Kismet’s Tale

      Erich Baldwin sighed at the papers once again. There is always rubbish that they speak in those papers, thinking that there was something ‘grand’ and ‘wonderful’ about the Empire’s supposed victory.

He had betted on the continuation of the war to free the masses from the rule of the Empire. Nonetheless, he also understood that public opinion wasn’t in favor of the righteous alliances. They were blind to the truth that this old regime would not be able to last. Nonetheless, he could only contain his feelings and thoughts. Most of the revolutionaries had started to wonder if there was a merit to this revolution. Most of their brothers had fought in the war and those who returned had not shown any interest in even entertaining such thoughts.

Why would they entertain such thoughts? Their brothers had died under the alliances, and they fought them in the trenches with bravery and courage.

Erich could understand where they were coming from, and at the same time he had blamed the events in Flost for the things that had happened, leading to the fall of the ‘Royalists’ who were opportunists who planned to use the blood of the people for their own agendas.

Erich had purposely hidden his feelings regarding this. The city was in such a celebratory mood that it was hard to even speak of what his thoughts were. He had allowed himself to be led by these thoughts and though the brotherhood had remained. They were unsure and their feelings faltered.

Erich leaned on the counter as he stared at the newspapers. He placed the newspaper away and drank the refreshment that the barkeeper offered. He had paid twelve coins for such a drink. The taste was passable for something that he had expected.

The ceiling fan attached above gave comfort to the dry heated weather. Outside, the stone and cobble road seemed to bake the passerby as they walked under the heat of the sun. Those automobiles were sometimes passing, and the patrons who were cheerfully drinking were elated with the wind that the ceiling fans produced.

Erich walked out of the bar and into the sidewalk. Five minutes from the bar he entered a club with a loose sign on the top. Entering the shop he headed down this old and worn wooden hatch and entered this room filled with pictures and portraits connected by the strings. The Emperor was on top of this board. Below the Emperor was his sons and the Empress.

The chairs were dusty. The tables have dirt piling up from the ceiling and on the side there were documents that fell on the side. The smell of earth and wood polluted the air. Among the six chairs, there was only one that looked like it was still sat on. This area of the round table was the only that seemed to be used. It also has documents and ledgers and information.

Erich noticed a piece of paper on the table. He picked it up. Opening the seal, he unfolded the letter inside and began to read, “Eric, my comrade and friend. It has been months since I visited our old shop. Inside, we had cultivated our thoughts, plotted, and started to work the cogs that would soon fall the Empire.

“Alas, my friend. Time changes and there are many circumstances that made us unable to move with our grand dreams of a free Athesia, free from the Old Regime, free from those who rule through blood. I believe that men should be allowed to pick the Captain of their ship! I believe that we, the people, should be the ones who would know the people deserve! To serve the people, not themselves. That is what we believe when this revolution of ours started.”

“I’d had a friend who I had been with,” the letter continued to the next page. “He was a soldier who fought north of Dinia. He had told me of his exploits, the people that he met, and the horrors of the war. He had told me of what they fought for. And how he saw nothing more than the dead reaching out for the sky, calling for their mothers. Unknowingly, I told him of my thoughts and ideals. I had tried to reasoned out to him, how we, the people, shouldn’t be forced to fight wars for the Emperor to protect his throne. My friend, he was a man who had always acted first, but seeing the change in him, the way he was changed by this war, it made me unable to understand what he truly was fighting.  I listened to him, calmly, politely, and yet in the end he had me believe that they truly didn’t fight because of the Emperor. They fought because they loved this Empire. I didn’t understand such thoughts. They had seen the cruelty of the nobles. They had experienced the plight of the people, and how they had been treated lesser than what they should be. I began to think of why I was fighting for it.”

Erich calmly looked at the next letter, the continuation of his comrade’s thoughts. “We decided to lead the change in hopes that we can fare better. However, his thoughts, and opinions had me realized. Had we been blinded by our own dreams? Ignorant of the masses? Have we inspected the thoughts of those around us? Have we asked what they think of the Empire?”

