Chapter 2

  By Severin Glenn

  Marching down the road alongside her troops, Erezu made sure that she was ready for what was coming. The Shogunate had recently found the location of a UESOC facility. This particular one had been causing the new capitol, the Aureate Empire, a lot of trouble.

  Filling the heads of her citizens with dangerous thoughts of technology was one of many crimes that they had committed. AS crown princess of the Aureate Empire she couldn’t let their blasphemous acts continue. Which is also why she had chosen to take part in this raid on the facility.

  A spy had told the Aureate Counter Intelligence group that the facility was about to conduct a dangerous experiment. Apparently the consequences were unknown, so they needed to stop it as soon as possible.

  “Princess, I insist that you remain behind the rest of the main force,” Reign, her personal guard, said.

  Reign had been acting as her guard since they were young. It was tradition for the princess of the Empire to be assigned an attendant, who they would later marry. The same is the case with the princesses, except witha guard. Erezu thought that this tradition was stupid, but she wasn’t about to go agaisnt her parents.

  “I can take care of myselfwell enough,” Erezu protested, “I’m more skilled than you when it comes to fighting with a blade.”

  “It’s not that you can’t take care of yourself, it’s that the Engineers use advanced weaponry” Reign argued, “those weapons have taken out countless Ashigaru units.”

  “Yes, but they didn’t have the same mastery of the Swordsong that I do,” Erezu rebutted, “we all know that the Swordsong is far superior to even some of the weapons of the Old Capitol.”

  Reign let out an exasperated sigh, “as your guard, I’m going to order you to stay at least in the middle of the force.”

  Nodding, Erezu didn’t say anything. Law dictated that Reign was well within his right to give this order to her. When it came to safety, personal guards had the ability to order even the emperor around. So, there was no use in trying to argue against Reign’s order.

  Instead, Erezu started preparing herself for the upcoming conflict. The Engineers, although small in number, had weapons that were far above that of the Empire’s.

  Those weapons were from an age long passed, well, long as within the last two hundred yeras. Erezu had to admit that they weren’t that old. However powerful they may be, they were still made using forbidden techniques. No matter how effective they may be, Erezu could not condone the use of them. She thought the Swordsong was stronger anyway.

  “It realy is a nice day today,” Reign sighed, “wish we could have spent it in the palace gardens instead of out in this forest.”

  Erezu snickerdd, “do you not like the forest? I think that it’s rather nice and peaceful out here.”

  “It’s not that I dislike the forest, it’s that there are way too many dangers and hazards out here,” Reign explained, “too many shadows and places to hide. Hard to keep my eyes on it all.”

  Contemplating what Reign had said, she realized that his views would be very different than hirs. While she could just ride on her horse and enjoy the sights, Reign was constantly on guard making sure that she was safe. He had been raised and trained to look out for threats. She had been raised to be prim and proper.

  Erezu had to practically beg her parents to let her take combat lessons. It was considered improper for her, but it’s not like she cared. At that time she just wanted to do the same things that Reign was.

  Looking around her, Erezu also realized that Reign was right. The sun made the trees cast shadows across the area. Many shrubs and brush could hide someone from even the sharpest eyes. Those concerns didn’t get too far as she remembered that the Engineers liked to set up forts.

  The Engineers didn’t like fighting anywhere but where they had set up. When they did fight elsewhere the Empire could easily spot them. One thing was certain, they weren’t good at guerilla tactics. Thus Erezu could enjoy the forest and greenery without worry of b eing attacked.

  “We’re getting close to the facility, you should be on your toes,” Aaron, the samurai of their unit, said as he rode up to them on horseback.

  Erezu didn’ tknow exactly how their military worked, but she did know a few things. Each small group had a samurai that was over them. Together, those groups were led by a daimyo. Finally, those daimyo’s groups were led by a shogun. Each shogun led one of the armies of the Empire. That was Erezu’s rudimentary understanding of their military.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  The other thing that she knew about the Shogunate was that, after they tried to overthrow her grandfather, the Shogunate had all control over the people removed. This left them strictly under the control of the military. That was probably for the best.

  “Is there anything that I should be aware of?” Reign asked, “anything that would be important for the princess’s safety?”

  “Nothing besides the regular safety concerns,” Aaron reported, his brigandine armor clinking.

