Traitors

Emp felt like his gentle gestures worked well because her sobbing diminished slowly under his attention. Seeing this, the two servants finally decided to move and stepped into the room, coming to stand on either side of them. They fidgeted there for a while, not knowing if it was best to stand close for Mable or leave the girl alone while she was being comforted.

In the end, they settled on starting to clean up the mess, fixing her bed sheets, gathering Mable's hair and untangling them, one of them even decided to go out to the well to get some water to wash the bloodstain off the wall and the cake off the floor.

Once Mable seemed to have calmed down a lot, he decided it was time to start asking her the important questions.

"Mable, are you hurt anywhere? Do you want a healer to come here?"

She mumbled her answer into his shirt but he understood her despite her whining tone.

"I bumped my head but its fine."

That was great then.

"Did he do something to you?"

"No, you saved me."

There was a short pause as he waited for her to continue. As expected of Mable, now that she had started talking, it didn't take long before she whined about the whole story. Emp knew she was the sort of person that would speak her best and worst thoughts about anything and everything. She had trouble with keeping things inside her. Emp liked her honesty and in the current situation, it was very useful since he quickly heard about the whole thing.

He was very surprised to hear about who was the aggressor and what the drawings on the wall were for. How could one of the teachers do such a thing? He had deeply trusted all the staff here, to think one of them could be so… He didn't even know the word for it.

He didn't know how to react about this either. Had he simply been too trusting of everyone around him and no one could be considered safe like Blackbull said or was it an isolated incident? Did this sort of thing happen a lot, not only here but everywhere?

It couldn't be that common or else the nobles wouldn't entrust their kids and young adults to the school. Like him, they must have firmly believed that nothing could happen in the school. He was extremely thankful that he remembered to give her one of the rings, what could have happened if he had not?

She was about to tell him what his intentions were when the Duke, Heinrich, his fwan slave and about twenty heavily armed guards stormed into the room. Emp had not heard them approaching at all so he jumped in surprise. The spell of the potion teacher really was effective.

The newcomers took in the scene in front of their eyes and the old duke wasted no time before he started bellowing in anger.

"Who did this! Where is he? I'll pluck all their limbs one by one starting from their fingers!"

He was armed with a long one handed sword and a disproportionate shield compared to his aged frame but he radiated fury and strength. Emp wasted no time to answer for Mable, pointing towards the broken balcony doors.

"The potion teacher, I hit him with my hammer and sent him down the balcony."

The old man roared in anger and jumped off the balcony under the stupefied gaze of everyone. Emp had thought of doing the same because he could simply step all the way down but they were on the fourth floor! Even now that he was enhanced with the elixir he would not dare jump off from here.

It seemed that the old man was far from having lost all the strength he once possessed as a soldier. Speaking of soldiers, there was no way the guards he brought with him would follow the ancient down that path and just stood there like idiots wondering what to do.

They all wore the colors and insignia of the duke of the eastern grove. Like most of the guards protecting the school from intruders and outside threats, they where under the direct orders from the duke himself. It didn't stop them from listening to sensible orders though. Heinrich told them what to do.

"Have Ninoslav's room locked down. It will be thoroughly investigated by me and the duke later. Call for the city guards to establish a perimeter around the school to prevent any potential accomplices from escaping. If you find anyone suspicious, bring them to me, they will be interrogated by my fwan."

"Understood!/Yes sir!" Were the answers from the guards as they left again in a hurry.

They would have gained a lot of time if Emp hadn't forgot to ask Harriett to relay all that information but there was nothing he could do about it now.

After the soldiers left, Heinrich turned his attention back to Emp and Mable.

Emp attempted to have her get back up but she refused to show any semblance of dignity and stubbornly clung to him, only exposing her prone back to the mage. Heinrich paid it no mind and started questioning the two with his usual serious air.

"Her condition?"

"She says she's fine, only a bump on her head."

He nodded and turned towards his slave.

"Fonao, please check just to be safe."

The Fwan nodded but quickly frowned after opening his many pairs of eyes.

"I can't see."

Fonao seemed perturbed by that fact and rubbed his forehead in puzzlement but Heinrich didn't feel the same.

"Oh, yes of course, we were told about her power already, I forgot. If even you can't see, I guess we can safely assume she isn't under the influence of anything."

He brushed the subject away and went straight for his next question.

