The Kingdom of Urd was going through difficult times, the king had died without leaving a clear heir, or at least one who could be accepted by the nobles.
Faced with this crisis, the nobles of the entire kingdom had gathered to appoint a new king and thus avoid a civil war, "the assembly of the empty throne," as this important meeting was called.
Rumors about the assassination of the king, as well as about foreign kingdoms intervening, caused the assembly to fail. Without reaching a common agreement, the assembly was dissolved and several were the nobles who self-proclaimed themselves as the legitimate king of Urd.
In this way, the kingdom was divided between several suitors and their followers, who proclaimed their own walled cities as the new capital of the kingdom.
The beginning of a war for the succession to the throne was simply inevitable.
In contrast, small villages and towns were greatly affected when they were forgotten by the nobles, thus becoming easy targets for bandits and at the mercy of monsters.
Under these same circumstances was the small village of Rita.
As every day, the inhabitants of Rita focused their efforts on the fields.
"Elder! elder! "-running from the outskirts of the village, a boy no older than fifteen years and visibly alarmed hurriedly through the fields of cultivation.
"What's the matter, lad?"-from among the many villagers working on the crops, an old man called the boy.
"Elder..."-with his face covered with sweat and his restless breathing, the boy was unable to speak properly.
"Calm down, take a deep breath and tell me what happens"
The restlessness that the boy projected, began to spread among the nearby villagers. The situation was not at all, that boy was considered a quiet person, even something withdrawn.
"An army... a great army is approaching from the East!"
The boy´s words made everyone there present to remain completely stunned for a few seconds. The word "army", accompanied by prayer; "Proceeding from the east," was something that no one remembered to have ever heard. The assimilation process was slow.
"Are you... are you absolutely sure, boy?"
Even as the older individual among those present, the old man also did not remember having even heard of such an event in the past. However, the subject was another if the frightened boy had misused the word "army" to describe the only possible danger that could come from the east, from the Golden Plains, orcs.
"Of course! There are so many that I couldn't count them, foot soldiers, riders and a lot of wagons. They all travel in a straight line following the old plain path. "
Like the rest of those present, the old man was seriously confused. What the boy described was unthinkable whether they were orcs, such beasts are incapable of riding, much less of using tools as civilized as wagons. Even so, what was described was something they might consider "absurd," and had it not been for the fact that the boy in question was someone reliable, someone would have made a mockery of it.
The only thing that seemed to have a certain logic, however absurd it seemed, was that it was a Lorenzian army en route to Kard or Tolm.
But what was the absurdity of such an event?
The neighboring kingdom of Lorenz, to the east, is a kingdom whose forte is cavalry. Nothing to surprise considering that its territory is entirely made up of wide plains. The singular thing is that it is everything, that's right, Lorenz only employs cavalry.
'If you want to kill a Lorenzian, kill his horse first' - those were the words brought from Lorenz by the only king of Urd who dared to try to invade that kingdom.
In contrast, the territory of the kingdom of Urd is forested and rugged, its fort is light infantry. To invade such lands using only horsemen would be as absurd as trying to take a walled city without siege tools.
I will only take my army where my horses can run without stopping. Only an inept Lorenzian would attempt to wage a battle where his horse could not maneuver' - this was the response of the first king of Lorenz to his nobles when they tried to instigate him to invade Urd.
Whether the Lorenzians had lost their minds, had some ingenious plan, or anything else, the situation for Rita's villagers was the same.
Who is the nobleman who ruled their lands, or who are the king who sat on the throne? These were things that mattered little to the villagers, for their circumstances were always the same. The only thing that changed for them was the name of the one to whom they had to pay tribute.
"We must flee and hide in the forest!" –In the midst of the visible despair of the villagers, the boy urged a plan, yet no one showed the slightest enthusiasm for his words.
"Winter is around the corner, if we lose these crops, we will starve" – before the boy who seemed not to understand why his words were not acceptable, the old man, with a heavy voice, gave a short explanation.
"We can look for food in the forest or ask Kard's lord for help, but if we stay here, we will surely die" - the boy simply did not understand the unwillingness of the villagers. Even if they lost their crops, as long as they stayed alive, they could find some other way to deal with the winter.
"No nobleman has ever helped a commoner without asking for something in return, and we have nothing more to offer.
The old man's words brought to the boy´s mind the memory of his father and older brother. Two months ago, Kard's lord had taken all the strong men from the village for his army.
"And between betting our lives on a winter in the forest with irrational and hungry monsters, or dealing with the whims of the nobles of another kingdom, I choose to bow my head and polish their boots with my tongue"
Faced with the frustration of the boy, the rest of the villagers seemed to accept the old man's logic completely. Who could blame the villagers and the old man for such logic? They had worked the land arduously for half a year, those crops were the fruit of their effort.
To spend a winter living by nature, not even the elves were so naive these days! Cold and hunger were the worst of poisons to mortals.
'A man may live by killing and die with a sword piercing his throat, but starvation is something even the most disgusting of beasts would not allow. I may die for honor, for a woman or for my pride, but I will never die for something as stupid as hunger!' –these were the words of 'Urdricht Bleeding Hands' after losing all his provisions prior to an important battle.
"Now boy, that doesn't mean we bet everything on this. Take all the young women and children, hide in the forest and if any misfortune occurs, take them to Kard. While we cannot rely on the generosity of Kard's lord, we are sure that the men from our village who were taken there will give them all the help they can get.
