Chapter Two- Kill the Prince
Soldiers cried out in agony as their blood froze in their veins and the skin was infected with frost bite within moments. Their pained expressions and eyes full of awe and terror frozen in time. General Esdeath's icy blue stare cut through their hearts before her rapier did, she effortlessly leapt around the battlefield, slashing at the Northern men and women with unmatched proficiency. She was joined by her side by three soldiers in black suit-like attire.
One a middle-aged man, with graying hair tied in a long ponytail, and a well-groomed moustache; another a large younger but still well-aged man with long dirty blonde hair and white eyes and a broad build like a strongman or lumberjack, wearing two black horns atop his head; and the final a younger man with a slight growth stunt in a schoolboy's black uniform and shaggy blonde hair with two small black horns and sharp canines, appearing as an androgynous child. These were ex-general Liver, Daidara, and Nyau- the Three Beasts- Esdeath's trusted bodyguards/enforcers, considered among the most elite forces in the Empire.
Liver, despite being grizzled from years of military service, was still fast and spry, able to cut down men half his age with brutality, even chopping a young Northerner with his bare wrist in the nose, inverting it into his skull with such force his entire face seemed to implode.
Daidara wielded his Imperial Arms, a mighty battle axe with two edges, splitting a woman down the middle via the neck with a clean, hard swipe, spraying his face with warm blood and bone bits to his delight. His fury in battle was unmatched by any in the Imperial Army but Esdeath herself.
Nyau played his flute, weakening the Northern forces, putting them into a paralyzed state, their bodies sleeping but their minds wide awake. He grinned with his sharpened teeth and produced a large hunting knife from his belt, walking towards an older soldier, too old for the battlefield but his pride strong enough to push him to try and fight. He began slicing into the forehead of his first victim of many to come, explaining his unusual hobby. As the face was slowly peeled off the old Northerner, he shrieked in horror on the inside, barely able to process the level of pain he was in. Nyau was the ultimate sadist, pure and simple. Or, that's what all who knew him said before Esdeath recruited him and proved a match for his cruelty. As the son of a wealthy family he had access to constant supplies of peasants to victimize without punitive intervention, and now as a high-ranking soldier in the increasingly debauched Empire, nothing has changed for him.
Esdeath was basking in the glory of her effortless conquest when she spotted him across the frozen streets of the Northerner's fortified town. His spear moved so fast it would be imperceivable if Esdeath did not have eyes trained to spot such skillful manipulation. She smiled sadistically as she charged across the field, effortlessly freezing and cutting down any Northerner foolish enough to charge her or so much as be in her way. Numa Seika saw her coming as he finished off some of her soldiers. They had tried to come at his in large groups to overpower him, but the rumors were true: he was undefeatable with a spear no matter the amount of enemies he faced.
Numa Seika's eyes widened in anticipation as he blocked her blow with his spear. They clashed with immense fury, Numa Seika being pushed back by her incredible strength despite her slender frame. Esdeath slashed with incredible fury and accuracy but Numa Seika was faster than she expected, dodging her blows and landing one on her with the wood hilt of his spear, cracking her shoulder. She grunted and backed away, before laughing maniacally.
"You've landed a hit. You've earned some fragment of my respect. Now I won't castrate you like I initially planned." She grinned, getting inside the young man's head. She could see by the look of shock in his eyes after she said that that she was successful. The fight was already won, she could tell.
She lunged again, blasting Numa Seika with ice shards from the ground, demonstrating her control over it masterfully. She slashed into his armor but he was able to dodge the one meant for his head. Seika turned to run through an Imperial soldier who charged him from the side as he was distracted. Now his spear was momentarily not pointed at Esdeath, and he turned to barely block a downwards swing from her heel, breaking his arm gauntlets. He fell forward from the force, to receive a kick in the face from her opposite foot. He flew back, tasting copper in his mouth from the forceful kick. He smacked into the wall, struggling forward, only to look up to meet Esdeath sadistic smile and eerily blue eyes as she rushed towards him with unfathomable speed, body slamming him through the wall, leaving his body armor scratched and barely held together. Esdeath stood up quickly, elbowing Numa Seika across the face, and freezing his metallic boots into place on the floor, before putting the prince into a painful choke hold and slowly putting him into a blackout state as he grunted and struggled.
"Shhhh….." she whispered in his ear with an unsettling calmness. "You're mine now, dog." He heard as he drifted into complete darkness, aware that he had let down his people and was now at the mercy of a madwoman.
'I'm disappointed at him. He barely was able to keep up pace. Sure, he might've never lost a fight with a spear, but without the spear he's worthless. It was a crutch for him. I doubt he'll even be able to survive my torture for more than a few minutes. Oh well, might as well get it over with fast.' She thought, grimacing at the limp body of the young prince, before single-handedly dragging him away by the leg, breaking down the ice on his boots, showing the defeated prince to the now subjugated Northern soldiers, seeing their hearts break in their tired, bagged eyes.