"Did Nino say what he was after? Was it theft? It would not surprise me, that greedy bastard."

"He said he was after my hand." Mable answered.

Since she said it from his shirt again, Emp had to relay the information for Heinrich to understand properly.

"Her hand? As in marriage right, not a severed hand? I don't get it. Was there something wrong with his head?"

Mable then let out a long series of loud complaints about how it was obvious that there was something wrong with his head. It didn't have to do with what is goal was, he needed to be insane in the first place to sneak into her room, whatever the reason was. Why he wanted her hand she didn't know and she didn't care. As for why he believed his actions to be the best way to get it, she didn't know either.

Most of the things she mumbled were nonsensical rambles born from her intense fear and anger so Emp could only continue to appease her by patting her back.

Once she finally calmed down, Heinrich was able to resume his questioning. This time, he made sure to not upset her with some comments.

"So you came to her rescue? Did you hear her call from your room? Why didn't her servants do anything?"

Emp told him about the markings on the wall and about the ring he had given Mable.

"Thanks to the ring, I was notified when things went wrong for her and ran here to help."

To be specific, the ring told him she was in mortal danger but since the culprit was after her hand rather than her life, he had to guess that Mable's perception of the situation had turned for the worst when the scissors showed up. Thinking about those, he shared his worry with the mage.

"Do you know about her fear Heinrich?"

"Her fear? About how she felt just now? It must have been terrible but what is your point."

"No, not that, her fear as in her phobia."

"No, I don't know. Is this important?"

Heinrich didn't get it but Emp nodded to show the serious of his words.

"Mable has a fear only few know about. It's supposed to be secret yet that guy showed up with the exact thing she feared most and used it against her. How did he know that?"

"I see what you mean, how many exactly know about this fear? Is it truly a secret or do half the students know about it?"

Mable trembled as she realized what they implied and finally raised her head to protest.

"It can't be! There should be only Aglaya, Nessa, Gytha and you! There no way one of you would tell!" She protested.

"But forcibly, someone had to speak for him to know." Heinrich contradicted her. "Nino is a master illusionist and alchemist, not some augur. Either one of the four talked or one of the servants managed to somehow go over their seal and spoke which is highly unlikely. The last possibility is that it was a coincidence. Is that possible?"

Who would bring scissors in that sort of situation anyway? Emp saw no logical reason for it to happen so he denied it with a shake of his head. It couldn't even be considered a useful tool, he would have been better off with a knife. He must have known for sure.

Mable realized this as well and turned extremely gloomy when she saw Emp shake his head.

"The other girls must be brought for questioning then." Heinrich declared. "I do not expect any of them to have betrayed you but your lord protector is right. We need to know how he came across the information. Maybe one of them told another student and the information slowly spread. Maybe it isn't too late to have the knowledge of your weakness buried."

Emp was in agreement as well. The more the night progressed, the more the teachings of Blackbull started making sense to him. Anything said could be turned against them if it reached the wrong ears. For him, her fear of scissors had only been a peculiar quirk and he had no doubt the rest of the students would think the same. Yet, one person saw it as a weapon. It wasn't impossible for the students to have spread the funny information, unaware of the real threat of it.

Anyone around them could turn out to be an enemy and all they said had to be properly controlled. Blackbull only meant to protect the reputation of everyone but he was now conscious that aside from their reputation, those random bits of information could have much more dire repercussions.

While they were thinking about how to proceed, Harriett came back to the room and bowed to him. She had not run back so her arrival had been vastly delayed compared to the soldiers and the ancient.

"I did as master requested. Does master have any other wish?"

"Good job and yes, could you go get Aglaya and bring her here? Wake her if you have to."

He was pretty sure Aglaya was too smart in that sort of thing to reveal Mable's secret to just anyone but she was the one who told him about it first after all. Even if she wasn't the one, she cared a lot about Mable and would rush here the moment she heard of what had happened. She would want to know as soon as possible.

"My apologies master but I do not know were her room is, I can't go get her." Harriett answered pitifully.

That was right, he went there for tea a few times but Celtine was always the one who came with him. He turned his head towards the servant of Mable that was still here. She noticed his gaze and stopped combing the hair of her mistress to listen.

"You know the way right? Go with her."

The slave turned her eyes to Mable who used her hand to tell her to go.

"Understood, we will be back shortly."

