A Guide to Kingdom Building

"Big Brother, you're here?" Veritus furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "This is a first! W-what are you doing here?"

Prince Veritus gave his viewing glass to the knight beside him. He approached his older brother while scratching his head in awe.

Arterius wanted to lash out on his brother. His frustration of being ignored for the past 2 days had been eating him up. He wanted to dish out those select few words he thought along the way to the menacing light house and spat a few insults to his brother.

Unfortunately for him, the pain on his leg and the sheer effort of climbing the damned spiral steps towards the top of the four-story infrastructure distracted his thoughts. Instead, he leaned against its cold coral walls, bent over with his hands on his knees, and wheezed in exhaustion.

He glanced at his tall, hulking brother. He raised his hand towards his brother, signaling him to give him a moment as he was catching his breath. Stolas intervened and broke the awkward moment while wiping the sweat off his forehead.

"M-my Prince," he bowed. "Prince Arterius came here under your father's orders. A raven was sent here to inform you of his arrival."

Prince Veritus scratched his head and walked towards the big arch opening of the lighthouse. "I never received it nor been informed."

Stolas bowed to him again and hoisted Arterius up. The brothers' eyes met and in silence seemed to converse about the entire predicament.

"I see, brother." Veritus nodded. "If it was father's orders then, I must inquire my men about it." The younger prince furrowed his eyebrows in frustration.

"W-well…hmmp…damn this leg…I want to join you in defending the…town!" Arterius efforted to blurt out those words while in pain. "Would you let—"

"I cannot, brother." His younger brother answered. "What can you offer me? Your broken leg and a few reinforcements?"

Arterius took offense of his brother's comment. He snatched his cane from Stolas and walked towards his brother. Although a footling shorter, the older brother asserted himself and looked straight into his brother's eyes.

Seeing the fire in his eyes, Veritus smiled in recognition of his brother's spunk.

"And father said, you don't have the same fire as I do…" He shook his head.

"Wha—" Arterius confused with his brother's expression. "What do you mean by that?!"

"Big Brother, you got spunk!" He slapped his frail brother's shoulder. "Before I left, I overheard father's attendants whispering about a cannon you made. Is that why you're here?"

"I thought you weren't informed about it." Arterius raised his eyebrows.

Veritus patted his shoulder. "Oh, I know!" His eyes glimmered with excitement.

Veritus walked back to the arch to check with the knight anything in sight from the thick fog covering the horizon. When the knight shrugged his shoulders, the younger prince went back to his brother and asked.

"How many did you bring?" Veritus smiled from ear to ear. "Where should we place it?"

Arterius' painful leg numbed seeing the excitement of his younger sibling towards his recent invention. The only problem is, he only brought one. The one and only protocol along with some modified cannonballs his researchers made.

"Well, brother, how many?" His younger brother jittered. "Can I also try—"

"I only have one." He sighed.

"One?!" Veritus paused and laughed. "Oh! S-so, this ONE cannon must be twice the size of an auroch!"

Arterius shrugged his shoulders. He didn't want to dampen his brother's enthusiasm, but he had to be real with him.

"It's a regular-sized cannon." He answered.

"W-what—" His brother squinted at him; eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Y-you mean…you only brought one cannon with you?"

The older sibling nodded.

"Huh…" Veritus scratched his head. "Just one! This town 24 cannons on top of its border wall and you only brought one?!"

Arterius bashfully replied, "We were only able to—"

"Dear Princes! You have to take a look at this!" the knight exclaimed.

Prince Veritus grabbed the looking glass off the knight's hand and peered into the spectacle. The prince's eyes widened as he saw red flags peering out of the foggy sea. The invaders had arrived, and they come in no small numbers.

"One…two…more or less a hundred!" Veritus exclaimed in excitement.

"A hundred ships?!" Arterius shouted as chills went running down his spine. "How?!"

His anxiety went off the roof. It was the first time the older Prince had experience a battle. Being cooped-up in the palace for most of his life, Arterius' knees shook in fear.

