Chapter Text
February 22nd, 1800
...
I used to live in Burmecia until I moved out of my parents' house to build a new life and a new career at Lindblum.
Nothing could ever bring me back home again... Until that date, January 20th.
I work at the Business District. I sell and deliver carpets to all districts. Mostly on my own, though I got some trustworthy workers over the years. So, January 20th, I'll never forget. I had to close my store because of the Festival of the Hunt that happens every year. You know, beasts are released on the streets and the hunters earn points by killing them, the one with the highest score wins.
People from around the world come to Lindblum to witness the slaughter. I think it's very grotesque, but everyone loves it. They even brought a Zaghnol from who knows where to the Festival, and Zaghnols are very aggressive creatures, from what I've seen. One of them almost killed two children if not for Lady Crescent's and her monkey-tailed friend's intervention.
After the Festival was over, and Lady Crescent won, the festering smell of rotten meat filled the streets, and it was awful, like really awful. Bones and flesh and juices everywhere, I wanted to puke at the moment but I had to help the community clean the mess. It was then that I saw a Burmecian soldier coming from the main gates, seemingly lost and unsure of where to go. He was covered in blood and fell twice on the pavement. He was about to fall again until a milkmaid held him by the shoulders.
"I need to see the Regent", he said. Desperate, all I could say was that he needed a healer, and some new clothes as well. He did not listen. He was blind, too. That blood probably wasn't even his, despite his wounds.
In a moment of solidarity, a crowd of Burmecians reunited around the soldier and they brought him to the castle. Burmecians and other people from Lindblum were also there for his aid, no one stood in their way, and why would they? They knew it was important for him to meet the Regent. I should have brought him to a healer, because after a few hours, I heard from a friend that the soldier died after delivering a message to the Regent. The message was that Alexandria began its invasion and Burmecia was the target.
It was a huge shock. A lot of us were worried about our relatives and the people in our homeland. My parents are doing fine, thank God they're fine. My mother only broke a leg but she's alright, though the same can't be said about the others. Like that soldier, or his family. I did not know the soldier, did not ask his name, never saw him before, but I knew he did not deserve to die. Not like that. The Regent ordered his corpse to be buried in the graveyard, the word "hero" to be engraved on his tombstone.
He showed more respect and decency for an unknown than Alexandria ever did to our kind.