Year 12.328 After the Founders Autumn 58.

Meanwhile, the two young princes were helping out the sick and injured in the camp, while being guarded by both Recimir and later on Alexios.

Since there were, like Totila said, very few casualties, it was expected the two would have very little to do, to be there mostly to show their faces to the soldiers and knights in order to boost morale and loyalty.

“Haaa… nothing to do….”sighted Teia.

“it seems it was indeed a great victory, few of our men were even hurt” responded Diaz.

“Of course Diaz, grandpa is very strong and his men too are well trained, I heard you can only find this level of soldiers in the Heraclean Empire, the land of Arms, right Recimir?”

“I don’t know about that sire, I think sir Alexios can answer that question better.”

“I can guarantee your highness, while there is still work to be done in the armies of the kingdom, many of it’s men are seasoned in war and duke Algiers himself is a very hard man to find even in The Empire.” responded Alexious.

“hmmm.... so it’s still not quite at the level of the Heraclians then.”said Teia, while Alexios kept himself a bit quiet before responding.

“I can only say that the Oderickians are a level or two below when it comes to individual soldiering.”

“Well, I will let you off with this then! hehe.” Said Teia with a large smile.

At that moment a large groan was heard at some distance from where they currently were.

“It seems different from here, over there things are quite ugly.” Said Diaz looking at the prisoner's location.

After the battle, which history would call the “Battle of the Calavrian hill”, many of the enemy soldiers were either captured, killed or incapacitated. Among the captured there were many who were gravely injured and some died shortly after the battle, so about a 1000 of them were right now being treated by the Lusian’s physicians under the condition of either ransom or other forms of repayment.

Diaz, without notice, got up and began to walk in that direction.

“Wait! Diaz, where are you going!?” Screamed Teia.

“To the prisoners camp, over there we can be more useful than here.”

“That is true, but they were our enemies until now! They could try to take you captive!”

“injured like they are now? i doubt it, besides if we only help those truly in a bad state i don't think we have to worry too much about them fleeing, otherwise they will die from their wounds.”

“Your highness Diaz, i believe his Highness Teia is right, even if they are injured they might still try to do something reckless specially because of that.” Expressed Alexios.

“He’s right my prince, warriors in this state, full of pain and anger, sometimes go berserk, ignoring both. Which is why we even sent soldiers to finish them off if it actually happens”. Responded Recimir.

“Hmmm…” Diaz made a troubled face, he knew they were right but he still did not wish to stay idle when he could do something. Before this expedition, he learned about how mana can help accelerate injury recovery and took some hints from some of the Mages who also acted as field doctors.

When emperor, he was never one to stay idle. Even if he was considered to be introvert and quiet, he was either working for his people or whenever there was something he defined important or moral, he defied even his councillors and minister and went ahead with his ideal. He didn't do it much but still there were times he acted a bit selfish like this, and although this gave much headache to his ministers, the people loved him for this.

The old emperor for example never took an escort with him when he walked around the capital.

“It is true what you all say, however both me and Teia know how to manipulate mana, and recently I learned a bit in how to use it for first aid, as such we can help lessen the already overwhelming burden on the doctors.” argued Diaz.

“I understand my Liege, however our main concern is your safety, and not the life of the prisoners. theirs is secondary” Alexios cruelly explained.

Diaz was a bit taken back by his cruel words, however he was still adamant to go.

“Then it is fine, for I have two of the strongest men in the kingdom with me and the best company of soldiers too.”

This time the one who was taken back was Alexios. He trained and thought he somewhat understood the prince, and to Alexios Diaz's image was that of a brilliant but submissive and timid child, so when the royal acted unlike his image it surprised the royal guard captain quite a bit.

Teia, then interjected in with a question.

“Diaz, why do you care so much for these prisoners? You do not know then, and just recently they were our enemies. We need to help them, as courtesy of prisoners of war demands it, but there’s no need to go this far.”

Diaz then stopped for a moment and thought on his words. Everything they said was true, why was he so stubborn about it ? To begin with this is not even his world so why should he care? However, almost as if a lightning struck him, the answer came to him, all he needed was to be honest about it.

