chapter 7 : Black Wolves
Somewhere in Tudor Empire, in a large room there was a bronze skinned man lying in a very large bed with several girls completely asleep and naked. This man was none other than Barkha who was having a lie-in after a sporty night with these girls.
*knock *
*knock*
*knock*
Someone knocked heavily on the door three times and it woke Barkha up.
"My lord? Are you awake?" A male voice asked outside.
Barkha: How many times have I told you not to disturb me on my days off before the sun is at its zenith ?
"Please forgive me but lord Octave urgently requests to see you. He is waiting outside..." The man said and Barkha got out of his bed in a bad mood.
His body had gained even more size and volume with dense and dry muscles. He had a thin mustache growing, a well-defined jawline with earrings.
He came out of the brothel he had been staying in after paying the manager and came out of there barefoot yawning with only pants on, his boots in his left hand and the rest of his belongings on his shoulder.
Barkha looked at the large and luxurious carriage in front of him as the coachman came down to open the door humbly motioning for him to get in.
As he entered, Barkha lazily sat down in front of the Duke who two years ago was still Baron.
"Why do you always have to be in this kind of place? Despite your foreign origins, in just two years you have become the most efficient commander in the entire empire. I urge you to pay more attention to your manners..." Octave said sternly to Barkha who looked at him while wearing the rest of his clothes.
Barkha: What do you want? I am on my day off and I spend my gold as I please. I'm listening...
"(sighs) Something is happening in the west, they say a man is terrorizing the region, a lone man who gathered a small band of bandits with him and Rumors say that he is unbeatable. Knights were sent and never returned, the army of the White Swan was sent and they were exterminated. The emperor is starting to get impatient..." Octave said solemnly.
" May I ask what this has to do with me? I am on rest and am honestly starting to get tired of taking orders and being disturbed. I miss my life as a mercenary…" Barkha said as he poured himself some wine.
Octave: Stop whining, Barkha. You are the strongest man I know and certainly the best leader of men in this empire, it's thanks to your prowess under my authority against the Midland that I have this position today and the emperor wants me to settle this matter. You must get rid of this guy, no matter who he is.
" 4000 gold pieces for this job or I'll resign on the spot and you will sort it out." Barkha said as he nibbled on a bunch of grapes.
Octave: HAVE YOU GONE CRAZY?! That's more than half of a county's taxes. Who do you think you are?
"For the strongest man you know and certainly the best leader of men in this empire ahahah, those are your words. More seriously, it's nothing compared to what I made you win. Mobilizing an army would certainly cost a little more. I'll go with my wolves so it will be cheaper for you." Barkha said smiling at Octave who looked at him with venom in his eyes.
He was led to the barracks where several hundred soldiers all bare-chested were training to swing iron clubs heavier than swords over and over again for hours for some, others had archery exercises and others were doing muscle building efforts by carrying metal masses.
It was Barkha's camp, the Black Wolves Brigade commanded solely by Barkha and trained by him for the last two years. They were barely 1500 soldiers but they were so well trained that this troop was worth ten times its number in combat. It was with 50 of them that he defeated Griffith thanks to one of his strategies and they were not as strong as now.
He walked lazily among them and they greeted him with when his second, a tall, bald black man with scars came to him.
"Commander, it's a good thing that you are here. General Boscogn is here and would like to speak with you" the man said while walking beside him.
Barkha : So the commander of the purple rhinoceros doesn't know to announce his arriva ? What if I had stayed for days at the brothel ?
He entered the main building where he saw several soldiers of the purple rhino waiting with their halberds and near them, there was also a very tall, bald man with heavy armor with horns. It was General Boscogn…
"Next time Boscogn, send an emissary. I was busy spending my gold on prostitutes and the party would have gone on for days if I wasn't so in demand." He said as he sat down before crossing his feet on the table.
Boscogn: Your manners don't even surprise me anymore, it's because you beat me in a duel that I have a minimum of respect for you.
"And with insolent ease, don't forget my multiple victories against the armies of the midland and the rebels of the East. You can only respect me, general." He replied while pouring himself some wine under the angry gazes of the rhinos.
Boscogn: Spare me your boasting, arrogant brat. I heard that you were going to fight in the west, the enemy this time seems to be special. They say that he single-handedly defeated several hundred trained soldiers and that more and more brigands are joining him. I know Baran, the commander of the swans, well and if he says that this man killed several hundred men by himself then I believe him.
"Why are you talking to me about this ? I thought you nobles all hated me, the young foreign braggart."
Boscogn: That's the case, believe me, insolent Kushan . Only, hating someone and recognizing their strength are two different things. For me, I am a military leader before being an aristocrat and I know how to respect a strong ally. If I had not been assigned to the North of the empire, I would have gone to fight with you and judge with my own eyes your much-praised prowess. Good luck, commander... (stands up)
"Good luck to you in the North as well, Boscogn. The Midland is a kingdom that can have its surprises..." Barkha said, standing up as well.
Boscogn: What surprise are you referring to?
"A small band of mercenaries that I faced a little over a year ago, they hung around the empire for a while before going to the Midland. The band of the falcon if my memory serves me right, I certainly beat them with ease and spared them but they had excellent potential. In a few years they'll certainly become capable opponents for the upcoming battles against this kingdom. " He said to Boscogn who nodded to him before leaving while Barkha bit into a chicken leg while watching them.
"So let's go west, my lord?" his right-hand man and second in command asked him while Barkha continued to gnaw on this chicken leg.
