Even though the Emperor had issued an order, it was hard to hunt down everyone who had a connection with the Raizel family in a single day, considering how vast the Empire's main planet was.
All in all, it was just for show. Those who were present within the big cities that were close to the coliseum were the ones who were hunted first. And from there, all of the airfields throughout the whole planet were closed down, preventing anyone from fleeing.
Nonetheless, it wasn't like the Imperial soldiers could immediately pinpoint the location of the people that tried to hunt. As such, the higher-ups created some kind of wall made of soldiers around each city to prevent anyone from leaving and entering the city. After that, they would proceed in searching every corner of each city thoroughly before moving to the other place outside the city.
Moreover, the planet itself was protected by a force field, strong enough to prevent most spaceships from leaving the imperial territory. The fate of the representative of the families, as well as the students, who were affiliated with the Raizel family, were already sealed.
Faced with this unprecedented situation, these people who didn't know anything and were extremely confused about what was happening tried to defend themselves, denying the claim that they were plotting a revolt. Of course, there was no room for discussion. All awaited them was death.
The massacre continued, and these people began to curse Adam under their breath.
*****
"I knew it! I knew it! Didn't I tell you? That guy had already appeared suspicious from the moment I saw him!" Alexander shouted in anger. He was one of the students who were affiliated with the Raizel family and participated in the Holy Academy's test.
"Calm down, Alexander," said Barned, knowing fully that Alexander's reaction was justified. "For now, we need to find a way to get out of this situation together."
"A way out? We are doomed! Don't you see these soldiers! They don't even hesitate to kill children. This is insane!" Alexander added.
As Alexander said, the soldiers were merciless and treated the students who were affiliated with the Raizel family taking part in the test as if they were dangerous criminals.
Barned and his group managed to hide somewhere within the city for the time being, but they couldn't stay there forever.
"I will be the one who will force you to shut up, if you don't shut up, Alexander!" Felicia said sternly, her face not showing any hint of her usual graciousness.
Even Alexander was taken aback by Felicia's sudden change of character. He was still aggravated by the situation by he was also not completely stupid.
His eyes were now, however, fixated on a certain individual that tagged along with them. The reason why he was upset in the first place. Amelia.
All of them remembered clearly the moment Adam arrived with Amelia. As such, it was not hard for them to suspect Amelia to be involved in Adam's plan.
"So, what are we going to do about her?" asked Yoru. "She keeps denying every accusation and claims to be innocent."
As a matter of a fact, Amelia appeared to be shaken, emotionally unstable even. Her body was shaken unnaturally as if she was extremely scared.
"…" Even Barned didn't know what to do with her. "Amelia, we are sorry, but we can't trust you," he said. "As such, I will not take this decision alone."
If they decided to keep Amelia with them, they needed to be wary of the possibility that she might stab them in the back. Nonetheless, it didn't also mean that if they left her to die alone, then something would change.
"Raise your hand if you want to leave Amelia behind," Barned suggested.
Barned and his group's chances of survival weren't high, to begin with, and if added Amelia to the equation, there was no telling what would happen. At least, Barned would be able to lead the other four, as he knew about their strengths and weaknesses. As such, adding an unknown number variable to the equation would just lower, their already low, chance of survival.
However, despite what they said, none of them raised their hand. Even Alexander didn't raise his hand.
"Well, I am surprised. Why didn't raise your hand even though you were complaining?" Yoru remarked, addressing her question to Alexander.
"Tch… Leave me alone," Alexander muttered under his breath.
It seemed like they had the same impression of Amelia. From the look of it, their intuition told them that Amelia wasn't acting.
"It seems like we need to develop a plan from here," Barned said. "How's thing outside, Benjamin?"
Barned and his friend managed to hide inside an unused room at the top of a certain building. It belonged to someone close to Felicia's family, and it was currently being renovated.
However, this also meant that they could only hide momentarily because anyone would certainly search inside this building sooner or later. It was the perfect spot for hiding after all.
"Nothing suspicious, for now," Benjamin reported.
For the time being, the soldiers seemed to have prioritized the encirclement of the city and reduced the escape route little by little.
As such, it was just a matter of time before they finish their search. The soldier used a device to scan people's faces, then identify the person. As such, those who belonged to families related to the Raizel family were now listed as red. Once scanned by this device, no matter what the people who were confirmed to be related to these families said to defend themselves, they would be killed on the spot. The same happened to the people whose identity wasn't registered in the Empire's database.
"I see… From there we need to…" Barned was at a loss for words. No matter from what angle he tried to tackle the problem, there was no issue.
Even if they find a spaceship, they would be taken down before they could even take off. Moreover, the fact that they didn't even have the chance to prove their innocence made things more difficult.
Seeing Barned's reaction, the other member of the group began to feel the direness of the situation.
All of that was because of Adam.
"You really don't know anything?!" Alexander shouted, knowing the futility of his act. He couldn't keep his emotions bottled inside and so he directed or toward Amelia.
In response to Alexander's shouting, Amelia flinched and began to cover her ears, and shook her head repeatedly while sobbing.
"Tch! You are so annoying! All of this is so annoying! Why do I have to end like this!" Alexander begin to feel impatient and irritated, and he was not the same. Everyone else felt the same.
"Come here! Hehehe!"
"No, leave my sister alone!"
Barned gestured for everyone to not move, and as he did, everyone else held their breath. Felicia immediately held Amelia and restrained her while preventing her from talking or making any noise by covering her mouth.
"You will die anyway so why don't we play a little!"
Five soldiers entered the building after chasing after two students. They looked so carefree as they discussed what was happening.
"It's rare for us to have this kind of chance. I didn't expect something like this to happen."
"Yeah. Well, at least we have the opportunity to do things like this. It's exciting."
From the look of it, these soldiers who had never experienced real wars felt that it was so peaceful. As such, they felt excited about the sudden turn of events. They were the same as those who watched the execution of some nobles on the screen. The soldiers could go all out and go on killing sprees.
"Stop!"
The two girls, Rose and Azalea, tried to defend themselves against the soldiers but their struggle made these predators more excited.
One of the soldiers had begun to take off his pants and strode in direction of Azalea and Rose dauntingly.
"Hahaha! Look at him! He is really into this."
"Well, you don't get to taste young girls every day."
His friends looked at the half-naked soldiers with grins on their faces, as if they were the fun of their lives.
"Hey, close the door, man."
"But this place looks quite old. It's rare to find a mansion like this these days."
"Well, it looks like we can use this to have fun during the last few days.
The soldiers commented about how the large mansion had an old design, similar to a western mansion on earth.
They also began to browse through the list of the students who were still hiding somewhere, mostly the girls.
It seemed like they planned to use this place to **** these girls without anyone noticing before disposing of them.
Barned who hide somewhere behind a wall upstairs looked down at the soldiers with a face that expressed his anger.
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