“It’s not that I care about it, I don't know any personally nor would I be too sad if they died. However, not only some of them might be from our kingdom, for Catalunia was previously Lusian lands and some might have been levied, but also, their lives are in my hands right now. For I have the power to help some of them yet I stood by and did nothing, letting them die. How would I sleep at night if I did nothing, while being conscious of this fact?”

Recimir, Teia and Alexious were astonished at the fourth prince, for he was declaring that he was mostly doing it for the sake of his consciousness, not really for an altruistic reason, (because he said he didn't really cared for them). Yet, the fact he was so open and honest about it made them understand that he was not trying to deceive them with pretty words nor attempting to shame them with righteousness.

This made something inside the three grow. It was trust, they understood that this young prince could be trusted for he was being honest even if his image would be damaged in the process.

“is that so…”said Alexios, giving up. “So your highness would regret it that much?”

“Yes”-Said Diaz- ”My inaction would haunt me forever.”

“I see Inaction… I understand, I shall keep a close guard on your person then, but we will only treat those very injured and isolate ourselves from the rest of the injured.”

“thank you, sir Alexios”.

In this meantime Teia was quiet, he still could not agree with his younger brother's action but even so he had no more desire to stop him, for he understood that Diaz would only keep on trying to convince them to let him go until they did so.

Teia also understood that his brother had a strong conviction about all of this, something that he would not give up so easily. This reminded him of his father, who would constantly spend restless nights in order to plan for this invasion, with a strong determination to take back the lands that were lost.

The third prince remembers the countless times Kniva spoke about how he wished to one day restore the memory of the previous king, for it was tarnished by his enemies. However the king also spoke how hard and somewhat foolhardy it would be for his enemies where too many while his allies too few, still Kniva said that was something he could not let go, no matter what.

“Sir Alexios, I will also stay by my brother's side, is that agreeable?

“Yes your highness it is.”

The two princes and their escorts then showed up at the prisoners camp, in there the scenery could only be described as Hellish and pitiable. Man without limbs, bleeding with no end, overworked physicians and abandoned corpses, everywhere you looked there was such a scene.

Diaz remembers how back in his home world during war he would see similar scenes, it was truly horrible and the stench of death and decay is just like that. Ironically perhaps this is the first thing that truly feels familiar to him.

“Are you ok, Diaz?” Asked Teia.

“I am, thanks for asking brother.”

The two then went to the closest group of doctors asking for instruction, it took a while before the surprised doctors recovered themselves from the shock of seeing 2 young royals in such a place and finally relenting and giving them instructions.

A bit further away, Recimir approached Alexios.

“Are you sure about this Alexios? My orders were only to protect and instruct the two for a while, so I can't interfere if they give an order. You however are basically the fourth prince guardian, so you can stop him if you want.”

Alexios did not look back at Recimir, keeping a close eye on both princes while responding.

“I am not, I know I might be making a mistake in indulging the fourth prince, however after hearing what he said I just could not come to stand in his way.”

“Why?” Asked Recimir.

“Because the same man that gave me a second chance said similar words”

“You mean his majesty Eurick.”

“Yes”

Back when Alexios was fleeing from the Heraclean empire he was accepted by Diaz’s grandfather, king Eurick, as his retainer. Unfortunately, Alexios, being a Domestikos, was not only a commander of a elite unit but also a very famous one, known as ‘The Flame Sword of the Kikians desert’ for his numerous times he and his man cut through the armies of several kingdoms and nomadic tribes that bordered the Heraclian Empire.

Because of his fame, Alexios was considered too dangerous by the winners of the civil war, and so his arrest and execution was announced as well the “Tarnishment of name” a practice made so every memory of him was to be destroyed.

So when Eurick refused to deliver Alexios to the Heraclean empire it caused a huge diplomatic issue, where the empire cut relations with the Lusians and increased tariffs over any Lusian merchants, which did cause a problem to the royal coffers.

For that Alexios was forever thankful to Eurick, and swore he would make up for the problems he caused by bringing victory to the royal house and discipline to its soldiers. As such he was very moved when he saw the attitude of the person he most admired in one of his descendants.

Meanwhile, Diaz was treating the wounded with the new mana manipulation techniques he learned. He had to admit that magic was very fascinating in a way, almost that it felt like God himself had given boundless gifts to these people, for mana allowed them to achieve much without the use of technological breakthroughs. It for example allowed him for example to lessen the pain of the prisoner he was treating by focusing mana into his spine, basically using it to block most senses, like pain.

