Chapter 23

“Be that as it may, it doesn’t answer my question, General Ray.”

Ray held Baroness Zahradnik’s dark gaze for a moment, then looked past her shoulder to the entrance of his pavilion where the arm of one of his sentries could be seen propping up a spear. His guards seemed completely oblivious to the fact that the interior was under a Silence effect and had been instructed to keep everyone else out.

“You remind me of my parents, my lady,” he turned his attention back to her. “They were both idiots. Loyal, useful idiots, but idiots nonetheless.”

He felt a sneer forming on his face and he forced it away. There was no point in harbouring bitterness over the past.

“My father’s father was a spare who won our house’s title through his service. My mother’s father was the same. My grandfathers were comrades in arms: they enlisted together, fought in the same squad, became Sergeants in the same company and then Captains in the same division. They were brothers in arms who had forged bonds in battle stronger than blood.

“They passed the values instilled into them by the army to my mother and father. Loyalty; service; honour. To be a sword of the Empire. My father became a dutiful soldier and my mother was the dutiful wife of a soldier. He did his duty abroad while she did her duty at home and I grew up with those same aspirations to duty…until I saw where duty led.”

For the first time in Ray’s recollection, Lady Zahradnik’s mask cracked. Her lips slipped ever so slightly; dark eyes hardening at end of his words. Ray peered at her, then snorted.

“So you do know what lies at the end of duty,” he said. “You know the wilderness through which duty will lead you.”

“Honour lies at the end of duty,” the Baroness replied. “It is our mantle as we walk through that wilderness.”

“Is it?” Ray’s raised an eyebrow, “My mother died when I was seven, fighting a monster that encroached on our borders before the army could respond. It went through three villages after that and then left, never to be seen again. They never found her body. How do you think the Empire honoured her?”

Silence fell between them, but only for a breath. By her look, she knew.

“That's right,” Ray said. “Nothing. Honours in the Empire go to men and women of merit. Tangible rewards in Human society are distributed to those who achieve tangible gains. Getting eaten by a monster is neither of those. Duty killed my father too. He soldiered on after his wife’s death. A year after he made Captain, he died facing a Demihuman Lord because it was his duty to stand for his men. His company was destroyed anyway. Still, I was proud: proud of my mother and father who lived according to the values instilled in them. The values instilled in me. I was an idiot too, and it was only when I entered the academy that I saw just how much of an idiot I was.

“The service and sacrifice of my house and my people meant nothing to those who held all the power and wealth. Their lives earned no favour and bought no influence. The scions of the High Nobles only measured me by what I could do for them and how I might have been most efficiently used. Students with a bright career ahead of them in the bureaucracy only saw me as a number to be employed in the cold formulas that drive the mechanisms of the state. For all the blood that my family had spilt for the sake of the Empire, I could do nothing for my house; nothing for my people. Nothing except for what was allowed.”

Despite his efforts to suppress it, bitterness rose over his recollection. There was no scorn or persecution; none of the obnoxiously egotistical and high-handed behaviour of aristocrats portrayed in tales for the masses – only a glance and calculations hidden behind polite smiles and words. Those with power decided with whom power was shared and those who kept power only shared it if there was more power to be gained.

“The Imperial Magic Academy – nay, the entire imperial establishment is an institution of insidious design. Do you know that, my lady? It is a place where we are moulded into forms pleasing to the imperial crown and its faceless bureaucracy. At the same time, students are told where they fit. It is a filter for the incompetent and a trap for the talented, intelligent and capable. For the ‘Empire’.”

Lady Zahradnik seemed to digest the information, speaking after several moments.

“You understood this back then and still took the poison that they offered to you?” She asked.

“As I said,” Ray answered, “it is a trap. The best trap is one that prey cannot do anything about even if they detect it. The cliques of martial scions were my only refuge – pens in the yard that the Empire tells its martial Nobles to live in. There is no other choice other than what is allowed. But I was not like all those compliant idiots that stubbornly believed in the trappings of duty and honour.

