Chapter 2 - A Mother's Choice
Chapter opening quotes of encouragement for devoted shippers of Esdeath X Tatsumi:
"NOOOOOOOO! Esdeath is toxic! She is an anti-human war criminal, mass murderer and a sadistic torturer! Yet you still ship her with Tatsumi!?" - Every Esdeath Haters
"Yes." - Every CHAD Esdeath X Tatsumi Enjoyers
*Just a joke for fun, mocking and parodying. Guys, please don't get political, over emotional or start a waifu war.
*The quote is completely irrelevant and unrelated to the chapter.
The next morning
Imperial Sanitarium
In the Doctor Malikov's infirmary, the Doctor was writing a medical research thesis about food and obesity within the Imperial upper class society. His writings are light, elegant and clear. The wordings were very professional, precise with care and far insight. Each sentence revealed his bottomless wisdom and academic mastery and decades of clinical experiences.
Suddenly, the door opened slightly with heavy steps echoing the room. The doctor looked at the direction. It was Esdeath.
She was once strong, dominating, fearsome, intimidating and fierce. Behind that confident smug smile consisted endless waves of malice and the form of true evil. She was once the living embodiment of the devil itself.
Yet now, there was nothing. No more aura and no more confidence. Esdeath looked so dead. There was no more liveliness in her eyes as it was already dry. The eyes were extremely empty and dazed . She looked even more pale than before. Her lips were so dry and not a single slight of redness existed. Her movement was very blunt and rigid. It was so unnatural to the point that the doctor saw a living medical dummy walking into his infirmary.
Her Imperial general uniform was so messy to the point that Esdeath looked like a soulless automaton trying to imitate humans by wearing some potato sack or an ancient mummy rising up from her tomb with a torn dirty shroud. Her messy hair and dry lips made her look like a homeless person.
She looked utterly hopeless and pathetic. She was literally a dead man walking with a death wish.
Doctor Malikov was so stunned by Esdeath's "new look" to the point that he could not recognise the General at once.
Holy...I never expected all hell broke loose just within a night! I must have underestimated her depression yesterday...
"God Almighty! What's happening to you?! You look so-"
Doctor Malikov was cut instantly as what happened next shocked him to the core. Esdeath suddenly cried in tears due to her hormone outburst. She could not control her emotions any more. She acted completely out of character and went to hug Malikov tightly, hoping that she could gain some comfort while crying like heart tearing.
"Hey…General you should not-"
Doctor Malikov kept quiet as he looked at Esdeath. From her eyes and expression, Malikov could that she was in a very vulnerable state. She was uncertain, horrified and sad. She was just like a scared little girl. She was in constant state of depression. Her body was shaking violently. She needed love and support. Looking at Esdeath, it somehow reminded Doctor Malikov of his wife's pregnancy depression when he was forced to separate with her due to duties for a half year 20 years ago. Even his wife had already quickly forgiven him once he returned, but to these day Malikov still could not forgive himself when he was not by her side when she needed him the most. Now, looking at Esdeath, even she was one of the most psychotic, homicidal and genocidal monster that ever existed, her current depression state was just miserable. She deserved all his compassion and sympathy. He needed to help Esdeath so that he can suppress his own guilt to his wife. His personal sins made him could not let any pregnant woman in depression or vulnerable, even he had already met hundreds of similar cases before in 20 years of medical career.
Doctor Malikov gently returned the hug lightly and spoke in a fatherly tone.
"It's ok…It's ok. General, please calm down. You can share all you want with me. I am sure I can help as my wife has the same status as you before. I can help. You are not alone."
As professional as ever, Doctor Malikov quickly broke the hug and avoided any further excessive physical contact with Esdeath due to obvious moral reasons. He instead only gently guided the still crying Esdeath to sit on a long couch.
Doctor Malikov maintained some personal space and distance with Esdeath. After a few more words of encouragement and comfort. Esdeath finally stop crying and started to talk in a shaking, hoarse sobbing voice. Her mind was still disorientated.
"I...I don't know...what do I even want to talk about..."
"It's ok General, my ears are all open. No matter what is in your mind, just tell me. You can tell me anything you want. I am sure I am a good listener. So please, don't be afraid. Everything is gonna be fine."
Esdeath just wanted someone to listen to her stories and pain. She sincerely hoped that someone could be sympathetic towards her situation. Therefore, after hearing Doctor Malikov's words, she told him all her stories from when she first met Tatsumi in the tournament, their faithful events in the island, how she missed Tatsumi and her recent depression. Of course, she completely and honestly told the doctor about what have happened yesterday night: how she called own unborn twins "worthless burden"; how she attempted commit filicide, trying to rip the babies out and killing them right on the spot; how she was not deserve to be a mother or even a human; her endless guilt, unforgiven sins and infinite sorrow of her gods-damned actions.
Her every sentence became more and more hysterical. Her motion became more and more violent. Then, she suddenly stood up tall and bursted aloud, "I just want to die! I am just an alloy of sins! I just want to kill myself right now!" Esdeath screamed as she summoned herself an ice sabre and put it against her neck, trying to slice her own throat out.
"No! No! What are you doing? Don't do it! Stop! Calm down!" Doctor Malikov shouted in horror, he was absolutely stunned again by Esdeath's sudden outburst. He was horrified by her chaotic mental status.
"What? Are you going to stop me? Not a fucking chance in hell! I have committed the worst crime as a human being! Not even the Gods will forgive me-"
"Snap it out, General! If you committed suicide then your twins would be dead as well! It is a double-murder and suicide! Don't you want to see your kid grow up as fierce warriors? Don't you want a big family?
Esdeath looked a bit hesitant. Although she still held her ice sabre, her hands shook violently.
Doctor Malikov kept persuading her in a fatherly tone, "Don't you want to see Tatsumi? If you do it, you will never be able to see him again. You will never be able to tell him the truth. What if Tatsumi finds out that you and his kids are gone from this world? Can you imagine his pain? Can you imagine his sorrow? Please, General. Please calm down."
