Chapter 35: The lying prince and the bandit lord (This is not Yaoi pornographic)

Back when ROC was merely a game, the generals in the game are divided by rank and role. For instance, Bloodbeard is in the lower tier of the first rank generals.

There are only four ranks in the general ranking lists, the third rank, the second rank, the first rank, and the Broken Thirteen.

Any general who is listed in the third rank is trash, however, having them are better than having nothing.

The second rank is the common commodity, the average Joe in the world of ROC.

The first rank generals are serious business. Each of the 63 playable factions has at least one of them, sometimes more. They have great stats, great skills, and great perks.

Then, there are The Broken Thirteen, just the name suggested, each of them seriously broke the balance of the game in one way or another.

One of them is a genius among geniuses who ended the Second Great War in the lore of ROC. He’s a high elf and a most sought strategist. He’s regarded as the smartest person in the world of ROC by players and in-game NPC.

One of them is an eccentric arch-magus who can cast tactical grade magic all by himself. He’s a hermit, an elf who lives by the motto “A a day keeps the healers away.” His eccentricity makes him more of a joke character in the grim and gritty world of ROC, except that his spell could literally wipe out an entire army.

One of them is a one-man army with a Herculean strength like that of a god of war, a farmer, human and an avenger whose entire family was killed by a bandit raid. His weapon of choice when he goes to war is, of course, a freaking hoe. His character design makes people laugh, players and in-game-NPC alike until they realized the destruction he could wreak with a single strike from his hoe. There is nothing more satisfying to players than watching that one-man army sent a bunch of people flying into the air every time he swung his hoe.

One of them is a dwarven engineer of a Viking-like insular nation, a walking cheat code who gives a tremendous head start in the Engineer research race to any army who managed to recruit him. His perks allow his faction to skip several stages of the Engineer research, allowing his army to always have better equipment and war engines than the rest of the world.

Each of the Broken Thirteen embraces the word “Ridiculous” to the highest level. Each of them is the ultimate luxury in the game. Just by having one of the Broken Thirteen in their army whether it is the single mode or the multiplayer mode, players have already changed the entire landscape of the war. Of course, when one of the Broken Thirteen joined an enemy faction, players would be under a tremendous disadvantage.

The Broken Thirteen spread evenly among the three continents, four in each continent. Some of them are “factionless”. Some of them are generals of neutral factions. Only one of them is a playable warlord.

The Broken Thirteen make the game a lot more complex and difficult than it should have been just by existing within the game. Of course, the game makes it extremely difficult for players to recruit and will punish the players accordingly for recruiting or having one of them in their army. Regardless, the pros of having one of the Broken Thirteen on the player’s side always win against the cons, hence, the name.

One popular method that players employed against the Broken Thirteen in the multiplayer mode is “If you can’t recruit them, kill them.” That would ensure the opposing player faction could never recruit them.

Then, there is still the matter of role. Generals are also divided into different roles base on their unique attributes.

For instance, Fearless is a late-utility type of general if he objectively judged his character’s role. He is a jack of all trade and master of none type, and need someone to babysit him at all time through the early game to be relevant in the late game. He is without an army or allies to protect him in a war-torn world. He has no fiefdom to have an economy. Most importantly, he is not a combat oriented type general. His Might stat would make people giggle, asking, “Bro, do you even lift?” It is atrociously low. Even with the 20 Might attributes bonus he received from equipping Enfermé, he could not fight with a serious opponent.

On the other hand, Bloodbeard is an early-melee type of general, excellent in melee combat, very powerful in the early game, even though his strength and potential does not translate well into the late game. However, he had a huge army under his command. That’s the most important thing. Bloodbeard had an army. That’s the only reason Fearless did not use his “The magician” skill to escape his captors. He chose to stay and defrauded the bandit lord so that he could make use of the bandit lord’s army.

An army of bandits is still much better than having no army. Fearless was literally a beggar of a warlord. He had no army, no fund, no land and no general. Beggars do not have the luxury to choose.

