Chapter 3 - Hope In The East
Chapter opening quotes of encouragement for devoted shippers of Esdeath X Tatsumi:
"There is nothing wrong with Esdeath's Northern Campaign. Ain't it just a simple pest control?"
– An anonymous battle brother from the Chaos Space Marine Warband "The Purge" when reacting to Esdeath's haters about her so called "war crimes"
*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.
Night
Imperial Palace
Esdeath's Personal Quarters
After just deciding that the plan was to "hide", Esdeath lively went to the kitchen with a cooking book. Doctor Malikov was a very thoughtful person, one of his books that he gave to Esdeath earlier consisted of the recipe for different herb tea and soup which were good for nourishing both her and her twins health.
Tonight, Esdeath decided to treat herself a bowl of herba taxilli and egg sweet soup. According to the book, it was a simple sweet soup remedy to nourish the blood and protect the foetus. The ingredients consisted of 30 g herba taxilli and 15 g eucommia bark which could both improve liver and kidney function. The soup also included an egg and a suitable amount of crystal sugar. According to the book, it should be drunk once a week.
The blue haired General first washed all ingredients first. Followed by boiling the egg and removing the shell. Then she poured a litre of water into the pot, added all the ingredients and cooked over high heat until it was boiling. Lastly, she switched to low heat, added quite a large amount of crystal sugar and then began to wait for it to cook for an hour.
During the time of waiting, Esdeath tidied up her whole room all by herself. Although there were always palace maids for her to summon, she never liked them and always preferred to do the cleaning all by herself because she felt that her tidy skills were way superior than those maids, as well as being suspicious of those maids being the spies service under the FATASS Prime Minister Honest. There was an horrific incident about a year ago, some retarded maids nearly accidentally throw Esdeath's calligraphy and working-in-progess totem amulet. Esdeath was so pissed of her work nearly being destroyed that she instantly proceeded to flay all those maids alive and used their living body to practise her calligraphy and sculpture skills with her ice rapier right in her own study. Slowing and savagely carve those elegant Partas tribal words on those tender living human flesh. The torture scene was so fucked up that Esdeath eventually earn herself an absence for the next day just to clean up the bloody mess with her personal quarters. The torture was excellent, the music of human scream was melodious and the smell of blood is just delicious. Sadly, the aftermath was just a pain in the ass to deal with. She learned her lesson that day: don't torture toys in your own room, you either do it in a designated torture chamber or do it in some one else's bedroom like some kind of most sickest, fucked up, psychotic pranks that ever existed in the world.
After doing all the clear up work of her personal quarters, the blue haired General went to take a comfortable warm bath to clear her tiredness of all those frustrating classified dossiers and the sweat of doing housework. When she was done and cleaned herself up, she changed into her "pajamas" and put on a simple black headband with the insignia of Partas Clan.
From any Imperial standard, no matter from peasants to nobles, even from the whole Western Continent's aesthetic, Esdeath's so called "pajamas" was literally a very rustic northern shepherd costume but with a very unique Partas artistic pattern. They consisted of a large overcoat that looked like a folded tunic and a pair of trousers and simple shirt underneath. They both were silver grey in colour with unique blue geometry patterns the edges of the collar, sleeves, waist, side and button of the pants. The whole clothing was so rustic that when Wave first saw Esdeath in such costume, he thought that Esdeath had a twin sister working as a gardener within the Jaegers mansion. Even Run thought it was some kind of historical peasant clothing back in a few centuries ago. In order to punish their ignorance, Esdeath had all their fingernails torn off by her ice clamp, proceeding by showering the wounds with salts.
In reality, the costume that Esdeath used as pajamas were actually one of many types of ordinary daily costumes that Esdeath and her fellow tribesman would wear when she was still a nomad at the northern borders. Such types of tunic overcoats and trousers were super simple to make and comfortable to wear, suitable for both male and female. It was also very versatile with great mobility, the young Esdeath basically wore it in all conditions including hunting, sleeping, forging, butchering and riding horses. Esdeath liked it very much since she was small.
Harsh living environments ensure no chance of luxury, Esdeath had never seen pajamas until she attended the Imperial Military Academy. She still clearly remembered that Najenda laughed at her for "living under a Rock Johnson" when they were still friends, colleagues and shared the same dorm. Najenda kindly offered to buy her simple blue and white pajamas as a token for future friendship. Esdeath happily accepted it. After Najenda defected to the Revolutionary Army and Esdeath savagely maimed her, she still kept it but never wore it again. Instead, she kept wearing her "versatile nomad tribal costume" whenever she was not in General duty, namely hanging around the street, taking a walk around Jaegers mansion, training or any other causal situation. She still kind of missed that overwhelming pleasure of cutting Najenda's arm and eye. That feeling is just so...delicious and wonderful. Esdeath just could not wait to perform the most painful vivisection to her former colleague when she met her again.
As a traditional nomadic tribal woman, Esdeath needed to learn how to knit and sew clothes even when she was 5. Esdeath was definitely a talented and skillful tailor. She sewed herself a total 10 of these "versatile nomadic tribal costumes" for different use. Each of them have slightly different blue geometry patterns. The current one she was wearing is sole used as nightwear. If Esdeath was hanging out around the Imperial Capital during her free time, she would wear her riding boots, a loovuuz and use a long braid like rope as belt. These costumes all had a similar feature which was having a unique "cross" symbol which is also used as the insignia for Esdeath and her army. Such "cross" was no ordinary symbol, in Esdeath's own Partas language, it was called "Tamga", an abstract seal, stamp and emblem used by steppe nomadic people of Partas Clan.
To any Imperial nobles, Esdeath's fashion taste was really dull. Her only clothing style was either this "versatile nomad tribal costume" or her standard Imperial General uniform. When a stupid ass high ranking Imperial Official from southern province mocked Esdeath for being a "Yankee", Esdeath instantly return the favor by flaying all the skin around his neck in order to remind and mock him as an uneducated southern "redneck".
Of course, the "versatile nomadic tribal costume" was not the only clothing that Esdeath owned. She also had a very well decorated and master-sewed steppe nomad noble costume. It consisted of a very over the top luxurious large blue brocade overcoat with silver grey edges that looked like a huge one-piece dress. It was made of silk and full of different exotic abstract artistic patterns, cross tamga knitted by pure golden threads. On the surface, it looked very loose with huge and long sleeves with different very long strips of silk fabric floating around but the real tricks were within the undercoat. The inner garments were perfectly sewed and very well fitting and comfortable. Therefore, even though the overcoat looked "inconvenient" due to excessive decoration, floating fabric strips and large sleeves, it was extremely mobile and enabled the wearer to engage in close quarters combat, wrestling, sabre fighting and mounted combat with ease. Also, the dress-like overcoat had 4 large cuts starting from the low hip which allowed the wearer to run, sprint, rolling, jump, climbing, mounting, riding and even flipping with excellent dexterity as well. Apart from the blue silk brocade overcoat, it was accompanied by an exotic patterned silver grey silk brocade steppe nomadic riding trousers with blue edges. There were also a pair of sumptuous long riding boots in light black with with golden bronze edges and a pair of opulent riding gloves in dark red with sharp golden edges. There was also a golden belt decorated with platinum blocks. Lastly, it was the most eye-catching accessory of the whole costume - an extraordinarily magnificent, huge red conical column shaped and crest-like hat with a huge amount of extravagant decorations. The hat was made of the sacred hides from an ancient super-class danger which was hunted down and dismembered by the venerable Partas Clan Ancestors. With master craftsmanship, the original impenetrable surface hides were now the exotic elegant outer hat while the inner hides became the soft and comfortable internal structure of the hat. The the top of the hat was a huge crest filled with lavish giant peacock feathers, the back the side of the hat was decorated by a huge pack of elegant white tiger skin to make it like a huge thick braid, the side of the hat was filled with white tiger skins but the hides was cut smaller in size in order to resemble human hair from the side. Some red fox hides were also included in order to better contrast the black and white colour of the tiger skins. The crown area of the red conical column shaped hat was marvellously decorated with countless preciously priceless gemstone like tigers eye, ruby, lapis lazuli, malachite and etc; with a gigantic magnificent cross tamga made of extraordinarily exotic crystal like shining sapphire right in the middle of the crown, being perfectly surrounded by the flawless decorations of numerous sumptuous amethyst.
