🏰 Location: Capital city "Rasoma" – The abandoned royal palace
Time: One day after the fall of the kingdom
Vaan stepped into the throne room once ruled by Tai-Zu,
and sat upon the cold grey stone — the throne gilded with stolen gold and forgotten blood.
Seth stood beside him. Behind, silently trembling, stood Nereen — her expression frozen.
Then Vaan spoke, his voice hollow — not with rage, but with a verdict:
"By imperial decree...
Every soul in this kingdom —
Man, woman, child —
Is to be exterminated."
The hall fell silent.
Even the wind seemed to halt.
One commander stepped forward, stammering:
"Your Majesty… even the children?"
Vaan didn't turn his head. His voice cut like iron:
"Yes.
Even those who haven't yet learned to hate…
They are seeds of tomorrow's hell."
Seth moved carefully, speaking low:
"Your Majesty… I understand your grief. But if we do this, history will curse us."
For the first time, Vaan turned to him — his voice a quiet mountain:
"When they whipped Nereen while she was pregnant…
No one was writing history.
When they threatened to send me my son in a coffin…
No paper had a voice."
He then turned to his guards:
"Start with the palace.
And don't stop until the last home is ashes."
---
It wasn't war.
It was erasure.
The fires began in the noble quarters…
Then to markets, to farms, to the outlying villages.
Soldiers obeyed in silence.
Even those who wept — not one dared disobey.
Cries of women, children, even the elderly —
lost within the blaze.
Nereen walked alone through the streets.
Among the bodies.
She did not speak.
She did not cry.
She did not resist.
She had become one with the silence.
And at midnight, as the earth still burned,
Vaan sat alone atop the tallest tower —
sword in hand, sleeping child in his arms.
To the quiet wind, he whispered:
"This wasn't revenge for Nereen…
It was revenge… for me."
---
The next day, in a hidden notebook, Seth wrote:
"Today… I saw the Vaan I once knew… die.
And in his place… rose an emperor who knows no hesitation.
And no forgiveness."