Great Aspirations

Stay here and don't move. You, you inspect the goods?

Where'd you get it?

Found him on my way here, dying of thirst and about to become mangler chow. Thought he could fetch a good price.

I... came from Kazdel... I can find someone who...

Doesn't matter to us where you're from, slave. Say you're Higashinese for all we care, as long as someone buys you out.

I'm just checking if you've got a tail. You never know where these mercs get their 'goods'.

I promise you he's clean.

You better not be messing with me. Cash or barter?

Ain't gonna live long enough for money to mean something. Give me some good weapons.

You're the boss. He's second-rate, at best... that'll net you two blades, freshly cast.

How about you take another look, with your eyes open this time!

You can dress him up as a first-rate, but it won't change anything. If you don't like our offer, feel free to get lost.

And put that machete of yours away...

This is the Scar Market you're in.

...Can you throw in more? I was out on the Leithanien border before I got back, I've got first-hand intel about the whole war in the Core—

Well, here's something for nothing: careful what you spew out of that mouth if you want to stay alive here.

Mouthing around you have valuable 'first-hand intel'... You want to guess where that'll get you?

Leave the goods and scram. You're holding up the line.

*grunt*.

Not happy? Drown your sorrows in the bar. Our boss, Scareye, brews one heck of a drink. Doesn't matter if you can't pay your tab... they'll take your weapons as collateral, merc.

One more thing... where do you run your bounty board? I'm here to strike it rich.

The barfolk'll be happy to inform you.

*Sarkaz swearing*.

Just how many people are there in that goddamn... chasm?

Enough to break your fall, if you jumped. Welcome to the Scar Market, greenhorn. You'll love it here.

What's the deal over there? Why the crowd?

Probably another big name just rolled back into town.

Aren't you here to 'strike it rich'? Go on, then. I'd rather keep my horns out of all that mess.

...

You're injured.

Tell me something I don't know.

Gkh! *cough* *cough*! You're—

...?

The last time I was here, it was someone else handling transactions.

Guh. Yes...

You're referring to my grandfather. He never stopped bragging about how he'd fought you and lived.

I'm surprised you'd remember him. In the good sense, though, that means he wasn't lying all this time. It must've been sixty years ago by now...

...General Theresis.

Already? How sad that nothing here has changed at all.

I imagine with Her Highness here, too, there'll be no more violence this time, eh?

Even if things get bloody, eventually you'll leave, but we'll always be here, General. We'll always have business, so long as Kazdel's unrest never rests.

Even now, I remember one thing my grandpa mentioned in his boasts. He said to you, it's the land of Kazdel that needs us.

War and turmoil have necessitated this trade for over a century... this Scar Market.

G... General—I...

Provided you can reach the surface alive... Take a fresh look at Kazdel.

Much of what you know will soon change. All Sarkaz will be part of this change.

All? Us too?

Yes. I'm not inclined to explain our vision to the likes of you. But I will stay here a while longer and wait for her return.

Until then, I welcome you mercenaries to challenge me, just as sixty years ago.

I will take you to Kazdel, willingly or otherwise.

You can dismiss the mercenaries in ambush. No doubt they're your most trusted men.

This is out of my respect for the King of Sarkaz. None aside from the General can claim to know your true motives, after all.

Your Highness, do you truly believe this can change the fate of the Sarkaz? That you're not just another ill-fated hero caught in this cycle of hope and failure?

Once the dust has all settled, your answer will come naturally.

Following that pyrrhic victory, we built from zero a moving city, the great nomad of Sarkaz soil for over a century now.

We can evade Catastrophes and foreign armies. Our development has finally reached a point of basic self-sufficiency. But it's so far from enough.

The storm has long been brewing on the horizon, but we were too oblivious, like a burdenbeast too slow to react, too old to move.

Your Highness must be referring to that war between Leithanien and Gaul.

Surely you, too, are aware of the magnitude of that war.

Corsica I even secretly hired our Royal Court Casters as his consultants, but despite a period of seclusion, Leithanien's Witch King thwarted Gaul's offenses with his opening move.

And now, Ursus and Victoria have also declared war on Gaul.

These present empires display a might so far removed from the enemy one hundred and thirty years ago, against which we staked all Kazdel just to barely prevail.

That was already a victory in name only. If Kazdel must now be thrust into the same situation, how could it possibly end?