  Erezu had already steeled herself for the upcoming conflict, and she knew that Reign was always at the ready. The other hundred or so soldiers around them were some of the best around. If they weren’t prepared now, then no amount of time could ever help them.

  ***

  “There’s no one inside,” the leader of a group soldiers reported as he left the facility.

  “What of their libraries?” Aaron questioned.

  “Unreachable,” the leader responded, “however, we did notice that their armory had most of the weapons still inside.”

  “Did you find anything else out of the ordinary?” Aaron continued his line of questions.

  “Yes, most of the emergency resources were still in place,” the leader finished their report.

  They had gotten to the facility not long ago. Before going in they did a full sweep of the outside, but only found one set of footprints. Though the Engineers were good at covering their tracks, they weren’t that good.

  When they finished their scouting outside, they setn a few groups inside hoping to clear out any guards that could be waiting. However, now they had learned that, not only were there no guards, there were no people at all. Stranger yet, it look didn’t look like the place had been vacated.

  “What do you make of this, Reign?” Erezu asked.

  “All of this is strange,” Reign said, hand on the hilt of his sword, “if that scouting party we sent after those tracks leads to nothing, then I’ll be even more concerned.”

  “Do they have the ability to just vanish without a trace?” Erezu contemplated out loud, “they were working on an experiment before we got here.”

  “Reports from that spy say they were working on a weapon,” Reign thought about it for a moment, “though there’s a possibility that the weapon could conceal them somehow.”

  Thinking baout technology hurt Erezu’s head. It could do so many things. Sometimes it could be helpful, and other times it could destroy entire civilizations. Technology was just plain confusing.

  Discussion continued between Reign and Erezu for some time abut technology. What it brough to the table, and how it ultimately brought the downfall of one of the most powerful civilizations.

  The discussion ended when they heard a muffled struggle in the distance. Walking towards them was the scouting party that Aaron had sent forward after the tracks. When they were sent out they had eight members, but now there were only seven. Among the remaining seven two of them were injured.

  One of them, the captain was dragging a girl behind them. The girl was gagged and had a long rope tied to her legs. However, she still looked like she had a lot of fight left in her.

  “What is this?” Erezu asked Aaron.

  Why did the scouts bring back only one person? When capturing prisoners to question they were always to capture two or more. That way they would have a bargaining chip to question the othe prisoner with.

  Was the practice horrible? Short answer, yes. Was it effective? Also yes. Though it didn’t really matter. Those Engineers were committing crimes against humanity. It was guaranteed that they would die, it was just a matter of when and how. Either way, Erezu didn’t really care.

  Aaron heard the report of the scout captain. Apparently the cout group had only found this girl…well, more like the girl had found them.

  This girl attacked them from the shadows using a rifle. That first attack resulted in one of them being killed. Then she drew a handgun and shot another of the group, injuring them. Just before they could get to her she drew a crimson red sword and slashed another. Supposedly it cut through their armor like it was wet paper.

  After thinking about it for a moment, Aaron said, “we hav eno use for only one prisoner. We’ll get another scouting party ready, and I suppose that we should execute this prisoner. We will show them the same hospitality that they displayed for our previous scouting party.”

  “Would you allow me to do the honors?” Erezu walked in front of the prisoner and stared directly into her eyes.

  Fiery energy burned behind the prisoner’s eyes. Erezu admired that, and felt a little sorry that they had to kill her. This girl’s energy could have been put to good use in the Empire.

  “The honor is yours, princess Erezu,” Aaron stepped back, allowing Erezu full range to do what was necessary.

  Grabbing her staff from her horse’s saddle bag, Erezu walked up to the prisoner. Two soldiers put the girl into a kneeling position for Erezu.

  Pressing a button on her staff. ERezu heard the latching mechanism release, and she pulled a long, slender blade from out of the staff. Erezu placed it at the prisoners neck. With a single swing she could end this, but Erezu wanted the prisoner to suffer.

  Carefully maneauvering her blade, Erezu removed the prisoner’s gag, “what is your name, and final words/ This is your last chance to go out with honor.”

  The prisoner stared at her for a moment, “Aiah, and I’m glad that I’ll die standing against your Empire.”

  Erezu gave a huff of amusement. Classic final words.

  “So be it,” Erezu pulled back her blade and stabbed Aiah through the chest.