GATE: Journey in the New World Vol I

Arc 1: Rodenius: Moonlight Sonata

Disclaimer: I don't own Gate or Nihonkoku Shoukan as it belongs to its rightful owners.

Arc 1: Lands of Rodenius:

Chapter 7: Prelude to First Contact

(Moonlight Sonata)

It was the heat of the wood fire that kept them from the cold night's presence.

For the first time, a night without the moon had taken over the lands of Rodenius as many depended on their own creations of light to brush away the stains of darkness surrounding them.

The forests of the Alnus region were no exception to that.

Just after a long journey, a band of soldiers had set up their camp on a small open area they stumbled upon while traversing the forest. Truthfully, most of them considered this area in the forest as their solitude in these recent times.

A place where they hide away from the recent horrors they have encountered during the prior massacre that happened at the fields near Alnus hill, where their former general was slaughtered along with the majority of his army that made an attempt to invade the hill. This band of rebel soldiers, or now turned back to rogue mercenaries were one of the surviving groups that had managed to retreat before being engulfed by the mysterious magical explosions that came from the hill.

Sensing that the movement was already over, these soldiers decided to cut their ties and continued on with their own ambitions. So to say that those said ambitions were all but similar.

They were never different, to begin with.

Not too long after the massacre, the surviving men left the hill and never went back to the Volga territories and instead formed their own groups of banditry, thus establishing their own hostile presence across the region which made things more worst than before.

Though, for this specific group, they were on the first phase of their own rise.

There were about a dozen men that sat before the bonfire in a circular formation, while some of their horses were stationed nearby.

The mood was very much positive for these men, they were the only ones that created a livelier scene in the dead of night. It felt like a small party happening around their turf as these men were apparently in the midst of getting themselves drunk and jolly.

"Ahh, after hard days work, we could finally celebrate what we've got ay boys!?" One of man in his early 30s said as he chugs his mug of ale.

"Don't be gullible! We got nothing from that village! If you want to achieve something, Go invade a kingdom and you'll see what glory means."

"Heh! With us only twelve? Come on a kingdom will be easy for us to conquer! "Burp"

"You're fookin drunk, my friend!"

This was just one of the men's conversations as they went about their small talk. Most of them were trying to brag about what they'd accomplished over the previous weeks, sharing their thoughts on how their campaign will become successful in the near future.

They were men that had managed to retain their pride after what happened prior. Moreover, it was their one shared goal that acted as their motivation to keep on doing their own missions and tasks. These men were once part of that great army revered by many as saviors of this land.

To the eyes of one young soldier by the name of Von, these men were the fiercest ones he had ever met. Though Deep down inside, he felt that there was something more to them, something that made them special.