Six hours after we left the castle, we set up camp to rest for the night. It was true that we needed to rush to the southern front, but I assumed that the top brass decided it would be better for us to be well-rested, and have enough energy on the field to hold our own, rather than simply charge into the enemy lines exhausted and sleep-deprived.
"How long were you in prison for, and what got a young man like yourself stuffed in there?" a bald, tan-skinned man with a scar on his left eye said as he approached me, sitting next to me around the campfire we had set up.
"I wasn't exactly a prisoner, just a soldier under observation due to special circumstances, let's just say. What about yourself?" I asked him, as I ate the potato stew if you could call it that. All that was in it were potatoes, salt, and water, which were being distributed to us. Of course, calling it food was an insult to food, but beggars can't be choosers, I suppose.
"Me, well, I suppose I ticked off central command the wrong way. Haaah, good days they were. I was a brigade commander back at the central headquarters. My post, of course, was in name only; I held no real power. The nobles stationed under me had more power than I did. Still, the pay was good, and I didn't have to fight, since the central army for decades now had been nothing but a shadow of its former glory, and as with all other things, even the army was corrupt," he said as he drank his stew.
"But that doesn't explain why you're here?" I said as I put down my now-empty bowl on the ground and turned to the bald man with a curious look on my face.
"I was getting to that," he replied with a short laugh.
I lightly apologized to him for rushing him, which he simply laughed off and continued his story. "Anyway, back in the capital, I had a small family, which included my wife and two daughters, both of whom were about your age, 19, I assume?" he asked, looking at me expectantly.
"I am 19, yes," I briefly replied, while I had a sense I could tell where this story was going.
After nodding, a solemn expression covered his face as he put his stew down. "Three years ago now, when I was away from the capital for our regular monster exterminations around the central region, which generally took a month, some random fat noble by the name of Alphonse, from the capital region, took a fancy to my wife and daughters. He sent some knights to talk to my wife and bring her along with my two daughters to his castle," he said, clenching the spear in his left hand tightly.
"They refused, I presume?" I said, looking at him with pity in my gaze.
"Yeah, and when the noble heard this, he was furious and told the knights to bring them to his castle by force," he said, his eyes tightly shut.
"The noble for five days straight r*ped them. Unable to take it, my wife took her own life. Having had enough of them, the fat son of a bitch threw my daughters to the regular soldiers who...for ten days str-haaahh," he stopped as I put my hand on his shoulder, which he took off and continued.
"When I returned, I looked for my wife and daughters. Unable to find them, I asked around, and in a random pub, there was a soldier whom I overheard talking about the situation. Naturally, I cut his head off right there along with that of his compatriots. In my anger, I charged into the noble's mansion. However, as I possessed no real power, the well-trained knights he had guarding him beat me to a pulp. Then, the fucking son of a bitch had me castrated and sent me here to live out the rest of my days, unable to do anything but rage about my incompetence," he said as he loosened his grip on his spear and looked around. There were quite a few around us now, most of whom were looking at the bald man with empathy in their eyes.
"I imagine there are quite a few here who went through the same thing as me. I imagine a good 40% of us prisoners are here due to some reason or the other that has to do with central corruption," he said, and there were quite a few nods all around, which kind of surprised me. Part of me honestly felt glad that my family lived on the outskirts of the center and west border, which meant that there were fewer nobles there, yet at the same time, barbarian activity there was equally high.
"I see," was all I managed to say. Honestly, I can't say I understand their feelings. How could I? I never had anything like that ever happen to me, after all. To say I could understand their feelings would be an insult, would it not?
The rest of the night, I talked with quite a few people who were here because of a similar situation to Robert, the bald man who had been telling his life story earlier.
As it would turn out, life for commoners in the center was not much better than that in rural areas. You would have nobles harassing you, extorting money from you, or worse… something barbarians did quite often.
"Why have such nobles?" was the only thought I had as I went to bed that night. Tomorrow would be a long day, after all.