The Inherited Work

Unlike the funerals of others in town in the past.

Red Moon did not preside over Finn's funeral as usual.

She handed the entire task over to Linsey, leaving him to oversee the whole funeral.

So that afternoon.

Linsey went into the woods himself and found a tall, sturdy black spruce. Then he asked Qiao Er to help him and personally crafted a solid, thick black coffin for Finn.

Following the usual procedure.

Someone who died in the morning could be buried that very evening.

But to show his respect for his teacher, Linsey chose the highest standard of funeral rites.

He kept Finn's coffin in the front hall for a full three days.

He himself would remain there for three days as well, keeping vigil for him like a blood descendant.

In the beliefs of the School of Death, a person's death did not mean an eternal end, but the beginning of a new journey.

And the time before the body was buried.

Was the final moment when the deceased's soul remained in the world, while also preparing to travel through death.

Because of this belief, Linsey gathered the townspeople on the second day.

He intended, beneath the witness of Finn's soul before it departed, to distribute the household goods in the house among the other townspeople according to his teacher's wishes.

People began arriving early that morning.

As Linsey greeted the townspeople who came, he noticed that most of them carried money pouches.

It was understandable to bring a bag if they were taking the distributed items home, but bringing money...

Linsey had no intention of accepting condolence money.

While waiting for the other townspeople to arrive one after another.

Ju noticed what Linsey was thinking and hurriedly pulled him into a corner, speaking softly enough that only the two of them could hear:

"Brother Lin, you usually only preside over funerals, so you might not know what comes afterward."

"There is indeed a custom in town of distributing the deceased's belongings, but it generally can't be done for free."

Linsey did not understand at first when he heard this:

"This... don't tell me we still have to charge money?"

Ju nodded very seriously:

"That's right, and it's usually handled in the form of an auction."

Linsey still could not believe it:

"They really pay for it?"

Ju remained firm:

"Brother Lin, why would I lie to you about this!"

"Though I don't understand the reasoning behind it either, that really is how things are done in town."

"..."

Ju's attitude made Linsey think it over seriously.

Before long, he understood.

If the belongings of an elderly person living alone, like Finn, were given away unconditionally after their death, then if there were other elderly people in the same situation, it would easily attract people with ill intentions.

Auctioning them off, on the other hand, not only preserved the proper value of the items.

It also protected other people living alone to some extent.

Having figured this out, Linsey quickly thanked Ju:

"Ju, thank you for reminding me."

Ju scratched his head sheepishly. "It's nothing. I was only giving you a reminder. It hardly counts as helping."

"..."

Not long afterward.

Most of the townspeople around them had arrived.

Following Ju's advice, Linsey auctioned off all the pots, bowls, ladles, tables, chairs, and benches Finn had left behind one by one.

These items were cheaper than ordinary secondhand goods.

People were accustomed to this arrangement, so everything remained orderly, and they were quite eager to buy.

In truth, Finn had lived in poverty and had not left behind many possessions.

But there were quite a few townspeople here, and each item took time to auction.

As a result, Linsey stayed busy from morning until afternoon, with almost no time to rest except for lunch.

It was not until the sun was nearly setting that the auction of Finn's belongings finally came to an end.

At that moment, Ju emerged from who knew where and handed Linsey a roasted rabbit leg.

"Brother Lin, you've worked hard."

Linsey thanked him, took the rabbit leg, and immediately bit into it.

Seeing this, Anna came over as well and thoughtfully handed Linsey a jug of water.

"You've been talking all day. Have some water."

Linsey accepted it and thanked her as well. "You two really went to a lot of trouble today."

"If it had only been me, I probably wouldn't have been able to get many things done."

Ju had come voluntarily to help, while Anna, as the Lord's representative, was there to ensure that the auction proceeded smoothly.

After finishing this simple dinner, Linsey began tidying up the somewhat messy house.

Anna and Ju had things of their own to do. They helped Linsey clean up for a while, then both took their leave.

After seeing off his two friends, Linsey returned to the wooden house alone.

He looked around.

In the empty front hall, only the fireplace and Linsey's own chair remained. Finn had specifically bought that chair for him three years ago.

"..."

Linsey moved the chair over and sat with his teacher's body for a while.

Only when evening drew late did he go to the Glass Greenhouse behind the wooden house. This place, at least, was no different from before.

"I'll help Teacher Finn finish his work."

Linsey murmured softly and began taking stock of what was in the greenhouse.

Since Linsey came every three days to help record things, he was quite familiar with how the plants here were arranged.

Following the experimental log Finn had left behind.

He first watered several specific plants in the greenhouse.

Then he sorted them and identified the three most important kinds of plants at present: Winter Wheat, cabbage, and potatoes.

In the past, most crops planted in the distant borderlands had actually been brought from other worlds, with temperate crops being especially common. Finn had merely cultivated a degree of cold resistance in them, preventing their yields from dropping too severely.

But these three new crops were completely different from the earlier ones.

They all had a high tolerance for cold weather, but because they had been found directly in the wild and had not yet been domesticated, they still lacked yield, pest resistance, and disaster resistance despite being able to withstand low-temperature environments.

Finn's efforts had been focused on making up for these shortcomings.

But once the work fell into Linsey's hands, the situation became rather troublesome.

He was not a member of the Life School.

Without the corresponding skills, and with only a dozen or so of each plant left, cultivating them was simply too difficult.

The first step was still breeding them.

At the same time, he needed to continue searching the Hidden Borderlands for other specimens and replenish their numbers as much as possible. Only then could he slowly cultivate more refined varieties.

Thinking this, Linsey walked to a corner of the greenhouse.

Following his memory, he rummaged through boxes and cabinets and quickly found where Finn stored the seeds.

"This jar is... right, Winter Wheat."

"And this one, where's the cabbage?"

Linsey began busily working in the greenhouse.

He roughly calculated each plant's reproduction cycle, cultivation numbers, and seed yield, while also estimating the time required and planning out the cultivation process.

And so, the night gradually deepened.

Linsey was immersed in his work and barely noticed the passage of time outside.

It was at that moment.

That the sound of something falling to the ground suddenly came from the front hall where Finn's body had been placed.

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