Chapter 216: Berg (3)

 

I slowly opened my eyes.

 

“...?”

 

A blue sky. A vast meadow stretched around me, with a river flowing through it.

 

My favorite scenery lay before me.

 

I blinked and sat upright.

 

I couldn’t even recall what I had been doing—everything felt so peaceful.

 

How long had it been since I felt this kind of tranquility?

 

The plague.

 

The farming issues.

 

The bandit problem.

 

Adam Hyung’s troubles.

 

And the endless struggles with Krund.

 

“...Ah.”

 

As I sat there, my memories began to return.

 

I even remembered what my last memory had been.

 

Killing Krund, and then closing my eyes as well.

 

It wasn’t a dream. It was a reality I had lived through.

 

“...”

 

I glanced around.

 

It was only then that I seemed to understand where I was.

 

I had died and crossed over to the other side.

 

“..................Haah.”

 

The first thing that escaped my lips was a deep sigh.

 

With my hand on my face, I stayed frozen for a long while.

 

I had messed up.

 

Although I successfully defeated Krund, I had completely failed to keep the promises I made to the most precious people in my life.

 

To return to Sien, Ner, and Arwin.

 

I couldn’t even begin to imagine how devastated they would be, or how much pain they’d endure after trusting me and letting me go.

 

The guilt was enough to drive me insane.

 

“...”

 

I sat there for a moment before standing up.

 

I figured I needed to at least look around.

 

-Clank!

 

But something like a chain held my ankle firmly in place, refusing to let go.

 

“...?”

 

I finally noticed the chain connected to the ground.

 

“...What is this?”

 

“You’re still tied to your body because your funeral hasn’t been held yet.”

 

A voice answered me.

 

I turned my head toward the source of the voice.

 

“Your soul is still bound to your physical body.”

 

“...........”

 

And the moment I saw who it was, my entire body froze.

 

“...Why are you here already, you idiot?”

 

The man scolded me with a stern expression.

 

“....Hyung?”

 

Adam Hyung’s face twisted into a scowl the moment he saw me, followed by a deep sigh.

 

Scratching his head and biting his lip repeatedly, he muttered,

 

“...Ah, this is driving me crazy.”

 

For a fleeting moment, I felt a wave of joy at seeing him again. But it was quickly overshadowed by the intense anger radiating from him.

 

Letting out another sigh, he asked again.

 

“...Why are you here already?”

 

“....”

 

I had no answer.

 

It had been so long since I felt like this.

 

The last time Adam Hyung scolded me was almost ten years ago.

 

But when it came to him, I couldn’t argue back easily.

 

In the end, I clicked my tongue and let out a small laugh.

 

That was the only response I could muster.

 

“Sorry.”

 

“...”

 

But Adam Hyung didn’t seem satisfied with just that.

 

Still crouched down, he rubbed his face repeatedly before speaking.

 

“...It’s my fault again.”

 

“...?”

 

I blinked at him, processing his words.

 

I asked, puzzled.

 

“How is this your fault?”

 

-Drip... drip…

 

He began to shed tears as he spoke.

 

“...I should’ve made it clearer.”

 

“...What?”

 

“Berg, why... did you live for my sake?”

 

“...”

 

He wasn’t wrong. In many ways, I had shaped my life around Adam Hyung.

 

The Mercenary group Adam Hyung Left Behind. His Last Will.

 

The estate that was once his, Stockpin.

 

I had certainly lived the way I did, at least partly, out of consideration for Adam Hyung.

 

“...You’re the one who left a will. You said you trusted me.”

 

“...That’s not what I meant when I said it.”

 

“...”

 

Of course, it wasn’t until just before I faced death myself that I fully realized.

 

Hyung had wanted me to live for myself.

 

His will wasn’t meant in the way I had interpreted it.

 

It was only after I found myself in the same position that I truly understood.

 

“I should have been more explicit,” Adam Hyung murmured again.

 

“...”

 

I knew it wasn’t something he had wanted either.

 

The only words he could manage to squeeze out with his remaining strength were those of trust.

 

There was no need for him to blame himself.

 

It was my fault for failing to understand his true intentions.

 

But seeing how deeply Adam Hyung was berating himself, I decided to lighten the mood by teasing him in the way I hadn’t in a long time.

 

“...You’re right. You should’ve been clearer. It made things pretty hard for me, you know.”

 

“...”

 

At my words, Adam Hyung finally let out a small, helpless laugh.

 

He wiped away his tears and sighed again, as if trying to shake off his guilt.

 

“...I’m sorry, Berg.”

