"What's this?"

An old man with a rugged face said looking at what seemed like a Baby?

He moved closer to it, with curiosity written all over his face. but still cautious with every movement he made.

"Hmm... It's- no... he's still alive"

He went down on his knees and picked up the baby, and for some reason. He was silent.

Not the kind of silence a baby makes when he or she is asleep. No, it was different. As if the baby was having trouble breathing.

How long has he been left here to die? But more importantly, how long has it been since he had something to eat or drink?

The old man's thoughts were a mass of what he should do. He has never had a child, nor does he know what to do with one.

I should take him back to town, Marjorie might know what to do.

Without much thought, he picked up his stuff and left for town, the journey was a 40-minute walk from where he was.

Fearing what might happen to the young boy if he didn't eat something soon. He took a quick stop, putting him on the ground. Covering him with his blanket.

He then sat down next to him, taking out what looked to be a bottle of water from his bag and made the child drink it.

At first, he didn't want it. But after testing it. And feeling the familiarity, he began drinking on his own.

Seeing this, the old man could only sigh. Wondering what would have happened to him if he didn't decide to go for a long walk?

A beast might have found him. A slave trader might have sold him off. A wild animal might have found him first and made waste to his flesh.

There was still Daylight left for him to make it to town, before nightfall.

I must get going, this boy's life might end here if I don't.

Recovering his strength, the old man got up, put his items in his bag, and made his way to town with the baby boy in his arms.

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40 minutes away from where the old man and the boy were.

was a lively town; the children filled the streets with laughter and joy. The elderly were talking amongst themselves, the marketplace was filled with people looking for something to buy or sell. The atmosphere was that of pure Bliss.

Unbeknownst to them, chaos has yet to come.

As Chaos.

Has never walked into your home through the front door.

It will enter through the windows like a thief in the midnight light...

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The old man finally arrived at the town, still holding the baby in his arms, running frantically through the town. looking for someone. They didn't have much care for the old man himself, but rather what he was holding in his arms. The child, without name, without family nor identity for itself.

The very child, that may or may not change their lives forever.

She must be at her house, at this hour.

He thought about what she might say about all this. Him coming out of nowhere, with a child no less.

" Marjorie! Are you there!? Open the door please! I-l need your help..."

The old man knocked and knocked.

But nobody answered.

The silence that came after every knock was dreadful.

The thought that she might not be home yet...

That the child might meet his end right there... Waiting.

Waiting for a response.

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..

...

10 minutes had passed while he waited for her return. His legs had become tired from standing by the doorstep.

He felt as if he was wasting the boy's precious time by just standing there.

As he got ready to leave, to look for someone else who might be willing to help...

"Old man? What has managed to bring you here "

The old man, with the little hope he had left, turned around. Only to see Marjorie. A middle-aged woman, with light blue coloured eyes, long tamed brown hair, with a scar on her right eye

"And what do you have there..."

Marjorie didn't seem like the type to play around. And the old man understood that

" Marjorie... I need your help-"

" I'll stop you right there Kasumi, I don't want to get involved with your problems! And you already know that don't you "

"Yes... But this is different, I'm not here to start a fight again. I need your help with this child"

Marjorie who didn't seem amused in the slightest, walked forward towards him. Ignoring the old man, taking the child from him.

"Where did you find him? Answer me"

"I found him while I was taking my walk. He was placed under a tree, in the middle of the forest"

The old man, who was known just as Kasumi, slowly sat down on the ground. Finally getting some rest.

His body was too old. His eyes grow heavier by the second. It was as if he would black out any minute.

"... you did good for once, Kasumi"

Marjorie praised him. Feeling that he needed that much.

Hmm, he's face reminds of someone. But who? Does he belong to someone I know?

Marjorie thought about the possibilities of him belonging to a friend. But it also didn't seem that he did.

I wonder what happened...

" Old man, I'll take care of this child. I only need you to look around and see if someone goes to the place where you found him okay? "

Marjorie was clear on what he should do. And the old man didn't need to be told twice.

" Okay then, I'll be off to look around more."

Without wasting much time, he left leaving the child with Marjorie.

Now then, let's get you inside

Taking out her keys, she opened the door to her house. It wasn't that big of a house. Just enough for 4 people to live comfortably.

She walked into the living room and put the child on the table.

