Third Year

Time flew by, and the third year came quickly in this new world. This year is of the utmost importance to Julius, as his education would start preparing him for the world and his awakening to see if he would be a mage or knight.

His education started with learning noble etiquette from the royal tutors. His parents prioritized this as he had to be elegant and have an aura of majesty in the future. This would make people automatically respect or fear him and have a positive opinion of young Julius, making it easier to make allies.

Royal tutors also noticed that he caught onto this quickly and was intelligent for his age of only two. Because of this, they started teaching him more advanced topics, teaching him more about the kingdom's history and the surrounding kingdoms' history with Romanium.

Also happening at this time was the first major problem that the Kraser family had faced since they took control in the revolution to oust the tyrant. Bandits and criminals had seen the wealth that the kingdom was bringing in through commerce and wanted a slice of the pie. They set up deep in the forest and lay in wait next to roads far away from the legions and city garrisons.

These bandits had started causing chaos in Gerus the 1st month of the year, killing and looting many merchants and hanging their bodies from trees near the roadside. Because of this, many merchants stopped traveling around the kingdom, causing the economy to struggle and the citizens to be scared to leave the city's safety.

At the end of Gerus, the King of Romanium personally ordered every legion to send 90% of its soldiers to hunt down these evil bandits and bring them to justice. The royal court also put bounties on the bandits' heads, promising silver coins to whoever eliminated them. 

This Crisis lasted for nine months until the month of Exber, when one of the main bandit camps was raided by the 4 legions. Maps of bandit camps were recovered, and letters were sent to an unknown entity.

Upon discovery, these maps were immediately sent to the legion hunting bandits in that area, resulting in all bandit camps being raided and taken out through a bloody struggle. Some of these bandits were deliberately taken alive for questioning, as strange letters had been found in each camp signed by The Commander.

This greatly worried the King, but he still personally attended the funerals of the deceased and let their families know how much the kingdom would miss its heroes.

Each of the captured bandits was taken back to the capital to be interrogated by Marshal-General Helvius himself, resulting in them breaking under brutal torture within one week. They shared all the information that they knew, which wasn't a lot before they were publicly executed by hanging. The bandits had been contacted by an unknown entity paying them 10 gold coins to move into Romanium and disrupt the local economy.

Quickly upon learning this worrying new information, the King immediately ordered Steward Cassius to investigate and get to the bottom of this matter. This matter was of utmost importance, as the damage caused to the economy was immense, causing many businesses to be bailed out by the Bank of Romanium.

A couple of days later, the kingdom announced that the bandits were dealt with and that merchants and citizens traveling would be under the protection of legions marching on the road for a two-month period. By the end of the year, trade and commerce were on the rise again, much to the relief of the royal court refiling part of the lost funds. 

During this trying time for the kingdom of Romanium, the barbarians up north attempted to take advantage of the fact that most legions were away from their border forts. This led to a few border clashes, food supplies, and citizens being stolen from villages and towns near the border with Galicia. The King, upon learning of this aggressive political move by the High Chieftain, was furious and immediately cut off the trade deal with Galicia, ending the previous year's good relations.

The king also wanted to send legions back to the border to strike back, but they were all currently engaged in fighting the evil bandits, so he was forced to send city garrisons as backup to the cut-down legions.

Unfortunately for the king of Romanium, Galicia attacked right after harvest and stole enough food supplies to last them through the next year, when they could look to buy food from elsewhere. 

This had caused another humongous loss to the kingdom with no way to retaliate as all professional soldiers were busy dealing with the bandits.

Upon the bandits' destruction, the King immediately ordered the legions stationed on the border with Galicia to prepare an attack plan to recover their lost goods.

The Legates of Legions 1-3 got together on the 11th of Novmius. They met at the border fort of the 2nd legion between the three to plan a three-pronged attack on Galicia. These experienced commanders decided to attack simultaneously from the left, right, and center and attempt to meet near Galea, the capital of Galicia. They also requested siege equipment and the main army base's support of the 10th Legion.

On the 10th of Kirv, just a month after the Legates meeting, all four legions moved out a total of 80,000 soldiers. Together, they had also gathered over 100 siege artillery divided evenly, ready to destroy the barbarians' wooden walls. The Legates decided to split the elite 10th legion into two, joining legions 1 and 3 on the sides of the barbarian kingdom, hoping to attract more enemy soldiers away from the direct route to the capital.

These veteran Legates knew that this would be a multiyear struggle and that the 1000 citizens lost would probably already be sold into slavery and unrecoverable.

Also, during this time, the ancient kingdom of Hesper finally got what it wanted: a marriage alliance between the royal families of Hesper and Romanium, after offering too many benefits that the Krasers could not ignore. These included providing financial and logistical help in the war against the Galicia kingdom and reducing tariffs and taxes on Romanium exports and imports, greatly helping the struggling economy recover. 

Much to the dismay of the young Julius, he was now a tied-down man at only a couple of years old, forced into marriage with a girl he had never met. Destined never to enjoy the playboy life of a crowned prince.