Chapter 39: Scholar – Part 3
We go to the main road that crosses the town and with our dinghy we stop near the top of a house. Hana floats beside us with Roxanne in her arms, who has her bat wings out, Alissa turned into a small fox and stole Lina's place in my lap so she and Ciel hug my arms tight. Gify rests on top of Alissa's head and Aoi curls on my neck, giving
an occasional lick on my cheek until I flicker her forehead. The golems are on the prow of the dinghy, standing still, their lifeless eyes stare down the street.
The skies are filled with the flying races and those like us who have a [Fly] vehicle. The streets below us are filled to the brim with people and surprisingly the guards don't have to work hard to keep the middle of the street open. There's also an incredible number of nature spirits, it almost feels like we are in a plushie store with all the cute spirits standing still and looking at the street.
Before we see them we hear them, a true marching band is coming.
The first thing we see is the line of priests casting spells repeatedly, [Materialization]. Ghostly figures of people appear behind them, so are completely normal, others look disfigured, plenty look fragile and sick.
The spirits move around searching for their loved ones, so of the living receive them with tears but most with happiness.
Plenty of people move forward, urns with ashes in hand, out of half of these urns spirits co out. The living show bitter smiles when no spirit cos out, it ans the spirit decided to move on with the cycle.
It makes for an impressive ethereal sight with the transparent and ghostly figures all around the street.
"You think Hilde would be here?" I ask Lina.
"No," she says a little sad, "she died too far away and I don't think that she's the kind that would wait if paradise is waiting for her."
Ciel leans over and talks, "Do you still think about her?"
"No... not anymore, I don't want to beco like Logan, stuck in the past."
"Do you feel sad when we talk about her?"
"No, well a little. But I'm fine, I made my peace with that, now I can control my fate."
Roxanne is looking at us, her lips puckered into a thinking expression.
"Do you know what death is, Ted?" I ask.
Both golems turn to us in sync.
"Yes, it, is, cea-sing, func-tions," he answers.
"You don't fear death, right?"
Both golems shake their heads.
"Death, part, of, life, e-ven, us," Suzy says.
After the priests cos the skeletons, I'm not sure if they are being moved by [Telekinesis] or Necromancy. The skeletons dance like clowns, they spin, twirl, jump, walk on their hands and on four feet, they wear colorful wigs and there's makeup on the bones of their faces. In the middle of the skeletons a line of them spreads confetti and flower petals.
After the skeletons co people wearing skeleton suits, wearing similar wigs and makeup. They carry instrunts and march on, constantly playing the song.
It's a way to celebrate death as just another part of life, show the dead and how it's not so scary and people will be more motivated to life on, even on bleak tis. This is what made people survive the Age of Oepression.
After them cos the actors stands. In raised platform actors retell the life stories of people without words. A commoner that becos a miner and brings tal to town; a kid that grows into a blacksmith and process the ore into a sword; the farr that brings food into town to feed the workers; a guard that gains levels and buys a new sword; a cook that feeds every guard after a hard day's work; a veteran guard that trains the new generation; the young one's fight with a monster leads to their deaths; an adventurer that finds the sword and moves on; his delve into a dungeon that ends with their deaths; the new generation of people who grow and delve again into the dungeon, going further than before; the priest that joins the group and keeps them alive; the sa sword is found and used to break the dungeon's core; a new noble family is born, they find a wild place to settle and start a new mine, bringing in more commoners and keeping them safe. With every death an actor dressed as a spirit starts to follow the living until the cycle starts again and they go away, their purpose in life fulfilled.
"The Wish is complete and the cycle continues. Progress cos, inch by inch," says a priest coming after the procession.
Hana tires out and lands on the dinghy midway through. Alissa also turns back into humanoid and hugs
by the neck.
The procession continues towards the Coliseum to open up the yearly martial arts contest. What better way to get motivated to fight than literally seeing your dead ancestors co back to observe you?
We go back ho after seeing that, we don't have tickets for the Coliseum this ti.
"Did any of you et your dead ancestors before?" I ask.
Hana smiles nostalgically and says, "I t my grandparents from my father's side. They were quite happy with how we were growing last ti we t but it was two years ago. If they are still in this realm then they wouldn't be very happy with how things went."
"Mine lasted long enough for
to et them once, when they saw
and Allura were both healthy they left the realm," Alissa says. "They were very sweet, I wished I could have t them when they were alive."
"Mine are still alive, but even then we barely talk," Roxanne says.
"Why is that?" Ciel asks.
Roxanne sighs and adjusts her glasses, then she speaks, "Mom never got along with our grandparents. When my parents found the treasure they cut ties with them."
"Wow, that's unfortunate," I say.
Aoi swims towards us and crawls up on Roxanne, she curls on her neck and licks Roxanne's cheek repeatedly.
"Thank you," Roxanne says with a chuckle.
"What about on your father's side?" Ciel asks.
"He's an orphan, marrying Mom was the best thing that happened in his life," she answers and sighs again. "And that's what made grandmother mad, he was just an average but pretty-looking mage. She even called Dad a coward when he left the town guard."
"So you inherited his magical powers?" I ask.
"And part of his face, the rest of my beauty is all Mom's," she says with a hint of pride.
After a pause I look at Lina, "What about you?" I ask.
"I saw my great-grandparents a few tis, since we live on the sa place for a long ti the spirits feel comfortable lingering for long," she answers.
"Did you ever ask how things were? How things changed since their ti?"
"I didn't have to ask, they keep saying how things are 'just how we rember'," she says imitating an elderly voice with a shy smile.
This is more evidence to
that the world was "stagnated
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