The Nightingale
Chapter 4: Wargame
Summer. Year x491. Ichigo, 17 years old.
The king, after learning that one of the cities had been taken by Kuvar soldiers, ordered a group of soldiers, led by himself, to start the march towards the southern border to confront them.
The Kuvarites were going to regret having had the audacity to retake one of the cities of Avanta.
Several times the army of Avanta had repelled them and the same number of times they had moved again to take different cities and towns along the southern border and a few more that settled on the shores.
The citizens were already tired of that, they lived in constant fear of dying from these men, who from time to time would come and attack, seeking to keep the land that belonged to them. Isshin knew what battles to fight and which are not, and attack Kuvar, which was as big as Avanta, it was not a good idea without allies.
Upon reaching the city that had been taken by enemy soldiers, they installed a siege that included cutting off supplies and exits; if a person other than an inhabitant of that city tried to leave the city, then that person would be riddled with arrows from the archers.
They had been like this for several days. They knew that the sieges lasted for weeks, even months, if the resources within the city were vast.
Everything seemed to be going well until, one of the days of the siege, several bodies of the citizens appeared hanging on the city wall, all with a rope around their necks, together with a threat: "Lift up the siege or every day the bodies of the citizens will appear hanging."
The king could not tolerate that, he could not let those savages treat his people like that, and he immediately assembled the War Council that had gone with him. Ichigo wasn't invited for the simple reason that he didn't belong to the council, he was just one more soldier in his father's army.
That didn't matter to him as much as it should have, he just obeyed orders along with the other soldiers who had trained with him in the castle. Kaien had adopted an attitude of superiority since the campaign had started and Ichigo deduced that it was only because he was there and that it was not the first time that his brother accompanied the king in a campaign of this kind.
Ichigo, since he had returned to the kingdom, wondered many things; he kept thinking about what could have been and was not, all because he had gone to study in Vayalat. He was thinking of the education and training that he may have had, and he was thinking of the father that he may have had.
That last thing upset him a bit, since he had arrived he had the impression that his father did not love him as a father was supposed to love a child.
— You will not return to Avanta to be a prince. — His uncle, Kisuke, had told him the night before he started on his way back to Adelaar Castle. The board for the game of conquest, which they were playing that night, was half full.
— So why do I return? If I am not a prince, what am I supposed to be? — He asked annoyed moving one of his pieces to conquer one more space on the board on his uncle's side.
— You will become a soldier. — His uncle replied calmly. Kisuke smirked before moving one of his pieces and conquering all of Ichigo's territory. — I won again!
Ichigo didn't know how his uncle did that, he repeated the whole game in his mind as fast as he could and at no point did he see that his uncle had cornered him like that. He looked at Kisuke, who was hiding his smile of victory behind his fan, before speaking.
— Are you hinting that I should renounce my right to the crown? — He asked putting the pieces back on the board.
That little war game, as strategic as the war itself, made him think. Ichigo had never defeated his uncle and it was a challenge for him. The anger at his uncle's suggestion had been short-lived.
— No, but you have been away from your father's kingdom for so long that when you return you will be a stranger. People will not know you, they will know that you are a prince because it is what you are, a man with a title, but people will not feel the same sympathy for you as for your brother who has been there all his life. — Explained.
He moved one of his pieces towards Ichigo's battlefield that was unprotected.
— And if I become a soldier, will I win the sympathy of the people? — He asked without seeing his uncle. He moved an unusual piece and conquered part of his uncle's battlefield.
— It will give you the sympathy of the soldiers. The men will speak of you as an equal; happy men say good things, and drunk men brag about their personal achievements with women in taverns. — His uncle moved a piece making him see how easy it was to lead someone into a trap if they attacked too fast. Ichigo protested his uncle's cheating and stopped paying attention to the game.
— You want the people to love me, why? The kingdom will be mine. — That last thing he said with a certainty that was collapsed with the following words of his uncle.