She smirked before nodding to Liver, who commanded the forces to make examples of the remaining villagers and soldiers, who were dragged screaming away to be frozen and dismembered and violated. Liver was despondent to this, his respect for Esdeath now outweighing his moral compass. Daidara and Nyau joined in with childlike giddiness.
Wave awoke in his bed in the childhood room that hadn't changed since he left it. He still had a wooden model ship he had built as a child from some scraps he found. He had a few texts on the pirates that used to terrorize the ports of the Capital and the Navy's code of conduct manual provided from when he first enlisted. He got up and stretched, donning a roughed-up white shirt and loose brown pants, leaving his old room to the kitchen of his family's modest home.
"You're up early," Wave's father Ren said when he came to the table.
"Yeah, I'm still getting used to the time change. I'm used to getting up early on the ship." Wave groaned, rubbing the back of his neck. "That smells wonderful. What is it, mom?"
"It's some smoked salmon with rice." Wave's mother Kia smiled. "I know you've probably had too much seafood on that ship but—"
"No no, mom, it's fine." Wave half-smiled, digging into his breakfast.
"How is Keno? We hardly see him these days with all the fighting going on." Ren asked Wave as he sat down to eat.
"He's good. Back out on the sea that he loves, so I'm sure he's doing all right."
"And how's that armor he gave you? It's very sleek, it makes you look so lean and handsome. All the girls in the village have been asking after you since you got back." Kia smiled with her eyes shut.
Wave tried to ignore his mother's obvious pandering and building up his confidence.
"I don't know about that…" he looked down, embarrassed, "But it is a really powerful Imperial Arms. It increases my strength in speed tenfold at least, and makes me much more durable. I'm gonna start training with it soon in the village outskirts. Maybe hunt some Danger Beasts to help feed the village."
"And keep people from getting knocked off by them constantly when they go to hunt elk and buffalo in the nearby plains." Ren added sardonically.
"Hey, I forgot to mention that your uncle Genji has been out on hunting expeditions himself recently. He should be back soon, and he wants to see you. Maybe you two could go hunting and training together, he could show you a few things. Maybe it would be good bonding time for you two." Kia added, excited at her own idea.
"That sounds great. When is he supposed to be back?" Wave asked.
"Sometime today or tomorrow I believe." said Kia.
Wave finished his breakfast. Well, I better go out and take care of those turnips dad planted on the end of town and then I'll go start training.
Wave put on some slipper shoes and made his way outside, briefly blinded by the intense orange and white of the morning sun. Some nearby children playing hackey sack made their way quickly over, asking Wave excitedly about his time at sea and fighting pirates and sea creatures and the like. Some young ladies in the corner began giggling as he walked by and gossiping about him. Wave smiled at all the admiration he was receiving. Some elders of the village spotted him.
"There goes Kia and Ren's boy. He's got a good spirit, he does. A hero of the village. I'm glad the young ones have someone they can look up to here. All the other young men have gone off to fight in the military as well but none have returned yet." One older woman told her husband.
As Wave approached the outskirts of the village, his dark hair blowing in the gentle morning wind, he saw a scouting party approaching the gates. He paused, unsure if they were bandits or Imperial forces or what. Wave prepared to activate the Grand Chariot, before noticing who led the party. He was an older, but still well built and lean man with a graying black beard on his face and hair tied into a bun. He met Wave's stare at the same time, smiling.
"Uncle Genjo!" Wave cried out, running towards the scouting party, instinctively going back to when he last saw Genji before he left. He felt like he was still just a boy then. Now he was a man of the sea, and Genji noticed.
"Wave, you seem to have grown." They shook hands and wrapped their arms around one another.
"Taller?" Wave asked, confused.
Genji chuckled, "No, not literally. But you seem… different. More experienced. Your time in the Navy has served you well."
"Thank you, uncle. But I still have much to learn."
Numa Seika's head throbbed as he awoke, groaning in pain, barely remembering where he was. He heard screams and carnage nearby, but he couldn't make out from where. It seemed to be all around him. He realized from the sudden freezing sensation that he was not only without his proper armor, he was completely naked, out in the cold. He staggered up, struggling, only to feel a cold metal chain pull down on his neck and swift heel to the back dig into him, pinning him back to the cold, frosted Earth.
"Do not stand, worm. You are not fit to be at my level." A stern but familiar female voice coldly commanded.
"W-where am I?" he said, his once strong voice shaking from both the cold and the uncertainty of his fate.
