Under the direct command of the imperial commanders, every house, inn, tavern, and eatery they passed was searched with meticulous scrutiny. Not a single building escaped their sight.
The morning atmosphere, which should have been colored by the bustling activity of trade, was now replaced by a gripping tension. The city's residents were forced out of their buildings and gathered on the streets, watched over by lines of fully armed soldiers.
From where he stood, the commander of Platoon Five swept his gaze over the crowd gathered in a shopping district street. Through the silver necklace he wore, the world around him was filled with glowing auras. The vast majority of the terrified civilians radiated a blue aura.
However, the commander's eyes locked onto a few anomalous points.
"Execute the man in the blue shirt standing near the fruit stand!" the commander ordered in an ice-cold tone, pointing at a middle-aged man who was trying to hide his face behind the crowd.
Three imperial soldiers immediately broke rank. They walked swiftly, parting the crowd of citizens who instantly shrank back in terror, clearing a path straight to the designated target.
The man in the blue shirt realized he was the target. Panic was clearly painted across his face. He had barely turned to flee, but the movements of the elite imperial soldiers were far faster than his.
Slash!
Without any questions, without an interrogation, let alone a reading of charges, one of the three soldiers immediately swung his sword. The metal blade cleaved through the man's neck.
The man collapsed to the ground, dead instantly.
Screams of horror erupted from the crowd. Yet, the soldiers did not stop there.
Following further hand signals from their commander, several other soldiers moved out. Three other citizens, who from the outside looked like ordinary merchants, were executed on the spot in the exact same manner.
Their bodies lay sprawled across the cobblestone street.
The sudden and merciless serial killings carried out by the imperial forces instantly triggered a wave of extreme panic.
Chaos was inevitable. The city residents, completely in the dark, felt that this military action was an act of unprovoked brutality and cruelty.
In the midst of the chaos, a woman shoved her way through the crowd. She threw herself beside the body of the man in the blue shirt who had been executed first.
She broke into hysterical sobs.
"What did you do to my husband?!" the woman screamed hysterically. She lifted her tear-streaked face, glaring sharply at the commander of Platoon Five standing not far from her. "What did he do wrong that you had to kill him so viciously?!"
The squad commander did not answer immediately. Instead of responding to her hysterical screams, he gave a signal to his other subordinates to proceed with their next target.
Receiving the signal, two soldiers lunged forward and apprehended a young man who was trying to crawl away from the crowd. The man was dragged out and forced to his knees in the middle of the street, not far from the commander's position.
Once the target was secured, the commander slowly walked over to the woman who was still weeping over her husband's death.
He stopped right in front of her, unclasped the silver necklace from his own neck, and held it out to her.
"Wear this necklace and channel a little of your mana into it!" the commander ordered in a flat tone.
"What did you say?!" she snapped, her voice trembling with anger and grief. "After you killed my husband for no reason, you're asking me to put on that necklace?! Are you mocking me, you murderer?!"
"Just put the necklace on!" the commander insisted firmly. "After you do as I command, look at the man my subordinates just caught over there, and report what you see on his body!"
Despite her heart overflowing with sorrow, anger, and despair, the pressure of the commander's aura left her too afraid to refuse any further. With trembling hands, she accepted the silver necklace and draped it around her neck.
Once the necklace was on, she took a deep breath and tried to channel a small amount of her mana into it.
In the next second, her visual perception shifted. She gasped. Everyone around her was now radiating various colored auras.
She saw a sea of blue enveloping the people caught in her line of sight. However, when she turned toward the young man kneeling at the swordpoints of the two soldiers, she saw something different.
The man's aura was colored black.
"That young man has a black aura." she said softly, reporting what she saw in a bewildered tone. She looked up at the commander. "Why is his aura different from the others?"
"A blue aura indicates that the person holds absolute loyalty to the empire." the commander answered, raising his voice so it could be heard by the entire crowd that had been watching their interaction. "A yellow aura signifies that the person is an infiltrated spy. And a black aura... signifies that they are traitors to the empire."
The commander looked down, his gaze piercing straight into the woman's eyes.
"And your husband... He had a black aura!" he stated without hesitation.
Hearing this explanation, the woman's confusion was instantly replaced by a boiling rage. She felt her husband was being framed.
"What did you say?! Black?!" she yelled, standing up to challenge the commander. "My husband was not a traitor to the empire! Don't make up stories! He had no army, no weapons! How could he possibly launch a rebellion like that?!"
"Is that so?" the commander retorted, equally resolute. "Treason against the empire does not always take the form of an armed rebellion."
The commander's eyes narrowed. He looked around, ensuring all the citizens present were listening to his explanation.
"Corruption, accepting bribes, abusing power, up to kidnapping and trading the people of the empire as slaves... all of these are also forms of high treason against the Erthland Empire!"
The commander's last sentence brought an immediate silence over the crowd. The word 'slave' acted like a magic spell that silenced the entire street. Yet, it did not stop the woman's protests.
"But why did you just kill him like that?!" the woman demanded, her tears falling once more. "Couldn't everything be processed through the law if he was actually proven guilty? You're acting like wild executioners! This isn't fair to our family!"
Hearing this demand for justice, the commander did not stay passive. His right hand moved in a flash. He drew his sword and pointed the sharp tip of the blade squarely at the woman's neck.
The crowd of citizens froze in tense panic.
"Not fair, you say?" the commander reproached, his voice now incredibly heavy and oppressive. "When innocent people were kidnapped and forcibly separated from their families to be sold as slaves for wealth, did your husband and his accomplices ever think about the feelings of their victims? Where was the justice when the victims' families searched high and low without any closure, while your husband enjoyed the profits of human trafficking at your dining table?"
The cold blade resting near her jugular, combined with a sharp argument that pierced straight to her core, instantly rendered the woman speechless. Cold sweat began to bead on her face. Her mouth hung slightly open, but there was not a single word of defense left for her to utter.
Seeing that the woman before him had grasped reality, the commander slowly lowered his sword and sheathed it once more to defuse the extreme tension.
He then looked directly at the hundreds of Gias City residents gathered in the street.
"Let it be known to all of you!" the commander shouted, loud and clear. "We are here under the absolute order of Her Majesty the Emperor to execute the entire slave-trading syndicate network that has been hiding in this city! We are doing this so that everyone living within the empire's borders can live in peace and tranquility!"
The commander pointed toward the corpses scattered in the street.
"No matter who you are, no matter what family you come from, man or woman, child or adult, noble or commoner, if we see your aura colored yellow or black, you will be executed on the spot! There is no mercy for the traitors who have made the people of the empire suffer!"
The ultimatum voiced by the elite squad commander echoed along the streets of Gias City.
Now, the veil of confusion had been lifted. The people living in Gias City finally understood the true reason behind the martial law enacted by the imperial forces this morning.
For those who had always lived in anxiety, for the families of kidnapping victims whose cases were never fully investigated by the city authorities, and for those who simply wanted to live free from the terrifying shadow of the syndicate, this announcement was a liberation.
A moment after silence blanketed the street, cheers slowly began to ring out.
Voices of support, fully endorsing the decisive actions taken by the imperial army, echoed through the air.
However, for anyone involved in the slave-trading syndicate, this city had turned into a hell with no way out. The absolute execution by the imperial forces was now marching straight for them.