After a few seconds of thinking, Esdeath seemed to calm down a bit. Although she still kept sobbing, the ice sabre within her hand had already faded away. She sat back on the couch while using her hands to warp the tears.
God almighty! This is way way way more serious than I have ever imagined. I have failed my duty for not paying more attention to Esdeath's depression yesterday. Esdeath is the most special and unique patient that I have ever met in my life. With my honor, I must help her...
Doctor Malikov tried to use medical facts to further lighten Esdeath's mood and help her battle against her depression.
"General, pregnancy depression is actually quite common. About 13% of women experienced depression during pregnancy. General, please remember that you are not alone. For the reasons of them, I can already tell that you are dealing with serious stress factor like massive scale insurgency, unconventional warfare of the Revolutionary Army; the sabotage and infiltration of Night Raid; subordinates KIA, incompetent Imperial government and military. Last and most importantly, I can see that your dear Tatsumi is still missing... I understand... Everything seems to be FUBAR and SNAFU. However, you need to have hope in life. You need to have faith on your own. You have to think more positively. You can overcome everything that stands in your path. Ain't you the Empire's Strongest? You can always solve problems efficiently. You are strong. You just need to be more confident..."
Esdeath's emotional mind may be disorientated but her tactical and strategic mind as a cunning warrior was still functional. She immediately found something strange about Doctor Malikov's statement. "Massive scale insurgency, unconventional warfare of the Revolutionary Army; the sabotage and infiltration of Night Raid; subordinates KIA '', such sentence was not supposed to come from the mouth of a mere doctor. According to Esdeath's memories, the so-called Royal physicians were either cowards or lapdogs of the FATASS Prime Minister Honest. They have no strategic mind and never care about anything outside the Imperial Palace. Their only desires were money and the interest of noble status. They surely knew nothing about the Revolutionary War except all the "positive news" came from the FATASS.
Just how can a doctor have such a clear observation of the current Empire's situation? How in the hell can a mere gynecologist doctor know about these military slang and terms especially like "FUBAR" and "SNAFU"? How can he just use them so casually? How? Why? This Doctor is definitely not as simple as he seems to be...
However, Esdeath could care less about these questions. She currently really needed sympathy and encouragements from others. While Doctor Malikov kept encouraging and comforting Esdeath in a tone of a kind compassionate teacher, Esdeath kept thinking and thinking about her own identity and personal philosophy. The current pregnancy turned her "The strong survive and the weak die" philosophy completely upside down. She was extremely disgusted by herself for being weak for even a mere second. There was no point in living when being weak. She would do anything to prevent being weak and destroy anything that crossed her path for being strong. Pregnancy just met everything in her hate list perfectly since she could not fight, being extremely emotional and vulnerable. If she was going to be a mother, then what about her duty and career as an Imperial General? She still needed to lead the Jaegers and command her own army. However, at the same time, Esdeath was also very happy with her unborn children and loved them unconditionally. Esdeath would do anything to protect them and destroy anything that dared to hurt them.
Just what am I…What should I do…What are my duties…What are my children to me…
This was the biggest, strangest and the most bizarre dilemma that ever existed in the entire world. If Esdeath wanted to be strong and live by her personal philosophy, she needed to sacrifice her unborn twins. However, if Esdeath truly unconditionally loved her kids, she needed to embrace being weak. Esdeath felt her mind was breaking apart and slowly losing her mind by this horrific dilemma in the world. No matter which she chose, she would going to lose one of the most important part of herself. She didn't know what to choose. Esdeath felt so hopeless as no one can understand her inner struggle. Esdeath's chaotic emotion mind forbidden her to make any decision.
In an urge for an answer and guidance, Esdeath told Doctor Malikov all her thoughts and inner struggle within her mind, as well as her "worst dilemma in the world".
Doctor Malikov was completely dumbfounded.
Is she really serious? Ain't the answer so obvious? It ain't even a dilemma! Every sane person would definitely choose...Ok...my bad... The General is definitely not a sane person from head to toe... Hum...what should I say to help her-
Before the Doctor could even proceed thinking or responding, Esdeath continued, "My new born children will be vulnerable and cannot defend themselves. Then according to my 'the strong survive and the weak die' philosophy, shouldn't I just let my children die or straightly kill them right away? I love my babies unconditionally but my philosophy forbids me to do so? Does it really mean that I need to do it? However, if I do it, ain't I am the worst mother in the world? Even tigress will protect their children to their last breath. Doctor…ain't I am not even worthy as a mere animal?"
"Only if you don't change, General. You are a perfect human being both physically and...er...mentally! Yes! All you need to do is give up or at least modify your personal philosophy, like the 'strong survive and the weak die, so the strong and guide the weak to get stronger.' and other things like that. Ain't it easy? You are still young, General. It is very easy for you to reform your ideals. You don't need to follow your original principle forever! Everything can change and I know you can do it as well-"
"This philosophy is my life! My identity! If I can't even stand with my own belief in order just to follow some stupid family morals, then what's the point of my live! I kill and I torture! I follow the rules of natural selection! If I can't do that, then just die right now."
Doctor Malikov finally lost his patience due to crazy stubbornness. He was pissed and sincerely angry after keeping so many years of his professional calm. No matter how many times he tried to guide Esdeath, she could still somehow return to the beginning like a vicious cycle. His conversation with Esdeath felt so meaningless when Esdeath just kept repeating her same statement of "personal philosophy", "dilemma" and "self-denial" again and again. It was not pitiful anymore, it was just annoying.
This woman's mind set is so wrong on far too many levels! If I can't snap her out of it now, then it may be too late! Forgive me General, I need to do this!
"Our moral is what make us human! Different us from animal! If you love natural selection that much, then why don't you just turn yourselves into a monkey or something? 'Reject humanity return to monke', is that what you want? You know what? From now on, why don't you just became abandon everything and live as a caveman? A life with no clothes, no fire and no civilization? See? That's what you want? Natural selection! If you are strong, you don't need garments because the real strong don't care about social virtues; you don't need adornment because the real strong don't need decorations; you don't need fire because the real strong can digest anything and immune to any bacteria! Is this the strong that you want?"
"But...it's because they are animals..."
