There was no longer any reason to hesitate.

It was clear that something awful had happened here, to be sure, but there was nothing that could be done but enter the fort.

They had to know.

Fanilly took a deep breath.

"Iron Rose Knights, advance."

She pressed onwards through the gate, and-

There was nothing. At least at first glance, nothing seemed amiss in the least.

And yet something here was wrong. Palpably so. The very atmosphere within the fort's walls felt heavy, weighty. Even Fanilly, who was not capable with magic nor with spiritual matters was able to feel it.

It was like something was pressing down on her from the moment she set foot inside. A heavy, unrelenting darkness, coupled with this iron scent...

There was blood.

Blood on the walls, blood on the ground. Now that she had entered and taken a good look at her surroundings, she could see plenty of it.

The Knight-Captain drew a sharp intake of the breath.

Beyond the blood, spilling from the doors deeper into the fort, were corpses.

Bodies upon bodies upon bodies.

The remains of the fort's garrison. Some of them, the most visible ones, appeared as if they had only perished very recently, but not a single corpse appeared to be older then a day or two.

Fanilly's hands trembled. Her blue eyes were wide.

What had happened here? There was no attack from the outside. There was no sign of anything.

And yet...

Stabbed. Slashed. Crushed. Cut.

The corpses of the fort's garrison showed just how violent their deaths had been.

It was nothing short of a massacre. While Fanilly had seen plenty of death before, she'd never seen anything like this.

For a few moments, she simply didn't know what to do.

For a few moments, the weight of the air seemed to grow, pushing down on her shoulders. The walls around the fort seemed less spacious, more enclosed.

The sky felt darker.

And then...

A door across the yard swung open.

"Nothing but corpses."

It was the voice of a girl. She stood out immediately, clad in light armor of leather and steel with long skirt. Her blue hair was tied into pigtails, and her eyes were crimson. While that would normally be a notable detail, they lacked the luminiscent qualities of a vampire's gaze and she was certainly not short enough to be a Nem, at somewhere around Fanilly's height.

In her right hand was a lengthy spear, crimson in coloration and metallic. It was likely steel, but the red hue didn't appear to be paint.

"..."

She paused for a moment, and in that instant Fanilly immediately turned to her.

For in this very moment, there was no doubt in my mind that the girl had to be behind this.

"Lay down your weapon and surrender at once, or we will slay you where you stand."

Her blade had left its sheath in an instant, drawn and pointed towards the blue-haired girl.

"... Oh?"

Bringing the crimson spear up to rest it on her shoulder, the blue-haired girl cocked her head.

"You must be the Iron Rose Knights, then," she continued, looking considerably less bothered by that fact then one might expect, "So you're the captain? Adorable. You've all been treating her well, I hope?"

She grinned in a particularly sharp manner.

"Surrender. Now," Fanilly said firmly.

Her grip on her blade tightened.

"You know you're getting all worked up about the wrong person, right?" she commented, idly, as if completely unconcerned about her situation, "It was already like this when we got here. Think about it, does it really make sense? This wasn't an outside attack."

Fanilly found herself hesitating. This spear-wielding girl didn't seem to have any intention of fighting, which was already strange enough, but it was true that an attack from outside didn't make sense. Not with what they'd seen already.

But who could have killed all the soldiers here? Who was possibly responsible for such a massacre, if not the one standing before them? She mentioned 'we'...

"Check..." Fanilly's voice wavered, "Ch-check the bodies."

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