Then came the sixth year.
When I returned from vacation, the old behaviors resurfaced. Soldiers and officers began treating the lower military harshly again. Breaking rules became normal. Still, it seemed manageable, so I punished violations as they came and tried not to worry.
But one midnight, everything changed.
I caught Henry forcing a prisoner to wash his clothes. It was not the worst violation, but seeing him, the man I trusted most, doing what I forbade, ignited something inside me. The anger that I had tried to bury surged to the surface and exploded.
I made a scene. A huge one. I humiliated Henry in front of everyone, soldiers and prisoners alike. I believed fear would restore order. I believed Henry would never repeat the mistake.
I did not know I was planting a seed inside him, a seed that would grow into the monster he is today.
The next day, guilt gnawed at me. I apologized to Henry. His words sounded sincere. He said he forgave me. We returned to acting like the best of friends. And the year passed quietly.
During the seventh year, two months after returning from vacation, we found a prisoner missing. At first, I believed he had escaped. The story Henry and the others told me was so convincing that I did not question it.
But later, I found a half-burnt skeleton buried behind the base. Something felt wrong. I forced a rookie soldier who seemed nervous, and he told me everything.
Some soldiers had beaten a prisoner to almost death during the night. The next day, he died from internal injuries. To hide the truth from Henry, they burned the body and buried the remains. They created a false story to deceive him and me.
I extracted the names of all the soldiers involved and reported them to the court. The king's court punished them according to their crimes."
Hercules paused, then tilted his head toward the hallway where Obero had once walked. His voice lowered.
"You must have seen a burnt skeleton lying on one of the beds, correct?"
Obero nodded.
Hercules continued, "That skeleton belonged to one of the soldiers who burned the prisoner. Henry knew everything from the very beginning. It was his idea to burn the corpse and bury the remains. But the soldiers were not perfectionists like him. They burned the body only halfway and hid it poorly. They allowed me to find it.
Henry hated them for their carelessness. After I was sentenced as a criminal, the soldier among them with the longest sentence of ten years was burnt completely by Henry. And Henry placed his skeleton in his own cell as a lesson."
He let his words settle into the damp silence between them.
"Maybe he will create another story at the time of his release to fool the court. But because it is Henry, I am sure he has already planned something." Hercules sighed with a tired certainty, then turned back to Obero and continued his tale.
"After the soldiers were punished by the king's court, I hoped the environment in the base would finally change. And for a while, it did. Things improved. Discipline returned. The lower military were treated properly again. By the time autumn came, it was already time for me to return to my family.
But that year, for the first time, I felt uneasy about leaving the base. Something within me resisted the idea. Yet Henry's words soothed that worry. He spoke with sincerity, with the same earnestness he always used, and I allowed myself to believe him."
Hercules laughed softly, shaking his head at his younger self.
"I was so naïve, even while being the general of the entire kingdom's military. I allowed myself to be convinced by a few reassuring words. I trusted him with everything, even as I began planning the celebrations for Hannah's eighteenth birthday.
For the celebration, I asked Henry to suggest a suitable gift. He told me to take her to Rainbow Park in the Noida kingdom. I had heard about the place many times and even I felt it would be perfect for Hannah.
Because I wanted to surprise her and June, I began my vacation a full week early. On the day I left the base, before going home, I drove straight to Noida to see the park myself. Every fountain, every color, every structure was beautiful. It was exactly as Henry had described. I was excited to bring my family there.
Carrying that excitement, I quickly turned back toward the kingdom. But near the border checkpoint, I sensed something wrong.
The guards were doing their duty, checking each vehicle that crossed the boundary. But when I stopped my van to ask them something, I noticed two huge trucks driving through without being checked. The drivers handed bribes to the guards in open daylight.
Moments later, a third truck arrived. The driver stepped down with money already in hand. But before he could pass it, I grabbed both men and beat them unconscious. I called the polis immediately.
While waiting for them, I went to inspect the truck. When I opened its back doors, I saw something I never imagined I would see in my entire life.
Inside were shelves. No, partitions. No, that still is not right. They resembled vaults in a bank, rows of rectangular compartments one above another. But unlike bank vaults, these had no doors and were made of thin steel bars. Cages.
There were eight rows and six columns of these vaults. In each one, a stretcher rested inside, and from the front of each, I could see a pair of legs hanging slightly over the edge. When I pulled the first stretcher, I did not know what to expect. But I kept pulling.
On it lay a girl, around eighteen years old. She was heavily sedated. No matter how hard I tried, she would not wake. Behind that stretcher, attached to the same track, was another. And behind that, another one. In total, five stretchers were connected end to end.
Cylinders of gas hung from the ceiling. The stretchers were padded gently, almost mockingly. Every woman inside was bound and gagged. By the end of my search, I counted nearly two hundred forty sedated women in that single truck.