[IC] Absolved Will Be the Saviors

[Randomguy]

Carnatia de Valmont

---

Carnatia grimaced as she saw the grim scene in front of her. If she were still that sheltered Duke's daughter, she probably would have barfed at the sight. Even now, somewhat 'seasoned' after all her adventures as an adventurer, she still felt somewhat nauseous at the scent of burnt corpse mixed with the rot and decay.

Linceleste and Mirielle was understandably upset, though Carnatia made a mental note to keep an eye on those two so they would not act rashly. Righteous fury was all well and good, but the last thing they needed while on a mission in a foreign—possibly hostile—land was inadvertently escalating conflict in pursuing just vengeance with reckless abandon.

"Are we sure our paladin and his companions are among the bodies? Even if they are not, I think this changes how we will deal with Ealdorman and his forces, do you agree? They are the only ones who would be capable of such, judging by the previous methods of execution they used and the power they seem to hold at the moment." Amaris asked, looking to Carmen with a grim expression.

@13org

"I- I apologize. I should not take this out on you." She coughed awkwardly, averting her eyes and shuffling away to help Carmen with the remaining corpses. "Yes, you have a good point. Even if they're not directly involved they must know something, this spot is too close to their outpost for them to be completely unrelated... little Lin, is there anyone you recognize among these folks?"

@A5G

It was then, that Carnatia caught the conversation between Amaris and Mirielle regarding the probable culprit of the massacre.

Her eyes narrowed. These sorts of circumstantial almost-baseless accusations were exactly the sort of thing they should avoid. Schooling her expression, she chimed in carefully, "While those soldiers were a likely suspect, the fact of the matter is that we do not yet know enough about the situation in Sielse. Those soldiers mentioned traitors and a witch. So at the very least we know of three factions at play in Sielse, any one of them could be responsible for the deed. It would be better for us to approach this situation without preconception lest we inadvertently let the guilty party escape our notice."

Then, turning to Ludvig, she added, "On that note, though, I am of one mind that seeking justice by our own hands should not be our main priority currently. Not out of any argument from morality, mind you, I fully agree that the perpetrator of such an abhorrent massacre should be brought to justice, however, the mandate we were given as Pontificials is an observation mission, not a punitive one. Once we've ascertained the situation, we are to report to the case officer for further action. To eschew that mandate in favour of pursuing retribution by our own hands would be a dereliction of our duty. In the best-case scenario, we would deprive the relevant stakeholders of a measured response to the situation, in the worst-case scenario, we perish and no information would reach them. Our first priority, first and foremost, was to have a clear picture of what happened."

"These victims seemed to be other members of the Order. Skipper... Lady Mirielle... I have a photogenic memory of my uncle Thomas and aunt Ursula. Their bone structure didn't match from my dear uncle and aunt." Lincelete spoke to Carmen and Mirielle with confidence.

The ice princess proceeded to the peasant and looked on him. "Tell me more about the witch from the mountain, Mister."

@Soldat Elf

Even if she did have photogenic memory, Carnatia doubted any accurate comparison between the bones currently laid out in front of them and Linceleste's memory could be made, considering it would be hard to have an accurate depiction of one's skeletal configuration underneath the muscle, cartilage, and so on. Unless Linceleste actually had seen the bones of her Uncle and Aunt, Carnatia remained sceptical of the claim.

Regardless, bringing that up would serve no purpose. Either way, there was no way to reliably confirm whether Paladin Thomas was among the corpses or not. Therefore, considering the objective of their mission, going with the assumption that Paladin Thomas was not among them and attempting to find out more information was probably for the best. It would also keep morale up if nothing else.

As Linceleste and Mirielle questioned Dromele about the witch and the soldiers respectively, Carnatia added, "While we are at it, sir, perhaps you can tell us about whom exactly the soldiers meant when they say traitors."

[Mas Bagus]

"You there, peasant. Explain who those soldiers are, and who they're fighting so desperately."

In front of Barking Mirielle, Dromele looked like a dried twig ready to be blown away by a strong gust.

