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--- Italica ---

May 10th, 2025

Italica is a major trading hub for the Empire. Two of the Empire’s major highways connect to the city. One is the Appia Highway that goes east to west, crossing the rich farmlands of the Greater Elies Region to Sadera. The other being the Roma Highway that follows the Roma River. It moves south from Italica to the port town of Beutem on the Blue Sea.

These two Highways are the heart of connecting the Empire. Italica sits right at the joint of these two highways making it one of the Crown Jewels Counts within the Empire.

Five thousand Imperial citizens live in Italica. Most of the population is Human however Italica has a decent size of Command Races like Elves, Nekos or Cat-People, Lions, Bunnies, and more. While not one of the largest cities within the Empire it is one of the wealthiest towns and has been a target of large hordes and bandits. Normally the Empire would have at least one Legion defending this important city however, most of the men were sent off to fight the enemy from the Gate.

Since the war with the warriors from the other side of the Gate, most of those soldiers have either died in the battle of or deserted into the countryside. Also, there have been reports of survivors forming outlaw gangs and raiding parties, raiding towns for food, and promised riches.

It has been two days since Princess Piña Co Lada and her three fellow Rose-Order Knights reached Italica and in those two days, the situation has fallen apart. A massive horde of outlaws attacks the city on the second day, nearly overwhelming the defenders.

These were not normal bandits but deserters. This made them well equipped and well trained.

Her comrade Norma quickly took command of the wall defenses, barely repelling the attackers. After killing dozens of them, the outlaws withdrew back to the forest line.

"This isn't good, we don't have the manpower to withhold another attack," Grey said, looking at the city militia. Most of these men are traders, farmers, sailors, and other non-combat trades. None are soldiers.

Norma is cleaning the blood off his sword, just arriving from the wall. He is all serious, not in his usual cocky self. "Yeah, I bet some of the outlaws were guards to this place. They seem to know the city defenses well."

She walks along the eastern wall as she thinks. She looks down and sees the women tending to their wounded husbands and sons. She notices many of the men are older or younger.

"The Count, Colt Formal took all the fighting men to the Other Worlders and died in battle," she states. "This means we are probably the only professionally trained fighters."

"And let's not forget that fool Colt outlawed the Guilds leaving no one to hire for help," Norma states.

"Hiring mercenaries have never been an ideal thing," Grey said. "I found trusting soldiers who only value money usually ends badly. Friends today and enemies tomorrow."

After listening to how bad the situation is, she asked, "Well, what is the plan then?"

She somewhat regretted saying that out loud as she noticed some of the peasants overhearing her. She is the Princess, after all, she is supposed to have all the answers and lead her troops. Not running around scared to death and asking questions.

She is already seeing how different the world is outside the city's tall walls in Sadera. She has been outside the city before, however never far without being heavily guarded.

Grey looks to her and speaks up first. "Nothing right now. They were just weakening our defenses, Princess. Norma, and I will go to the wall and see to the situation. You and Hamilton go get some rest in the palace."

She takes a deep breath and nods.

--- Few hours later ---

"Princess... princess wake up, we have a situation."

Pina awakes as someone speaks into her ear. When she wakes up, she is seeing her servant Hamilton.

"What is it..." she mumbles. She then quickly raises up and then gets a sudden jolt of energy after realizing the context of her situation. "Are we under attack!?"

Her sudden burst of energy scared Hamilton. She has always been a fragile girl, easy to startle. She jumps back to the end of the bed. "Wow... ahh Princess. I... I do not know. We have a situation at the South Gate."

She rubs her eyes, waking herself up. Once feeling awake, she then looked up at Hamilton. "I don't understand. Are those bandits attacking or what?"

Hamilton gets off the bed and walks away to grab Pina some clothes and armor. Once she grabs them, she brings them over to her. "Ahh no. It is someone else. Three strange looking..., wagon things..., came up to the south gate. And there are a few strange looking people wearing weird green clothes. Grey needs to speak to you about it. They are just sitting there."

With Hamilton's help, she gets into her armor. Once ready, both rush to the south gate.

As they walk through the town, you can feel the stress and fear in the air. Some of the people, trying to get ready for the next battle but most others are simply scared to death of the coming attack. Most of them are probably not going to survive the next attack.

Once she gets to the gate, one of the remaining guards guides her to the peephole in the wooden gate.

She sees these strange green looking metal wagons. "Where are the horses that pull them?"

