Morning Star and Embers

Two days later, at the edge of the town.

The base of Himmel's statue was beginning to take shape. Stonemasons hammered away with a steady clatter, while the subject of the statue stood before a smoothly polished stone slab, earnestly posing at another angle. Sunlight made his short blue hair shine.

"Hmm, perhaps this angle, turned to the side, would better capture the sharpness of the blade and the faraway look in my eyes..." He rubbed his chin, muttering to himself.

Ruby kicked at a pebble nearby and grumbled under her breath, "Hmph, big brother Himmel's admiring himself again... Though he really does look pretty handsome..."

Heiter and Eisen were checking the gifts of thanks the townspeople had put together: some practical dry rations, fresh water, and a little money.

Frieren carefully packed the two ancient books on "bird-catching magic" and "itch-relief magic" into her suitcase. Her fingertips brushed their rough covers, and a flicker of satisfaction passed through her eyes. Lowell stood a little farther away, watching everyone at work with his usual lazy expression, occasionally glancing at the lush fields outside town.

After bidding farewell to the endlessly grateful mayor and residents, the party set off north once more. The air was fresh with the scent of earth and grass, utterly unlike the stench of rot the Undead Army had brought.

The journey went smoothly. They encountered only a few insignificant little monsters, which Ruby eagerly dispatched with ease, using newly invented move names that grew longer and longer.

Himmel played along with her "performance," and their back-and-forth did much to relieve the tedium of the journey.

Heiter drank as he walked, while Eisen carried his axe and occasionally demonstrated his lightness skill by skimming across the water when they passed a stream.

Frieren occasionally tried the basic meditation for explosive magic that Lowell had taught her. For now, all she could do was gather a tiny cluster of extremely unstable sparks at her fingertip before they went out with a "puff," but she never tired of it. Her gaze was as focused as if she were about to accomplish some world-shaking feat.

Linié and Mina still followed silently at the rear of the party, like two quiet shadows.

One day, the sun hung low in the west, dyeing the clouds along the horizon a warm orange-red. It was nearly evening, time to cook. The outline of a small village appeared on the distant horizon, but the thin wisps of cooking smoke that should have been rising were nowhere to be seen.

The easy smile gradually faded from Himmel's face. He stopped, his blue eyes fixed sharply on the silent settlement, his brows furrowing slightly.

Heiter wiped the corner of his mouth. "Yeah, it's too quiet. They ought to be lighting fires and cooking at this hour."

Eisen silently tightened his grip on his battle-axe. The dwarven warrior's instincts told him something was amiss.

"Let's pick up the pace and take a look." Himmel was the first to move, his steps quick and determined.

As they drew closer, their ominous premonition proved true. The village was frighteningly silent: no roosters crowed, no dogs barked, no children played. Even the sound of the wind seemed particularly harsh. A faint smell hung in the air, a mixture of smoke and... blood, like rust.

The fence at the village entrance had collapsed at an angle, and several thatched cottages bore blackened traces of fire. Broken clay pots and scattered bloodstains littered the ground. A deathly silence hung over the scene of the attack.

"Looks like... we're too late." Himmel's voice sank. The ease vanished from his face, replaced by a pained gravity. He quickened his pace ahead of the others and rushed into the village.

The sight before them was even more shocking. Houses had collapsed, charred timbers lay scattered about, and great patches of dried, blackened blood stained the ground, alongside villagers' belongings that had been discarded at random and left where they lay. Clearly, a brutal massacre had taken place here not long ago.

"Bastards..." Heiter growled, his fists clenched white, the drunken look on his face long since replaced by anger. Eisen remained silent.

Ruby's little face instantly turned pale. She gripped her staff tightly, her green eyes filled with shock and dismay, and instinctively reached out to clutch the hem of Himmel's clothes.

Heiter put away his flask, his expression solemn, and began reciting a prayer for the departed in a low voice.

Frieren stopped and calmly swept her emerald eyes over the ruins. Her expression did not change, but her fingertips curled unconsciously. Lowell walked over to her and silently rested a hand on her shoulder.