"Re-revolutionist!" He stammered, and the next that came from his mouth was pretty much standard knowledge. "From the capital, sent here many years ago, been clashin' with the rebels for years also, and--."

Before he could finish, another question came. This time from the young blondie gal who had been easily quiet since they left the village outskirts. The way she looked at him further exacerbated the tension he felt.

"Tell me more about the witch from the mountain, Mister."

And then more came, this time from that lady earlier.
"While we are at it, sir, perhaps you can tell us about whom exactly the soldiers meant when they say traitors."

Dromele did not like it, not at all. The way they looked at him reminded him of the way the soldiers questioned him before they dragged him away to be hanged. He was a simple hunter with a simple wish to feed his family, he only knew how to live his ordinary life and survive. And the thing about surviving made something inside him click.

"How I supposed to know?! I ain't omniscience! This witch and this traitor, don't know it all! might be something the soldiers accuse us, ordinary folks just a fun of it? Who knows!?"

The outburst surprised Dromele to his core, and he was quick to apologize. Eyes were downcast, but his resolution to not divulge more remained unchanged.

"Please ask no more of those matters, good sir, lady. I wish no harm to me or me family. Both the rebels and the soldiers are vicious they wouldn't hesitate to burn the houses and fellow who tells words to the wrong kind of folks."

He looked at Carmen with hope. "Pardon sire, but I have fulfilled the end of me bargain. May I go back to Olbei? Me wife and son must be worried sick right now."

Captain Friston stood up. For a painful moment, he had endured listening to Carnathia's long-winded speech, urging the rest of the group to not seek retribution. For the record, he actually agreed with her about the importance of understanding the clear picture, but when he recalled her speech about not seeking justice and the mission parameter, something inside him started to boil. The last straw was when she reminded them that they were obliged to report to the 'Case officer'.

"No! No! We report to The Order!" he refuted abruptly eyes gazed sharply at Carnathia, and for that brief moment, it looked like Carmen was in terrible psychological pain. "Not some elven woman who thinks she knows it all. It is absurd! If only this damned Case officer did not stall our mission with unnecessary precautions, those... they could still be saved. What is the merit of following order if it impedes us from preventing unnecessary death?"

It was the first time Captain Carmen Friston showed his stern side before he retreated back to a melancholic man the party knew too well, sad, troubled, but reasonable.

"But you are right. We must not act rashly before we know what is happening to the fellowship, and the way I see it our investigation is far from finished."

He detached the lantern from his belt and then turned to the peasant.

"You can go now, Dromele." Carmen said wearily. "May your path be safe and we shall meet again in better circumstances."

[13org]

---

Amaris heard Mirielle's outburst in silence. She knew the situation was delicate and thus, she didn't blame Mirielle for her reaction.

"It's okay, Mirielle. Don't worry about it. I could have put it a bit more delicately too... considering the situation." Amaris said, shaking her head with a gentle smile.

Once again interrupting them, Ludvig started speaking. As Amaris heard his words, at first there was rage in her expression but it soon it gave way to a frightening coldness, both in her tone and her expression.

"I see... I know your type far too well. Arrogant and egotistical, who think of themselves as better than anyone and have a constant need of showing off. Thinking they can do and say whatever they want, use whoever they want however they want, throwing a tantrum when things don't go their way. Let this be the last words you will hear from me. Let this be my final warning. Do not approach me, do not talk to me and more importantly, do not touch me. I will consider any attempt to physically approach me or touch me as hostile and will react accordingly." Amaris said, loud enough so anyone in the group could hear, especially Carmen. A clear warning to Ludvig and clearly showing she had enough of his antics and his attitude and more importantly, a clear warning of what she would do if he continued to approach and provoke her, hoping it would be enough to Carmen not activate her robe, should she decide to do something.

---

"As much as it annoys me to say so, there isn't much information to gather here other than what Dromele knows, or claims to know and the bodies themselves. According to what little we know about this region, this Ealdorman and his forces seem to hold the most influence around here. Enough to have his militia run around executing anyone they want to. They would definitely be the only ones capable of staging such an execution... Unless there is another group with similar influence... Maybe this witch and the traitors they speak about? Although It wouldn't make much sense for them to do this to members of the Order..." Amaris said, turning to Dromele almost as if it was a cue for him to say what he knew.