This over the top stylishly elegant and opulent costume was extremely beautiful and extraordinarily glamorous. It was definitely one of the most expensive costumes that ever existed in the entire world. It just made the Child Emperor's costume look so pathetic to the point he looked like a child beggar. Such classy noble outfit was seemingly only designed for the absolute queen and undisputed alpha female like Esdeath. The blue haired general never ever wore it even once. Instead, she treated it like a sacred and priceless family heirloom; taking care of it with infinite care and her highest respect. It was rightfully belonged to Esdeath's deceased mother, Bayarmaa Partas Khatun - the one and only Matriarch of Partas Clan. When Esdeath's father - Chuluunbaatar Partas Khan, the Khan of Partas Clan was still alive, he always told Esdeath that she could only inherit her mother's noble costume, armaments, jewellery, accessories, musical instruments and seals only when she was married. The responsibility and duty of inheriting family heirloom was huge and overwhelmingly heavy. The wielder were responsible to carry the legacy of the ancestors and also represented the will of the entire clan. Only a sacred marriage before the gaze of Gods could make a person's soul complete, a full family could make a person mature and suitable for such heavy burden and responsibility. Esdeath's father always wanted this priceless family heirloom as the gift for his only daughter's marriage present just like he gave it to his deceased dear wife back then, to prove that the costume's wielder was a qualified Matriarch and carry on the family legacy. Therefore, even though Esdeath now bore Tatsumi's twins and live as the only legitimate leader of Partas Clan, she was still not formally married to Tatsumi yet, so she was still not worthy and had no right to wear the Partas Matriarch Costume. Esdeath followed this father's words wholeheartedly because as a traditional minded religious and superstitious person, purposely failed to follow the words of her parents also meant to disrespect her ancestors. Esdeath could not bear such blasphemous sins or she would definitely anger the Gods and face eternal damnation.
Esdeath's mother tongue was simply known as "Partas", the sole and official language of the Clan. They had their own scripts and alphabets which were written from top-to-bottom and left-to-right. Their naming and nobility title was thus a bit different. The Partas put their position title at the end of their name. The title "Khan" was translated as "ruler/king" which was the title of Partas Clan leader. The feminine counterpart of Khan was "Khanum" and translated as "my king". Meanwhile, the title "Khatun" was directly translated as "noblewoman", a title of any female royal family members of the Khan. Therefore, when Esdeath was still a young princess of Partas Clan, her full name and title was "Esdeath Partas Khatun", rhetorically translated as "Noble-Lady Esdeath Partas". However, since Esdeath was now "Last of the Partas", she automatically became the the only legitimate Matriarch and the undisputed Khanum of the Clan. Thus, Esdeath's current full name and title was actually "Esdeath Partas Khanum" which could be rhetorically translated in Standard Imperial language as "My Queen, Esdeath Partas". Sadly, Esdeath never used this honorary name. The reason was rather similar to why she refused to wear her mother's Partas Matriarch Costume. She was simply still not worthy. Until the day that Tatsumi officially became her husband, the blue haired General would now still simply address herself as "Esdeath Partas", nothing more, nothing less.
Although Esdeath's father, Chuluunbaatar always told the young Esdeath that there were no need to be sad or pity for her mother's death because she was weak so she was dead, it did not mean that he does not care or not love his wife. According to her fellow tribesman, even heirloom jewellery were already more than enough to made the Partas Matriarch Costume; in order to show his sincere love to Esdeath's mother, Esdeath's father expanded 15 years for hunting and raiding, gathered extra exotic gems and decorations in order to make this most precious to Esdeath's mother as wedding gift in order to show his absolute and sincere love. Sadly, after giving birth to Esdeath, she died shortly due to poison injuries inflicted by a venomous danger beast during a catastrophically failed hunting expedition. Esdeath's father loved his wife dearly. Even he always told Esdeath that her mother died because she was weak but he never said he didn't care for her death. Esdeath and her fellow tribesman know far too well that at everyday's dawn, her father would spend about 15 minutes to burn incense in front of a small hill, telling his deceased wife that how he was proud of their daughter and praying to the sky-father that her deceased wife could have a peaceful life in heavens. Although Esdeath's father never looked sad; never cried; never looked regretful about her death, he sincerely cared about his wife. Esdeath knew all of this, even though she had never seen her deceased mother, she also paid her greatest respect and honor to her venerable matriarch.
Esdeath was actually a very very religious person and followed deeply of her own nomad tribal shamanism. Yet, somehow no one was able to notice it, even Run failed to notice. Of course, the blue haired general never felt sad or pitiful about the death of her parents because they were weak so they were dead. However, it did not mean that Esdeath did not love them, just like what his father felt towards his wife. "The strong survive and the weak die" but it did not mean that you didn't care for the dead, so did Esdeath. When Partas Clan was destroyed by the northern tribes, Esdeath's father told Esdeath not to feel sad over his death as it was his fate for being weak. Esdeath followed true to his father. She was not sad, not having any regard or even felt bad because it was how nature works - how natural selection works. However, she did care deeply about it within the most hidden part of her heart of darkness.
Contrary to Esdeath's own belief that she never felt pity and extremely loathed the weak, she actually did have compassion for those she cherished deep within her rotten blackheart. She may never feel sad, bad for both her parents death, she did truly adore and deeply cherish them wholeheartedly. Even Esdeath never noticed it herself but she could actually feel sympathy and commiseration long before her pregnancy. Yet, it was only to her dear parents, as well as her fellow blooded clansman. Esdeath would only subconsciously express her love, care and her sincere missing thoughts to her parents by her own clan's unique religious practices. Esdeath actually built a small shrine on a small hill under a lone tree at the abandoned old Imperial Palace area. Every Sunday dawn, she would secretly go to the tiny shrine to pray for her parents and the Shy Father for guidance and spiritual support, telling them her tales of valor in war, her sweet dreams about Tatsumi and how she missed the warmth of her parents. Esdeath even gathered more than 30 expensive medical ingredients to customly make traditional incense and joss paper of her own Partas Clan, so that her parents could fully "feel" her sincerity and piety. Esdeath was never obligated to practise these religious ceremonies or activities, she could just easily dump them away. However, Esdeath never ever stopped practising them, she never missed a day, she never missed a single moment and she never missed any procedure, even after she joined the Empire.
However, about the death of her subordinates like the death of Three Beasts, Doctor Stylish and Bols, she did "care" for them but the driving force was completely different. It was not true "care" but only mere "acknowledgement". She "acknowledged'' because they were useful tools, a useful living toy of fresh and bones for her to play and manipulate; a tool to use to its greatest potential; until it was nothing but a broken garbage. She treated them well only in order to secure their loyalty or for future usage. For their death? Bruh! Any toy or tools were disposable at the end. When your tools or toys were finally broken, what would you do? You just threw them away. Sure, it was unfortunate but that was it, nothing more, nothing less. You were not bound or related to them. You never cherish them. When toys or tools were broken, you got a new one and there were always plenty of them. There was no need to even mourn these pathetic disposable tools for even a nanosecond. Esdeath only mourned her dead troops for a mere second because she needed to act as a "good leader" to boost morale of her own legion; she only mourned Three Beasts for a mere second because she needed to had good reputation as a General; she only helped comfort Seryu for a mere second because Esdeath had boost her morale in order to let that stupid bitch regain her full combat effectiveless. If her subordinates were all soulless automatons with no emotions, she would instantly drop all these fake and hypocritical facade practices. These disposable trash could all eat shit and die; Esdeath would not even blink an eye. She just didn't give a single fuck for those she never cherished.
The only people in the world that Esdeath cherished were her deceased parents, deceased fellow blooded kinsmen, Tatsumi and her lovely twins. Although Esdeath's fellow kinsmen could also merge into this "cherish"category, it was actually more like an undisputed and inseparable obligation to adore her own kin since Esdeath was not only just a member of the Clan, she was also their princess and now the legitimate leader of the one-man-tribe. Her duty, honor and obligation for the tribe were thus so clear and obvious. The blue haired General could not fail her ancestors and deceased kinsman or she would need to face their wrath in the afterlife.
After the annihilation of Partas Clan, Esdeath gathered all her kinsmen's corpses that she could find, including her beloved father. Just like her ancestors tradition, Esdeath used sky burial as the last ritual to honor his father and fellow kinsmen: leaving their bodies in highly exposed plains to the wildlife, so that their body vessels could return to the Earth Mother and their noble souls could return to the Sky Father. It was the best scenario for Esdeath's father because he could finally reunite with his dear wife and ancestors in the heavens. Following the tradition, Esdeath also placed stones around their bodies to prevent evil spirits from getting to it. When the physical bodies were completely gone and consumed by the eagles and wolves, these stones represented the noble souls of the deceased. The young Esdeath collected all of them and still kept them well even till nowadays.