“I had visited those who had opinions of the Empire. Those who had told me of the changes in the Empire. How are we faring on the world stage? They had told me of reality, a reality that was out of pure data, and it broke me, my friend. It broke me how we had it better compared to those nations that were free from the rules of the Ancient Ways of Kings and Emperors. In the Far East, a nation that had once thrived, became ‘free’ and yet when they got freedom. Those who had led them turned into despots and tyrants, who had been blinded by their greed. I had heard of tales outside of the Empire and I understood that we did not listen. We did not involve the people’s hearts in our ideals. What is the purpose of a revolution that the people did not want? If you had found this letter, then you may have realized that none of us would want to go against the current Empire. We had lost too much and cared so little. How can we continue to wound the people of the Empire after years of war started by the three alliances? I do not have the heart to stomach the thought of bleeding the young more than they had deserved.”

Erich closed the letter and placed it on the table. He stared at the letter and nodded his head quietly.  He had expected that his comrades would think twice of leading this revolution now. Erich had doubts himself, but nonetheless he could only clench his fist, put aside the thoughts and doubts that letter had created in him. At least he tried to.

He needed to try. Erich wanted to believe that there must be something that can be done to stroke the fires of the revolution. How would those who had given their life for this brotherhood feel if no one carried the dreams?

 

---

 

Erich found himself walking to the streets where most of the injured soldiers had returned. The hospital itself was owned and funded by the nobles of the Empire. In the courtyard of the hospital were white tents where the rest of the soldiers were staying. Erich pulled out his vest pocket camera, taking photographs of the wounded.

Erich stopped. He examined himself once again and for a moment he felt even disgust at himself. Then he saw a lone guard carrying a rifle approaching him. The guard looked at Erich as if he was a dirt on the ground.

“Mind telling me what you taking a photo at?”

Erich frowned, taking a step back. “Just the soldiers.”

“Did you ask for permission?”

“What does it matter?”

The Guard glared. “I hope those photos aren’t used to mock them. I’d remember your face if I found these photos in the papers. Hey, why are you looking away?”

Erich turned around and walked away from the hospital grounds. The guard glared daggers at him. Erich carried himself to the side of the road and saw that the sun was starting to rest. He found a roadside bar and sat inside, listening to the radio playing a song. He didn’t know the name of the song and yet he started to wonder if it would lighten his mood. Ever since the end of the war, he had been lost on what to do with this revolution of one. He had lost support and even the masses who had once despised the crown prince had started to show respect for his sincerity in obtaining peace.

He didn’t know much, but even he could understand that the efforts of the Crown Prince had saved many lives.  If this was seven years ago, when there was distrust among the Empire who had been sending coffins back in the Empire. The Empire had fiercely defended against the three nations that had come to pick up a fight with them. Each battle cost the lives of thousands of eager young men. Even before the war, Erich had dreamed of this revolution that they would be able to stoke the fires and destroy the innards of the Empire. He wanted the nobles removed from their seat of powers, and let those who had new thoughts and ideas to come forward and usher the Empire. They had many sworn brothers once, but as their way of life was thrown to chaos, those who had sworn into this brotherhood had joined the war, fighting for the Empire in hopes that they could defend it.

Even if they had thoughts of pulling down the Empire. What kind of man would they be if they do not shed blood for their homeland? When younger men have the courage to fight. The old men hold on to the beliefs that they can change an ancient regime that had become strong because they know to be strong.

Erich felt tired, knowing that it was fruitless from the start. He had been coping with these thoughts. He wanted to believe that there was going to be a chance for all of them to be free from the hands of an Emperor.

‘No, that’s just an excuse,’ Erich thought to himself. ‘I just want to destroy the bastards who have brought down my home. I want to avenge them. What’s so wrong about wanting to avenge them? No, maybe, I had been trying to avoid the problem. I just wanted to avenge you.’

Erich Baldwin couldn’t pretend any longer. He couldn’t allow himself to pretend that it was for the sake of the Empire. He had done it because he wanted to take the bastard who had done it in.

What kind of man would throw himself into this pit if it wasn’t for family?

Erich looked at the picture of the woman that had not been saved. The woman that he had hoped to have been with even now. He smiled sadly, wondering, what would have happened if she wasn’t gone? Would he have dreamt of that life in peace?

‘You would have made me a decent person, Luna,’ he thought to himself. ‘I know I should have done it from the very beginning. There is no need to pretend any longer that I care about this Empire. I must kill them. I need to take them with me. This revolution, our dreams, and their dreams, let it all end with me. Time to die, Luna. I’m coming home.’

Erich hardened his heart. He left the bar and as he does, he felt a stare on his back. He looked around, finding no one he decided to return back to his home.

