Through those sheets, which thanks to the machinery designed by Daemon could be reproduced by the thousands in a few hours, unknown subversives warned the population of the plans to restore the ducal army.

But it didn't end there; the proclamation also claimed that the Imperial occupation forces were preparing to confiscate all food, authorize looting, and take control of the Banlieu to support the war effort.

It all ended with an exhortation to boycott the recruitment, hide the food and implement every possible form of passive resistance aimed at making the permanence of the imperial army impossible without, however, resulting in open insurrection.

"What does that mean? I did not order confiscations, but only to register the supplies and take the bare minimum. And above all I categorically prohibited looting."

"This is undoubtedly the work of the rebels!" thundered another General "They are stirring up the population."

"I'm sorry to contradict you." Alfred said as he entered the room. "But I fear that this is not the case. Last night alone there were three lootings and several attacks by the legionaries against civilians. It's natural that the population is angry."

Aria wanted to see clearly, so she immediately sent for all the Officers for an extraordinary meeting.

And unfortunately, Alfred's words were immediately confirmed.

"I thought I was clear about the looting and assaults!"

"Looting has always been an essential part of every military campaign. And the population's attitude towards us doesn't help."

"Maybe they would be more cooperative if you didn't act like an invading force." Lefde said sadly. "Lord Daemon never needed to resort to arms, and as far as I saw, obedience to his orders was absolute."

Aria had no difficulty in seeing in that statement a not-so-subtle blame towards her.

"These are my people, and I will not allow anyone to harm them! We are not here to occupy Eirinn, but to free her from the yoke of foreign occupation! Next time I hear about looting I will take drastic action!"

But it wasn't long before the situation got even worse.



By the fifth day of occupation, Faria was already a powder keg about to explode.

The population was clearly intolerant, and peaceful demonstrations of disobedience such hindering the movements of patrols or welcoming the censors with eggs and vegetables soon became customary.

In addition, as Lefde had predicted, the recruitment proceeded in an embarrassing manner to say the least; overnight, most of the men and women eligible for enlistment had simply disappeared, and only old people and children could be seen on the streets.

The soldiers knew that Aria was not the type to make empty threats and were ordered not only to refrain from looting, but also to avoid harming the population as much as possible, under penalty of flogging or hanging. But obeying these orders was difficult when everywhere you went you were glared at, insulted, or had a full chamber pot thrown at you.

And the citizens went even further to make life difficult for the occupying army.

When the order arrived to restart the Banlieu, the workers initially tried to resist, but faced with the need to continue receiving their wages they were forced to obey and went back to work.

However, this did not mean that they had given up.

And if assembling a rifle, polishing a cannon or manufacturing a ration of canned food did not take more than a few hours before occupation, now it took a whole day to carry out even just part of the process.

The climax of the drama was reached when, during a dinner, Aria, Basil and all the others found musket pellets on their plates hidden among the meat, which was also not exactly top quality.

"This is unforgivable!" said Basil, counting his remaining teeth. "Since when do the rabble allow themselves to raise their heads like this?"

"Since Lord Daemon told them they can." replied a disheartened Lefde.

"Consul, this is the last straw! We need to set examples for these yokels that you clearly have no control over!"

"If you do, the situation will only get worse."

Aria no longer knew which way to turn, and the increasingly intolerant attitude of her Generals was not contributing to her psychological well-being.

What hurt her most was people's attitude towards her too; no matter what she did or how hard she tried to get along with everyone, it was as if her being not so much a member of the royal family, but actually an inhabitant of Eirinn no longer meant anything.

The worst thing was having to recognize that Daemon really seemed to have done something important and valuable for her homeland.

It wasn't a simple matter of loyalty: the people loved him.

It was a paradoxical situation; the inhabitants of Eirinn, so proud of their independence, honored the memory of a foreign usurper and opposed her, their compatriot.

"It doesn't matter how hard you work, or how much you love your people." Lefde whispered in her ear before taking his leave. "To them you are not the Grand Duchess of Eirinn, but a foreign General who has entered the city in command of an imperial army."

