Chapter 66 - Sealed Fate

Trapped inside the sealed cave, only seven battle-weary samurai remained of the once formidable unit. The rest had met their honorable ends upon the bloody battlefield or in desperate skirmishes as they retreated ever deeper into the sprawling cavern complex with a vengeful Imperial force in pursuit.The surviving samurai found some abandoned torches left by the fleeing rabbit folk. They lit these makeshift torches which cast flickering shadows across the cavern walls - their only respite from utter darkness.Maeda had ventured deep into the winding cave system to check the rear exit route. He returned panting and regretful. "Goto-san, the rabbit folk have sealed off the back way with a cave-in," he reported grimly to Commander Hibari."So we're trapped in here," Captain Ishii concluded, his shoulders slumping.Commander Hibari clenched his jaw. "Kuso! Damn cowards!" another samurai cursed, throwing down his katana in frustrated resignation.The rabbit folk had fled safely through the back exit, then caused a rock slide to prevent Imperial pursuit. But this act had also sealed off the samurais' only escape, trapping them inside to await their fate.Hibari raised his chin resolutely. "We will make our stand here. Men! Draw swords - we will cut down any Imperial dogs who dare enter this cave!"The samurai gave a half-hearted battle cry in response. Gripping their weapons, they formed a defensive line at the cave mouth and waited.A day passed. No Imperial attack came. But the air grew steadily more stifling, and smoke began seeping into the cavern."You smell that?" Captain Ishii asked with dread.Maeda observed bitterly as the truth dawned on them. "They mean to smoke us out like an infestation."The cowardly Imperials would not face the samurai blades - they meant to flush them into surrender instead with smoke and fire."What shall we do, Commander?" a young samurai asked between coughs as the smoke choked their lungs.Hibari sat calmly on the stone floor, folding his legs. "There is but one honorable option left to us now," he answered solemnly. Around him, the samurai followed suit, assuming the traditional pose of acceptance.For half a day, the Imperial troops built up the raging fire at the cave's mouth. Smoke flooded the cavern in suffocating waves as the resolute samurai sat unmoving, slowing their breathing as best they could. Still, the heat intensified and the air grew dangerously thin.The young samurai who had spoken earlier now wheezed and gagged, his face pale with fresh air deprivation. "I...I do not wish to perish like vermin..." he gasped out in despair."Commander...what say you?" another asked weakly, coughing the acrid smoke from his lungs. Even still, none broke their meditative pose. "Should we yield, and surrender?""I will not yield. They would parade us beaten and chained through their wretched streets to disgrace us as traitorous mutineers," Commander Hibari declared vehemently.The surrounding samurai nodded solemnly in agreement, their faces set with grave resignation. To these proud warriors, public humiliation was a far more intolerable fate than death itself.They knew all too well the customs of the Wessen - how the Imperial citizens loved displaying those they deemed savage or criminal in punitive processions throughout the city. Stripping their victims in nothing but their skins and chains, they would drag them through jeering crowds as a warning to others.Once proud warriors would be reduced to wailing, pleading beasts under an onslaught of hurled refuse and scourging lashes. Even women and children would join gleefully in the ritual shaming, spitting curses ringing in the poor wretches' ears.These gruesome pageants served both as cruel entertainment for the masses as well as harsh reminders to reinforce total Imperial dominance. Any shred of dignity was ripped brutally away - alongside skin and bone and spirit.The Imperials had officially abandoned execution as a legal penalty over a century ago. Yet what they inflicted upon the condemned was perhaps worse than death. Those found deserving of capital punishment would instead face the dreaded Cancel Parade.This brutal public shaming spectacle was essentially a death sentence in itself. Victims who survived the ordeal of being paraded naked through the jeering crowds rarely emerged with sanity intact. And the social stigma meant they were deprived of any chance to provide for themselves - no jobs, no shelter, no aid. Ultimately they were left to starve alleyway gutters, broken in body and spirit.For the proud samurai warriors facing this gruesome fate, the shame was doubly unbearable. They could never return to their homeland branded as traitors. Nor could Ronin hope to find mercenary work again in the Wessen territories after such humiliation.In effect, the Imperials' act of supposed mercy in sparing their lives sentenced these men to a tortured demise through deprivation rather than a clean executioner's blade. Death would have been far preferable to the samurai than living on devoid of all honor and dignity. So with quiet courage, they awaited the release of oblivion as smoke choked the very breath from their lungs inside that lightless cavern.To face such a wretched demise was a disgrace far worse than death to the samurai code. These men would die a thousand noble deaths on the field of battle before allowing themselves to meet such defilement.Their fate was tragically sealed, but they would cling to honor in their final moments as smoke stole the very air from their lungs. Grim and resolute, the warriors sat unbent - awaiting the release of oblivion with courage.⁕⁕⁕The cave system deep within the Lapinwood forests once housed the resistance efforts of the legendary Rabbit Rebels, who used the winding tunnels to hide from invading forces. Years later, the tables had turned - this time the invading samurai army retreated into those very same caves seeking refuge.Lord Borran's forces showed no mercy, driving the remnants of the samurai battalions back through the forests towards the cave entrance. From an initial force of three hundred elite warriors, only seven battle-worn samurai remained, making their last stand. They retreated deep into the cave tunnels that had protected the Rabbit Rebels decades ago.But Lord Borran had no intention of allowing his enemy to hide or escape. He ordered his men to gather timber and set fire to the dense bushes surrounding the cave mouths. Billowing smoke soon filled the tunnels, slowly suffocating the trapped samurai inside. One by one the warriors collapsed, until only young Maeda remained conscious, reaching for his blade to commit seppuku rather than face capture or dishonor. But the smoke overcame him before the ritual could be completed.As the smoke filled the tunnels, the