The Blood's Shadow [Oc x Eminence of Shadow]

chapter 3

Location: Ozryn Village, Outskirt of Midgar
Status: Alive
Name: Iris Midgar

"What the hell happened here...?" As they approached the abandoned settlement, their eyes grew wide with disbelief; some even started to feel nauseous at the sight of the body, which had been severely disfigured.

A woman with red hair stood erect behind the terrified military soldiers of Midgar, her revulsion at the rotting corpses being consumed by maggots and other natural creatures hidden behind her expression. Her gaze strayed among her other guards; the terrified expression was, to put it mildly, ordinary.

"Search the area; they might be survivors." She gave a sharp bark, directing her men to start searching. Iris continued, observing that some of the men in the Midgar military's 3rd squad shivered or groaned slightly. "The third squad will handle the bodies as well."

Their internal objections from the 3rd Squadron gave her a slight shake of the head, but they complied. Iris watched as the troops started to deploy their gear to prevent contracting the disease from the rotting, stinking corpse as stretchers were brought in by the 3rd Squadron as they carried the dead out of the destroyed area in a row so that the rest of the company could locate survivors.

It was inevitable that the first princess of the Kingdom of Midgar would have to adopt her severe demeanor in order to preserve order among the troops and perhaps as a prelude to her eventual coronation once the king retired. Nonetheless, her sister was somewhat excused from her severe behavior since, as any good elder sibling would, she wanted to keep her safe.

Her gentle, delicate hands were resting on the blade's hilt as she moved through the wreckage of Ozryn Hamlet. Iris started to wonder what had caused this destruction, but it was obvious from the body she came across that this was no typical natural disaster because mana was clearly present. She made the assumption that just one person was responsible for everything.

The princess's crimson eyes caught a glimpse of something beyond the street, covered in debris. Even from a distance, it looks like someone she used to know. She drove quickly toward the center of the hamlet in order to examine it, and she soon recognized a face from the academy years ago.

"Zilyana,who did this to you...?" Her voice is as soft as the wind, and though she avoided touching the corpse of her former colleague from the academy, she couldn't help but sigh in defeat.

Her body was cut clean by something as sharp as a sword—too sharp to be exact—even the cloth she wore didn't show any sign of tear upon being cut off by Zilyana's killer.

Retrieving her staff, she firmly held onto it before turning to face the soldiers behind her." Bag her up," she said, hiding her sadness with her fierce demeanor.

"Yes, mam!" Her aura caused the troops behind to tremble, and they complied methodically, holding onto Zilyana's remains and carrying her and the other corpses out of the village on a stretcher.

Gazing back at her magical staff, she knew her parents would be devastated to learn that her daughter had been killed by an unidentified killer once she returned to the capital city.

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Location: Thevari Mansion, Kingdom of Midgar
Status: Alive
Name: Castien Thevari

 
Gazing down from the mansion's second-story window, Castien watched several Midgar Kingdom guards make their way onto the Thevari family's land. Given the obvious forest that separates the mansion from the city's edge, they may question us about the occurrence.