Before the Battle

Side story: Last wish

Whenever General Kotoku Sato thought about how he would die, he assumed his life would end in battle. He wasn't far from the truth. Yet it didn't happen in the midst of battle, between the screams of the wounded and the bullets flying past his head. Death came for him under the cover of night - silent, unstoppable - just hours before the actual attack.

It found him alone in his tent, hunched over his unfolding plans, with a cup of tea he would never drink again.

As soon as he heard the metallic hiss of a drawn sword behind him, he knew it was too late for everything. He knew there was no time to reach for the pistol lying inches away from his hand on the table. He knew there was no point in calling for help, because the men standing guard outside the command tent were almost certainly dead.

He also knew with unwavering certainty who was standing behind him.

Very slowly, very carefully, he turned to face his death.

A young man in a long black coat looked at him with a cold expression in his steely eyes, clutching a katana, whose blade rested cold against the General's neck.

The man before him could have been his grandson, decades separated them. Kotoku Sato's hair had long since lost its black colour, the lines around his narrow dark eyes deepened by years of war. He could feel his body withering with each passing day. But he would get no older.

"He sent you to me after all," he spoke in a calm voice, knowing that he would not escape death.

"You are a traitor," the other man said. "The Emperor hereby sentences you to death."

"This is not the way Imperial Generals are executed, my boy," he smiled without fear. The prospect of death did not frighten him, he knew what he was risking when he began to negotiate with the enemy. His only regret was that he would not be able to complete his plan to overthrow the Emperor.

"If the old traditions are so important in the Empire, why doesn't your master have me summoned before the regiment and executed for treason in front of everyone?"

"You know why," the black-haired assassin replied curtly.

They both knew the reason as well as the Emperor. General Sato was held in high esteem by the soldiers; news of his accusation of treason and public execution would have shaken the morale of the army.

The civil war was now in its third year. At first, the rebels seemed like a pesky insect that the Imperial Army would quickly eliminate, but over time they proved their tenacity and indomitable spirit.

"Of course," he nodded. "That's why he sent his best cutthroat to eliminate me in secret. And what will happen then? Will you leave my bloody corpse on the battlefield? Will the Emperor read a eulogy over my coffin about my heroic death in battle?"

The younger man remained silent. He had no reason to deny it. In fact, that was exactly what would happen.

"It will be quick," he said at last. "You won't feel a thing."

"I have no doubt," the General smiled.

The Emperor's favourite assassin always worked neatly. He took no pleasure, like his master, in torturing his victims or prolonging their suffering. But when he was ordered to kill, he killed. Without pity, without mercy.

The first drops fell on the canvas of the tent. Thunder rumbled in the distance. A storm was coming to cool the parched landscape after a hot day. The usually bare plain at the foot of the lonely mountain was now dotted with tents. Inside, the men who would go into battle in the morning slept restlessly. Many of them would die. But their General would die first. Probably before the storm ever reached them.