The news spread, and the world was shaken.
In this world, war was a common sight. Losing a war and having one's entire family slaughtered was nothing particularly rare. But setting aside victory or defeat, launching large-scale massacres of civilians solely to destroy the enemy's supply lines and crush their will to fight—even razing villages and towns to the ground—was a grave breach of the long-standing "conventions."
Generally speaking, such things mostly happened beyond the main plane, among races using one small world after another as their bases while fighting and killing each other. Only there did such brutal practices exist. Within the main plane, even emotionally indifferent elemental creatures, or evil and hideous demons, would not do such things—because there was no point.
What use was killing people? Was human flesh somehow tastier than other kinds of meat? Even if it were, humans bred in other worlds too. Would anyone really go to such trouble and expense to break into the human world just for one fresh bite?
If anyone did that, even among demons, they would absolutely count as the "sick in the head and in need of treatment" type.
Generally speaking, even evil creatures of the lower planes, demons and the like, would kill humans and take their souls away to replenish their own followers. Killing solely for the sake of killing was truly... rare.
In truth, this was no longer merely a matter of being "rare." It was utterly deranged.
When the news reached the Noble Faction's territory, the great nobles who had discussed the matter with Count Hous were also left dumbfounded. They had thought Count Hous would merely engage in ordinary burning, killing, and plundering. Who would have expected the man to be such a murderous fiend? Wherever the raiding force passed, hardly any