"See? You said it yourself! We are different from them! We are humans! Having a personal philosophy based on natural selection is not a problem. It only base on how far you are willing to follow it. According to your response, you subconsciously draw a clear bottom line for your living principle, thus you only blindly follow your own understanding of 'strong survive and the weak die', yet you never fanatically follow them with no limits. Tell you what, I have seen some extreme environmental activist groups follow the natural selection like your theory that the whole group just lived a life of apeman and they all eventually died due to hunger and disease. General, you are better than them! You know what you should choose!"
Esdeath seemed to understand, yet still looked very hesitant. She looked at her belly and asked the doctor,
"So...are you saying that I just need to abandon my original principles?"
"General, I have already told you earlier, you don't need to abandon it but you need to change it a bit or sacrifice some of your original ideals and replace them with better concepts."
"...Sacrifice...I...I...I don't know can I do that...", Esdeath quietly mumbled.
"Motherhood is not easy, General! It is about sacrifice! It is about your unconditional love and care! If you truly love you children, you should be ready to give up anything for them. Your pride, your status, your career and even your life! Now, all it requires is just a slight modification of your own personal principle. You won't even lose a penny. It is just an incredibly easy and reasonable task to do. If you can't even do that, can't even just sacrifice a tiny bit of ideals for the better of you children, then I am done talking with you! Why don't you just choose an abortion or something?"
Esdeath eyes widened by the word "abortion". She instantly screamed hysterically, "No! Never! I will never do that! I love my babies! I am not a monster!"
God Almighty! Yes! Yes!Yes! The General is finally on the right track! I just need to keep going!
Doctor Malikov then stared deep into Esdeath's crystal blue eyes, "Then tell me General! Do you love your children?"
"Yes! Absolutely!" Esdeath was extremely serious about her words.
"How far will you go for them?!"
"Everything! I can abandon everything for them! I can go straight into the deepest of hell without even blinking my eyes just to protect them!" Esdeath said aloud firmly with unbreakable stalwart and courage.
Doctor Malikov did not say anything but he finally put up a sincere smile as he saw Esdeath finally regain her resolve. Esdeath looked a bit confused at first but when she realised what she had said, her eyes widened in shock. However, the shock quickly turned into a sincere smile and endless appreciation.
"Thank you, Doctor. I...truly...thank you for your support and enlightenment. I know what is the only right to do now..."
"You see General, you know you can make the right choice. It is all your own act of valor and courage. You defeated your own demon all by yourselves. I just act as a mere guidance."
Esdeath was a bit shocked by the Doctor's humbleness. She quickly answered, "No...you are way way more than that...even my dear Tatsumi failed to persuade me to give up my own principle. You are the only one who is able to do so...So tell me Doctor, is there anything you want that I can repay you with-"
"There is no need to repay any favours. Just promise me that you will protect yourselves and your future family at all cost."
Esdeath was about to reject but when she saw Doctor Malikov's sincere face, she knew that he was serious so she gave up the idea of keep asking him, at least currently.
For the first in Esdeath's life, she felt she had owed a person a great favour. She promised that she would return it and repay the Doctor Malikov one day.
Esdeath took a deep breath and clear up her mind again. She had a new objective now. It was to protect her lovely twins and dear Tatsumi at all costs. There was nothing too great to sacrifice for those she cherished. Her pride, duty, allegiance, career or even life was nothing compared to their safety and future. Esdeath understood it was her obligation to be a strong mother and wife.
The strong survive and the weak die, so it is the obligation for the strong to to help elevate the weak as equals. However, it only apply for those I cherish, namely Tatsumi and my sweet little angels. For those who are not, prepare to be weeded out by the strong, worthless wimps.
I am the Strongest Mother, born to complete, never retreat. I will do anything to secure the happiness of my family and destroy anyone who dares to cross my path. Failure is not an option.
With that, Esdeath completely defeated her depression and recovered like nothing had ever happened. Esdeath just looked like her usual self, as normal as usual. The General now looked as stalwart as ever. Not only Esdeath regained all her intimidating aura, she actually looked a lot more aggressive and fierce. The venomous cunning within her eyes were full of endless malice. Her smug grin was so wicked that it gave Doctor Malikov a death chill down his spin.
Yet, behind all these evil, the driving force behind them seemed to be completely different. This new "evilness" and "malice" was not driven by the desire of war, hunger of killing, bloodlust or any sadistic behaviour. Instead, it was completely driven by the instincts of motherly love and care deep within the soul of the evil genocidal General. It was extremely ironic.
With the mirror within the infirmary, Esdeath quickly adjusted her General uniform and tidied up her long waterfall like silky blue hair. They looked as tidy as ever. Esdeath gave Doctor Malikov a wave of goodbye and left the infirmary quickly with cunning steps like an apex predator. The ice demon may be temporarily weakened in her combat abilities but her strategic and military mastermind was still absolutely top-notch within the Empire. During the pregnancy, she would crush her enemies and achieve her goal by bottomless intelligence, masterful planning and surreptitious stealth.
After seeing Esdeath left the room, Doctor Malikov mumbled, "I...I am...doing the right choice...right? Why does the General look even more intimidating than she used to be?"
He then sighed, "I wonder what is it feel like of having an evil genocidal but a very loving mother. It must gonna be very awkward...Kinda feel bad for her twins..."
2 days later
Imperial Palace
Esdeath's Personal Quarters
Esdeath was in her personal study which also functioned as her war room. Different strategic maps, army field manuals and military statistics reports were filled all over the room in a surprisingly tidy way contrasted to Esdeath's frustration.
Esdeath was extremely frustrated about the current situation of the Empire after reading a huge block of classified dossiers. She was very concerned but not nervous. Her mind was as calm and as clear as ever.
