oil. It was as though a black circle had been cut directly out of the desert. Meanwhile, the head was marred by a peculiar-looking scar. It looked like it had been opened wide up, then closed again. Elisabeth stood motionless before the grisly spectacle. She thought back to the quotes from the poem she'd once looked into. "A body unheld by death's fell claim." "A radiant form." "A glittering frame." "Adorned with reddened scales." "Like beautiful stones." "Our eternal protector." The people loved the Sand Queen. They revered her. And that was why they had made use of her corpse. They had forced it back into motion, and this was the result of their efforts. The Sand Queen lay before Elisabeth and her men, now dead twice over. "Or to be more precise, her magical reactor was destroyed with great precision," Elisabeth amended her thought as she looked at the corpse's chest. It was a mystery what had caused the head wound. Whatever killed the Queen, though, it must have been a single blow. Not even Alice would have survived a protracted clash with her. Elisabeth shook her sand-battered hair off her shoulders and gave a small nod. "Lewis was the one who aided the demi-humans in their engineering efforts to analyze the Sand Queen's corpse. Alice would have been with him, so it stands to reason that she would know the Sand Queen's weak spots. If she caught the Queen by surprise, a carefully placed lance strike from that White Knight of hers could well have gotten the job done. That said, the wound on the head is closed up. Did she fail to down the Sand Queen with her initial strike, then?" Elisabeth tried approaching the corpse, but she quickly stopped in her tracks. Thousands of little bubbles were floating on the black blood's surface. She tried popping one with the tip of her toe, and her shoe melted a little. It wasn't hard to imagine what would have happened if she'd set foot in it. Lute shook his head, then cautioned her. "Best not to, I think. Even if we got close, the Sand Queen's body is too much for us to handle." "Aye, true enough. Without appropriate tools of some sophistication, we've little chance of gleaning anything of note from her." Elisabeth frowned as she let out a sigh. The magical devices she was capable of summoning were first-rate, but they only served the purpose of torturing people. And besides, even understanding the Sand Queen's corpse was easier said than done. She was like the Three Kings of the Forest. No matter how long you looked at her, keeping a coherent mental image of her in her entirety was nigh impossible. Her springy flesh, her chipped, jewel-like scales, the grim cut across her head, and her claws submerged in the lake of blood were all perfectly comprehensible on their own. However, it was impossible to picture them as a whole. Furthermore, the corpse's expression was unseeable. It was anyone's guess as to whether her second rest was a peaceful one. That said, the fact of the matter was that she was dead. Even pondering such a question was an act of pointless sentimentality. The question is, what are those who yet remain doing? With the Sand Queen dead, the hidden village was back to being as good as defenseless. To lose her was to lose their shield and their sword at the same time. Yet despite the emergency it was facing, the settlement was dead quiet. The horrors within must have been far beyond Elisabeth's expectations. However, even realizing that wasn't enough to shake her. She spoke succinctly. "Let's go." "We're right there with you, ma'am," Lute replied. However, Elisabeth didn't so much as cast a glance his way before setting off. The decision to follow her or not was theirs to make. She threw the dragon skull's mouth open. Then she walked straight forward. Her men wordlessly came along after her. And with that, they went in. Into the chaos that awaited themâ€”into Wonderland. There were corpses. There were corpses. There were bodies. There were remains. There were carcasses. There were corpses melted like butter, corpses sprinkled with pepper, corpses seated for a tea party, corpses with their heads cut off, corpses drowned in a sea of tears, corpses packed into buildings, corpses that had fallen off walls. The sheer number of bodies was almost comical. Demi-humans and mixed-race people alike had been killed without distinction. The mixed-race people suffered heavy casualties during the Three Kings' invasion, but none of those victims had been made into macabre displays like this. By Elisabeth's estimation, these ones had been picked off soon after their victory. The desert had no shortage of places where one could cremate and store bodies. However, all of these had simply been left out in the open. The bodies sat splayed out like they were nothing more than objects. Strangely, though, each one had been offered a tiny display of mercy. Someone had gone and placed a blue flower atop each and every one of them. A tiny prayer, perhaps, for the dead. And that was the scariest part of all. "It can't be... Did any of them survive?" Elisabeth shook her head. "I know not. Many fled, I imagine. That said, I've yet to find any survivors." Lute's tail curled up. He had known that before even asking, but he simply didn't want to believe his own eyes. Alice was acting completely within expectations. However, that didn't make what she'd done any less deranged. The two of them arrived at a section of the settlement that had avoided getting hit by the fire during the Three Kings' attack. However, everyone they passed was still dead. And it wasn't just the main residences, either. Even the underground bunkers that the human-beastfolk army missed during the battle had been cracked wide open, and the people who'd fled there for shelter had been butchered as well. It