The Emperor's presence smothered the ruined village like a burial shroud. The very air turned viscous, each breath a labor, as if the sky itself pressed down in mourning.
His eyes—black pits where light went to die—scraped over the carnage.
The wind's whisper through splintered huts became a dirge, harmonizing with the crack-hiss of flames gnawing on charred flesh.
Smoke coiled around the soldiers, its fingers clawing at their throats, the metallic tang of blood thick enough to taste.
Then—
"Let go! LET GO!"
A child's scream tore through the silence.
All eyes turned to see a soldier dragging a small girl forward, her tiny frame trembling like a leaf in a storm, her face pale with fear. Her dress was torn and stained with dirt, her bare feet scraped and bleeding from running over the rough, blood-soaked ground.
The soldier's grip on her arm was firm but not cruel, his face conflicted as he glanced at Ren, his voice rough but tinged with guilt.
"I found her hiding in the cellar," he said, his words heavy with unease.
'I don't want to kill her,'
he thought, his mind racing.
'She's just a child.'
The more he looked at her, the more she reminded him of his own daughter. He had hoped to save her, to beg General Ren for permission to spare her life.
He would take full responsibility—even if it meant adopting her himself.
But as his eyes fell on the hooded figure standing nearby, his breath hitched, as if an invisible hand had seized his throat.
"Khh—"
He tried to opened his mouth—
—but choked.
The Emperor's gaze slithered over him. Not a look. A violation. Like maggots writhing under his skin. His lungs seized. His knees liquefied. The girl's arm slipped from his grasp.
She stumbled forward, her breath coming in wet hitches. The village was a graveyard of faces she knew: Old Man Harel slumped over his well, Mistress Yenna's braids trailing in the mud, the blacksmith's son still clutching a wooden sword.
"Mama?"
Her voice was too small for so much ruin.
She trembled as she looked around, her wide eyes taking in the carnage. Her breath came in short, panicked gasps, her tiny hands clutching her torn dress as she whispered,
"Mama… where's Mama?"
Hundreds of eyes watched her. She knew they were bad men—but she didn't care. She just wanted her mother.
Her vision blurred with tears.
Her mama had told her to stay hidden, no matter what.
"I love you,"
she had said before leaving.
Then, just after her mother left, she heard a scream. She stayed quiet, too scared to move, not knowing what had happened.
She tried so hard not to make a sound—but she couldn't stop the tears.
That was when the soldier found her, lifting the lid of the chest she had hidden inside.
"...!"
'Am I going to die?'
But strangely, the man hadn't killed her.
Now, she stood before dozens of soldiers.
'Scary… they look scary.'
She searched frantically—
Then she saw it.
A woman's body, half-buried in trampled wheat. One arm outstretched—reaching, even in death.
The girl's scream wasn't sound. It was the raw scrape of a soul tearing open.
"MAMA!"
The child sprinted toward ren—actually not toward him, but toward a body lying beside him. Her small feet slipped in the blood-soaked dirt as she fell to her knees beside the lifeless woman.
She fell, knees splitting on jagged stones, tiny hands clawing at her mother's stiff shoulders. "Wake up, wake up, wake—" A fingernail ripped as she shook the corpse. "You promised!"
"Mama! Mama, wake up!" she cried, shaking her mother's shoulders, her voice cracking with desperation.
But her mother didn't stir. Her lifeless eyes stared blankly at the sky, her face frozen in terror.
The silence grew heavier, broken only by the child's sobs. The Emperor's gloom deepened with her cries, pressing down on the soldiers like a physical weight.
The girl turned her tear-streaked face toward Ren,
"MONSTER!"
Her tiny fists pounding his bloodstained leg.
"Why... did... you... kill her? Why... you kill everyone?"
She screamed, her voice trembling with rage and grief.
Ren had no answer. His jaw tightened, his grip on his sword unconsciously tightening.
He wanted to say something anything.
"..."
But he remained silent.
The child's voice rose, raw with fury.
"He will kill you! Big brother 'Sol' will come and kill all of you! He will kill all the bad people!"
The soldiers exchanged uneasy glances...