Lost Then Found

The Nearest Town

Giving names. Possibly one of the oldest and, from a certain point of view, most human trait. There are many languages, and therefore many ways to refer to something. Be that an object, phenomenon, person... etc.

The same is true for settlements, from the smallest of villages to the largest of cities. They all in themselves carry the thoughts feelings and desires of its residents.

The same is true of the settlement where Subaru and Anastasia had found themselves in. It is a moderately large town strategically placed between the Royal capital and this domain's countryside. Because of this, it serves as the main logistics hub for the domain. Providing a central point for the traveling merchants and any officer of the crown who has any duty in this part of the kingdom.

Due to its usefulness, it has been around for a large amount of time and witnessed many harrowing events. Like a Vollachian invasion.

Centuries ago the Vollachian empire invaded Lagunica. While that in and of itself is not particularly strange, if anything, most people would consider " Vollachian Invasion" to be a nonspecific term and would ask for further clarification. The population of this town, on the other hand, would already have an event in their mind.

While bloody conflicts were nothing new for this country, a particular one carried a lot of significance to the people living here. The one where the town suffered a short siege. It was indeed a short one for the Vollachians were able to break the town's defenses a few days after the battle begin. Once accomplished their goals the invading army did what they did best, and the population of the town was completely gone. Some fled, but most were either killed or enslaved by the bloodthirsty aggressors.

The overall conflict lasted for almost two years and the siege happened at the beginning of it. So this area stood abandoned for almost the entire duration of the war. Naturally, that made it harder for the local villagers to get the necessary recourse, but for the most part, they were the lucky ones. That is due to the fact that the invaders mostly focused on important strategic positions, which made these villagers non-target.

While the town itself needed to be destroyed in order to prevent food produced here to sustain the Lagunican war effort, the villages themselves needed not necessarily. While destroying them would have been a sound decision in theory, the situation at hand made such an action unfeasible. So the Vollachans settled with simply denying their enemy this resource and moved away. Leaving the local people to live, more or less, uninterrupted.

But nightmares, like any dreams, eventually come to end. So did this war, which left the country's rulers in a strange predicament. They had this mostly intact city, at least when it comes to the state of the buildings in it, that was crucial for the domain, and yet nobody lived in it. The original inhabitants, at least the ones that survived, are now in Vollachia, since the kingdom was unable to get them back at the peace table. So not knowing what to do, the kingdom had taken half of every village in the area and had them settle in the town's ruins.

The villagers, whose existence was for the most part isolated from the larger world, found themselves inhabiting a moderately large town connected to the entire kingdom. Such a situation is prone to create many fun occasions. But, non was as entertaining, and long-lasting, as the story regarding the town's name.

The peasants in a feudal world spent all their life in their birthplace, raising crops and children before dying. So these people didn't know much about geography and, in all honesty, didn't need to. So when they were moved to the town they continued to call it the same way as they used to. So the settlement started to be known as, "the Nearest Town".

While the maps back in the capital still use the city's true name, that name is not that known by the people actually living here. Mostly because people couldn't be bothered to learn it.