In the face of death, the children of the great mighty steppe never cried. The warriors of the Eternal Sky never shed tears for those they loved and cherished, they honored them with their own blood. The young Esdeath thus used her father's dagger to cut her own face and forehead, carefully not to cause any permanent scars but enough to cut every surface blood vessel. Esdeath did not cry but she used her own blood as tears, letting her blood drip all over her face. She looked like a demonic banshee fully covered in blood.
Even to nowadays, Esdeath still remembered under that bloody face, her younger self showed a peaceful smile and a sincere tone, "Dear Momma and Papa, you two can finally reunite with our Sky Father in heaven. Your story on earth is now done… I know... I miss you and I love you too... We will meet again in the warm embrace of the Eternal Blue Sky... but until then, Papa… farewell..."
Esdeath still remembered, when the whole ritual was done, the sky turned dark and then roared with thunder and lightning from afar. It is a good omen. A storm was coming, the Harbinger was coming, he was hearing...
The young princess and sole survivor of Partas Clan instantly knelt on the ground, on top of the hill and faced the roaring stormy sky and prayed, "Harbinger, please deliver my oath to Sky Father."
The thunder suddenly struck so hard that it even scared a pack of wolves not far away. The storm became extremely strong, many withered grass and leaves on the ground had been blown into the motion of a strong tornado.
"I, Esdeath Partas Khatun swear my oath! The strong survive and the weak die, I will be strong and worthy to carry my ancestor's legacy. I will rebuild my Partas Clan. I will do what I see fit. The day of apocalypse to my enemies is coming. Blood will be spilled; vendetta will be fulfilled; screams will be my music; agony will be my joy; wrath will be my strength; killing will be my art. Let the reckoning begin!"
The young Esdeath drew her father's dagger again and she cut deep into her wrist artery, spilling a huge amount of blood out. However, the blood was never able to touch the ground. Instead the extreme violent stormy wind blew those blood away and elevated into the sky. The young Partas Princess immediately shouted her oath loudly and firmly into the sky as well.
"In the name of our Sky Father! I offer my own blood as sacrifice! Please guide me till the end of time!"
A strong lighting then suddenly struck down on a lone tree on the steppe plain. The strong electricity instantly incinerated the tree. The flame and fire was so strong that the coming rainstorm could not even extinguish it.
Satisfied with the Gods answer, the young Esdeath was then somehow able to gather all her parent's remaining belongings, including their parents rings, necklaces, family jewellery, armament, his father's headband and most importantly, her mother's priceless Partas Matriarch Costume. Praise the Gods that it was truly a miracle that those northern tribal marauders did not discover them and left them completely unharmed.
And we all know the rest of the story, surviving the wild as a one man nomad, grew up, entered the Imperial Military Academy, forged in war, promoted to General, against all odds, Northern Genocide, the forming of Jaegers, meeting Tatsumi, that faithful island event and all the incidents led to now.
Being religious, superstitious, loving, caring, thoughtful, compassionate, traditional but also brutal, sadistic, bloodthirsty, hateful, cold hearted, manipulative, strategic and tactical all in the same time. Esdeath was just a living embodiment of irony and the definition of weirdness.
The now "pajamas" wearing Esdeath slowly went to the kitchen to check on her herba taxilli and egg sweet soup while finally dried up all of her hair. It had just been an hour. Esdeath opened the pot and carefully took a quick taste of the soup
"Errr...weird as usual. None of these so-called 'nourishing herb tea' or soup would ever taste good."
She then sighed as she poured a half amount of the soup into a large bowl. As she carefully carried it on a plate and put it on her personal study's table gently, she took another sip with a slight frown. Esdeath didn't like the taste. However, she quickly sighed as she mumbled affectionately while gently rubbing her belly, "If it could help my little sweeties, who would care if it is tasty or not?"
Esdeath observed carefully within those huge bookshelf within her study, looking for a good world geography book.
Esdeath then proceeded to choose and pick up an oversized newest edition of atlas entitled "Atlas of the World: Humanities & Geography - Classified Edition" from the bookshelf and sat back on her sofa as she took another spoon of the herb soup. The book was published about 4 years ago.
So let's see…
Esdeath opened the atlas book and a huge global map was instantly revealed to her face. The world was divided into two main continents surrounded by a big ocean. The first and the biggest landmass was of course the Western Continent which was where the current Empire located at. This giant landmass was filled with most of the world's populations and factions. For the second one, it was the less known Eastern Continent which was being separated across the seemingly impassable great deep ocean. Except for being about 40% smaller in sheer land size than the West, the geography of Eastern Continent was surprisingly quite similar to the Western Continent.
As the General of the Empire, the basic information of the world map had already carved deep into Esdeath's mind long ago. As a strategic mastermind, she could even draw the whole Western Continent map with every detail blindfolded. Reading an atlas about the geography of Western Continent was actually a bit superfluous since she already knew it far too well. However, if Esdeath wanted to find a safe, hidden, less populated area like jungles and high latitude mountains or even a neutral minor sub-faction to stay, she still needed to use a well detailed atlas to "squeeze" these information out. The safety and future of her family depends on her now. Esdeath could not take the risk to miss any possible chance of discovering a suitable location for her to hide.
She then proceeded to read according to the order shown in the category, hoping that she would eventually find what she wanted.
Sadly, the result was hopelessly disappointing. There was no miracle.
The first option of certain death was to hide within the Empire. Unless Esdeath had a death wish or something, she could never stay hidden in any areas within the most dangerous place in the world. If the Revolutionary Army won the war, they would definitely dry up every resource and use all methods just to weed her out in order to humiliatingly tortured her to death since she was always one of their most hated enemies. If the Imperials actually somehow won the war, it would also be a huge problem of how would she explain her complete absence and desertion during the Revolutionary War. Esdeath knew far too well that the Empire never took desertion lightly and humiliatingly death torture was guaranteed since the blue haired General was literally their "Chief Executioner".
The second option of certain doom was to hide within the Northern Country. Esdeath just brutally massacred 400,000 of their inhabitants a few months ago while also killed their wimpish hero Numa Seika in the most humiliating way ever known to man. She was on the top of the whole country's death list and everyone wanted her to have a slow and painful death. She would be easily busted if she tried to hide within their territory.
The third option of certain suicide was hide within the Western Country. Imperial forces including Esdeath's personal army had bulldozed them a couple of times while also occupying a huge chunk of their territory. Their hatred towards the Empire and Esdeath was immeasurable. The whole situation was very similar to the one in the Northern Country. When everyone wanted you to burn in hell, there was no way that you would ever escape their wrath especially when you were so stupidly dared to seek sanctuary within their land.
The fourth option of getting your whole family killed was to hide within the Southern Country. A gods forsaken place where Liver fought against the "the other races" inhabitants years ago with overwhelming force. Esdeath herself and Najenda also took part in the war, suppressing their revolt especially the savage Ban Tribe with extreme brutality. The Ban Tribe were obliterated by Esdeath's personal army. She then even ordered her soldiers to rape all the tribal women before the captive tribe men and children. She then allowed a part of the remaining captives to live so that they would forever live in shame and hopefully they would attempt another uprising for Esdeath to enjoy the anarchy of war again and again. Of course, Esdeath didn't let all these captives leave without any "physical damage". She fully blinded 99 of every 100 people, leaving a single one-eyed man in each group to lead the rest to wander around the wilderness; if they were lucky enough, they may find their way to other allied tribes that were willing to help them. Esdeath fully supported gender equality and equal opportunities of different ages. None of the tribesmen could escape her malicious enjoyment.
Esdeath was truly and sincerely regarded with her decisions...
Because there should be NO SURVIVORS!
She would just order her soldiers to massacre all the living beings among all those pathetic subhuman tribes, no human or animal; elderly or children, they would all be purged like pests, end their bloodline and completely erase their existence in the world back in the day. Unfortunately, it was too late to regret, the survivors must have spread her evil deeds far too well. The situation was like the Northern Country and Western Country again. It was impossible for her to stay there.
