Arcadia’s Ignoble Knight, Vol. 9

  The War of Emergence II

  Brandon Varnell

  Illustrated by

  Claparo Sans

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Arcadia’s Ignoble Knight, Vol. 9

  The War of Emergence II

  Copyright © 2022 Brandon Varnell & Kitsune Incorporated

  Illustration Copyright © 2022 Claparosans

  All rights reserved.

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  ISBN: 978-1-951904-62-3 (paperback)

  978-1-951904-63-0 (eBook)

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  Dedication

  This page is made in dedication to my amazing patrons. Without them, my characters would never get lewded by so many wonderful artists:

  Daniel Jones; Speedjk; Julian Sanchez; Josh Burnham; MGeo90; AceandTanis; Drunkenbiker; Zeus aka Matt; Jacob Brokenwolf; John Snoopy Henson; Saber The fox; Jonathan Kautz; Alec Watson; Zach Ulbright; Damen Hailey; cj savage; Kconraw; Charles Savage; Gingy; Mana & Steel; Max; randgofire23; MrRedSkill; Rob Hammel; Thomas Oconnell; Yuno; Chett Nialo; Jordan McDonald; Robert Shofner; Alex Burt; Green and Magenta Beast; Paigeon; Tanner Lovelace; Daniel Glasson; robert warnes; Forrest Hansen; TheGothFather72; Christopher Gross; Scott Turner; Joshua Kern; IronKing; Mark Frabotta; Raymond T; Nyxtarrynne; Samuel Donaldson; Bruce Johnson; Nathan S; Thomas Jackson; Sean Gray; Chace Corso; ToraLinkley; Dominic Q Roddan; Rafael; Aaron harris; max a kramer; victor patrick bauer; William Crew; Aesh; Michael Moneymaker; Seismic Wolf

  Contents

  The Story So Far…

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Interlude I

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Interlude II

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Epilogue

  Thank you for reading!

  Afterword

  Sneak Peak

  Manga Page 1

  Manga Page 2

  Manga Page 3

  Manga Page 4

  Manga Page 5

  Hey, did you know?

  Brandon’s LNs

  American Kitsune

  WIEDERGEBURT

  MMG

  Catgirl Doctor

  Incubus

  A Most Unlikely Hero

  Arcadia’s Knight

  Journey of a Betrayed Hero

  Rift

  Executioner

  Follow me!

  The Story So Far…

  Caspian and Elincia might have taken care of slave trading matter in Dorumhold, but that doesn’t mean their problems are solved. In fact, their issues are only just beginning…

  Prologue

  Sylvia woke up with a pained groan. Her head ached like someone had crushed it with a mallet.

  She didn’t open her eyes right away, choosing instead to take stock of her situation by sensing the physical changes in her condition. Her body ached. There was an incredible soreness radiating from her back, but it was a dull feeling, the kind of pain that came from an older injury that had already healed. Furthermore, it seemed she was sitting on a stone floor, and her legs and arms were both bound in chains. Also, there was something around her neck.

  Opening her eyes, Sylvia was greeted by a dark room made of stone and steel, a prison cell. She cast her gaze around, but there really was nothing to see. There was not a single clue that would let her know her location.

  As she looked at her new surroundings, the sound of a door squeaking open and closed echoed around her. She turned toward the bars of her cell. Two people walked into her view. One of them was a handsome man with immaculate blonde hair and blue eyes, while the other was a little girl with similar colored hair and eyes.

  “Cleopatra…” Sylvia murmured, her voice cracking thanks to her dry throat.

  “It seems you have finally woken up,” Cleopatra muttered with a disdainful smile. “I was wondering how long it would be. I wanted to speak with you at least once before you were executed.”

  Sylvia couldn’t contain her frown. “You plan to execute me?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Do you really think you can? Do you think the people would let you?”

  “The people?” Cleopatra snorted with disdain as a cold smile spread across her face. “I suppose you are no longer aware of what’s happening, having been locked up in here and unconscious for several days, so let me explain the situation to you.”

  Sylvia tried to adjust herself to be more comfortable, but it was very hard to get comfortable sitting on the floor with her arms forced above her head.

  “The Murakumos attacked Casadinia in the thousands. They were like a swarm of locusts invading the city. Just when all hope seemed lost, I arrived in time to lay waste to them. I saved the city while you were nowhere to be found. However, numerous lives were lost in the wake of this incident. Amidst this chaos, many voices cried out, asking who was responsible for this… and do you know what I told them? I said you were to blame. I told them you had been the one creating those Murakumos all along, that this was your plan to subdue the people.”

  “The people would never believe you,” Sylvia said at last.