Barkha: Exactly, Duro. We are leaving in three days, I am in no hurry and we must prepare everything properly. Octave gave me the mission order in which there are the known details about our opponents. Please prepare our men and let them properly bid farewell to their loved ones.
"As usual..." Duro bowed and left while Barkha went to take a bath before going back to sleep.
(two weeks later)
On the roads leading to the distant lands of the Tudor Empire, a large metal wagon, nearly 9 meters long and four meters wide, rolled, pulled by six large, very sturdy black horses on 8 large wooden wheels reinforced with metal. At the front, there were two rows of 50 riders each while at the back, there were nearly hundreds of riders and dozens of wooden covered wagons carrying soldiers of the troop or weapons equipment and each of these chariots pulled a cannon at the back.
This troop was the 1500 men of the Black Wolves and the large iron wagon was that of Barkha who was inside with his trusted men to prepare their operations.
The empire was large and the western lands weren't yet fully pacified and completely subjugated to the empire so apart from their main mission, it was possible that they would have to deal with other problems.
As the convoy was rolling in peace, they saw a group of several dozen people walking with their belongings on them. They were refugees fleeing their lands, Barkha looked at them at one of the windows of the wagon to watch them and immediately, there were only a few men in the group and they were too young. They looked at Barkha and began to implore him and ask for mercy because they were starving.
"Lord, please help us. We are starving and far from home, almost all our men have been killed and we only have our legs left to carry us and our eyes to cry. My child, my child is sick and starving because because I lack nutrition, I am unable to breastfeed him properly. " A woman who seemed to be leading the group said as she showed Barkha her crying baby.
The woman looked to be in her thirties, brunette with blue eyes and strange makeup on her face and fingers.
Barkha looked at her and knew she was a practitioner of the occult arts from the peoples of the west of the empire. He asked his lieutenants to set up camp and ordered his best archers to go hunting for tonight because even if they had their rations, tonight they had guests.
Several hours later in the night, many large campfires could be seen with meat cooking while refugees were already eating.
Barkha was sitting drinking with his men when the woman from earlier approached them before bowing.
"Thank you lord for taking care of wretches like us. My name is Corell and I was the wife of the chief of my village. My child is better thanks to the medicine of your healers and the milk of the mountain goats that your hunters brought back." She said and Barkha just nodded at her.
"Are you a witch of the West ? I feel like something emanating from you, your tattoos also resemble those that are said to be worn by witches of the west." Barkha asked her calmly and his lieutenants looked at the woman.
Corell: Does that trouble you my lord? I know what the people of the holy empire think of us...
"I don't care about that, I don't believe in any god or devil. I know there are forces that we don't necessarily see but the idea of a being that runs our lives is absurd. I'm not a religious fanatic so no ma'am, it doesn't bother me"
Corell: To tell you the truth, I'm not a witch but a druid. I can see things that people don't necessarily see and even the future of some people's destiny. However, I must admit that I am intrigued by you because there is a veil that prevents me from seeing anything about you. Here (gives him an object) this is to thank you, don't ask me where I found it but this stone has something precious and good inside. It's an egg and when what is inside comes out, you will have to consume the shell to be recognized by the elemental inside.
"The what? Is this shell eatable ? How much can your egg be worth on the market ?" Barkha asked, thinking first of the gold it could bring him and Corell advised him not to do so as it would be too dangerous.
"My lord, accepting a witch's gift is considered heresy" One of his men told him and Barkha snickered before taking the object which was a deep black pyramid shape with rounded corners and writing on it, it was an egg...a pyramid egg.
Barkha thanked the woman and asked her why and how they lost their lands. The woman told him that it was the work of Korsa, a strange and bestial man who had become the leader of the cruelest bandit band in the west.
According to her, Korsa's men had now reached a number close to 4000 and they were terrorizing entire regions.
The most frightening thing according to her was that these bandits attacked each other like beasts and seemed to have lost all notion of humanity, they openly practiced cannibalism and stole women and children of all sexes.
Korsa would be according to her capable of defeating hundreds of men and his soldiers had been able to defeat armies several times larger because not only did they attack in a savage manner but in addition, they didn't seem to be vulnerable to pain.
The men of her village had to sacrifice themselves and fight to the death against one of their detachments to give the women and children a chance of survival by fleeing.
Listening to this, Barkha looked at his lieutenants and knew that this was the enemy they were going to face. He told Corell that he was sorry for what they had been through and that it would all be over soon.
She looked at him in silence for a few more moments before smiling at him, bowing and leaving.
"Here is a very strange woman..." He said before looking at the strange egg she had given him.
Duro (his second): My lord, do you do well to keep this thing coming from a witch? This object may be cursed...
"Curses only happen to those who believe in them my friend. Do you know what I believe in ?" Barkha asked as she threw the egg in the air to start playing with it like a child.
Duro: What do you believe in?
"My choices and my strength. I believe in my decisions to mentally or intellectually control my path and the direction I take but above all, I believe in my strength to trace my own path no matter what happens with the strength of my blade. If I die one day, it will not be because my written time I don't know where came but only because I would have chosen to die at that moment.
Do not summarize your existence to the choices of a so-called superior entity that you have neither seen nor heard, it is an insult to the universe that you have created around you by your simple existence. The gods only exist in your consciousness because you seek them. " He said before getting up and then headed towards the comfortably equipped carriage for him to sleep.