Fearless believed that the developers designed his character with the intention for him to be a part of the Broken Thirteen, Nah, at this point, it should be the Broken Fourteen. He had many things in common with them.

The demerits of his character are ridiculously overwhelming, similarly to the Broken Thirteen. However, his unique skills made up for that.

“The magician” allows him to position himself in the place where he could be most useful and allow him to escape unfavorable situations.

“What you can do, I can do better” allows him to be extremely unpredictable at any given time. He could turn his opponents’ greatest strength into their Kryptonite at specific moments.

“A strange choice” is an AOE skill that allows Fearless to remove debuffs and heals his ally units or any target he intended when they are wounded.

His skills are just as ridiculous as those of the Broken Thirteen. His perks and stats (aside from his Might stat) are also just as dreadful as theirs.

However, he had one thing they did not have, knowledge. To be precise, it was the right kind of knowledge. The understanding of the world of Escana, its people, its politic, its future, that kind of knowledge, it is the best weapon Fearless could possibly ask for.

Every student of history would know or at least heard of a famous phrase of Sun Tzu- an ancient military Chinese commander, “Know your enemy, know yourself and you need not fear the result of hundred battles.”

Bloodbeard’s past and private information was known to Fearless, which is the most important reason that explained why Fearless could swindle the bandit lord.

To people like Bloodbeard or Merleon, if they were to be asked to name all the weapons that they know, they will start with things like swords, spears, daggers, and all sort of cold arms. Merleon might add hot arms into the mix. That’s the difference between Fearless and them because Fearless would begin by naming his weapons with “Information, lies, smiles, tears, sex…”

Bloodbeard was emotional and can be hotheaded at times despite being quite an intelligent man. He would have a personal duel with an opponent he took a liking to, even though he was in no situation to do that. He killed people who enraged him, even though they could bring him benefits. He refused political marriages despite those marriages would give him easy allies. Bloodbeard has a brain within his skull but he tended to rely on his emotion to make a judgment. People like him are especially easy for Fearless to scam, almost as easy as the most gullible people.

Another reason explained why Fearless got to live after tricking Bloodbeard unlike Bloodbeard’s blood-related uncle was that he was a great liar and the latter was not.

Since then, things had calm down a bit, if not significantly. The tears had dried in both Fearless’ eyes and Bloodbeard’s. At one point, Bloodbeard became embarrassed at the fact that he, a grown man, the lord of 6000 bandits wept and sobbed into the chest of a man who he has just met. He used an excuse that he needed to change the torches in the room because they were about to burn out. He walked out of the room to recompose himself, returning with new torches and Fearless’ stolen Rolex, magic coins, platinum bangle and many of his accessories.

The two men who captured Fearless were terrified to know that Fearless was an acquaintance of Bloodbeard. However, Fearless suspected that the way he made an example of that man One-eye in front of Bloodbeard and his bodyguards was the real driving force behind the return of his accessories.

“Come home with me, Ashtorá. You have no future in this land. What awaits ahead of you if you insisted on staying in this land is a certain death.” Fearless prophesied with a tone that he used to soothe a crying child. This was the first step he needed to take to steal Bloodbeard’s army.

However, Bloodbeard was no child. He was at least ten years older than Fearless. And he was not stupid either. “How could you say that for sure? And the situation is not what it seems…”

Of course, Fearless has expected Bloodbeard to give him that kind of reply. Bloodbeard might be an emotional man but he is not stupid. What kind of man would throw away an army of 6000 men under his command to return home, empty-handed? Only a most stupid person and the most gullible person would listen to that suggestion of Fearless.

“I have already known that the Empire has backed you in this war. No need to explain that detail to me,” Fearless cut the bandit lord’s attempt to reason with him.

Bloodbeard’s eyes were widened with surprise, truly shocked. That was supposed to be a secret between him and the Kingdom of White Winter, though many of his goons have already known about it, it was not supposed an information to be leaked to an uninvolved person like Fearless.

“Don’t give me that look. My intelligent network allows me to track you down to this place. It’s not that hard to know what’s going on between you and the empire. And above all, do you think that your boys could actually keep that secret?” Fearless resignedly shook his head.