Once both of them were gone. Heinrich asked a few more questions but it quickly became apparent that without the culprit, nothing new would be learned on the matter.

The mage proposed that they should leave the room and let Mable change into actual clothes to follow the discussion and the investigation but the girl refused to budge.

Emp felt it had already been a long time since he came to her rescue but Mable still didn't want to let him go and acted spoiled. Every time they mentioned moving, she gripped his shirt and hid her face in it. It was apparent that she would go nowhere, maybe only Aglaya would ever be able to have her move.

Thinking about how long they had been here already, Emp felt that the duke should have been back long ago. Did he break his leg jumping off? Emp was a bit worried but the mage didn't seem to think the same and just studied the marks on the walls instead.

While they waited for anyone to come back, there was not much else to do for him but to try to undo the spell of the illusionist. As a member of the elder circle of Thronewoods, the task was not too hard for Heinrich and after studying the symbols for a few minutes, he simply erased a line on the far wall and the magic came undone. Emp would have never dared do such a thing at random because erasing the wrong line could have any sort of consequences.

Because the spell disappeared, all the noises from out of the room made themselves heard to them. Outside, there were the cries and shouts of the guards searching and relaying information to each other. In Mable's main room, they could hear more soldiers moving and talking but more importantly, the fast paced steps of someone walking quickly towards them.

The guards let Aglaya through without a fuss and she rushed into the room.

"Mable!"

The tall girl had her hair set loose and wore a one piece steel blue dress she had put on in a hurry. Her feet were inserted into small slippers with short heels only visible under her long dress because Emp was sat on the ground and because her legs were even longer than her dress.

She was surprised to see Mable in Emp's arms but it didn't stop her from running up to the other side of the girl and quickly sitting onto her knees. Once she was finally within Mable's reach, the girl released Emp to latch unto her friend instead.

Emp couldn't help but smile at her actions while Aglaya held her friend tightly against her.

Aglaya had rushed here so fast that she had not bothered asking Harriett about any details and hurriedly showered Mable of her worried questions. She had calmed down a lot by now and didn't have as much trouble to answer the simple questions of her friend. In fact, now that she was over her scare, most of her answers were instead a bunch of very lengthy complaints about how she hated the potion teacher and how much of a bad guy he was.

Aglaya was just glad that she was well enough to hold that sort of talk so she let her empty her heart for as long as she wanted. It was only when she got to the part of her grievances about how he knew about the scissors that Aglaya really reacted. She easily figured out what this meant and instantly became outraged.

"They knew it was a secret! Who could have said?"

"That's what we were wondering too. We wanted to get all three of you in turn and have the fwan figure out who spoke about it."

Aglaya was not insulted to be included in the list and looking at Fonao straight in the eyes, told him that she had only told Emp about this, no one else should know. Fonao, with his eyes able to see all lies, confirmed that what she said was the truth.

With Aglaya out of the possible suspects, only Nessa and Gytha were left.

"What about you though?" Aglaya said, piercing her eyes full of suspicions on him.

Emp wasn't upset either of her suspicion. He understood, both as a guard and a friend, that this was an important matter to them.

"I never talked of this to anyone. I care way to much about Mable to ever do that."

"Truth." Confirmed Fonao with his taciturn voice.

Mable turned a bit red but Aglaya was way too on edge to notice or tease either of them for the way he answered.

"Then it truly must be either of the other two. Which one decided to betray us and why?"

"We don't know for sure yet." Emp told them to spare the despairing Mable. "Even if it's unlikely, the teacher is a mage after all, who knows what sort of trick he may have to discover that kind of information. As long as we haven't asked them directly, we should refrain from accusing our friends of anything."

"Right, I'm sorry." Aglaya apologized to Mable and Emp. "It's just too much. You're right though, maybe they are both innocent. Allies are always valuable, if I accuse them for no reason, I might damage our relationship. They won't all react the same way you and I did. We should stay calm."

She was the one to say it but honestly, out of all of them, she was the least calm. Thinking about it, he was certain he was worse than this earlier when he ran here. Good thing he was able to calm down fast after the threat was removed.

Instead of simply waiting for the duke to come back, the group decided to not waste any time and have the last two girls brought here to be questioned.

But, before they could chose who they wanted to bring first, one the guards came back with unexpected news. He was just coming back from the illusionist's room and reported the findings of his group to the school mage.

