Four thousand four hundred

"That many?"

Everyone was dumbfounded. As Elizabeth once said, they had the complete advantage throughout the battle. From the beginning to the end, there was nothing that the defenders could do. It was that one-sided! While the defenders were not exactly harmless, and given special circumstances, they could kill a few soldiers, four thousand four hundred citizens was a huge number! That was equivalent to a large town or a fledging city. To take things into perspective, that was more than ten times New Havens' population! Soldiers were one thing, but they were normal defenseless citizens… It was obvious that the Alzar Kingdom went too far this time.

Standing up, Elizabeth walked to the windows which overlooked the city. "I promised that I'd guarantee the safety and protection of anyone willing to lay down their arms and surrender, but this…" She glanced at the devastated buildings, mounds of corpses, and roaming soldiers everywhere. "Why would anyone trust me after this?"

"…" No one could say a thing.

"I once thought they were monsters because they attacked my home and killed my family, but when we attacked them and slaughtered thousands in return… Didn't we become the monsters instead? The Alzar Kingdom and the Xingyuu Empire are the two sides of the same coin. Both suffer in this ridiculous war…" She gripped her fists tightly and dug her nails into her palm. "I came here to prevent a tragedy, but I…"

After leaving her room, her friends walked through the hallways with dull expressions, their thoughts in chaos. Despite the busy atmosphere with soldiers and officers racing around, everyone still took the time to greet Benedict, Shirley, and Freon, and respectfully move out of their way. As the saying goes, the birds of a phoenix were greater than a crane. While they were only Elizabeth's friends, that simple status was enough to push them above General Dennis's! They instantly became some of the most powerful people in the army! However, none of them felt proud over that. Killing four thousand four hundred people… This battle was…

For some reason, they arrived at a balcony that overlooked the city square. Below, hundreds of people were busy hauling wood to create a large pyre. The pyre was quite ugly, but after experiencing a horrific massacre, no one was in the mood to care. They threw body after body on top, piling dozens or hundreds of corpses, like trash. The people moved rigidly and silently, as if their souls were sucked out. No one spoke which was the creepiest part as an unbelievably heavy air permeated the atmosphere. It was so suffocatingly dense that even the soldiers had their hearts stirred. One of the few rights that the Alzar Kingdom granted to their enemies was grieving the dead. This pyre was one of many in the coming nights to honor those lost in battle. With over four thousand deceased, it would take a long time to cremate everyone.

"How do you two feel about this?" Freon asked somberly.

He suffered a lot at the hands of the Xingyuu Empire too. Just like Elizabeth, the Zino Kingdom was invaded and ravaged; his homeland ruined beyond recognition. His parents were killed, and he was forced into a life of thievery to feed his sister and himself. There was no way he could have any goodwill towards the empire, but even he felt conflicted. After all, the scene unfolding before his eyes right now… it was the same that happened to him. Their world came crumbling down! Although he might not have struck the blow personally, he was still a part of the army that came parading in, seizing the stronghold. It was impossible to not feel the slightest sense of responsibility towards what happened.

"They…"

Shirley paused before she could say they deserved it. How could she say that as she looked at the orphaned children marching quietly with their family's corpses? True, terrible things happened to her and her family, committed by absolute monsters. Given the chance, she was ready to exact revenge on her captors, a thousand-fold! Maybe she was not going to sadistically lock them up and flay their skin, but they would not die pleasantly nor quickly. She even committed their faces to memory, on the slim chance that she ever found them again! She believed that the Xingyuu Empire was evil incarnate! However, looking at the tragedy that took place here, even her cold heart thawed a little. This breached her bottom line!

"Soldiers are one thing, but the citizens were just defending themselves," Benedict replied slowly.

One of the core tenets of knighthood was defending the weak and powerless. That was what the title of Protector embodied: to use that great power for the protection of the kingdom! His father Sir Roland Hawken, his brother Sir Lorenzo Hawken, and even his grandfathers and great-grandfathers before him all followed this grand principle. Naturally, Benedict was no exception. Although he might be Fundamental Realm Expert and Major Sword Form, he understood exactly how desperate and pitiful being weak was. Once upon a time, his squadron was ambushed during the Teria Sea Campaign and his lover, Isabella, sacrificed herself to save him. Having things robbed from his fingertips, having joy turning to sorrow, having fury over his powerlessness, how could he not understand it?

