章 31: Aftermath (part 2)
The date was October 22nd.
It was four days, right after the oldest heir of the royal family, the crown princess herself, celebrated her 17th birthday.
During the day, the people were minding their business happily. Some were angry, some were sad. But their lives are still there, and they are continuing as if the future exists.
But right during sundown, marks the end of all ethelens. A large explosion took Velborn by surprise.
It sourced from the underground of Velborn's knights headquarters, right under the noses of the strongest men in the kingdom. It easily took the lives of many strong ethelens, including the knight general himself.
After the skies turned dark, a second explosion happened. It occurs at the northern city wall, where nobody was expecting an attack to happen from. The blast opens up a huge opening on the wall, and allows the attacker outside to enter.
How did the attacker even get there in the first place? It's simple.
They walked.
An ancient portal was somewhat established right outside of Velborn, on a nearby waterfall. Over five thousand men came out from that very portal, slaughtered the adventurers who were camping in that area, and made their way to Velborn's northern castle wall.
They barged their way in, and finally did what they came to do.
Genocide.
The lives of all ethelens there were trampled upon. Every single one of them were tortured, raped, and finally killed at the very end.
They don't take prisoners nor slaves, due to the command of their higher ups. Meaning the very thing that they needed to do was to kill.
While their citizens are being slaughtered, the royal family are lying dead on the grounds of the royal castle. A single powerful human barged his way in and killed all the residents of the royal castle, including the king and queen.
Velborn was completely busted down, and it only took one whole hour for the mission to finish. After that, the knights picked their stuff up and began another move, towards the east.
The leftovers of the Masqueren army, the ones that survived a sudden ambush from two strong human individuals. They thought they made it to Velborn and be able to help out, but the ones they were trying to help were already long dead.
They were met up with the five thousand army of Ardjestyn, and they fell easily. After all, their numbers didn't even reach five hundred.
How did this happen? They had over three thousand men from Masqueren, how did they get reduced to just less than five hundred?
It was all thanks to the two human individuals who ambushed them, right outside Masqueren city. The two were the second and third strongest heroes of Ardjestyn, the two strongest humans.
They took down more than two thirds of the Masqueren army, and left them with only less than five hundred. The surviving army continued to make their way to Velborn, only to be faced with five thousand men.
Their planning were flawless. The humans barely suffered any casualties, but the ethelens were completely wiped out.
After taking down Velborn and Masqueren, the towns and villages around them were next. The five thousand men army split up and began going to each of their assigned destinations, ones that had been given to them right before the battle even started.
As commanded, no ethelen was left alive.
The mission to take down Velborn lasted only one night, but the take down of the nearby towns and villages took the entirety of the next morning.
The next day, news finally arrived in the ears of the people, that all ethelens towns and villages had been burned down during the noon yesterday. The humans of the Ardjestyn kingdom cheered and praised the warriors for winning the war against Velborn.
And they especially look at one person highly.
The man, who started the mission.
The man, who completed his own holy mission. The first in history.
The man who, all by himself, sounded the trumpets of victory.
Rake Ignicius, the Paladin hero.
.
.
.
The Sea of Flames.
The blinding white brightness that illuminates the deep darkness of the moonless evening.
The sounds… of people.
Sounds of their screams, their cries.
Swords, clashing into one another.
Bodies, falling to the floor one after another.
Blood, spraying on the ground non-stop.
No dignity… no heart.
That… was hell.
No matter how hard I try to keep my mind away from it, those thoughts continuously arrive in my mind. The events that happened, the things that happened to them, and my contributions.
How? How can such a thing happen?
How did Velborn and Ardjestyn become enemies? Why did we even become enemies?
The history books said that battles have started continuously due to territorial disputes. But was that truly it?
For a whole kingdom to fall, just because of this… is suspicious.
The newspapers kept on going about me being the greatest character in the whole thing, but I just don't get it. I don't even know that everyone else will be attacking Velborn, let alone actually wanting to do it.
I don't understand any of this. Not one bit.
But… It was my mission. It was the kingdom's wish.
I had to do it. And just like what Jack said, I just have to suck it.
I managed to push all those thoughts away to the deepest part of my mind. I managed to rid myself from those thoughts, with Jack's help for being an idiot.
It was all going well, until I got shouted at by an old man on the streets.
"Do you realize what you just did!?"
The old man was probably around eighty to ninety years old. He was very old, possibly only a few steps away from the grave. And yet, when he spoke aloud, it felt like thunder had just struck right next to my ears.
"Do you even realize… how big of a sin you just committed!?"
Sin…?
What sin? What exactly did I do, that I have sinned?
What mistake have I committed? All I did was do a holy mission. It was a mission that was given by the church, the will of god.
Exactly how… have I sinned…?
All I did… was for the people…
That sort of thought was on the surface of my mind. It is what is going on loudly in my brain, while the old man is being pushed away by the other citizens.
But, from the deepest parts of my brain… something had awakened.
After being placed to sleep for so long… that emotion has finally awakened.
The unbearable… guilt.
The rushing pain, that not even death can recompense.
A sin so powerful, nothing can atone it.
The memories have finally surfaced.
And the realization… activates the strongest emotion I've ever felt.
Guilt.
GRRTT!!!!
My mouth bit my own lips strongly, causing blood to leak out immediately. My eyes were opened wide from the havoc happening inside my mind right now, and my fist is already gaining mana by the second.
"R-Rake!?"
Jack noticed my pressure rising, and that he knew that something within me was going wrong. I am still standing still, with my eyes facing the ground, but mana is being condensed heavily around my body.
It's as if my body is going to explode.
BAKK!!!
With enough speed, Jack moved behind me and swung his right elbow. He hit the back of my neck, where one person can easily lose consciousness.
My body fell to the floor with a thud, and the pressure in the air calmed down. Mana has also calmed down and circulated around my body again, no longer pressurized to the point that it can explode.
Everyone can only watch as the rank 10 hero knocked out the rank 1 hero with just an elbow strike to the back of the head. Noticing this, Jack shrugged the back of his head.
"Truth is… he was in a bad mood the whole morning. He was definitely going to kill that old man, so sorry about that!"
Jack said to the people, specifically towards the old man that was being pulled away. He then lifted my body up, and began carrying my body on his back towards the knights HQ.
Behind him, unconscious, tears are falling continuously from my eyes.
The nightmares… have only just begun.
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