With each week, more and more imperial troops deserted to the Revolutionary Army, as well as different teigu users and precious imperial firearms regiments. The Revolutionary Army also gained huge support from common Imperial citizens. Whenever they reach any cities, the local garrison would immediately surrender to them. The rebels basically bulldoze all the way through with no resistance. Imperial morale is at an all time low. Numerous low rank Imperial frontline officers just straight up murdered their own General in order to join the rebels. Some Generals just surrendered to the rebels with armies without a fight and then the next second they were all became the devout member of the Revolutionary Army. Even the Imperial Navy had a massive mutiny and 90% of ships and crewmen had defected to the Revolutionary Army. The troops were extremely angry with the previous military budget cuts ordered by the FATASS Prime Minister Honest. They had enough with the rotten to the core corruption of Imperial Military hierarchy and bureaucracy.
These rebels thus had the same tactics as the Imperial army and many other important military dossiers. They knew the exact deployment of the Imperial Army. Insurgency thus became extremely well planned and precise the scale had become larger progressively each time. Their spy networks and infiltration became so large that the Imperial Secret Agency had an extremely hard time tackling them one by one. The Revolutionary Army also seemed to become more well organized and better trained. In the past, these rebels acted like street rats but now they operated as a mobile field army. Their attacks on Imperial facilities became more and more precious and deadly.
Actually, Esdeath could already clearly see that the Revolutionary Army was slowly gaining the upper hand even a month ago. However, due to her pregnancy sickness, she was not able to fight effectively so she just stayed in the Capital. Her lack of pregnancy awareness was proven to be a grave mistake. She didn't take command of her own to confront the Revolutionary Army and just left them stationed around the countryside of the Capitol. Since she thought it would just take a few days for her to recover, she did not give any order to her high ranking officers to take any command protocol with her absent. They all thus basically do absolutely nothing.
Therefore, Esdeath instantly and furiously entered her legion's camp, demanded the troops to explain why they didn't take any action against the Revolutionary Army, her troops explained that they were so "loyal" to her command that "they will not take any actions until it is ordered by Esdeath".
When Esdeath heard that, she instantly facepalmed. She just wasted a whole month of time for any surprise offensive operations. Letting the Revolutionary insurgence grew but not taking any actions. Her own Legion was supposed to be the Strongest within the Imperial Army, the invincible regiment under her direct command. They were way superior in morale, training and armament which could easily tackle and intercept any Revolutionary scum. Yet, their blind loyalty to Esdeath made them have the worst crisis response skills that Esdeath had ever seen in her life until today. Once the commander was absent, her "Empire's Strongest Legion" was nothing but a lost little child in the middle of the forest. For the first time in her life, Esdeath regarded her training methods of soldiers. Her absolute authoritarian status with her army, making all those opposed to her as her disposable "pets" and torturing those who wronged her the the most gruesome way was proven to be a grave mistake. Once Esdeath, their absolute commander, was absent, the Legion command structure instantly completely crumbled. No one dared to give any command and instructions because no one was authoritative enough and everyone was scared of facing the wrath of Esdeath when she knew that they acted discretional without her permission. This thus made Esdeath's Legion a bizarre army. With Esdeath, they were an invincible killing machine; without Esdeath, the whole Legion is a giant retard.
In the afternoon, when Esdeath told the FATASS Prime Minister Honest about that Empire were in great disadvantage(Of course she hide her pregnancy issue and the retardation of her own legion), he said there were nothing to worry because, "We have the 'Empire's Strongest'! Esdeath, you are invisible. The disadvantage will only turn into advantage from time to time."
The FATASS was correct...but only if I was not pregnant!
If it was Esdeath in the past, that 1 month disadvantage was nothing to her. With her supreme martial skills, Esdeath and the Empire could surely be invincible!
However, even the cunning FATASS would never expect Esdeath to get pregnant and could not be combat effective. Even the master deceiver had flaws, not everything could be forever just as planned.
The FATASS's overconfidence and over investment on Esdeath's ability was a great fatal mistake.
After meeting with the FATASS, Esdeath tried to find Great General Budo to talk about the current dire military situation. After heard about her serious concerns, the old geezer only response to Esdeath in a blaming tone, "Your Northern Genocide had made us the enemy in the entire continent. Now the karma comes. You better get ready."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean we are clearly in FUBAR condition. General Esdeath, you should take responsibility for your own actions. Here are the dossiers that just came out. You need this to prepare for our defense deployments."
Great General Budo just shoved Esdeath a huge bag of reports and classified dossiers. Before he walked away, he turned and talked to Esdeath again in the tone of a disciplinary teacher, "I also suggest you to pay more attention during our military meeting and not be absent half way all the time. It is very inappropriate as a General."
Esdeath suppressed her urge to punch the old geezer in the face, his stoic and disciplinary attitude were always annoying.
Esdeath then took a quick look at the bag of reports. Even without viewing the content, she knew it was very important. She immediately returned to her own study of her personal quarters.
Once she opened the reports, the information shocked Esdeath to the core, nearly causing her to vomit due to the sudden nausea of pregnancy.
According to the dossiers, it showed that literally every single nation that surrounded the Empire had sent a huge amount of "volunteers" to support the Revolutionary Army. These so-called "foreign volunteers" were all actually the standing army of those nations. They formed about 1/3 of the bulk of the Revolutionary Army. They directly supported the rebels with no cover up. These foreign nations provide a huge amount of financial support. Military intelligence, supplies, training and armaments were all provided in nearly infinite numbers.
The Revolutionary Army were now way better equipped and well organized. Their field army was definitely well drilled with clear unit cohesion and coordination. Every common foot soldier was equipped with at least a half body of chainmail or padded armor for their torso. For their heads, they were usually protected with Cervelliere or kettle or nasal helmets. They were armed with spears and Kite shields. Officers had full set of heavy chainmail and great helm with longswords and heater shields. There were also clear classification of units. From light skirmishers to heavy line infantry; from light horses to armored knights, the whole Revolutionary Army completely changed from head to toe within just a month. In the past, these rebels don't even have padded armor/gambeson.
Normally, their changes of equipment don't really raise the concern of Esdeath because these equipment advancement were still no match to standard Imperial soldiers. Esdeath even invested her personal Legion so much that even one had a body of full plate armor just like the Imperial Palace Guards. There was no way that an army of chainmail or gambeson peasants could beat a well drilled and advanced army of the mighty Empire's war machine. Then, a line of sentence within the report struck into Esdeath's soul.