Last but not least, the final option for Esdeath to suffer a slow and painful hell was to hide in Wakoku. Wakoku had advanced technology and were capable of forging Meihou, a type of Teigu-like weapons. However, Wakoku was divided into 22 sub-faction and was recently in a massive civil war. Each state would like to gain the ultimate hegemony to dominate the whole faction. Yet, their war seemed to halt as they seemed to find a temporary common enemy to carve and destroy - The Empire. All sub-factions of Wakoku were now provisionally united and more or less sent quite amount of their own standing army as "foregin volunteers" to "support" the Revolution. It was also very likely their short-term alliance would instantly broke after they gain enough war booty from the defeated Empire, the continuation of eternal civil war was in order. All these were just grave news, unless you were insane, no one would go to a state of constant infighting and unstable social-political environment.
Esdeath sighed with a sad smile as she finished all the analysis of the Western Continent.
She took another sip of her herba taxilli and egg sweet soup, she mumbled, "As expected… There is no country for pregnant woman, well… at least in the West."
Esdeath then took a bit of the egg from her sweet soup. Unsurprisingly the egg was the only thing tasty about the sweet soup since the free-range egg was directly and freshly produced from the Imperial Royal Ranch. The supreme quality was undisputed.
As the blue haired General proceeded to slowly chew and enjoy the scrumptious egg yolk, Esdeath then turned to a page with a huge title "The Eastern Continent".
According to the book, the whole "Eastern Continent" is commonly known as "Eastern Country" to nearly all people on the current Western Continent. This Continent is the only land apart from Western Continent and being by the huge Great Ocean. Little is known of this land for common people within the Western Continent since the Eastern Continent is very far away and extremely difficult to travel to. According to a recent survey, 40% of Imperial Citizens had no Idea that such a continent even existed. 40% had only heard about the name "Eastern Continent" or "Eastern Country" but completely with no idea of what this mysterious land looked like. Only about 20% of citizens had heard about some related rumors of this land. Esdeath belonged to this category, she had heard some rumors about these Easterners loving yogurt and being quite religious.
Such dramatic situation of public being completely lacking any related knowledge about Eastern Continent was very complicated. First and foremost, the whole Western Continent including the Empire had poor cross ocean navigation technology, so that they have no access to any information about the East. The public and their respective governments tend to look down on such topics since the Western Continent was extremely huge with numerous sea sized lakes and huge streams. There was no need to develop cross ocean navigation technology or cross oceanic trade. This caused a strange phenomenon of Western ship building technology, they could be extremely advanced and gargantuan in size, yet they were not built to fit in any types of oceanic current and monsoon. Moreover, the voyage was also very dangerous as strange freak accidents always tend to happen to vessels. From surviving records, sailors always claimed that there were horrific sea monsters attacking them, forcing them to retreat from the voyage or facing certain death. Some Imperial oceanography scientist even urged and classified the weather and ocean current of the Great Ocean as supernatural and paranormal. It was because extreme windstorm and gargantuan sea waves were just too strong and too frequent to the point it just make no common sense and could not be explain by any natural science. Nevertheless, all these cause cross oceanic navigation were just being extremely difficult, extremely time consuming and jaw dropping high cost. It was thus deemed by the governments as a complete waste of time and money. The overall cost effectiveness was just so bad which made the Empire eventually stopped all their projects of exploring the Eastern Continent and put all the its original budgets into the investment on standard Imperial land armies.
The second reason was that different Western governments purposely hide any basic information of the Eastern Continent in order to prevent the leakage of any military secret and collaboration with potential foreign enemies. Contrary to public belief that Eastern Continent was one giant block of backward country with no interest to explore the West, the factions and politics of the Eastern Continent were actually very complex. The Eastern Continent could be divided into 2 different powerful nations. They were the Federal Republic and the Eastern Dominion. These 2 nations had advanced technology and constantly wanted to establish diplomatic relationships with the countries within the Western Continent, especially the Empire even a century ago. However, none of these factions process any teigu. They thus carried out their "early expeditions" which were particularly keen on trading with the Empire with their advanced civilian technology and beneficial economic investment in order to exchange some teigu for study and replication. However, the Empire and literally all the countries of the West rejected their offer due to obvious national security issues. Teigu was the fundamental equipment for the Empire's national security and domination over any lesser Western Continental countries. No one was willing to sacrifice their military secrets for mere daily technology and simple economic development. Different Western nations were also very concerned that these Easterners would plan to spread their influence, ally with dissidents and collaborate with enemies in their territories. Due to the serious concern that these Easterners would eventually subvert and endanger Western regimes, they completely refused to trade and held an extremely distrustful attitude towards these Easterners. These overseas visitors eventually lost their interest and just gave up any fruitless persuasion in the West. They just did some simple continental geographical exploration, collecting necessary knowledge while also leaving some basic information for the westerners to know as basic knowledge exchange, before all fade back into the endless void of ocean. Sadly, most of the knowledge was kept secret. Ironically, the current atlas that Esdeath was reading, was actually one of the highest classified book that was only accessible to less than 25 high ranking Imperial officials.
Although there were no official diplomatic relationships, it did not mean that there were no Easterners on the Western Continent afterwards. Although they never settled within the Western Continent, a small number of "later expeditions" still existed. Every decade, these Eastern studies groups would briefly visit the Western Continent about 3-4 times. Their purpose was mostly about "exploration for Western information & knowledge update", as well as notifying any important news to the Western regimes about the East as basic information exchange. They would stay at most a year for their own studies and research before all sail back to their homeland. The information of this book was mostly based on and provided by the "latest" studies group 4 years ago.
Esdeath was impressed as such information also implied that Doctor Malikov had a very high chance to be a member within the current studies group located somewhere within the Empire. It was an excellent news. She had to find a way to contact them as soon as possible.
According to these Easterners. The Eastern Continent had a very rich history that could even surpass the thousand years old Empire. About 3000 years ago, the Eastern Continent consisted of not only human or danger beast but also different humanoid races and civilization, for example the Greenskins which were an extremely warlike and violent race of bestial green skinned humanoid creatures, the are strong and brutish warriors were called Orcs while the smaller but cunning ones were called goblins; there were the high elves which were arrogant, elegant and classy beautiful human like creatures with pointy ears; there were also the dark elves, the evil sadistic cousins of high elves; with many other different high intellectual creatures and civilizations.
However, they were all destroyed and completely obliterated by the humans of the Eastern Continent. About 2000 years ago, the forefathers of the current human factions all united together and formed the "Holy Alliance '' which they carried out a millennium long genocidal crusade against any non-human civilization on the Eastern Continent. Through honor and sacrifice, the iron will of humanity eventually ended in undisputed triumphant. This "Sacred Crusade'' was so brutal, ruthless and thoroughly that it completely eradicated any living trace of these non-human civilizations, completely weeded out their impure life forms, wiped out their false idols and fundamentally exterminated all their existence in the world. Many of their technologies were well preserved for military use. Their foul ruins were preserved as museums for education use, constantly reminding the young Easterners of their undisputed flawless human supremacy and pureness over those filthy non-human creatures and their pathetic civilizations.
Sadly, without common enemies, the humanity among the Eastern Continent quickly squabbled among themselves. After another millennium conflicts, different factions were destroyed, merged or united during the process. Eventually, the whole Eastern continent was divided into 2 separate factions: the Federal Republic and the Eastern Dominion respectively. These 2 superpowers were extremely even in economico-military strength and similar in territorial size. The two Great Nations engaged in a massive continental scale long brutal war for the rival of complete domination over the whole Eastern Continent, simply known as the "Great War''. However, due to their extremely even power and strength, both nations were not able to gain any slight advantage from each other. The Great War lasted for nearly another millennium but each stage always ended in stalemate as war was constantly temporarily ceased by status quo ante bellum, only to return in full conflict after a few years of rest. It was a never ending vicious cycle. No one could have any territorial, financial or political gains. The Great War caused the huge degradation of human population and economic crisis which completely destroyed the socio-economy of the whole continent. 60% of Continental population were killed during the conflict and Continental GDP decreased by 90%. In the blink of an eye for even more catastrophic disasters and the absolute annihilation of themselves, the 2 Great Nations finally realized the stupidity of their fruitless war because their population and economy just were so degraded to the point that both nations could not fight anymore. The 2 Great Nations also realized that their own self-destructive war would eventually give chances to those untamed danger beasts or potential revival of non-human species.
