Korrina and the Black Eagles
Chapter 16: Blood of the Innocent
There wasn't much time for the Black Eagle Strike Force to truly celebrate their victory over Claude. The moment they returned to Garreg Mach, Edelgard and Hubert went straight to work on coming up with a strategy to overcome the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus and the Knights of Seiros. Edelgard and Hubert were not at all happy with Korrina's decision to spare Claude behind their backs, but if there was one good thing that came out of Korrina's behavior that day, it was that she was able to gain the approval of both factions of the alliance. Thanks to her, the people and nobles of Leicster now believed that there was at least one high ranking person in the empire that was looking out for them, and so long as that illusion was maintained, the Adestrian Empire would have their full support. Despite this, Edelgard still insisted that control of the alliance be handed to House Bergliez. Korrina was not completely sure about this, as she did not know Caspar's father that well and wanted someone that would not be too hard on the Leicester Alliance in charge of the place. However, Edelgard and Caspar both assured Korrina that Lord Bergliez did not fully support the invasion of Leicester either and has promised to at least take a neutral stance in governing matters over there. That relieved Korrina somewhat, though she still had doubts in her head. More troubling, however, was Hubert's report that Lord Arundel was in Derdriu at that present moment. Without thinking or giving Hubert a chance to explain what specifically Lord Arundel was doing in Derdriu, Korrina ordered, "No. Get Lord Arundel out of that city as soon as possible! The longer we allow that 'man' to do as he pleases, the more we jeopardize our new relationship with the alliance!" Edelgard lowkey felt the same way, but unlike her sister and co-empress, she was not yet ready to make enemies with Arundel. Not until after the Church of Seiros had been properly dealt with. Besides, Hubert insisted that Lord Arundel was only in Derdriu to collect and destroy the alliance's Relics. Nevertheless, Korrina insisted on relaying an order to Lord Bergliez to watch Arundel like a hawk, obtain the relics from Lord Arundel upon completion of his tasks, and ensure that none of the alliance citizens are turned into monsters while he was in the city. In Korrina's mind, failure to do so could sew the seeds of discontent within Leicester and loosen Lord Bergliez's grip on the region. Hubert was visibly disappointed and annoyed with Korrina's lack of faith, but he could tell from the body language of everyone in the room that Korrina's sentiment was a popular one. Thus, Hubert reluctantly passed the order to Lord Bergliez.
From there, the attention of the council turned to how to best deal with the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus. Korrina was quite surprised to hear Hubert's report that the kingdom wasn't completely united behind Dimitri and Rhea, and that defeating House Blaiddyd (Dimitri's House), Rhea, and a few of the key noble houses would be all that would be needed to win. With a hint of skepticism, Edelgard raised an eyebrow and said, "All? Are you sure that our recent string of victories has not gone to your head, Hubert?" Hubert insisted that he was only stated the truth before listing the houses that would need to be crushed: Fraldarius (Felix's house), Galatea, Gautier and Charon. Silvain lowered his head when he heard the name of his house mentioned, as the realization finally hit him that this really was going to end with both of his parents dying. Dorothea picked up on this immediately and asked Silvain what was wrong. Silvain insisted that nothing was wrong, and that he could handle fighting his own house, but there was still an air of uncertainty in his voice (something that attracted a rather foul stare from Hubert). Hubert then struck a rather concerning tone as he suggested using Silvain as a hostage to threaten House Gautier into compliancy, but Silvain insisted that that would not be necessary. Silvain then said that his parents were not going to listen to reason anyway, and that he would be ready to fight when the time comes. After all, even if they were Silvain's parents, the system they propagated still ruined his brother's life and probably the lives of a few others. For that, Silvain would gladly do his part to unseat his own parents. Hubert was still unconvinced, but Edelgard wanted to move onto potential alliances within the kingdom. Her first thought was House Rowe, but it turned out that Felix's dad had cracked down on their territory and put it under his personal control. Thus, allying with House Rowe was impossible and the loss of their territory (a massive fortress city named Arianrhod) put the Adestrian Empire at a severe disadvantage. However, the Adestrian Empire still had one advantage over the Kingdom of Faerghus: their conquest of the Leicester Alliance gave them a much larger amount of land, resources and soldiers to use than their enemies. Thus, Edelgard's initial plan was a 2-pronged assault. Their forces in the Leicester Alliance would cross the eastern border this month and get the invasion going, then the Black Eagle Strike Force would move in from the southern border and finish the Knights of Seiros. Korrina was a bit confused about the window between attacks, to which Edelgard said that it would give the Black Eagle Strike Force more time to rest from their long battle in Derdriu and prepare for the worst.
