City of Fallen Souls: A LitRPG Adventure (UnderVerse Book 3) by Jez Cajiao (fb2 epub reader .txt) 📕

also one almost nobody left. You were either in the Legion or you weren’t, with whole families that were based around the regiment. The city treated them as second-class citizens, for some reason. The Legion suspected the attitude was being forced along by the nobles, but there was nothing they could do about it, so they turned their backs on it.

The Legion Enclave was a town inside a city, as self-sufficient as it was possible to be, with everything from greenhouses to blacksmiths, fletchers to leatherworkers. They were experts in providing for themselves, but incapable of creativity after such a long history of making the same things.

I’d asked about clothes, about food, and about life in general, and from the sounds of it, it was literally an army camp. The armorers were experts at producing the Legion armor, and due to regulations stating that this was the armor they made, they never made anything else. Food was made in the commissary and was paid for with chits. Clothes were made from the same patterns for everyone; a formal uniform, training clothes, and off-duty clothing. Everyone had a set of the former, and two of the others.

I listened without interruption as she detailed what the Legion provided: stability and training, safety in numbers, and a life, and she seemed totally unaware of what the Legion cost them.

Their crafters were all novices, bar a couple of journeymen, as they never made anything new. Each year, the Legion shrank, as fewer joined than died. The Legion wasn’t stable; it was fucking stagnant, and worse, it was insular. The ‘us and them’ mentality, which was all she’d known, should have been kicked on its ass long since.

There was always a difference between serving and ex-personnel, and an even bigger one compared to civilians, but the Legion didn’t even have that in common with the army or the Guard. It was all I could do to not scream in frustration.

I’d allowed myself a few minutes of fantasizing about the difference the Legion would bring to my Tower. Skilled crafters, dedicated warriors, and an entire military group that would understand discipline and dedication could change our very culture. I’d have people that I could pass a load of the shitty leadership details to, and I would just have to say ‘make it so’ like fucking Picard did.

I was sure it was going to be the opposite after hearing more about them. I’d take them if they’d come; hell yes, I would, but the problems people so rigidly traditional would cause?

Fuck.

Yen had realized I was pissed and had trailed off, leaving me to stew as she took up a guard stance by the door, and Oracle landed on my shoulder. She reached down, and I took her diminutive hand in mine and sighed.

“What’s wrong?” she whispered, and I shook my head slowly.

“The Legion. The Praetoria were the best in my world. The Legions were respected as amazing fighters and disciplined soldiers, even thousands of years after the last of them died. The fact that here, where they still exist, they’re so dismissed? It’s crap. Add to that, they’re so… insular. It sounds like they’ve turned their back on the world they were created to protect, and now they just… exist. I hoped for better, I guess,” I said sadly.

“Well, they lost everything. They lost the rest of the Empire; they lost their leaders and their heart with the death of the Emperor. They have nothing left, now that the city has turned its back on them. Are you really surprised?”

“No. I don’t blame them,” I said, shaking my head. “I blame that fucking dickhead, Sanguis. He did this, in his insane demands for power.” I suddenly realized that I wasn’t sad…I was fucking furious.

“These people, the people who form the Legion right now? They’re people who came out of the woodwork, despite all this shit. Despite knowing that if you take up the standard, you’ll be looked down on and despised, probably dying young, fighting some goddamn monster, and yet they still do it. These people should be fucking worshipped as heroes! Instead, they just bumble along, ignored. Well, I’ll tell you something, Oracle…I’m not fucking having this shit!” That last bit came out as a shout, and I stormed over to Yen, who stared at me in shock, and a little fear.

“You’re better than this! Do you hear me? You are NOT a second-class citizen. You’re the fucking best of them! You signed up to protect them, to stand up for those fucking idiots when the night comes calling, and even when they treat you like shit, you still do what’s right, because it is. Not for rewards or for glory! You fucking stand there on the line between the day and the night, and you fucking well say, ’No. Not one more person!’ You fight for them; you and your friends dove into a fucking cave system that you knew was full of monsters and fuck knows what else to come to me, because you knew I needed you. You are not a failure; the Legion is not a failure! I am the only failure here, because I haven’t made a place where all of you can be safe yet. A place you can live, not just fucking exist! Well, that stops right fucking now, okay?! We’re going to get my people out, we’re going back to the Tower, and we’re going to sort out this fucking goddamn monster-infested continent and make it safe for people to live in. We’re going to make it so you can have kids and not fucking worry about what’s waiting out there! WE ARE GOING TO MAKE THE NIGHT GODDAMN FEAR US!” I roared at her.

I could feel him. Amon. I could feel him there with me, almost like a physical being, his hand millimeters from resting on my shoulder, the furnace fire of his approval roaring through me. I could feel the fire of his convictions filling me.

I