 

Just as I had thought of Hyung after he was gone, Adam Hyung had thought of me as he passed away.

 

But now it was a choice that neither of us could undo.

 

I let out a faint laugh.

 

Though it wasn’t an appropriate moment to laugh, especially considering the wives I had left behind, there was a sense of helplessness that left me no other choice.

 

“...It’s fine. It’s all over now anyway.”

 

I spoke, as if trying to brush off the sorrow with indifference.

 

Adam Hyung scratched his head and sat down beside me.

 

“...Ha.”

 

Since I couldn’t leave this place yet because of the chains, I settled down too.

 

After a long silence, he slowly broke it.

 

“...I was watching over everything, Berg.”

 

“...”

 

Finally, Adam Hyung softened the atmosphere and asked,

 

“...Were you doing well?”

 

****

 

The preparations for Berg’s funeral were carried out meticulously.

 

The entire village donned black clothing.

 

There was no joy in the victory of the war.

 

Berg’s funeral, along with those of the other members of the mercenary group, was to be held separately.

 

As a noble, Berg’s funeral was set to be conducted with all the dignity befitting his status.

 

It was decided that his body, placed on a boat laden with numerous tools he might need on the other side, would be cremated on the nearby lake.

 

For this, Sien quietly prepared the items to be placed on Berg’s boat.

 

His clothes. His weapon. His armor. A small amount of coins.

 

As she gathered these items one by one, Sien couldn’t stop her tears.

 

She knew she needed to stay strong for Berg’s child, who was with her, but it was impossible.

 

Berg’s very existence had been her pillar all this time.

 

Ever since she was ten years old, Berg had protected her, and it was because of him that she had survived.

 

Even when she went to the battlefield as a saintess, she endured because she knew Berg was somewhere out there.

 

But now that Berg was gone, even in a world of peace, she felt nothing but fear.

 

She didn’t know how to go on living a life without Berg.

 

-Knock, knock.

 

As she was finishing her preparations, someone approached her.

 

When she turned her head, she saw Gale looking at her.

 

He seemed to have aged over five years in an instant from this ordeal.

 

Even with fresh wounds still marking his body, it was as if he no longer felt any pain.

 

“Are you... ready?”

 

“................No.”

 

At Sien’s words, Gale closed his eyes tightly, as though realizing he had made a mistake.

 

“...The funeral is about to begin,” he said.

 

‘Funeral.’

 

Though there had been countless funerals before, the weight of this one, with Berg as its subject, felt unbearably heavy.

 

Even though she wasn’t ready to let him go, everything was proceeding as scheduled.

 

Sien finally nodded and stood up.

 

She gathered the prepared belongings and began walking.

 

.

.

.

 

Emerging from the forest, a vast lake came into view.

 

Because it was difficult to hold a funeral in such a confined space, the ceremony began in the clearing before the forest.

 

The sound of wailing filled the air.

 

It was evident how much the people of Stockpin had loved Berg.

 

Even a few non-human beings were present at the funeral—refugees who had once fled to Stockpin.

 

In their own way, they paid tribute to Berg before placing single flowers onto the boat where his body lay.

 

By now, the boat was overflowing with flowers.

 

The items Sien had placed on the boat were completely hidden beneath the blooms.

 

Sien bit her lip, trying to hold back her tears.

 

If Berg had wanted her to be strong, then for now, she had to be.

 

But she didn’t know how much longer she could endure.

 

Without Berg, maintaining her balance felt impossibly fragile.

 

She looked around.

 

Ner was kneeling at the bow of the boat, her face buried in her hands, shedding endless tears.

 

Seeing Ner’s grief, Sien could tell how deeply she had loved Berg.

 

Ner cried so much that Sien feared she might collapse from the sheer sorrow.

 

Though Sien felt a similar anguish, Ner’s pain seemed even greater—it was in her nature. As someone whose race could only love one person their entire life, the loss struck Ner even harder.

 

Sien turned her gaze again.

 

...There was Arwin.

 

“...”

 

Arwin stood frozen, her expression blank.

 

Her face betrayed no emotions, but her eyes seemed to carry a firm resolve.

 

“...”

 

Perhaps Arwin had known about Berg’s death beforehand.

 

She was the one who had shared the World Tree’s leaves with him.

 

Surely, she would have sensed what happened to Berg before anyone else.

 

Maybe that was why she was handling the mourning process with such stoicism—or perhaps she felt nothing at all about Berg’s death.

 

Whatever the case, Sien didn’t have the capacity to dwell on it for long.

 

She was too overwhelmed by her own grief to comprehend Arwin’s pain.

– – – The End of The Chapter – – –

 

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