An Imperial clerk walked through the halls of Castra Turannia, carrying a huge stack of papers. He stopped in front a large office door with two guards to either side, standing at attention. One of them knocked on the door.

“Dux, a clerk is here with the latest reports.”

They heard a deep sigh from the other side.

“Enter.”

The soldier pushed open the door. The clerk nodded in thanks and stepped inside the office of the Dux.

Dux Opiter heaved a sigh at the stack of papers. He resisted the urge to reach for the plate he had placed just out of reach.

For the thirty-third time today, Dux Opiter wondered what he was doing here. How had things come to this?

After the Battle of Castra Turannia, Dux Canus had conducted a full reorganization of Turannia’s limitanei. They pulled their forces out of the new Selkie and Dobhar territories and reinforced the border with the Forest of Beasts. But Dux Canus had not stopped there. He took the troops freed up by the shrinking territory and began a full-scale retraining program, personally bringing them up to comitatense standards, or as close as he could get them. Now that he could not count on the wider Empire for support, he endeavored to elevate his troops to a level he could do some real work with.

All of that meant a great deal of logistical work, as all of the soldiers left in Turannia were moving about. And as most of them were also settled farmers, that meant moving their families as well. Entire villages had to be relocated and rebuilt as the borders were redrawn. New fortifications had to be built to house and train Dux Canus’s new legion. New lines of communication had to be established with the two newly independent nations on their borders, not to mention new border defenses and security. And all of this on top of cataloging and responding to the damage caused by the Dobhar invasion.

And then Governor Aemilia revealed an ambitious investment plan, courtesy of the monster paying an entire war indemnity upfront and in pure Idrint. And since there wasn’t any sort of civilian administration, it fell on Opiter to bring her plans for a massively expanded port to fruition.

Opiter had barely slept, and didn’t leave his office for days at a time.

And then…it got worse.

A massive influx of refugees from Utrad landed on their shores. Entire legions' worth of deserting rebel troops, rich families with all of their possessions, poor folk with little more than the rags on their backs. All of which had to be recorded, provided for, resettled, and then kept track of, lest they turn bandit out of either opportunity or desperation.

His only respite was that the arrival of Governor Aemilia’s retinue from the Hiberius family allowed her to establish a basic government administration. At the very least, his duties went back to purely Legion concerns.

Yet, his workload was still noticeably heavier than it had been before.

Because as it turned out, Dux Canus had been promoted. The man was now the Magister Utriusque Militiae per Turannia, with full authority over all Legion forces in the province, whether comitatense, limitanei, or even the Imperial knight orders should they move to the province at some point. This would prevent the previous situation from recurring, where the higher ranking Magister Caelinus had been able to strip Turannia’s comitatenses for his rebellion. It would also allow the Empire to turn a blind eye to Canus accepting some of the rebel soldiers back into the Legion as the new Magister ‘establishing new formations.'

Opiter didn’t care about all that. What he did care about was Dux Canus promoting him as the new Dux of Turannia’s limitanei.

Opiter was now the man in charge of all limitanei in Turannia. A job he felt thoroughly unqualified for, which he expressed in no uncertain terms to Magister Canus, Magister Tiberius, Governor Aemilia, and anyone who would listen. But Magister Canus had stated that Opiter had more than proven himself in the reorganization and refugee situation, which Governor Aemilia had wholeheartedly agreed with. And Magister Canus had then stated that contrary to popular belief, tactical command was not a necessary skill for a Dux. He simply wanted someone who would keep the overall operations running smoothly. Tactical command could be left to the Legates and Centurions, and the limitanei would fall under Magister Canus's command in the event of any large scale operations.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Opiter would also admit that the pay offered may have clouded his judgment.

But the problem that Opiter had been concerned with ultimately came to pass. Which was that now he was the guy people were reporting to! He was the guy everyone came to when they had a problem! He had to figure out who was going to go deal with it now!

He couldn’t pass issues to Canus anymore unless they were specifically comitatense business! Everything else he had to make a decision on first!