— Are you sure the kingdom will be yours? Do you forget that your father prefers his bastard son over you? — His uncle put down his fan to stare at him. — The people are from Kaien, never forget why your mother took you out of Avanta. When you return, you will become a soldier. Become an exceptional man among exceptional men. Make people love and admire you, because that's the true way to have the crown that belongs to you and that, let's be honest, your brother wants; but above all, do not show everything you can do in one movement. The ignorance of your enemy is your advantage.
Kaien was his enemy. His uncle warned him about it that night and his father confirmed it on the day of his arrival. The Prince of the kingdom, he had said. Ichigo knew how good he was, he had received training that could have killed him and if he died, in his uncle's words, it meant that he did not deserve to be more than that, a dead man.
His father had told him that he would be the new commander of the kingdom, so to become that, he first had to show the soldiers that he was an exceptional man. Kaien could stay with council meetings, talk to councilors, and walk among the soldiers with that expression of superiority; In silence, he would begin to do the things he needed to put everything in his favor.
That was the reason why he was camping with his other two companions, at the end of the camp, with the other low-ranking soldiers.
— Hey Ichigo! — Renji called him, one of the teammates he was with in Kenpachi's training squad.
Ichigo stopped thinking about what his uncle had told him the last night in Vayalat and took a gulp of the water he was drinking. The taste of the water reminded him of the water he drank in the attack on Trinity Island, it reminded him of the war.
— What's up, Renji? — He asked when his partner sat next to him with a plate of food in the hands. Uryu arrived a few moments later, also with a plate of food.
— The king came out of his tent, he is touring the camp together with Prince Kaien, I think the War Council is over and is assessing the situation of the soldiers. — Renji took a bite of dried meat.
Renji and Uryu were the only ones who treated him with that informality typical of friendship; they called him by his first name when they were alone and they used the formalities only when Ichigo was in his role as prince of the kingdom, which was seldom because most of the time he was with them in the squad.
— Surely we will not see blood, they will leave us until the end to bury the bodies. — Uryu also took a bite of the dried meat. — It's the only thing we do, that and dig latrines, the good thing is that those things are only covered with more soil.
— Then meat trees will grow, this food is inedible. — Renji threw the dried meat against a tree trunk and it bounced to the ground. Uryu stopped trying to eat when he saw that.
— Only if the king does not decide that we should open the city gate with our heads. — Ichigo muttered as he stopped eating the dried meat, it was depressing to see how uneatable it was but the war was like that.
— If that happens, you are the expert in the war, you just have to guide us. — Renji's carefree expression turned to one of utter seriousness when he finished saying that. Ichigo was unfazed. — I shouldn't have said that, sorry.
— That is what is going to happen, I will guide you so that you do not die trying. — He confirmed before looking at the spoon in his hand. — Only, I cannot promise that if it happens, you will come back alive or come back whole.
Renji and Uryu were silent for a moment, neither of them took one more bite of their food. None of them had been in the war, none had taken a life to save their own, and none had felt the weight of a real sword in their hand. None of them had received no war wounds, only Ichigo.
— Tell us what it is like to be in battle . — Uryu spoke quietly.
Nobody paid attention to them, they were just a group of last class soldiers. Ichigo was silent, thinking how to explain to his companions what it was like to go to war, what it was like to be in it; they were all the same age but only he had gone to war and come back from it.
— It's frightening. — He said after thinking for a while. — When we are training, we hit, fall and get up just to try again but in war, in war you forget everything. It is not like those stories of heroes who wielded their sword and defeated many enemies, at that moment, the instant you see how your companions are pierced by enemy swords or arrows; that's when you notice how fragile you really are. Panic takes hold of you and you feel that you cannot move, you do not think, the first time it is more instinct than knowledge.
Ichigo paused, Renji and Uryu stayed for a silence letting him speak, listening carefully to what he was saying; he had never said it out loud and that was a kind of outlet for him.
— The first time that you are in battle it is like suddenly growing up, like jumping off a cliff and surviving the fall. At that moment you do not think, you just take the sword and try to save your life but later, when you are aware of the lives you took, then the whole world collapses under your feet and you fall into a black hole. You wonder if those men you killed had families, if they had children or if they had brothers, you think too much about that. When we go to war, not only does the enemy die, we also die there.