The next day, Korrina received some expected and unexpected new allies. Towards the beginning of the day, Albein (who was able to reclaim his job as gatekeeper) brought in a rather unattractive man with purple hair cut sideways and a face that seemed to always be in a smirk who was asking to see Korrina and Edelgard. The man then bowed and said, "My name is Lorenz Helman Gloucester. Lord Bergliez had placed me in charge of the invasion of Faerghus, and I have come to express my utmost gratitude." Lorenz then went on to have a somewhat unnecessarily long discussion about his house's long history with Adestria and the reasons for allying with Edelgard from the very beginning. Korrina admittedly stopped paying attention by the third paragraph, but she was glad to have Lorenz on her side. The two had talked a few times back when Lorenz was just a student and Korrina just a professor, but nothing truly stood out to him back then other than him being a proud noble of the alliance. A half hour into Lorenz talking, Ferdinand came to see his old friend. The two were very close back when they were students, and even after all those years, that bond had not weakened. Ferdinand then took Lorenz out for some tea and other noble activities, and the co-empresses finally knew some peace and quiet. As Korrina went shopping for weapons later that day, she met with another familiar face: her old friend Raphael. The man originally went back to being a merchant in hopes of surviving the war, but after he heard about what had happened in Derdriu, he dug out his old gauntlets and decided to help Korrina for the rest of her journey. It was Raphael's way of thanking Korrina for saving Ignatz and Claude from certain death. Out of guilt, Korrina asked, "But what about Leonie? Weren't you two together last time I saw you?" Raphael's expression gradually changed as he said, "We were, but we broke up shortly after the war started. I wanted to become a merchant and ride it out. Leonie was very eager to avenge Jeralt and joined the knighthood. I still remember the last thing I said to her…'I do love you, but if you can't let go of the past, you won't have much of a future!'…Funny how things come true sometimes…right, Korrina?" At this point, Raphael was on the verge of tears. Even if he forgave Korrina for letting Leonie die (not everything can be controlled on the battlefield, after all), it was still apparent that the death of his former love affected the big man. After a bit of thought, Korrina grabbed Raphael's arm and said, "Wanna work out? I remember we used to do it all the time after Jeralt passed away." Although this suggestion didn't make Raphael 100% better, he still gladly accepted the offer. After all, Raphael hadn't seen real combat in 5 years and wanted to ensure he was still in fighting shape when the time came to invade Faerghus. Even Manuela joined in on their training, as she wanted a more productive outlet for her man problems than simply drinking her life away.
Unfortunately, the consequences of Korrina's actions in Derdriu were not all positive. The following week, a report came in of a full-scale invasion from Almyra (the same place Claude was headed towards). Normally, House Goneril would be the one to deal with these threats. However, Hilda was killed by Korrina and her father Holst had fallen ill. Thus, it fell to the Black Eagle Strike Force to pick up the slack and defend their continent from the oncoming Almyrans. The road to House Goneril was a long one, but once the Black Eagle Strike Force saw what awaited them, they started to prefer boring travelling. Everyone knew that the Almyran had brought a large number of troops, but no one was expecting to be outnumbered 2 to 1. Simply guarding the fortress leading into Goneril Territory would not be enough this time. If the Black Eagle Strike Force was to have any chance of surviving, they needed to rely on the old saying "a good offense is the best defense". The only problem with this plan was that their battleground was a mountain range, and the Almyrans still had a large number of dracoknights. However, no one had a better alternative. Petra, Hubert, Lorenz, Silvain, Manuela and Alois took the northern route. Caspar, Lindhardt, Ferdinand, Bernadetta and Hanneman took the southern route. Korrina, Edelgard, Dorothea, Shamir, Raphael and Lysithea took the central route. It seemed at first like Petra's dragon would give the Black Eagle Strike Force a fighting chance in this mountainous area, but the Almyrans came prepared this time. Nearly every Almyran that couldn't fly had a bow on them this time around, and once they saw Petra, they opened fire. Petra was left with no choice but to fall back and let the others clear the way for her. Thankfully, Lorenz was good for more than just talking and seeing to affairs. His unique talent for casting magic while riding a horse allowed him to burn a few Almyrans, then step back before they could retaliate. Those that survived Lorenz were promptly chopped down by Alois's axe, and those who somehow survived all that were rewarded with whatever Hubert had in mind. The southern end was fortunately an area that the Almyrans did not pay much attention to, so the part of the Black Eagle Strike Force that assigned there was easily able to take care of the Almyran warriors there and meet up with the main force. The center route was probably the most dangerous since the Black Eagle Strike Force had to deal with the giant birds living there as well as the Almyrans. Shamir's marksmanship once again proved a vital asset when handling these two forces, and the co-empresses alone were able to dispatch