Chapter 59 When The Heat Haze Shimmers
*Crackle, crackle.*
I could hear the sparks and the smell of smoke.
All I saw in front of me was red and black.
Fire and blood. There was nothing alive left.
That was the only truth, the harsh reality I faced.
'Everyone... is gone.'
Since ancient times, people say that the souls of the dead rise to the sky.
So, do the lives of everyone who died go there too?
The girl looked up at the black smoke connecting the ruins of her former home to the sky.
'I won't forgive you.'
I glared with "eyes of hatred."
No, that black wasn't the souls of everyone who fell.
'Beast...!'
It was the echoes of those I had defeated.
Proof that the inhuman creatures were disappearing.
There were even kids who had just turned 7. Some had just learned to sew. There were even those who had their first crush before me.
Cruelly, they took everything away.
'I will kill you. For everyone, for my teacher (director). Not a single one will be left, I swear!'
So this isn't a prayer for the dead.
I wouldn't hesitate to walk through hell just to wipe you all out.
It was a red vow aimed at the very existence of the beast.
* * *
Waking up to the smell of burnt things was the worst.
"...Ugh. Where am I?"
An owl's hoot slipped into my foggy mind. What had I been doing until now?
I searched my blurry memories. But I didn't need to look hard; the answer was right in front of me.
"Ruins...! That's right, I remember...!"
In front of me were the burnt ruins. The scene was so terrible it should be called a wasteland, and memories flooded back like a flashback.
I had followed the source of the trouble in Korghi Village and ended up here.
I had buried many little beasts and finally faced the main beast.
"...Impossible. Me, being defeated by a beast... how embarrassing...!"
I had foolishly fallen into the beast's trap. And worse, I was made to believe that the hated beast was someone I should call a teacher (director).
I felt sick with shame.
But then I realized.
I had become an ally of the beast by falling into its trap. So who freed me from that? Who defeated the source of all this?
There was only one person.
"Ah... Hiiro. Where is Hiiro!?"
"Don't shout. Turn around and look."
"Huh. You are the gravekeeper...!"
I turned around to see someone I recognized. The gravekeeper, Eigun. Why was he here?
But my questions vanished when I looked at his feet. There lay Hiiro, badly burned and covered in soot.
"W-Why? Why are you in such a terrible state!?"
"I don't know. When I caught up with you, this is how it was. But even in this condition, he came out carrying you from the burning orphanage."
"He carried me?"
"Yes. He was determined, you could say it was his obsession."
"..."
I couldn't be sure from my hazy memories.
It seemed that Hiiro had defeated that beast and carried me out of the ruins while I was unconscious.
But the burns he had were clearly serious, too serious for a man to bear.
(...A ring? Did he have something like this?)
Maybe because I was carefully looking over Hiiro due to his serious condition, I suddenly noticed the "black iron ring" on his right ring finger. I didn't remember him wearing such a ring.
I was curious. But more than that, feelings of regret and worry for Hiiro took over, and I quickly pushed the thought of the ring out of my mind.
"Don't force him to move. I've applied a healing potion to his burns. Until the medicine takes effect, we need to keep him calm. If we do that, he should heal without any scars."
"Huh...? You mean, with burns like this, he won't have any scars? That's not just a healing potion, that's a top-class secret medicine! Why does the gravekeeper have something like that?"
"It's from a long-ago connection. A special item I got from a grumpy guy named Murdoch. I brought it just in case, and it seems my old instincts were right."
"...Who are you?"
A healing potion that looks like it could save Hiiro, even without leaving any scars from his burns. If it's real, it's not just an ordinary item.
Even a rich noble wouldn't have something like this in their treasure room, yet a gravekeeper from a small village has it.
It's natural to feel suspicious, especially considering it might save Hiiro.
"I'm just a gravekeeper, as you can see. I used to be called the village head of Korghi."
"You used to be... so who's the village head now?"
"Hauchi. She's my daughter."
"!"
Shura is left speechless by Eigun's calm answer.
It's no surprise he can't understand. Why did a man who used to be the village head become a gravekeeper? And Hauchi, the current village head, is his daughter. The confusing pieces of information leave Shura puzzled.
But Eigun turns his back on Shura without a second thought and heads toward the burned ruins, squatting down.
"What are you doing?"
"I told you I'm a gravekeeper. I'm building a grave as part of my duty."
"A grave...?"
"It could be seen as atonement. I stepped down from being the village head to take on this role, and I haven't faced it until now. It's pretty pathetic. But now, 'I can finally mourn for everyone'."
"What do you mean...?"
His words are hard to understand. As if talking to himself, Eigun plants a thick wooden post in front of the ruins and ties more pieces together.
What he builds looks just like the gravestones in the collective graveyard where he first met Shura.
"It's now a wasteland, but you must have seen that there were many burn marks here before, right?"
"That's..."
Not just me, but Hiiro also noticed the lingering scent of this place.
It was quickly forgotten due to the fear of the unknown beast. But in the back of her mind, Shura keeps feeling something strange, and the gravekeeper seems to be trying to figure it out.
"When I could still call myself the village head of Korghi, this orphanage burned down once. Many children lost their lives."
*Crackle, crackle.*
In the old man's voice, filled with regret, there were sparks of memories from the past.
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