“I took the path that offered the highest chance of breaking the chains that bound me. The same chains that bound my father and my mother and every martial Noble in the Empire and every Imperial Knight. Chains that the strong foolishly place upon themselves for the sake of those that show the least appreciation possible in return.

“Merchants exploit us because the pursuit of true martial excellence leaves no room for anything else. Civilian Nobles use their political wiles and closeness to the centres of power to syphon away what is bought by our blood like a swarm of bloated parasites. Commoners turn to us for protection, singing our praises when we save them and cursing our corpses when we fail. We do not exist in their minds otherwise. The honours bestowed to the best of us are but scraps cast to loyal dogs fighting for food under the table where the true feast is held. Rather than settling to be the hound, I chose to be the Master of the Hunt.”

“And that is the reason for your single-minded pursuit of being a Commander,” the Baroness said. “But what of your ‘hounds’? Are you not directing them to those same scraps? Promoting a system that you see to be inequitable?”

“They are hardly blind to it,” Ray waved a hand dismissively. “Commoners are exposed to the unfairness of the world every day. They do not place undue value on intangibles as idiotic aristocrats and hopeless romantics do. As I mentioned before: they understand that their interests are served through me. The huntsman is the one that takes care of the hounds; he is not the one emptying their leftovers onto the floor.”

“Then what is your answer?”

Ray narrowed his eyes.

“My answer?”

“Yes,” Lady Zahradnik said. “Your answer. You have shared with me why you have become what you are, yet I still do not know what you want.”

“It should be obvious by now,” Ray replied. “It is why I became a General of the Imperial Army. What I want is power. Authority; strength; influence; wealth – to command these is to command one’s destiny. To command the destiny of others and seize what one deserves.”

A moment passed in silence. Lady Zahradnik tilted her head curiously.

“There is something else. Tell me what it is.”

“Power is a thing of absolute beauty, my lady.”

The air grew still. What was he saying? No, it didn’t matter. After witnessing the power of the Sorcerer King, the world had become drab by comparison. Nothing could ever come close; life was not worth living if he could not at least reach for its feet.

Baroness Zahradnik held out her right hand. Something materialised in her grasp. Before he could register what it was, a cold blade pressed against the side of his neck. Her dark-eyed gaze violently seized his own.

There was no offence over his boldness; no disgust over his sentiment. The air of imperial authority – of the heated contest of wills that brought all of one’s power to bear in a single glance – was absent. Her gaze was empty: a void of cold certainty that swallowed him like the darkest night.

In that gaze…was death.

“You are not incorrect,” Lady Zahradnik told him. “Power is a thing of absolute beauty. People are drawn to it; long to grasp it. They cling to those who hold it in their hands. Those who possess it lust for more. It is the freedom to choose; to change; to shape the world according to one’s desires. But power reveals one for what they truly are…and consumes those unworthy of it.”

Her quiet voice drifted across the table, carrying with it a sheer force of will that felt like it would crush him where he stood. Ray’s body trembled, breath becoming erratic as excitement and arousal rose within him.

This is it…this is what I wanted!

Gone was the young noblewoman with her pleasant demeanour and stoic reserve. In her place was an echo of the matchless might he had witnessed when the Sorcerer King raised his arms over the Katze Plains. Absolute beauty rendered by absolute power.

“Just who I need to see, huh…”

Ray’s breathing went still at Lady Zahradnik’s words. The glaive held to his neck vanished in a blink.

“It is what General Kabein told me before I parted ways with the Second Legion,” her fingertips went back to rest on the table again. “And it seems that he was right on the mark.”

Not a trace remained of the spectre of power dominating the tent mere seconds ago. Across the table, Lady Zahradnik had returned to the very image of a female martial aristocrat…but the feeling that she had left within him lingered. No matter what appearance she wore; no matter how she spoke, Ray could now sense the sheer weight of her existence shadowing her every word and action.