"We locked down his quarters and went inside in order to find some evidence. There, we found one of the students sleeping in Mr. Miramor's bed."

"What?" The same question came from both Aglaya and the mage.

"We supposed you might want to interrogate her so we brought her here, she's held in the corridor by the door."

"We do want to talk to her, bring her in." The mage agreed.

"Understood."

The three students were very nervous to discover who it would be. Obviously, two were much more likely but they were still shocked and painfully disappointed to see Gytha pushed inside by the guards.

Just like Aglaya, it was apparent that Gytha had been sleeping soundly before she was brought here. Her hair had not been taken care of, she seemed very tired and wore the same clothes she had during their day outside.

When she first stepped in the room, she seemed reassured to find her friends there but she started worrying again when she saw the accusing gaze of Aglaya. She resembled a small animal stuck in a trap and kept glancing at the broken down door and the guards on the other side of it.

"What's happening? Why are we all here and how..."

"How did we find you? That is what you wanted to ask right? Well it wasn't exactly you we were looking for." Aglaya told her sternly.

Hearing that she was in the bed of Mable's aggressor and seeing that she was obviously fine, the noble girl had already made up her mind about her.

There was a long silence after that while Gytha tried to puzzle together what was happening and the others tried to get over this discovery. Only Heinrich didn't seem disturbed but he wasn't directly concerned and was very hard to destabilize. Even if Emp was to suddenly burst in flames, the mage would probably not react with surprise but curiosity instead.

Mable had apparently been turned mute by this turn of event so the others had to take the lead.

"We have some questions we would like to ask you. Fonao here will guarantee that only the truth is heard. Are you ready?" Asked the mage.

Gytha shrunk a bit hearing this.

"Uh… Do I have a choice?"

"No."

She frowned at the clear denial and they started asking their questions, alternating between Emp and Heinrich. Both were merciless in their interrogation, Heinrich because he didn't care and Emp because he really wanted to know the truth behind all this. The Fwan's top pair of eyes shone as it scanned her soul at every answer she gave, the second pair opening at intervals to check for some magic trick that might hide some secret.

"Did you tell anyone about Mable's secret fear?"

"What? No!"

"Lie." The Fwan denied.

The girl winced and Heinrich reprimanded her.

"No use lying miss, it will only worsen your case. No lies can stand in front of a fwan."

"What case?!"

They ignored her own question and asked her again.

"Who did you tell?"

"One of the teachers, why is this even important?"

"Was it Ninoslav?"

"Yes, will you please tell me what is going on?"

"Why did you tell him? What is your relationship with him? Why were you in his bed?"

The girl turned red of both embarrassment and anger and yelled her answer at them.

"I refuse to answer any of those, It's none of your business!"

Mable turned ashen from that answer. There was no doubt it was her anymore. Not only that, but from her reaction, she seemed to be a willing accomplice.

There was another silence where no one dared say a word. The first servant of Mable came back with her bucket of well water and a rag, slipped past all their frozen figures and started scrubbing the bloodstain over the balcony door. Everyone ignored her completely, it was as if she wasn't there at all.

"You had an affair with that disgusting trash!" Screamed Mable suddenly, pointing an accusing finger towards Gytha.

"Nino is a great man! He's not disgusting and he isn't trash! Why are you so mean?"

"I'm mean? That, that..." She was way too frustrated to find any way to call him so Aglaya intervened.

"Degenerate."

"That degenerate! Yes, got in my room in the middle of the night and tried to rape me!"

Gytha paled hearing the story of her friend.

"No, no way. He'd never do that. You must be lying." She said trembling.

"She's not." Pointed out Fonao.

"The only reason I'm fine is because Emp came to save me!"

"I hit him with the hammer and he fell over the balcony."

Gytha gasped hearing this, saw the blood being scrubbed and the broken balcony doors and fainted from the shock. Luckily, there was a guard behind her to catch her limp body before she bumped her head.

They still had any more question for her but it seemed they would have to wait for her to regain consciousness.

"At least now we know how he came to posses the information." Heinrich declared, satisfied of the swift discovery.

Mable didn't know what to do with herself, she was both extremely angry and downcast at the same time. She was hovering from one state to another so quickly she couldn't vent either of her emotions.

While she was struggling with herself, the duke finally came back. Stepping inside, he almost walked on Gytha.

"Woah, what is that lass doing there? Can't anyone move her out of the way?"

