Chapter 308: After The Ashes Settled

With the destruction of the town... We would need to scrape through its remains to figure out if there was an underground passage to a Mana Crystal vein somewhere in the rubble.

Honestly, now I’m glad I handed this over to them because now that was no longer my problem to deal with but theirs instead.

Siti and Diana would have to direct their people to sift through this pile of wreckage to look for the Mana Crystal vein that’s most likely buried somewhere under there.

Neither of them seem bothered by it though, since they wouldn’t be the ones that need to sift through this to begin with. And I was definitely in no position to say anything about it anyway so I left it up to them to deal with.

The good thing was that we basically eliminated all the potential problems around us so we shouldn’t need to worry about any other surprises from survivors while we’re here.

There might still be other survivors in other parts of this rift but they should be too far for them to matter to our expedition at least.

In other words, we’ve basically cleared the path for the expedition to continue under Siti and Diana proper and I’ve fulfilled my obligations.

Now, while they are occupied with that, I had another obligation I had to settle.

Olivia assured me that I didn’t have to do it, but I felt that I bore some responsibility for what happened so I told her that I wanted to do it.

As for what it was, it was for me to hold a small speech and wake for the people who had lost their lives in the rift to the bomb those bastards had planted in our camp.

I looked out at the small crowd standing in the park near the portal, some of them still crying and hugging each other while others looked at me with stern faces.

All of them were carrying something like an urn in their arms, which were obviously not their loved ones’ ashes since they were literally disintegrated by the blast.

What was inside them were pieces of dirt dug up from where their loved one had died, more as a symbolism of them than anything else.

As I had said before, burials were mostly unheard of for people in this line of work. If they died, their bodies would have to be burned to ash or else they would mutate into Anomalies because of the miasma.

And with this happening inside a rift, one might even be lucky to get ashes to return back to the family since no one would be going around collecting ashes in the middle of a rift.

Once again, I didn’t need to do this, but I felt that I would have wanted something like this to be done for my family at least if I perished in the rift doing my job so I decided to do this despite it not being expected of me to do so.

I know these people weren’t interested in listening to empty sympathies so I instead focused on their merits and bravery instead.

"In a time like this where we are threatened by monsters that would cross worlds to destroy us, we have to risk our lives to stand up against them and protect the people who depend on us. Your child, your sibling, your loved one, has chosen to be that shield for all of us in this time of need and sacrificed themselves so that everyone else can live their lives in safety. They are men and women that should be honoured for their bravery and sacrifice and they have my deepest respects for choosing to fulfill their duty. For that, all of you have my deepest condolences and respect for being the reason that they have the courage and bravery to face the threats to our World without regret."

Honestly, I was really just making things up as I went along since this was all new territory for me, so I was just speaking from the heart more than anything else.

And I was truly saying everything from the heart as I really did have respect for the Vanguards who chose to fight this fight despite the dangers.

After all, I was once one of them.

I didn’t really have much to offer aside from that but from what I know, the family and their next of kin would receive monetary compensation for the loss of their loved one which was the least we could do.

I finished off my speech and stepped down and while most of them seemed to at least be pacified, I could tell that there were a few who clearly blamed the deaths of their loved ones on me.

That was just a burden I had to carry.

I rejoined my group and Olivia was giving me a concerned look, "Are you alright, my Lord?"

"I’m fine..."

"This is why I told you not to do it... If you had not taken the stage, they would pin the blame on an organisation instead. By stepping up there, they now have someone physical that they could direct their hatred to..."

I nodded, "I know... But it didn’t sit well with me to ignore it either... And this happened because of my mistake, I cannot just let it pass without learning from it."

Olivia did not seem to agree with my sentiment but she chose not to argue.

"If that is what you wish, my Lord... But I would recommend not making this a habit... You cannot hold yourself responsible for every disaster or death."

"I know... I don’t intend to make it a habit to begin with... Since that would mean I was failing frequently."

Olivia gave me a curt nod but said nothing else.

Right then, a figure ran up towards us and my Guardians immediately stood protectively in front of me, blocking the person from reaching me.

I turned to see that it was a female centaur. A young one, probably no more than sixteen years old if I were to judge her by how her human half looked.

She stopped a short distance away from me and I was reminded of Leena, which made me realise that the centaurs were most likely her kin who had come from the same World.

The young centauress bowed her head slightly, "Mortal God... Tha... Thank you for your words... My... My brother would have been proud to hear you speak so highly of him like that..."

I realised that she was most likely the sister of the centaur who had acted as the leader of that Vanguard expedition.

She didn’t wait for an answer as she straightened herself, only to bow again before turning to run back to her family who had been watching from a distance.

The mother was clutching the small urn while the father cradled her shoulders to hug her.

He caught my eye and gave me a respectful nod as his daughter rejoined them, all three of them turning to walk away.

As I was still thinking about how that family had just lost a son and brother, Dan moved to clasp me on the shoulder.

"Eh, I think she’s too young for you bro."

I rolled my eyes at him. Leave it to him to ruin the mood.

I was still thankful for that, of course. It would be unproductive of me to just be stuck moping around about this.

And as if on cue, another figure came running towards me, though this person was not stopped like the previous centaur from reaching me since everyone knew who it was.

"Gor-- Ahem... Mortal God!" My sister waved, running all the way up to me with a mischievous smile on her face.

I turned to her, "What do you want sis-- Hui Zhen?"

She giggled, "Aiyah... You see ah... I finish my job already but I need to go back to the tower. Taxi very expensive you know? And since we’re going the same place anyway... Can Tumpang ¹or not?"

Well... It’s not like I need to expand a lot of effort just to let someone else use the teleportation door anyway so I don’t see a problem with it.

Seeing that we were all done with what we have to do here anyway, and both Siti and Diana would still be hanging around here for a bit more... We could return to the tower first to take a break from this.

I’ll probably come back later to pick up the two Mortal Goddesses since it would be rude for me to just leave them here and tell them to find their own way back.

It’s just that seeing the smile on my sister’s face... I somehow felt like she was planning to do something to me once we got back to the tower and I felt a little chill at that.

Nevertheless... Let’s just go home for now...