Never in his life had he met someone like her. Even the majesty of the imperial throne seemed paltry by comparison.

“Do you understand what he meant by that, General Ray?”

“…I wouldn’t presume to guess, my lady,” Ray replied. “General Kabein’s vast experience makes him a far wiser man than I.”

“There is a certain truth to what you say,” Lady Zahradnik told him. “Time can grant wisdom to Humans, but time also takes away the years in which Humans can apply that wisdom. General Kabein understands that the Sorcerous Kingdom has asked the Baharuth Empire a question, but he could only provide an answer for the Baharuth Empire of today. He pointed me to you because you can provide an answer for the Baharuth Empire of the future.”

He nodded slowly at her words, then stopped as her brow furrowed slightly.

“You’re not pleased with my answer,” he said.

“Whether your answer pleases me or not has no bearing on my duties,” Lady Zahradnik replied. “What displeases me is that you appear to be incapable of providing a satisfactory answer…or rather than you personally, it is the Empire itself that is incapable of properly answering.”

“I’m afraid I don’t understand what you mean by that, my lady.”

“If you did,” the Baroness told him, “then you would be able to provide a proper answer. The Baharuth Empire is young. Like many children, it has been sheltered from the dangers of the world. Now, it is like a boy grown tall enough to believe he can reach his father’s spear mounted over the fireplace mantle. To the exclusion of all else, you stretch out your hand, ignorant of the blaze burning right in front of you…or who is watching.”

Ray frowned at the imagery she presented – it was probably something every martial scion had attempted at least once, with less than desirable results.

“I worry over whether that means my mother will be coming over to spank me.”

“Spank?” Baroness Zahradnik raised an eyebrow, “My mother kicked my brother straight into a stone wall.”

He felt himself take a step back.

“…but I won’t do that,” she smirked. “I don’t believe that the Empire of today would survive any sort of ‘kick’ from the Sorcerous Kingdom. What I want from you is a proper answer, for the Empire has already chosen you to lead the Imperial Army into the future. You are one of the youngest men ever to earn the rank of General and the man who was supposed to oversee the annexation of Re-Estize over the next generation. Your image is portrayed on every third army poster in every town and city. You are a personification of the ambition, drive and will of the Empire.”

“What is it that keeps me from providing a ‘proper answer’, my lady?”

“Ignorance. A reality fabricated under the belief that the nursery sheltering you is the world itself. As long as you cling to those beliefs, you cannot offer the Sorcerous Kingdom an informed answer.”

What did she mean by that? She made it sound as if reality itself was woven out of some grand illusion.

“It is not as complicated as it seems,” Lady Zahradnik smiled slightly at his confusion. “The truth is quite simple, actually. Due to the conditions under which it has developed, imperial society has forged chains that bind its people and keep them from seeing what lies beyond the safety of the cradle. Even now, the Empire is helplessly bound by those chains as reality visits its truth upon it.”

The Baroness looked down at the map on the table, eyes going from feature to feature.

“I believe that you will be attempting to establish a foothold in the highlands as the first step in your offensive?”

“That’s right,” Ray nodded. “Our reconnaissance is far from complete and still ongoing, but we’ve gathered enough information to believe that securing at least one of the western passes is possible with minimal casualties. If all goes well, the disruptions that we cause after breaking into the plateau will allow the divisions along the imperial border to join us.”

“I see,” Lady Zahradnik said. “In that case, I will participate as one of your Captains. It should provide me with the opportunity to show you the things that you cannot yet see.”

“You, my lady? Under me?”

Lady Zahradnik offered Ray a small, self-deprecating smile.

“Admittedly, I do not have the defence of a Death Knight or the offence of a Death Warrior, but I do hold some advantages of my own. Even so, it is highly likely that you’ll be experiencing some pain. As the aggressor in this conflict, however, I believe you understand that you have no right to complain.”