The war has raged on for over a year now, with control of territory on both sides ebbing and flowing over the months. With a huge expanse of land in play, it was almost impossible for either side to defend all their positions at any one time. We captured several villages on the Eastern front last week, only to lose an entire town in the South this week.
I had expected the siege on this outlying castle to be a quick one. We had sprung a surprise attack and quickly surrounded the castle, but faced an unusually strong resistance for an outlying castle. Alas, we stormed past the gates at the break of dawn after three days of fierce fighting. Exhausted by the battle, I sat down on a bench in the courtyard as my lieutenants led the troops to secure the perimeter, do a thorough sweep of the castle grounds and round up all remaining enemy forces.
Capturing a castle, even an outlying one, can give us a strategic advantage. But it also usually means the capture of a well-stocked kitchen, which is always a good morale booster for the troops. We would usually remain in the castle for a couple days as we fill up our bellies with wine and good food, and have a couple nights of rest in the bed chambers. Sometimes, we might even capture a few handmaidens who got left behind by the enemy's hasty retreat. On such occasions, the troops would plead with me to stay for a few extra days before setting out to conquer our next objective, as they enjoyed the spoils of war.
"General Arthur, look what we found!" Morgan, one of my lieutenants, came up to me with a shit-eating grin, as he led six terrified handmaidens into the great hall, followed by a couple dozen surrendered enemy troops.
Recognising one of the prisoners, the reason for the strong resistance suddenly became clear.
"Sir Clayton! What a surprise to see you here! Hahaha!" I exclaimed. I nodded at my lieutenant, and he stopped mentally undressing the handmaidens for a brief moment to separate the knight from the rest of the prisoners.
I was surprised to see the decorated knight defending this old outlying castle and interrogated him for some time, but got nowhere. "Well, if we are not going to get any useful information out of you...", I paused, making an act of drawing my sword from its sheath.
"NO!", one of the handmaidens screamed out, before being shushed and held back by two others.
I turned my attention to the group of handmaidens. The handmaidens were beautiful and well groomed. Their robes appeared to be made of fine linen instead of the more common woollen robes. Handmaidens like these do not usually get assigned to outlying castles such as this. This group of handmaidens wouldn't look out of place in the Kingdom of Georia's royal palace.
I pointed at the handmaiden who spoke and ordered her to step forward. She took a small step towards me cautiously, avoiding my gaze. I observed her ill-fitting handmaiden robes, smooth pale skin and manicured nails, as a smile crept across my face. I turned towards the knight and asked "She's no handmaiden, is she?".
"Who are you?" I walked up to the trembling handmaiden as I lifted her chin and gazed into her fearful blue eyes. I let my palm linger on her face, slowly caressing her well-defined cheeks framed by a head of long flowing blonde hair.
"Get your filthy Kastran hands off her!" the knight reacted, as Lieutenant Morgan landed a swift kick to the knight's knee with his armoured boot, bringing him onto the ground, following up with several more kicks as punishment for his insolence.
"Please stop! Don't hurt him..." the handmaiden begged. I grabbed her jaws with my hand, drawing a wince from her. "Tell me who are you!" I bellowed.
"I-I-I'm O-Olivia. P-P-Princess Olivia of Georia", she uttered silently between sobs.