the Almyrans without significant injury. The birds were more of a hassle than the Almyrans due to their high speed and how long it took to die, but once the southern division caught up, the Black Eagle Strike Force was able to outnumber and overpower the birds. Soon after this, though, the Almyran dracoknights started a full force assault. Bernadetta and Shamir were able to thin their numbers somewhat, but it took nearly everyone on the Black Eagle Strike Force to prevent the Almyrans from getting anywhere close to House Goneril. It took everyone who could use magic or a bow to slay all the Almyran dracoknights, but after an hour or two of endless fighting and stress, the Almyrans finally stopped coming. All that remained now was their leader. After taking out the last remaining archers, everyone closed in on the other half of the border. There, a proud warrior named Nader was waiting for them. If it were just Petra again, this could have been a drawn out fight. Instead, Shamir waited on Nader to reveal himself and shot him in the forehead with a single arrow the moment he charged towards the Black Eagle Strike Force. Because Nader was highly revered in Almyra, the remaining forces wasted no time in retreating after they found out he was dead. For the time, Almyra was no longer a threat. Most of the Black Eagle Strike Force stayed the night at House Goneril, but Korrina insisted on heading back and sleeping elsewhere. When asked why, Korrina said it was because she thought negotiations with House Goneril would go a lot smoother if the woman who took their future away was not present at the meeting.
When the Black Eagle Strike Force returned to Garreg Mach, Korrina was already inside her throne room deliberating on whether Hilda's death was justified. Until Korrina came back to the surface, everyone else just went back to their usual activities. It actually took a while for Korrina to figure out that everyone had returned as very few people ever tend to interrupt her while she is on her throne. Korrina tried to find Edelgard so she could ask how the meeting with Holst went, but she wasn't able to find her sister and co-empress in any of the usual spots. Thus, Korrina began combing the entire monastery (or at least whatever parts of it were back in working order) in search of Edelgard. When Korrina finally got into the upper floor of the dorms where they used to live, Korrina heard a frustrated scream that clearly belonged to Edelgard. Korrina then burst through the door shouting "What's wrong, sister!?". Edelgard was extremely flustered to learn that someone heard her and started getting defensive. Edelgard then tried to say that it was just a rat. Korrina was a little bit confused as to why a simple rat would warrant that much screaming, but Edelgard was able to explain that rats gave her flashbacks to her days as an experiment, as her holding cell was filled with them. Korrina accepted this at first, then she found that it was something more. Apparently, Edelgard was trying to paint something, and when she saw the rat, she panicked and spilled paint all over her desk. This was something Korrina had to infer though, as Edelgard pushed her out of her room the moment Korrina started inquiring about it.
The following day, Korrina went to Rhea's former chambers to try and speak with Edelgard again. Korrina still wanted to know what her sister and co-empress was painting, but Edelgard insisted on keeping it a secret. Korrina decided to give it a rest as she felt the matter was too small to provoke her sister over, but she still wanted to discuss the matter of Edelgard's visit with House Goneril. From there, Edelgard relayed the information that House Goneril had now grown to trust the Adestrian Empire and plan on letting them handle the border from now on as House Goneril lost a lot of its power after the attack on Derdriu. Korrina was also relieved to hear that Hilda still had a brother that could carry on House Goneril's legacy and that she didn't have to worry as much about stealing their future away. After that, Edelgard turned her thoughts toward Almyra. Despite what happened a few days ago, Edelgard believed that the Almyrans could eventually be reasoned with as they were not blindly loyal to one individual or doctrine like the Church of Seiros was. Korrina did not agree, as the Almyrans struck her as very ruthless and aggressive whereas the Church of Seiros was at least accommodating before she got on Rhea's bad side. Nevertheless, Edelgard still believed that all they needed to do was look past the fighting and try to find some common ground. Edelgard then began to sigh, and Korrina asked what was wrong. Edelgard responded by saying that she was tired of the nonstop fighting, preparing and discussing. She wanted to take a break from it all, but Hubert would never allow it. Korrina asked if there was anything Edelgard would rather do instead, to which Edelgard answered that she would just eat sweets all day. Korrina then said, "Then let's do just that. We could even bring Lysithea along too. She used to love those things. It will just like old times." Edelgard seemed to like the idea, but as if on cue, Hubert and Petra showed up with more work. It wasn't just busy work either. The Knights of Seiros had entered Petra's homeland of Brigid and taken several hostages in an effort to force Petra's grandfather to switch sides. It was something of an emergency, and since Lorenz and Raphael had returned home to prepare for their invasion of Faerghus, the Black Eagle Strike Force would be shorthanded this time. Despite this, Korrina and Edelgard both decided to move out anyway.