 

---

 

To live simple lives. That was what all men aspired to. Nonetheless, before the Great War, before then, there were some talks about industrializing a part of the city, close to the borders of Hellion. Land was flattened and houses were transferred. Those who had wanted to resist the removal of houses, were forced to move out by the order of the landlord that owed the titles of the land.

Erich believed that the Ames Family had reasons. Nonetheless, the truth was that the Ames Family had failed the people that were under them, leading to an unfortunate accident that caused the lives of those people.

Those people had one of the people he had loved. And on that day he had vowed that there was going to be a time where the Ames Family would fall and the nobles who would choose to listen to the Emperor instead of its people would soon be on their knees. But that was a farfetched dream that they hadn’t truly believed. It only took seven years to turn a secret brotherhood into dust. Even if they did persist, the soldiers who had gone to war, who were fresh from battle, would do everything to keep the peace that they had protected to the point of losing millions.

Erich believed that they would. Nonetheless, he knew that he wasn’t going to leave alive after this. ‘Time to die,’ Erich thought to himself as he stored the rifle that he had bought. It was the latest model employed by the Imperial Guards of the City. He had four drums for it and stick-grenades he could use to breach the Ames Family gate.

‘Not yet,’ Erich told himself as he placed the rifle back to his box and made his way into the family house of the Ames Family. It was a large mansion that was surrounded with an iron and concrete fence and there were two guards in the front. The place was lit up by the electric cables and inside the place were guards.

‘Should destroy the cables first,’ Erich made note of the electric cables. ‘I could surprise them if I have a locomotive to drive past the gate. Then I can use the locomotive to take cover and gun down the guards. Doubt that they’d try to stop.’

‘What about the house?’ Erich looked at the mansion. The left wing had smoke coming out of the chimney, which means that that should be the kitchen. The right wing is near the pool, and the patio. There was a large window with what seemed to be a study room. Erich pointed a finger on the mansion, traced the rooms, and concluded where the head of the family should be. He was sure that they were in the ancestral mansion with the car of the head parked on the driveway. ‘No, just the head of the family, the one who told the order, no need to involve the kids. Lord Ames, he should be in the study room, find him, kill him, then be done with it.’

Erich looked at the guards. Where they patrolled and what they did. He stayed up and watched them move. Erich saw the maids serving the Ames family. He thought to himself how he should scare the maids. Most of the maids are from the provinces, he couldn’t afford to take the blame on them. Only do what is necessary.

‘What about the heir? No, the sins of the father should not be shared by the son.’

He had taken into account what the son had done. They have pride and arrogance befitting a noble, but they were not mentally ill people that had done things for the sake of fun. They were sadly not sadists.

‘Why am I calm?’ he asked himself. He stared at the mansion with judging eyes. He removed the binoculars from his face and sat to the side of the room, fishing out cigarettes with his calloused fingers. He took a drag of his cigarette and walked away from the site and back to the vehicle he was using. He laid his head on the backseat and closed his eyes for a moment before going out of his car to look around. He had been feeling eyes on him. He thought to himself that no one should be around him right now.

‘No, it’s possible that the police had found me,’ Erich thought. He sat on the side of his car and looked around, feeling the pistol on his belt.

‘There should be no reason to suspect. Dawn’s breaking so it means that I had no need to act for now. Need to find protection, could use that armor that they wore. I had it padded just in case. It’ll take my mobility, but that would mean that I won’t go down easily. They won’t expect to take down a man in armor appearing.’

Erich entered his car and drove it to his home. Entering the basement of his home, on the side of his makeshift forge was a suit of metal padded underneath with thick cotton and leather. He checked the armor and decided to slowly wear it himself. To wear the armor without assistance was tiring. He knew that this armor would be his coffin soon. No need to worry about taking it off.

It allowed him to remain agile, but the guns he would carry all around his body would hamper him a bit. He took his rifle, pistol, grenades and left his home. He had placed a letter on the table where they would find the reason for his actions. He will expect them to come home and it would be better if they think that he did it on his own. If they know that he was the one of the leaders of the revolution, then they would throw all the blame.

‘Can help them stay clear from any authorities. No need to worry about their involvement regarding the revolution. He had burned the papers and documents of their plan. The only thing left was him.