The Revolutionary Army thus now consists of at least 3,000,000 standing troops combined with different reserves and local militia. Their number is still increasing.
Esdeath jaws dropped. She mumbled, "Just how in the how could they gather so many troops? There is no way that even the most advanced army or any teigu users could defeat such a sheer amount of endless enemy hordes."
She continued to read the report and found that the Empire had lost due to the FATASS's greediness.
One of the FATASS tactics to reduce military expenditure and secure army loyalty was to hire foreign troops within the ranks of the standing Imperial Army. These foreigners were all raised in countries that were way less developed than the Empire, their wages demands were thus 1/2 lower than troops made up of Imperial Citizens and greatly reduced military cost so that the FATASS can put all of them into his own purse. The foregin Generals had no interest to take part within the Imperial politics thus hiring them could prevent any Imperial usurpers. It could greatly secure the FATASS's reign behind the child Emperor.
However, the greatest strength of hiring foreign soldiers to be bulk of standing Imperial army also came with a great and deadliest flaws. These foreign soldier were never loyal to the Empire. Their only loyalty was their homeland. If their employer cut their pay, then why they need to help their boss to put an enemy that they don't even dislike. The Revolutionary Army always had propaganda that they were "liberating" the people and welcomed any one to join their ranks. Therefore, it was so easy for every Imperial Army lead by foreign General or consist majority of foreign troops all defected to the Revolutionary Army so fast in speed of lighting.
After defection, these foreign Generals, now nominally serving under the Revolutionary Army, instantly contact their own home country to discuss the whole revolution situation. These foreign countries instantly "kind-heartedly" provided huge amounts of financial and military support to the Revolutionary Army. Of course, there were no such thing called charity, spies within the revolutionary army reported that the leaders of the rebels had already agreed to cede a massive scale of land with different foreign nations, They signed a huge amount of unequal economic treaties and they would all come to effect once the war is over. Esdeath could already foresee that if the Revolutionary Army won, the new Empire is nothing but a mere puppet state of multiple foreign nations. The national sovereignty and governance prestige would be reduced so badly into nothing but a joke.
She mumbled again, "This no Revolution…This is a total foreign invasion...".
She looked at the strategic map once again. She actually felt hopeless. The revolution was like cancer which had already spread deeds across the veins of the Empire. The rebels were unstoppable now. The enemies of the Empire were like a tsunami. They kept coming like an endless wave of zombie hordes. They had already penetrated all the way through Imperial defences. They were either already marching deep within Imperial territories or just acted as a whole army of sleeper agents, ready to execute a surprise mutiny with a single signal from the revolutionary army, overtaking an entire city in a night.
Even worse, their movement pattern became so unpredictable and looked like they already started to develop some kind of anti infiltration tactics, causing huge confusion to the Imperial spies within. Now, not only the foreign troops defected, many local provincial Imperial regiments also deserted after some god knows what persuasion. These traitors were ready to stab the Empire in the back when the right time came. They were literally everywhere, you can ever expect when or where they would attack. There were always multiple "imposters" among the Imperial army, pretended to be loyal for a second and then performed some of the most shocking and heart breaking betrayal right in your face yet you could do nothing but to accept your fate.
The situation was actually so dire that the Empire now actually only controlled the Imperial Capital and her surrounding territories. All other provinces were either in Revolutionary Army control or being extreme pro-rebellion. Literally no province or governor dared to speak well or openly supported the Empire. The Empire was now like an isolated island, only able to administrate a single city, the Capital.
Esdeath mumbled sarcastically, "I guess we need to change our name from 'the Empire' to 'the Capital."
Esdeath always thought that the Empire was invincible with extreme swagger. Esdeath always believed that the Empire defence was unbreakable especially due to her one man army Demon's Extract teigu ability. However, after reading the report, she was really worried. Even though she could obliterate thousands of foes easily by herself in each battle, 3,000,000 professional field army was just too overwhelming for her. No matter how strong Esdeath was, she was still a human, her stamina had limits, so did her teigu. Not to mention she was significantly weakened by now due to pregnancy. Even if Esdeath had her own elite personal 10000 strong army with the best armament and experience within the Empire, they would stand no chance against an endless tsunami of enemies. Even elite veteran soldiers were still human in the end, they had a breaking point and so as Esdeath.
Using her supreme tactical strategic mind, Esdeath estimated with such a rate of rebellion, the revolutionary army would completely encircle the Imperial Capital in a month and carry a full on siege assault within 2 months. However, it was just the best case scenario and there was no guarantee that It would happen. According to Esdeath's supreme military calculation, if the Revolutionary Army's field division decided to maximize the logistical advantage of the Imperial highway and perform an extreme force march, about 1,000,000 would arrive at the gate of the Capital next week. If this Revolutionary Army's field division was able to coordinate well with careful sabotage of Imperial defences from Night Raid and other secret Imperial defectors with the Capital, with only one full all in surprise assault process, they would already swarm within the streets of Capital.
Of course, getting within the capital did mean that these rebel scums could instantly win the war but it would greatly, decisively boost their morale while completely devastatingly demoralized the remaining Imperial defenders. The worst enemy in war was not death or injury, it was morale. If such sudden Revolutionary Army assault scenario actually took place, it would surely cause a gargantuan chain route and the Capital defence would instantly become a one sided slaughter.
Esdeath then carefully calculated the numbers of Imperial Capital defenders if the Revolutionary Army actually used that force marched army to lunch an surprised siege assault:
Esdeath's army consisted of 10000 combatants
Imperial Palace Guard consisted of 5000 combatants
Capital City Guards consisted of 10000 combatants
Imperial Capital police consisted of 5000 combatants
Great General Budo's Prima Legion consisted 50000 combatants
There were only about 80000 Imperial defenders while the Revolutionary army had about 1,000,000 attackers. That was a ratio of 1:12.5 . And it didn't even include any possible defectors and other Revolutionary army regiments that were marching towards the capital.
