Something that is never detailed in history books, is the amount of cleaning that has to be done after a major conflict has been resolved.
There are no glorious stories about bodies being buried.
Nor are there any heroic retellings of rubble and destroyed property being disposed of.
Not even a quaint little anecdote about how less scrupulous individuals would sometime pick through battlefields and scavenge from the dead and the abandoned.
It was dirty work, no doubt about that, but it was necessary.
The funny thing about these type of things though, is that while they’re never remembered and written into story and song, they’re always appreciated by those who had to lived through these moments.
I desperately wish that one day, no more songs or stories of "glorious wars" are written ever again.
-An excerpt from the journal of a veteran turned doctor...more specifically, a man who gave up on the idea of war.
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[Man, why does the maestro get to relax while we do all the work here? It ain’t fair!]
[To be fair, Hurricroak, you and I both know our lord would probably be here helping out if he could. Hell, he’d probably make use of his strength to clear away rubble and ask Logos and Pathos how to use Chaos to heal people,] Nepherage pointed out.
[That or he’d try to make a medic type kaijin to help everyone in a more practical manner,] Archanidame added. [Granted, we do need a medic...]
[There are a lot of kaijin we need to add to the roster...ooooh! I have a fun idea. While we’re doing clean up duty, let’s figure out what kind of Kaijin we want to work with.]
[Sounds fun actually.]
[Dammit, now I need to finish making my core...]
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While the Fallen Clan had failed in wiping the Zhen Clan off the map this day, they did manage to achieve a number of goals that made their lives, and the people they care for, positively miserable in more ways than one.
For starters, while the Fallen Clan’s main target was the Zhen Clan and their disciples, they had caused untold amounts of collateral damage. This was due to multiple Fallen Clan warriors making use of powerful aether arts that had a tendency to cause massive amounts of damage in exchange for low accuracy. After all, they didn’t have to worry about the resulting property damage or injured bystanders...that was the Zhen Clan’s job.
On top of the injuries, the destruction and the deaths though, the Fallen Clan had also destroyed the Willow Scale City’s prison.
The Fallen had done so with the intent of freeing their captured kinsmen, via a trojan horse of sorts, but their actions in the prison had done a bit more than just rescue a few more fighters and elders. Due to the attack, multiple cells on multiple levels were broken, freeing all sorts of convicts and prisoners that had a grudge against the Zhen Clan and society at large.
Many of the prisoners had decided to join up with the Fallen Clan once they were freed, figuring that it was smarter to get out of there and recover any injuries they may have occurred while interred. However, a surprising amount of prisoners had chosen not to go along with the Fallen Clan when they decided to evacuate, opting to instead...get in some early retribution.
But as bad as the rampaging convicts and killers was, the multiple political incidents attached to this moment were almost as bad.
The Fallen had also captured multiple young masters and mistresses from many prominent families, in order to use them as leverage to gain everything from money to rare medicines.
Many of the families that had decided to visit Willow Scale City did so to not only participate in the festivities of the Sapling festival, but to try and forge and alliance with the clan of hero makers. They had all heard how great the Zhen Clan’s reputation was due to all of the stories and living examples of powerful warriors in the Blossoming Scale Kingdom who could trace back their tutelage to the Zhen Clan. But, the fact that this terrorist attack had occured on their watch and had lead to so many deaths and significantly more kidnappings had greatly shaken the Zhen Clan’s reputation.
"Lady Ainvord, oh please, oh please be okay, Lady Ainvord."
{You better not die on me, baby brother...}
Regardless of all of these issues though, the Zhen Clan still did their best to address all of it even if they were spreading themselves thin in order to do so.
This was undoubtedly a time of crisis, a moment where every hand regardless of it’s origin was needed to help resolve the issues at the time.
As such, it was the perfect time for a certain branch clan and their oh-so helpful "puppets" to assist in the relief effort and earn some good will from not only the main clan, but all of the citizens as well.
Everyone appreciated a hero after all.
"Leave the rubble clearing to us!," Zhen Hou shouted as he, Zhen Xi and a certain neon blue frog woman that was looking a bit bear-like was making their way to a collapsed building. "We may not look it, but we learned how to clear out cave-ins back home."
"Oi, pick up the pace!," Zhen Tai called to his cousins, Zhen Xing and Zhen Guo, "otherwise we’ll end up losing out to that crazy dancer puppet of Zhen Liu’s again."
"How’s he able to control it with so much precision and not be visible?"
"Who knows, but we can either get jealous and whine or get jealous and improve ourselves, and I prefer the latter. So move!"
"Attention grieving and/or inconsolable parents! There’s a possibility that we may have rescued your kid before they got captured by the Fallen Clan! Please come over here in an orderly fashion so that they can be reunited without any issue!," Zhen Yue shouted over the crowds of worried people in order to alert them to the existence of their children. As she did that, a certain lacewing-like lady puppet was repeating her message while flying over the crowds of people, essentially acting like a big ole beacon.
All over Willow Scale City, the branch clan members made it a point to assist their main clan brethren with all of the relief efforts as best as best they could.
Did they do it because they knew it was a good way to earn reputation and favor with everyone?
They did it simply because they knew it was the right thing to do...at least that’s what the patriarch said why they should help out in the first place.
But as the branch clan did their thing and helped people to the best of their ability, some of them were dealing with...let’s say...a rather delicate situation...
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"So you got this off a guy who you think was a traitor?"
"Not think, know. I could see the Zhen Clan armor under his robe but I’m not sure how he managed to escape."
A bit after Zhen Hai had fought that unknown traitor, he had left the arena in order to reconvene with his family and tell them about what he had discovered. On the way there though, he had run into one of Zhen Liu’s puppets. More specifically, he had ran into the red jade puppet that he normally used when fighting...Nephewrath?
Nepherage, it was Nepherage.
Either way, Zhen Hai figured that since Zhen Liu and his puppets had a habit of being in the right place at the right time, maybe he could help figure this shit out.
"So...what do you think? Can we use this necklace to track the guy down?"
"Maybe...," Nepherage answered in Zhen Liu’s voice. "But I can detect what appears to be some kind of aether seal on it that’s blocking me from using that to track... there’s not even a scent to work off of. Is there anything else about the guy you can tell me?"
"Not real-wait...there’s one thing we can use...maybe..."