Aria couldn't believe it. In a few months, Daemon, but also the wicked conduct of her brother, had taken away from her the thing she had always cared about most in the world: the love of her people.

Worse, the final blow to his and his men's morale was yet to come.



If a soldier truly marched on his stomach as Daemon said, it was also true that he fought and died dreaming his gold.

The policy of the Empire in anticipation of a long military campaign was to pay two years of service in advance to each legionary engaged in war.

But obviously the salary of a simple soldier was not the maximum, and therefore looting was a widespread, sometimes even encouraged habit; it strengthened discipline, gave soldiers the opportunity to make extra income, but above all it was an excellent instrument of terror.

In general, however, a legionary always had money with him, which he was happy to spend on alcohol, women and gambling at every possible opportunity; after all, that too was a way to maintain order.

Too bad that immediately after having occupied Eirinn, Daemon had decided to create a new currency overnight, the Franc, which within a short time, thanks to the policies of the new National Bank, had begun to circulate both in the Grand Duchy and in the Free State in its gold and silver versions.

Since the merchants loved this new currency, as well as everything related to the Free State, the franc spread among the population like a river, gaining value at a dizzying pace and arriving at a simply embarrassing exchange rate with the goldie.

Neither the innkeepers, nor the bookies; not even prostitutes accepted being paid in silver goldies anymore. There were rumors that even in some border territories of the Union and the Empire people were starting to use francs.

When the Generals learned that some soldiers had arrived to sell their equipment in order to raise some money, a now desperate Aria had decided to appeal to the Imperial Economic Edict, a recent reform of Emperor Ademar that obliged nobles and bourgeois of a region to provide loans to the army in exceptional cases.

After all, even though the local branch of the National Bank had been closed, its most important members remained in town, and were still capable of moving enormous amounts of money.

But instead of money, their representatives showed up at the meeting with Aria and the other Imperial Generals with something very different.

"What does this mean? What is this stuff?"

"You asked us for money, and here it is. Six hundred thousand francs."

"Francs!?" said Basil. "Are you kidding us? These are just pieces of paper!"

"Error, it's paper currency. Straight from the bank's coffers, and perfectly allowed in any form of trade both in Eirinn and in the Free State."

"And what should we do with this waste paper? We need hard cash!"

"These banknotes can be converted into coins at any time, and the bank is more than capable of honoring payments. However, according to the distribution agreements, the metal deposits are kept only in the Castle headquarters. If you want them, I'm afraid you'll have to go and get them yourself."

"These banknotes are worth a thousand francs each." Aria tried to explain. "We certainly can't distribute them to our men. The average salary of a simple legionary is fifty silver goldies per month, or seventy francs."

"Sixty, please. News came from the Hadowald currency market yesterday. The silver goldie has already lost more than ten percent of its value, and the gold one is not in much better shape. Everyone knows that the Empire extracted most of the silver from the mines of the Free State, and that it continued to buy it even after the Revolution. But now that you are at war, many are betting that those agreements will not be renewed. Next week there will be the great market of Ishandra, and for the sake of your economy you must hope that the news of the invasion has not already reached Torian."

And it wasn't over yet.

"I must add that this money does not currently belong to the bank. Master Haselworth, who had taken out a loan with us to finance important public works, owns it. Therefore, if you were to actually decide to confiscate it and distribute it to your men, the people would not be very happy."

"This is nothing but damned blackmail!" Basil blurted out, cracking the wood of the desk with his fist. "If this stuff is really all you have, then take it back and create new ones in smaller denominations!"

"I'm afraid it can't be done. This money has already been accounted for, and as interim director, Lady Wallace approved the bank's half-yearly budget shortly before leaving town. Our credibility would be at stake."

"Damn your credibility! You will do as you are told, or Gaia be my witness, I swear I will have you all impaled!"

