The imperial army had overtaken a city of Wisteria, a major blow to the kingdom. With this city under the empire's control, they had taken a good chunk of Wisteria's territory. But it was far from stable, as Wisteria could still take it back. To prevent that, they have to push further in, and make as much distance from the border as soon as possible.

The empire must be relentless. That being said, the battle to take this city was a hard fought one, and the army suffered heavy losses. However, they still had a lot to spare. More of their forces were still supposed to come soon. The invasion had only just begun.

The elite knight, Orven, walked through the streets, his lance sheathed on his back. Just as they had only taken over the city, Orven had to assist in organizing the army in the city. Things were not as peaceful yet, or rather, under complete control. There were still small events of resistance.

What Orven found fortunate though was that there weren't any particularly powerful individuals here. Or perhaps, he was just too strong. He contributed heavily in the takeover after all.

He halted in his tracks as he watched an imperial soldier push a Wisterian soldier forward.

"Keep moving." The imperial soldier kept his sword pointed at him.

The Wisterian had a defiant expression on his face as he was being pushed forward. "Damn you, we surrendered!"

"Oh yeah?"

There were other soldiers that were kneeling on the ground, all lined up next to each other. Each had an imperial soldier behind them to keep watch over them. No, not to watch, but rather it was more like a preparation.

"Kneel down." The soldier forced the Wisterian down.

Orven shifted his gaze to see the normal citizens of the city watching the proceedings. They were hiding behind walls, inside their houses, or peeking through windows. Still, what was important was that they were watching. That was the empire's intention.

One high-ranking officer turned towards the watching populace. "Hear me, people of Wisteria! You have stepped into a new era! The era of the empire! There is no point in resisting, for we bring you a new beginning, for a better future! Where everyone shall prosper in safety!"

The Wisterian people watched with hesitant gazes. Orven couldn't really tell how the people of this city lived. Did they have a good life? Were they suffering? Whatever the answer may be, the empire would certainly bring about a better life. They were bigger, more advanced than any nation.

Or at least, that was all the propaganda says.

Orven knew pretty well that the empire just wanted to take over the continent for control. To become the true greatest nation, for the rulers to leave the greatest legacy. Or perhaps even become the greatest nation in the world. And Orven was up for the ride. It would be interesting to see them succeed. It wouldn't be too bad to have his name remembered in history.

"However," the officer continued. "There are consequences to resistance!" The officer turned to his soldiers. "Behead them!"

One Wisterian soldier flared. "Damn you imperial dogs! You won't—" And he was beheaded.

The heads of the Wisterian soldiers that lined up fell to the ground altogether before their bodies dropped and blood spilled. The normal people watched with horror.

The purpose of this display was to incite fear and hesitation to the civilians. To prevent them from acting out further. To show that it would all be futile and bring nothing but needless death.

"Clean up the bodies, throw them into the fire pit before they rot."

Now that the spectacle was over, Orven continued on. Imperial soldiers marched on the streets to keep order. There were burning buildings started by their contraptions during the siege. Some soldiers had started to put them out, but it might not be enough. Orven didn't want more fire to spread.

He saw a house with a small fire growing. Orven grabbed one of the marching soldiers, startling him.

"What are you walking around for?" Orven said sternly, further scaring the soldier. "Make yourself useful and put out that fire before it spreads."

"Y-Yes, sir!" He turned towards his team. "Let's find water!"

Orven let out a sigh and continued onward. Some men were just too proud to do the simple things, especially in this environment of victory.

"Screw you! You think you can just push us around?!"

Orven paused to watch a civilian shout at an imperial soldier.

"Dear! Stop! Calm down." What seemed to be his wife held him back, stopping him from making any mistake.

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However, the man was enraged, and he slipped away. He grabbed a wooden log. "This is our city! Our kingdom!"

He charged towards the soldier, but the latter swung his sword and cut through his wooden log and then into his chest.

"No!" The wife screamed. She rushed and caught her husband. "No… What more do you want from us?!" She looked up at the soldiers with a distraught expression, tears falling down her eyes.

"Your husband was being stubborn. Don't blame us!"

"You people are bastards!"

The soldier laughed. "Oh? Bastards, huh? Bastards. That's not a good thing to say. Come here." The soldier suddenly pulled up and started dragging the woman.

"W-What, what are you doing? Let me go!"

The soldier forcefully dragged her into her own house. "Hey man, keep a lookout outside, okay?" he said to his ally.

"Sure. Just let me in afterwards, aight?"

"Yeah, yeah." He closed the door.

All that could be heard was the shouting and screaming of the woman. "S-Stop that! Let me go! Help! Somebody help! Let go of my clothes!"

"Who's the bastard now?! And keep quiet!"

"N-No! Please! Somebody help! Gods! He—" she suddenly went quiet.