Magic was basically the usage of mana to create a phenomena. If you want to create fire you need combustibles to burn and a flint to create sparkles in order to start a fire, a bunch of “work” must be done in order to make fire, mana basically replaces this work and transforms directly into heat. This was one the examples the mages and scholars passed to young Diaz in order to explain magic.

Diaz, being very learned in natural science from his homeworld, came to the conclusion that Mana was something like an easily convertible but highly unstable form of energy unique to this world.

He wasn't completely sure yet if his thesis was correct, but perhaps this world followed the same universal rules as his old one, with the exception of mana that he had yet to know how much of the differences of this world to his own were due to the existence of this mysterious energy.

Nonetheless, he was still impressed by magic, a higher level practitioner of Magical medicine like the doctor beside him was using magic to quickly cauterize a wound by burning it, then afterward he would spread mana evenly to the patient body in order to make it heal faster. It didn't seem the last action was very effective though and when questioned if it was effective or not many doctors disagreed on the details, so perhaps they also didn't understand how it worked in detail. So there are still many studies to be made about magic.

At one point, Diaz was asked to help take care of a certain prisoner. When he approached,the prisoner was very pale and trembling a lot, however it didn't seem he was too wounded but he was complaining about pain constantly. One of the Doctors was too busy treating the patient beside him to give this particular one attention so he asked the prince if he could soothe the pain for the complaining one.

The man was fidgety and seemed nervous, he was a lean man and seemed to be very young. He had some spear wounds in his arms and legs but didn't seem to be life threatening anymore, although it looked quite a bit painful.

However, Diaz could see that his current problem was not pain nor his wound, for the man, he was holding his chest tightly rather than his treated wounds, also it didn't seem to be wounded there, no signs of first aid being done in his chest, not even bruises were present.

Diaz could not know what the man planned, but he knew that giving a warning would not hurt. He approached the man and began to help soothe his pain, whispering to him.

“I don't know what you are nervous for, however I would hope you give up on any resistance or attempts to flee.”

The young man, surprised, looked at the prince, while Diaz pointed his finger to his brother and guards.

“My brother, even if young can use offensive magic already, and is pretty proficient in it, he could launch a spear of ice in you before you ever had a chance to do anything, while the guards are even more dangerous, for everyone in the royal guard knows some form of offensive magic.”

A part of it was a bluff, while all members of the royal guards were indeed elites, and knew how to use magic, almost all of their spells were for close quarter combat so they would not be able to launch a long distance offensive magic. However the part about Teia was true, to the point where Teia was looking at them and preparing a spell to launch at any moment, if looked well an aura of mana could be seen in his hand. Teia’s spell would not be strong(for the standards of a court mage )but against an unarmed opponent with no magic knowledge it would be way more than enough to kill him quickly.

Knowing that he was seen through the young man trembled and seemed to be cooling his early desperation for fear, the disparity between a young boy and the adult-like way he spoke being a part of that fear he felt. He slowly let go of his chest, however before he could open his arms fully, Diaz stood in front of him and held his forearms before picking the object hidden in the man’s chest. It was a small knife used by surgeons, most likely the young man picked it up when all eyes were away from him, whenever he truly planned to use it or not is irrelevant, the moment he revealed he took a weapon he would be put down.

“I will keep this, if you were to die right after I spared you, would turn my actions meaningless after all.”

The young man just stood still, not knowing what to do or say due to the shock of the situation, the only thing that came to his mind was:

“What… What is your name?”

“My name is Diaz Lusian Seratoria Vasconcy di Algiers, you may call me for any of my names or simply by my position as “His Highness”, feel free to choose. Now if you excuse me, I have others to attend.”

Before the young man could say anything more the fourth prince moved on, placed the knife on a table and kept doing what he was doing.

“Your Highness… Diaz…”

The young man whispered to himself, until he would never forget the name.

Afterwards, there were no more major incidents in the prisoners' encampment. Diaz and his brother however would be severely lectured by his father due to their independent acting, while Alexious and Recimir would be forced into non-stopping scouting and sparring as a secret punishment, for if they were publicly punished it would be detrimental to the image of unity of their army and faction.