The news of what happened in the palace couldn't be hidden. When the people of the capital heard how the last seed of the Dren family, a vastly victorious general managed to slaughter the emperor, along with his personal guard, and a small army, they couldn't help but be speechless.

"Is she human? How is that even possible?" said one of the listeners.

The storyteller that was sitting in the inn, relaying the information he got said "You must be new here. Everyone in the capital knows that the last general of the Dren family has ungodly attainments in martial arts. Add onto that, the tactics and strategies she has had to learn since she could read, and it isn't difficult to see what type of person that would create".

"Then shouldn't we be worried? Would she also attack us, since there was no real resistance from us when her family was put to death?" said the same man.

This created an eerie silence in the inn. They had never thought about it. Although they weren't willing to accept that the loyal Dren family could possibly collude with the enemy, or even want to rebel. But they didn't actively stop the executions. After all, they're just normal people, where would they dare to stand against the court?

However, now they know that there is still one person left, and she has the ability to not only break into the capital, but she could still massacre all those soldiers in what was supposed to be the safest place in the world.

While the people were deep in thought, the man quietly left the inn, a smirk on his face. He followed the path arranged, and came across a sneaky man.

"Is it done?" said the sneaky man.

"Of course. When have I not completed the task given to me?" said the man from the inn.

The sneaky man quickly handed over the agreed payment, before leaving he still reminded the man viciously.

"If you speak a word about this, you won't want to know the consequences".

The man rolled his eyes in his mind, but still put on a cowardly appearance.

"Of course sir, I wouldn't dare".

The sneaky man felt relieved after seeing the timidity of the man, and happily left the place. If anyone happened to be following him, they would find that he entered the back-door of the mansions of one of the ministers that cooperated with the emperor to falsify charges against the Dren family. This was Arthur Ridge. A small minister that was working in the ministry of war. His only advantage was that he was very good at impersonating handwriting, which they used as evidence of the Dren family's desire to rebel.

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After the execution, many ministers that were loyal to the Dren family were either executed as well, or forced to resign. With his participation in the plan, Arthur found himself promoted to the head of the ministry of war. A position he would never have achieved with his own abilities.

Arthur however, was quite scheming. He knew how to use public opinion to his advantage. He wanted the people of the country to condemn the actions of Siraya, and hope that by distracting her with the cruelty of public opinion, that she wouldn't remember he was a part of the plan.

...

Siraya was lying in the forest. Her wounds were roughly tended to. The armour had embedded itself into her skin under the constant blows, and the blood had long since congealed, making her into a frightening mess. Her breathing was harsh and uneven, it's easy to see that Siraya's injuries were much more severe than expected.

She lay in the forest for days, her body suffering tremendous amounts of pain. Hunger and thirst making her already insane mind more delirious. Some of the scavenging rats in the forest couldn't help but come check if she was dead. They heard her harsh breaths and were excited. Knowing that this meant the prey was seriously injured, they cautiously approached her. When they wanted to check if she was awake, a hand came at one of them as fast as light, before the rat even knew what happened to it, Siraya had crushed its skull. She looked at the rats carcass in her hands, and even though she was disgusted, she knew that if she didn't eat or drink, she definitely wouldn't make it through the night.

Suppressing her revulsion, she gnawed on the raw rat carcass. The pungent taste and stringy texture made her retch multiple times, but she still managed to keep it down in the end, and where there was one, there would be another. Soon a pile of bones piled up next to her, luckily they seemed to have had an effect, and Siraya finally felt some energy had returned to her body.

But just like before, after her injuries were somewhat taken care of, her mind relaxed, and the thoughts that had been suppressed, started to reappear. The thoughts of her family's tragic deaths kept repeating in her mind. Tears streamed down her face, but she made no sound. Her eyes had lost their previous sobriety, only the tears could show that she was actually crying. The cruelty and madness started flashing in her eyes, getting deeper the longer she sat there.

Time seemed to mean nothing to Siraya. She lurked in the forest, killing anything she came across. She seemed to have forgotten her previous disgust about eating raw meat. After tearing open the deer, she happily drank its blood, trying to quench the burning anger resounding through her body.

However this proved to have the opposite effect. She madly tore at the deer, ripping off chunks of meat and stuffing them into her mouth. A thought kept popping into her mind.

'She needs to be stronger'.

After leaving the horribly mangled carcass, she continued to journey into the forest, in search of more nutrients, to make her strength replenish faster. As she continued into the depths, a soft and melodious humming could be heard coming from between her blood stained lips.