Firstborn: Return of the heir

“I wonder if that bastard found some painters to record that scene…”

Murmuring to himself, Saulus stared off into the distance. It seemed that he was hoping that if he wished for it strong enough, his eyes could break through the barrier of distance and catch the sight of the golden city of the east.

“Sir, did you say something?”

Standing beside him, Gabriel, the first officer of the second legion, looked at his superior with a puzzled look on his face.

“Nah, don’t mind me. By the way, do we have confirmation?”

Not even bothering to look behind him, Saulus asked.

“Yes, sir. For some reason, as soon as our soldiers moved out, most of the riots stopped. We are still waiting for the report from the fourteenth sector, and then we should be ready to go.”

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Hearing the answer of his subordinate, Saulus only pretended to look at the map placed on a small stool beside them. Living in this city for quite a while already, the young general could be forced awake in the middle of the night with a hammer to his head, coerced to chug down an entire bottle of the strongest booze… And all of that still wouldn’t be enough to impair his ability to recite all the district’s names and numbers in correct order!

“Magistrate is putting up some fight after all… Well, we couldn’t expect everything to go as easily as taking over the rest of the city was.”

Shaking his head with an expression torn between satisfaction and disappointment, Saulus stole a glance behind himself. The fires that used to eat away at the city were dying out, with only some columns of dark smoke still rising above the buildings.

At this point, the majority of the second legion already freed themselves from the duty of guarding their respective sectors. Outside of the single company that had to take care of both the thirteenth and fourteenth districts and lagged behind because of that, the rest of the legion was already forming outside of the city walls.

Rising up from the chair and glancing outside the city, Saulus could see many people hurrying around with their respective tasks. Contrary to what he saw back in the camp area, the people of his legion were now spread out across a vast plain, with each company taking care of its own needs. If not for the slight delay of the last company, rather than wasting time doing nothing, they would all be marching down the road towards the most important place in the entire rebellion.

“Reporting, sir!”

The sudden sound of an unfamiliar voice broke Saulus out of his daydream. Turning his head around, the young general saw a tired soldier, unused to sprinting over long distances, holding a piece of sealed parchment in his hand.

Limiting himself to just a single nod of his head, Saulus took the letter from the tired soldier’s hands. Snapping the wax seal in half – a wonder how the missing company officer created one right after a fight – the general scanned through the content. Then, he raised his eyes towards the opening of the main street to the city,

Just as the report outlined, it didn’t take long before the empty alley filled with soldiers. Even from a distance, Saulus could tell that despite achieving victory, his soldiers received it at a steep cost.

“I don’t think there will be any use for them…”

Gabriel said with care, glancing with hesitation at the supreme commander. Not bothering to move his gaze away from the bloodied figures of the marching soldiers, Saulus only nodded his head at the notion brought forth by his subordinate.

“We will leave all those wounded in the city. Get someone to ask the officers for the soldiers that showed wit and courage. We need all the naturally talented that we can get. Additionally, make sure to place the injured in proper lodging.”

Spouting a short list of commands, Saulus sent Gabriel away to his tasks. As time consuming as it was for all the quartermasters in the legion to take care of the wounded, he couldn’t abide by the patriarch’s method of discarding them. His fame gave him power only for as long as everyone continued to believe that he was the one commander that any soldier would dream of following.

With the last piece of the puzzle now in place, Saulus didn’t waste any time either. After gesturing at the group of his personal bodyguards that stood off to the side, his quickly formed group moved beyond the walls posthaste.

The arrival of the commander in the makeshift camp stirred the inexperienced legionaries into panic mode. Not used to interacting with their supreme leader, they dropped everything they had in their hands just to salute to him. While one person doing so wasn’t a problem, once those numbers ramped up, the delay in the entire legion was slowly turning problematic.

“On your orders, sir!”

Only when Saulus arrived at the tent set in the very middle of the entire area that the legion occupied, did someone react in the way the young general expected him to. Or rather, close to how he was supposed to.

Instead of saluting like every other soldier in the camp, the officer actually bowed deeply to the general. Seeing this, even Saulus’s bodyguards couldn’t stop themselves from hissing. As little as they cared for the patriarch and his household itself, the symbol of a dragon that decorated every officer’s helmet was something they would die for. By bowing, one was bowing with that symbol, while it was the people that should bow to the dragon instead!

Yet, it was Saulus who got caught off-guard by this next scene.

How the heck did he manage to sneak inside with no one noticing?! Screaming in his mind with silent fury, Saulus could only nod his bared head, not even bothering to look at Bloy’s face.

“Is everything ready?”

There was no need to explain what exactly Saulus had in mind while asking this question. Even though everyone in the room – outside of the one fake officer – used to be veterans serving for the patriarch, they were now all connected with the single goal of pushing him out of his throne. Everyone in this tent was perfectly aware of the actual goal that the legion was setting off to achieve.

“Sir, outside of the last company…”

Noticing what one of his proper officers was about to tell, Saulus quickly silenced him with a simple gesture of his hand.

“I already dealt with this matter. If there isn’t anything else…”

Taking a moment to calm himself down, Saulus suddenly realized that he had arrived at the breaking point. As soon as he finished his sentence, there would be no coming back. Nothing could stop the rolling ball of revolution.

“If there isn’t anything else, then let’s move out. The quicker we act, the greater chances we have at taking Aldo without a siege.”

Not bothering to remain in the tent for a second longer than necessary, Saulus quickly left its confines to breathe in a mouthful of fresh air.

So far, nothing had really changed. The orders to rally up would only start moving around the camp in the next few minutes. After officers received them, kicking and hitting their subordinates in order to make them form up would take even longer. Realistically speaking, there was no way for the legion to move before at least two hours of frantic preparations would pass.

Yet even though right now, when there wasn’t any difference to Saulus’s surroundings, there was this single thought that continued to slam against his skull, making it impossible to think about anything else: I just started a revolution.