Considering the common future and the survival of mankind, the Federal Republic and the Eastern Dominion thus signed the "Treaty of Eternal Peace" about 2 centuries ago. Both countries agreed to maintain the balance of peace and created demilitarized buffer zones along all their borders in order to prevent any possible large territorial dispute. Advanced civilian and non military technology were shared and improved together. Both country were able to mass produce of civilian technology like vox-communicator, vox-radio, vox-transponder, television and cogitators; medical technology like electric mechanical prosthetic implants(way more comfortable than those of the Empire), automated external defibrillator; advanced transportation like trains, airships, submarine and iron-hulled sailing ships with well developed railway, canal systems and etc. Last but not least, both Federal Republic and Eastern Dominion signed a mutual defence pact and Collective Security Treaty against any foregin invasion, any possible revival of non-human race or unidentified insurgencies. During this 200 years, in order to better protect public security, "The Great Purge" were organized and carried out by Federal Republic and Eastern Dominion in order to weed out any existence of danger beasts. Currently approximately 70% of danger beasts were either eradicated or enslaved. Their state military estimated within the next 100 years, all danger beast in the Eastern Continent would be either completely wiped out or being absolutely subjugated into both military or civilian use. According to their military intelligence, it was inferred that some ancient legendary super class danger beasts were still hidden somewhere within the Eastern Continent. Nevertheless, it was safe to say that these Easterners were generally free from danger beast scourges due to their responsible Governments and effective military operations.
Interestingly, due to the collective belief of human supremacy by both religion and tradition, these Easterners completely forbid and ban any forms of human slavery. Human equality was fully supported and promoted even long before the formation of both Federal Republic and Eastern Dominion because slavery was an unnatural, blasphemous state of sacred human existence and not a feature of any blessed natural law. If any one was discovered to have participated in crimes of human enslavement and trafficking, that person and his gang would be instantly sentenced to an extremely slow and painful death. Victims were welcomed to participate in their revenge but the execution process must be kept in private in order to protect public morality.
Thanks to the "Treaty of Eternal Peace", Federal Republic and Eastern Dominion were able to recover about 80% of their original population and economy from the Great War. Both nations were able to coexist and lived in peace and prosperity. Trade and communication of both government and people were always free and peaceful. There were frequent technology and culture exchanges between both factions. These also enabled both nations to send exploration expedition fleets to the far west to discover the Western Continent together a century ago. Generally speaking, according to the book, the Eastern Continents was thus considered as one of the most "peaceful" lands within the current world.
After reading upon here, Esdeath was greatly impressed but also extremely dissatisfied and doubtful.
She was impressed by all the technology that she had never heard of before. Vox-communicator, vox-radio, vox-transponder, television, cogitators, trains, airships and submarines...these were all alien technology to her. She had no idea what their functions were, except some photos shown at the side of the page. All she knew was that they were very useful and common for those Easterners. She was also impressed by their long military history and were able to genocide all those fairy tale like humanoid monsters, as well as being successful in their still continuing campaign for exterminating or enslaving all forms of danger beasts. All these were definitely things that Esdeath was unable to do by her own or her own legion. These Easterners were indisputably strong and well organised, especially due to their unique belief of anthropocentrism.
Meanwhile, Esdeath was dissatisfied that no slaves were present on the Eastern Continent. To Esdeath, when she encountered strong warriors, there were only 2 thing that she wanted to do, either torture them to death in the most horrific way possible or broke their mind with horrific torture to the point that they were nothing but a broken shell with their sole purpose were to please and serve Esdeath to their death. The latter was also known as her "pets" which could be also classified as "elite warrior slaves". If Esdeath ever dared to enslave any Easterners, she would instantly be a dead man with the whole Continent wanting her dead. As a person who wanted sanctuary in the East, Esdeath decided it was better to follow their laws and play according to the rules. Although "no slavery" was not a big deal, Esdeath surely would lose a lot of her "fun".
Esdeath was also very doubtful about the book's description of the current politico-military situation of the Eastern Continent. It was just far too perfect and way too utopia like. One of the most important things that Esdeath learned in her life is that war, war never changes. Humans were never designed to co-exist with one another. Humans were destined for war. They never learned their lessons and the humans always squabble among themselves, eventually causing the outbreak of another conflict. Esdeath clearly did not believe that these Easterners were truly in peace and prosperity. Surely, there must be way more hope and joy in contrast to the west, the book's description was just too idealized and romanticized. That so-called "Eternal Peace" was already impossible and felt like a fantasy. She rather lost her Demon's Extract teigu than believe in such childish unrealistic fairy tale like relationships.
There must be something that the book didn't mention. Esdeath needed to learn the whole truth. She needed to find Doctor Malikov, the native citizen of Federal Republic for his honest and unbiased opinion tomorrow morning. However, before that, Esdeath better finished reading the whole book so that she could further understand the Eastern Continent and ask insightful questions when the time comes.
Esdeath then took a spoon of the weird tasted herba taxilli and egg sweet soup but found that she had already finished all of it. She went to the kitchen to fill another bowl of her sweet soup. During the process, Esdeath had already made up her mind. The decision was very clear. Even the description of the Eastern Continent may be very too idealized, romanticized and lacked the complete truth. It still showed that the Eastern Continent was currently the safest sanctuary for her family. More, importantly, Esdeath had no other choice. She must left the Western as soon as possible since the chaos of war is inevitable. She and Tatsumi needed to escape to the Eastern Continent no matter the cost. Her only hope was in the East.
However, out of 2 factions, Federal Republic and Eastern Dominion, which one would she choose to settle down when she got there?
With a new bowl of sweet soup, Esdeath sat back on her sofa and continued to read the book. The chapter was now about the simple introduction about the socio-economic and demographics of the 2 factions. It would be crucial for Esdeath's decision.
First, it was the "Omospondiaki Dimokratia", translated as "Federal Republic" in standard Official Imperial Language. Their national flag was a giant golden double headed eagle in the middle of a white based, blue tetragrammatic cross flag surrounded with blue edges. It was the country where Dr Malikov was from. The faction occupied the western part of the Eastern Continent, facing directly at the Empire far over the great ocean. For the geography, there was a huge Mediterranean sea and basin within the heart of the Federal Republic; mountain range, forest, minor plains and highland in the eastern; steppes, plains, hilly range and cold forest in the north. Their official language was called "Vyzantinosian". Just as the faction name implied, the Federal Republic is a federation of states with a republican form of government. Democracy and universal suffrage were promoted. The head of the state was an elected President with the title of Autokrator which could be also roughly translated as "Autocrat" in Imperial Language. Even as a federation, the government was highly centralised and each individual state, governor answered directly to the call of the Federal Government and the Autocrat. A fully elected Senate was also set up for effective legislation, assisting with different policy making and political related issues. The Capital of the state was Konstantinoupolis, a direct tribute to the Builder of this Great Golden Eternal City, the Bane of Xenos, the Defender of Faith and the Founder of the Federal Republic - Saint Konstantinos the Great.
For socio-economy, the Federal Republic had a very well balanced economic development policy with good all round primary, secondary and tertiary sector economy; agricultural productions, both light and heavy industries were all well known for their good quality, cost effectiveness, mass production and always being abundant in supply. The surplus and outdated industrial products were usually mass exported to the Eastern Dominion in lower price in order to gain maximum profit. The Republic was thus able to self-sustain very effectively. The Federal Republic also had well developed social welfare system as free medical care and free education was provided to all Federal Citizens. The Federal Republic had 100% literacy rate as each citizen was obligated to receive 12 years of compulsory education from about 7 to 18 years old. Class system was completely abolished since the establishment of the Federal Republic. Although "Noble" title still existed, they only acted as honorary titles with no authority or special privileges.
The state religion of Federal Republic was an monotheistic church called Pantokratorianity. Literally all Federal Republicans were devoted Pantokratorians except foreigners. Pantokratorians belief in the Holy Trinity: God the Father, Pantokrator the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit; The death, descent into hell, resurrection and ascension of Pantokrator; The holiness of the Church and the communion of saints; Pantokrator's second coming, the Day of Judgement and salvation of the faithful; in afterlife, Heaven for the ever righteous and virtuous, Hell for the evil and wicked. Their sacred texts were the "Kodix'' which consisted the collection of religious texts, writings, scriptures and teachings of Pantokratorianity. The leader of the Church was called the "Patriarch" and worked with the assistance of different bishop. The Autocrat had authority over all church officials and affairs. Priests could also get married.
