Chapter 188: The Battle to Reclaim Zestrad (4)
Karnak gave orders to the knight leading the soldiers. "Evacuate the villagers to a safe location. We'll head straight for the estate."
"Understood."
The elite soldiers carefully made their way toward the castle village. Meanwhile, Karnak's group advanced toward the estate, moving swiftly along the darkened path.
Running ahead, Serati murmured quietly, "I hope everyone is safe."
She hadn't stayed in the Zestrad territory for long, but even in that short time, she had become familiar with many of the people there. Death was always sorrowful, but losing someone she knew made it feel even heavier.
Karnak reassured her, "I told you already. It’s more useful to keep them alive. Most of them should be fine."
Serati gave him a bitter smile. She had caught the nuance immediately. He hadn't said all of them, but most of them.
"And what about the knights of the barony?"
Karnak's expression hardened slightly. "They..."
From the cultists' perspective, there was no need to kill ordinary civilians. There was no benefit in it. But that also meant there was no reason to spare the knights. These men knew nothing but how to wield a sword. They weren’t even capable of baking a loaf of bread to sustain themselves. In other words, they would have been nothing but a burden as prisoners.
They had likely been killed immediately and turned into undead. The knights of Zestrad, the ones she had often sparred with, were no longer among the living.
"You've changed a lot, though," Serati remarked. "You even try to comfort people now."