She then, walked back outside and only returned a few minutes later with firewood in her arms.

The night had settled in, with temperatures dropping from the lack of sunlight.

With the firewood that she had. She put some in the fireplace and let it up. A few moments later, the house had warmed up high enough for her to change the baby's clothes.

"Come now, little one. It's time I changed your dirty clothes."

She didn't have any male clothes for his age. Just female clothes, the ones her daughter used to wear only a few years ago.

Let's hope she doesn't get all angry at us for using her old clothes

She then would change the baby's clothes and begin breastfeeding him.

"From the looks of it, you haven't eaten since yesterday ... I wonder what your parents were thinking when they left you... Taking a deep breath I hope you don't hate them when you grow up. For everything has a reason"

She continued to breastfeed him for the next 10 minutes or so. Until.

"Mother!! Alice made- wait. what!?"

Like the winds in autumn a young girl busts into the house, almost waking up the boy. She looked to be 5-6 years of age.

She had light black hair, a Gray left eye along with a green right eye. She wears gowns (one-piece garments covering the whole body) with long sleeves and long skirts.

With a face that looked more dainty than beautiful, but beautiful enough for boys on the street to look twice when seeing her.

"Yes dear? what did Alice do this time huh?"

"Who's that"

She ignored Marjorie's question and asked her own. One that was more important to her at that moment.

"Well, that's the thing. I don't know myself"

" What do you mean you don't know!? I just got back home only to find you breastfeeding some kid! I don't even know of!? "

She was clearly frustrated about the lack of answers that Marjorie provided.

How should I answer her?

"Okay, look. I know that this is out of the blue, but I want to talk to you about it right now"

" ...fine"

She had paused for a moment before answering with a low voice

"Good, now come sit down next to me. It won't take long, I promise"

And for the next 10 minutes, she explained to her how she got a hold of the boy. And that the old man that likes to visit their home was the one who found and brought the boy.

"So, what are you going to do now? "

" Do you mean about the boy?"

"Yes, it still feels weird... and a bit awkward"

"Well, I have already decided what I'm going to do with him"

"And that is?"

"I'm going to adopt him of course, what did you think?"

"Nothing, I just wasn't expecting that. I thought you would leave him off at the orphanage"

" At first, I thought I would do just that. But I have a feeling it'd be best, if he stayed with us "

" I... I guess that's fine, having a younger brother, But what's his name?"

The little girl with curiosity in her eyes, asked her mother while playing with the baby's arms

"Well, I'm not good at naming. So, I have decided to give you the right to name him"

With a small almost visible smile, the little girl said:

"What about..."

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The sun never sets on the empire.

Those are true words, the empire spread across 50% of the world, with unrivalled power in military strength and political actions.

With an army of 5 million troops, and a population of 1.2 billion it safe to assume that none wanted any quals with this Empire.

The name of this Empire?

The empire of Jerusalem.

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It was a rainy day; the clouds covered the sky as far as the eye could see.

The rain has breathed new life into the surrounding foliage, as the leaves shimmer with a glossy sheen. The trees sway gently in the wind, their branches reaching out towards the heavens, as if embracing the gift of water from the skies above. A gentle mist hangs in the air, creating a veil of mystery and intrigue.

But all I could hear, where the clanking of swords. As if I were in a battlefield?

I wake up, feeling dizzy. My eyes where heavy, as if I haven't slept in days.

"Where... Where am I?" I asked no one in particular, the rain had drained out the sound of my voice.

I could speak, but no one would hear. I could feel the movements around me, but I couldn't see.

What is this? Is it a dream? No ... It felt too real to be a dream.

The sounds of clanking sword were getting closer to me by the second.

The worst part of it was that I couldn't move, my body- not the body that I was in couldn't move.

Come on now, think! I know I'm in some kind of battlefield... But what happened to my body? Did someone strike me down or hit a part of my body stopping me from moving? Did they hit my nervous system?

The nervous system has two parts, called the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system due to their location in the body. The central nervous system includes the nerves in the brain and spinal cord. It is safely contained within the skull and vertebral canal of the spine. All the other nerves in the body are part of the peripheral nervous system.

The brain, spinal cord, and nerves make up the nervous system. Together they control all the workings of the body. When something goes wrong with a part of your nervous system, you can have trouble moving, speaking, swallowing, breathing, or learning. You can also have problems with your memory, senses, or mood.