The Federal Republic's military may not be the strongest in the world but they were very well trained, well organized, professional, very versatile with excellent crisis responses abilities. They were also well equipped and had access to many unique advanced military technology, such as .75 caliber rifled muskets, gatling guns, flamethrowers, incendiary grenades, explosive arrows, steam tanks, armored trains and ironclad warships. The military doctrine was always Combined Arms Warfare and masters of Hammer and Anvil Tactical Encirclement Maneuver. Soften up the enemy with hell fire of artillery bombardment; harassing enemy with cunning light infantry and fast hitting cavalry; hold the main battle line with unbreakable heavy infantry, supported by the havocs unleashed by specialist units; devastating heavy cavalry and cataphracts maneuvered to the enemy rear, ending the battle with one final hellish earthshaking rear charge; fully encircle the enemy and sent them all to the oblivion under the Holy Daze of the Almighty Pantokrator. The Republican Military could be roughly divided into 2 different branches: Federal Themata and Federal Tagmata. Federal Themata were Thematic troops which were basically provincial army and navy used for domestic security and border defences. The Federal Tagmata worked as the Republic's standing field army and war navy for foreign expeditions and operations. These central governmental quick reaction forces consisted some of the most elite guardsmen and special forces known to the whole Eastern Continent.
Second, it was the "Slth Shrqa", translated as "Eastern Dominion" in standard Official Imperial Language. Their national flag was a golden phoenix on a purple flag, surrounded with red edges. The faction occupied the Eastern part of the continent, facing directly at the Western Country and Southern Country over the great ocean. For geography, the heart of the East was the area surrounded by 2 large rivers, forming the area of the "Fertile Crescent" which was also the birthplace of the first civilization and the technology of agriculture within the Eastern Continent. However, away from the this Fertile Crescent, the rest of the area were mostly desert woodland and desert plains, with dry and sandy plateau to its East. The Eastern Dominion was a state of absolute monarchy similar to the Empire. The head of the state was the Shahanshah which could be also roughly translated as "King of Kings" in Imperial Language. Although as an empire similar to The Empire of the Western Continent, the government of the Eastern Dominion was not that centralised as each individual satrapy was allowed to self governed with appointed satrap. They were allowed to control their own army and economy but all were acted as viceroys ruling in the Shahanshah's name. Therefore, they all still needed to directly answer to the call of the Shahanshah and central Government when orders were issued. The Capital of the state was the Great City of Tyspwn.
For socio-economy, the Eastern Dominion had a very well balanced economic development policy with good all round primary, secondary and tertiary sector economy. However, it focused a lot more on trade; exporting raw materials, fuel resources like oil and coal; mining of precious metal; the production of extremely luxurious silk clothing, expensive food, high class handicrafts, exotic jewellery; the rearing supreme horse steed and monopolized publication of alchemy related products. The Eastern Dominion also had well developed social welfare system similar to the Federal Republic, as free medical care and 12 years of free compulsory education was provided to all citizens. Moreover, caste system was used in the Eastern Dominion, society can be basically divided into 4 classes: royal, clergy, noble and commoners. The royal family had absolute authority and final discretion over anyone while the clergies and nobles had numerous special privileges like precedence over any public services.
The state religion of Eastern Dominion was Omniscientianism. Literally all native citizens of the Eastern Dominion were devoted Omniscientians except foreigners from the Federal Republic. This monotheistic religion worship the Omniscientia who was also known as the Lord of Wisdom and the One True Creator for their followers. The principle of Omniscientianism is the profound dichotomy between good and evil and the idea that the world was created by God, Omniscientia. There was the eternal battle between righteous and the evil one but the virtuous would triumph over the wicked. There was also belief that afterlife was determined by the choices people make while on earth and when evil was finally defeated at the end of time, the world would restore its once perfect state. Their sacred texts was the Kedkes, which consisted was the collection of religious texts, writings, scriptures and teachings which were sacred to Omniscientianism. In the their religion, fire and water were agents of ritual purity. Omniscientians also performed sky burial in Tower of Silence.
Eastern Dominion's army was very well trained, well organized and professional as well. Their supreme alchemical technology enable them to equip a lot of different exotically armament which could even easily surpass Federal Republican military, like self regenerating alchemical armor, semi automatic crossbow, corrosive arrows, armor piercing explosive fire lance, power drill lancer, flammable power maul, electric taser sword, mirror shield, genetically modified super warhorses, gargantuan railway cannons, bio chemical gas, fully armored gigantic war mammoth and pegasus cataphracts. Combined Arms Warfare was also used but the real essence of the Eastern Dominion's army is their Breakthrough Doctrine. Contrary to the Republican's balanced Army, the Eastern Dominion's army was all about shock and awe speed - the speed of blitzkrieg. In fact, the backbone of their army were those genetically modified super cataphracts, raising absolute hell by the commands of their battle hardened noble warrior riders. It was said that these juggernauts' charges were so powerful that they could easily bulldoze over a steam tank and a cohort of fully armored heavy infantry formations. Their tactics was simple but brutally, when the main cataphract forces and super heavy mounted forces breakthrough the enemy line and torn a huge hole/gape right in the heart of the enemy battleline; the reserve elite infantry and auxiliary mounted danger beast units would immediately fill in the torn gaps and further fragment the enemy and cut off any chance of enemy regrouping; then, all those earlier cataphracts would return and perform a single devastating rear charge, completely shatter the enemy. Interestingly, even the Eastern Dominion's army also deployed field artillery, their usage effectiveness was limited. Their firing rate was a lot slower and bombardment coverage was way smaller compared to their Federal Republic counterpart. It is used to prevent friendly fire during high speed unit advancements when approaching enemy lines. admiration and respect.
Upon reading here, Esdeath was highly impressed. Even without any teigu, the military of both Eastern Factions were no doubt powerhouse. They were indeed highly organised wil advanced military doctrine. Sadly, they had no teigu. If they ever did, there would be a very high chance that both Factions could actually easily rival the Empire. Both Federal Republic and Eastern Dominion also gave Esdeath an extremely refreshing impression because not once in her life had she ever imagined there would be nations in the world that were willing to do so much in general public affairs with such strong organisation. The idea of free medical service and free compulsory education were just too "advanced" to the point it was completely unheard of in the whole Western Continent. In the past, Esdeath would absolutely sneer at the idea of public service because the idea of social welfare was completely contradict her old code of "The strong survive and the weak die", she would ridicule why would a government so stupidly to help the poor and underprivileged; they should just be forsaken and die alone. However, the now mother Esdeath seemed to understand after Doctor Milikov's guidance a few days ago and the establishment of her new personal code - "The strong survive and the weak die, so it is the obligation for the strong to to help elevate the weak as equals." Although Esdeath still didn't give a single fuck to those who she don't cherish, in fact, she still enjoyed seeing them suffer or straight up being killed.
Nevertheless, these 2 Eastern Factions had already gained the blue haired General's admiration and respect.
The blue haired General had finally decided that she would settle down in the Federal Republic. Although both Federal Republic and Eastern Dominion were strong and stable factions with great civilian technology, Esdeath still prefered the Federal Republic as her first choice after some deep considerations. First of all, Esdeath liked cool weather and beautiful scenery. The sandy plains of Eastern Dominion were too hot, too dry and sunny. Even the Demon's Extract was able to maintain Esdeath's ever cool body temperature, the environment of desert like sandy pains was just not comfortable especially due to those annoying sandstorms. When those coarse and rough sands scatter around and hit hard on your clothes, it was just a pain in the ass to clean. Even if Esdeath summoned an extra layer of thin ice to protect her cloth, the constant hit of hot sand was still very irritating. Also, the view of endless hot yellow sand was just jarring, dull and boring. Even with those exotic looking bush fields at Fertile Crescent, it was just not enough. However, when it came to the Federal Republic, Esdeath instantly felt in love with all those beautiful scenery: the warm weather, beautiful beaches and comfortable Mediterranean basin in the heart of the Republic; the mighty steppes, plains, hilly range and cold forest in the north of Republic; the attractive mountain range, pleasant forest, minor plains and cool highland in the east of the Republic. The climate of Federal Republic was temperate with four distinct seasons, warm summer and cold winter, as well as suitable amount of rainfall. All these just fitted Esdeath's taste perfectly.
