The Gamer's POV-Chapter 212: A Forgotten People

Cedric’s regalia faded into smoke, revealing the plain clothes that he had been wearing underneath. And for the first time since her birth, the tattoo on Cedric’s arm slowly faded until his arm was bare, signaling that even Aika had died as well.

Argentos stared at Cedric’s remains for a moment, before wiping off a bit of blood off his own face.

"You know. I really don’t understand the gods. What’s the point of making me tell you our story if that knowledge would just end up killing you."

He shook his head, exhaled loudly, and continued speaking to the corpse.

"It’s a shame. See, this is why I had hoped you were stronger. Maybe... if you were just as strong as the lords, you might not have died from that little knowledge I gave to you. Then, that would mean that there’s someone out there who at least remembers us."

He looked away from the corpse towards the painting. Then as he slowly began to rise, his voice grew somber and quiet. "How did we become a forgotten people?"

He walked over to the painting. After studying it for a few minutes, he ran his hands across the image of the goddess. "Where are you, mother? Won’t you ever come back to us?"

Not long after he said that, a knock on the door sounded, causing him to slowly turn to it. After a few seconds, he looked back at the painting and answered, "Come in."

A female hollow one stepped inside the chamber, skipping along with a light gait. However, upon seeing the corpse, she halted, turned to Argentos, and gasped in shock. "You killed him already, father?"

Argentos didn’t answer. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Marcella then spoke again. "What was the point of having Selene treat his wounds if you were just going to kill him?"

Argentos finally turned to her, then said expressionlessly, "I just told him a bit about our history, the goddess, and the royal family."

Marcella alternated gazes twice between the corpse and her father. After a few seconds, she exhaled and spoke again.

"Hmm... this is really strange. Remember that human we caught snooping around the territory three hundred years ago? Despite the fact that he was from the cradle, he didn’t know much about the gods. Which, if you think about it, was really strange considering that they are supposed to know even more about the gods than us."

She walked up to the corpse then crouched down. "And when we tried to tell him stuff about the royal family, his head went poof. Just like this guy right here."

She narrowed her eyes and looked lost in thought for a moment. Then she snapped her fingers in a sudden realization. "It almost looks like something is trying to deliberately make the humans of the cradle forget about the royal family over time. Like some kind of curse or magic has been cast, so that if they discover information like this, they just blow up. Like poof." She demonstrated the explosion with her hands.

She then turned to Argentos to see if he had anything to say about her theory. But rather than comment on what she said, he walked over to his book on the floor then picked it up.

After wiping the blood off it, he waved dismissively with book as he began walking away.

"Give that body a proper burial, Marcella. But before that, chop off the right arm and leave it there," he said as he exited the chamber.

Marcella rubbed her cheek, then called out after him, "I know you think it’s strange as well. Just admit it. Who knows, my theory might even be right!"

The chamber was silent after she spoke. After a few seconds, she sighed and looked down, studying Cedric’s corpse. She raised his hand and when she didn’t see any tattoo, confirming that he was really dead, she dropped it back down.

"Hm... I guess since he is dead, his tattoo is gone."

She had a curious expression on her face like a child puzzling over a broken toy.

"That’s another strange thing though," she mumbled to herself. "From what we know, humans from the cradle were not able to use magic. But through that guy we caught three hundred years ago, alongside the few other people we’ve seen snooping around this territory over the years, we found out that they can now use magic due to having these weird tattoos that link them to people."

She tilted her head, poking at the spot where the mark had once been.

"It’s really strange."

After a few seconds of musing about it, she shrugged, then reached behind her and took out the large sword strapped to her back with a practiced, heavy metallic ring. She positioned the blade over the shoulder joint, and with one swift, heavy strike, she followed her father’s orders, leaving the severed limb on the stone floor. She then cleaned her blade on the edge of Cedric’s tunic before she lifted the body with surprising ease and began exiting the chamber.

A while later, she stood in front of a very large graveyard outside the city.

It had to be known that over the past week, all the bodies of the humans and hollow ones that died were all buried together, side by side.

Marcella dug a shallow grave, then carefully lowered Cedric’s body into the cold earth. After that, she simply began to push the loose soil back over him until he was hidden from view. Once the mound was level with the rest of the uneven ground, she wiped the dirt from her hands and stood in the silence of the field, watching the wind stir the dead grass between the rows of the fallen.

After a moment, she touched her chest, then her forehead before finally raising her hand to the side. Then she muttered solemnly.

"May the goddess receive what remains and return to the earth what was borrowed. May she have mercy on this soul, and grant him the peace that the living could not."

She repeated the gesture of touching her chest and forehead, before raising her hand to the side.

Eventually, she turned around, leaving the quiet mound behind as she began her trek back toward the city gates.

***

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..

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Right after the misty marshlands and just about a few days’ walk to the Home of the Hollow Ones, a dry expanse of cracked earth stretched out toward the horizon, and a damp fog shimmered over these barren plains.

Rising to the east was a series of jagged rock formations, and seated on these stone ridges were cadets who were recovering from their successful raid and destruction of the red bridge. The cadets sat in small groups around small fires, and most had their faces and clothes smeared with soot and blood. Some were tending to light wounds, while others were either simply chatting among themselves or staring out at the shimmering haze of the plains.

It was very obvious that the adrenaline of the battle had finally given way to severe exhaustion. Yet despite their weariness, a sense of grim satisfaction hung over the camp.

Moreover, as a full week had now passed, their initial rush of victory had settled into a quiet, heavy realization of the friends they had lost to secure it.

It was interesting to note that during this period of mourning and rest, many of the cadets had taken to using their whisperglobes to check on their progress. Of course, after such a hellish ordeal, everyone had advanced significantly in terms of experience and levels. Despite being classified as grade twos, the hollow ones provided a massive amount of experience points. Depending on the specific hollow one killed, a cadet could earn between three hundred and four hundred points.

Because of this influx of power, many in the group had finally reached levels 18 and 19. There were even a few among them who had crossed into the early stages of level twenty. However, one particular cadet had managed to climb even higher, reaching level twenty one.

That cadet was Leon.