When the Dream Faded

Second, besides the destruction of the three branches, the situation in Kraków was also far from promising. The newly formed Kraków City Defense Force and Kingdom of Poland Imperial Guard had both been attacked outside the city and suffered heavy losses.

Landry Promis's Polish Restoration Army, which had originally been established, had been torn apart by his own reckless machinations.

In fact, the original aim of the uprising had been to establish a republic—a republic between merchants and nobles, not between nobles and the king, and certainly not a kingdom.

But Landry Promis had his own plans. The so-called uprising was nothing but a performance, staged for the lords who wanted to see it, to prove the worth of the Polish Restoration Army.

One city against three countries? Give me a break. Only a fool would believe that.

If he could become king, his life in exile would be entirely different. And becoming king would give him a protective talisman, since tradition forbade executing a king.

Napoleon had once turned all of Europe upside down, yet after losing two wars, his ultimate fate had been no more than exile.

But Landry Promis's actions baffled many Polish Restorationists, since they ran counter to their ideals. Division and infighting were inevitable.

The newly formed Kraków City Defense Force and Kingdom of Poland Imperial Guard were nothing but green recruits who had never seen a battlefield, or a ragtag bunch of surrender-minded people and civilians strong-armed into service from in and around the city. If they could surrender to Poland, they could just as easily surrender to Austria.

In theory, Landry Promis had fifty thousand troops at his command. In reality, they couldn't even handle the serfs outside the city. Within just a few days, their numbers had fallen from fifty thousand to