### Chapter Thirty: Ramiel and Emily
At the foot of the city wall, the night wind howled like it was auditioning for a horror movie.
Dabs of dark bl**d were frozen on the snowy ground outside the wall, while in the distance, a gnarly dead tree danced in the wind, as if trying to get the last laugh. Under the moonlight, countless frozen corpses of enemies lay there, each one being dragged away by Shanter Army soldiers to some nearby wasteland for a hasty burial.
Among the dead, those clad in leather armor or the shiny getup of the City Guard would be carted off into the city to be claimed. Their names would be inscribed in the heroic deeds of the Southern Campaign, and they’d get a cozy grave in the Moonlight Cemetery behind the city, complete with a commemorative plaque for their families and future generations to remember them.
In the dead of night, a handful of citizens still wandered outside the city, their emaciated figures resembling ghosts in the dark, their heads down as they scavenged the desolate battlefield for anything left behind, perhaps a broken sword or a warped helmet; anything at all would make their day.
Some stood at a distance, staring blankly at the towering walls, especially at the gaping hole smashed in by a colossal ice mound, lost in thought. The cold wind jolted them awake, compelling them to lumber off in search of a sheltered spot.
“Ah—”
“Achoo!”
Under the night sky, someone opened their mouth wide, tilted their head back, and let out a boisterous sneeze.
It was a woman wrapped in a nondescript cloak, the fabric crusted with hardened snow and her hair disheveled, looking no different from the homeless citizens around her.
She sniffled, glancing at the nearby panicked people. Someone on a corpse was rummaging through, pulling out half a loaf of hard bread as if it were a treasure. The joy on their face barely had a moment to shine before others scrambled over in a frenzy, fighting in the snow until bl**d was drawn.
Farther up the hill, Northern Soldiers with torches took a break from their patrol, looking as casual as if they were at a picnic. They laughed loudly at the scene of the brawl among the starving citizens of the Royal City, pointing and chuckling, but one slightly younger soldier shouted out in frustration, “Stop fighting! Go check the charity center in the city; you might get a bowl of hot porridge!”
He then received a hard smack from an older soldier on the back of his head. “Get a grip! These folks are all relatives of the exiled City Guard and those brainwashed holy church believers—just a bunch of stubborn lapdogs helping Cain’s side while hoping for our porridge! If we didn’t wipe them out on the spot, it’s just the mercy of His Majesty Skarlij; they deserve to freeze and starve here…”
The words drifted towards the woman, making her chuckle with a sense of bitterness. “When war breaks out, it’s all just a pile of dog poop everywhere…”
After a pause, her smile faded, replaced with a scowl.
“Speaking of this godforsaken place, it’s freezing enough to chill a person to the bone. No matter how long you stay, you can’t get used to it.”
Standing next to her, a tall man dressed similarly turned to glance at her but said nothing.
They both shifted their gaze to the massive mound of ice that had completely smashed the walls of Chielis City, towering high with an aura of impending doom as if it would never melt. Just looking at it made you feel a sense of helplessness and despair.
“Hiss—”
After a moment, the woman let out a cold breath.
“Though I did see something like this down in the valley before…”
She tilted her head back, brushing her messy hair with her hand and muttered, “Hey Ramiel, this kind of power? It seems way over our heads…”
“Have a little faith; take the ‘seems’ out of it,” replied the man named Ramiel, shrugging with an attitude that looked relaxed, but his expression was all seriousness.
Ignoring the chaos around them, he kept his eyes glued to the gigantic ice mound.
“So, it’s definitely her, right? No question about it,” the woman said, her tone oddly peculiar.
A month ago, she would’ve felt excited about this, but now all that remained was a whirlwind of complicated feelings, an exhaustion akin to burnt-out embers.
Even more surprising, she didn’t launch into a tirade.
Ramiel knew exactly why.
“Well, what’s the plan now…” he heard her mumble, seeking advice from him, the ‘strongest voice’ of the Choir of Saints, which was nearly impossible for her given her usual fiery temperament.
Just—
Ramiel fell silent for a moment.
“The intel is too sparse. We can’t act recklessly.”
He was usually a man of few words, often mistaken as a blockhead who only knows how to follow orders. But the truth is, a person who only knows how to comply could never rise to the top of the voice department.
Ramiel was incredibly good at thinking. If he weren’t, he wouldn’t have tracked down Emily, a fellow cadre from the Choir, all the way here from the destroyed Silence Fortress, “The Great Clinic.”
“We can’t be sure that the ‘special patient’ is really alive. Even if all evidence points to her, that’s just our subjective assumption; we haven’t found any signs of the Abyss or Infernal Fire, and we haven’t seen her in person.”
“So what should we do then?! Stop rambling on without saying anything useful, you useless lump!” Emily snapped, her frustration boiling over.
Ramiel remained unbothered, surveying the surroundings until his gaze locked onto the group of Northern Soldiers up ahead.
“Emily,” he called out her name.
With a definite lack of enthusiasm, she replied, “What now?”
“Come with me; we’re going to grab a few Northern Soldiers.”
At those words, Emily’s eyes widened like saucers. “What? Are you nuts?! Do you think we’re still in the Holy City…?”
She pointed at the distant wall of snow. “Where do you think we are? This is the Valen Empire! Those Northern Soldiers just took out the Fourth Knights Order and conquered Chielis City! The corpses haven’t even been cleared away! Open your eyes and look around—where isn’t there someone from their side?”
After a brief pause, noticing Ramiel didn’t respond, she hurried ahead, lowering her voice in an attempt to stop him. “Hey, hey, hey! You idiot… the Northern Army is on high alert; their patrols are tight. I guarantee if even one person is missing, they’ll notice right away! We only made it into Moon Mountain Gorge because we blended in with the refugees. Let’s face it: getting into the city is already a stretch, and you’re looking for d*ath—don’t drag me down with you! I’m talking to you—”
“This is the fastest and most effective way.”
“Ramiel—”
“We have no way out. We need to at least confirm she’s still alive.”
“Confirmed? And then what?! We haven’t been in touch with the Temple Church for over a month! Something might have gone wrong over there—Ramiel, you—”
As they walked along the shadows of the snow hill, Emily continued to fume and curse as they made their way towards the several Northern Soldiers atop the snow hill.