Bloodbeard showed Fearless a blank stare, half-flabbergasted and half-admiring.

“Here is an old man’s wisdom,” Fearless sighed, “Better listen to it before your ignorance costs you your life. Map, do you have one?”

Bloodbeard put his hand into his waist belt and procured a couple scrolls. He then unrolled the one scroll threaded in the yellowish string and placed it on the wine barrel next to Fearless.

“Torch,” Fearless ordered and Bloodbeard brought one of the lit torches over, lighting up the map of the kingdom of Zard. Even though Fearless did not specify what kind of map he needed, Bloodbeard was not stupid enough to procure a map of another kingdom.

Fearless cast his sight on the parchment. There were drops of dry blood and some blackish greenish spots of mold growing on the parchment. Fearless suspected that Bloodbeard has robbed this map from traveling merchants or military commanders from some time ago. Honestly, the parchment smelled like rotten meat that was kept inside someone’s armpit for months and then was slathered with molten cheese and durian paste.

It was a biological weapon of mass destruction if Fearless has ever seen one. It probably soaked in Bloodbeard’s sweat repeatedly, resulting in the mold spots and the horrendous smell. Fearless fought his urge to throw up or pinching his nose, telling himself inwardly that he has smelled something far worse. Obviously, he had not.

Fearless was very familiar with the geography and the landmarks showed on the map. Fourteen years of playing ROC has ingrained the complete map of ROC within his head. He quickly located the city of Madukat on the parchment and pointed his finger at it, “Now, I will ask and you will answer my questions. How many days has it been since you withdrew from Madukat?”

“Five.”

“How many days is it since you started besieging the city?”

Bloodbeard blinked his eyes and furrowed, thinking aloud, “Twenty days, maybe twenty-two?”

“Twenty-two then, always assume the worst,” Fearless nodded his head. “It takes five days or a week for the mountain eagles of Madukat to warn the kings and the wardens about the siege of the city, and another five or seven days for them to rally an army to reinforce Madukat.” Fearless then pointed his finger on two locations on the map, “The king of Zard’s army is already here and the Eastern Warden’s here. They won’t be a concern for you and your army.” Then he pointed his finger at a location in the western part of the Great Plain of Zard. “Hyrios, the Headhunter is already here with his army.”

“That’s impossible.” Bloodbeard declared. The spot that Fearless pointed at was distant away from the Western Border. The distance suggested that the Warden of the West has started rallied his army and moved north on the same day Bloodbeard besieged Madukat.

“For anyone else but this man.” Fearless scoffed, ruffling Bloodbeard’s hair with his hand as if he was teaching a child. “Ashtorá, you have a lot to learn. War is a terrible business and a child like you is most ill-suited for it.”

Fearless’ condescending voice and his I–am-so-much-better-than-you attitude struck Bloodbeard the way he has expected. The bandit lord shook Fearless’ hand away, “What do you even know about war?” he got defensive.

“More than anyone, especially you,” Fearless nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders and replied as if it was a matter of fact, which only served to infuriate Bloodbeard further.

“How many wars have you fought? Zero. I fought more wars and battles than you do.”

“Craxus fought no war before he conquered his first kingdom.”

“Do you think you are a reincarnation of Craxus?” Bloodbeard mocked. His voice was full of sarcasm.

“No, but Craxus would make a worthy adversary for me.” Fearless scratched his stubbly chin and confidently replied without a pause.

Bloodbeard was stunned. He scowled his face, twisting his pinkish long scar, “I can see that humble is not your strongest point.”

“What do you mean? I am being extremely humble when I said that Craxus would make a worthy adversary. Even ten of him could not win against one of me.” Fearless showed Bloodbeard a confused look.

If they were having this conversation in a chat room, Fearless would have shown Bloodbeard a confused Nick Young meme.

He was telling Bloodbeard the truth. Back when ROC is still a game, at the beginning of any single mode campaign, players can type the cheat code , resurrecting Craxus from his grave and making the entire northern continent become united under the flag of Craxus the Dragon Slayer.