"This is probably what Elizabeth is agonizing over," Shirley said as she watched over the city square. "She probably thinks this is her fault, that she caused those four thousand four hundred deaths."

"How could it be her fault?" Benedict denied.

"It isn't," she shook her head. Shirley then sighed, while glancing over the city square with a touch of melancholy in her eyes. "I don't know what to think anymore. Are we the bad ones?"

"There's no good or bad in war," Freon said. "Since the Xingyuu Empire started the Second Great Kingdom War, they should've been prepared for this to happen eventually. It's only fair."

"Well… you're not wrong." Shirley could not refute his words, but she still felt unsettled.

"We should still do better than that though. Killing defenseless commoners is just…" Benedict trailed off. "This isn't why I trained to grow stronger."

"I think all of us feel that way, but I also understand the army's thought process," Freon said. "When you're cutting the weeds, remove them by the roots… is a common saying in the empire, isn't it? It means to remove evil at the source. Since we captured their home, they might grow to hate the kingdom, and some might turn into soldiers that will fight against us. We're just saving ourselves from future grief by doing this now."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Shirley shouted. "We can't judge people because of what they could be. That's… just ridiculous!"

Freon nodded somberly. "I would have disagreed with you normally, but… looking at what's happening below, I agree. We went too far."

"I hope Elizabeth isn't blaming herself too harshly," Benedict sighed. "She did nothing wrong."

Meanwhile, Elizabeth was leaning against a wall with her knees tucked up, her face a mess of emotions. As Shirley said, she was currently agonizing over those four thousand four hundred deaths. It hit her a lot harder than she thought it would. On one side, she agreed with the army's decision. The dangers of occupying an enemy fortress, while leaving the original inhabitants was simply too great. What if the Imperial Council left their forces hidden away, waiting to burst out at the opportune moment? What about secret plans to poison the army or assassinate the higher-ups, including herself? Or maybe they could sabotage the stronghold's defenses at a critical moment to allow the enemy to invade? There were so many disadvantages compared to advantages to keeping them around. And even if there were no devious plots behind the scenes, to maintain security and stability, they needed to deploy countless patrols around the hour. It was a huge drain on resources and manpower.

Of course, an alternative was chasing everyone away and forcefully vacating the stronghold. It was simple and direct, cutting straight to the core of the problem, as well as humane. No matter what the soldiers may have experienced, they were not mindless killing machines in the end. Humans were fickle creatures. When confronted with a problem alone, they might choose one thing, but when confronted together, they might choose another. A rush of adrenaline, a sense of loyalty, and a unified group was all it took to kill those four thousand four hundred without question! However, at the same time, if the generals pushed that mentality too far, it would backfire. Once they start questioning their orders, that would become a never-ending spiral of troubles. One of the deadliest dangers to any army was insubordination! Naturally, that was what General Dennis and the other commanders wanted to avoid, so they were welcome to the idea of vacating the Yunyun Stronghold.

Except how could it be easy to corral and vacate everyone from their homes? Scale was a difficult thing for people to wrap their heads around. When the Alzar Kingdom was preparing to invade the fortress, many of the commoners chose not to participate in the defense. Of course, some of them decided out of cowardice, wanting to preserve their own lives from a hopelessly outmatched battle. However, most of them abstained because they believed their lives would remain the same. That was not to say that any of them believed in Elizabeth's words, rather it was because of scale and relevancy. The fortress lord changing was something so high up and irrelevant to these commoners that they thought if they ducked their heads low and minded their own business that no one would bother them. After all, why would the great and mighty Alzar Kingdom care about them?

However, if General Dennis and the others really went through with the plan to vacate the fortress, there would undoubtedly be a massive uprising. People would go crazy to defend their homes and livelihoods! They would gladly fight to the death! And remember that there were still around twenty thousand people living here compared to the sixty-or-so thousand soldiers that the Alzar Kingdom had. One-to-three odds might not sound bad, but when considering the complex topography and territorial advantage that the commoners had, it would be an uphill battle, a battle of unnecessary resources and manpower. In the end, the Alzar Kingdom was on a tight schedule, and they had neither the time nor the effort for this long-term mass migration plan. It was better to kill and scare them into inaction instead!