There was a long and pronounced silence between them, Ichigo had been thinking about the first time he had gone to war, the first time he had seen the blood stain his sword and the first life he took; the first man that he killed was a couple of years older than him, but they were both on the battlefield trying to kill each other.
The moment that he assimilated that act, an infinite abyss opened under his feet and swallowed him completely; since that day he had not been able to get out of there, that abyss constantly cried out for a tribute of blood that he refused to give.
— Attention, Your Majesty King Isshin is here! — One of the soldiers shouted causing all the soldiers, who were eating in groups in front of their respective tent, to get up from their place and stand in formation.
Ichigo also stood up and greeted his king with respect, Kaien was behind the king like a shadow and Ichigo noticed that he seemed to contain a smile behind his serious gesture.
— Choose your men and come to my tent. — The king ordered him without taking his eyes off him, as if he were evaluating him.
— Yes, your Majesty.
Something told him that Kaien hadn't forgotten the fight in the training yard and was just waiting for the opportunity to exact his revenge. Something was screaming at him from all sides that this was the revenge of his brother. The king left there when he finished saying that and Ichigo stared at the back of his father as he walked away before turning to see Renji and Uryu.
— Well, you two are my men. If we're going to die, I'd rather die fighting alongside the only friends I have. — He said that, aware that it was the first time he had said it out loud.
The friendship between them had formed silently, Ichigo had never reinforced that fact until that moment when he said out loud that they are friends.
Renji and Uryu put away their things, followed Ichigo through the camp to the king's tent, which stood out among the other tents as it was bigger than all the others, and introduced themselves to the Imperial soldiers. The guards let them pass and Ichigo found his father, sitting at the head of a large table with maps and scrolls, with Kaien to the right of him.
— We have this situation: — His father began to talk after they paid their respects to him. — For every day it takes us to recover the city, more dead citizens will appear and we cannot allow that. Prince Kaien is sure that you might have some good idea, and after consulting with the Commander of Vayalat about your training, I am convinced that it could be true.
The king was looking at him with that penetrating gaze, as if expecting him to give the wrong answer at the same time as he gave the correct answer.
Ichigo looked at his friends who were silent, just a step behind him, and then looked at the king. Ichigo was mentally cursing his uncle for putting him in that situation, he could almost imagine him hiding his smile behind his fan.
— Your Majesty, I don't have the necessary information to suggest an idea, but if Your Majesty wants us to be at the forefront, then we will. If your Majesty wants me to take an advance party to survey the terrain, I will. If your Majesty wants us to break down the city gates with our hands, then we will. Your Majesty, order and we will comply with your request or die trying.
Ichigo's voice was serious, determined and, deep down, resigned to the fact that his father didn't love him as much as he did with Kaien. He couldn't imagine a future where he was the commander and his father listened to him the way he did to Kaien.
— I want the head of the General who hides behind the walls of the city. — The king spoke after hearing that little speech.
— Then we will give you that, Your Majesty. — Ichigo said and he was sure that Uryu and Renji tensed behind him. He had embarked them on a suicide mission.
— Tomorrow we will attack the city. Your mission, if you are as good as Captain Kenpachi and the Commander of Vayalat say, will be to prevent the man from fleeing in the attack and put his head at my feet.
The king explained carefully what he wanted and Ichigo just nodded in compliance with the order along with his friends. They left the tent and the daylight dazzled them a little, they had become used to the darkness in the king's tent.
— I think you'll have to teach us how to survive tomorrow's carnage. — Renji whispered.
They had walked in silence from leaving the king's tent to reaching their own. Renji was looking at his hands as if they had been given something too heavy to carry and doubted his strength.
— We will not be at the massacre tomorrow. — He assured looking at his pair of friends who did not understand his words.
On the way back to their tent, he had an idea that could be either very good or very bad.
Thaks everyone for reading.