Craxus is the invisible member of the Broken Thirteen even though he would not appear in the multiplayer mode, adding four more members of the Broken Thirteen under Craxus’ control, that made five members of the Broken Thirteen on the same faction. That was the ultimate challenge the game could provide players.

However, players could also take a step further by trying to glitch the game, creating multiple versions of Craxus within the game. Unless the players slew all the Craxus-es, down to the last Craxus, the game would not recognize their victory. This made the effort of beating the game at this point an act of masochism.

Of course, Fearless was proud of the fact that he was a masochist. He could beat those AI controlled Craxus-es with minimal effort with any faction of choice. Any ROC pro-gamer can do that with some amount of effort or maximum level of effort depending on the number of Craxus.

Superior held the world record for being the ultimate masochist within the world of ROC pro-gamers, beating 15 AI controlled Craxus at once. Fearless came in third, tying with FY’s best record of eleven. Though, that was the World-class AI and not Heavennet. Nobody has ever attempted to win a game like that with Heavennet as the opponent.

“Back to the topic,” Fearless did not wait for Bloodbeard to make a comment about him beating ten Craxus. “Hyrios’ specialty is light cavalry. You won’t find someone better at using light cavalry than this man in this entire continent. In addition, he was descended from those nomadic tribes living within the Great Plain. The Great Plain is his home, more so than the Western Region. This man knew the Great Plain like the back of his hand.”

Fearless surprised Bloodbeard with his bombardment of trivia. He even surprised at himself from his bombardment that screamed “Nerd” all over.

“Do you know this man?” Bloodbeard asked.

Fearless coughed once, “He’s descended from the same nomadic tribe as Eri,” Fearless left the topic untouched at that point and continued, “The thing is this man travels light with his army. He does not need to bring much supply with him while traveling through the Great Plain. Also, his army always has extra horses to switch around. This allows his army to ride days and nights without stopping. His men, nomadic just like him, eat and sleep on horseback. The only time his army would stop is to forage supply and to rest the horses.”

Bloodbeard’s eyes turned dark as Fearless continued his nerd talk.

“As long as you are within the Great Plain, you can neither hide nor outrun him. And that’s just a single army. You still have two more armies to deal with. Do you have something that you want to add?” Fearless challenged.

Bloodbeard pointed his finger at the location of Madukat on the map and opened his mouth, only to be shut down by Fearless. “Your decoys? Is that what you want to say? You trust that rabble to hold ground against Hyrios’ army? How many days would it be? Stop being naïve, one morning is all Hyrios needs to crush them. ”

Bloodbeard’s expression spoke to Fearless that he was correct but not completely correct. At this point, Fearless has managed to confirm that all of the events happened in the canon history of ROC remained the same. He was the only difference to that history. He was an alien substance.

“Oh, I see. The Judgment Army.” Fearless sneered and shook his head,” You are really stupid enough to trust that they would cover your back? No, they won’t. You can ask them to coordinate a pincer attack with you but there will be no pincer attack for you, not after you sold them out with your cute pesky trick. Do you think that nobody would realize that the decoys you left there did not add up to 4000? It’s a matter of time. When that Judgment comes to Madukat, they will stay in Madukat and force the three armies of Zard to besiege it. That’s the reason why you are only allowed to break a small part of the first wall and nothing else. See? They only need to reinforce that damaged part of the wall, fixing it with their magic. It’s easy. They can hold out inside that fortress city for as long they wanted.”

Bloodbeard’s expression turned grim. He’s smart enough to follow everything that Fearless has told him, and Fearless could see that. He also realized that Bloodbeard was clinging to something else within his mind.

“But, if they do that, the entire invasion is already lost,” said Bloodbeard.

Ah, Fearless quietly muttered. He finally realized the thing that Bloodbeard was clinging to, even in the moment of his execution, his self-denial.

