Chapter 514: Must Have Been The Wind
Christina wasn’t quite sure how she led her Squad away from the square. She also wasn’t sure if she was more nauseas or enraged about the vile desecration of life she had just borne witness to.
Back in Redwood Town and later in Herald City, she had seen many people die; Christina had even seen freshly mangled corpses covered in claw marks or that had literally been bitten in half, so she had thought she was prepared for what she would see out here on patrol, but this... this was something else entirely.
Wild Beasts attacked humans in order to feed or to defend themselves. It was gruesome, yes, but it was also a natural part of life.
What happened in this village was in no way natural.
This was cold, malevolent, and completely unnecessary. It was cruel beyond anything Christina had ever imagined possible, and just thinking about it, thinking about what those people must have experienced in their final moments, made her want to scream and throw up all over again.
However, Christina also knew she couldn’t lose focus here, so with every bit of her willpower, she forced herself to calm down.
Among all the Captains, only she had lost control and vomited back there, and while no one in the Battalion looked down on her for it, especially seeing how this was her first mission and she was more than 10 years younger than any other soldier in their unit, Christina still found it unacceptable for someone in a leadership position like her to be so... weak.
Shaking her head, Christina turned to the soldiers under her command and ordered, "We’ll sweep the north-eastern part of the village. Go house to house and be thorough. We... we can’t just note this as another loss and move on."
"""Yes, Captain!"""
Although Christina had said as such, she knew that the chances they would actually find something useful was minimal; after all, this was far from the first destroyed village this past year and so far, not a single clue to who was behind it had come to light.
Up until half-a-month ago, the biggest suspect in all of this had been the Darr Kingdom itself. Celestina and the rest of the leaders in the South-East Province had assumed that by targeting their outlying villages, the Darr Kingdom was trying to provoke some kind of military response, wear down their forces, or simply sow chaos and panic.
However, when Talia Darr showed up at Christina’s birthday and informed them that they too had suffered numerous attacks by this unseen enemy, that thinking changed.
Now, both sides were searching for an unknown culprit, and although suspicions remained on both sides of the Lorren that their old foes were the ones responsible, it was looking more and more likely now that some third party was trying to stir up trouble instead.
.....
The village was relatively small, with only about 50 buildings in total, enough to house at most 200 people as well as workshops and other public facilities.
That number also matched with the... with the ’size’ of the display back in the central square.
Still, the Third Battalion took their time to perform a thorough search, intent on not missing even the smallest detail.
Unfortunately, an hour after they began, they had still found nothing despite going over every ruin multiple times.
The 5 Sea Establishment Realm Captains had also used their limited Soul Senses to scan the ruins, but even that effort came up empty.
"What should we do, Captain Gage?" One of the other Captains asked.
Frowning deeply, Lana didn’t want to give up the search, but she knew spending any more time on it was pointless.
Perhaps if a Soul Initiate were here they might be able to do a more in-depth analysis, but no such master was present.
Letting out a sigh, Lana shook her head and ordered, "Send a message back to the ship. Tell them we need some shovels."
Pursing his lips, the Captain understood what his commanding officer intended to do and nodded.
"You want to bury them?" Christina, who by now had calmed down somewhat, asked solemnly.
"It’s the least we can do," Lana Gage nodded, really meaning what she said.
They had failed to arrive in time to save the villagers, and failed to find who was responsible for their deaths, so despite how horrid the sight of their bodies was, just leaving without even burying the victims of this tragedy seemed like adding insult to injury.
"I’ll see if there’s a local cemetery nearby," Christina volunteered, having learned that most small villages like this tended to bury their dead together in nearby fields.
When her Squad members moved to follow her, Christina simply waved for them to stay as she wanted to be alone right now.
It took her a few minutes, but Christina eventually found the local burial ground, a small patch of dirt surrounded by wildflowers with a few marked graves about 500 metres south-east of the village.
It was a peaceful spot, one seemingly filled with light and life.
Perhaps the villagers believed that being buried in such a place would help sooth the souls of the fallen, or help guide them to the next life. Christina wasn’t sure, but if that truly was the intent, she hoped it was true.
Moving all the bodies from the village to this place and then digging enough graves for them to be buried would certainly be a lot of work, but Christina didn’t think anyone from the Third Battalion was going to object.
Having found what she was looking for, Christina was about head back when something at the far side of the flower field, at the very edge of the treeline, caught her eye.
For a second, she thought she saw movement, but when she looked again, all she saw was a few swaying branches.
Must have been the wind, Christina shook her head, though just to be sure, she also quietly scanned the area with her Soul Sense.
Thanks to the Spirit Tool her Ancestor had provided her, Christina appeared to be a Seventh Step Core Formation Practitioner, but in reality, she was in the Fourth Step Sea Establishment Realm.
She had also learned a few tricks from Lucas, who seemed uniquely capable when it came to using his underdeveloped Soul Sense, so performing a remote scan of her surroundings wasn’t anything too difficult.
Christina was glad she had come alone, or she wouldn’t have been able to do this with others watching from nearby.
A moment later, having swept the area in question, Christina confirmed that there was nothing there and turned to leave.
However, just as she did, she again spotted movement from behind the same large tree that had first caught her attention.
Recalling the advice of her Master to never completely trust her Soul Sense, as it could be fooled by any number of methods, Christina decided it was worth investigating and kicked off the ground, breaking into a sprint.
The very next instant, a shadowy figure bolted from behind the tree and took off running, confirming her suspicions.