Age of Heroes (Age of Heroes Chronicles)

Chapter 108: A dream

1014 AF Whitemonth

Arial

In the vicinity of North Fort

Arial and his troops had reached North Fort and had set up camp not too far from the fortress. Winter had already struck, but here, the cold was sufferable unlike in the Land of Eternal Winter.

Arial smiles a bit thinking of the stories that whalers from Vorthy would tell him. They tell him of marauder Kings and their pantheon of Gods of their Lands of Eternal Winter

Snow had fallen the day before and the wind raged on with no respite. Cold has begun to affect the army

The enemy had tried to attack Arial's army, but they had been easily crushed by the Dragon troops and had retreated to their fort.

They hoped to hold out as long as possible and waited for reinforcement.

'I would like to see the look on their faces when they realize that no one was likely to come to their help' Arial mused.

Sending reinforcement here means they can't send reinforcement to North Court which Alderam is fighting now.

And they still have not decided whether to split their reinforcement to three or two. One in North Court, one in Penrose and one in North Fort.

They have to decide to relieve which one. They have to make a decision whether to keep all three or save two or regroup and change their tactics.

This is the reason why the reinforcement won't come for them

A three-pronged attack had been an ambitious move, but an easy decision for Arial who now had full control of the South, the West and the East.

Only the North remained to be conquered. Will the Shield only reinforce one fortress, or will it try to save all three, only to risk losing it all? Arial thought.

Thinking of this he smirked. His hair waves gracefully as he looks at the distance. This was a great dilemma, but thankfully it wasn't his to worry about.

At the moment, Arial's only concern was making siege engines and equipment.

His men hammered and nailed away, building assault ladders, ballista, battering rams, catapults, and mangonels, a catapult that used twisted rope as the source of power to launch projectiles.

The sellswords of Asteros had brought their own siege weapons—onagers.

It was a type of catapult that used torsional force, generally from twisted rope, to store energy for the shot.

Differing from the mangonel in that the end of the throw arm would have a rope and sling. In this sling would be the projectile.

Arial spare no expenses to make sure his expedition will only end in his success

All these weapons would eventually be used to lay siege on Dented Shield as well.

That is his Arial final destination and where the final battle would be fought. Then after this war is done Arial wanted to fortify this kingdom, strengthen it and prepare for the Invasion from the Dark Lands.

If Arial's calculations were correct, then Alderam would retreat to the safety of his castle after being encircled by the allied troops.

After all, that would be his only available choice

Arial would be waiting to greet him at Dented Shield with a violent assault that would leave Alderam no other choice but to surrender.

Arial looked around the camp and saw Kyle and his men building a siege tower.

Kyle was enthusiastic, barking orders and telling the builders to hurry up.

Further away, Lisa and Helia, the only two ladies in the expedition, were busy constructing a trebuchet with their bannermen, although it seemed that no one dared to order Helia to do anything.

Arial pondered at the event that had transpired in his tent with his council.

Lisa was a knight first, but she was also the daughter of a low lord. However, that was not the main reason for her belittlement.

The lords had disparaged her because of her gender.

That is what uneducated men will say, men who have never seen the ferocity of a woman determination or ever felt in love with such a domineering soul that they make their own assumption by hearsay, and old thinking, never once, entertain the idea, that woman are so much more than just weak lady or some maiden that needs to be saved.

To call a woman the weaker sex is libel, slander and misperception. An injustice done towards their genders. An injustice since time immemorial

If by strength is meant by brute strength, then, indeed, woman is less brute than man.

But even then, that is not entirely true. Queen Rayniss of Renasia prove that.

If on the man side, they have the Mad Emperor than in the woman side there is Rayniss the Mad Queen in Renasia history.

Her story is sung as a reminder but while the Mad Emperor Charles is blamed for insanity, Rayniss was blamed by the other scholars and rest of the continent merely because of her gender.

The Bloodthirsty, insane woman they call her. Never elect woman to become your leader they warn.

If man referring to woman as the weaker sex in terms of their intellectual prowess, then that is also a libel.

For if they have George the Wise in the man side, the women have Rhaessa on the woman side.

Emperor George is wise but so is Queen Rhaessa, bringing her country, peace and wealth, strengthening her country military, creating and maintaining amiable relations with other countries and in her rule, they have excess in her Kingdom.

Who will dare say woman is stupid? Who will dare say woman cannot be wise?

But if by strength is meant moral power, and love, and good things, then woman, though, embarrassing to admit, woman is immeasurably man superior.

Has she not greater intuition, is she not more self-sacrificing, has she not greater power of endurance of this unfair world, has she not greater courage to protect what they love?

Without woman, man could not be.

Who but woman, can soothe the heart not quite the companion of man can do, and who can, he dares, make a more effective appeal to the heart than woman?josei

There isn't one.

But changing a long held belief is hard.

So ingrained in their belief and the custom, it would take hundreds if not thousands of years before men can forget their pride….and prejudice.

And most of all, he seen it in his dreams. There are times, when he is asleep that he would remember that vision he saw before he died.

In the world where metals fly in the sky and metal carriage roamed the land. Though each time he woke up, his mind would slowly make him forget what he saw.

He saw a different world in his dream and he knows that women in that world is different from his world.

Maybe that is why his treatment of the gender opposite of him have always been more considerate.

He himself was not that different before he experiences that death in Vern.

But somehow when he returns his world view change. He sees the world in different light. He too once believes the same about woman,

They are the weaker sex, the cursed sex.

They are weak. They could only be saved and be protected.

For that is what he was taught and what he suspects the noble son are taught, what men were taught by the church, by their ancestors or acquaintance.

A culture, a custom, a long held believe.

This belief was ingrained in their culture and in their customs.

Arial too had once believed the same thing in his past life, but now he saw the world in a different light after traveling through time.

He felt a tugging sensation in his heart that something was fundamentally wrong about the world he lived in.

The abolishment of slavery and the treatment of women were causes worth fighting for. That is what he believes

He smiles at himself.

'Tales of heroes' he muttered to himself.

He used to idolize Levitia the Savior.

When he goes to the Church and saw the iconic painting of Levitia slaying the Red Dragon on the wall of churches, he would imagine himself fighting a dragon and live the life of the Great Hero of Humanity.

Unfortunately, he grew up from the tales of heroes and chivalry. He suffers heartbreak. He suffers loss. And he saw no heroes that rises up.

But now...now he intends to create a new world.

Because no matter how far people thought he would do to protect the thing which he holds dear, they couldn't possibly fathom how that deep that well goes

He thought back and he smiles bitterly

'One at a time' he said to himself.

Arial could either close his eyes or choose to act for the greater good, but at this moment, his only focus was on preventing the arrival of the dark days for the Dukedom, and if that failed, fighting off the invasion of the Dark Lands.

At the same time, after he emerge from his death, Arial could not help but feel that there was something rotten at the root of this world.

The situation required not just a new King or new laws, but, an extreme measure, an uprooting of the old order, the customs, the long held believe, the introduction of a new kind of society, a new kind of world, where things…...are better, kinder.

But that was only possible through bloodshed and war in this savage era.

If it's the only way, then someone must do it, Arial thought.

If that is the way to go, then I must take this path in order to create a new world.

But that is only if they survive what is coming.

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This is the first chapter of the month. Hope you enjoy it. This month we will be going to see many chapter as it nears the end of the war. Don't forget to vote and please leave some comments