In a relatively open space at the center of the village, which seemed to have once been a gathering place for the villagers, they saw the only "living" sight.

A girl.

She knelt on the ground, holding a middle-aged woman who had long since ceased to breathe.

The girl looked about fourteen or fifteen. She wore a coarse cloth dress faded from washing, now covered in dust and dark red bloodstains. Her long pink hair was like a burning flame, tied high behind her head in twin ponytails. But her locks were now hopelessly tangled and stained with grime, and the bright white at their tips, seemingly once a distinctive feature, had gone dull. Strands of hair clung to her sweat-damp temples and cheeks.

Most striking were her eyes, large and deep, one a brilliant gold like molten metal, the other a deeper crimson. Now those mismatched eyes were as empty as two dry wells, filled with endless sorrow and... an almost deathly bewilderment.

Tears mixed with blood and dust poured from her mismatched eyes, tracing haphazard paths down her face. Yet she seemed unaware, clutching the woman's long-cold corpse to her with all her strength, as though it were her only piece of driftwood in boundless darkness.

Tears continued to pour silently from those dry wells, sliding down her pale cheeks and falling onto the cold forehead of the woman in her arms.

Himmel stopped in his tracks as he looked at her. He opened his mouth, his blue eyes, usually full of cheerful laughter, now brimming with tangled emotions: sympathy, guilt, and helplessness. For a moment, he did not know what to say. The sixteen-year-old hero's dictionary seemed, for now, to lack a chapter on how to deal with such utter despair.

The girl seemed to sense the presence of strangers. Slowly, extremely slowly, she raised her head and looked through tear-blurred eyes at Himmel, who stood at the front. Her gaze lingered on his short blue hair, his handsome face, and especially the small beauty mark at the corner of his left eye, before finally settling on the archaic-looking longsword at his waist.

Her lips moved several times, blood seeping from the cracked skin, and she spoke in a voice as hoarse as sandpaper scraping:

"Blue hair... a mark by your eye... the Hero's Sword... You're the hero, Himmel, aren't you?" Every word seemed to take all her strength.

Himmel's throat bobbed. After a moment's silence, he gave a heavy nod. "...Yes, I'm Himmel."

The moment she received confirmation, the girl fell silent for a moment.

Then the numb bewilderment in her eyes receded like a tide, replaced by a near-mad, venomous hatred! She abruptly straightened the back that had been hunched with pain and, with all her strength, cried:

"You... what kind of hero are you! Why didn't you come sooner! If you'd come earlier! A hero could have protected this place! Protected my mom and dad... protected the village... You... what kind of hero are you!!"

The accusation struck everyone's heart like a lash.

Ruby jumped up in anger, her little face flushed red, and pointed her staff at the girl. "Hey! What nonsense are you talking about! Big brother Himmel is a hero, but he isn't a god! How could he save everyone! We really did try our best, you know! Do you know how many monsters we've defeated along the way?!" She felt Himmel had been wronged.

Himmel kept his head lowered, blue hair falling across his forehead and hiding his expression. He neither contradicted Ruby nor responded to the girl's accusations. He only pressed his lips tightly together, his fingers white around his sword hilt. He knew that any defense would be weak and futile in the face of such a tragedy.

The girl did not seem moved by Ruby's words. Or rather, she could no longer take them in. She only glared with eyes burning with hatred and despair at Himmel and the rest of the splendid-looking, so-called hero's party who had "arrived so late," as though she meant to engrave their faces deep in her soul.

Just then, Lowell gently caught hold of Ruby, who still wanted to argue, and shook his head at her. Then he walked slowly forward, his steps light, as though afraid of disturbing the peace of this place of death, and of disturbing the girl's soul on the verge of collapse.

Seeing Lowell approach, the girl closed her eyes. Her long, tear-soaked lashes trembled violently, and her pale lips pressed into a stubborn straight line. She raised her chin slightly, exposing her slender, vulnerable neck.

But the blade or magic she expected never came.