"We represent all of this nation's major investors and landowners. Our combined fortunes amount to more than sixty percent of the national wealth, while the remainder is largely in the hands of privates, mainly foreign investors. If you have us executed, I fear it will be even more difficult for you to get your hands on money."

Aria had always been very good at hiding her emotions, but in that moment the only thing that stopped her from bursting into tears or having a nervous breakdown was the thought of having her Generals around.

"Consul, we must face reality! The city is now one-step away from insurrection, and it is clear that you do not have control of the situation! Either resolve this as soon as possible, or we will have no choice but to implement the imperial law!"

That was the point of no return, beyond which Aria knew she absolutely must not go. It would have meant first and foremost the end of any hope for her to leave control of Eirinn to her family, but above all because by doing so she would no longer have the power to keep her people safe from the soldiers' reprisals.

"Where is Daemon right now?"

"A little north of Arendt."

"And what is the state of his army?"

"It's still largely scattered throughout the region. If we leave now, we can be upon him before his forces gather."

"Call the meeting. Let's end this story once and for all."



"I offer you my deepest apologies!"

Even after managing to elude her pursuers and reunite with the main army, Athreia had to procrastinate for a long time before she was able to find the courage to appear in front of Daemon.

"I already told you that there is no need for you to apologize. It's only my fault. I underestimated Aria and her resources, never thinking that she might have a backup plan."

"But I didn't do what you told me. I didn't follow my gut instinct. I continued to follow your orders even when I began to have some suspicions. If General Natuli hadn't insisted on coming to your aid, by now you..."

"We will have the opportunity to discuss your code of conduct again on another occasion. For now, let's just worry about the news we just received."

"So, it's confirmed?" Scalia asked

"Yes. Aria and her entire army have left Faria and are heading here to Arendt."

"Incredible, it actually happened in the end." said Richard

"According to the spies' report, the situation in the city was now desperate." Oldrick said. "Who would have thought that the population would be so hostile towards Lady Montgomery? After all, she is still the daughter of their old Grand Duke."

"It doesn't take much to destroy a reputation." Daemon said. "Under the right circumstances, a single wrong move can ruin the prestige accumulated over years of effort."

"How did the Warriors of Eirinn react?" Jack asked.

"No news. I imagine that they too were not happy to see their Grand Duchess enter Faria at the head of an imperial army, and the legionaries lording it over the city."

"I actually never expected things to get out of hand so quickly." Daemon said worriedly. «I was hoping to have a little more time to reorganize our forces. Both the Fourth and Fifth Corps have not yet assembled."

"Sorry to tell you, but maybe it was a mistake to send Adrian to Grote Muren." Natuli said

"I no longer want to risk being caught by surprise. If things get even worse we need to be able to count on a safe escape route. As long as we hold that fort we will be sure of returning to the Free State unharmed."

At that moment, Thecla arrived with the latest report.

"General Basil's enemy vanguards are ahead of the main army by a day's march. They'll be here tomorrow at sunset."

"What news from the units still missing?"

"We are in contact with all of them." replied Jack, also speaking for Richard. "But they won't arrive until the day after tomorrow."

"Which means that at least for the avant-garde we will have to make do with what we have."

"They might even decide to wait for reinforcements to arrive." Scalia said

"I don't think so. Basil will be on edge over the situation in Faria, and eager to avenge last time's defeat. Among other things, at this moment the numerical disadvantage is paradoxically even more important, since we are expecting many more troops than they are. He will attempt the attack, even just for try to drive us out of our positions."

"And of course we can't let him do that." Natuli concluded, "So what do we do?"

"This hill north of the village, between the temple and the vineyards, is the ideal point to organize a defensive battle. We will form a line that covers its entire top, from the temple in the north-west to the forest in the southeast. The forest will provide protection to the right flank, while the artillery will form a barrier in the center and on the left, where the hill is barest. It is vital to our survival that no front gives way. When Aria arrives, we will still have to own the entire field. Send the order to all officers and non-commissioned officers working on the front line. Withdrawal is not an option this time."