But he took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly. It was still deeply concerning to him, but so far everything had actually gone pretty well. Magister Tiberius had a full complement of Exploratores, Magister Canus now had actual soldiers under his command, Governor Aemilia had actual governing staff, and the territory they were all responsible for had shrunk dramatically. All in all, the number of actual issues the limitanei of Turannia needed to deal with had shrunk down to normal levels. Which meant that the issues they did have largely fell within Legion standard, with fleshed out Legion policies on how to deal with them. Opiter had mostly been able to just repeat Legion policy and the issues would be handled.

And he was getting used to the paperwork. That had always been his strong suit in any case.

In fact, Opiter cracked a small smile. If things kept up, he might actually get used to his new role. He was starting to believe he could handle the job. And if he could handle the job…well, ‘Dux Opiter’ didn’t sound too bad.

Yes, as long as nothing non-standard occurred, he would…

Just then, one of his guards burst into the room, forgetting even to knock.

“Sir, we just got word from the border guard!”

Opiter’s heart began to pound.

“What is it?”

He winced as his voice cracked. But he relaxed slightly as the soldier smiled. Whatever it was, it didn’t seem to be too…

“She’s coming back! NSLICE-00P is heading this way!”

Opiter slammed his face on his desk, scattering some of his reports. He slumped out of his chair so he could grab the plate of food. He curled up on the floor as he began to gorge himself.

In the forests near Castra Turannia, two shadows shot through the trees. The light of the sun glinted off of wicked blades as they passed one another. A light clang rang through the forest as they each landed on the ground, their backs turned to one another. A single leaf fell through the air between them, cut perfectly in half.

On the one side was the former Exploratore Hostus, still in his state-issued cloak though with his Exploratores pin removed. Sweat dripped down his neck as he tried to steady his breathing. His hands trembled as he gripped his sword and turned to face his opponent, hoping to see her corpse.

He scowled. His opponent stood entirely unharmed. She stared at him with a predatory gaze and a smirk, swaying back and forth as she watched him with mirth.

Hostus grit his teeth. First that jerk Tiberius had tried to short-change and humiliate him, after all he did to help that ungrateful idiot! Then all his so-called ‘friends’ abandoned him when he tried to get justice for himself. Then the stupid Empire had tried to arrest him as a traitor! He already said it, it wasn’t his fault Caelinus had tricked everyone!

And now he ran off into the wilderness. If society would reject him, then he would reject society! He’d become a bandit king, conquer this stupid province, kill that idiot Tiberius, and show the Empire he meant business!

But then he ran into this adversary. And try as he might, he couldn’t kill her. He had barely avoided death on that last pass. If this kept up…

And then…his opponent turned away. She began to clean her weapons…with her tongue.

Hostus’s face twisted through several horrid expressions.

She was looking down on him! This stupid…cat was looking down on him! He’d kill her!

The cat finished cleaning her paws, and then finally turned her head as he rushed towards her. She meowed softly as she dug her paws into the dirt…and then launched herself towards him. She seemed to vanish as she swooped past.

There was another clang as man and cat appeared on opposite sides of each other.

They stood in silence for a moment.

And then blood spurted from Hostus’s neck.

The cat didn’t bother turning around as the man fell to the ground. She licked her paws before shaking her head.

She really thought a human soldier would be better than that. But honestly…she knew rats that were faster!

But she smirked to herself. It couldn’t be helped after all. She was nature’s perfect killing machine. She had grown overconfident, complacent in her might, and that was why she had been humiliated.

But now?

Now she had thrown herself back into training and battle, no longer content to prey upon the weak, but to demonstrate why she was the epitome of violence. She had battled the monsters of the wild, and reigned supreme. Now, not even the humans, not even the so-called apex predators could stand against her.

Now she was ready. She would have her revenge.

And just in time.

She froze, and her hair stood up. She started to hiss.

It wasn’t anything she could sense. She felt it, more in her heart than out in the world. But she knew. Somehow, she knew.

He had returned. And the day she had been preparing for had come.

She extended her claws and then swung them. A faint arc of light flickered through the forest, and then the branch of a nearby tree fell to the ground. She bared her fangs.

And this time, she would not be humiliated. She would not be denied. She would reign supreme as nature's perfect killing machine once again.

And so the cat ran off into the forest, heading towards Castra Turannia. There, her destiny awaited.