The morning sun rose and shone through the diaphanous curtains, with Lilith sitting cross-legged tapping on her coffee mug.
"How boring," she exhaled loudly.
She continued tapping on the cup until the noise numbed her mind. With the sun hitting her eyes, she lay down onto her comfortable bed and covered her eyes.
Even though she had barely slept she had to get in a few minutes to be Vivshi's guide, but being affiliated with nihility makes it so you don't need to sleep much.
Lilith thought when she met up with Vivshi again that there would be a glad, victorious expression on his face. That he is happy that that woman was no longer bothering him. But when she met him there were no such expressions. His eyes were full of guilt and doubt.
"Don't glare at me like that," she said, recoiling back a bit.
meanwhile
"What? Are you being serious?" Lukas' usual calm and relaxed face became a face with anger written all over it.
The head of the Fivindus family clasped his hands together and put them onto the table and reiterated what he had said.
Lukas couldn't believe it, that Rei would just suddenly leave the family out of her own volition. And how could their father be so calm with his daughter throwing away the family's name?
After having heard his sister abandoning her title his ears started to ring and the order Etros gave him went in one ear and left the other.
"Do you understand, son?" Etros asked.
Ears still ringing, Lukas immediately answered and nodded before leaving the room, still dazed.
Etros opened his wooden drawer to take out one of his luxury brand cigars and began smoking. He took out documents that he hadn't had time to sort through yet and saw a letter coming from the kingdom of Wein. It was a country that had devastating wars and an authoritarian regime that oppressed the people living there. Recently there had been a coup to overthrow the dictator that had been successful. The sender was Selina Fivindus. She had been sent by Etros to help the coup take place. Etros opened her letter and read through it carefully.
He took out his cigar and tapped the ash into the ashtray and picked up an old picture standing on his desk. In the picture were Selina, Lukas, and Rei in the city of Merapi, a city south of Nautilus. It was known as a desert city close to Dragonspine. In the picture Rei was pouting as usual, with Lukas being sleepy and tipsy and Selina hanging on both of their shoulders, smiling.
Etros placed the picture frame down onto his desk and stood up to admire the view outside. It was yet another calm day in Nautilus.
meanwhile in the northern city of Eishenberg
A young soldier no older than 17 aimed his rifle at a königstreuer. The freezing cold had made the ligaments in his index finger unable to pull the trigger. He used his other hand to press onto the trigger but nothing happened. The spring locks inside his rifle had been completely frozen solid. The royalist noticed the young man standing with a gun and returned gunfire immediately. That's when an ear-piercing shriek could be heard coming from the air. Both of the men ducked for cover in the muddy trenches filled with disease-ridden bodies.
Then came the blast that blew everyone away. The 17-year-old felt something heavy on top of him and opened his eyes while his ears were still ringing and saw half of his friend's body on top of him. His entire lower body had been completely blown off. His friend, with a sudden burst of life, opened his eyes despite missing half of his body and began screaming. But there were no screams coming out of his mouth because his lungs were practically hanging out of his body. What came out of his comrade's mouth was no more than a release of air. The boy begged God for his friend to just close his eyes and die. He hoped for him to be released from suffering. He held onto the remaining hand of his friend and began reciting a prayer, but before he could finish his verse another artillery strike came down and struck his position.
In underground bunkers were generals of the Umstürzler. They pointed at a map and scouted the terrain of the battlefield to see if they could use it in any way to break through the enemy line.
"Freinsteich, if you command the 7th army into Stuttzar and ambush the königstreuer's 4th army, Steiner and Felix will encircle their position and cut off their line of support."
General Erich Von Stapel was the head general leading the entire revolutionary force against the royalists, to overthrow the authoritarian regime that had the backing of the Royal family. But it wasn't just his own country that he had to worry about but also the countries that just waited for the perfect opportunity to ambush a weakened Eishenberg.
It was because Eishenberg was the most industrialized country on the whole continent. It was the heart of this continent when it came to manpower and production. The Royal family valued this so much that they installed a regime that oppressed the people of Eishenberg to do whatever they wanted for a cheaper price. This was the only chance the people had to fight these oppressive königsteurers.
The generals saluted Erich and hurriedly sent out communication to their officers about the pincer attack.
Erich sat down in front of the map, seeing the red line running through his country. He popped open a bottle of strong alcohol and downed half of it before looking closer at the map. It had been over 4 months ever since this civil war broke out and there had been little to no progress on the frontline. The enemy defense was not budging. The revolutionaries relied heavily on old equipment they had taken from military bases but the royalists had a constant supply from the capital.
In a few more months they would be completely annihilated if this pincer attack didn't work. The total population of Eishenberg was a little over 210 000 and the revolutionaries were only 90 000. Erich then heard steps coming into his bunker.
"Generalleutnant Erich Von Stapel, mind for a quick chat?"
The general, who had messy greasy hair and a sweaty flushed face, looked up from the map.
The general rolled up the map and tucked it into his desk before looking up to see who had come to see him.
The general immediately remarked that the battlefield isn't a place for a person with soft hands like hers.
Cold winds were coming through the open door so the girl walked further into the general's bunker and closed the door after her.
"Selina Fivindus, here to assist you with operation Blue," she saluted the general.
"Fivindus?" He had heard the reputation of the Fivindus family, that they were heavily influenced by the royal family and had deep connections with them. A seed of doubt was planted inside his mind the moment Selina mentioned that she was Fivindus.
"This is no place for a young girl to be," he said before noticing that her hands had calluses. That from her wrist and up there were countless scars. Erich nodded in defeat before asking if the Fivindus family wouldn't rather fight on the royalist side.
"With all due respect, Generalleutnant, this is not a matter of upholding family values, this is simply a personal matter and it just so happens I hold a grudge against the regime the royal family has installed. Even if my family has deep ties with the royal family, I have no obligation to obey the royal family and help them. I have my own reasons to be here," Selina said with one hand on her chest and the other one behind her back.
Erich was utterly stunned by her brutal honesty and in a drunken laugh started to applaud loudly.
"Very well then, Selina Fivindus, but firstly I will need to make sure you swear an absolute oath to the Umstürzler," he pulled out a binding contract which had the conditions of joining the revolutionaries. An absolute oath that ensured that betrayal was impossible. And without a second of hesitation Selina signed the paper and asked the general if they wanted supplies.
The unit that Selina had brought to Eishenberg had brought ammunition and food rations that would last their men for at least one more month.
Erich assigned Selina her own division and told her about the pincer attack that they would try to perform today. He spread the map across the table and showed her the enemy line and how they would attack.
"That's brilliant, Generalleutnant, but what if they want you to attack and try to pincer them?" What if… she pointed at the map and asked if the enemy were waiting for them to split up like this to try to encircle their main army so they themselves encircle both Steiner's and Felix's armies by themselves.
Erich pondered about that possibility, that the enemy was waiting for them to make the move, because there had barely been any ambushes by the enemy. They were either regrouping or waiting for them to act first.
Erich ordered his generals back into the bunker immediately and replanned the assault alongside Selina.
The night was still. There was no gunfire, no explosions and no screams. Simply the moon illuminating the trenches littered with bodies. This stillness would soon be disrupted.