"What the hell happened here?"
"We don't know, sir. We came about 20 minutes ago and found the place looking like this."
Frozen corpses hung everywhere, snow covered the ground, and blood spots appeared every few meters, with the sigil of the Karasunochi clan drawn in the center of the city using the blood of one of the traitorous retainers. His body was decapitated, and the parts had been placed around the sigil.
"We are in Kanamura... right?" a soldier asked in confusion. It was well known that Kanamura was a cold place, but this was way too cold. The buildings were frozen, and the snow on the ground reached half a meter in height.
"Did hell freeze over?" another soldier asked.
"We will find out soon enough. We caught someone who knows what happened. They are bringing him here for interrogation," a third soldier answered.
"Here? Who gave the order to bring him here?" asked the man in different-colored armor. They all wore traditional samurai armor in navy blue with silver outlining, but his outlining was gold. Apparently, he was a few ranks higher in hierarchy than them, and he was the highest-ranked here.
"A monarch, I hear," the second soldier said.
"Monarch?"
"Yeah. For some reason, the retainers of the previous shogunate decided to name themselves monarchs after usurping the crown—" His voice suddenly stopped. Another soldier put his hand over his mouth to prevent him from talking.
"Are you stupid? Telling that in front of a Goshi could get our heads impaled!" (Goshi - military rank)
"Don't worry, I agree with him as well. To be honest, I haven't met many people who have a different opinion from you. Most of the soldiers think that this is just another cycle that will end the same way as the shogunate. The only ones who disagree are the highest-ranked officials."
"I see."
"Shh, get yourselves together. They brought him here... and he is a general commander of the previous shogunate!"
"What? Which one?"
"That man with the greenish hair. He was born and lived in the east tower all his life. I heard he was a great strategist as well."
"Hmm, let's go see him then."
~~
"General, how does it feel to be back in the old capital?" a commander—the now highest-ranked here—asked. He came here with the prisoner strategist
"Old?" the ex-strategist asked.
"My, you don't know? Now that it has turned into an 'ice capital,' it is not a place for the monarchs anymore. However, I will be taking the last shogun's house if you don't mind."
"I personally don't mind, but I would suggest you keep your head down... that house tends to kill people."
"...?!" That comment took the commander by surprise. He reached for his sword but laughed instead. "You truly are intelligent, General. Trying to make me kill you before you could reveal any information—ingenious."
"What are you talking about? I'm just an old man with funny-colored hair."
"You say so, but I disagree. You were caught near Hanzō's temple, a known supporter of the Mochizuki. What were you doing there?"
"That man has amazing liquors; you should try them."
"Oh, I will. After I burn that temple to the ground, I will definitely enjoy them."
The word fight between the two continued for a few more minutes until the old strategist finally said, "Try whatever you want; someone froze this city. Do you honestly think you can kill someone like him?" That was the old man's final words to the world before a blade would cut his head off.
But what of his final thoughts? Or his actions?
~~
Naruhito opened his eyes to see a worried Midori sitting over him and wiping his sweat. A few meters away was Sebastian, who was under the chilling shade of a tree, eating an apple.
"You definitely don't worry about me at all, do you, Seb?" he asked.
"Nope, I don't. Midori is with you, so I don't have to worry at all," Sebastian countered with his words.
"I don't know if that was an offense to me or a compliment to Midori," I said.
"Both."
That Sebastian...
"Now that you are finally awake, let's start your actual training," Sebastian said and asked me to give him my family's sword.
"Midori, take care of our bodies; he is going to sweat and I'm going to bleed... a lot."
"Wha—" Midori asked, surprised, and was cut off when he saw both of us drop to the ground unconscious. Sebastian had used my blade to put us into an illusion. Was he planning to train me to death?
"Now, welcome to the land of dreams. That is this sword's ultimate ability. It allows you to put your opponent inside this world while their body is asleep. By the way, they can't wake up unless they complete the objective you gave them when you brought them here."