 

---

 

Erich positioned the car on the farthest side of the street. With the dark covering the night, Erich started the engine, and stomped on the pedal of the car and drove forward. He had slung his rifle around his armor and when the car hit the gates. The guards barely could react to the car breaking the gate.

The guards started to run at the car with anger. Upon noticing the man in plate armor inside the driver’s seat. The guard couldn’t even shout as a bullet passed through his skin, tore through his skull, and went out of the back of his head. The continuous rang of the bullets shook everyone in the house as he hit the power lines and telephones cables. He had prepared a rope that he threw on the cables and pulled them down.

When they got out they found a guard’s head splattered on the ground. As they armed their rifles, they saw someone in plate armor open fire on them.

‘Won’t take long until the mansion and the guards patrolling outside would notice.’

He charged on the front door and slammed the plate’s armor on the door, bursting it open, he waved his rifle to the front, and climbed the staircase where he started to the place that the master of the house was. He took out the first grenade, pulled the cap, and dig out the string on the stick grenade. He took a distance and threw it on the staircase, taking cover, and watched it blow up a part of the staircase, hoping that it would hamper them for at least three seconds. It was then that he finally met resistance from the guards. He exchanged fire with them, raining down bullets. He was armed with an automatic rifle with four magazines containing one hundred rounds.

They didn’t stand much of a chance. It was then that he heard the sound of a vase breaking. He staggered for a bit and looked at the main who threw it.

“Miss, stay out of this, I will not hurt you, but I will use force if you insist,” he said under his helmet. The maid fell on her butt and crawled back to the room.

Erich continued walking down the hallway when he found himself in front of the room he suspected where the master bedroom was.

He threw the doors wide open and pied the room. Slicing the corner, he heard the sudden blast of a shotgun. I fired twice and when he heard the click of the trigger. He rushed like a bull, tackled the man who fired it and slammed his plated fist on the man’s face. When the man who held the sawn-off shotgun groaned. Erich realized that this was the same man who had always been with the Ames Family head. He slapped the man awake with his plated palms.

“Where is the head of the family?”

“I won’t—“

Erich pointed the barrel of the rifle on the man’s leg. He took a single shot at his kneecap and said. “Prosthetics are available right now, cheap, lightweight, and they work.”

The man had fainted from the pain. He slapped him awake again and he groaned in pain. He said the same thing, “Where is the family head?”

The man confessed without even thinking. Erich slammed the butt of his rifle on the man and left him alone. ‘One down, I need to make sure that I find this man. Good chance that the head had either escaped or is hiding. These are nobles, and I recall that there are underground passages that they use here to connect telephone cables and electric cables.’

He went to the master bedroom and found no one. Erich observed the mess in the bookcase and found the switch leading to a secret passage as expected. He took the lamp on the side and tied it around his waist while traveling down the cobble passage that smelled of dust.

On the floor there was sign of dust prints belonging to a gentleman with medium-sized feet. He followed the footprint until he find himself in a narrow passage with only the sound of his plate clanking. He jogged the passage while keeping his finger on the trigger and anyone that might come close. ‘Tiring, but can make it,’ Erich thought as he inspected the rather messy prints. He followed the prints until he found another passage. The man seem to have realized his footprints and tried to erase it. Erich had experienced living in the wild, and he knew how to track someone.

He followed the trail until he found another passage leading to what seem to be another chamber. It was then that he found the same fan trying to desperately unlock the passage with the rusted keys hidden under a brick. The old man who looked at Erich’s plated figure dropped his keys and fired two rounds at him.  The first one bounced off the plate armor and the other was lodged on him. He rushed the old man, grabbed him by the collar and slammed him down.

‘Didn’t expect that I’d be able to find him. I guess the secret passage worked in my favor.’

He slammed his foot down on the legs of the old man and watched him squeal like a pig as his legs faced the wrong direction. Erich thought if he should drag him out of the passage, but instead he threw him on the side of the wall and slammed his fist down on the old man’s face. That rage that was built up inside of his heart. He had unleashed it on a defenseless old man who couldn’t even fight. Erich found himself lost in a red haze. He didn’t know what happened other than his vision went red and blank, then there was nothing.

Awakening from his rage, he found the old man broken. The last of his teeth on the floor, and the bone on his left arm poking out of him.

