Darius Frost had stepped onto the battlefield just as the battle was coming to an end.
Many people who had survived dropped to their knees and began expressive their gratitude towards those that had saved their lives.
As he looked down towards them, he let out a sigh. 'His royal highness truly does know how to make the best of a bad situation.'
He had witnessed from further away as many had fallen into the pits of despair until the moment came for them to be saved.
It did not matter what allegiances the remaining people had previously since so many had already owed a life debt that they were expected to repay if they did not want their warriors honour to be tarnished.
It was even more important for him to show up in person to show his presence and let them know who was behind their lives being saved.
Each of them owed the Frost family a great debt and everyone knew that the Frost family were sided with the crown prince.
It was obvious that they had been saved due to the orders of the crown prince so those aware of that fact came to realise that they would have to devote themselves to the crown prince.
Darius continued to look towards their gazes that were filled with gratitude and some others with resolve burning in their eyes.
He then thought of something that had slipped his mind so he turned to one of the people kneeling in the snow. "You.. was there any others on the mountain? Could there be any others alive?"
That person was unsure how to answer but tried to voice their speculation based on what had taken place. "Anyone that had gone missing can either be considered as dead or captured by the enemy that remain on the mountain."
Another spoke up adding something they remembered. "There were two that remained near the camp after we left. They were two girls who came with the girl from the.. what was it?"
Darius's eyes widened a little upon realising what was meant. "The Bombyx family? You mean the heir of their family is involved in this?"
He wished that Ki could just handle her business quietly and not get too involved in anything big happening within the capital.
Ki and the Bombyx family were a sensitive topic since it related to the future relations and trade that could aid the Northern Lands significantly.
Having Ki or any other people related caught up in such an event could greatly affect any kind of deals that could be made with the Bombyx family.
He felt that those who invited Ki and got her involved should be held responsible especially if any harm came to her.
It was a very foolish move for anyone to carelessly invite such an important visitor to a public event that had the possibility of there being danger involved.
He understood that Ki being invited may have been their intention from the beginning since even if there was no sudden attack, there were still opportunities to let her have an accident in the mountains or suffer some form of humiliation.
After thinking it over for some time, Darius gave the order. "Take the remaining living back to the capital safely. I will lead a group up the mountain to clear the rest of the enemies lurking there."
"Yes my lord!"
"Understood!"
He would be in charge of wiping out any remaining enemies that were on the mountain while searching for the possibility of there still being some living who were captured.
There was still some slight hope that Ki and others were not killed yet so he could make an effort to get to them before anything worse happened.
His group proceeded up the mountain at a faster pace as they walked by many freezing corpses that littered the icy and snow covered ground.
He got to see many faces filled with despair that had frozen in place after their deaths while also witnessing the large number of dead that had resulted in the battle.
His group continued to walk past them and coming across more similar scenes of warriors who had died from deep wounds and others had been frozen solid like statues.
Some of the frozen statues had been greatly damaged remaining in their standing position while others were completely turned into multiple fragments scattered all around the surroundings.
Each new display of the dead had been more than enough to bring even the most experience warrior with a strong stomach to feel like throwing up when exposed to it yet the group being lead by Darius had very few who displayed visible disgust or looked uncomfortable.
A smaller group of enemies started to show up which resulted in both sides clashing until the enemies fell to the elite warriors lead by Darius.
They wandered around the difficult terrain encountering smaller groups who were scattered around wiping them out until they came across a small camp where a slaughter had taken place.
Darius looked around and his eyes widened in shock as he witnessed the slaughter that had previously taken place leaving behind not a single life of the enemies left.
All that remained were those who were surrounded by dogs that had managed to survive the cold by huddling together.
He continued to look towards the dead bodies and saw similar sword wounds on their bodies that he had seen on other dead bodies he passed by.
The skill, precision and cleanliness of the cuts was enough to show that the person responsible for it was highly skilled with a blade.
What interested him more was the absolute horror that was shown on some of the corpses faces which had shown that they died in great pain or terror like they had suffered something terrible.