Secondly, Esdeath was greatly interested by the Federal Republic's military technology, especially those steam tanks, armored trains and ironclad warships. The general just instantly fell in love with their aesthetics. According to these black and white photos within the book, even these war machines were not being over-decorated and still look very practical, those religious decorations like icons, drawings and writings were just stunning and beautiful to look at. Also, common Republican soldiers were equipped in a unique and similar fashion: lamellar armour reinforced by chainmail and leather straps strips; helmets with leather straps lappets or full mail coif and officers had helmets with feather crest; garments with simple but artistic geometric patterns; religious accessories for personal protections. All these were just so special and were completely unseen of in the Western Continent. Yet, some of them strangely resembled those scale and lamellar armour worn by Esdeath's fellow Partas kinsmen back in the old days. Nevertheless, they just greatly attracted Esdeath's aesthetic interest and attention. Esdeath decided that she must join their military so that she could get all these fancy new toys to play with. With her overpowered Demon's Extract teigu and former position as the General of the mighty Empire, those Republican officials would no doubt give her a similar military utilize her ability and wisdom. No matter if it was Federal Themata or Federal Tagmata, Esdeath was sure she would have a lot of fun. Of course, if Esdeath wanted to "forget the past'' in the Eastern Continent, she had to make sure the Federal Republican Government kept her secrets as perfect as a dead man and gave her whole family a new suitable identity.
Thirdly, there was no caste system in Federal Republic. If Esdeath immigrated to the Eastern Dominion, there would be a very high chance that the Shahanshah would ennoble Esdeath and her whole family as new military noble. However, such rapid speed of ennoblement would receive a lot of hostility from local nobility due to conflict of interest. Although Esdeath was a natural born warrior, it didn't mean she was ignorant in politics. Instead, she was also one of the most wicked and skillful military-politicians within the Empire, only slightly surpassed by the FATASS Prime Minister Honest. Esdeath could easily frame anyone and gave them familial exterminations with only a few thoughtful schemes if she wanted. However, Esdeath seldom did so because it is just too "boring" and not "fun" to do. Plotting war crimes or plotting the extermination of a whole noble family? The fun of course belonged to the former one where you could perform ethnic cleansing! The enjoyment was just far too overwhelming. Therefore, Esdeath had no doubt she could eventually deal with all those hostile nobility of the Eastern Dominion but it would just be very boring and a pain in the ass. In order not to have any dumbass disturb her family time and future military career, Esdeath did not choose Eastern Dominion. The Federal Republic's was thus a perfect choice for her.
Lastly, Doctor Malikov was from Federal Republic. If he was able to travel to the Empire from the Federal Republic, it must mean that he had at least some kind of ship or transport to bring him to the Western Continent because no Imperial vessels were suitable for long cross ocean voyages. Doctor Malikov would be her only ticket and hope to leave the Empire to the Federal Republic. The doctor was not as simple as he seems. Even if he was indeed a member of these "studies group", it still doesn't explain how he could oddly remain claim when facing a berserk Esdeath, not being afraid to scold as her for being "stupid" and use professional military slangs naturally. He surely got some secrets and it was just too interesting for Esdeath. Unless... these studies groups were also not as that ordinary as they seems?
Esdeath also seemed to guess one of the main reasons why both Federal Republic and Eastern Dominion needed to sign peace treaty of having such gigantic and irrational casualties of "60% of continental population" even though they had no weapons or teigu capable of mass destruction. Both military doctrine of Federal Republic and Eastern Dominion were contradictory and opposite of each other. When defensive encirclement met with aggressive frontal breakthrough, both tactics equalized and neutralized one another's strength and weakness, making both military effective and ineffective against each other at the same time. With no clear advantages and disadvantages, battles and wars were in complete stalemate. When both army were extremely well trained, well equipped with supreme morale, no one falter, no one broke, no one retreat with every one fighting to their last breath; the whole battle and the war instantly turned into an gigantic never stopping meat grinder, the slaughterhouse that forever worked in an endless vicious cycle.
"Wait...somethings wrong...It isn't right. Why does it all sound so coincidental...", Esdeath mumbled.
After some deep thinking process, Esdeath widened her bright crystal blue eyes and said with an enlightened tone, "It makes sense now...It all makes sense now. I finally got it now..."
Esdeath suddenly realized the reason why even though both Federal Republic and Eastern Dominion were supposed to be in "Eternal Peace", they were still keen on contacting the Empire for teigu technology in their "early expedition". The reason was actually very obvious, remember it was said that both nations had recovered about 80% after 200 years of peace treaty? This meant that both their militaries were already recovering progressively... which also meant that they were ready for war again in the future. They were ready to destroy each other once again! However, given that their original military doctrine made no progress in their meat grinder style warfare, both Eastern nations were desperate to have access to teigu so that they could process weapons of mass destruction, finish their rivals once and for all with less amount of time and less casualties of their own. The earliest stage of exploration of Western Continent was no ordinary scientific or simple diplomatic expedition, it was actually a race for the access of teigu, a race for weapons of mass destruction.
Yet, ironically, the one who stopped the outbreak of such devastating continental war was the Empire. Due to the Imperial government and other Western factions strictly refusing any teigu trade due to national security, both Federal Republic and Eastern Dominion eventually completely gave up their fruitless pursuit of gaining any teigu. It also directly caused both Eastern nations to remain at peace because they didn't want to suffer another long never ending vicious cycle of meat grinding experience without any teigu capable of decisively breaking through their military stalemates. The Empire just unintentionally successfully crushed their ambition for another conflict and turned all those "later expeditions" into some more "ordinary" studies groups without their original military goal of obtaining teigu.
Esdeath laughed sarcastically, "Over evil Empire has single-handedly prevented the self destruction of 2 great Eastern nations. How unexpected~"
The blue haired General then slowly drifted away into her own little fantasy,
Wait...Since both Federal Republic and Eastern Dominion had no teigu...If I settle down there, it also means that I am the only one who had teigu in the entire Eastern Continent...Ain't it also meant that I am basically invincible in the East? I know my value, my teigu - the weapon of doom and havoc. I am the most valuable and beneficial personnel that these Easterners would ever dream of. Because of my power, the leaders of nation would bend down and lick my boots like a pathetic bitch just to gain my attention: beg for me to be their ally; tried to please me with whatever I want; try to bribe me with whatever they have; so that they could secure my loyalty and presume I would pick a side in their self destructive war in the future. Yes~how delicious~more war~ more death~ more suffering~ I would eventually be the one truly in control of their politics; the puppeteer of war; manipulator of nations behind the shadow...
However, just as Esdeath started to fade into her own little fantasy and imagined how she would plot and conspire a apocalyptic world war in the Eastern Continent from the shadows; her mother's instincts kicked in,
No, no, no... what if the Empire or the Revolutionary Army actually won the war and finally developed advanced cross ocean navigation technology. What if they decided to invade the Eastern Continent when Eastern Continent was in chaos. It would be an instant death sentence for me since I can't deal with so many enemies at the same time. A quarrel benefits only the third party...
Hum...if I want to play it safe, maybe I should loosely ally myself with Federal Republic while also keeping the balance of power with the Eastern Dominion...Hum...yea... I can't have enemies on all sides. Once I settle down in the East, I am not an Empire General any more, I am going to be a mother. My priority reason for immigrating to the East was to provide my lovely twins a happy, safe and peaceful living environment, not to start another war!...Well...Err...Actually...Regional war or small scale conflict is fine...but I just cannot allow any outbreak of huge continental scale world war or my sweet little angels would definitely suffer. They will forever lose their bright future and wonderful childhood... Hum...War and Peace, I am the key factor to strike the balance..."
Suddenly Esdeath's own loud yawning disrupted her own little drama within her mind. She looked at the clock and it was already midnight. Esdeath felt a bit tired earlier than usual. She then closed the book gently and she mumbled cheerfully, "Whatever, I got plenty of time to decide what I want to do once I settle down in the Federal Republic. The decision and planning of all these kinds of stuff can wait..."
With another loud yawning, Esdeath walked towards her queen sized bed and laid down comfortably.
I better sleep now since there will be a hella lot of questions to ask Malikov tomorrow.
With a clear goal in her mind, Esdeath was very confident and relieved. As she laid in the bed, Esdeath put her hands on her belly, gently rubbing it with love and affection as usual. The motherly rubbing had been Esdeath's new daily habit. Whenever the blue haired general was free from work within her own private quarters, she would rub her belly affectionately as a way to communicate with her twins and show her motherly love to them. More importantly, it also worked as a way for Esdeath to comfort and convince herself that she would reunite with Tatsumi very soon. Until now, even Esdeath could not locate Tatsumi yet, she was still hopeful and optimistic that her husband-to-be would eventually come to find her.