Even if the Empire could pass an emergency law of force enlistments and levy all the adult males and females as Imperial urban militia, they were pretty much useless. First, these weaklings had no military training. Esdeath was 200% sure that they would all shit their pants when seeing brutal siege warfare. Second, their morale was so low that they would instantly route during combat. It would of course cause an even worse massive chain route that would completely crumble Imperial defences. The final one was also the worst case scenario, it was that all these Imperial militia would instantly join the Revolutionary Army once they heard that they were going to be "liberated", stabbing the last loyal Imperial defender right in the front.
The Prime Minister seemed to invest too much hope in Esdeath and Great General Budo.
If Esdeath was still combat effective, there was still a slight chance that the Empire could win the war but for now, not a chance in hell.
The Empire was doomed to lose this war. Even a military genius could not save this Empire from it's grim fate. Unless the Empire suddenly had some kind of over the top super powerful teigu that could deliver multiple devastating blows to the heart of the Revolutionary Army and turned the tide of war single handedly, the Empire will surely ended with a few months...Just why can that FATASS still be so calm about the whole situation...Hum...I guess that he do had such type of super power teigu.
Esdeath was really concerned about the current situation but she was nowhere to be panicked even the calculation showed horrific results because she was the Strongest Mother. She was ever confident and she could always find solutions for every crisis, one way or another. If it was Esdeath before her pregnancy, she would take this as the best challenge in her life and fought till her last breath. However, this could not happen any more. She was going to be progressively weaker day by day due to pregnancy. Her strength and teigu power was slowly declining. She would no longer be able to put on a decent fight within next month. With the progress of pregnancy, she would quickly become unfit for any combat and eventually became defendless to even common soldiers. Most importantly, she needed to protect and raise her kids. She could not die. More importantly, Tatsumi could not die on her as well. They need to be a complete family.
I don't want to take risk and put my faith in that FATASS even though he may have some overpowered teigu...If he failed to defend the Empire, me and my little sweeties would be doomed. I just could not trust him...More so, if he truly managed to defeat the Revolutionary Army, by the time the war ended, he would eventually find out my pregnancy and he could easily use that super power teigu to threaten or even control me...Either way, I cannot allow any of it.
Esdeath really regretted that she did not listen to Tatsumi when they spent their first night in her room together because it was the only one method that she could do to protect her unborn twins and Tatsumi. It was joining the Revolutionary Army.
It also meant that Esdeath was going to be a turncoat, a filthy traitor and defector. Esdeath struggled as her pride and honor of a warrior did not allow her to do so. Then some conversation from 2 days ago showed again and again within her mind.
"Motherhood is not easy, General! It is about sacrifice! It is about your unconditional love and care! If you truly love you children, you should be ready to give up anything for them. Your pride, your status, your career and even your life!"
"Everything! I can abandon everything for them! I can go straight into the deepest of hell without even blinking my eyes just to protect them!"
"Just promise me that you will protect yourselves and your future family at all cost."
"I am the Strongest Mother, born to complete, never retreat. I do anything to secure the happiness of my family and destroy anyone who dares to cross my path. Failure is not an option."
Then Esdeath uncharacteristically laughed out while looking at her belly, rubbing it gently and said to it with a motherly affectionate tone, "What's the point of pride and honor when compared to your safety? They can be lost and mommy can always regain them back! Pride is just a meaningless waste when compared to your priceless life and bright future. Mommy will take all the cost to protect you two!"
She then giggled again and said to her twin playfully, "And the Empire was a man in terminal cancer who is doomed to die within a few months or even just a week. What's the point of saving a worthless dying sack of shit who means nothing compared to my two precious little sweet angels?"
Then Esdeath realized something, "Oops! Mommy swears, sorry! Mommy will watch her language next time!"
Sadly, when Esdeath continued to read some of the reports about how the Revolutionary Army lured the Imperial soldiers to join their ranks and different types of Revolutionary posters and propaganda, she instantly dropped her little plan of defection and joining the Revolutionary Army.
The Revolutionary Army claimed that they would not hurt any innocent people who was forced to fight for the Empire. Middle to low ranking Imperial soldiers and officials won't even need a trial. They would instantly become a freeman if they surrendered except if someone accusing them for crimes. However, for "high ranking evil Imperial Officials", there would be no tolerance and there would be no mercy. Anyone related to them would be punished and tortured severely with no exception.
Four of the most wanted "criminals" were the FATASS Prime Minister Honest, his son Syura, the child Emperor Makoto and finally her, General Esdeath.
The list had already shown all their crimes that they had committed and how they planned to execute them when the revolution was over or captured them alive.
Like father like son, they planned to sentenced the FATASS and his stupid shit eating son to death by thousands of slow slicing. They would both be tied on a stone bed on a giant public hall, every citizen of the New Empire could have a chance to have a small slice on the FATASS and his son's body in order to peel a tiny bit of flesh from them. These two criminals would receive basic medical treatments in order no to get infections or die too quickly. They needed to suffer as much agony and pain as possible. After their flesh is peeled off, people could force the two criminals to consume back their own body parts. They would continue to do until the two criminals became nothing but a clean peeled skeleton. The remaining bones would be fed to dogs.
For the child Emperor Makoto, he would be whipped for a thousand times first as a mocking for his "1000 years old Empire". Then, he would be flayed alive and finally behead in a guillotine. This would of course be performed publicly.
Then it was Esdeath, that they planned to do was really fucked up. First, they would cut off all her limbs. Second, they would tear all her teeth out. Third, they would dig her eyes out. Then, they would cut her tongue off. The worst part was yet to begin, she would then be chained with a collar on neck and put on the stone bed, every citizen of the New Empire could then "taste the filthy Empire whore whatever you want until her last breath". It clearly implied that Revolutionary Army tend to let people to gang rape Esdeath to death publicly.
Esdeath sighed after reading this. She didn't even felt scared and fringed because she had done far too many torture way way way worse than what the Revolutionary Army wanted to did to her. However, her first reaction was that there was no way in hell that she was going to defect to the Revolutionary Army if they hated her so much and would like to slowly humiliatingly torture her to death wholeheartedly. Esdeath did not even need to imagine what they would try to do if they found that she was pregnant. More humiliating death torture would be in order for both her and her precious twins.