Though full of frustration, the boy was unable to respond to the old man's words and quickly focused on carrying out the task entrusted to him. As for the villagers, although according to the old man's plan, they could not help but feel a certain unease about it. The forest beside Rita's village was one in which not even the bravest of men would dare to enter.
The sun was already at the highest point in the sky, marking the midday. With the youngest women and children hidden in the forest, the rest of the villagers were gathered in the center of the village waiting for their visitors.
Somehow, several of the villagers still hoped that the boy had made a mistake, or that it was all an unusual joke. Such hopes were completely dashed once large clouds of dust were glimpsed from the east.
Once the figures of countless individuals became visible in the dust, not a few villagers began to tremble with fear. Despite the distance, the visible number of soldiers far exceeded any hypothetical calculation of the villagers.
In search of a logical, or more acceptable explanation regarding the hypothetical "army" on the way, the villagers had found another possible reason. Remnants of a Lorenzian army which had confronted the orcs and which, after being defeated, had no choice but to flee westwards. Such an explanation seemed plausible and the number of soldiers seen by the boy should be less than three hundred riders. Of course, the villagers had conveniently omitted the boy´s words describing wagons and foot soldiers. The reality approaching them in the form of many more hundreds of soldiers than expected was simply overwhelming.
As the only plan to deal with the visitors, the villagers had planned to offer the Lorenzianos everything in their hands to help them, as long as this did not compromise their survival during the harsh winter. Such a plan was of course an offer of help to a supposedly defeated army.
Faced with such a reality, all they had left was to appeal to kindness and offer their complete loyalty. After all, if the Lorenzians were planning to conquer Urd, shouldn't they be willing to earn the goodwill of their future subjects?
As if it were a chain of unexpected and unsettling events; an army coming from the east and a far greater number than expected, another unexpected event was added. The banners of the army soon became visible; however, it was not the characteristic banner of three horseshoes on a yellow background of Lorenz.
The exchange of uneasy and disturbed glances was not long in coming between the villagers. The murmurs erupted in the form of choppy, fearful voices. The villagers were on the verge of panic.
A disturbing black background on which stood the imposing figure of a white raven perched on a broken crown, five golden stars crowned that bird, while under the broken crown the word "Magnus" was noticeable. This was the standard that was raised imposingly above that army.
Although evidently no villager knew of the banners of the nobles of Lorenz, and indeed not even those of his own kingdom, the idea that some nobleman should display a much more extravagant and striking banner than that of his own kingdom was simply absurd. No king in this world would allow such humiliation.
Yet that shield did not belong to the neighboring kingdoms, and it was unthinkable that the nobleman of another kingdom should leave his territory under his own banner.
As the villagers thought nervously and carefully of this, a large number of horsemen detached themselves from the army, and riding with great speed, they quickly arrived at the village.
The swift gallop barely gave the villagers time to think. By the time the riders stood in front of them, they did not know how to react.
"Welcome to the village of Rita, I am the village elder. How can we be of help to them?"
Being the first to overcome the perplexed situation, the old man had to make use of all his courage and experience left over the years so as not to be overwhelmed by the extravagant appearance of the riders. Unlike the Lorenz riders who used leather protections for greater mobility, but mostly because of the lack of metals in their territory, these riders in front of him wore extravagant ornate silver armor. Something one would only hope to see once in a lifetime over the body of some wealthy nobleman, or an elf from the Elf Kingdom of Grandeza.
Faced with such an overwhelming situation, the old man stepped forward and offered a welcome as kind as his nervous, overwhelmed mind allowed.
"I'm Nike Julius, and this is my lord Raven Magnus, we want information, water for our horses and your permission to spend the night in the vicinity of your village."
In response to the old man's words, two riders far more extravagant and imposing than the others emerged from the center of the group. A young woman with blonde hair, whose beauty would make the splendour of any gem pale, responded to the old man's words.
In spite of the incomparable beauty of that young woman who had left men and women alike breathless, he who attracted the glances of the dismayed villagers was the rider beside him. He was a young man of overwhelming presence, with silver hair and silver pupils, whose face was equaled or surpassed in beauty to that of the beautiful blonde-haired woman.
"We-we can provide them with all the water they need, and it would not be a problem to allow them to rest in this area, yet I-am very sorry to say that we would not be able to offer enough food for your men"-with his old knees shaking slightly, the old man touched the turning point, the crops of the village. For the villagers, everything seemed to be reduced to dying on the edge of a sword, or starving during the harsh winter.
"We don't need food, we have our own provisions."
When the old man and the villagers expected to be forced to choose how they would die, that unexpected response took them completely by surprise. The young woman of unparalleled beauty took so much weight off their shoulders that there were quite a few who felt their legs give way and ended up staggering.
"I-I understand, with regard to information, I very much doubt that we know of anything that might be of help to them.
Despite the relief they felt from seeing both their crops and their lives saved, it was not yet time to relax. Information was the least they possessed, they were simple villagers after all, their lives revolved entirely around their crops. That was all they had.
"We don't need detailed information, we'd just like you to answer a few simple questions.
"I-in that case, I hope we're of help to you."
What kind of information might these strange visitors require from simple villagers? Faced with such doubt, the villagers were unable to calm their troubled hearts.
Yet, far from the doubts the mysterious army raised, such as their provenance or intentions, the villagers seemed to have managed to secure the only thing that really mattered to them, their crops and their own lives. Anything else, they would offer without hesitation for the sake of maintaining their peaceful situation.
With their requests accepted without hesitation, the mysterious army passed through the village and then set up a large camp on the outskirts and old disused fields.