Erich didn’t find any reason to justify himself. He found out in front of the man who had ordered the dirty job. All he had was anger and a reason to hit him. He stared at the broken old man and planted a bullet on the man’s face. Then he squeezed the trigger until he heard the tick of his rifle emptied of bullets.

Erich expected to die in front of the main door. Yet here he was standing in front of the man he had expected to kill. ‘That’s it, isn’t it?’

Erich muttered. Then he looked away and started to pull the passage door after unlocking the passage with the rusty keys. There was a sickly smell of sewer water coming in the passage. He entered the passage while wearing his plate and felt his head blank and empty. There was an empty void in his chest and yet he found no peace.

They had said that revenge made one feel empty. He was happy. Truly happy that he had killed a defenseless old man. He couldn’t even ask the old man what was the reason for what he did. He had thought to himself that once he gets a hold of him. He would ask what the Emperor’s plan was and if there was any deeper reason that he could use to justify himself. Instead, he was lost in anger, unable to stop himself from committing violence, hitting first and leaving him splattered on the ground.

Everyone already knew what the man did. He had done it so they could fortify the region from the Federation. They had done it to protect the Empire. He had known it before long that it was their real goal. They truly believe that it was necessary, and the war made sure that the fortifications and the infrastructure that was built on the land that caused the death of his loved ones had been used properly. Erich knew it was a fruitless endeavor. He knew that it was only because of the resistance against the taking of the land that people died. He knew it and yet to Erich it felt good to kill the man who spoke the words that caused the death of the people standing up to them.

It was all a convenient excuse to vent out all the pain and rage that he had accumulated in his heart. If the revolution continued, if the attack of the Royalists had happened, and the war continued. Erich wondered if they would still be in the club, plotting, scheming, and hoping for the downfall of an Ancient Regime.

He had truly believed for that change, and yet here he was abandoning that belief in exchange for the rage. That rage won and now he was staring at the empty space, unsure what he should do. Once he got out of the passage, he found himself back four streets away from the mansion. He climbed out of the passage and found himself on the main street.

‘I am alive, huh,’ Erich thought. He had expected to down in a firefight, but then again. It was too easy how he was able to destroy the gate, and find his target within a few minutes. He barely had time to process. He just did what he did and found the target.

And, as he climbed out to the street level. He found someone in a pea coat, wearing a cap, and hair with a reddish tinge. His blue gray eyes eyeing Erich. “Get out of here stranger,” Erich said, warning the man.

“From you? I heard that there is a shootout in one of the mansions here. It looks like someone stormed the mansion, killed a few guards, and possibly the head. You the one who did that?”

“What if I say I am?”

“Did you?”

“Yeah.”

“I see. What for?”

Erich looked at his bloodied gauntlets. “Revenge.”

“Are you satisfied now?”

“I am.”

“Not even feeling empty? What about the guards you killed? Did you find the reason why?”

“I didn’t. I just killed him and did what I had wanted to do to him. I broke him and tore him. They say that it leaves you empty, but it’s not right either. I feel happy that I killed him.”

“Are you done?”

Erich laughed wearily. “I’m not sure.”

“Did you enjoy it?”

“Killing the bastard? I did. I enjoyed killing him. I wish there was something that could be done to those guards. I could have shot the mansion, but I won’t step on them just because of my anger at that old man. You must know this passage well if you could find me here.”

“I have knowledge of this passage. I didn’t expect that you’d really come out here. I thought you’d face the authorities and try to take down as many as you can.”

“I’m not a murderer. Just an angry man in plate armor.”

“I can see that.”

“Can you? Who are you?”

“A concerned citizen, I expected a revolutionary, not a murderer. Still, to think that the so-called rebellion would turn out like this. I don’t know what to say.”

“The revolution is done. Even the clever ones would think that to go against the Empire right now is futile. The old Regime can survive a seven-year war, and now they do not have the balls to stroke the fires. Not when the Empire had lost many good men. Maybe, it had been too early to give up, but they did not have any drive to continue.”

“True, it would be hard to ask for anyone to fight against the Empire. Not when the heir had done something amazing and had the people believe in him,” he pulled the slide of his pistol. “Still, I was disappointed that I could do nothing to reason you out of this. But you don’t seem the type to be reasoned down.”

“I didn’t see you try. Was that you staring at me?”

“Yes.”

“I wish you had stopped me then.”

“I am.”

Erich Baldwin saw the barrel of a gun and a muzzle flash.