The soldier that had caught her had just sat her unconscious form against the wall close to where she fell but under the angry gaze of the duke, he hurriedly dragged her further in and set her in a corner.

Looking at him, Emp saw that he was perfectly fine, he just took a long time it seemed.

"Was the corpse still recognizable?" He asked the ancient.

After all, he had no doubt that he found it, knowing from where it fell, it would be hard to miss in an empty field. However, he was surprised again.

"Nah, tha rascal escaped. I only found a pair of bloody scissors and an empty canteen."

"What?" Emp exclaimed.

How could he have escaped! He fell from so high, he had all his ribs broken and smashed his head against the wall on the way out. He should not have survived the fall, how did he manage to get away!

Mable shivered at his side and the worried frown Aglaya showed since earlier deepened hearing the dukes words.

"Aye, he be a slippery one. I ran after but quickly lost track, the guards patrolled everywhere and blocked all the entries but he must have left beforehand because none of'em saw him."

Maybe Emp really should've have jumped after him. Now, because he stayed with Mable, they had an enemy on the loose.

"He's going to be really hard to catch now. He is a master illusionist after all, I doubt anyone will be able to find him if he doesn't want to be seen."

"Aye but we'll make is life as hard as can be. In less than a day, every soldier in the city will be after him and in less than a week, the whole kingdom, I promise that."

The Duke was gnashing his teeth in frustration. Not only was he angry that he let him escape but he was also feeling ridiculed. He had been betrayed by one of his subordinate and someone he was in charge of had been targeted without him being able to do anything.

"Twenty years he's been teachin here! All this time he hid his treacherous face! If I get me hands on him he'll wish he died in that fall!"

He planted his sword deeply into the stone wall in frustration which made the servants and a few soldiers jump in surprise. Emp was amazed that the sword didn't break in the process but was even more impressed by how easily the duke seemed to do it. The old man was obviously way stronger than Emp gave him credits for.

"My lord, if you damage the masonry work, it will only cost you more, it won't help in finding him." Heinrich tried to calm him.

The duke begrudgingly accepted to quell his anger for now and listened to the information the others had collected while he was out running after the culprit.

At some point, Harriett came back as well but Emp told her she could go back to their room as he didn't need anything else. She bowed for a last time and went back home.

When Gytha came back to herself, she was interrogated a lot more by the three men and the fwan but they didn't learn much more concerning the alchemy teacher.

The girl was absolutely devastated by what was happening and cried the whole time they interrogated her. From what they gathered, Gytha had fallen in love with him after having been courted for a few weeks. They had no way of knowing if it was a real love or a sentiment cultivated with the mixtures he had her drink often and his mind altering suggestions and magic. He had promised her his love and enough wealth to get her family out of their though spot in exchange for the detailed information she provided him.

Apparently, Emp had ignored this but her house had lent large sums of money to some old allied household in order to help them establish themselves in Greenpeaks. Just afterwards, the situation over there turned dire and they both lost all they had invested. They barely scrapped enough for her to get in school.

As they knew, she didn't dislike older men and his attentions combined with the prospect of getting out of the hole they had dug for themselves, she decided it would be fine to take him as husband. Following an idea he had, they wanted to add some more students in their family and pool all their money together.

Considering Emp had been told many times that the man was very greedy, he couldn't help but wonder if this was really about the girls themselves or the money they may bring with them.

"I just wanted to live happily with my friends and my man, I didn't think he would do something so extreme!" She wailed.

Everyone was appalled and Emp had no idea of what to do with her.

Did he really love her or not? Would he come back for her? Would he give up on Mable now that his plan had failed?

Emp hoped he would not come back but just in case, maybe he should prepare something specially to battle good spell casters.

While he was thinking that, Mable finally got up from her prone position and turned towards him. Ignoring the presence of everyone around them, she grabbed Emp's head and planted a new kiss on his forehead.

"Thank you Emp for saving me. I'm scared to think of what could have happened if you didn't come. Making you my lord protector must have been the best decision I took so far in my life."

Getting closer for a last hug, she made sure her head was on the other side of everyone and whispered to his ear.

"Don't tell anyone about the other kiss please. It's a secret."

"Don't worry." He said out loud. "that's just part of what a lord protector should do, no?"

It was true both about protecting her and keeping her secret. Since she wanted to keep it secret, here in front of everyone wasn't the place to ask her why she wanted it to be so but he could still ask her later.

