Defeat
The elves declared their victory via a cruel method. The loud sounds weren't thunderclap, but the elves' horn; that was the sound of their fireworks, announcing their victory.
I planned to select some people to go find out what transpired in the forest. Howbeit, as I was selecting the people to go, an elven horse carriage pulled up at the entrance of our town. Veirya and Angelina were in full gear. We rushed to the entrance together. The coach of the elven carriage wore a belittling and taunting smile. He dismounted and turned the turned the carriage around while ignoring all of us humans. He then opened the carriage.
Inside was a scene that left everyone deathly pale. The women's shrieks shut down humanity's triumphant and casual lives. The stench of scalded flesh instantly burst forth from the inside. The rancid stench replaced humanity's leisurely and relaxed atmosphere. Human corpses poured out from the carriage. Corpses were piled up on corpses. Not one person escaped the tragedy; they looked as if they were pulled out of an inferno. Their flesh was rotten, appearances were disfigured and exposed skin was covered in burns. In fact, their skin was basically black charcoal.
"Humans, we elves practice war norms. We're sending all of your wounded back to you. As for whether or not they are still alive, we can't make any guarantees. There might be corpses stuffed in amongst them. Also, they might be missing bits and pieces of themselves. Welp, they're in your hands now. We're not responsible for your people. We're keeping the others as slaves." The elf stood next to the two mountains of flesh and laughed heartily.
I finally realised I wasn't looking at two mountains of corpses but two mountains of wounded personnel!! Correction, two mountains of corpses and wounded personnel mashed together!! They were all soldiers who were either burnt to death or suffering burn wounds!! If the elves were taking the initiative to send us injured soldiers, keeping the live and disposing of the dead, then that meant that humanity lost the war!! Humanity's frontlines were crushed! I quickly inferred the sequences of explosions that I heard before was related to how the elves routed humanity.
The elf didn't hesitate for a single moment. He smugly took off, leaving us with two mountains of burnt human beings and flesh.
"What are you all looking at?!! Hurry up and help them!!" I yelled as I was first to come back to my senses.
My command brought the people to their senses. They panicked as they rushed over to the mountains to separate the corpses and survivors then took the wounded away. Blood dispersed throughout and dyed the grass a terrifying dark red. As the elf said, lots of them were missing limbs and whatnot. Some only had half of their body intact and came back with their last breath to see humanity's lands again. They couldn't even moan or groan anymore. Some of them only had half a head remaining, missing arms or missing legs. It was obvious that the wounds weren't inflicting with blades but explosions. The elves made fireworks out of humanity's army.
When the medics, who were supposed to treat the wounded, saw the messy blood and flesh, some of them went to the side and quivered in fear, while others vomited. The women fled helter-skelter as if the world was ending. Anybody would be scared; anybody would be scared after seeing their own kind blasted to pieces. Even Angelina and Veirya were stiff.
I didn't know what the elves did precisely, but I knew that they won. There were less than a hundred men delivered to us, while there were less than twenty survivors. The elves only sent us this batch, and Queen Sisi wasn't seen amongst them.
"Humanity's army was annihilated, but where's their leader? To hell with the soldiers; what happened to Queen Sisi?!" I was panicking.
In a quiet voice, Veirya murmured, "Your Majesty…"
Veirya rose to her feet to charge to the forest, but Angelina, with her swift eyes and hands, caught Veirya's cape and yanked her back. Veirya pivoted around and raged, "Let go!"
Angelina thundered, "Calm down, Veirya. I can understand how you feel, but you can't go there now! Right now, humanity and elves are in battle, and you happen to be humanity's hero. If you enter the forest, the elves will definitely catch on to you! The elves are no match for you here, but you're no match for Lucilia in the forest!!"
Veirya aggressively pressed a hand on Angelina's: "Let go. Whatever the case. My loyalty. Is devoted to Her Majesty. I won't. Betray her. Right now. She's in danger. I must. Save her."
Angelina pulled me over and shoved me into Veirya's arms: "You'll die!! You seriously will die!! Lucilia will definitely kill you; I guarantee it! You know the elves well enough! They couldn't ask for a better spoil of war than you! Think about him, and think about Leah!! What are they going to do if you die?!!"
Veirya instinctively hugged me. The two us were centimetres away from each other's faces. My brain went blank; I turned my red face away as I didn't dare to look at her. Veirya, who was boiling, suddenly went quiet.
"… You'll. Go with me. To the elven lands. To rescue Her Majesty?"
I needed to put some distance between us, or I couldn't think… I wiggled out of Veirya's embrace and took two steps back to calm down. I answered, "You can't go."
Veirya froze for she didn't expect the answer from me. I didn't wait for her to reply. I, instead, elaborated, "Lucilia will definitely kill you; no questions about it. You can't enter their forest. At the very least, not until the war between humans and elves comes to an end. You must stay here."
"Then, Her Majesty…"
"I'll go." I took in a deep breath. I scratched my head and explained, "I'll rescue Queen Sisi from them; you stay put. Veirya, you trust me, right? You trust that I can bring Queen Sisi back, so you stay in the town. The elves won't initiate an attack, but you are not to go into the forest under any circumstance, understood?"
Veirya revealed dumbstruck look: "How. Are you going to do it?"
"I have my own ways."
To be frank, I had no idea in mind; I had to calm Veirya down, nevertheless. You think I wanted to go and rescue Queen Sisi. If I didn't go, however, Veirya would surely go, when she was no match for Lucilia in the forest.
I had to go and rescue Queen Sisi for Veirya's sake.