Chapter 194 Unwavering

As night fell the heavy rain continued to fall. The people of New Grenton were in their homes no longer as anxious as before. For the casualties, today compared to the time the Elder Lich attacked was minuscule.

...

As the rain continued to pour heavily Iselv with a bunch of soldiers were outside the walls stripping the dead of their armor and weapons. Once the dead bodies were stripped bare the mages would burn the bodies.

Though they were at war and were stripping the enemies, Iselv and the others decided to at least give the fallen soldiers a proper send-off. Due to the rain, it took a long time for the bodies to be incinerated.

...

Galius who was inspecting the surviving knights could only sigh. Due to the urgency of the situation, Galius was forced to use some of the students of the knight academy.  Though they were stationed at the back and didn't need to do much, some of them have experienced their first kill today. Knowing this made Galius feel a bit bad since they were practically forced to join in this battle.

While Galius was feeling a bit depressed by the current situation of the students of the knight academy, one of his subordinates approached him.

"Sir, they have now completely surrounded New Grenton." Hearing the report of his subordinate made Galius sigh even more. He was already expecting this situation to happen, but now that it truly happened he felt mixed emotions. Galius truly wished that after the failed first attempt of the siege, and after seeing Lara's performance, the second prince Niel would withdraw his army and retreat back to the capital.

'It's going to get tougher from here on out.'

...

After the battle was done Hilda was now heading back home. As she was walking through the night streets of New Grenton she couldn't help but remember the faces of those she killed. It wasn't like this was the first time she killed another human being. In fact, she has killed numerous bandits and murders before. But this was the first time she had ever killed so many people that were neither monsters or criminals.

Hilda was feeling a little overwhelmed.

'It was either me or them, I had no choice...' As Hilda was slowly spiraling into an unknown direction she heard her sisters' voices.

"Big Sis!" Seeing her two little sisters run towards her from their new house warmed Hilda's heart. She couldn't help but smile as she hugged her sisters.

'Right I don't have time to think of others... I need to survive for them.'

...

Valdel was still going around helping the citizens. He sent Kuro back to Galius so she could rest since she was looking quite tired. Of course, Kuro didn't want to leave Valdel but seeing as this was a direct order from her master she reluctantly did as she was told. The two holy maidens were also doing their own thing at this time. Rachel was feeling extremely exhausted since she was fighting her instincts to head into battle. Natasha was trying to contact her temple and inform them of their current situation. So right now Valdel was all alone running in the rain trying to find a missing person.

During the siege, some a fleeing citizen lost sight of her son. She tried looking for him but there was no response. Seeing as her son was last seen in the place were some of the boulders hit, Valdel headed there.

Once Valdel got to the designated place he extended his mana outward and tried to feel if there were any other presences around. The moment he spotted the mana of another he quickly moved towards it. As he got to the location he was horrified to see a child was pinned down by the roof of a destroyed house. The child was unconscious and he looked like he wasn't breathing.

The moment Valdel saw what was happening he quickly lifted the roof and summoned Zwei to pull the child away. Once the child was out Valdel touched the child's body and felt that it was cold and getting colder. First, Valdel needed to find shelter from the heavy rain.

Valdel entered one of the empty houses and tried to warm the body of the child. He then noticed that the child's beating heart was slowing down.

"Zwei, Nika don't you guys know any healing spells." Valdel looked at Zwei with a desperate plea. Zwei could only shake her head at this question, she was a being of slaughter she had no means to heal another person. Nika didn't respond as well. When Valdel got the answer from the two, he gnashed his teeth in frustration.

'I got no other choice, I hope this works.' Valdel hugged the child's body tightly and started to transmit his mana into the boy the same way Ren would do when he tried to heal somebody.

Valdel continued to transmit his mana to the child hoping for a miracle, after a few minutes he saw the child open his eyes.

"Huh... Who are you? Why are you crying?..." The child asked still a bit confused about his current situation. When Valdel saw the boy waking up and talking, he could help but hug the child even tighter.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you." Valdel who saved the child was the one saying his thanks.

...

While Valdel was bringing back the child to his mother, Lara was in her room concentrating on strengthening her mana. As she was doing this, she felt a familiar presence. The moment she felt that presence it suddenly disappeared.

'Was it my imagination? Maybe I'm missing him too much... Ren when will you return?...'

...

In the distance in a hill to the southeast of New Grenton, Ren was watching everything unfold. Behind him was the silent Silika. It was raining heavily but not a single drop of water hit the two, as Silika created a barrier that protected them from the rain.

The two had arrived in the middle of the siege and decided to watch everyone's progress. At that time Ren was casually eating some fruits as he enjoyed the show. It would seem that the overall strength of New Grenton has improved.

While he was observing the battle Ren was getting a bit excited. He then called Silika over and embraced her, the two then started doing it while watching the battle unfold.

...

Once the battle was done Ren was pleased with the result, but it wasn't enough. The people of New Grenton need to experience more. It was at that moment Ren noticed two distinct mana fluctuation that was only possible for a certain race. This particular mana fluctuation has the feel of demons, one was a demon with some impurities and the other was something else...

'A half-breed? No, it's like his human but at the same time not... What is this?... Ooops.' Ren who was trying to determine what kind of being has such a peculiar mana suddenly felt that Lara might've noticed his probing and stopped. It was not yet time for her to know that he was here.

"Hmm, I wonder... What is a demon doing here?" When Ren said those words he unconsciously tightened the grip on the diary he was holding.