*-*-*-*

Back in Celtine and Harriett's room, the two girls were talking about Emp's confession.

Celtine felt deeply conflicted with herself. She had hoped that she would have more time than this to settle her mind on what she wanted. She knew what she had to do and wanted to convince herself to stop thinking about nonsense to focus on what was important instead. It had somehow worked up to now but with what he said earlier and the kiss on her cheek that sent her heart racing, she was back to struggling with herself.

That day when he had invited them both in his bed, she had put a lot of thoughts into this. Back then, she wasn't sure if she herself liked him or not.

She only knew that she cared about it very much. She had not wanted to hurt him with her eventual departure or make it seem as if she was using his goodwill to her advantage. She did care a lot for him even though she was the one receiving things after things from him and getting promised miracles, she never wanted to use him.

He wasn't a tool to take advantage of, yet what was she doing? What could she say? It was obvious to her now that she shared his feelings there were so many wrong things with this. Most obvious of them was that he was human! Terrible, cruel, humans, he was one of them, highly placed in their society too, how could she tie herself to him?

Then, there was the simple fact that she couldn't stay, her people needed her, she was the wind caller. She needed to go back to lead the way and sing to the wind, she couldn't stay here with him.

On top of this, he just said that he felt the same for Harriett and Mable too. Celtine was fine with sharing anything she possessed but not this. She didn't understand this custom of the human tribes. How could they share lovers like that? It had been explained more than once to her but she could still not wrap her head around it. She didn't think her heart would be able to take it if she saw him with another girl after she admitted her feelings to him.

Having something between them was simply impossible, yet, that master of hers said something like that without any shame or nervousness. What was she supposed to do then? Turn him down even though she would have liked to say something like "yes me too."? Accept his feelings only to break his heart later on once she regained her voice and wings?

How could she even stand in the same room as him now? She would have wanted nothing more than for him to have never said this.

She explained all this to Harriett but she was so distraught that the other servant started doubting herself as well.

Harriett had wanted to charm their master since the very first day, she had wanted to make sure she would not be pushed away again like her father had in the past. She had wanted to climb to the very top using her master as a ladder. Even staying a slave was fine for her as long as she was the slave of the one at the very top and that she was treasured.

However, after serving him for two years, learning to know him like a part of herself and then hearing the worries of Celtine about using him like a tool, Harriett started to feel very guilty about what she was doing too. He did not deserve to be toyed with in this way. She did admire him greatly and trusted him with her very life or anything else at all, yet, she shamelessly stole part of his heart. If it had happened in a normal way instead of her doing her best for it to be so, she wouldn't have regretted how she currently felt. Was there a way to atone for her sin?

She didn't feel deserving of his love and she wasn't sure she had the right to love him in return. Should she confess her treachery now before anything happened? Would she lose everything if she did so?

Like that, the two girls slowly talked in a gloomy way. Trying to find a solution to their respective dilemma.

"I still think you shouldn't go." Harriett told her best friend. "It's crazy, you've been gone for years now and it will be years more before you get back there again. Anyway I look at it, they'll have found a replacement by then. You should stay with us instead."

Celtine shook her head. As much as it pained her to go, she would still have to, at least just to make sure they didn't need her and tell her parents that she was fine. Would she be able to go back then? Would she even have the strength to leave her tribe and family again?

She told Harriett how she felt about her own problem instead.

<At first, you wanted to hide in his shadow and ride his success but that's not the case anymore right? You really do like him now even if your original behavior was an act. You have nothing to feel guilty about.>

Harriett shook her head as well. There was no worse crime in her eyes than betraying her beloved master. She deserved ten thousand lashes for her deception.

What a pitiful pair of servants they were making now.

*-*-*-*

On the survival of the empire.

Steelwood empire bestiary, new edition.

Nobles and scholars like myself from across the empire are often accosted by citizens or villagers and asked why the empire hasn't rid itself of its monsters yet.

Sometimes, they resent having lost a member of their family, sometimes its a merchant frustrated about the caravan fees and sometimes, it is simply the result of a rumor about a far off land that could be monster-free.

The citizenry doesn't seem to understand how difficult and complicated the issue is. As a scholar and author of this collection on the many facets of our glorious empire, it is my duty to explain on these pages the reasons behind our reluctant cohabitation with said monsters.

