Chapter 100: Chapter 100

Using his grief as a shield, Ron concealed his true emotions perfectly. He continued to ask for a few more details about that battle before finally letting Monte off the hook.

During the morning patrol, as they passed by Morris’s house, he asked Monte for the exact location, then broke away from the squad to walk toward Morris’s home alone.

He had only walked halfway when he came to a halt. It wasn’t that he suddenly wanted to give up, but rather he noticed that there was no obvious self-organizing system capable of interfering with the Pollution Secret Patterns inside the house.

Simply put, there was no one inside.

So he turned back and asked Monte, “Captain, where is Instructor Morris’s family?”

“I’m not quite sure, but if they aren’t home now, they might be at the cemetery to the north. Later, when our patrol route takes us near that area, you can go over and take a look.”

“Mm.”

Ron didn’t say anything else. The patrol squad traveled on horseback and soon left the block where Morris’s house was located behind. After patrolling nearly half of the core area, the group finally arrived near the West Town Training Ground.

Taking a small path from the west of the training ground and the east of the Bell Tower heading north, then continuing northwest along the river for a stretch, one could see a stone bridge slightly narrower than the large bridge east of the Bell Tower that led to Sis Castle.

Reaching the end of the stone bridge was the cemetery of Sis Territory. Like Sis Castle, it was also built against the mountain, but located outside the castle.

Of course, this cemetery only buried the ordinary subjects of the territory. The Lord’s family had their own private family mausoleum, which clearly highlighted the distinction.

Ron’s father, He Luo, was also buried in this public cemetery. However, in Ron’s memories, he had been so deeply in denial of his father’s death that he had only actually come here two or three times over the past five years.

Stepping into the cemetery, Ron immediately spotted the crowd holding a funeral. The number of people far exceeded his expectations, which reminded him that Morris wasn’t the only casualty in this cultist attack.

Many more had died days ago; it was just that the families had chosen to hold a collective burial today.

Ron scanned the crowd blankly, picking out two families where a mother and daughter were burying a husband, assisted by Territory Guard soldiers.

“Which one is it?” Ron wondered.

Prior to today, he had never met Morris’s family, but he did recall Morris mentioning before that he would try to matchmake the two of them once his daughter was a bit older.

Based on this, Morris’s daughter must be significantly younger than him!

Looking back at the two mothers and daughters, Ron quickly locked onto his target. He strode forward, approached Morris’s wife and daughter, and offered a bow before saying:

“Mrs. Nina, I am Instructor Morris’s apprentice. The instructor always looked out for me, so I came to see him on his final journey.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, Ron felt several gazes land on him simultaneously. Morris’s wife, Nina, looked at him with eyes full of grief but also tinged with confusion, while the daughter, Jenny, had a completely blank face, her eyes empty and lifeless.

Ron even began to doubt whether the girl even registered his sudden presence.

The other gazes came from several soldiers standing nearby. Judging by their attire, they were Formal Knights of the Territory Guard, but why did one of them harbor clear hostility in his eyes?

But at this moment, Ron had no time to dwell on it, as Nina was already handing him a shovel. Although she didn’t say a word, her meaning was clear.

Ron hastily took the shovel and began filling the grave where Morris’s coffin lay. Only then did he notice something abnormal about the coffin; it seemed somewhat incongruous with the surrounding soil.

Of course, this was a judgment made from the perspective of the Pollution Secret Patterns. In reality, as everyone covered it shovelful by shovelful, Morris’s coffin was quickly buried beneath the earth.

But this couldn’t erase the sense of incongruity Ron was perceiving at this moment.

The concentration of Pollution Secret Patterns in the cemetery area was far thinner than in the currently rebuilding East Town, but compared to the other undamaged districts, the Pollution Secret Pattern concentration here seemed slightly higher.

But even if it was slightly higher, the overall proportion of Pollution Secret Patterns within the space was still exceedingly small.

This made minute changes exceptionally noticeable. Only inside the territory, under such a low Pollution Secret Pattern ratio, did Ron’s observations bear any meaning.

At this moment, he could clearly see that Morris’s coffin was attracting the Pollution Secret Patterns in this area at a very slow, yet continuous and unending rate.

This certainly didn’t mean Morris was still alive. When Morris was alive, Ron had observed him; back then, Morris did attract Pollution Secret Patterns, but he mostly repelled them.

Those Pollution Secret Patterns were like moths drawn to a flame but blocked by a lampshade. Only a meager few could ultimately enter the human body, which was the so-called “pollution.”

But now, Morris’s coffin possessed absolutely no repelling force against Pollution Secret Patterns; there was only a faint attraction.

What exactly did this situation signify?

Ron had no immediate answers, so he could only keep this question in his heart and continue filling the grave until the dirt was level with the ground.

Then, Morris’s wife, Nina, took a basket of small stones from a soldier beside her. Together with her daughter, she stacked the stones into a small cairn over the freshly turned earth above Morris’s coffin.

This was a custom originating from the long-extinct ancient kingdom of Gustara, but in Sis Territory, which boasted a large population of Gustaran descendants, it had evolved into a unique local tradition.

This process was the final farewell from the deceased’s kin, and outsiders could not do it for them.

Finally came the tombstone, engraved with Morris’s name and the territory’s official posthumous evaluation of him: an outstanding warrior.

The exact same evaluation appeared on the tombstone of Ron’s father, He Luo. “Warrior” was an acknowledgment of the deceased’s identity, while “outstanding” was a recognition of their strength and merits, an epithet generally reserved only for Formal Knights.

If a quasi-Knight fell in the line of duty, the official evaluation would typically be “a loyal warrior.”

…

With the tombstone erected, the entire funeral drew to a close. Ron intended to take his leave right about now: “Mrs. Nina, please accept my condolences. Forgive me, but duty calls. I will visit your home again later to pay my respects.”

Mrs. Nina was still immersed in the profound grief of losing her husband. Seeing this, Ron didn’t expect a reply; he set down the shovel and prepared to leave.

Just then, a frivolous voice called out from behind him: “So you’re Ron?”

Without even turning around, Ron was absolutely certain the speaker was the same person who had looked at him with hostility just moments ago. But in front of Morris’s widow, he couldn’t afford to be too rude.

Suppressing his inner displeasure, he turned around and replied: “Yes, I am Ron. What might your business be, sir?”