"Gasoline was poured in a ring around the city," the Leader of Daegu explained as he walked beside Nathan. Seungmin stood a few metres back, jotting down everything he saw on a paper as well as sketching the area.

Nathaniel, much like everyone else in the reminents of Pohang, wore a black hanbok with his long, ebony hair tied up into a bun. He had a short beard and moustache paired with his striking emerald eyes and pink lips.

With his hands behind his back, he scanned the town with his eyes in horror. Pillars protruded out of the ground covered in soot and ash, showcasing the frames of what used to be a home. Scattered were the bodies of the townspeople, burnt and distorted as they lay on pathways or in their houses or a few metres away from the town. No one dared to touch them. Not yet.

Closing his eyes, Nathaniel could still hear it from the last time he visited half a year ago. Children squeeled in joy as they played along the streets and threw flowers in front of him, forming an aisle. The towns men and women lined the pathway, playing instruments and singing. Some even held steel pots and plastic containers of food and stuffed them in his face. And the teenagers danced to the songs sung, dressing Nathaniel with flower crowns and sprinkling petals over his head.

He recalled one in particular: Shin Yuna. She had taken his horse off him and let it to a nearby stream to get water and feed it while he was feasting with the Leader and officials of Pohang. When he had finished, he found a flower necklace wrapped around his horse's neck and the girl braiding more flowers into its mane.

She had blonde hair and red lips which formed the brightest smile Nathan had seen in a while. He remembered her for her cute act but saying her beauty also didn't play a part would be false.

Now, he couldn't even bring himself to glance at the bodies, too afraid he'll see that unforgettable smile, or worse, he'd see a frown on her face... That's if the fire didn't disfigured it enough.

"Jugs of gasoline were thrown over the mountain over there," the Leader of Daegu continued, pointing at a mountain at least a kilometre away. "Our men have been searching this area since that night and we found blood up there. The Leader of Pohang wasn't killed by the fire. Someone pulled him out of the town and killed him up there."

"How certain are you that it was his blood?" Nathan questioned.

"Upon our entrance into the city, we found his head impaled into a pole by the ruins of the watchtower. Everyone else had been burnt to death but him? Only his body was burnt. And that was found right at the edge of the town, as though someone had thrown it in."

Nathaniel furrowed his eyebrows, hand stroking his beard thoughtfully.

"Who would do this? Any evidence or strange findings I need to know about?"

"There are a few. Whoever did this was very careful with their actions. But of course, there can never be a murder scene without a fault. As little as it is." The Leader of Daegu gave him a bitter smile. "It was difficult at first but we dug, searched and salvaged everything we could. Unfortunately, we found out who was behind this. The biggest clue was found with the jugs of gasoline."

He clapped his hands and immediately a boy no older than twenty ran toward him holding a red cloth. The Leader of Daegu took it from him and sent him off.

At this point, Seungmin approached them to see what was hidden in the red cloth. Everyone else was busying themselves trying to salvage all they could or count the number of bodies.

The Leader of Daegu sighed as he handed the cloth to Nathaniel with a bow. Nathan glanced at it in confusion before finally grabbing it. His hands were gentle as ever as he carefully unfolded the cloth.

It took all his energy not to drop the object as soon as he saw it and with trembling hands, he instantly past it to Seungmin who seemed rather pale and on the verge of fainting.

Rubbing his hands over his face, Nathan sighed.

"I had no doubts it was them," he explained, face contorted into a bitter expression. "I just had my hopes that I wasn't... I guess the ancestors aren't always in our favour, huh?"

"Our armies are still strong. We still have the Pohang army and ours and Busan's and we have you Guardians. We can still win this."

Nathan raised an eyebrow, "can we? The Royal Army are no idiots. They knew what they were doing. That one piece of evidence... That one sword... It was no mistake. They want us to know it was them. They want us to fight. And why else would you want to fight other than knowing you can beat a collection of armies no matter what they throw at you?" Nathaniel glanced at the sword once more which was back in the Leader of Daegu's hands after Seungmin was unable to keep himself standing anymore. "They want to put an end to this prolonged war once and for all. They want to kill off all the Guardians and their allies. Pohang was their first target. And I swear to you now, it will not be their last."