That afternoon, the warm sun had yet to sink west of the Misty Mountains. Its gentle light felt soothing on the skin.
On the hillside east of Wilderness Town, nearly two hundred gravestones stood scattered across a stretch of grass.
Quite a few people were busy around the graves, working on a wooden fence.
After Alayen brought the fallen soldiers home, Wilderness Town began gathering supplies under Ymira's direction and making arrangements for their burial.
On the third day after Alayen's return, Ymira assembled a large number of townsfolk and, with the families in attendance, buried the soldiers one by one at the site Allen had designated.
A handful of residents preferred to bury their loved ones in their own family plots. Ymira did not insist; such matters were best left to personal choice.
For the soldiers buried in the Martyrs' Cemetery, their families made wooden headstones to mark their graves.
They simply carved the soldiers' names, roles, ages, and deeds from their lives onto them.
Allen wandered among the nearly two hundred gravestones, his heart heavy with mixed emotions. He knew that, upon receiving the news, Ymira had already sent the soldiers' families notices of compensation and bereavement payments.
Still, Allen felt it was not quite enough. He planned to award medals of honor to every soldier who had taken part in the battle-a one-time issue commemorating the Battle of Lonely Mountain.
After all, it had been an exceptionally brutal battle, one that had laid the foundation for Wilderness Town's development over the next ten years.
Allen intended to cast the medals in gold, with four different designs for infantry, archers, cavalry, and auxiliaries.
For those who had fallen in battle, an additional ruby would be set into the medal, representing the blood they had spilled on the battlefield.