The beginning of the war (part 1)

The carriage moved slowly. It crossed the imperial capital, Darion observed how the population still had the consequences of the bombing in mind. Some citizens were collecting their belongings, others were rebuilding their houses and a small percentage, shouted names of people who apparently were left under the rubble.

After what seemed like an eternity, they left the imperial capital. They advanced quickly to the border of the province, until they reached an esplanade. There, there was a large army, hundreds of thousands of soldiers, thousands of archers, a few magicians and several high-ranking nobles supervising.

Darion got out of the carriage, and marched straight towards the nobles, but before he arrived, a voice sounded in the background.

Prince! We have been waiting for you - said Rhylen, the captain of the imperial army.

Rhylen bowed, Darion looked him up and down. Rhylen has always been kind, but behind this false facade, there is a great warrior who will do everything possible to achieve his goal.-Darion thought.

``What does he need from me?´´

Rhylen cleared his throat and said with a serious tone.

``Right now the nobles are waiting for their arrival. The generals, commanders and other captains are preparing the strategy to advance towards enemy lands´´

Why don't we just wait for them and get into defensive positions? -Darion asked innocently.

Rhylen rolled his eyes, but hid it by shaking his head.

We must attack first. If we wait for them, it will be impossible for us to defend ourselves from magicians on flat ground. -Rhylen said while pointing to the esplanade that the soldiers were standing on.

Besides, -Rhylen added- We cannot guarantee that they will attack us from this front. So it would be best for us to attack, and if they wanted to attack another front, they would have to divert their resources here.

Darion nodded slightly, and turned around without saying anything. He headed towards a tent, where various nobles and commanders were gathered.

Upon entering, everyone bowed.

Prince! - They all said in unison

Darion raised his hand, indicating that they would stop and explain the situation.

P-prince, the situation!? We don't know anything about the Camus Empire...

Before the noble could finish belittling himself, a commander spoke:

Despite not knowing anything, we can confirm with certainty that we will succeed in defeating the Camus Empire. They still use primitive sword techniques.

Darion thought and nodded, then said:

Yes, we are stronger, but they have an advantage, they use magic. Magic balances the power of both empires, making it so that we don't know anything about whether we are superior or inferior.

Some nobles nodded, the noble who underestimated himself trembled, and others whispered.

Captain Rhylen raised his voice;

``Stop talking, we have more important matters to attend to. We will launch a surprise attack, the army formation will be the same as always. The linear formation.´´

The linear formation makes the allied lines expand by hundreds of kilometers, but their defense becomes more vulnerable - thought Darion.

``The cavalry will protect our flanks, the archers will be behind the allied lines, and the army of the imperial capital will protect the rear.´´

For a second, there was silence. The next instant, the nobles rose from their chairs, the commanders raised their voices, and chaos in the tiny tent arose.

``We will not let our men die in the front line!´´

``The soldiers of the imperial capital should go to the front!´´

``Who will pay us for the loss of so many lives!?´´

The following minutes were a real stress for Darion. Before raising his voice and calling them selfish cowards, Rhylen hit the table, which made everyone fall silent, and even Darion's thoughts become disorganized.

``The troops of the imperial capital are a thousand times smaller than the imperial troops. Our troops could not cover the defensive line, and on top of that we need the troops of the imperial capital to defend our back´´

Impossible! The troops of the imperial capital should be in the front row, they are the most experienced. The following rows of the formation may be of the imperial soldiers, but in the front row, there should be the most trained soldiers - exclaimed a noble.

The chaos in the tent erupted, Darion tiredly wrote something down on a piece of paper, and silently left. When the nobles, captains, and commanders noticed the prince's absence, they fell silent for a few moments, before looking at the paper that was placed where the prince should be.

``What is that?``

``When did the prince leave?``

A low-ranking noble grabbed the sheet, and read it out loud:

``Let Captain Rhylen send his troops from the Imperial Capital to the rear. He knows what he's doing, otherwise, he wouldn't be the capital of the Imperial City troops.´´

Screams arose, and a satisfied smile appeared on Rhylen's face.

``Impossible!´´

``We're going to lose millions of gold coins.´´

Several people approached the low-level noble to look at the paper. It had the prince's handwriting on it, and his signature. The nobles were shocked and whispered among themselves.

Meanwhile, outside, Darion took a deep breath, the screams of the nobles and commanders could be heard, but instantly, a bomb sound rang out, disconcerting Darion

W-what was that!? -Darion asked bewildered.

Suddenly, at the front of the battle, hundreds of thousands of soldiers appeared, hundreds of flags appeared. Red flags with a castle shield in the center...

Camus's empire...