reminded Elisabeth of her birthplace. Those who lived surrounded by walls made for perfect fodder, and it was in just such a town that Elisabeth had once gorged herself on pain. Although the people here had been given much quicker paths to death, what they'd been subjected to was much the same thing. It was a sin of the most depraved sort. Loathsome Elisabeth, repulsive Elisabeth! Cruel, hideous Elisabeth! Those old, familiar cries of hatred sounded deep in Elisabeth's eardrums. Here, though, there was no one to even scream. At the same time, she was reminded of a woman. Namely, she was reminded of a lizard-headed noblewomanâ€”Aguina's wife, Satisbarina Elephabred. When she gave Elisabeth the settlement's location, she made Elisabeth make her a promise. Elisabeth could still remember exactly what she'd said to her. "Those who boast of knowing love cannot well make light of the love of others. Such is the oath I demand of you." "When you find my son and his wife, I ask that you vow not to forsake them." "I cannot...will not allow harm to come to them." How would she lament if she saw this grim spectacle, I wonder? Elisabeth shook her head. A slight shadow came over her expression, but speaking as the Torture Princess, the total annihilation here was actually a decent outcome for them. With the Sand Queen gone, there was little value to be found in reconciling with the demi-humans and mixed-race folk. This way, there was one less thing she needed to worry about. That said, Elisabeth's instincts were as sharp as a knife, and they were telling her a different story. Something seems amiss... Can I really write this off so simply? She cast her crimson gaze downward and sank into thought. As she did, her dog-headed subordinate with the black-and-white-spotted fur rushed over to her and dutifully remembered to salute. When he gave his report, his tail was standing on end, and he was clearly trying to suppress the emotion in his voice. "Captain, we've finished checking the temple that was damaged in the battle, and we have good news! It has a sanctuary modeled off the one in the demi-human pureblood sector, and not only did it avoid the fire, its wards kept it intact in its entirety. There are no signs it was ever opened by force. Quick, ma'am, this way!" "Very well. Let's go." Elisabeth gave him an immediate nod. Her instincts were telling her to follow him, and follow him she did. The settlement had no palace, so it was the path to the temple instead that was dyed vermilion. Painted atop that hue, there was an intricate array of other vibrant colors. It was an illustrated depiction of the demi-humans' history. Her high heels chipped at the paint as her thoughts turned. Deep inside the demi-human Sand Temple, there was a hexagonal sanctuary adorned with gold and jewels. By the sound of it, the temple here had a similar space, though they probably enshrined holy relics there instead of the Sand Queen's corpse. Only a scant few demi-humans would have even known how to open it. The slightest pangs of hope beat in Elisabeth's and the Peace Brigade's chests as they hurried onward. Would there be survivors inside? And even if there were, would they be too scared to function? Elisabeth and the others had no way of knowing. But they hoped all the same. "Looking at this... Is there not a fair chance that those inside were annihilated as well?" The moment they got there, Elisabeth immediately feared the worst. There was a bittersweet smell wafting through the air. Alice had probably gotten bored and given up on destroying the sanctuary, but instead, she had pumped it full of poison. Getting done in by a poison they themselves had developed was an ironic way for the mixed-race people to go. In a way, though, it was also fitting. However, her black-and-white-spotted subordinate shook his head in disagreement. "There's something unnatural about how the lingering fumes are concentrated. They're thinner in the area around the sanctuary, but that's not the way air is supposed to flow. Someone inside must have taken countermeasures against the poison." "Ah, I see. Thank you for bringing it up. I lack the olfactory precision to pick up on such details. Shall we open it, then?" Elisabeth quickened her pace. The sound of their footsteps echoed off what bone pillars remained. There was still no reaction from inside the sanctuaryâ€”and that made Elisabeth and the Peace Brigade let down their guards. A harsh wham split the air. The door to the sanctuary flew open far more violently than it ever would have in peacetime, and someone rushed out like a loosed arrow. He took the object he was holding and thrust it forward. Elisabeth's wolf-headed subordinate suddenly found something hard and metal in his mouth, and the man followed up by sweeping his legs out from under him. The wolfman did a half spin, and the man planted himself squarely on the wolfman's chest. The man's movements were skillful, but more than anything, it was his weapon that impressed Elisabeth. The weapon in question was a rifle. The demi-humans were masters of metalworking, and they had already developed functional firearms. However, there were still a lot of kinks to work out before they could mass-produce them. At the moment, there were only a small number of prototypes out in the world, and they were owned solely by members of the aristocracy. In short, the comfort with which their new acquaintance was handling his rifle meant that he must have been a big deal, even among the high-grade purebloods. Elisabeth took another good look at him. The man was a male demi-human with the head of a lizard, and his slender build, golden eyes, and vermilion scales looked somehow familiar. Could it be? Is heâ€”? "Nobody move!" the man shouted. "Not unless you want this guy to