Spring has come to the City of Kokhavor, and for many of its citizens business continued on as usual. That's if you consider starving as a "Usual" practice among hobbies. The City State's resources were being drained to produce war supplies for the ongoing conflict with Kylia. With limited manpower and medieval technology, Kokhavor stood no chance against the advanced and partially industrialized nation of Kylia.
Lord Starodavniy's rule was also becoming increasingly unpopular as defeat after defeat was reported from the western front. Now the people had enough, the anger they harbored against the Starodavniy and his supporters had reached its peak. It was the perfect opportunity for a coup.
Joseph's group of rebels had been secretly plotting to overthrow Lord Starodavniy's oppressive rule. Now that the time was ripe, they set their plan in motion.
On a cold spring morning, the Joseph's rebel's prepared to storm the lord's manor. A group of 50 men and women(because most of the men were either captured or killed in the war effort)armed with steel halberds, pulling carts full of weapons, marched through the streets of Kokhavor shouting slogans like: "Unification with Kylia!", "Down with the war!" and "Bread and Peace!"(A prelude to communism?)*
The people, seeing the commotion, started joining the crowd, swelling the number of rebels to 3000 people. More than a third of all residents in the city were now participating in the insurrection. Now armed, even if they weren't experienced in combat, they were a force to be reckoned with.
Such a large crowd of people would be very hard to miss, naturally this caught the attention of the lord.
"My lord, the situation in the city is terrible!" his advisors told him. "Even if we mobilize an army of 400 soldiers to fight against the rebels, we will be outnumbered 9 to 1. The rebels have nearly taken control of the entire city and are heading towards the manor!"
Lord Starodavniy's face turned scrunched up in anger. "********! Those Kylian cowards must have incited this rebellion, we shouldn't have been so light on the security of the city. If I knew that those untouchables were cooperating with the Kylians, I would have hanged them immediately for treason. Pack up your stuff, it's not worth staying here, we'll leave for Rishka."
"Yes my lord!"
As the advisors left to prepare for their journey, Lord Starodavniy stood up and looked out the window, thinking to himself. Just two years ago he was one of the six powerful lords of the Coalition of City States, never did they know that just a two years later, their nation would be completely swallowed by the torrent of the Blue Army. Perhaps it was never meant to be.
Lord Starodavniy left his throne room and joined his advisors, leaving the manor, not noticing that somebody was hiding on a roof a few blocks away from them.
Former Rosian Clerk Shpyhun who was tasked with eliminating lord Starodavniy, currently was resting on top of a roof with his Kammerlader rifle.
When Shpyhun first led the rebels down the streets of Kokhavor to the manor, they did not expect so many civilians would crowd around them to join their noble cause. Because of this, the marching speed of the entire rebelion slowed down significantly, presenting an opportunity for Starodavniy to escape. Changing their plans, Joseph asked Shpyhun if he could snipe Starodavniy from a distance with one of his "thunder sticks". Now Shpyhun finds himself in the particular situation that he is in.
He proceeds to cock the hammer mounted under the weapon, opening the breech. Carefully placing a percussion cap on the nipple, he poured a pre measured amount of gunpowder into the breach, with a paper cartridge used as wadding. Finally the bullet is placed in the chamber, rotates a crank forward, locks the breech, ready to fire at a target.
The Kammerlader rifle has an exceptional range, so it would be no problem for Shpyhun to hit his target.
In human history, during a military sharpshooting competition held in Belgium in 1861, the Kammerlader was proven to be among the most accurate military long arms in Europe. The Norwegian rifles were shown to be accurate to a range of about 1 km, which is quite an achievement even by modern standards(Source wiki).
Shpyhun took a deep breath as he aimed at Starodavniy, who resided sandwiched between his aides, none of them having a clue that this would be their last moments. As he pulled the trigger, he felt a sense of relief and satisfaction.
"Crack!"
A thumb-sized hole opened up on the right side of his forehead(these people are not human, they have metal horns, so the best place to aim would be the left or the right side of the head), as his body slumped down onto the ground, dead.
His aides, watching all of this happen in an instant, were so shocked that they just stood there, not a word uttered out, all of them questioning the reality that their esteemed leader just died so quickly. This gave Shpyhun precious time to reload and take another shot.
"Crack!"
"Argh!", one of the aide's shrieked in pain as he collapsed to the ground. This time it was a gut shot, the bullet went straight through the entire body, leaving a gaping hole in its wake. Pretty soon blood and guts started to leak out of the man's abdomen.