"W-what is that?!" Veritus offered the spectacle to the knight to confirm what he was seeing.

"I-I don't know, my Prince." The knight's voice trembled as the fleet became more visible.

The younger prince grabbed the looking glass away from the knight and smacked him.

"Give me that, you coward!" He snarled at him. "Signal the bell! You better fight and die defending this town or else, I will kill you myself once this battle is finished!"

The poor knight stumbled and run down the stairs, obeying the prince's order.

"Pfft…I will definitely kill that bastard for showing me that…disgusting attitude," he mumbled.

Arterius and Stolas looked at each other with confusion written all over their faces. Arterius cleared his throat to get some of the anxiety off of him.

"Brother about the—" Arterius began.

"Shells! Their boats have huge turtle shells?!" Veritus smiled and licked his lips. "I wonder how we could crack those open?"

The younger prince turned to his brother, "Well, since father and the Senate approved your product. We might as well use it." He said blandly.

Veritus came over to his older brother and kneeled, "Come on my back it would a lot faster going down the stairs. Your servant wouldn't mind tailing along the stairs, right?"

Another salt rubbed into the bleeding wound! Arterius couldn't believe how his brother underestimated him. The disrespectful words cut to him like a hot knife in butter. He gritted his teeth and wanted to hit his brother with a cane, but he can't. He wouldn't. He's afraid of him. Too afraid of his capabilities.

"Look brother, I maybe frail and broken, but I can—" Veritus lifted him by his arms. "W-what are you doing?!"

"We don't have time to blabber, brother." Veritus shoved Stolas to the side. "Out of my way, ward!"

The younger prince leapt into the stairwell in a single bound, landing on the ground, while carrying his brother. "Where did you place your cannon?"

Arterius looked up and saw the height from where he leapt. He instantly knew that the height was enough to kill an ordinary person if they accidentally fell. Yet, his brother just leapt out as if it won't hurt him and indeed, it didn't.

He looked into his brother's eyes and pointed at the cannon at the gate near the shore.

"Very well, let's go!" Veritus ran so fast that the drizzling rain hurt Arterius' face as it collided. It only took them a fraction of a moment to reach the famed defensive wall opening.

"I-is this the cannon?" Veritus gently put down Arterius.

The older prince could see the look of dismay at the young prince as he tried to digest the underwhelming physical features of his cannon. Arterius saw how his brother's eyebrows furrowed over the relatively small cannon with a big support frame.

"Uhhmm…Alright!" Veritus sighed. "Take this to the top of the wall…See that plank? Use that!" He ordered the knights.

"Oh! No, brother!" Arterius held his younger brother's thick arm. "Leave it here. We'll fire it from this position."

His statement made solicited a confused look from Veritus. Not putting an armament on a high ground is obviously a huge strategic blunder which may cause you a war. Arterius knew about that already. However, the cannon he made was something totally different from the cannons the Prinicipalia had owned or saw throughout its conception.

"Brother, I cannot let you do that!" Veritus turned around with his eyes piercing on Arterius. "I am the commanding officer of this battalion! I know what I'm doing! So please stand—"

"I won't stand back on this, brother." Arterius adamantly stated. "I will show you why I want here not there." The older prince pointed out.

"Fine." The younger one replied. "But it's your failure not mine. Don't taint my name or father's."

Arterius smiled to him and slapped his younger brother's shoulder. "Trust me just this once! You'll see a true spectacle."

Stolas arrived a little longer than they did. The poor ward tailed the royal brothers down to the wall with the cane on hand.

"Ppp-prince Arterius…" The ward wheezed, trying to catch his breath. "Y-your cane…a-are we goin…"

"Rest for a while, Stolas!" Arterius took the cane and patted his shoulder. "You there! Ready the artillery!" The prince commanded one of his escort knights.

The older prince could feel how the younger one rolled his eyes as he called his one and only cannon an artillery.

A few moments past and Arterius' cannon had finally been set. They moved it forward near the shoreline both brothers stood behind it as Stolas and the knights set the crates of ammunition on the stony, wet ground.