  “Oh, but they have.” Cleopatra’s cold smile turned several degrees colder. “You see, humans are nothing but a flock of mindless sheep who follow the person that shows the greatest qualities of a shepherd. You were never really that good of a leader, Sylvia. Cold and emotionless, the people simply can’t understand you, so they don’t follow you out of a sense of respect, but of fear. To them, you are like this vengeful god acting from on high. On the other hand, Callisto here is quite charismatic.”

  “You honor me, My Lady,” Callisto said with a slight bow at the waist.

  Cleopatra smiled at him before turning back to Sylvia. “Since the people can’t understand you, they don’t follow you out of choice but because there was no better choice. Now that they have been presented with Callisto, who is kind, helpful, and charismatic, they have no need for you. While you were toiling in here, he has been helping the people recover, so when he told them that you’re the one who was responsible for all this, they naturally believed him.”

  Sylvia closed her eyes as a strange ache appeared in her chest like her heart was being stabbed by an icy stake. She didn’t know what this feeling was. It spread through her body like an insipid invader, chilling her to the bone.

  “You said… this was for revenge,” Sylvia said at last. “But I don’t understand why you are trying to get revenge. I’ve never done anything to you that would warrant such a strong hatred.”

  “Hmph!” Cleopatra narrowed her eyes and glared at Sylvia through the bars. “I suppose you wouldn’t. You have such a broad view that you’re unable to narrow your focus even a little. Always looking at the big picture. Never looking at the little pieces within that picture. You see the trees but not the leaves.”

  Cleopatra walked up to the bars and placed her hands on them, her stare penetrating the cell as she continued to hatefully keep Sylvia within her gaze. With her blue eyes narrowed, she said, “Let me tell you a story, Sylvia. Once, there was a little girl living with her family. This girl wanted nothing more than to play with her friends, have her father pat her on the head, and listen to her mom tell her stories before bedtime. However, one day, all that was taken away from her.”

  Closing her eyes, Cleopatra’s arms shook, causing the bars to rattle.

  “The girl had been playing just outside of the village when it happened,” the woman trapped in the body of a girl continued, eyes still closed. “A bright streak of silver light came crashing down from the heavens, destroying her village in a single fell swoop. The village was turned into nothing more than a crater. She saw it all happen with her own eyes. That trauma was enough to unlock her hidden potential, turning her into a Sorceress.”

  Cleopatra opened her eyes again.

  “While I do not remember much about what happened, I do remember seeing you floating over the village just
before it was destroyed. After that, you came up to me as if nothing happened and asked me to come with you. I wasn’t strong enough to kill you, so I took your hand and promised to have my revenge. Someone later told me that you did it because the villagers were harboring fugitives from the noble faction who rebelled and refused to surrender after your victory over them. Even so…” Cleopatra bared her teeth at Sylvia. “Even so, there was no reason for you to destroy the entire village! My family! You took them away from me! You took everything away from me!”

  Sylvia frowned as the girl screamed at her. While she did remember finding Cleopatra alone and crying, she did not remember destroying a village. She had never actually destroyed a human village before, not even during the Succession War that Cleopatra was talking about. What’s more, when she found Cleopatra, the girl had been hiding within the mountainous border between Arcadia and Elysium. There had been no village.

  What is going on here?

  “Who was it that told I destroyed your village?” asked Sylvia.

  “It doesn’t matter.” Cleopatra removed her hands from the bars and coldly snorted. “I only came here to inform you of what’s going to happen. The people are calling for your head, and so, in two days, we are going to publicly execute you in order to quell the people’s rage. Let’s go, Callisto.”

  “Yes, My Lady.”

  Cleopatra and Callisto soon vanished from her sight. Sylvia heard the door squeal open and then closed, leaving her alone in solitude.

  Sylvia closed her eyes as she thought about what she had been told, but she couldn’t figure out what was going on. Cleopatra’s words made no sense. The nobles had never gone into any villages for refuge. After her victory over them, almost all of them had capitulated without a fight. The few who didn’t surrender continued to fight until their deaths. Even if there had been a few who sought refuge in a small village, Sylvia would not have destroyed an entire village just to get rid of them.

  Something was wrong, but she couldn’t figure out what.

  After Cleopatra shut the door to the prison, she leaned against it and took several deep breaths in an attempt to calm down. The anger surging through her veins made her feel irrational. Callisto stood beside her, waiting patiently as she settled her turbulent thoughts.

  “Are you feeling better, My Lady?” he asked.

  “A little.” Cleopatra sighed. “I had no idea that finally confronting Sylvia would make me so angry.” Her frown deepened. “I think it’s that face of hers. That damnable expressionless face. Did you see the look she gave me? It’s like she doesn’t even remember destroying my home.”

  “Sylvia has lived for a long time,” Callisto said. “I imagine there are many things she has forgotten or never cared to remember.”

