Imperator: Resurrection of an Empire

As the dignitaries continued discussing the young garrison commander was dismissed from the Arcadian party as he had no desire to align himself with the other's desires, and rather than have him be present to further impede the discussion sending him back was the more desired result.

In the end, after sitting and discussing for only roughly an hour, it was decided the city would surrender itself unto Julius and his legion, so long as the terms they agreed upon were upheld.

First of which was that no conflict would happen within the city boundaries, while anyone who wished to leave the city would still be free to do so, however the city would be under Romanus laws, which after discussion seemed to be actually a bit more lax than what already existed in the Protectorate, so having the guards adapt to performing under the new arrivals from Romanus would be easier assuming that the guards themselves did not need to be replaced entirely due to lingering grudges held for battle waged thus far.

To prevent as much of this as possible the dignitaries will be announcing the cities surrender and the truth behind their reasons why.

As for Julius well he got to return to his own lines where he got to speak to his gathered me.

"Gentlemen brave warriors all, it seems our opponent has heard your boisterous voices ring on high, and in the lyrics they have come to find their own reason for participating in this war was in fact a lie provided to them by their rulers, and so the people have chosen to surrender their city unto us, however this comes with terms, the same as I myself always adhere to, none but the guilty shall suffer, and any who wish to leave shall be allowed to do so without cause for embarrassment or shame."

The thousands of Romanus soldiers heard the words of their liege lord, and at once broke out into a cheer that reverberated through the air even more so than their previous battle song, like the roar of a mythical beast having been roused from it's slumber.

Per the terms set Julius and his men did not take further action for 3 more days simply sitting in their camp and waiting on the morning of the third day, the city gate finally opened itself once more, and much to the shock of his own men thousands of men and even women filtered their way out through the gate, before casting down their sword, spear and shield before moving off to form lines before the walls themselves.

Was this a test?

A test to see if his terms were real?

As he saw what was going on, Julius ordered a few of his men to go forward to investigate but not to do anything that would cause hostilities to resume after all if the other party was indeed surrendering it was their job as the conquerors to be gracious towards the defeated.

It was reported back that they had indeed all agreed to surrender and all present were those of the mercenaries and garrison force who'd chosen to surrender, all those not willing to surrender had either fallen on friendly blades, or already left the city to join up with another army or city else where still under Arcadian control.

As the city handover was being completed we were given a detailed report of the number of people who chose to flee before our takeover could be completed, surprisingly more of the regular citizens fleed fearing retribution than did the garrison or soldiers who believed in the honor of Romanus.

As the transfer of power was being performed it seemed that those surrendering themselves had taken to discussing with my own legionaires, and overhearing some of their conversations they were confirming the various stories that had spread out from the battlefields, mostly about how the impenetrable defenses of the greecians had been broken by the demon forces of Romanus however the soldiers getting a proper look at the men and women serving in Romanus's armed forces were amazed that the fleeing Argosian, and Athenian forces had the gall to spin such tales all to scare them into resisting with all their might to fend of demons not me.

As Julius proceeded on he met up with the 4 dignitaries whom he'd negotiated with, the young garrison commander was one of those who'd chosen to flee before the takeover could be completed, though not before he first tried to overthrow their decision by inciting a revolt from within however that failed since more believe the story presented to them by the dignitaries than with the warmongering of the young commander.

With the turnover having completed Julius and his legion took over management of the cities blades but honestly this was just a gesture on the cities part, since as soon as we'd received their blades we loaded them all into carts and returned them to the city armouries to be stored away until needed once more.

This shocked the people but not the dignitaries such was a term of our agreement after all, since to accept the blades and remove them from the city would be akin to looting the city which was something they agreed not to do, not that it was something Julius did except to the nobility who had been found to be unjust and stealing from their own peoples.

As the weapons were returned, and the cities flags still flying the colors of Arcadia, from afar at least it would look like the city had not fallen, however upon entering the city you would be shocked to find, that even just days later the Arcadians we performing patrols inside alongside legionaires.

We earned greater respect from the people when the legion properly paid for any food or supplies we had become wanting in without taking more than the city could handle to sell to us, while not kicking anyone from their homes to provide us places to stay.

I of course was fully prepared to sleep in my tent, however it seemed the men were wholly against this and since the young commander had vacated his post along with a good number of other people, we were provided access to their homes to bed down in, which while not enough for all 5000 to sleep at once it did allow for us to sleep in shifts so the spare houses became shared domiciles with their only real use being for sleep while other tasks were done out an about around the city itself.