“You are Ashtorá, Eri’s son, and my nephew. Therefore, I can trust you with my secrets. I can give you everything I have,” Fearless told the bandit lord, placing his hand on the bandit lord’s shoulder. “However, to the Empire, to the world, you are just a bandit. If I was to be the Emperor or the general of the Empire’s army, do you think that I would trust you, a bandit lord with the detail of my plan to invade Zard?”

“You are lying,” Bloodbeard breathed out quietly. He’s getting emotional and in complete denial. His expression told Fearless that he realized what Fearless has told him was true. Yet, he could not bring himself to believe it. His knees looked like they would crumble at any moment.

The giant in front of Fearless looked weak. He was just an oversized baby.

Fearless being Fearless, he would not miss out that opening. When the enemy is down, hit him hard, that’s Fearless favorite strategy. Fearless tiptoed, grabbing Bloodbeard by his cheeks. He brought Bloodbeard down to his height, gazing into Bloodbeard’s eyes.

“I have told you, child. War is a terrible business and a child like you is most ill-suited for it. You are too unsuspecting. You are too naïve. What awaits ahead of you if you insisted on staying in this land is a certain death.” Fearless carefully delivered his final attack. He kissed the bandit lord’s forehead as if he was his beloved child. He did not lie to Bloodbeard. “Without anyone to guide you, you can only die in this land.” That was the nail in the coffin.

“I have finally understood,” replied Bloodbeard.

Bloodbeard’s reply confused the heck out of Fearless. Fearless has painted seven scenarios within his head of how Bloodbeard would reply him. None of the scenario matched.

If Bloodbeard replied with a resigned, “I understand” like that of a completely defeated man, Fearless would continue to probe his mental-attacks on Bloodbeard until he’s through with the bandit lord.

If Bloodbeard replied “But you can do it, can’t you?” due to Fearless’ subtle suggestions, Fearless would say “Yes, obviously” with his usual arrogant voice. However, he would tell Bloodbeard that he had no intention of helping Bloodbeard to be a conqueror, which then making Bloodbeard begging him. By doing that, he made Bloodbeard believed that the choice was his. Bloodbeard would believe that he gave his army to Fearless on his own according and Fearless did not suggest him into doing that.

The other five scenarios in Fearless’ head were similar. The paths that they took would be different; however, they would arrive at the same destination in the end. All roads lead to Rome in the end.

Except that, Bloodbeard’s “I have finally understood,” was never a part of Fearless’ vision. That was not Rome. The expression on the bandit lord’s face was not that of a defeated man or that of a man who had all but resigned or a man who was trying to cling to his only hope.

His “I have finally understood” felt like the Eureka of Archimedes but with less enthusiasm. His “I have finally understood,” felt like that one time when a complete stranger was looking at Fearless and asked, “So you are Jesus?”

Completely random, deranged and lunatic.

It felt like the bandit lord has realized something that Fearless could not see or understand. Bloodbeard’s “I have finally understood” felt like he has succeeded at something. It felt like he has managed to escape the inner demon that Fearless has sowed on him.

Fearless gave the bandit lord with his most confused look. His perfect acting completely melted away within his confused look. He has simulated the conversation so far ahead into the future, to the moment when he would literally tell Bloodbeard what to do and what not. He retraced his steps, trying to understand what Bloodbeard’s “I have finally understood” meant.

“You are that bird,” muttered the bandit lord, adding to Fearless’ confusion.

“Bird?” Fearless felt like he has lost Bloodbeard completely in the dark vacuum of space. Inside his head, he was asking himself, “What bird? He said that. So which bird? Am I a bird? Which part of me looks like a bird? How does that relate to the topic we were talking about? Which of my suggestions made this insane bastard thinking that I was a bird? Fuck, I’m so lost”

“You are that owl.”

“What owl?”

At this point, Fearless was convinced that Bloodbeard could not handle the truth and his mind has gone to banana land. He almost decided to slap Bloodbeard out of his shit.

“The one in my dream,” Bloodbeard said, “You are the owl that appeared in my dream. I was lost in the darkness and you appeared to guide me. That’s what the dream meant.”

“So, there is the eighth scenario. Well, all roads lead to Rome,” Fearless thought.