The Most Glorious Pitiful Man Alive

Hearing Sodarus's words Hamilcar says wearily "The fact that he managed to fight you as an equal is concerning enough, but you also claim to have never seen or heard of him before?"

Hasdrubal continued "Indeed, men of the power level of General Sodarus are few and far between, thus they are well known. Even the ones that are reclusive, and tend to avoid the public as much as possible, are so famous that most children will be able to identify them." Hearing this the officers all nod their heads in agreement.

Hamilcar nodded solemnly to Hasdrubal's words and said to Sodarus "Tell us more about this man's character and appearance, perhaps one of us has heard of him."

Sodarus nodded in acknowledgement and said "Concerning his character there isn't much to tell, other than he was very strange."

"How so?" I asked.

"Well, your majesty, he didn't reply to me whenever I tried to converse with him during the brief pauses that occurred during our battle. And what's stranger still is that he didn't seem to care much about his own body's safety. He would just keep attacking me with his war scythe with no care for defense, and..."

Before he could continue I interrupted him by abruptly standing up and saying "War scythe? He was wielding a war scythe?!"

The men in the tent were shocked into dead silence by my reaction that was only broken when Sodarus said in bewilderment "Indeed, sire. The man wielded a large silver war scythe, that was covered in weird symbols, that were etched into it."

Hearing this I say in the same tone of urgency "Tell me what he looked like, and don't miss a single detail!"

Once again the men were shocked from seeing so much emotion from their usually restrained emperor. But this alone showed them the gravity of the situation.

Sodarus took a few seconds collecting his thoughts, and said calmly "He was tall, and wearing light armor that did nothing to hide his powerful muscles. He had snow white, unkept hair that reached his lower back, and his complexion was white as paper, but wasn't sickly looking. His left eye was night black, while his right eye was blood red, and they were completely vacant of emotion, as if they were two bottomless holes."

Hearing this I slump back onto my chair, as I'm flooded with memories of my past life of when I was handed an old weathered book, by one of the Shade Corps most brilliant agents that had managed to miraculously procure it from Nicholas' private collection, which contained the diary of a tragic soul.

'Leonid Koschei! The man who in my past life not only earned the title of Triumph's Omen, for his near legendary ability to always wrestle back victory from the jaws of defeat by his mere presence on the battlefield, but he also gained the title of the Deathless Champion, because he seemed to always survive situations that no other man should be able to escape! At the height of his power he was even rumored to be the descendent of the God of Death, which was impossible, since the God of Death never fathered any children. He was also the only man who could claim to have lived a more miserable life than mine!' I thought.

"...Sire?" Hamilcar called my name, since I became too absorbed in my own thoughts and memories.

I swiftly shook off the remnants of my lingering thoughts, and quickly came up with a reason for me knowing who Leonid is, who by this point in history was still relatively unknown, because I couldn't tell them my most precious secret yet, as I said "I'm fine Grand Marshal. Before leaving the capital I ordered Isaac to give me a full report on all the commanders of the Luminous Empire, and this man was among them."

Hearing my words the men all nodded, obviously believing my lie as Sodarus asks "Then my liege, you have information about this man?"

"Indeed. His name is Leonid Koschei, a ninth level martial artist who specializes in war scythe arts, and he was originally from the Boreas Empire." I said. The men showed shocked expressions upon hearing this, since the Luminous Empire is a rival of the Boreas Empire.

"Then why is he fighting for the Luminous Empire, sire?" Hasdrubal asked.

"It's because he hates the Boreas Empire, and he wishes for nothing more than to completely destroy it." I answered calmly.

"Why?" Sodarus asked.

Hearing Sodarus's question I take a deep breath as I collect my thoughts and calmly say "Leonid was born in a farm, in a remote village, on the borderlands between the Luminous Empire and Boreas Empire. His early life was like that of any other person, but at the age of five his mother contracted a deadly disease that was very expensive to cure, but obviously they weren't rich, and they couldn't afford the medicine. So after five years of fighting a hopeless battle against her withering body, his mother died when he was ten years old, and with it she left a massive gash in his heart."

I stopped for a moment to catch my breath before continuing "Luckily his wounded heart wasn't left untended for long, because a few months later his father married a newly widowed beautiful woman, who recently arrived in their village with her eight year old daughter after losing her husband in an unfortunate accident. This woman didn't discriminate against him, and treated Leonid like her own son, constantly drowning him in her maternal care, love, and compassion. While his energetic and joyful new sister adored him, and used to always ask him to sing her to sleep, since he was gifted with a beautiful voice. And before he knew it, his wounded heart had healed and his broken family was once again whole, but that wasn't meant to last."

I stopped to allow the men to keep up, and seeing that they're all still following I continue "By the time he reached his fifteenth birthday he decided to start using his musical gifts to help his family's struggling finances, so during the off season in the farm, when the crop didn't require that much labor, he would take trips to the nearest city for a few days to work as a bard in the local taverns so he could earn a few extra Darr. And during such a trip would his family suffer an unprecedented storm of cruelty."

