August 9th, 1800
...
A cane is a disabled man's best company.
Some would say family is the most important of all, but in my case, the cane is all there is to offer support.
To this day, I wonder how come I ran so fast away from home. With a cane in hand. I never had to, but the loud explosions, the strong scent of blood, the... The adrenaline was all over my body. My instinct told me to run and do nothing else but run. I couldn't think clearly, the only thing I had in mind, back then, is that I... I wasn't going to survive, so I had to run. Very fast.
Not everyone was lucky. They did not make it to the entrance to go elsewhere. Some of my dearest friends passed away before they reached Lindblum in safety. It's a heartbreak that never quite heals, you know, like all of my past experience at combat didn't mean anything, it was worthless and... I feel worthless, the invasion made us feel that way, like we're nothing to them. Nothing unique, nothing special, so it was easy to eradicate most of us like we were some sort of plague, because if they could tell humans and rodents apart, there would be less casualties.
Man, woman, child... We're all rats, all the same, so why bother to differentiate us if you've been told to kill everyone. Their orders weren't to take any prisoners or spare civilians in the crossfire, just kill... Kill, and kill this, kill that, kill their culture, kill their beliefs, kill it all until there is nothing left but an old legend of a civilization long forgotten by the rest of the world, including its own people.
You know, things could've been different if we had control of airships. Not just as a weapon, but as a means to escape from this place. Back then, we accepted Lindblum's peace treaty, but we always refused their technologies. After the so-called Airship Revolution, the years that followed led to a gradual worsening of relations between Burmecia and the other nations of the world. Our King took pride in its denial, and that very pride cost his life, if not a million lives.
The decision was already made, there's no way to change that. Meanwhile, all that is left for us to do is... It is... I don't know, when Alexandria invaded our homeland, they stole not only our past, but our future as well, leaving us adrift in a sea of uncertainty. At times like these, I wish I had the optimism and desperation of a young man like my nephew, who is digging for gold in the desert. He has not found anything yet, but he swears he'll find something. Well, I hope so, he's been away from home for two months.