Orven grunted before continuing onward. He didn't particularly care what they did. The soldiers often needed an outlet in times of stress. And, it was not like they could completely prevent something like it from happening. Even if he did stop it, the same thing would happen somewhere nearby. There was no need to do something pointless.

All in all, the imperial forces seemed to be settling in just fine. The small resistance that remained should all be gone pretty soon. They must get complete control soon before Wisteria attempts to take it back.

Orven made his way straight to the city hall. Guards have secured the perimeter. They recognized him, and they let him in no problem. He made his way to the main lobby and saw Delray talking with one of the soldiers. It seemed serious.

Orven approached them. "Something going on?"

"Ah, buddy. Yeah, something happened," Delray said.

"So, what is it?" He turned at the soldier.

The soldier straightened himself and delivered his report. "Sir. While we attacked the city, a Wisterian force took out our supply group and destroyed our supplies. Rations and all."

Orven was surprised to hear that. "They managed to find a way through our army?"

"Yes. We believe it is a small group that snuck in."

"Are they trying to starve us? We have a whole city of supply here."

"Ah about that…" Delray scratched his head. "They burned a lot of food."

"What? Who burned what?"

"This city burned their own food supply."

Orven was in disbelief. "What are they thinking of doing that for? Do they intend to starve out their people too?"

"I don't know. That just means they expected to lose. But this doesn't bode well for us. The soldiers need food. And… the civilians… we don't know what they'll do if they run out of food."

It was an absurd tactic, but was incredibly worrisome. They only had a couple of days of rations left, at the least. If Wisteria took out their supplies, then they wouldn't get more anytime soon.

"Do we have any other supply stations nearby?"

"I don't think they have settled in yet. But we should send messengers to ask for supplies."

"We should do that… They don't want to make things easy for us, huh? Did the people here really think of something so spiteful?"

"Not sure. Maybe. But there's something we discovered."

"What?"

"Let's go to the governor's office. The commander is there with him."

Orven followed Delray to the governor's office. Delray knocked a few times on the door.

"Come in."

They two of them entered the office, and saw a plump man tied down on a chair. He was bloodied and face swelling. With him was the army commander, and one other soldier doing the hurting.

"What's up?" Orven said.

"The son of a bitch won't say anything," said the commander.

"What is it that you want to learn anyway?"

Delray grabbed a piece of paper and handed it out to Orven. However, the moment Orven tried reading it, his brow furrowed deeply. It was just a bunch of random letters and numbers.

"What is this? Code?"

"Yes," Delray answered.

"So? What does it say?"

Orven was expecting an answer, but Delray just shrugged. "I have no idea."

Orven's eyes blinked. "What do you mean you have no idea? This is what you're good at, right?"

"I can't crack it. This is unlike anything we have. I don't understand it. This is new."

Orven was shocked to hear it from his friend. Delray was a smart man. This kind of thing was part of his expertise.

To think that Wisteria could make something like this.

It was shocking.

"... Okay. Then the governor knows how, right? Can you?" Orven asked the governor.

"I c-can't! I don't know any of that!"

"What do you mean you don't know? You better not be lying."

"I'm t-telling you the truth! I don't know about the code!"

Orven and the others looked at each other.

"See?" the commander said as he grabbed a glass of liquor. "Wisteria has come up with something really troubling."

Orven frowned and walked over right in front of the city governor. He grabbed his hair and pulled it up, the governor wincing in pain.

"If you don't know how to crack it, then tell me what it says."

"I-I don't know! It, it was never read to me."

"What…?"

"A-All I got is an instruction from an agent! That's it!"

"Instructions?"

"Y-Yes! He said to burn our rations! It was a stupid plan! But I was forced to do it!"

Orven got more baffled. "An agent…? Did this agent read the paper?"

"I guess so… He gave me the instructions after reading it."

Then this agent can read it.

"Where is this agent?"

"He's long gone! He left before you attacked."

Orven clicked his tongue in annoyance. He stepped back, shaking his head. "You're useless." He turned towards Delray. "Can you try to decode it again? Really look into it."

"Yes, but it will require a lot of time. If I can even begin to decode it. If I couldn't, then I'd just be wasting my time."

Orven turned towards the commander. "Do you at least have some people smart enough to also work with this?"

"I have. I'll send them to help you." He drank from his liquor before looking out at the window. "Still, if we don't resupply, we might just starve, or we have to move out earlier than we planned. But, we're not even sure how we can find new supplies."

"Then we'll have to get the supplies from our own forces, one way or another. We can't lose this city."

"Indeed. We have to solve this before the city people start rioting in starvation." The commander sighed. "I thought Wisteria is supposed to be caught off guard by our sudden invasion." He slowly turned a sharp look towards Delray and Orven. "So why does it seem like they are prepared?"

It was understandable that he seemed displeased. It was supposed to be both their jobs to prevent something like this. To make things easier.

"There were sudden issues that arose," Delray said.

"Hm. You better decode that letter. If we don't… Then we might have a hard time figuring out Wisteria's actions."

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