...

It is for this end that you wish to establish the 'Military Commission of Kazdel'.

Yet, the old aristocrats of the Royal Court grow resentful, refusing to relinquish their sumptuous city lives and viewing this as an attempt to challenge their privileges.

A century of peace is enough for certain memories to slip their minds.

So, what made you deign to come here in person? Do you see the 'Scar Market' as the 'Royal Court' for the bottom-feeders, where the likes of us scape by and make merry?

My only hope is for more Sarkaz to join us and resist the voices that refuse to embrace change.

Resist? Perhaps your Highness meant 'terrorize' and 'purge'.

What I want is a reform, not a slaughter.

So, what's the reward?

The Scar Market's not a real Royal Court. What we have with the mercenaries is partnership, not fealty. Without compensation, no one will work for us.

...Reward?

Are the spoils of war not enough? Are the riches, power, or food that should have gone to the hungry people not enough to sate your appetite?

...

You claim to provide shelter and a livelihood for countless Sarkaz warriors with your rhetoric of justice... Yet, I could almost hear their bones crunch as you squeeze them dry for profit.

Sorry, but in this business, we eat people whole and chew on their bones.

Scareye.

You too are Sarkaz. You too are a part of Kazdel.

...

You won't refuse.

...Hah.

Why would I? Do you think I'm scared they'll take revenge on me? The Royal Court's no mystery to me, Your Highness knows that plenty well.

And let me say... You've promised me, no doubt... the best 'reward' I could ask for.

We thrive on chaos, and I can 'see' the level of chaos you will bring upon Kazdel.

The fact that you've kept the name 'Scar' tells me that your ideas haven't changed.

Like you said, the nations of Terra have grown tremendously in power over the last century. We could throw more revenants into the Soul Furnace and stoke its flames, but it'll not close that gap.

So why force the people, who aren't really of the same race, to band together, call themselves the Sarkaz, and build a giant target called 'Kazdel'?

The war between the four superpowers has proven that other Terra nations can accept our existence as mercenaries, and that's where Scar Market comes in.

And Your Highness surely knows that we've become a community, a town, because many of us could never fit into the elitist, bloodline-obsessed Royal Court.

In all these years, I may have helped just as many Sarkaz find a new way of life as the Six Heroes, if not even more.

And I'm not the least bit ashamed to say it, Your Highness, King of Sarkaz.

Come to think of it, there's one thing I don't get, Your Highness. I might have agreed to help you...

But why didn't you and General Theresis simply burn this place to the ground before the day's end? I would have little chance of winning if you decided to do so.

Just like you did sixty years ago.

A minute ago, you described 'Kazdel' as nothing but a target and that you want another way for the Sarkaz to live, one that would have them depend on other nations.

Yes.

So tell me, in your prophetic visions, have you seen Kazdel's destruction?

Have you seen my death, Theresis's death, and the destruction of all that you stand against?

...

And what about yourself? How do you behold your death? A slow and agonizing death by Oripathy? Slain in battle on foreign soil? Or drowned in a sea of plots and conspiracies?

Have you ever left this place, and seen Kazdel as it is now?

Have you ever truly seen 'the future'?

Is this your way of asking for a prophecy? I don't give handouts, but for your Highness, I'll consider a discount.

Such nerve. No wonder you were able to claw your way out of this bleakness and rebuild this mercenary's paradise.

But I'll pass on the prophecy.

Prophecies and fate have no value.

It's getting late. I look forward to your return to Kazdel.

...

Tally up the losses.

Boss, the slaves...

Set them free. They're bound to get tangled up in the Scar Market after the war begins anyway. At most, we lose out on pocket change.

Did anyone take on General Theresis and survive?

Yes. I've noted them all down.

Take them to supplies for a little reward. They've got real balls.

When you're done, take them to the bar entrance and kill 'em all in front of everyone. Send their heads to General Theresis as an apology.

...Got it.

Send their rewards to whatever family and friends they have as bereavement.

Tell every merc looking to make a living in the Scar Market, I don't want to see 'anyone' trying funny shit on my turf.

Drinks are on the house tonight, both to celebrate the two Highnesses sparing your lives...

And to celebrate the huge gig you've all just landed. Your objective... is in Kazdel.

Get your shit ready. Soon, you're all gonna be in the city.