"Regardless, it is fair to say that we should treat anyone we meet from now one as potential enemies first instead of potential allies. After what we saw, there's no reason to hesitate to attack anymore." once again reinforcing that it would be outright dangerous for them to treat people from that region as allies, considering that they seemed to be eager to get rid of them in the cruelest ways possible.

[A5G]

"...bone structure?" Mirielle parrotted with thinly veiled skepticism. Great, this one's unreliable. Oh well, it's probably a bit too much of an ask for the girl. "Good job. We... should move on."

Her investigation result on the corpse was... less than satisfactory. The soot felt unusual somehow, but not in any manner she can articulate. And then there'd Ludvig being touchy all of sudden, earning him a glare as she flinched. Clicking her tongue in annoyance, Mirielle cut her finagling short and stood back up. This wasn't working, a specialist was needed and she doubt there's one in a few hundred miles.

"I am not suggesting us to engage in mindless slaughter, lady de Valmont." Replied the ex-inquisitor, a bit offended that the noble would even imply such. "Merely pointing at the best course of further investigation. If you hadn't notice, this site is a dead end."

Not like they have tried too hard to look, but two weeks of bad weather had its way to wash away potential evidences. The local peasant was at the end of his usefulness too, likely not having much more beyond bits of rumors. Probably no time to gossip when he had to constantly worry about his next meal.

"Very well, you have been most helpful. A word of advice, you should take your family into hiding. Those soldiers looked like the vindictive sort, best to be prudent. Take care, good man."

Frustration welled up and subsequently bottled in. This really wasn't her day, to think that the witch's words resonated the most with her. Despite her own words earlier, Mirielle couldn't help but worry. How long will the trail of corpses be, by the time they're finished with the mission?

May the Creator have mercy on their souls.

[Soldat Elf]

Linceleste York

---

It seemed that didn't go well. Maybe she needed to be more detailed, but nah. She kept her mouth shut and took it. She looked at something that was made of wood. She put her palm on the wooden texture and cast a circular spell. Pulling out a stick that is big enough to be a handle. She then rubbed some sturdy rock material to pull out a thing like a shove shaped from her another circular spell. Her mana was consumed for doing that method. By joining the two materials and turning them into stoned shovel. As the party just kept briefing the outcome. The ice princess started to look for good ground. A sound of digging started to be heard by her party members. She been good at digging the ground as she been doing it for the spices. The dead is needed to bring back to earth as it should be. After that, let those religious fellowmen perform funeral rite for them.

[Augran]

Possibly forgoing any respectful way to haul the dead, Ludvig carried the two remaining corpses unaccounted for, one under each arm like he was carrying long wooden boards. He spun and gently laid them beside the corpse Mirielle was examining.

Looks like Dromele's finally set to leave. Mirielle looks exasperated despite doing really well to hide it. No leads, he supposes.
The other ex-inquisitor seems to be lifting his lantern up in broad daylight. Curious.
The sound of soil being stabbed into with a soft crunch, and promptly tossed aside. Linnie.
He stared at one of the corpses' charred face while commenting to himself.

^{『 Ludvig 』}

"S'pose we do need to bury 'em...
Though a more apt location would have been nice. Somewhere a bit closer to their families, perhaps."

The carriage would have been nice to still have, in the moment.

He grabbed his waist, feeling the corpse grime add some strange friction between his hands and polo shirt. Noticing this, he tapped his chest once, poofing away all the dirt, blood and sweat on his exterior altogether in a near-instant. Even the bullet tear on his shoulder area was gone.

That reminded him. He glanced at Mirielle, holding his left hand out.

[Soldat Elf]

Linceleste York

---

^{『 Ludvig 』}

"S'pose we do need to bury 'em...
Though a more apt location would have been nice. Somewhere a bit closer to their families, perhaps."

The carriage would have been nice to still have, in the moment.