"Home." She smiled, coming into his frame of vision, lifting her heel from him, leaving a small bleeding mark. She lifted her arm, gesturing out. They were high up on the city's walls. He realized behind him was his throne, he turned back to be sure but she quickly crouched down next to him, grabbing his hair, her filed nails digging into his skull, cutting his scalp slightly. He grunted and struggled but she wrenched his head back to where she was gazing out upon his city.
"Look where I tell you, dog." She grinned widely.
Numa Seika's eyes widened in horror and shock, his mind flooded with so much denial, so many emotions he couldn't process anything, jis jaw hanging open and shaking, muttering to himself.
His people were either entirely frozen or being slowly dismembered and raped and impaled on spikes, naked in the cold. Not a one was spared. Even the children were put into the Imperial wagons and sent off to labor in the Capital.
"You see? You are defeated because you are weak. And now, you belong to me. You will be my slave. You will consider it a privilege to serve me as such. You will entertain me with your subjugation, and your only purpose in life will to be tormented by me. You will never know my touch, your only pleasure will be cleaning the dirt from my boots with your worthless tongue that you used to speak against the Empire, and those better than you." Numa Seika registered these words but they no longer even frightened him. She was right. He was worthless- as a leader, a warrior, a strategist, a prince... he let his people down, failed to protect them, and they are suffering because of his misguided attempts to usurp the Capital. He was nothing of value and so he should embrace his status as a mere dreg.
He crawled over to her, bowing his head in defeat, and she dug her boot heel into the back of his head and neck, forcing his face to the ground as he struggled against her to remain on all fours.
"Well, I'm surprised to see you have accepted this. I'd usually be happy, but I'd wished you'd fought back a little harder, makes it more amusing."
"Would you like me to fight back? Would that amuse you more?" He asked genuinely, completely demoralized and disappointed he can't even be a pet correctly.
"Haha, no." she grinned "No matter, let's begin." She dragged him by the collar to a slab she had laid out for him to tie him down to begin his punishment for insubordination.
Hours later, and Numa Seika was no more. His old mind had completely vanished and all that was left was an absolute worship of Esdeath. She was a goddess in his eyes and everything about her was a revelation. Her conquest and destruction of his people was totally justified, she was incredible and divine and they were weak and not even deserving of a death at her hands.
Just being in her presence was a privilege and a pleasure, and Numa Seika genuinely looked forward to a continued existence as her masochistic plaything. He licked her boots up and down with absolute delight, panting heavily as he did. This was his new love- punishment by her.
He finished when she relinquished her vice grip on his leash, allowing him enough breathing room to sit up, allowing him to take a break. He was so pleased with getting to look up at her heavenly visage that he didn't even notice her glum expression.
She was at her worst—bored. His submission was boring, his fighting style was overhyped, he enjoyed the torment too much too quickly, he would hardly make a good pet for very much longer before she grew resentful of him. He barely even fought back against her. She was mostly angry at herself for ever even thinking he would make a good mate, let alone a decent doormat.
"So this was supposed to be the North's great hero?" she sneered, before going back to her eerie monotone. "How boring. Die!" she said with disgust, kicking Numa Seika with her heel, cracking his face and head open and spraying his brains on the pavement. 'At least he died happy and blissfully unaware' was the only comfort any of the soldiers could muster at the sight of this utterly pathetic sight.
Esdeath stood before her army, smiling sadistically again at the prospect of finding a true enemy to satiate her appetite for violence. As she rode back home to the Capital, she pondered her list of qualities. What was it mostly about this Numa Seika that bothered her with his submission? Was it the quickness of his surrender or the fact that he quickly enjoyed being her dog despite her barely even torturing him? No. Her eyes widened once she realized what it was. His smile.
He was always serious and stoic as a warrior so was rarely seen smiling. When he finally did when he submitted she found it—unappealing. It was like a dopey dog smile, not something to make her heart flutter but stomach churn. She couldn't say if he had always smiled like such a sad fool or if it was her doing but needless to say he was damaged goods and unfit to serve under her even as a punching bag.
'Maybe that's the key factor I've been looking for' she thought internally to herself, her neutral constitution not even betraying her secret plan for love to her compatriots. She was trained well to give nothing away to others, even her allies.
'It's in the smile. My love would need to have a smile that's warm and compassionate and innocent and pure- a smile that betrays nothing about the cold, hardened warrior inside. Something that reminds me of his love for me that pairs with his strength.'
She smiled to herself warmly as she thought on this, which Liver took notice of as he rode beside her but would never dare call her on it. It reminded him of the first time they met in his cell beneath the Imperial palace, thinking the rest of his days would be spent rotting down in the dungeons. She rarely smiled so genuinely, but when she did- it made his day.
He too had been trained not to betray his emotions, so he hid his own smile as best he could and stared ahead coldly, bracing his face with the harsh winds of the North, trampling over shattered ice that was once a human being.