A few minutes passed as the group paid their full respect to the dead comrades. It took them some time to calm down and stop their tears and while it was far from enough to make them think properly again, they could at least stop for a moment and look around.
“Get *sniff* some blankets… We need to cover them.” One mercenary said with a low tone. His expression was ghostly but he still stood up and approached their corpses as he slowly pulled them down and started laying them on the ground.
He was struggling to look at the corpses with those hideous injuries. This was by far the worst experience of his entire life. But, with sheer will and years of experience, he was able to force all that pain and horror down his throat and focus on his task. Leaving his friends’ corpses not properly taken care of was way worse than any of that.
After that, the group covered the dead comrades with white clothes, making sure to hide everything. Then, they sat down there, trying to take everything in with no success. They looked like a bunch of soulless shells with no will or desire.
Meanwhile, Isla simply watched in silence at the group. She knew that no words she could say would get them out of that shocked state. Losing a loved one was the worst thing someone could experience in their lives and nothing could make them overcome it except time.
‘It’s time… Time always heals even if it doesn’t erase pain. They will overcome it after some time.’ She thought to herself.
Isla herself knew what that felt like and how hard it was to accept that reality. But, this was the test they had to pass. They can either remain in that state, losing all will to fight, and continue on this path, or swallow that pain and use it as a drive to push forward.
There was no third option.
Exhaling a small breath, Isla turned around and left the storage room. Approaching the edge of the deck, she looked into the river.
“Where are you, Arthur?” She muttered with a dark expression. “Where have you gone? Did you make an escape? Are you out of the tower already? Why didn’t you reply yet?”
Although it didn’t appear on her face but Isla was extremely worried about Arthur. Everything she had seen on this ship only made her more worried about him. Her senses were screaming that something very wrong had happened but she couldn’t wrap her head around it.
‘He should be fine, Isla. Even if he ends up in trouble, he will figure his way out as he always does.’ She thought to herself. Her eyes shifted slowly to the sky as her hand rested on her chest. A myriad of emotions flashed through her irises.
With that, an hour passed rather quickly. Isla waited for the group to finally regain their composure and that was when they started the procedure of getting the corpses out and calling for backup to take care of the ship.
The dead corpses were slowly carried out of the ship on the shoulders of the mercenaries in a mourning silence. The help arrived soon after as mercenaries and other workers invaded the ship to explore it.
Isla was a little nervous seeing that sight as she feared they might discover something related to that message she saw. The evidence was glaring especially with the sword marks everywhere. There was simply no way a monster could use a sword. At least no normal monster.
As the mercenaries were exploring the place. The chief approached Isla quietly and stood next to her.
“My deepest apologies for this situation, Miss Isla.” He said with a dark expression. “It’s… We never thought it would come down to this.”
“It is fine. This is a huge loss to the Mercenary Guild.” Isla replied. “Are you going to be fine after this?”
The question hit a spot that the chief didn’t like. But, he still exhaled a long breath and replied. “To be honest, I am not thinking about that now. Losing the best of the best in our group is… really hard. But, we will be fine. We have been through similar situations before. We are ready to face it all.”
“Is that so…?” Isla muttered wistfully. ‘I guess with how common death is around these places… The Guild won’t fall because of this disaster.’
“Though, I must ask, where is Sir Arthur?” The chief asked. “Didn’t he tell you that he was on this ship?”
“…” Isla’s eyes flashed with a weird glint for a split second. “I still don’t know where he is and that’s why I’m worried. But, he will be fine, I am certain of that.”
“Hmm, I understand. But, now that I think about it, the marks I saw on their bodies did look very similar to marks from a sword… I wonder how that could’ve been the case.” As he said that, the chief looked at Isla weirdly.
“What are you trying to say?” Isla asked.
“No, nothing. It was just a small observation I made. With how weird this river is… Those marks aren’t completely unexpected. Monsters that could leave behind such things aren’t non-existent.”
“Yeah…”
‘He’s suspicious of Arthur. There is no doubt about it.’ Isla mused secretly. ‘Tsk, this is annoying. I need to diverge his attention from that or he might dig into it and find other things. I didn’t have time to properly inspect the crime scene to make sure nothing could put Arthur in trouble.’
Isla would’ve been able to completely take control of the situation had she had the time to look around. There was a fear in her heart that the message wasn’t the only evidence there against her Arthur.
‘For now, things seem quite calm and nothing seems to be sus-‘
“Chief! Can you come here for a second? There is something we want you to see?”
Isla’s trail of thought was cut off at a weird moment as a mercenary peeked out of the room and called for the leader. Find adventures at My Virtual Library Empire
“I will be there.” The chief said and moved toward the storage room.
Isla immediately felt a sense of unease as she looked behind her and then followed the chief as the two walked inside the room. There, they found that all the mercenaries were standing around one particular spot.
They all shared the same confused, alerted look on their faces that struck Isla a little off. The man stepped between them.
“What is it?” He asked.
“This… I just found it randomly while trying to inspect the blood. It’s… odd.”
“What do you mean?”
Crouching down, the chief looked at the spot, not knowing what to expect. However, when his eyes landed on it, he immediately froze.
Isla followed him and peeked over his shoulder, his heart started to race wildly. Then, much to her horror and shock, she saw something that sent her mind flying.
Down on the wooden floor was the written message she wiped an hour ago. It was completely intact as if she didn’t touch it at all. In fact, the message was the exact same as the one she had found earlier.
‘… What?’
A//N: Thank you all for the gifts, golden tickets, and PS. Let’s keep it up!