The men all showed intrigued expressions hearing this as I continued "You see his step-mother wasn't completely truthful about the death of her ex-husband. Her ex-husband didn't die in a tragic accident like she claimed, but was instead killed trying to protect her and her daughter, because a lustful marquise had coveted her body, and no matter how much Darr, jewels, dresses and benefits he offered her she wouldn't become his mistress, so this marquise eventually decided that he would simply take her by force, but he didn't expect her to manage to escape his men after her husband's sacrifice, so he spent years searching for her, and after nearly five years of tireless pursuit he managed to find her."

The men narrowed their eyes angerly, since they knew what would happen next, as I kept speaking "This marquise led over one hundred men to their town, and with it began the nightmare of the family. The marquise began by mercilessly putting everyone in their town to the sword, but what he did to Leonid's family in comparison was far more horrific. He hanged the father on the barn gates, as he finally fulfilled his lustful fantasies, by having his way with the mother, in every sadistic, cruel, and inhumane way you can think of. When Leonid finally returned from the city, the marquise had already finished his business and left with his men, leaving his father still hanging from the barn, as the crows picked out his eyes, and his mother was still in that shameful position, her once beautiful face and body now bruised, swollen, and horribly disfigured! But the marquise had one final present for Leonid. He left eight men in the town to make sure that when Leonid returned he would be killed as well, but little did that marquise know that he had unknowingly awakened a monster so malignant that devils themselves would cower before it! As soon as Leonid saw these men he rushed into the barn and picked the nearest weapon like object possible, which happened to be a harvesting scythe. After that he mercilessly butchered those soldiers! Following this he buried his parents, and it's said that he wept, and screamed so hard and for so long, that his once beautiful voice was completely destroyed, leaving only a hideous and unpleasant one in it's place."

I stopped for a second to allow the men to absorb all the knowledge I said, before finishing "He swore by the name of all the gods that he would have his vengeance on that marquise even if the entire world was against him. But he was only a fifteen year old boy with no power, so he left the Boreas Empire to gain the strength required to achieve his goal. A few years later he was working as a mercenary in the Luminous Empire, when a high ranking Luminous noble discovered his great talent, and recommended him to the military, and that's were his story ends."

The men all stayed quiet taking in what I said as I thought 'If only that was truly the ending, but sadly it wasn't. In my previous life he eventually achieved great fame and power a few years from now, and he would lead countless military campaigns against the Boreas Empire, all ending in incredible success, he even once forced that bastard Nicholas to run away with his tail between his legs. He became a living legend! But like all legends, it must come to an end, and his end was a truly depressing one. During one of his final campaigns he chances upon a woman who was being attacked by Boreas Empire soldiers, and after saving her they fell in love with each other, and married shortly after, but little did Leonid know that this woman was a spy loyal to Nicholas, and their encounter was all planned. And after judging that the time was right, this woman pretended to be kidnapped, and Leonid terrified by the prospect of once again losing his family charged after her with no care for his own life, and helplessly fell into the trap prepared for him by Nicholas. That was how the man known as Triumph's Omen, and feared as the Deathless Champion met his demise!'

"...His sister?" Horus quietly asked.

"Hmm?" I enquire, since I was too lost in my thoughts.

"You said he had a sister, my liege. I was wondering what happened to her." Horus explained.

Hearing his question and seeing that all the men seemed interested as well I say "She's in the hands of that marquise... Or at least that's what Leonid believes."

Hearing this the men all show interested expressions, but before they can ask any further questions I grab two papers and a pen from the table next to me, as I begin to write two messages on them. Finishing the first message I hand it to Sodarus as I say "You will most likely face Leonid again before this battle is over, and when you do I want you to hand this to him."

Sodarus shows a confused expression upon hearing this, but nonetheless he takes it and says calmly "Understood, sire."

I begin writing the second message, and as I finish I yell out loud "Guard."

The guard rushes inside the tent as he bows deeply and says respectfully "Your orders, your majesty."

I hand him the sealed message as I say "Order our fastest rider to deliver this message to the Grand Chamberlin Isaac Hodurr, and no one else."

"Yes, sire." He says as he moves to take the message from my hand, but I keep a firm hold over the message, which confuses the guard as he looks at me.

"Only to Isaac. This is a matter of great importance! Do you understand?" Seeing the dead serious light that settled in my eyes, that no child my age should have, sent a chill up the spine of the guard as he says resolutely "Understood, my emperor. I will personally head out to deliver this message to lord Isaac." Hearing this I nod in satisfaction to him.

As I watched the guard rush out of the tent I thought 'This time I refuse to allow your legend to end so miserably, Leonid Koschei. This time we will get our vengeance, and protect our families, even if it's the last thing we do!?'