However, she was somehow glad that the Revolutionary Army publicly such type of propaganda posters because her Tatsumi was a man of integrity and full of virtue. He was forever righteous and noble to the point that he may seem naive sometimes. Esdeath knew that if she ever had a chance to let Tatsumi see any types of such posters, there was no doubt that he would instantly stay on her side and fought to his last breath just to protect their twins.
Esdeath didn't know why she would had such type of conclusion but her motherly instinct was telling her that Tatsumi would really do so without even a mere second of hesitation if he knew that she was pregnant with his twins. Esdeath knew far too well that she needed to trust her own instincts because they were always absolutely correct and had never ever failed her.
The report also said that there would be collective punishment for any one who were related to the "high ranking evil Imperial Officials", especially their friends and family members. The massive hatred and the thirst of vengeance were unimaginable to the point that even lowly peasants were active in help purging and persecuting all those corrupted Imperial current and previous supporters no matter the age and sex. Massive gang rapes, public executions, humiliations and massacres of family members of "bad" noble clans and officials became a daily show of "morale boosting activities". When it came to the vendetta of "high ranking evil Imperial Officials", the rule of "not hurting any innocents" did not apply.
After reading it, Esdeath was instantly and sincerely concerned about Tatsumi's safety, she quietly mumbled, "If Tatsumi joined the revolutionary army, what will his fellow comrade see when they know that he is the father of our children…There would be a 200% chance guaranty that he will get persecuted as well due to collective punishment."
The Empire was definitely going to lose the war and there was no point in fighting for her...
The Revolutionary Army hated me so much that they want me to be slowly tortured to death dearly...
No matter which she chose, either was not an option because they would all definitely put her, Tatsumi and their in extreme danger...no...it is a certain, painful, humiliating, slow death.
No matter what happened, this must not be allowed!
With that in mind, Esdeath sat on the sofa in a posture like "The Thinker" statue. She was thinking, measuring and calculating every possible solution for the current crisis. Just like every master strategist and cunning tactician, her mind was very calm and firm as usual
OK...I will need a third option...
Hum...What should I do to protect our sweet little angels and my dear Tatsumi while pregnancy…hum... We need a place to hide if everyone is so damn hostile to us...
A place to hide...
Hide!
Esdeath opened her eyes with a clear spark from within. She clapped her hand loud as an expression of excitement as she finally found the most wonderful and perfect solution for the current crisis.
"Yes! A place to hide! Why don't we just find a place far far far away so no one would ever find or even know us! Me and Tatsumi can change our names, forget the past, get married and start a family as husband and wife, a loving mother and caring father for our kids! Hehehe~...Fufufu~...That's it! The plan is decided!"
Esdeath then gently rubbed her belly and talked to it with an affectionate tone, "Hey there, my little angels~ What do you say?~ Don't you think that it is a wonderful plan?~ Only your strategic genius mommy can come up with such cogitative tactical ideas! Hehehe...you two are gonna be as cunning and charismatic as me one day! Fufufu~"
She then continued with a gentle voice that showed her clear disappointment towards a certain emerald green eyed young man, "Sadly...your fool of a father Tatsumi is still not to be found. Mommy don't even know did your daddy join the Revolutionary Army or not? However, it doesn't matter because no matter what happens, mommy will find daddy. We are destined to be together. Even mommy needs to break your daddy's mind first..."
She swore that she could feel her little twins strongly disagree with her idea about breaking their father's mind, she explained in a motherly tone but a malicious and dangerous grin was already wide on her face, "Okok~Mommy would give daddy a chance of a peaceful reunion first. If he refuses and acts like a naughty boy, then we are gonna discipline him, punish him until he knows his duty and role, right? Don't you two agree?~"
Esdeath somehow felt her twins were struggling violently. It seemed that they were protesting and were trying to protect their unseen father Tatsumi from receiving any god knows what crazy punishments that she just claimed.
Esdeath instantly giggled, "Oh my!~ Mommy was just joking!~ You two really love your daddy, don't ya? Hehehe~ Mommy loves him dearly as well~ I promise that we will reunite with him very soon! Aren't you two excited?"
Esdeath could somehow tell that her cute little twins were hyped when they heard what she said. The blue haired General responded with a bright smile, "Yes!~That's the sprite, my sweet little angels~"
Esdeath then gently sat up from her couch, "Now…where should I begin with my plan?"
Author's note
For those who don't know, FUBAR means "Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition" and SNAFU stands for "Situation Normal: All Fucked Up". These 2 are 2 common US military slang terms used since World War 2.
About some of Esdeath's dialogue being repetitive to last chapter, since these are all intentional in order to effectively portray a depressed person just like the last Chapter. If my planning is correct, this is also the last time that you will read these familiar dialogue as Esdeath had successfully defeated her depression and her inner demons.
Some of you may find narration of this chapter a bit controversial as the revolutionary army was portrayed as a bit like villains. From what I have known, most fanfiction authors never did it in such way. They at most make them look like "annoying/bothersome lawful good" but not straight up making them the dirty. Well, remember this is a war guys. There was nothing called glory and noble in war(at least in this current civil war angle). There is no right and wrong. The only difference is the perspective. In these few fanfiction chapter, we are seeing this Revolutionary War through the eyes of a desperate mother Esdeath, not through traditional "Hero Faction" like Night Raid. Therefore, the villainization of the enemy- Revolutionary Army was in order.
I also wanted to make this Revolutionary War/early pregnancy angle a bit morally grey because any revolution is brutal and bloody; savage and inhumane; more of less have some degree of foreign intervention. We should not over romanticize them. The Revolutionary Army could easily be merged and worked wonderfully in this category. Surely, their intentions were still very noble by overthrowing the corrupted Empire and building a better tomorrow. Their process could be peaceful but also extremely violent. There may be some who were magnanimous and willing to pardon who had wronged them before. Yet there were also many who had absolute hatred driven by the endless desire of vendetta and acted as soulless vengeful maniacs. They had absolute determination that they could even sold out their own territory and national sovereignty in order to achieve success. Currently, the only one who will affect from this "villainization" is the Revolutionary Army but not Night Raid. So, don't worry! Night Raid is still the "good guys". I won't do them dirty!