samurai knew escape was impossible. One by one, they each found an alcove along the rocky walls to perform the ritual seppuku, preferring an honorable death to the disgrace of capture. Maeda acted as the kaishakunin - the assigned second responsible for mercifully decapitating fellow samurai after they disemboweled themselves.He solemnly carried out his grim duty when the billowing smoke slowly overcame each of his superiors. The echoes of their death poems mixed with cries of agony rang through the tunnels before being silenced by Maeda's blade. Too soon, only Maeda remained - the lone surviving member of the proud force.With tears in his eyes but resolve in his heart, Maeda knelt to perform his own seppuku ritual, his short sword poised to open his stomach. But alone without a kaishakunin to assist him, the smoke overtook his senses before he could complete the act. The sword slipped from his fingers as darkness embraced him.The fires settled, and Lord Borran sent men to retrieve any samurai left alive. To his surprise, they found Maeda in the caves, passed out but still breathing. They promptly took him prisoner, bound in chains. The irony was not lost - the cave tunnels that had shielded the Rabbit Rebels from the samurai invaders now served to exterminate those same samurai warriors moments later at the hands of a merciless lord. And a single survivor remained, his fate and his people's rule over these lands now in jeopardy.When Maeda awoke, he found himself bound by ropes on the forest floor - the sole living samurai taken captive from the caves by Lord Borran's men after they had systematically trapped and eradicated all his senior warriors. Maeda had served as kaishakunin, assisting all his fellow samurai in their final honored acts. But without someone to return the favor, chance had left him alive yet utterly dishonored as a prisoner.The forest, once teeming with life, was reduced to a smoldering wasteland. The flames consumed not only the rebels but also the creatures of the forest, leaving behind a trail of devastation. Many Inazuma samurai and Rabbit Rebels fell victim to the merciless fire, their fates sealed by Lord Boran's ruthless decision.He was later transported to a nearby Imperial outpost, waiting for his fate to unfold. The Imperial court decided he would be sent to Lyondyn, paraded, and shamed before thousands in the capital city for his mutiny.Maeda waited months in the outpost. When he was about to be transported to the capital, Captain Willem's recon party intercepted his escort at a crossroads, seeking able fighters to join their likely suicide mission escorting refugees from the harpies. Knowing this was a death sentence from the fledgling refugees for the ronin, the escort soldiers handed Maeda over to join Aden and the rest.The somber tale cast a pall over the foraging party as they trudged deeper into the Wailing Widow Pass. Ser Percival's eyes were downcast, Hjalmar's typical glibness nowhere to be found. Even Aden seemed shaken by the account of such brutality and injustice.Maeda stared ahead, his expression unreadable, yet his fists remained clenched - whether in anger, regret, or some combination, it was impossible to say. The looming mountain summit twisted like a hook before them, a specter of the past that had led the samurai to this path of redemption, for better or worse.The distant rumble of thunder rolled across the desolate plain as dark clouds gathered overhead, Nature itself seeming to protest the depths of human cruelty.⁕⁕⁕The foraging party listened, enthralled, as Maeda's story unfolded during their trek deep into the Wailing Widow Pass. They could scarcely believe the samurai had been arrested for doing what any logical person in his position would have done - the right thing.The incident became known as the Samurai Mutiny, shocking news that rippled through the mercenary circles across the Wessen world.With the Leveret Revolt vanquished and the Samurai Mutiny swiftly dealt with, the empire had killed two birds with one stone.Maeda clenched his fists, gritting his teeth. "If only...if only I could have gone with them into that cave..." Regret laced his words - he wished he had died alongside his fellow warriors.Aden placed a reassuring hand on Maeda's shoulder. "Everything has its purpose. Lua has His own plan for you. If you had died in that cave, you wouldn't be here now, defending the village from the harpies. You have a second chance to regain the honor of your fallen brethren."Maeda nodded solemnly, considering Aden's words.His expression darkened as he recalled, "When Inazuma still served under Lord Boran-dono. The edge of the encampment. We stumbled on a house. Bunny girls and elven females were ...violated by the soldiers and knights in mass."Bunny girls, along with elven females, were among the most sought-after commodities in the slave markets. While harpies and mermaids fetched high prices as collectibles or crown jewels for lords and royalty, the Regalyon Empire permitted the slave trade of wildlings like orcs, imps, elves, and rabbit folk."The Vulture Banquet," Aden murmured, a dark look passing over his features as he gave voice to the depravity Maeda had witnessed. The act of confining multiple women in a place or chamber, where men, typically outnumbering their victims two or three to one, would violate them relentlessly, day and night without rest.His mother's own experiences with group intimacy had been consensual, a means of indulging desires, not this...this ritualized brutality. When she had been vultured willingly by her partners, it was to spice up her sex life, her safety never at risk.But the Vulture Banquet was violence incarnate. The women held no power, treated not as partners but as mere playthings to be used and discarded when broken. Many perished horribly at the hands of men who saw them as nothing more than objects upon which to slake their violent lusts.A heavy pall hung over the foraging party as they made their way deeper into the Wailing Widow Pass. Ser Percival's jaw clenched, struggling against the horror of what he had heard. Hjalmar, typically so glib, found himself at an uncharacteristic loss for words in the face of such brutality.Even Aden, no stranger to the darkest corners of human behavior, seemed badly shaken by Maeda's recounting of the atrocities he had witnessed firsthand.Maeda himself remained inscrutable, his fists clenched tightly as the looming, hook-shaped mountain peak ahead of them served as a bitter reminder of the path that had led him here - a path of redemption, perhaps, but at what cost?The rumble of distant thunder rolled across the desolate plain as roiling dark clouds gathered in the sky above, as if Nature itself could not turn a blind eye to the depths of human cruelty laid bare.⁕⁕⁕