“Remnants of the rebel forces from Arbalde?” Juan asked.

Nienna rode her horse at high speed on the snowy field. Behind her was the cavalry that was chasing her to try and catch up to her. At a glance, Juan immediately noticed that the number of cavalrymen had nearly halved. One could guess that the other half was carrying out a separate operation.

“Yes. To be precise, they are the remaining villagers—the remaining villagers who remained in the village after the warriors of Arbalde took their forces to attend war… Maybe I should call them survivors instead. Anyway, I was gathering all of them in a single place,” Nienna answered.

“Have you been gathering them for them to be taken to the cavalry?”

“I would have, but the Northeast is too big. There’s too many of them to be gathered into the cavalry. Instead, I made sure to trample on the villagers and deteriorated the climate to create an environment that is impossible for the villagers to survive in. Then they will have no choice but to gather in large groups naturally.”

Juan nodded; he realized that the soldiers’ suspicions about Nienna causing the snow to fall nonstop was correct. It was Nienna’s plan to trample on even the smallest means of survival for the survivors and drive the starved villagers into a single place—it was an operation to exterminate them by the roots.

It was a cruel and ruthless plan, but no one would be surprised; after...