First, readers have to understand that the empire did try to rid itself of any interior threats many times and the kingdoms composing it did the same even before the empire was born.

The land is vast and the forest thick, there is an infinite amount of place to hide in the leaves and crags. More frustrating than this, some parts cannot be reached by our soldiers like mountaintops, the bottom of the howling hills or the confines of the thornwoods. Even after a thorough sweep of the parts the army can reach, many creatures escape their march and reappear shortly after. Either that or they just migrate from an uncleared place to the one that was swept.

The citizenry doesn't seem to understand that the empire isn't conveniently shaped in a long strip of flatland. Reaching every corner of its vastness is logistically impossible. Even if it were feasible, the extermination would probably end the moment the army met with something like a woodland horror. In fact, such a thing did happen in the past and thousands of valiant soldiers and knights lost their lives when a woodland horror woke up right in the middle of them.

People would think that over the long history of the empire and its many attempts to rid itself of all threats, the number of creatures roaming would have dwindled but no. Despite our best efforts, the population of beasts seems to be stable. Some old species of natural beast did go extinct over time but they were soon replaced by others.

The following problems on the list are the outside threats. Be it the Jorkovian empire north of the thornwoods, the things lurking at the bottom of the ocean, the cursed-bloods from the tribe lands or the things lurking in the sandwastes, any of them would be thrilled to take a bite out of the empire while our armies are looking inwards. The empire must keep troops at the borders at all times because what lies in wait outside is far worse than what hides inside.

Yes we have horrendous deadly creatures killing lone wanderers and razing small villages but the army does stand by at every settlement, watch over every road leading out of the empire, roam the roads used most frequently and keep watch over the fields, orchards and lumber camps everywhere. What more could they possibly do? They are already doing a fantastic job as it is. They can't make miracles out of nothing. Spending months in dark forests without supplies and the fear of the unknown assailing them at every steps is just not something our armies can afford and the cost in human lives would be extreme for the doubtful progress it would achieve.

Even admitting that all of this was possible, let's suppose for an instant that with strong planning, resolute leadership from the Muraciers, perfect organization and a bit of luck, we managed to rid the empire of all abnormal creatures living in it. For the purpose of this, let's also ignore the fact that the land would fill itself with unnameables of chaos to reestablish the balance in nature. Those can show up anytime and anywhere, no one knows were they come from. The only thing consistent about them is that they are more often seen in places deemed safer than elsewhere but pardon me, I digress.

If the land was devoid of monsters, the empire would soon have a new problem to face, famine. We aren't talking about a small thing were a few villagers starve either, we're talking about entire cities collapsing from a lack of food. Just take a look at what is filling your plates. Meat? From where?

Hunter's are the largest human group inhabiting this empire, above farmers and soldiers combined. To farm, you need space, you need to cut down the ancestors in mass, denying their ancient protection for a bit of weed. To raise your own livestock, you need even more fields.

"Then we will continue to hunt." is the most common answer. Those that aren't hunters do not seem to understand how much hunting needs to be done to sustain an entire city and what it is exactly that they are hunting. Do you think that catching a few deer will be enough? How fast do you think those animals reproduce? The answer is; much slower than the monsters and creatures mankind fears.

The only way would indeed be to make a vast amount of fields, surrounding cities and villages alike with far reaching golden wheat. At a glance, you'd think that farming would be more reliable than hunting creatures for a living but there are many problems with it too.

First, our troops would have to be spread even thinner to accommodate the new land under their watch, diminishing their reaction time and effectiveness. Second, the moment an unnameable of chaos with some strange powers shows up, the field could all rot or burn in an instant, wasting months of work and food for an entire city. A dragon could do the same easily, one sweep over the field and only ashes remain of your precious food.

With the ancients gone, our bows would loose their effectiveness against their threats and burials would become harder to perform because of the large distance people would have to travel to reach the trees. Cities would have to burn their corpses instead to prevent the dead from rising, denying all of them the rest their soul deserves with their brethren waiting in the ancient woods.

Just look at the current situation in Greenpeaks, a few years where the land refuses to yield any crops and the whole kingdom collapses under its own weight.

Monsters will always be there but if mankind knows how to protect itself, they might not be as bad a thing as they would seem. Stay grouped when traveling, trust our armies with the protection of your families and remember to call on to the guards if the forest shows signs of unrest.