After the Burning

A crisp wind swept across the vast wilderness, stirring dry sand and withered leaves and grass clippings. The irrigation ditches on the abandoned land had run dry after their upstream sources were cut off, while collapsed walls lay in the dirt, more than half covered by yellowing weeds.

An abandoned old windmill stood alone by the roadside. The enormous blades that had fallen from it lay miserably across a half-collapsed red brick wall like severed limbs. Traces of burning and explosive attacks could be seen everywhere around the mill, and a charred sign stood crookedly at the crossroads before it, its blurred lettering barely visible:

"Longtail Forest—Cabrey Town"

A rough, knobby hand brushed over the sign, wiping away a layer of black ash.

Norris looked at the black ash on his hand, rubbed his fingers together, and then turned his gaze toward the abandoned old windmill in the distance.

An autumn wind blew in, carrying cold air into Norris's no-longer-healthy lungs. He could not help bending over and coughing repeatedly.

Several young people accompanying him immediately stepped forward. Someone supported the slightly unsteady Minister of Agriculture. "Minister, are you all right?"

"It's nothing. I'm getting old, and the wind this season isn't very friendly to me," Norris said, waving them off and refusing the support of his subordinates and apprentices. His gaze slowly withdrew from the windmill. "I've heard of this place... They say the most fertile land near Longtail Forest was here..."

"It's all abandoned," a young official said with a sigh. "By the time our forces reached this place, the entire Longtail Forest had already been occupied by the Crystal Legion. Fewer than a hundred survivors were gathered up. To completely eliminate those monsters, the soldiers burned every town after carrying out the bombardment, including the settlements around