  Callisto was right, of course, and the thought made Cleopatra click her tongue, but she retained her calm and walked up the stairs and out of the prison. The world shifted from gray walls, floor, and ceiling, to something more extravagant. Cleopatra ignored the artful decorations as she walked through Callisto’s mansion in Casadinia.

  “In your opinion, when should we come forth and let everyone know about Sylvia’s ‘crime’?” asked Cleopatra.

  “I’d give it a few more days,” Callisto said after a moment’s thought. “Right now, the people are mourning. However, once they finish crying over the loss of life, they will want someone to blame. We’ve already begun circulating the rumor that Sylvia was responsible for the Murakumo attack. If we wait another few days, the rumor will soon spread, and the people will wholeheartedly believe us when we tell them that Sylvia was the one responsible for the Murakumo attack.”

  “Then that’s what we’ll do,” Cleopatra decided after a moment.

  As they entered a sitting room, Callisto glanced at his companion. “By the way, I’m awfully surprised you would lie and tell Sylvia that people were already calling for her death. That’s not really your style.”

  “I had hoped she would lose heart when I told her that the people she worked so hard for wanted to see her killed.” Cleopatra turned her head and looked at the door they had entered through, a soft growl escaping her throat. “As always, I was disappointed.”

  Cassidy had been living inside of the Peacekeepers headquarters ever since they escaped from Lady Sylvia’s mansion. Being a maid born from a family of maids, she had taken it upon herself to keep the place clean, but if she was being honest, doing her maidly duties was just an excuse to do something. She needed to work to keep her mind occupied.

  She had been confined to the headquarters ever since she appeared alongside Christo and the other servants. Due to the current political climate, Commander Klein had told them to remain inside. Cassidy didn’t really understand, but she had heeded his advice and hadn’t left the headquarters, even though she really wanted to.

  At the moment, Cassidy was not doing anything maid-like. She sat on her bed, a book in her lap. It was titled The Maid and Her Master. This book happened to be one of her favorites. Lady Erica had given it to her after learning about her master-servant fetish. She said something about how fetishes should be cultivated instead of suppressed. However, despite the fact that this was easily her favorite book, Cassidy couldn’t even bring herself to read it. She just stared at it with a blank look.

  Knock. Knock. Knock.

  At the sound of someone knocking on her door, Cassidy looked up.

  “Who is it?” she asked.

  “It’s Christo,” came the answer.

  “Ah. H-hold on just a minute, I’ll open the door!” Cassidy quickly hid the book underneath her pillow, straightened out her maid clothes, then hurriedly walked toward the door. She opened it to reveal Christo on the other end. His bright smile soothed her as he stood there with his silver hair spiking out in all directions. Her body relaxed unconsciously upon seeing that cheerful demeanor.

  “Heya, I came to check on you. How are you holding up?” he asked.

  “I’m doing… well, I’ve been better, but I’m okay.” Cassidy shook her head to dispel her anxiety. “Are you here to visit? I thought Commander Klein would be keeping you busy with work.”

  “I was working. However…”

  “However?”

  Christo grinned as he held out a small sheet of paper. “I got a message from someone who wants to see us.”

  “A message?” Cassidy tilted her head. “From who?”

  “Just read it and find out.”

  Christo handed the message to Cassidy, who curiously took it and looked at the contents. The message was rather straightforward. “I want to meet. C & E.” That was all it said. She frowned for a moment. There was no address, name, or anything to indicate who might have sent—no, wait. C & E? Were those initials? C and E… C… and…

  “This is from Caspian and Elincia!” Cassidy shouted excitedly.

  “Ssshh! Not so loud!” Christo placed a hand to his lips.

  “Oh… sorry…” Cassidy said contritely.

  Christo chuckled. “It’s okay. I get that you’re excited. I am too.”

  Nodding, Cassidy held the letter to her chest. “I’m so glad to hear they’re safe. There have been all kinds of rumors about them lately.”

  “Yeah… I heard a story about how Caspian and Elincia fought against a Lich King, and then there’s that one about how they took down a marquis… I even heard they fought against pirates.” Christo shook his head before grinning at her. “Anyway, this is asking me to meet with them. This letter came with a map showing where we would meet. Since you’re also their friend, I thought maybe you’d like to come.”

  When she heard Christo’s offer, Cassidy couldn’t help but burst with joy. “Yes! I would love to!”

  “In that case, let’s go,” Christo said.

  Cassidy suddenly stopped. “Huh? Wait. Now?”

  “No time like the present,” Christo said as he offered Cassidy his hand. “Let’s go!”

  “O-okay!”

  Cassidy didn’t think about it as she placed her hand within Christo’s and allowed him to lead her through the Peacekeepers’ headquarters. Her room was on the second floor. Nobody stopped them as they walked down the stairs to the main entrance, though a voice did speak up just as they were about to leave.