"We didn't see horses," Norma said. "They rode up like that and stopped."

That is when she sees one of these people on top of one, manning some gray pointed tool. There are two more, standing by their green wagon, looking at the city. They seem to be talking to each other. "Interesting, they must be from the Gate. So, they seem to be Human."

"Princess, what do you think they are going to do? Are they going to attack?" Hamilton asked, scared of the situation.

She looks at her, a little surprised that she is scared but then thinks about it. Right now, all they know about these people are rumors about these people. Also, from that drunk soldier from that tavern(1) was only half true she knows she should worry about them.

"We are in no position to fight another enemy right now," she said. "The bandits could attack anytime now. We should attack them before they attack us."

"Do you think they came to attack us, Princess?" Hamilton asked. "Why does this have to happen now."

"I don't know, I only see three of these wagons and only a few soldiers. Not an attack...ing force... oh my god..." she replied but then loses the ability to speak for a second after seeing what she just saw. There is athis short blue haired girl with a staff, a young magic-user, no problem. But the next girl she sees is Rory Mercury!

She takes a step away from the peak hole seeing Rory. "It is Rory Mercury. Why is she with them? Are they allies?"

"What!?" Hamilton yells in pure shock at that news. "What is she doing with them? Why would she even help the Gate soldiers?"

"I don't know, but we are dead. We cannot fight the bandits. The Other Worlders, and Rory." she comments in a nervous tone.

"Princess," Grey said. "Take a deep breath and look at the situation. Do not allow your mind to add information that is not there. Judge what you can see, and work from there."

She takes a new breath to calm herself down. She counted only three enemy soldiers and three of those green wagons. They did not look that big so they cannot be holding armies in them. So far, they have not acted aggressively, and they came from the south, not the east where the bandits came from.

"Maybe they are working together. Those bandits might be helping the Gate people too." Hamilton stated, trying to make sense of the situation.

"No!?" she yells as she gets an idea. She looks through the peephole again, trying to make sense of the situation. "The bandits attacked the east gate. If Rory and her new friend are working together then why didn't they fight with them? There are so few of them and there is a magic user too, maybe they came here for other reasons."

As she said her theory, she begins to see two of those stranger looking soldiers and the two girls walking down this way. They are coming. Two of them plus the magician and Rory.

Hamilton thinks of those facts. "How can we be sure? Are they going to ask us to surrender?" She then thinks of what it might be like to surrender to these Gate soldiers. If the rumors are true on how brutal these men fight, she can only imagine how becoming their slave would be like. Would it be like living under the Goblins or more like the Centaurs?

"I don't know however we need to do something," she said as she thinks. "If they are as brutal as the deserter said then they would have just attacked. Maybe they were attacked by the bandits too and need help."

"You are not considering working with them?" Norma said, not liking the idea.

"We cannot fight on two fronts right now," she replied. "What if they are here with peaceful intentions? If we attack now, then we are the aggressors."

"But Princess. What if they are here to attack us!" Hamilton asked, worried.

She knows that could be a risk. It is a fifty-fifty situation, and she does not know who is right. "It does not matter if they are hostile. We cannot fight a second attack against the bandits anyway. We are screwed no matter what we do, our best and the only hope is that these Other Worlders will be friendly."

After looking away from the peephole, Pina looks around the area and sees that everyone is waiting for her to make a decision. There is just no way to tell what their intentions are without more information. If she assumes wrong, the city will fall. However, the city is going to fall anyway when those bandits come back. If they come with peaceful intentions, we cannot afford to fight another enemy right now.

As she hears them walking up to the gate and hear their voices, hearing the blue haired girl talking about the history of the city. The male who seems to be in change seems to be taking interest in the topic. He is wearing these strange uniforms with all these strange pockets all over.

"Out of all the towns in the Empire, Italica is known to be the most…. What is that L word you use?" the blue hair girl asked.

"Liberal?" the man replied. "It is not liberal, the term is Classical Liberalism(2)."

"Yes that," the blue hair girl said. "I found that topic interesting. Italica is close to something like that. Being more open to different people however they are seen as wealthy but backward people to the rest of the Empire."

When they get close, she pushes the gate door open with much excitement, wanting to make a good first impression. "Welcome to Italica Travelers! Please.... ahh... wha"

As she looks, she realizes one of the soldiers on the ground, holding his head. Right then, she realizes she just pushed the door into one of the soldiers.

"Ouch... that hurt...." The man said as he slowly sits up.