostly highwaymen and fishermen.

The road to the village was like most rural roads, little more than dirt tracks. The dirt roads are perfectly fine in dry weather, but the moment the hard rains set in, the villages are completely isolated from one another. Thankfully it was the dry season along the coastline, the rains would not come for another month or so.

As I grew closer and the town grew larger, I could see just how large it was. There were a few dozen houses scattered along the road, but as I grew closer they were more and more clumped together. It was a fairly large village, perhaps three or four hundred people lived there, which meant that their fishing industry must be very profitable, or at least what passes for profitable in this place.

Golram is by and large a rather rich place, the City-State has a vast fishing industry as well as orchards, and they trade with the rest of the kingdom. The fruit and fish that they sell is even traded with the Imperium. There is a large demand for the resources of Golram, the only problem with that is the wealth disparity. Golram has two laws that create this disparity, the first is that any trade must be approved by the merchant council who take a cut of all profits, and the second is that those who cannot afford to pay the council for fishing or fruit harvesting licenses must serve in the army for three years before they can be allowed to ply the trade.

The king limited the size of Golram’s army, but in doing so also limited the number of people who were allowed to fish or grow fruit. Since that was passed only the rich were able to afford the licenses, and the rich pay very little. This system made it so that many of the peasants join the army, hoping to stay in long enough to earn their license, but most of them being kicked out after a year of service. This has created a large number of semi-skilled peasants who only know how to wield a blade. Often they move to the other states in order to serve as mercenaries, or hire themselves out as bodyguards. Many of these semi-soldiers simply turn to robbing the merchant caravans or the noble homes, and in a village as large as this one, those are the types of people that I assumed I would find in abundance.

These men and woman will have served with people like me, if not with me directly, and they will not be impressed. Even if they should be, they will not be. My military pedigree, accolades and titles mean nothing in this land. Even in the Storm Lands the peasants respect rank and title, but not out here. Out here a title is simply something to be stolen by force.

As I made my way further into the town, the gawkers came out to stare at my passing, and after them came those who were trying to size me up, to see how much of a threat I would pose to them if they tried to take what belonged to me. They grew in number, walking behind me to fill the gaps as I approached the center of town.

More than a few of the villagers carried rusted out swords or axes, with only a few of them in good repair and upkeep. The rest held pitchforks or staffs, not very effective against someone in full armour, but they wouldn’t need to be effective, merely crowd around me until I could not move.

The center of town held a raised dais with a gallows on top of it and without slowing or stopping, I walked my horses up the stairs of the platform and waited, my right hand resting upon the pommel of my blade.

I waited for a few minutes, the crowd gathered and grew in number, but still I waited. I waited until it seemed as if half the entire population of the village had shown up, and when they were gathering their courage to attack.

With my left hand I removed my helmet and stared the villagers down. The crowd shuffled back a step as if they were struck in unison by an invisible blow.

“My name is Francis, I am the Dragon Knight. I have come here today in pursuit of an escaped criminal. He is claiming to be Prince Wulric of Alamer. He has been convicted of treason to the crown and is to be sentenced to death. Any and all those who aid him face the same punishment as he. I have been granted supreme authority by the King himself to see this punishment done. The criminal came to this town only a few hour ahead of me.”

At this point I drew my axe and blade and brandished them in the sunlight.

“You will have ten minutes to find this criminal and turn him over to me. If you oblige, then all will be forgiven and no punishment will be handed out. If however, you keep him hidden from me and I need to go looking, I will personally cut down each and every single person who stands in my way and burn what remains of your village.”

The villagers began to murmur among each other as I made the proclamation. They had undoubtedly heard of my name, even if they did not know what I have done. I counted on my reputation as a ruthless warrior being enough for this and that I would not be tested to follow through with my word. I had no desire to cut down villagers, even if they weren’t truly innocent of all wrong-doing.

To my dismay however, the villagers were not convinced. I needed to do something, and fast. I scanned the crowd feverishly, trying desperately to find the ringleaders among the villagers. If they were to fall or to agree with me, then the rest of the crowd would follow suit. I spotted three of them, all of them were very large muscular men, not the sort of people to make well thought out plans, but intimidating enough to muscle others into following along with whatever schemes they did have.

I tied the reins of my mare on the horn of my saddle and dismounted, giving Gunther a command to stay put. Of course I could not put away my weapons, so it took some careful manoeuvering to make my way off without slicing myself or the horse open.

I made every step of the dais carefully, the armor clanking against itself and the floor with every footfall. I made my way down very slowly, each motion deliberate and effortless. As I walked, I called out the ringleaders I could see, and invited them to take their best shot alone or together. It didn’t matter to me which one.

“I’m just giving you the chance to see how serious I truly am before the time limit has come and gone. Now you three, make your move.”

At the bottom of the stairs I stopped and waited, weapons dangling loosely at my side, held in my hands. A few seconds passed before anyone made their way forward, but eventually one of them did. He was the largest of the three. The man stood at least and entire head taller than I, with arms the size of my torso, but size was not everything in battle. In his right hand he held an oversized mallet, swinging it easily back and forth as he walked over to me.

