Early Winter atop the Clock Tower

Back inside the church, Red Moon took out the Bloodstone from the basement again and used it to treat Linsey's chest wound.

But unlike when she had treated his cold last time.

As the wound on Linsey's chest rapidly healed and scabbed over, the icy source material within it was eliminated as well.

The Bloodstone also completely lost its red color.

It turned back into a hard, gray-black stone with a pitted surface.

Red Moon did not say much. She simply arranged for Linsey to rest immediately.

Because she knew full well.

After a day of long-distance hunting, followed by two life-and-death chases.

Anyone who went through such an ordeal would inevitably be weighed down by exhaustion, body and mind alike.

What her godson needed most right now was rest.

So when Linsey lay down on the bed in his little room, he practically fell asleep the moment he closed his eyes.

Six hours later.

Sustained by Life Source Material, Linsey's body clock was remarkably accurate.

Before midnight arrived, he got out of bed right on time.

He first checked the injury on his chest. After a night's sleep, the blood scab had completely hardened. Its stiff edges did not match the soft skin around it, so they had curled up slightly.

Linsey reached out and picked at it.

"Hiss—"

"Forget it. I'm not peeling it off."

Linsey decisively abandoned what he had just been doing, displaying his courage and resolve.

He then got dressed and climbed out of bed. He tied a piece of cloth into the shape of a bag, then transformed it—

The bag vanished instantly, and Linsey sensed his spatial equipment.

Since it was only made by simply tying up cloth, the Personal Baggage currently had just eight slots. Its carrying capacity was affected only by Linsey's attributes, but it still had a respectable limit of 80 kilograms.

Linsey tried stuffing the bedding into it.

Whoosh—

The bedding spread across the bed immediately disappeared, and one slot in the bag was filled.

In its place was an icon of rolled-up bedding.

Linsey then tried moving around the room. His speed and agility were completely unaffected.

"The weight in the bag doesn't affect my body in the Real World at all."

After some thought, Linsey took the bedding back out.

It came out exactly as it had gone in.

He then walked to the cabinet by the bed, fished out several remaining copper coins, and activated the Personal Baggage's auto-loot function.

Whoosh—

The copper coins before him vanished instantly. A copper coin symbol appeared in one of the bag's slots, with a number in the lower-right corner showing the quantity.

Linsey took the coins back out and tested collecting them in various locations.

The Personal Baggage's auto-loot function was very simple.

If the target was at his feet or somewhere he could touch by reaching out, auto-loot would work. Otherwise, if it was somewhere Linsey himself could not reach—too far away, inside a sealed container, or worn by someone else—auto-loot would not work.

"It just simplifies the act of picking things up."

Linsey remarked on it.

After completing the ability test, he left his room fully dressed and entered the chapel.

The timing was just right.

Leize's body had already been brought to the chapel, along with several other people.

Linsey silently stood at the back of the chapel and surveyed his surroundings.

Leize's younger sister, a girl around five foot three dressed in yellow cloth garments, kept watch beside the body and sobbed softly.

Besides her, Red Moon was praying before the body.

Linsey also saw Lord Anrui and Dan. They stood farther away, their expressions equally somber and grave.

About fifteen minutes later, Red Moon finished her prayer.

She waved Linsey over, beckoning her godson to her side, then spoke softly. "First, the deceased is placed in the coffin."

"The family of the deceased will usually ask a tailor to make a set of black burial clothes. Our school's mark is painted upon them, symbolizing respect and mourning for death. The inside of the coffin must also be lined with cloth and straw, signifying that the deceased is being given a comfortable final resting place."

As Red Moon explained this to Linsey, she laid the straw and cloth set nearby across the bottom of the coffin.

Linsey immediately stepped forward to help.

Together, they lifted Leize's body and placed it inside the coffin.

Red Moon spoke again. "Once the deceased has been laid to rest, a piece of hard wood must be prepared, such as oak. The deceased's name and important events from their life are carved upon it as a memorial."

"However, when resources are limited, a strip of cloth may be used instead, with the words written on it in paint."

In her haste, Leize's sister clearly had no time to find any hard wood.

So Red Moon took a piece of curtain cloth from the pile in the corner of the chapel. Leize's sister could not write, so as she dictated, Red Moon wrote down some of Leize's personal details. At last, she placed it on his chest.

"Now, close the coffin."

Red Moon and Linsey closed the coffin together, then drove seven Nails around it. She walked around it once afterward, tapping each spot where a nail had been driven into the coffin while reciting prayers.

Only after completing this ritual did she explain it to Linsey.

