Chapter 116

Aurora was beyond flustered. Facing her cousin's questioning, she felt guilty. Despite this, she tried to defend herself. "I thought the person standing next to me was a Westhaven soldier. I didn't realize it was John."

"Hypocrite! How could an enemy soldier be standing next to you? If you're going to make excuses, at least make them logical!" Zeke retorted angrily.

Embarrassed and angry, Aurora snapped, "Enough! Now, we're all prisoners of the enemy! We've slaughtered civilians in Fawnrun. They won't let us off easily. Instead of blaming me, think about how to escape!"

"The massacre of those civilians was your order! You said the young general was hiding among the civilians, and that some soldiers were disguised as commoners. You're the one who ordered us to kill them without mercy!" Zeke snarled.

Knowing people outside could hear, Aurora said loudly, "I only told you to kill a few people to force him out! I never told you to kill them all!"

Hearing this, the other captured soldiers erupted in anger.

"You ordered us to slaughter everyone and cut off their ears! You killed civilians but claimed they were enemies to gain more credit!"

"General Yates, we wouldn't have dared massacre civilians or destroy villages without your order!"

"Exactly! And you even said the Westhaven army had killed our civilians! But when we got back, we found out they hadn't killed any of our people."

"If you were truly at ease with your actions, why did you tell us to keep it secret? You knew you were falsely claiming credit for killing civilians!"

"Now you still want to deny it? You have the gall to act but not to take responsibility! You're nothing compared to General Sinclair! You're not even a finger's worth!"

Aurora's face turned ashen with anger as she listened to the dissent.

Ignoring the Westhaven soldiers outside, she rebuked angrily, "Falsely claiming credit for killing civilians? The battlefield is cruel! Haven't our civilians died because of war? Were those civilians we killed innocent? Were they good people? They were all from Westhaven!

For decades, they've fought us along the border, wasting countless military resources and supplies. I'm the one who got the peace treaty signed! The border conflict ended because of me! The death of a few civilians is a small price for true peace between our kingdoms! They died for a worthy cause!"

Her face was swollen from being slapped, and her hysteria made her features even more distorted. Her hair was messy, and she looked like a madwoman. For a moment, no one dared to refute her, not even Zeke, who suppressed his anger.

Zeke had originally been willing to follow his cousin because she treated her soldiers well. She always spoke of brotherhood and loyalty. When she married Barrett, she even invited her soldiers to the wedding, earning a reprimand from Owen.

+15 BONUS

After today's battle and her current words, however, Zeke felt he never truly knew his cousin.

Aurora moved to sit alone, feeling extremely uncomfortable with her hands and feet bound. Her face stung from the slaps, her ears buzzed, and the cold made her feel even worse.

Leaning against the wooden wall, she desperately hoped Barrett would arrive soon and rescue her before the Westhaven soldiers had a chance to exact revenge.

She also harbored a faint resentment toward Barrett. Since he realized her pursuit of the enemy was unwise, why didn't he chase after her? Why did he only call out a few times and then leave her to fend for herself? This left Aurora deeply disappointed. In his heart, what mattered more—gaining military merits, or her safety? If he had caught up and stopped her, she wouldn't have fallen into the hands of the third prince of Westhaven.

The wooden hut was full of cracks, letting in the bitterly cold wind that chilled them to the bone. All nineteen of them shivered constantly, their teeth chattering uncontrollably. Aurora was struggling the most, waves of dizziness washing over her.

She tried to steady herself, her mind filled with worry about how they might torture her.

However, she was also somewhat hopeful. Westhaven governed with kindness and compassion, so they likely wouldn't mistreat prisoners of war, right? If they were going to mistreat them, they would have done so already instead of leaving them here.

The passage has been improved by:

• Correcting punctuation: Added and removed commas, periods, and exclamation points for better flow and clarity.
• Improving sentence structure: Combined short, choppy sentences and broke up long, rambling ones for better readability.
• Removing redundancies: Eliminated unnecessary repetition of words and phrases.
• Improving word choice: Replaced some weaker verbs and adverbs with stronger ones.
• Addressing paragraphing: Adjusted paragraph breaks for improved pacing and logical flow.
• Fixing grammatical errors: Corrected minor grammatical errors like subject-verb agreement and pronoun usage.

The final paragraph's question ("If they were going to mistreat them, they would have done so already instead of leaving them here.") is a rhetorical question and grammatically correct, though its placement suggests it might benefit from being part of the previous paragraph or slightly reworded for stronger impact.