I did not bother placing my helmet on my head again, if I were to be hit there by his mallet it wouldn’t matter how much protection I had upon my skull, it would crush through it without even slowing. The behemoth had a grin upon is face that was full of confidence and victory. He would kill me and claim victory, taking all of my possessions for himself, or so he though.

I waited for the man to come closer, until I was just out of range of his swing. He waited, the slight amount of training that he remembered from battle making him much too confident for his own good. I waited as well, sure that he would move before I did.

The giant of a man grew impatient before long, as I was sure he would and he struck first. He took a step forward and twisted his body, swinging the mallet with all the strength he could muster. If the head were to hit me, I would be dead almost instantly, it would punch through the armour and into my chest. A block with a blade would be pointless, he was obviously much stronger than I was, and with the speed and force that hammer was currently imparted with, it would slam through a shield and break the arm that held it up. No, the only way to avoid being hurt by that hammer would be to avoid being hit by it at all.

I held off moving until the giant had passed the point of no return, when all of his energy was put into moving the hammer, and he could not stop it without harming himself. When he reached that point, I stepped forward quickly, inside the reach of his hammer, and with my sword, cut deeply into his belly. Crimson fluids sprayed out as the blade slid through flesh and muscle, and into the organs sheltered beneath, but I was not done. I quickly ducked under the passing shaft of the hammer and twisted, striking out with my left hand, burying the head of the axe deep into his chest.

Even before I stood straight, the giant was falling to his knees, all of his prodigious strength abandoning him as his blood poured forth from his flesh. The dirt of the village square was rapidly becoming mud in the area in front of him, as the blood became rapidly absorbed by the dry soil. The man reached up with two shaking hands and pulled at the axe embedded in his chest. Even as weak as he was, he managed to pull it out and throw it aside. It fell to the earth beside him with a dull thud, and I strolled over to pick it up. The giant knelt there in the dirt, blood pouring forth from both injuries until he could hold himself upright no longer. His eyes rolled up inside his head, showing only white, and he lost all strength, falling to the ground. He would remain alive for a few more seconds, but as his body drained of blood and his wounds remained open, he would not stay alive for long.

I ignored the dying man at my feet and looked for the other two ringleaders, but they did not step forth. The entire crowd looked visibly upset, and a few even retched and heaved; throwing up in the dirt.

“I will not repeat myself again. Ten minutes.”

With those words the crowd rushed off to find the Prince. I grinned and made my way back to Gunther, pausing for a second to wipe the blood off of my blade and axe, and returning both of them to their rightful places. I replaced my helmet upon my head and mounted the warhorse once more and waited.

I did not have to wait very long, as I suspected, the crowd was working for the promises of a reward and knew exactly where the Prince was. They dragged him kicking and screaming to the town center. He struggled and threatened until he noticed the dead man lying in the dirt. The two villagers holding him by his arms threw him to the ground and spat on him. The Prince shut up immediately, shrinking away from the dead man not two feet away from him.

I slowly walked the horses back down the stairs of the dais, they thankfully did not trip or balk at the unexpected change in angle and elevation and I stopped in front of the cowering man.

“I told you not to run or try anything. You should have learned by now that I do not take things like that lightly.”

I twisted in the saddle, grabbed a length of rope from my saddle bag and pointed to two villagers. “You two, take this rope and tie this man’s hands together.”

I faced the Prince once more. “From now on until we arrive at our destination, you are my slave. You will do what I say immediately in order to keep me happy, or I will force you to walk the rest of the way without any clothing.”

“You can’t do this to me! I am Prince Wulric! I am the heir to this entire goddamned kingdom.”

He turned back and forth, imploring the crowd for help.

“You must help me, I am your rightful ruler. I will give you rewards beyond your wildest beliefs if you kill this man.”

I laughed, the sound resonating from within my helmet. The prince turned again to face me.

“You’ve lost. There’s one thing now that you need to learn before we continue on our travels, money doesn’t always win. You could offer these people an entire duchy and it would not matter. These people are afraid, but above all, they respect me more than they do you. Fear and respect are qualities that a leader needs to show. Look around you, look at these people. They fear me more than they do you, and do you know why? Because I did not demand it of them, I showed them. I took them by their throats and shook them until they broke. Fear your highness, fear and respect will give you so much more than money ever will.”

The Prince looked around at the crowd surrounding him, and while they were not quite cowering in fear any more, they were all making a point of ignoring his gaze while staring directly at me. I imagine that I made quite the image, sitting atop a mighty stallion, armour glimmer in the sunlight, dead body lying in a pile of blood in front of me with a prince cowering on the ground. There is more gaining obedience of a populace than simply fear and respect, but for now their reaction was better than I could have possibly expected. I was expecting a few more slaughtered peasants before the rest fell in line, thankfully that did not need to happen. Killing others has been my life’s work, but it has never been something I have enjoyed doing. I was trained to fight against the beasts that come from the Rift, not against my own kind.

After that speech and with the people having turned against him, the prince came quietly and remained that way for two weeks. It seemed the Prince finally began to learn that even if he managed to lose me, I would still find him, and I would make him come with me. His father gave me a task, and I would fulfill it.

Next Chapter: Chapter 7