Somehow feeling the echo from her adorable lovely angels, the relieved Esdeath quickly fell into a peaceful sleep with a blessed smile on her face.
In her sweet sweet dream tonight, Esdeath was holding both her cute sleepy infant twins in her arms and bosom gently. Her husband, Tatsumi sat next to her, using his strong arm to softly embrace her from the side. It was the warmest and safest place that ever existed in the world. As Esdeath laid her head against her dear husband's muscular chest, Tatsumi gently held her hand benevolently with care and love. Their fingers locked together and showed a pair of master crafted golden wedding rings, each one fitted perfectly on their respective ring finger...
Author's note
Guys, I am really sorry for the late update. The design and formation of the "Eastern Continent" have been a long and complex process over the past few weeks. Different concepts were made and then dropped with the draft changed over and over again. Nevertheless, I still made it!
My version of "Steppe Nomadic Esdeath" is heavily inspired by Turko-Mongolic tradition, culture and people. The titles of Khan, Khatun and Khanum were widely used in medieval Turko-Mongolic nobility. In this fanfic, I am using the Romanized Mongolian version of these titles. Esdeath's casual outfit is a combination of Chuvash male costume and Mongolian deel. Her casual headwear is an Mongolian hat known as loovuuz or buriad. Her mother's outfit is a combination of traditional Mongolian and Tuvan female costume but with additional modification to increase flexibility in order to fit Esdeath's over the top action sequence like mounted and close quarters combat in the future.
Language difference plays a minor but still important role in this story. Esdeath had her own Partas Language which is based on modern Tuvan, Yakut, Chuvash and Mongolian languages. Both of Esdeath's parent's name are Mongolian, "Bayarmaa" means "mother of joy" while "Chuluunbaatar" means "stone hero". About the Empire's language, let's just call it "Standard Imperial" which was basically our modern day English. As an international language, Standard Imperial was very common and widely used all over the Western Continent.
Esdeath's Partas Clan culture is basically a combination of different Eurasian Steppe Nomadic tribes throughout history, including Huns, Pannonian Avars, early Slavs, Bulgars, Chuvash, Tuvan, Mongols, etc. Her own nomadic tribal shamanism is heavily inspired by Tengrism and Tibetan Buddhism. Esdeath believed in different natural spirits like typical Proto-Indo-European "heavenly deities" like "Sky Father'', "nature deities" like "Earth Mother"and "societal deities" like "Harbinger". However, all these are loose collective descriptions and such religion is actually neither monotheism nor polytheism. It is because shamanism believes in numerous spirits who are actually not at the level of gods and fail the requirement for polytheism that the divinities have personal identities. Even so, Esdeath still just addressed them as the "Gods" due to linguistic tradition. Therefore, contrary to my author's note back in Chapter 1, Esdeath's "by the Gods" was not addressing the deities of Imperial Cult, instead she was always addressing the natural spirits of her own nomadic tribal shamanistic religion. (Sorry for the inconvenience caused by slightly changing the background lore stated back in Chapter 1.)
The background history of "Eastern Continent" is basically a low-fantasy version of the real life Roman–Persian Wars, a 681 years conflict between states of the Greco-Roman world and two successive Iranian empires. If you count it as the Greco-Roman culture sphere conflicts against Zoroastrianism Persian culture sphere, such timeline could be even extended to 1130 years, dating far back to the Greco-Persian Wars. It is an extremely fascinating millennium long conflict between 2 civilizations and world superpower throughout the whole antiquity until they both got tragically butchered by the opportunistic apocalyptical Muslim Invasion due to over exhaustion of war. Sassanid Persia was completely destroyed while the Byzantine Empire lost half of her ancestral territory. A sad but also a perfect example of "A quarrel benefits only the third party". Nevertheless, such millennial rivalry is the living embodiment of "True friends stab you in the front" and thus inspires me to create a world similar but without all those catastrophic tragedies as my tribute to the thousand years Greco-Roman and Zoroastrianism Persian rivalry. At least in my fanfiction, these 2 ancient Giants deserve a happy ending, co-existing in a world of peace and prosperity; so as Esdeath and Tatsumi.
Apart from heavy historical inspiration, some settings are also very unconventional. The idea of human supremacy is obviously heavily inspired by Warhammer 40k's Imperium. However, the Eastern Continent's anthropocentrism concept is actually also extremely different from the one in 40k. Such topic will be further explained in later chapters. Moreover, Federal Republic and Eastern Dominion are well organized, responsible and have huge investments in public affairs. Many modern "fantasy" titles especial those Japanese isekai bullshit, trend to have very weak and extremely incompetent government to the point it made no common sense. Most of them have the problem of "state military retardation": soldiers never patrol their lands, they never attack the enemies within their borders; there are literally no militia or armed villagers to defend their home village or town; even the state face no population or military decline, they still rely heavily on those "adventurer" mercenaries. I thus want to change such illogical anime stereotypes by portraying the Eastern Governments as efficient regimes with ruthless military. Also, the military technology of Eastern Continent was similar to the Empire in Warhammer fantasy so they had "advanced weapons" like steam tanks, semi automatic muskets and rocket batteries. For civilian technology, it was in fancy 1930s style so common citizens of Eastern Continent had access to black & white TV, radio and telephone.
The faction "Omospondiaki Dimokratia", meaning "Federal Republic" in Greek. Instead of the late antiquity or early medieval Byzantine Empire, the Federal Republic is a state based on Byzantinism and the concept of "Byzantine commonwealth" by Sir Dimitri Obolensky from his famous book "The Byzantine commonwealth" in 1971. The concept refers to all medieval Orthodox Christianity countries under the sphere of authority of Byzantine emperor, share the same profession of Orthodox and accept Romano-Byzantine law, thus formed the idea of "Byzantine commonwealth". This Federal Republic is thus a massive high and late medieval Byzantine Empire but in the form of a centralized federal republic like modern day USA, led by a President. Although the overall style, architecture, aesthetic and social virtues are all based on Byzantine Greek culture; each individual state/province have its own subculture and dialects based on different real life Orthodox Eastern European nations like Serbia, Romania, Ukraine and Georgia. Therefore, their costumes, customs and local military traditions could be vastly different. The Federal Republic's official language, "Vyzantinosian" is a combination of modern Greek, Latin, Russian, Georgian, Armenian and etc. The creation of the word "Vyzantinosian" is based on the Romanization of Greek word "vyzantinós/βυζαντινός" which literally means "Byzantine". The Federal Republic's state religion, "Pantokratorianity" is obviously a direct spin-off of Orthodox Christianity. The creation of the word "Pantokratorianity" is based on the Greek word "Pantokrator/Παντοκράτωρ", which directly means "Almighty" and uses as a specific depiction of Jesus Christ. The flag of the Republic is a combination of the Greek Revolution flag, Byzantine Tetragrammatic cross flag, Flag of the Greek Orthodox Church and Byzantine military banners that appeared in the Madrid Skylitzes. Their Capital, Konstantinoupolis is the Romanization of Greek "Κωνσταντινούπολις", translated as Constantinople in English. Their military system and organization is a combination of the Late Roman Army and Byzantine Army.
The state "Slth Shrqa", meaning "Eastern Dominion" in Persian/Farsi, is a state based on Persian Sassanid Empire. The overall style, architecture and aesthetic were all based on pre-Islamic Middle East and Middle Persian culture in late antiquity. Their official language is "Iraryian" which is based on modern Persian/Farsi and some Middle Persian. The creation of the word "Iraryian" is inspired by the term "Irano-Aryan" by Robert Needham Cust to describe Iranian language family back in 1878. The Eastern Dominion's religion "Omniscientianism" is a direct spin-off of Zoroastrianism. The creation of the word "Omniscientianism" is based on the Latin word "omniscientia" which literally means "omniscience". Their Capital City Tyspwn, is the Romanization of Middle Persian "𐭲𐭩𐭮𐭯𐭥𐭭" which is translated as "Ctesiphon" in Latin, was historically the Capital of Persian Sassanid Empire. Their flag is basically the Derafsh Kaviani, a royal standard of Sassanid Empire with a Simurgh which is a benevolent mythical phoenix like creature in Persian mythology. Their rich middle-eastern trait is inspired by historical Silk Road trade. Their military system and organization is based on Persian Sassanid Army.
Hope that my strange historical fetish can give you guys a super unique fanfiction experience set in Akame Ga Kill universe!
Also, Tatsumi would finally make his formal appearance in the next chapter! A great step forward to the reunion chapter!