6 Citizen of Arcadia, I

"It was dawn when we had broken and left camp. Tei'hi told us that his scouts found a river nearby, he realized how perfect it was seeing how we use rivers for our irrigation. But trouble was always there. I'm writing this as I walk, It seems that we're advancing a measly thirty paces per hour.

The way he set it up was bizarre. Two lines guard the sides for an ambush, the front lines, consisting of roughly 50 men, were ordered to break the trees and foliage leading to the village. It seems we're slowly making a road to it.

In two hours, I will be part of the forward crew, If, all of a sudden, it gets attacked. We'll be at our most vulnerable, I would doubt that the front would survive the initial skirmishes.

If that is the case then this entry will be my last.

I know now the reason Tei'hi took the unmarried men here. Cause he knows that we are never going home. That our life in Nydorekith was over the moment we stepped into those boats.

His promises of wealth beyond the lands feel false. As if he is the ferryman taking us directly to hell. The people in blue paint, if they are really people, unnerve me and the other men. The way they hid in the trees make it seem like they will always be there. Watching, waiting for an opportune momen"

- Taken from the diary of Sgt. Seika, moments before the ambush.

"They were in the trees. The leaves and foliage hid their numbers, yet they swarmed. They felt like a hundred thousand strong. They fought fiercely with their ax and spears, some abandoning their shields, throwing their life away. Yet even then they would take two for one.

They were monsters, the lot of them. The things that happened in that forests were unspeakable, yet it justified what we did to their village. At least that is what I believe. I was lucky to have survived that onslaught.

I feel like luck would be undermining what happened there... cause I was one of the few that saw it. The things that the madame did inside there. That was inhuman, but they would never believe me. It was only me and Tei'hi that saw it after all.

Maybe things would've been better if I stayed home."

- Excerpt from Vice-General Zoroan's diary

"... Then, we woke up. Almost all of us had fallen asleep while in the middle of fighting, there, in the middle of the woods. What's peculiar was that the natives were not gone. They were... pacified? I couldn't find the right words to put it.

Some of them were frozen, some were dead. Others were just... standing there, I noticed that there's significantly fewer of them as well and that the wind was silent. Honestly, everything was silent.

There was no shouting for help, there was nothing at all. It was as if I was the only person there, that the beating of my heartbeat was the loudest in the area. Tei'hi didn't give us any explanation, nor did Lui-eya. He shrugged it off as 'luck'.

Were we really lucky that day? I can't say so myself."

- Excerpt from Cpl. Maxim

"When we got to the village, half of them were dead, bodies burning, some, hanged, the other was bowing down to us. I looked back into the forest, into the bloody trail we left behind. And there were none. The natives that we had slaughtered had disappeared.

The men I saw killed were there, but now they were back in our lines. I was there but now I was here.

When I looked back at the General I saw him and his other men dragging Lui-eya to a house. We stood there in silence as their screaming fills the entire village. Flashes of light can be seen from the windows and cracks in the house. It was then that everyone in the army realized.

Tei'hi was confident in his ambition, or rather the Madame Lui-eya was. That is because the devil was on their side. Perhaps? I don't know, but looking back at the corpses that were left behind, those that had disappeared. It was clear that only a demon could do that.

We were loyal to the general, but not to the devilish fiend that they took with them. We realized that we couldn't defect. There was no use to it. He took us to this godforsaken continent to fuel his ambitions, and we were there to support through it all for all he had done for us.

But now, as I looked into the men in my lines, I know what they were all thinking. That it was better to die in battle than to defect and be killed by whatever punishment they have for us. We could not defect.

I wish I could. Everyone wished they could."

- Taken from the diary of Quinctilla, a new recruit from the island of Klaun.

"When those natives started pouring out of and my men started dying, the first I went for was Lui-eya who was in the middle of it all as it was the safest area.

It was peculiar seeing her not move an inch as chaos was surrounding her. When the line broke and her eyes glowed I knew exactly what that entailed. I thought then what my victories meant. What my ambitions meant.

For in the eyes of that witch, all were but a play.

In a flash, everything froze in time. My men and the natives stood there, I do not know if they could see the things I saw themselves. She walked over to the corpses of my men and very gently took them up on their feet. And just like that, they were alive.

She then went to the natives, when she touched their forehead, things happened that I do not know myself. Some became encased in ice, some went aflame. Others had their skin turn inside out. A lucky few exploded, dying instantly.

When she was done with them she walked past us, still hooded under her purple robe. It was clear she was heading for the village, for what purpose? Perhaps to pacify them, perhaps to convince them peacefully.

All I know is that when time started moving again, and those screams started echoing throughout the forest. We were lucky she was on our side, and that I would not be able to sleep soundly knowing that people like her existed.

I dragged her along with Lixus and Zoroan and promptly told her to not use her witchcraft in battle. She called me an ingrate and got mad, of course, that ambush was a losing fight after all and she had saved us. But what she did... I was afraid, of course. Everyone in the army was.

But we had agreed for her to reserve whatever she did for things that do not involve my warfare. I do not want things like that to litter my army, the nyd-no, the Arcadian empire should never be known for being like cheats who use magic to win.

Prideful and selfish, yes. But it was more than that, I do not want to run my army with fear, and they have the right to be scared of the things she had done.

I should know, when I told the army that whatever happened was pacified, they all breathed a sigh of relief. Some were still peculiar, of course. I could see it in their eyes. The fear would never subside."

- From the Journals of Tei'hi.