About "retardation" of Esdeath's Legion, I hope that you guy won't categorize it as poor writing decision. The whole part is actually inspired by my observation of a group project experience long long ago. Long story short, it was about a team of 6 doing a humanities report. The group consisted of a very authoritarian leader, followed by a kiss-ass and the rest were just normal groupmates. The team leader did everything with great efficiency. Her dominating attitude allowed her to micro manage everyone's working process and absolutely took the led all the time, made the team one of the best in the class. Literally no one dared to question her because she was always right. However, when she was absent, all hell broke loose. The teammates were so used to have an authoritarian leader to guide them all the time, her sudden absent made the whole group leaderless, looked like a serpent who got it's head chopped off. They were confused, frustrated and didn't know what to do. They asked the kiss-ass for guidance but he was afraid of making wrong decisions which may led him to the loss of the leader's favor, so he refused to take up any command. The whole group instantly became so inefficient, indecisive and only able to do some very minor tasks or kept deferring tasks to each other. When the authoritarian leader returned to school the next day, she was pissed and blame the whole group for wasted a whole day of precious time.
Although it was just an observation a long time ago, it really showed the flaws of having an over dominating, authoritarian leader and how it negatively impacted fellow group mates. I think it would be a great inspiration for Esdeath's army. When talking about Esdeath's subordinates, we usually thought only about the Three Beasts and Jaegers. Yet we often just ignored Esdeath's personal Legion. From what I have seen, many authors usually just labeled them as "The Strongest Imperial Army Regiment" in background with no clear flaws and strengths. Therefore, I merge my little experience within the plot with exaggeration, acting as the characteristically flaws of Esdeath's Legion- forever being overshadowed by authoritarian leader, the field army command structure became a merely figure head which was completely unable to perform any independent thinking, doomed to fail in crisis response or act extremely ineffectively without Esdeath's presence.
The current Empire Crisis, extreme Imperial Army foreignization and defection issue was actually inspired by the "barbarian invasions" of late Roman Empire, especially the Western Roman Empire. When literally all your armies were formed by barbarians(foreigners) but not homeland Roman citizens, they had no loyalty to the Empire and the Emperor. Did you know that Alaric I, the first king of the Visigoths who won the Battle of Adrianople, the bastard who plundered Greece and the devil who sacked Rome, was actually tactically a "Roman General". According to Notitia Dignitatum, this war criminal was actual a "Magister Militum per Illyricum" which meant that he was a "Roman General of Illyrian provinces". These filthy Gothic Barbarians were not only at the "gates" but literally inside the "gates". They were already within the Imperial territory, plundering whatever they wanted and the Western Emperor could do nothing. This whole situation was a great irony and a wonderful theme about "how military politics destroys a great nation". I would like to merge this idea within the Empire in this fanfiction.
Now, let's talk about the change of art style of the Revolutionary Army and the Imperial Army. Personally, I really don't like the aesthetic of the common soldier of both the armies in the Akame Ga Kill Anime. They all looked like parade dress uniforms with strange silly looking helmets. They looked very impractical. If everyone was going to fight in melee with swords and spears(firearms do exist but were rare and expensive according to the lore), then why did no one wear armor? Can't they even afford padded armor or something?
OK, jokes aside, I completely understand that since these common soldiers had very little screen time and basically only acted as background so that there was no need for the animator or original author to give them a better look and design. Also, if these background soldiers looked way too awesome, it would greatly hinder the highlight of the main character designs. However, such problems will not affect fanfictions since the readers already know and have deep connection with the protagonist or the characters that they like. Therefore, unless the description of these background soldiers are just too masterfully designed, they will overshadow the main cast in fanfiction.
Therefore, as a history SIMP who strongly supported "body armor matters", I will have a little change of aesthetic of the Revolutionary Army and the Imperial Army.
For the Revolutionary Army, before Esdeath's pregnancy, they were still the same as the one shown in the anime. However, due to the support of the foreign nations within the continent. They had a massive upgrade from a no armor parade dress army to a practical High Medieval Western European Army. Please imagine the Revolutionary Army as a huge combination of your typical feudal army around AD 1000 to 1250 from states like the County of Flanders, Kingdom of Bohemia and Duchy of Brabant. Chainmail and padded armor is heavily used. Imperial deserters had access to guns but they were very very limited and way inferior then those used by Esdeath's Legion and the Imperial Palace Guard.
For the Imperial Army, the base uniform of common foot soldiers were still the same as the one shown in the anime but they all got a Landsknechts half-armour upgrade. Esdeath's personal Legion and the Imperial Palace Guard got full sets of plate armor. Please imagine the Imperial army as a huge combination of typical late Medieval Western European army around AD 1400 to 1500 from states like Holy Roman Empire, Duchy of Burgundy, Kingdom of France and England. Of course, just like the anime and lore, the Imperial Army also has access to semi automatic battle rifles and revolvers but they were also very expensive so only a small amount of them were in service.
There were cavalry to act as knights and skirmishers to act as missile units for both armies. Also, don't forget those mounted danger beast units!
Yes, this author's note about the army composition is actually a giant teaser of the upcoming Imperial Capital Siege in a few chapters later. Trust me. it is going to be dark, bloody and absolutely chaotic. There will be no boundaries between man and beast when the time comes...
For those who are concerned about would Esdeath got captured and tortured by the Revolutionary Army, well...NOT A FUCKING CHANCE IN HELL! IT WOULD NEVER HAPPEN! Guys, this is not a hurt or angst fanfiction. Instead, it is about romance and a happy family, accompany with realistic low fantasy warfare(except teigu user combat). Therefore, there is no need to worry about Esdeath's and Tatsumi's safety because...well...just keep reading and you will find out!
About the Shikoutazer, Esdeath had no idea that it actually existed so she did not even mention it in this chapter.
But until then, let us focus back on our main storyline about Esdeath and Tatsumi!