"Help, I'm dying!" he screamed out as he used his hands to cover his wound, a desperate attempt to stop the flow of organs leaking out of him.
"It's a Kylian thunderstick, run if you want to survive!" an aide shouted out, all of them realizing that staying in the exact same spot would only get them all killed
The unlucky wounded aide fading wails for help were not heard by the fleeing aides, who clearly realized that there was no hope for him as they all scattered into the distance.
Shpyhun was able to get three more shots in, two gut shots and a headshot, before all the aides were safely out of range of the fearsome thunderstick. Shpyhun did not mind those escaping survivors at all, by now the rebellion had full control of the entire city, controlling all means of escape. Those survivors would never face a chance against a mob of 3000 people. What did matter was the Lord had been successfully killed.
Joseph's rebels cheered and celebrated their victory, decades of Lord Starodavniy's rule had finally come to an end. Joseph and his group, who were now calling themselves the "Royalists" , quickly set up an democratic Kylian government under the instructions of Shpyhun.
Shpyhun also made sure that a message would be sent to the Blue Army that was advancing towards Rishka, which is just south of Kokhavor city, to inform Kylia of their success.
…
"Your Majesty! Agent Shpyhun has successfully captured the City of Kokhavor."
Odin's jaw slackened. He truly hadn't believed Kylia's audacious plan, ripped straight from the history books, would actually work. He'd seen the schematics, the carefully placed propaganda, the subtle funding of dissident groups. But seeing triumph declared so unequivocally… It was unsettling.
"Xa-xa, great!" Kylia's laughter was sharp, a brittle sound that betrayed her own astonishment. She'd gambled, betting on the volatile cocktail of tyranny and war fatigue plaguing Kokhavor. Lord Starodavniy's iron fist, coupled with devastating losses in the ongoing war, had created a societal pressure cooker. A little nudge, a spark of coordinated rebellion, and the whole thing had blown. Just like the Russian Revolution of 1917.
"Commoners are really scary," Yuter muttered, shivering. He still viewed the populace as a faceless, unpredictable mass. He was oblivious to the irony that these very "commoners" were the bedrock upon which Kylia intended to build a new, more stable Kylian society.
"Any group of people would rebel against that tyrant if they had a choice," Kylia retorted, her voice regaining its usual steel. "Let's focus on securing the city. Kokhavor needs immediate aid. People are starving. A hungry population is a rebellious population. We need to flood the market with food and medicines. And then, we import farming equipment. Ploughs, harvesters, everything they need to prepare for next year's harvest. This isn't just about conquest, it's about earning their loyalty. I'd rather spend our treasury feeding them, than getting fat on the guillotine."
"Agreed," Odin said, snapping out of his stupor. "A good ruler keeps her citizens content." It was a principle they both held dear, a cornerstone of their leadership philosophy. A prosperous populace was a loyal populace, and a loyal populace was a powerful nation.
After a moment, Kylia turned her attention to the bigger picture. "How much longer until we reach the City of Rishka?"
"Just one more month of marching and we'll be at the city gates," Odin replied, consulting the war maps.
A slow, predatory smile spread across Kylia's face. It wasn't a pleasant smile, not the kind that inspired confidence or warmth. It was the smile of a strategist, a conqueror, a woman tasting victory. "Great. I want to see the look on Lady Aysedora's face when she realizes she's the only one left." The shadows cast by her deep blue hair only amplified the chilling effect, making her resemble a character ripped from the pages of a historical strategy game, reimagined as a ruthless warlord.
"Goddesses," Yuter whispered to Odin, his eyes wide with concern. "I think she's gone crazy." They both stared at Kylia, a flicker of genuine fear in their eyes. The weight of leadership, the constant pressure of war, appeared to be taking its toll.
The following morning, the Colonels responsible for managing Kylia's schedule and emotional well-being had a very difficult time convincing their leader to calm down after she spent hours obsessing about the minutiae of agricultural reform and the benefits of an industrial populace. The plan was working, perhaps too well, and Kylia was consumed.
*(Communism has often led to totalitarianism, political repression, restrictions of human rights, poor economic performance, and cultural and artistic censorship. If I'm gonna write about a communist state in another world, I might as well write down, "They rebelled, worked lots to make steel, then died pitiful lives in hunger." I'm trying to make a superpower here, not a failed state. The government structure that I'm planning for Kylia will be a mix of Democratic, Socialist, Monarchist, capitalist values, that will reflect similarly to a mix of governments that constitutes China, The US, The UK, and Germany.)