"The bodies have already been decomposing for weeks. Gasses from the bodies are already spreading. We need to bury it down 6 feet below the ground so that it wouldn't spread the diseases that it may cause. I carefully picked up a good spot to dig even when rain comes in. 

If these bodies are freshly perished, we can still find somewhere to dig. But in this case, we can't just drag them and bring the disease gas along the way. We are disrespecting the dead," Linceleste replied to that clown man while she kept digging the selected burial spot. 

[Randomness]

Osric Griswall

---

Well, the day went from bad to worse. Perhaps it should have been an omen that once the monotonous surroundings had finally shifted into the woods, so would their endeavors. From a simple mission on locating the whereabouts and condition of Paladin Thomas, now they got a lot of news all at once. None of it good. From engaging with soldiers to the shaky testimony of a man caught in the middle of numerous affairs, it all culminated to the discovery of some of those poor saps that were with Thomas. Despite the warnings the peasant, Dromele, the scene was more tragic than one could have expected.

A gruesome way to end, the burned at the stake and left for the wildlife to pick clean. Already parts of their uncovered bodies, the head, hands, were picked clean, the bone dyed red and charred black left exposed. Osric did not blame any of the churches men their anguish. Carmen especially broke his normally calm demeanor as he cut down a colleague, resting him on the ground.

“Ah, give me a sec, and I can probably build a makeshift shovel myself. At least then we can have a second with Rezello’s and help ya dig.” said Osric as he readjusted his pack. He felt bad for Carmen and Mirielle. Those two were probably the closest to those deceased even if that only happened to be because of their order. “I don’t think I can add any more to what has been said. But I’m sorry they ended up this way. I can understand losing someone important. At such a horrid way at that.”

Osric bowed his head as reverently as he knew how. He didn’t want to say anything else. He didn’t know what else to say more likely. And it wasn’t really his place to talk about revenge. Backing away and turning, Osric then began to look around. He found a sturdy branch, and pulled out a knife. He whittled down a piece of it and then left to look for a flat rock or something else to build a makeshift shovel. It didn’t take him long, and the flat stone shovel was quite crude, but should last long enough to at least dig a couple graves for those men.

When Osric returned, he could see that tensions were rising. He could hear some of the conversation from the tree line, but now that he could see everyone clearly again, he wandered over puzzled. “Hey now. What makes you all believe he knows anything beyond what he just told us? If he actually knew anything, you’d think those soldiers would have been hanging him in the middle of nowhere? Let up and leave him be. We should be thankful he knew of this place to begin with.” It seemed that Carmen was of similar mindset, or was at least at his whits end when it came to the speculations. Still, he let the peasant go. With sound advice from some of the others, Dromele was no longer under the employ of the party. Not that he had any obligation to begin with. Osric sighed and he stabbed his stone shovel into a pit of soft dirt.

“Well, I’d say our first impression among the locals has been less than stellar. In less than an hour we managed to get on the bad sides of two different groups of people. The sooner we can find this Thomas person, the better. Now then.” said Osric as he looked at the row of bodies. No matter how many times he looked, his expression showed a hint of sorrow. He learned early on when he started to take up mercenary work that some people are truly sadistic and callous. It was one thing to kill or even make an example of one’s enemies. But to some people, that wasn’t enough. They got some sort of sick pleasure out of inflicting suffering. Though he grew more accustomed to the sight, it didn’t make him like it any less.

“Ideally, we would, Ludwig. If this is how these folks were left, I don’t want to think about what could happen to that Thomas fella. If he wasn’t among these folks, then it’s safe to say he got away. Lets hope that he did for a good long while.” said Osric. He walked back to his shovel and pulled it up of of the dirt. He held the end of the shovel near his shoulder and tapped it a couple times. He kept quiet about how close they were to the border. So as it stood, there looked to be equal chance the people they were looking for were either captured or managed to escape. Just not escape to the borders of Westernant. “For now, lets just give them as best service and burial we can here. We can put a mark on our map. When you Order folk get the chance, you could come back and give them a proper burial once we locate Thomas.”