You've been quiet for some while now, Theresa.

Are you hesitating?

No, I have confidence in you. A reshuffle of the War Council is inevitable, it's just...

I've been thinking about the city's future. War won't stop itself at Gaul. Our pace has fallen too far behind.

Corsica I commands an indomitable fleet of dreadnoughts and guard battalions. The mad king of Leithanien has more than his Arts in his arsenal to effect Gaul's failure.

The industrial might of both Ursus and Victoria in the throes of a large-scale war has far surpassed our imaginations...

Many assume to know war like the back of their hands simply by living long enough through it.

If our concept of war still lingers on the great battle from a century ago, then we have drastically underestimated how quickly wars can nourish empires and fuel dictatorships.

This is exactly why we need a Military Commission.

It's more than that, Theresis.

...I know.

When the day comes, when the Sarkaz wish to live on, if a brittle, creaking city is all they have to call their own—

It will be far from enough.

...

Do you remember the idea I proposed, back when Kal'tsit was designing the city's blueprints with us?

Babel.

To transcend the borders of race and nation. To echo far and wide in our ideals, in our epics.

...Founded by a Sarkaz.

We will prepare Kazdel for the coming crisis, strive to eradicate the poverty and disease that have plagued them for millennia, and send a message to all of Terra.

There will come a future when we all stand as one. The Sarkaz, too, are part of Terra's destiny.

Kazdel won't accept this 'Babel', you and I both know that well.

It's but a dream of attempting to subvert reality.

Yes... for now, at least, we can't be talking of such grand ideals while even our own affairs are slipping away from us.

It's my hope this 'Babel' can become a part of Kazdel, Theresis.

Are you prepared, then?

As I said before, it's not just the other nations that will oppose you. Kazdel and the Sarkaz clinging to their hatred will also stand against you.

It is cruel to force them to forgive and forget. The persecution of the Sarkaz is not history. The ancient hatred is what drives many to survive until this day.

I am the King of Sarkaz. The responsibility is all mine to bear. I must show them a way out of this.

...I see.

Then go. Do what you will.

Theresa, I still do not approve of your vision, but I do support your decision, and the future Military Commission will, too.

If your gaze is set too far to see what lies before you, then I shall sweep away all that obstructs you at the moment, just as always.

I know.

Come, let's go home. Kazdel still needs us for what's about to happen.

Oh, yes. Scareye mentioned the prophecy again as I was leaving...

The signs of a pessimistic fate.

And your reaction?

I don't care.

Agreed.

It never struck me on the way out just how high this wall is... Oh well, at least I can go home alive now. That means I'm pretty lucky.

That man in the Scar Market... that was General Theresis. The first of this city's founders, the hero of that legendary campaign.

*sigh* If I had the courage to ask him to take me in, maybe I could've just...

*sigh*... I'm dreaming again.

The General gave me a fresh start. So what should I do from now on...?

Maybe I can try my luck at the factories, too.

It doesn't matter what else... I've made it back alive.

It's been months since I left. I don't know how many of my friends are still alive...

*Sarkaz swearing* What happened here?

Why are all the doors open and the furniture all smashed...

Pull-Top! You're back!

It's you! What are you doing here? Where'd you get that ornament?

Something big is happening. Royal Court nobles are being dragged out of their houses and killed by mercenaries appearing from nowhere, while the city guards do nothing!

A lot of us have been sneaking into the empty houses, and boy, have we dredged up some good stuff!

How are you still alive, though? Word got out you wanted to leave the city and find your own way, and after so long, we all assumed you died out there.

Heh. You won't believe my luck! First, I was left to die without food or water, then I was taken to the Scar Market... but guess what?

General Theresis saved my life, the General himself! Then, on the way home, I ran into this guy with a halo over his head, calling himself a Messenger, and he brought me all the way back to the city wall.

So, I've decided to change my name to Goodluck starting today. You guys can forget that lousy old name of mine.

Pft, a guy with a halo? A Sankta? And then the General? You sure learned how to lie, Goodluck.

Believe me or don't, but either way, today is a fresh new start for me! I'm gonna go be a miner—

I looted a Nachzehrer's house earlier and found some hot air balloons. Wanna launch me on one and put that luck of yours to good use?

I'm in!

Well, that was fast.

Man, it feels good to be home.

Thank you, fate, and thank you, General.