Chapter 1270: Scars Of War-1

Their thoughts weren’t wrong. If Emperor Horace had been alive, he would surely have negotiated with the Zarethorne Empire to bring his soldiers home. He had expended a huge amount of money, resources, and numerous other things to fund this particular war and scheme.

But unfortunately for them, Emperor Horace was dead, and they would eventually come to know of this. When this information reached them, whatever remaining hope they had left would be extinguished.

Their days of despair were still to come.

With the soldiers from the Velkarin Military Force surrendering, the soldiers from the Zarethorne Empire didn’t dare slack off. They immediately struck their opponents on the nape, rendering all of them unconscious.

The reason they had done this was simple: to avoid any surprises.

The chains and shackles that restricted Astra Energy and reduced all physical stat parameters weren’t readily available at the moment. This was the best they could do until the chains were provided.

The moment they won, soldiers from all Frontiers screamed at the top of their lungs, chanting the names of their Empire, their Commanders, their Frontiers, and their Outposts, their adrenaline levels reaching an all-time high.

The moment they finished their chants of victory, their overheated bodies finally began to calm down. They looked around, and all their eyes could take in was a battlefield littered with nothing but corpses.

If they had been looking at the corpses of their enemies alone, they would have stepped over them like trash and walked past without a second thought. But this was different. Among the corpses were those of their fellow soldiers, their comrades, their brothers, and their sisters.

Emperor Zolthemire didn’t delay for long. Upon receiving information that the Velkarin Empire’s soldiers had surrendered, he called back his Cabinet Members and the Knights he had deployed earlier.

He gave each of them chains and shackles that every Empire had prepared for times like these. The Zarethorne Empire had nearly run out of chains, as it was rare to capture such a ridiculous number of soldiers, with their numbers easily reaching into the millions.

And with Crownstar Life Rankers being the ones on the move, every Velkarian soldier had been captured with relative ease.

At various Frontiers, the atmosphere was heavy, as they had suffered a tremendous number of casualties. Yes, they had won, but at what cost? Many had died, many had been caught in the explosions, and many had been killed in the battles that followed.

They were forever cursed to bear the scars of war for the rest of their lives.

Many who survived would carry the weight of these experiences throughout their lives. They would suffer traumatic episodes that reminded them of this moment. They would have nightmares about this war, many would retire, and others would take indefinite leave to mourn their friends.

Unless healers capable of healing the mind and psyche were dispatched, healers like Jennifer, for example, these men and women who had given their lives and limbs for their Empire were destined to remain scarred forever.

Soldiers walked forward as they picked up the bodies of their dead comrades. They kept them suspended in midair through Astra Energy telekinesis before transferring them to horse-drawn carriages.

The process took place across the entire Empire, soldiers shedding tears as they picked up the remains of their friends. Some held their friends in their embraces as they stared at the corpses with hollow expressions, like they had nothing else to live for.

In another direction, Asher, who had been exhausted from fighting one high-ranking enemy after another, could be found helping to move the corpses of the fallen soldiers at the Frontier to which he had been teleported.

Beside him, a woman sniffled as she knelt on the ground, a man’s corpse lying against her body. Her left limb was missing, but she had cauterised the wound, stopping the bleeding.

"We were supposed to get married next year."

The woman began to speak, telling Asher about the man she held in her arm. Although Asher had never asked, she needed someone to talk to at that moment. She needed someone who would hear her out.

"He had proposed a couple of months ago. I had rejected him the first time, but after he pestered me for a while, I finally accepted."

She used her only remaining arm to close the man’s eyes, which had remained open.

"We were supposed to get married after saving enough money to have our dream wedding and rent the biggest hall within our territory..."

She stated as silent droplets streaked down her face, gently hitting the man’s still-mildly-warm body.

"But all that has been taken from me... I’ve been at this Frontier for a decade, lived without too much trouble, and survived every deployment and assignment. But the moment I found love, the moment I found someone who loved me... the world took him from me."

She paused, her palm moving as she held the hand of her dead fiancé. Her hand trembled with pain, anger, and rage.

"Tell me, Tenth Sun... what do I have to live for now? Should I live on hating the world? Should I live on hating the Velkarin Empire? Should I live on hating myself for being weak and not being able to save him?"

She asked, her lips folding inwards as grief consumed her entirely.

"Tell me, Tenth Sun... what is the use of living when all that exists is merely pain and suffering..."

Her tone lowered to a whisper as she sniffled once more, unable to take her eyes off her man’s corpse.

She had lost the only true love she had ever known and would ever know. She raised her remaining hand and stared at it, her eyes on the very ring her man had proposed to her with.

Through her silent tears, she managed a weak smile.

Carrying the corpse with one arm, she rose to her feet. Then, without sparing Asher a glance, she turned and walked away, her steps betraying the pain she tried her best to hide and the grief she desperately attempted to bottle up, though doing so was impossible.

She walked towards the carriage where the corpses were being loaded and laid her fiancé’s body inside the open carriage. She would have given him a befitting burial herself, but due to the unique circumstances of the current situation, doing so would have violated the Empire’s Imperial Laws.

She raised a hand, and a small thread appeared in her grasp. Bringing her hand to her teeth, she removed her ring, passed the thread through it, and then tied it around her fiancé’s neck.

Although the time they had spent together was short, their love had been genuine, and it had meant everything to her.

While she could have kept the ring for herself, she chose to give it to him to take with him into the afterlife, as, to her, even in death, their love would remain eternal.

She didn’t move anymore. She stood there like a statue until the carriage was filled. Astra Energy enveloped it, and then it rose towards the sky as a Crownstar Life Ranker from the Capital City transported the corpses to the Imperial City.

She simply bowed in the direction in which the corpses had been transported. She remained in that position for a whole minute before rising, turning around, and walking away without another word.

She wanted to scream, to shout and let the world know of her pain. But she didn’t. She knew she wasn’t the only one who had lost something today; she was simply one among many.