Chapter 102: Two Graves

Kai woke up beside a body that no longer felt like a person.

That was how he knew before he fully opened his eyes. The warmth was gone. The small responses were gone. The hand near his no longer held even the weakest tension of sleep. What remained was still, heavy, and emptied of the quiet resistance living bodies kept even at rest. Gorran’s face was calm, mouth slightly closed, the lines of age fixed in place with no movement left behind them.

Kai sat up slowly.

"Gorran?"

No answer.

He already knew, it sat on his mind immediately.

The System confirmed it without delay.

[Death confirmed.]

[Subject: Gorran of House Valerius]

[Cause: natural decline during sleep]

[Age: 89]

[Status: peaceful death]

[Host personal loss count updated: 2]

Two.

The number pulled Dexter up from memory at once. The fox thief, The man who had died saving him. The grave Kai had never been able to stand over properly because the world had kept moving too fast after Voltra. Looking at Gorran now, Kai made the decision without needing a long internal debate. If he was going to bury one, he would mark both.

A joint farewell. Even if only one body was here.

The door opened a moment later. Duke stepped in with a morning tea tray, already dressed for work, posture correct and face neutral. He took one look at the bed and stopped. The understanding hit him immediately. He set the tray down carefully and bowed his head.

"I am so sorry, young master."

Kai kept his eyes on Gorran.

"It’s fine."

Duke remained still for a second longer.

"Shall we hold a funeral for him?"

"Yes. Let’s prepare."

"I will dig a grave and go get flowers from the market."

Kai shook his head and stood.

"No. You dig the grave. I will go get the flowers."

Duke looked at him carefully.

"Are you sure, young master?"

"I am certain."

"As you wish."

Duke left at once to begin the work.

Kai remained in the room long enough to straighten Gorran’s body properly, adjust the blanket, and settle his hands into a clean resting position. Then he reached into the Ring of Infinite Storage and brought out his cloak for the first time in a long while. This was still the capital. People still talked. His face still caused problems. He put the cloak on, pulled the hood forward, and left the house before the morning could grow more public.

The capital had not changed much.

The same dense streets. The same market noise. The same mix of carriages, vendors, and early crowds. Kai moved through it with his head down and found a flower shop on a side lane with open buckets and cut stems arranged under a canvas shade. The sight of the place briefly made him think of Lucien, then he pushed the thought aside and stepped in.

The seller was a handsome black-haired man with bronze skin, standing shirtless under an apron that covered his chest and abs. He smiled when he noticed a customer.

"Welcome, sir. What kind of flowers do you need?"

Kai kept his hood low and sighed.

"Give me flowers for a funeral."

Kai was straightforward with it, the need for pleasantries was not exactly in his radar now.

The seller’s bright expression dimmed at once.

"Oh."

"Yeah."

The man moved to the display and began bringing out bouquets with extreme care, every thing he did, he did at a moderate pace as if the news had just detonated his cheerful glee. Kai instantly felt bad, somewhat by the way.

"For funerals we have red lilies, which signify honor carried to the end. We also have ashvein blossoms, used when the dead kept a household standing through hard years. There are white solmere blooms for peaceful parting, and duskthorn sprigs for those whose names should not be forgotten after the ground closes."

The convinence of it all was too good to be true, The developers must be having a field day with him every time. Kai thought briefly.

Kai listened and then turned inward.

Which ones.

[Recommendation: ashvein blossoms for Gorran, duskthorn sprigs for Dexter.]

[Both are appropriate to Host’s intent.]

Kai nodded once under the hood.

"I will take the ashvein and the duskthorn. Two arrangements."

"Yes, sir."

The seller prepared them quickly, tied the stems, and accepted payment with a quieter face than the one he had used for the greeting. Kai took both bundles, exchanged a brief thanks, and left the shop.

He was almost out of the market when horns sounded over the street.

A town crier climbed a low platform near the junction with a posted scroll in hand and a voice trained to cut through noise.

"By royal notice! Their Highnesses, the Twin Royals, have returned from their years-long pilgrimage and will hold a commemorative masquerade ball to mark their formal ascent into leading public duty! Attendance is open to those in good standing! By decree of His Majesty, only those whose taxes are fully up to date may enter! The ball will be held in ten days!"

Kai stopped under the edge of a stall awning and stared toward the crier.

This seemed oddly famaliar, he had read this kind of story before...and countless times had they been refrenced in fiction in his former life. Was this another joke by the developers?

"What in the Cinderella?"

The System answered at once.

[Event registered.]

[Designation: Cinderella Event]

[Classification: Mandatory Pop-Up Event]

[Host attendance is required.]

[Time remaining: 10 days]

[Failure to attend will forfeit associated route rewards.]

Kai frowned under the hood. Of course the system had somehow convinently made it cumpolsry for him to attend.

"Why do you want me to go so badly?"

[That information cannot be disclosed.]

Of course it could not.

Then the System asked something heavier.

[Question for Host.]

[The Cinderella Event is projected to alter Host’s current life route.]

[Does Host wish to formally close the Adventuring Arc before entry?]

Kai did not take long with it. He had already felt the answer forming for weeks, from Eldoria to the road home to the quiet decision that he was tired of living from crisis to crisis.

"I am done with that life."

[Acknowledged.]

[Adventuring Arc status: closed.]

[New route preparation may begin after funeral proceedings.]

Kai adjusted his grip on the flowers and turned back toward House Valerius.

*-*

By the time he returned, Duke had finished the grave work in the family plot behind the house. The soil was freshly cut. The lines were neat. Gorran’s body had been prepared and brought out on a plain board with a clean cloth over him. Duke had worked fast and carefully, without turning the private funeral into a performance.

Kai handed him one of the arrangements.

"Ashvein for Gorran. The other is for someone else."

Duke looked at the second bundle but did not pry.

"Yes, young master."

They buried Gorran first.

Kai stood over the open earth while Duke lowered the body with steady strength and settled it properly. There was no large audience and no hired mourners. Only the two of them, the repaired house behind them, and the family plot where older stones already marked the dead of House Valerius. Kai placed the ashvein blossoms over Gorran before the first full layer of soil went in.

"Good bye Gorran"Kai bade him farewell.

Duke worked in silence after that, filling the grave in even stages until the ground was closed and leveled. Then he set a neat temporary marker at the head. When Kai pointed to the space beside his parents’ graves, Duke understood at once and made sure the placement was exact.

They buried Gorran there, in line with the household he had refused to abandon.

Afterward Kai stepped to a second small plot Duke had prepared at his request, nearer the edge of the yard. There was no body for Dexter. Only memory, a name, and the duskthorn sprigs. Kai knelt and set them into the fresh soil himself.

"I never gave you a proper goodbye," he said. "I am giving one now."

He remained there longer than he expected. When he finally stood, his eyes had filled without turning into open sobs. The tears simply fell, quiet and uncontrolled, while Duke finished arranging the edges of both graves into clean order.

Duke looked over.

"Young master, are you okay?"

Kai wiped his face once with the back of his hand and nodded.

"I am fine."

He stayed by the two markers until the worst of the pressure in his chest settled. One grave held the old man who had preserved his home. The other stood for the man who had died on a different road and never received this much stillness. The capital continued beyond the walls. In ten days a masquerade ball would open under royal horns and tax-checked invitations. The Adventuring Arc was closed. A different route was already waiting.

For now, Kai only stood between two neat graves and let the afternoon finish around the dead.