"What's my objective then?"
"Force me to forfeit a combat against you."
"Huh? That's impossible."
"You will come back here if you die now, so you are going to train to death." Sebastian put me in a place full of white and pinkish clouds. The place was beautiful.
Sebastian attacked me barehanded; he was planning to train me in hand-to-hand combat. Apparently, he wasn't a fan of magic battles and always told me to avoid using my magic if possible.
Punch to the gut—broken bones, dead.
Kick to the neck—broken neck, dead.
Ripped heart—dead.
That's how the next three months went by. He was killing me again and again and again. He used an illusion inside this illusion so that I wouldn't go mad from dying over and over again.
"Amazing, Naru, after three months, you can survive two hours against me; that's an amazing feat," Sebastian said.
"Yeah, whatever. It's been three months; can we just go back? I want to see what the rest of my retainers are doing."
"Of course, my lord."
(Crack)
The clouds shattered. This world—the land of dreams—was destroyed that easily by Sebastian. He needed just one hit.
And then I woke up.
"Naru!! You passed out!" Midori cried.
"I was unconscious as well, you know," Seb protested, and Midori answered back by saying, "You are a scumbag; you don't matter."
Sebastian made a hurt expression.
"By the way, Midori, why are you here after three months?"
"Three months? What are you talking about? It's been three minutes since you passed out. What happened?"
"Three minutes... I'm sure it was three months there."
"That's because it was," Sebastian explained. "Three minutes here is three months in the land of dreams. It's the ultimate illusion, capable of defying the laws of time. Though, the backlash is enormous as well," he said while coughing blood.
"Then don't use it!!" both Midori and I said at the same time.
"That's simply not possible. It's the only way for you to get stronger fast enough to travel to the north."
"Why do I have to train now? Is the north that dangerous?"
"The Wyvern Mountains is a place that works as a border and isolates the north from the rest of the kingdom. The only way to pass through is from the mines in the eastern part of the mountains. At best, we would find people as strong as the guards that will prevent us from passing. In the worst-case scenario..."
"What?" I asked.
"Nothing, let's just hope it won't happen..."
"Hey, Seb!!! We brought wood!!" Megumi shouted while running towards us.
"Well done," Sebastian applauded her. Megumi and I looked confused, yet we were clapping for some reason.
"Okay, let's set up the fire and I will explain how the new monarchy works and what our plan is," Sebastian ordered us.
~~
(Megumi POV)
"The usurpers named themselves monarchs and renamed the shogunate into a monarchy. Directly under them are the general commanders and the division commanders. Then we have the military officers and the hatamoto, and at the bottom are the goshi and the gokenin," Seb explained.
"So the base of the system is the same," Naruhito said.
"Yeah, they didn't change much. However, they moved the capital from Kanamura to Estella, a city on the southern part of the island. That's something that favors us, though, because the defenses at Kanamura would be weakened." Seb continued explaining the plan as I kept watching the fire. We had just managed to escape from the tower, where Seb almost died. Now we were planning to go to the north to get ready to kill the traitors.
"When is the fun going to start?" I asked.
"Fun?" Midori exclaimed, wondering what I meant by that.
"You know, the rebellion. The part where we kill the traitors."
"Megumi..."
"You know, Megumi, it's not the best thing to kill. I would prefer not to kill lots of people if possible. Even though I think it's not going to work," Seb told me, trying to cut me down with his words.
"Didn't they kill lots of people? Why should we not?" I asked, frustrated.
"Because we would be no better than them," Naru told me with a cold expression on his face, his eyes piercing me like lances and his words sharp as razors.
"Whatever..." I said angrily and left towards the mountains.
"Megumi..." Midori said, exhausted.
"Let her go; it won't help to try and keep her here. It would only make things worse," Seb told Midori. That's the last thing I heard from them before falling asleep on the cold rocks out of frustration.