Ronan, Erik and Sophia all go together and talk about what they found.
I helped the survivors get adjusted and continued to take down the names of the survivors.
About 200 were found in Springs Grove, about 130 in the mines, and around 60 in the ruins.
In total, we found around 460 survivors—a large amount considering the state of the village.
We allowed the villagers to rest, talk amongst themselves, and relax tonight. They were happy that they were safe and that some of their friends and family survived, but they were unaware that tomorrow, go through a painful ordeal.
After I got everyone's names and finished the list of survivors I noticed Erik had a tired expression on his face. I went over to Erik and asked him and asked: "Is everything alright?"
He looked up at me and smiled "It's fine, it has just been a long day." his smile was clearly to hide his exhausted expression.
"it helps to talk about it," I said
"Thanks for the offer but this isn't something you worry abo-," she said
I held my hand up to stop him from talking and pointed at my face with a smug expression.
"Good point" he sighed and took a second before he started to explain.
"the other 2 groups found several dead bodies of villagers, Orcs and animals on the path and some of the villagers said that it wasn't just Orcs in the attack. Some said that beast-men were present as well."
"Do you think it was The Unity Howl?" I asked
The Unity Howl is a terrorist organization comprised entirely of Beast-Folk and Beast-Men. Their species has been enslaved and treated as worthless creatures by many throughout history.
In villages like Thournbranch beast-men live alongside the other races like normal but that isn't the case in more highly populated areas or those involved in politics. (this is partially why I don't like politics)
The Unity Howl used to be a protest group that demanded the freedom and equal treatment of all Beast-folk and Beast-men. But in recent years some of them have become radical and violent. They caused the death of many people both innocent and guilty to free their kin.
Erik lowered his head and said, "Several villagers said they saw one of the beast men with a similar insignia on their cloak."
"That's not good," I said and thought for a minute.
"It's possible The Unity Howl used the Orcs to cover up their attempt to get Spring to join them," I said
"...You're not wrong. They could have heard of her and tried to convince her to help them. Though seeing how she gave us the villagers with no problems suggests their plan didn't work as they wanted."
"...Agreed. Let's think about it tomorrow, we need sleep" I said and we both went and slept for the night.
The next day we gathered everyone together and Ronan and Erik explained the plan for the day.
They said that today was the last day the royal knights would be able to assist us as they had their mission to complete but wouldn't leave until 2 pm tonight.
Today everyone will reenter the village and start to identify the remains located all over the village.
He explained that since I had been keeping a list of all the villagers when they confirm the identity of a body they should tell me and I will record it.
They understood that this will be a lot for many people and some will be unwilling to help but the sooner we do this the sooner we can lay them to rest.
Everyone understood it was a necessary thing as there could still be missing people and getting closure is important. They all agreed but some asked what would happen to them after.
Erik explained that his family would be happy to provide them with homes until they can get back on their feet and/or provide transportation to other villages and families. He stated that the Rondo family failed to protect them in the first place so it was the least they could do.
He then explained that more carts would arrive in a few days to help transport the survivors and their belongings. As for the bodies we would cremate them and hold a funeral for all of them.
He said that the villagers can also search their own homes to find and collect any valuables or important items to bring with them or leave with loved ones.
As everyone agreed to the plan we all started to gather into groups based on where we lived and started travelling to our areas in the village. Surprisingly the part of the village the attack started from had the least amount of casualties while the other side, the side I lived on, had the most as I was the only villager in the group aside from Rirki who didn't live here but was visiting.
I couldn't help but fear what I would see so I delayed as much as I could. I went around the entire village recording every confirmed death and avoiding 3 areas.
By noon I had recorded around half of the village but stopped to take a break and eat, even though I decided not to eat anything as the day ruined my appetite and I was dreading what I would see later on.
Eventually, the Princess and Sophia had to leave.
The villagers were sad to see such a charismatic girl leave as she did but I could tell she was acting.
Erik and Sophia's plan to give her a dose of reality seemed to work as I could tell she was troubled and wasn't doing great after seeing so much death and sadness.
It was obvious she didn't realise how cruel the world could be but I could sense determination in her eyes to change that. However, how she would go about that is not something I could determine.
All I know is that depending on how things go, she could become an advocate for the people or a tyrant who will force people to join the military and kill anything that could be a threat.
It is a terrifying thought but not something I can change.
Eventually, I had finished with the rest of the village and had to face my fears.
Terra, Erik and Rirki came with me as emotional support though I didn't know if they would be much help considering who we were going to.
We were led by Ronan to 2 different parts of the village.
The first was the outskirts of the village where I last saw my father.
Erik quietly asked why he hadn't been moved and Ronan said that they were focused on finding survivors rather than tending to the dead.
As I got closer, tears were falling down my face as I saw a body under a white sheet with my father's greatsword, still glowing red, lying next to it. Nearby I saw the burnt remains of the 2 orcs he was fighting when I first ran along with over 30 others who seemed to come and help.
I fell over crying my heart out. My father was one of the strongest people I ever met. I used to think that nothing could ever beat him in a fight, that he was like a superhero but now... he was dead.
Terra and Erik both hugged me and tried to console me but didn't do much as they were crying as well. I couldn't think right now, I felt like I could just crawl into a corner and cry until I died as well.
I guess a part of me was wishing that my parents could still be alive but now I know... now I know that they are dead.
My father died fighting the Orcs who tried to go after me with a sword blessed by the dying will of a mage... the will, magic and soul of my mother, a Fire Mage, imbued into his sword.
As I sat there crying I could feel my magic spiking out of control but I couldn't control itIi couldn't focus, I couldn't think, I couldn't feel anything other than the need to cry.
~~~~~~~
Terra's POV
it was heartbreaking seeing my uncle and Jack's father dead and burned up beyond recognition, but seeing Jack break down as he did was even worse.
I always knew him to be a person who could handle anything. who could face monsters even at a young age and who never ran away. Someone who I could look up to even if he was younger than me.
But seeing him cry like this was a reminder that those who show little emotion are those who are hiding a much weaker side.
Aside from Ronan we all went over and hugged Jack and tried to comfort him while trying (and failing) to hold back our tears.
I think we stayed there for a few minutes but eventually, I could feel something was wrong. Magic was starting to gather and move in weird formations.
I looked around but noticed that the center of this abnormality was Jack. I warned everyone to back away and asked what was happening.
"High mana fluctuations?" Dad said confused.
"Jack is having a Magic surge! [1] His emotions are too chaotic, if he doesn't calm down he will cause a lot of damage!" Rirki shouted.
Erik's face paled "I thought his Mama Pool was too low for something like this!"
"He must be using the mana from his spirit instead of his mana!" Rirki said
"How do we stop him?" I shouted, starting to panic.
"We can't. Only Jack can." Rirki said worried
"We should move back. Based on the size of his fluctuating magic the explosion doesn't seem to be very big. We need to back away and hope he either calms down or survives."
(little does Ronan know that the smaller the fluctuation the larger the explosion.)
[1]: a Magic Surge is when someone's magic gets so out of control that they start to leak it and if given enough time will cause an explosion.
Despite mages being somewhat common, a mage going through a magic surge is like 1/1000 chance and of them, only around 1/10 survive.
A surge can be caused by many things. Having more mana in your body than you can handle, trying to cast a spell while drunk, high-stress situations, putting more magic into spells than you should, unstable mind pained by the loss of family... the list goes on.
A surge can be of varying power levels. A small one can be a mage who puts too much mana into a spell and the spell fails and causes a tiny explosion, singeing the mage's eyebrows, and a large one is like Jack who will destroy the entire village if he doesn't calm down.