I can't move my legs and arms. But I still have my senses thankfully. And from what I can tell. I'm blooding out... The smell of blood was strong in my nose.

But my eyesight was slowly coming back.

I slowly turned my head to my left side and all I could see where dead bodies.

So, the blood I was smelling was coming from them...

Somewhere still alive, like me. But majority of them where dead, most of them if not all, had their heads cut off.

Was it in their way of fighting to cut off their heads? Or was it to show their enemies that they were there.

The sight of it all made me feel...sick

How far are humans willing to go to give their point?

Trying my best to take my mind out of it, I turned my head to face my right. Where I saw two people, facing each other.

One wear royal blue clothing, with white lines. And black pants with brown boots. He had a crust on the side of his shoulder that showed a sign of three.

A sign of three? Where have I heard that before

The other one had full military outfit. And looked to be fully confident in his strength.

The one with military outfit reaches across his body with his right hand, grips the handle of his sword just below the guard, draws it out, snaps it forward so it's pointing at the one with Royal blue clothing, then places his left hand on the grip just below the right.

The man with royal blue does the same.

Both bend their knees, dropping into a low squat while keeping the torso bolt upright, then stand up again and shuffle their feet into the proper stance—feet parallel, both pointed straight ahead, right foot in front of the left foot.

The military guy charges directly at the man in royal blue, hollering at the top of his lungs. The movement consists of a very rapid shuffling motion of the feet, so that he stays always balanced. At the last moment, he draws the sword up over his head and snaps it down toward the man with royal blue. The man with royal blue brings his own sword up, rotating it around sideways so that the handle is up high, above and to the left of his face, and the blade slopes down and to the right, providing a roof above him. The military man's blow bounces off this roof like rain, and then the one with royal blue sidesteps to let him go by and snaps the sword down toward his unprotected shoulder. But the military man is moving too fast, and the man in royal blue's timing is off. The blade cuts behind and to the side of the military man.

Both men wheel to face each other, back up, get back into the stance.

The military man makes another attack. This one is straightforward: a quick shuffling approach and then a snapping cut in the direction of the man in royal blue's ribcage. He parries it.

Now the man in royal blue knows something about this military man, namely, that like most Nipponese sword fighters, all he knows is kendo.

Kendo is to real samurai sword fighting what fencing is to real swashbuckling: an attempt to take a highly disorganized, chaotic, violent, and brutal conflict and turn it into a cute game. As in fencing, you're only supposed to attack certain parts of the body—the parts that are protected by Armor. As in fencing, you're not allowed to kick your opponent in the kneecaps or break a chair over his head. And the judging is totally subjective.

The man in royal blue just wants this over with. The next time the military man sets up his ear-splitting screech and shuffles toward the man in royal blue, cutting and snapping his blade, he would parry the attack, turns around, and cuts the military man legs and collapses to the floor.

" I'm tired of your games!" The man in royal blue says. "!" He whips his blade sideways, cutting off both military man's forearms, causing the sword to clatter onto the floor.

"Perhaps you might have a better life in the unknown!" The man in royal blue continues, whipping the sword around sideways, cutting the military man's body in half just above the navel. Then he leans down so he's looking right into the military man's face. "Didn't anyone tell you, ''He says, "None can defeat the empire?"

Then he hacks the guy's head off. It falls to the floor, does a half-roll, and comes to rest staring straight up at the sky.

I laid there, shocked by what I had seen. The empire? Did this...

I hadn't noticed that the man in royal blue had noticed that I was still alive. While I was thinking of what to do, he had walked up to me.

"You still live? I pity your pain warrior, I shall put you to rest now "he says, rising his sword into the air, above his head.

Wait what! I didn't notice him getting close to me when!

Before I could even respond to him, his sword pierced through my heart, instantly I began coughing blood.

My vision became blurry, I could barely see anymore. Slowly I began losing my breath.

The thought of dying was carved into the back of my mind.

Is this how I go out?

I Slowly started hearing voices, voices that felt familiar.

"Arthur..."

Arthur? Who is that. And who's voice is this?

"Arthur wake up!!"

slowly my vision started to come back, I was in a different location, it was a house. A house that I remembered.

"Where...am I?"

"Your home, silly... "

"But... I was-"

"I know... it was all a dream"