Unfortunately for the Black Eagle Strike Force, the jungles of Brigid were far from an ideal fighting place. There wasn't much room for movement, and the cover was so thick that the enemy could appear from anywhere. Thankfully, this applied to the Knights of Seiros as well. Noone seemed to know that the Black Eagle Strike Force was at Brigid, so for the time, Korrina had the element of surprise. At the start, Petra was mainly going to fly over the jungles and rescue the hostages. However, the Knights of Seiros proved to be much more powerful than they were 5 years ago. It also did not take long for a few to spot the Black Eagle Strike Force and charge in from the west. Korrina met them head on while the rest followed Petra to the southeast in hopes of protecting her. In that direction was some mighty swordsmen, but Lysithea was able to blast them away with her powerful dark magic. Meanwhile, Caspar and Alois helped Korrina take on the cavalry. The initial wave was manageable for the 3, but before long, more and more started coming. Meanwhile, Lysithea's shows of dark magic were beginning to draw the attention of the other swordsmen in the area. Bernadetta was unable to come to Lysithea's aid due to thick jungles being bad for horses, but Hubert was able to pick up the slack and drown the swordsmen in dark magic of his own before they could touch Lysithea. Korrina needed backup on her end, so Ferdinand, Silvain and Lindhardt were sent her way. After a while, it seemed like the reinforcements had stopped and Petra was free to capture the hostages. Then the nightmare truly began. It turned out that Catherine was in charge of the church's little endeavor on Brigid, and all this fighting attracted her attention. New reinforcements came in from every conceivable direction and wasted no time picking off the Black Eagle Strike Force one by one. In a hurry, Korrina used Divine Pulse to try to stop her men from dying and went all the way back to before anybody noticed them. It took a few hours to reconfigure her strategy so that the reinforcements didn't kill everyone, and eventually Korrina decided on concentrating all her forces on the eastern front. This would force the cavalry to chase them into the jungle and lose the terrain advantage, plus the extra numbers would put more pressure on the reinforcements. The idea was different from what Korrina normally did, but it paid off. Now the Black Eagle Strike Force was free to clean out the eastern reinforcements, then wait in the jungle for everyone else to come to them. There were more Pegasus knights in those reinforcements than Korrina would have liked to deal with, and Shamir was unable to properly see them without blowing her cover. However, Alois was able to strike down most of them with a single blow each. The rest were dealt with by Edelgard. With the initial wave down, the Black Eagle Strike Force was now free to concentrate their efforts on Catherine. Dorothea said that she was working on a secret weapon that would turn the tides of battle, but no one was expecting that secret weapon to be a meteor that would deal immense damage to Catherine and take out the troops around her. Because Dorothea had not perfected this technique, however, it fell to the Black Eagle Strike Force to finish the job. They collectively pushed through the remaining mages and generals to reach the weakened Catherine, where Lysithea finished her off in spectacular fashion. This wouldn't be the last the Black Eagle Strike Force saw of Catherine, but for now, the hostages and Petra's grandfather were safe. After a brief exchange in their native tongue, Petra convinced her grandfather that continuing to support the empire was the right idea. While they were waiting for Petra to get done catching up with her grandfather, Korrina couldn't help but notice Bernadetta investigating the plant life. Korrina told Bernadetta, "I didn't know you liked plants, Bernadetta?" Surprisingly, Bernadetta did not panic or get defensive this time. Instead, she started explaining with great excitement her love of plants (especially carnivorous plants). Korrina wasn't as fond of carnivorous plants, but Bernadetta was at least able to give Korrina a different point of view on how they operate. After a few minutes, Korrina smiled and said, "I don't think I've ever seen this side of you before, Bernadetta." Bernadetta explained that that was because plants don't stress her out the way people do. The 2 then reflected on the past and how far Bernadetta had come. Bernadetta actually thanked Korrina for allowing her to start again on life and finally become her own person. Korrina was happy too, and thankfully Petra came back with the news before she could mess it up somehow. After relaying the expected information about her grandfather's support, Petra thanked Korrina for her help and reinstated her dream to elevate her country's position to that of the Adestrian Empire's equal. With that, everyone headed back to Garreg Mach in high spirits.