"The sealing of the seven coffin nails represents the seven days of a week, symbolizing the deceased's complete separation from the Real World. When we later use the Bloodstone to collect the concept of death, we do so through the locations of these nails as well."

After explaining to Linsey, Red Moon looked at Leize's sister again.

"Go inform the others in town. The final mourning may begin."

Leize's sister's eyes were red, and she had nearly cried herself weak.

But she firmly shook her head, refusing Red Moon's suggestion. "It's too late. Let everyone rest properly, and let my brother find peace sooner."

Red Moon slowly nodded.

"Death has come, but it is not the end."

"The soul returns to slumber, the body returns to source material."

"The dead should bid farewell to the world of the living, and the living should silently bid farewell to the dead."

"Rest in peace—"

"May you be free from the abyss's disturbance, may you not lose your way in the Dead Sea, may you embrace a new beginning..."

After finishing the final prayer, she called over Anrui and the Female Hunter.

The two strong Awakened lifted the coffin, and the group left the chapel for the graveyard behind it.

With Lord Anrui present, a grave pit was quickly dug.

They lowered the coffin into it. Red Moon then took out a small candle and placed it directly above the coffin before instructing the other two to fill in the earth.

The burial was completed quickly.

After the tombstone was erected, Leize's sister began weeping quietly before the grave.

Red Moon gently stroked the girl's back.

She did not offer any words of comfort, soothing the other's grieving soul only through her actions.

After a while, she spoke to Linsey.

"Linsey, Finn is old. We did not tell him what happened today."

"Could I trouble you to visit him at dawn?"

Naturally, Linsey had no objection.

"I'd be happy to."

Red Moon added, "There's a book on the table in my room. I prepared it for you. You can use it to practice reading."

Linsey nodded in understanding and returned to his room.

In Red Moon's room, he found the book—Graveyard Burial Book.

It recorded the School of Death's rites for burying the dead, as well as variations for different circumstances, along with stories related to burials.

Linsey sat down to read, and time quietly passed.

Before he knew it, dawn followed the shadows to Linsey's feet.

"Huh? It's morning already?"

Seeing the light of dawn fall at his feet.

Linsey hurriedly put away Graveyard Burial Book and headed into town to tell the botanist what had happened yesterday.

Red Moon, Anrui, and the others were checking on the woods, so they would not be back early today.

After leaving Finn's cottage, Linsey found himself with nothing to do.

The weather was somewhat gloomy today.

Recalling everything he had experienced yesterday, Linsey began jogging through town to accumulate Experience Points for his basic attributes.

Before he knew it, he arrived at the lighthouse Clock Tower on the westernmost edge of town.

Other than the bell ringer, there were no guards here.

Curious, Linsey pushed open the door and entered. He climbed the wooden spiral staircase inside to the top of the lighthouse Clock Tower.

On the side facing town stood the bell tower.

A huge metal bell hung there, with a wooden striker suspended below it. Its surface had been worn smooth by the years.

Circling around to the side facing away from town, he found a semicircular observation deck.

Inside a silver vessel shaped like a searchlight, a pale yellow crystal was set in place, as though it were the source of the searchlight's illumination.

"..."

Linsey silently stared at the device.

Though he was only an Awakened who had just set out, at this close distance he could still sense the surging source material within the crystal.

He had an extremely strong premonition.

If he dared reach out and touch it now, the power within that crystal would immediately burn him to ashes!

This was the lighthouse prepared for explorers returning home.

Only it could illuminate the Great Hollow at the edge of the world, providing humanity with its sole beacon! Linsey shrugged and did not court death.

He turned toward one side of the Clock Tower and simply sat down.

At that moment, Linsey felt something wet on his forehead. Looking up, he saw snowflakes beginning to drift down from the sky.

He reached out. Tiny white flakes fell into his palm, then melted into water.

Then he looked ahead.

In the tranquil morning, the outline of the town was encircled by dense forest. Beneath the heavy snow, every tree shimmered quietly through the curtain of snow with crystalline light, as if it were an elven kingdom.

Dawn had arrived, and morning sunlight pierced the clouds in the distant east.

The gentle light stretched toward him like a pair of great hands sweeping across this snow-covered world. Golden sunlight and the pure white snowscape formed a vivid contrast, as though playing a tranquil, beautiful melody.

In town, morning smoke slowly rose from chimneys, forming a lovely scene amid the surrounding snow.

Everything was bathed in this serenity.

It felt as though time itself had stopped in this instant.

Whoosh—

A chilly cold wind blew past.

Sitting atop the Clock Tower, Linsey slowly closed his eyes.

He would be living here for a long time yet. In this lightly snowing early winter, the hopes in his heart and his expectations for the future drifted into the distance.