The Union

As for the arrows, they spent more than half of their stockpile already. Nevertheless, more than a thousand Tulosans had already died while the rest were exhausted. It shouldn"t take long.

"I surrender!" a voice resounded from below.

Timothy searched for the source of the voice and found a group of Knights hiding under their shields. The shields they held looked like porcupines with dozens of protruding arrows. Many of the Knights were injured with some bolts finding their way through the small gaps in the Knights" armor.

Timothy raised his hand and ordered a ceasefire even though it had only been half an hour since the last one. His soldiers lowered their crossbows and there was a cessation of hostilities. The atmosphere that was earlier filled with the sound of whizzing of arrows was now silent.

"What is your name?" Timothy asked from the top of the wall.

"Stan Belford, Centurion of Fifth Century, Third Cohort of Tulosans Knights" the man answered.

"Do you wish to surrender, Stan Belford?"

"I do" Stan answered without hesitation.

"Do you understand that even if you surrender, we will still punish you for your crimes? We would have treated you as prisoners of war if you just abided with the rules of war. But you committed war crimes against the citizens of Castonia so we will treat you as criminals. You will be appropriately punished depending on the severity of your crimes. We could even give you capital punishment." Timothy said slowly and clearly. He wanted Stan to understand that surrendering doesn"t wash his hands of his crimes. Justice will be served fairly but ruthlessly.

"I do Prince Timothy" he then turned to the rest of the Tulosans. "I had enough of this. We lost. We should just surrender and accept punishment for our crimes."

Stan then turned back and looked at Timothy. "I, Stan Belford, surrender to you Prince Timothy Castonia. May you treat me justly" he then unsheathed his sword and dagger and threw them away. He removed his armor and also did the same.

Many Tulosans followed Stan"s actions. They threw their weapons, put their hands on the back of their head and lay down.

Timothy felt relieved. He wanted to let as many Tulosans to live as possible. There were only two ways to have peace with Tulosa in the future. Either he tame them or exterminate them. Timothy was not willing to exterminate a race. He wasn"t that evil. So the only to have peace was to end the cycle of hate and revenge. It would be hard, but time heals old wounds. He needs to reduce the casualties to hasten this healing period. This stupid war with a stupid cause had taken many lives already.

It took three more hours to break or exterminate the rest of the Tulosans. There were some who never surrendered and fought to the death. Somehow, Timothy understood their choice. Accepting defeat was hard, it was painful. Some people were just too consumed by emotions to see the bigger picture. Nevertheless, most of the Tulosans surrendered.

In the afternoon, Timothy received news from the cavalry. They were victorious but a force of about five hundred cavalrymen got away. Timothy can"t blame them after hearing that this group of cavalry were the Whistlers. He had heard of the Whistlers before. They were fast and light. There was no way for his cavalry to catch up to them.

Also Timothy received some disappointing news. General Sigurd fought to the death. Timothy thought that General Sigurd would surrender and lay down his arms. But the General fought until his last breath. Timothy was really disappointed that General Sigurd did not surrender. Of course with the severity of his crimes, he would still get capital punishment. But at least he would die for justice.

General Sigurd was an evil man. He did evil things. The dark deeds of his army were mostly because of him. Human beings may be inherently good, but human ethics was a fickle thing. People will always follow a leader. They always thirst for guidance. And if the leader was evil, the followers would disregard their personal feelings and forget morality.

This was the reason why leaders hold the most responsibility in this world. A weak but charismatic person, when propped on a horse, could still inspire armies and change the course of history. Timothy considers himself a leader. He was powerful because his followers decided that he was. Timothy wasn"t a saint. He wasn"t faultless. But he was better than most leaders, at least he tries to be.

Timothy wasn"t the sort of person who would sacrifice everything for the sake of the greater good. No, he wasn"t like that. Yes he wanted to make the world a better place, but there was a limit to all his sacrifices. He was neither a saint nor a devil. He was a human- a human being who was inherently good but flawed.

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The next morning, Timothy arranged a funeral for the dead soldiers. Thousands of new gravestones filled the graveyard. Each of the gravestones had a name, ensuring that the memories of those who died will not be forgotten.

The last time they went to the graveyard was to grieve for the dead Castonian soldiers. Now, they were here to grieve for both the dead Castonians and Tulosans. He allowed the Tulosans to grieve with them. Of course, they were in chains but Timothy gave them the freedom to say farewell to their comrades.

It was a solemn event and the graveyard was filled with silence even though thousands of people were present. Division due to race, nationality, language and religion was removed. They were all human beings, suffering from the effects of this unnecessary war.

Timothy was standing at the front. He then turned around. The Castonians and the Tulosans were divided into two groups but one couldn"t see the difference between them. They all wore the same expression, that of weariness.

"Dead men won"t come back to life" he suddenly said. In an instant, thousands of eyes were looking at him. He paused to purposely gather their attention.

"You will never see them again. "We" will never see them again" he corrected

"We have all suffered, Castonians and Tulosans alike. We are all tired of this useless war. I"m not saying that we will end this conflict between us- no, conflicts are essential in finding a middle ground between our differences. I told you that I desire peace, but I will not force a premature peace. It"s just that at the end of the day, I hope we can still look at each other as human beings. We are different, but we are the same."

"We grieve today and we remember the memories of the dead. But tomorrow, is another day. Dead men won"t come back to life. Their bodies will rot and their consciousness had faded. But I believe that every single life has a meaning, at least that"s what every person desires to have- an impact on this world, an evidence of existence. Our comrades are dead. But as for the impact they left, it"s up to us, the living, to preserve it. So live your lives with memories of them and make their deaths meaningful. That is our responsibility."

The men just looked at Timothy silently. No one uttered a word. Timothy was disappointed that he failed to reach their hearts. He turned around.

But then he heard a thumping sound. He turned around again and saw a single Tulosan kneeling. The others followed. What happened next was the chorus kneeling of the Tulosans and Castonians. Thousands of people knelt and put their balled fist on their chest. It was a salute.

Timothy knew that the salute was not directed towards him. It was directed to the dead. The people behind him were saluting to the dead.

He turned towards the gravestones. He then knelt and also saluted to the dead.

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After sending letters informing the whole kingdom of his victory, Timothy decided to leave Knightsend behind and head to Solon. The larger Tulosan army are coming and they can"t defend the castle whilst guarding thousands of Tulosan prisoners. Also, they were running out of food.

Timothy destroyed the gates of Knightsend and demolished its defenses. They can"t let the Tulosans use Knightsend.

The villagers also followed Timothy. Some of them were reluctant at first, but Baron Randy encouraged them to leave.

"Are you sure you"re not retreating just because you miss Lucia?" Erik jested. They were at the front of the whole column.

"What if I am?" Timothy smirked.

"Then your flowery words at the graveyard would mean nothing. It"s a shame, your words nearly moved me" Erik grinned

"What are you talking about? My words always move you"

"Nope" Erik denied "Not even once"

Timothy laughed. Back at the graveyard he saw Erik"s watery eyes so he knew that his friend was moved by his speech.

"Let"s go" Timothy then said with a smile

After a while, thousands of people started their march towards Solon.