The rest of the month was mainly spent resting from those two battles. At first, the invasion of Faerghus seemed to be going as planned. Then the reports started getting more and more negative. Apparently, the Knights of Seiros had planned a surprise invasion of Garreg Mach at the same time that the alliance was supposed to start their invasion of Faeerghus. The 2 armies met at the Valley of Torment, and a massive fight started. Also, a smaller force led by Seteth had broken off from the Knights of Seiros and was heading for the monastery as they spoke. They were supposedly attacking from the north, but as Korrina was already made aware of, Garreg Mach had numerous entrances and exits that the public was not fully aware of. Nevertheless, the Black Eagle Strike Force was stationed in the forest to the north while the rest of the knights stationed at Garreg Mach were positioned at every entrance that Edelgard knew of. While everyone was preparing for this surprise attack, Korrina went to Albein's station and insisted on pulling him out of the fight. Albein was confused as to why Korrina wouldn't let him do his job, but Korrina knew that fighting was not Albein's strong suit. If the Knights of Seiros were to go for the front instead, Albein would be killed for sure. Korrina did not want to risk that. Albein was one of the things that kept her going through all this, and she told him so as well. Thus, Albein promised to fall back so he could make her smile again when this was all over. After that, Korrina made it back to her own forces and said, "Here's the plan. Seteth may be our enemy, but throughout the time I have known him, he has almost always been a logical and rational person. Unlike Rhea, Seteth can be reasoned with. If we can kill every man out there but him, we may be able to convince him that his side is destined to lose." Some of the Black Eagle Strike Force (particularly Shamir and Hubert) objected to this strategy as they perceived that Korrina had gone soft on them, but they also knew that Korrina was right about Seteth. The strategy did have a chance of working…so long as Flayn was not on the battlefield too.
When the Knights of Seiros finally arrived at Garreg Mach, Hubert immediately noticed odd behavioral patterns in the knights' movement. Instead of heading straight for the monastery, they were spreading out in the forest instead. Although Edelgard wanted to maintain their defensive position, Korrina was not about to let Seteth achieve what he was set out to do and lead the Black Eagle Strike Force into the forest as well. The small maze of trees and buildings made it difficult to effectively track anyone, so the Black Eagle Strike Force had to spread out and search in groups. The Church of Seiros seemed to have the upper hand due to their Pegasus knights and dracoknights, but since the forest outside Garreg Mach was not as thick as the forest in Brigid, it was significantly easier for Shamir to shoot them all down. There were also some generals, swordsmen among the Knights of Seiros, but they weren't as strong as the ones that the Black Eagle Strike Force had faced in Brigid. Nearly everyone in the Black Eagle Strike Force was now strong enough to take these small fry out in a single blow. However, there were some troubling report of the knights bringing flammable material into the woods. It was now clear that the Knights of Seiros were intending to start a forest fire and use that as a smokescreen to slip into the monastery through another route. The situation had now turned dire as the Black Eagle Strike Force began to frantically search for the Knights of Seiros, intentionally springing traps in order to reveal as many enemies as possible. Eventually, the Black Eagle Strike Force was able to find the warriors, snipers, and bishops transporting the flammable material and kill them before any true fires could start. Silvain and Caspar were the main forces responsible for preventing the forest fires from breaking out, as Silvain's mobility allowed him to find the specific knights carrying the flammable material while Caspar was strong and fast enough to take them out before they could even process what happened. With their plan thwarted, the Knights of Seiros seemed destined to lose now. However, even though the Black Eagle Strike Force was projected to win, they still had one last unpleasant obstacle to overcome.