Stolas placed runes on the ground to protect them from any projectile attacks and activated a cloaking spell on them to avoid them from being seen.

Veritus called on Veracon, his most trusted officer to command the cannons on top of the wall. The officer bowed and went on his designated position.

Arterius knew then that his brother wanted to see how his little experiment would go. He could see in Veritus' eyes how he wanted to ridicule him for his so-called poor decisions. He was about to prove him wrong.

The huge turtle-shelled ships are now closing on the shore. A crimson bolt began to fire at the wall from the ships. The impact sounded like a blast of thunder, deafening and genuinely terrifying. It was enough to break a few portions of the wall along with a few cannons and knights with it.

Veritus signaled their own offense. The cannons roared in unison as its projectiles rained on the weird-looking ships. Just to up the ante, they fired another round with the spare set to provide more damage.

"See, brother! That's why you need the high grou—" Veritus was shock to see that the cannonballs simply bounced off the ships. No matter where the projectile landed it simply bounced off.

"By the gods! They had a sturdier armor than that of those from the Western Empire?!" Veritus couldn't believe his eyes.

The turtle ships once fired back with those flaming bolts once again. This time it was able to take down a portion of the famed wall. Even with the defensive runes etched into the walls, it crumbled easily to the mighty spell that the Northern Invaders had.

Arterius could feel his body tremble in fear. He's regretting his decision for staying so close to the battle. He's regretting bragging about his cannon. What if he fails? What would become of him? He knew the answer to that at least.

He looked at Stolas and noticed how his ward pinching his own leg to stop himself from trembling. The situation was scary indeed, but Arterius wanted to prove something. He wanted to prove to everyone that he could also be as strong as the rest of them and he's going to do it his way.

He glanced at his brother but saw no look of despair written all over him. What he saw was a man hungry to kill and prove to the world his dominance. His brother unsheathed his sword in one hand and readied his spell on the other. Arteirus could only look in awe at his fearless younger brother.

He needed to rise up to the challenge and that he did.

"Men! Don't fret!" He shouted at the knights on the shore with them. "Ready the cannon!"

The knights loaded the cannon with the aetherite concoction on the backside and the newly designed cannonball on the other.

"Set target!" Arterius shouted while pointing at the rushing ship on the middle. "Aim…Fire!"

The knight charged the cannon with his exousia, finally releasing the projectile straight to the incoming ship. The cannon ball pierced the ship and blasted one more on the back. They fired one more which grazed the ship at the front but took out two adjacent ships when the cannonball bounced over.

Suddenly, the fleet halted their advance. The invaders were shock to see their impenetrable ship being taken out in a flash.

Veritus tapped Arterius' shoulder. "Brother, that blue and red thing you put on the back is that…the equivalent of a gunpowder?" He asked.

Arterius nodded. "Indeed. It could take up to 8 consecutive firings before you recharge it!"

"Is this thing mobile?" His younger brother pointed at the cannon.

"Yes, you'll just have to drag it around. Unfortunately, this environment is—"

"I can see the flaw on this design." Veritus smiled. "But this definitely will turn the tide of battle."

"Diamant!" Veritus casted a hardening spell on himself and approached the cannon.

"W-what are you doing brother?" Arterius baffled with Veritus' action.

The younger prince looked at him and smiled, "Fixing that one issue!"

Veritus yanked the cannon from its stable base and held it in its arms. "You knights better catch up with me! Carry those crates along and get those colored stuff ready!"

"W-what are you doing brother?" Arterius eyes widened in disbelief. His younger brother just carried a cannon in arms.

"Brother it's not safe here. Get back inside of the town while I cover you!" Veritus ignored his question.

Arterius tried to reason with his brother, but instead he got a shrug from him.

"You just gave me one of the best toys that I never thought I needed, brother!" Veritus cackled as he commanded the knights to load the cannon.

Stolas grabbed Arterius by the arm and tugged him back inside the town.

"W-what in the gods name is he doing?!" Arterius couldn't believe what he just witnessed.