The year is 2051, and the United Kingdom has emerged as one of the world's leading ecenomic and military powerhouses. However, a strange structure appears in London one day, and a roman-like army from another world emerges. Eventually, the British a...
In her home, the former duchess of rondel, kanegaru, stewed in her living quarters. Over the past few weeks, she had been out under what the occupying British called 'house arrest', which basically meant she was a prisoner in her own home, the exits guarded by soldiers.
At first, she didn't think this was that big of a deal: normally am occupying force would just kill the cities ruler outright, so this was a relatively light issue. What the duchess couldn't stand was the weakening of her influence over the city.
You see, kanegaru is one of The most Pro-imperialist figures on the continent, likely 2nd behind zorzal himself. To this end, her rule of rondel was propped up by the wealthy aristocracy of the empire, who supported her every move if they were given 'special previleges', such as only allowing the children of rich and influential imperial citizens to study truly powerful magic. She was also an enthusiastic slave owner, and was one of the few who received a slave from the other side of the gate when the war began.
However, with that lelei girl now showing everyone how the materials they used their magic on work, any random peasant could become an expert in spells. As well as this, the Republic's law of making slavery illegal meant that the slave-owning aristocracy living in the city were slowly withdrawing support for her.
However, the part she couldn't stand the most was the new city council. When she ran the city, the council was essentially a collection of yes men who only existed to approve everything she decided. Now, those yes men were being replaced by politicians who served the new republic government itself, not the duchess. She was slowly losing her power, and she hated it.
Unfortunately, she was no fighter: years of being brought up in the aristocratic upper classes of the major power of the continent had not conditioned her to ever consider something as 'barbaric' as combat. So all she could do for now was sit within her house as her power and influence was slowly stripped away.
- Later that night
A pair of saderan soldiers stand guard at the entrance of the duchess's palace. In all honesty, they were glad they were assigned such a position: it was quiet, and a much lower risk of dying.
Unfortunately for them, the chances are never zero.
A cloaked figure began waking towards the entrance. Upon closer inspection, the soldiers realised it was a demi-human, a female cat demi-human to be exact
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The two soldiers were quick in there attempts to ward her off.
"excuse me, ma'am, but this is a restricted area. I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to lea-"
The soldiers never got the chance to finish his sentence, as the woman pulled her arm out of her cloak and swung at him, her sharp claws slashing his throat open.
The second soldier, in a blind panic, pulled his rifle towards the woman and tried to fire at her, barely missing, before the demi-human attacked him to, jamming a knife into his neck.
With what she belived the be the only guards dealt with, the demi-human quickly scaled the building before coming across an open window, rapidly crawling away inside.
"if these people think that's all they need to stop someone like me, they really are stupid" she said to herself betlfore fully climbing through.
Unbeknownst to the woman, a strange device perched on the wall had just recorded everything, and was currently being watched...
-
The woman quickly came across the person she was looking for: the duchess.
"ugh, and who are you supposed to be" the duchess asked, her disgust at seeing a demi-human clearly showing.
"it doesn't matter who I am, all that matters is that I've been hired by emperor zorzal to free you and bring you to Telta." the now-revealed mercenary replied.
Kanegaru's frown immediately twisted into a grin. This was what she needed: if she could escape and flee to imperial territory, she might be able to amass enough support to retake the city.
The duchess immediately went along with the plan, following the woman through the back door and traversing the sewers (though not without a large amount of reluctance, as the duchess originally would have rather died than enter the sewers).
After a few hours, the pair had made it out of the city walls, avoiding search lights posted by British troops.
"okay, there should be a caravan operated by imperial soldiers nearby" the cloaked demi-human said.
Eventually, the pair did find the caravan, but not in the way they hoped: the caravan was in pieces, with the majority of the soldiers there dead while others were missing.
Before the two could even begin to question what had happened, they suddenly heard an all to familiar sound. Turning around, they came face to face with both Republican and British soldiers, their rifles pointed directly at the pair, yelling "freeze!" and "don't move" at them.
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The two were quickly arrested and brought back into the city. At first, the duchess remained confident: they would just place her back into her home, no change whatsoever. However, while they put her back in her home after some time, this was only after a night in the brig of the British military base off the coast of the city, and even afterwards, many of the previldges she had were revoked, and the security around her home was doubled. She also lost even more influence over her own city.
Meanwhile, the mercenary quickly broke under interrogation, telling the British that she was hired by zorzal to retrieve the duchess. However, the British soon gave her a unique proposition: they would pay her to act as a spy, sneaking into imperial territory to gather information. She readily agreed to this, and was given a new codename for her operations, inspired by an old European rhyme: the pied piper...