Flayn had prepared an ambush right where Bernadetta and Ferdinand were searching, and neither side knew she was participating in this battle. They both tried to talk down Flayn, but she wasn't hearing it. Instead, Flayn responded by enveloping Ferdinand in a column of light magic. Bernadetta then fired a few non-lethal arrows at Flayn in an effort to scare her off, but that didn't work either. It looked like Flayn was about to use some more light magic, but Ferdinand recovered from his initial attack and started fighting back. Since Flayn wasn't going to stand down, Ferdinand would fight her for real. Before Flayn could finish her next spell, Ferdinand ran her through with a spear. He didn't intend to kill her with that stab (or at all), but in the end, Ferdinand's strength was too great and Flayn too frail. Flayn struggled to gain enough strength to apologize to Seteth for dying before him, then passed away in an instant. Ferdinand realized what he did, and tried to revive Flayn multiple times. However, Ferdinand's efforts were in vain. Seteth also realized what had just transpired, and he too was reduced to a screaming, sobbing mess. Realizing that diplomacy was now off the table and that one of her men had just done something unforgiveable, Korrina approached Seteth in an effort to put him out of his misery. After all, the only thing crueler than killing Flayn in Korrina's mind was forcing Seteth to live without her. Korrina walked up to Seteth (who was still waiting on the other side of the forest) and said, "I'm sorry for what I'm about to do to you. If you were the archbishop instead of Rhea, none of this would-" Before Korrina could finish her sentence, however, Seteth's heart filled with anger and he attacked her mid-sentence. No longer thinking straight, Seteth said with growing anger, "Spare me your patronage, heretic! Turning your sword against Archbishop Rhea is one thing, but killing my daughter-after everything you did for her-is another thing entirely! What did she do to you, Korrina!? What did any of us do to deserve such cruelty!? Why did you even bother saving my daughter if you were just going to kill her later?" Korrina desperately wanted to explain that she didn't even know Flayn was on the battlefield, but it was obvious that Seteth would no longer listen to a word she had to say. The only thing that Korrina could do for her for her former superior was reunite him with his daughter as soon as possible. Although Seteth's attacks were powerful, he was too blinded by rage to really hit Korrina with any of them. All Korrina had to do was jump to the side while Seteth charged then use the Sword of the Creator to cut Seteth across the back before he could turn around. It was a difficult task since Seteth's dragon still had enough sense to keep facing Korrina at all times, but eventually, Korrina got a lucky shot in and ripped Seteth's back wide open. Seteth fell off his dragon in defeat, pitifully murmuring his daughter's name before the life faded from his eyes. Korrina stared at her old superior with heartbroken emptiness, knowing that at least 2 good people died that day due to her overconfidence and inability to consider every possibility. As Korrina assembled the Black Eagle Strike Force, she was disgusted by the fact that the only thing they would talk about was how close the battle was. Neither Seteth nor Flayn's names came out of their mouths at all. Perhaps it was because they had grown numb to death at this point, or perhaps they were intentionally avoiding that conversation out of guilt. Either way, the dissonance only further soured Korrina's mood. Unprovoked, Korrina said, "Caspar, Alois, take Seteth and Flayn and bury their bodies in the cemetery at Garreg Mach. I'd take them to where Seteth's wife was buried if that option was available, but that place is behind enemy lines and extremely far away from here, so we'll just have to settle for the cemetery here. At the very least, Seteth and Flayn deserve a proper burial." The shocked expressions on her subordinates' faces made it clear to Korrina that many of them were also unaware of Flayn's participation or death in this battle. Korrina then said, "Now listen here: just because Rhea is corrupt and unstable doesn't mean that every person that follows her is just as much of a monster. Some of the people you faced here were innocent of Rhea's crimes, but you killed them all the same. If you have to kill an innocent bystander to win, then that is no victory at all. Remember that the next time you go around killing little girls." Ferdinand realized what Korrina was talking about and tried to explain the situation to her, but in doing so, he outed himself as Flayn's killer and dragged House Aegir's name back into disgrace. Korrina immediately pointed at him with a level of wrath no one had seen since she had ordered the attack on Solon, flared her God Ki and shouted, "So you're the one behind this atrocity! You, the very man who prides himself on being noble and setting a good example, killing a child! If a word existed to express how disappointed I am in you right now, I would use it right now! Have you no shame in not just striking down someone we saved in the past, but a child at that? I have passed judgement: from this moment on, you are no longer Ferdinand, Hero of Remire! From this day forward until the day you perish, you shall forever be known as Ferdinand von Childkiller! May the world forever know what you did this day, and weep!" Korrina then turned her back on the Black Eagle Strike force and angrily headed back to her throne room without another word. She never bothered to wash Seteth's blood off of her. For the next few days, people at Garreg Mach would often swear that they heard Rhea cursing Korrina's name in rightful fury for taking Seteth and Flayn's lives.