The battlefield was full of blood and dead bodies. Almost 200 soldiers died today including all the teams, the royal guards and of course, Lia.
Legrandeus took a massive hit with that loss and now lost around 45% of its military power. The Kashura flew away into the ''other side'' and just hours later a recovery team scouted the area giving report.
Even the king who normally didn't interfere had to step in. What a tragedy this truly was.
"Truly a sad scenario..." he said while looking at all the dead bodies in front of him.
"Oh, our king! What are you doing here your majesty? We didn't expect you to come here personally", one of the people from the recovery troop said. All of them kneeled in front of the strongest man in the world.
The king laughed and looked at his soldiers. "No need to be so formal today, men. I came here myself as all of my beloved friends are dead. Lia, Celeste, Kizou and finally Yoru. I didn't expect such warm-hearted people to die here today. Could you recover their bodies if possible?"
"Of course."
The king took off his crown and held it against his chest to pay respect to all the brave soldiers that died today. "May you rest in piece now. It was an honor to have all of you around..."
Walking down the road of corpses he first encountered Lia's lifeless body. She was still as beatiful as ever and only slowly began to pale. "You truly were a kind and amazing person. I did not forget the day you saved my child. He's almost grown up now, he would've been really happy to meet you once more.."
Turning around her body to make it face up the king took a yellow flower out of his pocket and put it in the woman's hands. They were cold.
He stood up and looked around him. Just a few meters next to Lia he found Yoru lying on the ground with Celeste's head on his chest. Seeing those two the king started to get rather depressed. "At last you two died together... I looked forward to your marriage you know? What a feast we would've had!"
He got on his knees and pulled out another two flowers. This time it were red roses. Just the perfect flowers for a couple.
He noticed that Yoru's eyes still weren't fully closed so he went ahead and closed them with his left hand.
Kizou's body though couldn't be found in this sea of blood.
After searching for quite some time he went to the river. Unless they had taken him with them there was no other spot for a dead man to rest. And indeed he was there, floating on the water surface having lost the majority of his flesh and skin. Some bones were visible and he was almost burnt to ashes. "A painful death. You didn't deserve this my friend.."
Being the strongest human in this world he used some sort of strange ability to recover Kizou's corpse. Once again he took out a flower and put it in the pocket of that man's jacket.
Holding back his tears the king looked down on the ground. "If only I didn't send them off to this mission. What a fool I was."
Even a king was allowed to feel sad about the death of his friends. Just because he was ruling an entire kingdom didn't mean he should be an emotionless ruler.
When all the corpses were gathered he spoke the following words. "You did well."
That day all of the dead bodies have been brought back to the city and were planned to be burried in the following week.
----
"Don't tell me... Verzo! Did she send you a message too?!" Eguru rushed into the kitchen where his friend currently made himself a sandwich. "What message? And from whom?"
"So you didn't get one? Lia sent me one just a minute ago saying that she's sorry and that we won't meet again. She also said farewell! Do you think this is a prank or something??"
Verzo looked at him. Eguru made a face of someone losing a friend but not believing in that person's death. "I don't know... You should go and look what's on the news."
Verzo held back his emotions. They couldn't be sure if she was truly dead or not unless it was in the news.
``What a shock! Operation Biurde which was supposed to be no real threat made over 200 people lose their life''
That was the headline of today's report. He continued reading further and the expression on his face gradually changed.
His heart ached and he just got sadder and sadder. Then, while tears were building up in his eyes he looked at Verzo telling him what happened.
The other man almost punched against a wall but managed to stop right before doing so. He mumbled some words and went to his bed without eating his sandwich. Eguru continued reading several reports from today and then found a music app within his phone. Exploring multiple genres and playlists he found one to cope with.
Both of them continued to stay unproductive for a whole week.