"Ancient rivers once flowed before your eyes,
And towering mountains made you stop and gaze;
No matter when your journey ended here,
You now rest in your golden homeland."
Tang Qi hummed softly and planted the golden fallen leaves and the lone remaining sword hilt beside the gravestone.
"What should I say? That I brought Catherine safely to Dragon Gold City, opened a tavern that made decent money, and now even slaughtered that old goblin? Would that put your soul at rest?"
"Ha! If he knew you slept with his daughter, sank the tavern's profits into it, and finally destroyed his sword, he'd crawl straight out of his grave to say hello."
"Don't scare me, Gravel. I just saw the grave move."
"Hahaha!"
Gravel poured Star Plum Wine over the grave marker and gave the wooden slab a gentle kick, leaving its inscription crooked along with it—
[Gawain Monte Carlo: a bastard of a husband, a bastard of a father, and a bastard of an adventurer.]
"Forget that gloomy talk about resting in peace. This guy's definitely swimming down some branch of the Styx, waiting to climb the highest peak in the underworld."
"You're right. I still don't know him well enough."
Tang Qi nodded and straightened the grave marker.
"But I still ought to tell him, 'Hey, this is where it ends,' shouldn't I?"
"Yeah. This is where it ends."
Gravel looked up at the golden oak, then at the tavern whose remote location had spared it from the destruction, as though gazing at the memories of the three years since he and Black Snake arrived in Star Plum Town.
"And we won't be coming back."
"No need to say that so soon. Traveling means moving on and stopping along the way. Maybe one day we'll turn around and