A pair of warm, steady arms gently but unyieldingly lifted her from the cold ground. The girl opened her eyes in astonishment and found herself looking into Lowell's calm, deep gaze.

"If a few words from you were enough to send me into a rage, then I'd have lived all these years for nothing."

"It must hurt," Lowell said. His voice was not loud, but it reached everyone's ears clearly, carrying a curious, gentle strength that could pierce through hatred. "Your home was destroyed, your loved ones were killed, and you had no power to take revenge. You could only watch it all happen, and then be left alone in this place full of painful memories. In the end... you've nearly lost even the courage to go on living."

He paused, his gaze sweeping over the girl's pale, despairing face, and laid bare the true intention she had tried to hide beneath her anger.

"You wanted to provoke Himmel, or any one of us, didn't you? I can see the wish to die in your eyes. You used the most vicious words to make us think you were beyond reason, to make us kill you out of anger or because we thought, 'Perhaps death would be a better release for you'... Then you'd be free. You could go and be with your parents, and you wouldn't have to bear this heart-rending pain alone anymore, right?"

"Wh...?" Ruby covered her mouth in disbelief, her green eyes full of shock. Heiter stopped praying, sighed deeply, and shook his head, his eyes filled with compassion. Eisen watched silently, no emotion visible on his rocklike face. Frieren remained largely expressionless, quietly watching Lowell and the girl, the light of the setting sun reflected in her emerald eyes, giving no clue to her thoughts. Himmel's body seemed to tremble slightly.

The girl's body jerked. With her thoughts laid completely bare, the last trace of ferocity she had forced onto her face vanished, leaving only naked vulnerability and despair, with nowhere to hide. She opened her mouth, but could not make a sound.

Lowell's voice grew a little lower and gentler, yet carried an unquestionable firmness:

"Children are meant to be protected. They shouldn't have to tread carefully around adults."

"It's all right to cry and to feel resentment. Anyone would break down after going through something like this. But don't punish the world by hurting yourself, and don't give up your life so easily. Your parents are in heaven. They would never want to see you follow them. They would want you to carry their love and memories with you and live on bravely, however painful it may be."

He lifted his head and swept his gaze over the ruins before looking back at the girl's tear-streaked face, his tone heavy and sincere.

"Yes, we came too late. For this irreversible tragedy, we're... so sorry. We'll carry this helplessness and regret with us. If the pain and anger in your heart need an outlet, if you need someone to bear the blame for not coming sooner... then blame us. Whether it's me or that idiot Himmel, you can blame us. We weren't able to get here faster. We... came too late."

Those final words were the straw that broke the camel's back, instantly shattering every defense the girl had struggled to maintain.

The hard shell she had held together all this time, disguised with hatred, broke apart completely. The girl stared at Lowell, at the profound understanding and comfort in his eyes, rather than the disgust or killing intent she had expected. Fear, sorrow, helplessness, and hurt that had built up for far too long burst forth like a flood through a broken dam.

"Ugh..."

Unable to hold on any longer, she buried her face in Lowell's shoulder and burst into tears, like a child who had been lost for so long and finally found her way home. Her sobs were heart-rending, full of heartbreaking despair and release.

"I... I'm sorry... I... I didn't really mean it... It's not your fault... But I'm really... so scared... it hurts so much... Mom, Dad... everyone... sob..."

She cried out incoherently, her tears quickly soaking Lowell's shoulder. Her sobs echoed over the silent ruins, sounding a final, sorrowful requiem for the dead village.

Himmel still kept his head lowered, but a hint of gratitude toward Lowell showed in his eyes. Ruby was no longer angry; her eyes reddened, and she turned her head away. Heiter continued praying quietly. Eisen began silently clearing an open space. Frieren went to one side, crouched down, and picked a little white wildflower from the scorched earth. It had been trampled, yet stubbornly survived. She gazed at it quietly for a while.

Lowell gently patted the girl's trembling back, letting her tears soak his clothes as he looked toward the sun sinking in the distance.

Tonight, they would stay here, bury the dead, and try to comfort a girl who had just lost everything and whose soul was on the verge of breaking.