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Tingen City, Raphael Cemetery.
Although the afternoon sunlight was quite strong, many places here remained dark and cold.
Leonard stood before a grave, silently gazing at the headstone.
Sunlight shone brightly overhead, while one corner of the cemetery lay quiet and cool. Leonard Mitchell suddenly picked up the shovel planted beside him.
Two piles of earth gradually grew higher as the grave was exposed little by little. People occasionally passed nearby, but noticed nothing, as though what was happening here were merely a dream.
Finally, Leonard abandoned the shovel, bent down, and reached out with both hands to grip the edges of the coffin lid.
With a sudden heave, he lifted the heavy wooden lid. He discovered that the long, thick iron nails had fallen out at some unknown point. Inside the pitch-black coffin, there was nothing.
Nothing at all!
Leonard remained half bent over, silently staring at the scene. For a long time, he made no further movement, as though he had become a stone statue.
Several hours earlier.
Inside the East Balam Veteran Officers Club.
"...This is a place suffused with the radiance of honor. I deeply admire what you have done in East Balam." As Klein put on the badge with a number on its back, he looked at Councilman Macht. "If I wished to make a contribution here, whom should I approach?"
Councilman Macht pointed at the woman at the front desk.
"Just give it to her.
"She'll record it and post it on the noticeboard over there."
Klein nodded lightly.
"All right."
He then turned his head and had his valet, Richardson, take out the five hundred pounds in cash prepared beforehand.
After making the donation, Klein followed Councilman Macht through the lavishly decorated hall into a room resembling a sitting room. His