Chapter 308: bone city

It did not take long before all the soldiers bid their farewell and left the restaurant, leaving only Clark and Diana behind.

As soon as they left, Diana turned to face Clark. “I guess that’s all for today, we’ll meet in 2 weeks then”.

Clark intended to wave his hand in a gesture that she was free to go, but he paused on seeing a familiar face enter the restaurant. After entering the restaurant, Leo walked directly in his best friend’s direction.

Getting to their table, Leo ignored his friend and turned to the girl. He extended his hand for a shake. “Hey! My name is Leonard, I was a good friend of Benny”.

“Hi!” Diana took the hand politely before directing a questioning gaze at Clark.

“He’s my friend”.

“Oh!”

She finally turned back to face Leo with a smile. “Nice to meet you”.

“Nice to meet you too”.

As soon as Leo sat down, the door to the restaurant opened again and a group of people came in this time. King, Smartman, Emily, and Kate all came in at the same time, forming a rare spectacle.

Following the same format, they all went to meet Diana, introduced themselves to her before forcing Clark to further introduce them more intimately.

Only King smiled helplessly behind them like he was forced to come here.

Seeing all these strange people except King who she was familiar with coming in all of a sudden while giving her such special attention, she was puzzled at first but the next word they said revealed everything to her.

“We’re sorry about your loss”.

She didn’t even have the energy to reply to them, she instead devoted it to direct a glare at Clark who flinched back on her fierce stare.

In the end, she had to thank them and also reassured them that she was fine and already got over it before they let her go.

As soon as she got the small window of opportunity that she wanted, she excused herself before disappearing from the restaurant with a pop sound. Her projected figure dissipated into the air.

When her eyes focused again, her perception was finally back to her body. She could still hear the sound of the speed train moving across, which reassured her that nothing happened when her perception was projected far away.

Yes, she was currently on a train and was leaving the Spartan republic.

After making her decision to become a lone mercenary, she decided to start her new occupation far away from home. There, she was sure that her potential would be fully exploited.

The Spartan republic was just among one of the hundreds of countries in the world, there were a lot of places with bright prospects for her growth.

Maybe if things worked as she was dreaming about, she may become a bigshot in the future too, just like Clark.

Attending her boyfriend’s burial brought a lot of hidden emotions back to her mind, but she commended herself for suppressing them back so perfectly.

She missed Clark and her squadmates, even her family back in her city but she was determined to leave.

Maybe, one day, if she found what she was looking for, she would return to the Spartan republic.

…

“She’s changed a lot”. King turned to face Clark as soon as Diana left.

“Yes”. Clark stood up. “Not only her, but we all also changed a lot”.

“Are we going back now?” Emily asked on seeing him stand up.

“You guys can go, but I’m not going back to Vatican City yet. I have somewhere else to go with Leo first before going back home”.

Kate turned to look at her husband. “Where are you going? Why didn’t you tell me about this?”

“It’s nothing important”.

“Tell me!”

Clark answered on his best friend’s behalf. “We’re going for the burial ceremony being organized by Benny’s parents”.

Before any of them could recover from the shock of this sudden news, Clark held his friend and dragged him outside.

Zoom!

The sound of the sports car’s engines revving loudly and its tires screeching as it sped across the road was what brought them back to reality.

Kate was stunned. “How many funerals do they intend to attend?”

No one answered her, they just shrugged.

“I wish I had friends like the both of them”. Emily spoke dreamily. “Perhaps, then death would not be so scary knowing that they had my back”.

Suppressing the complicated feeling that was in their hearts, they turned to leave. Going outside, they picked up Rose on the way who went to greet her old friends after the funeral.

After confirming their identity again, their sports car was finally allowed to leave the army headquarters.

After a long eventful day, the military funeral was finally over.

…

Driving out of the headquarters, Clark set his car’s nose in the direction of the highway immediately.

Though in a sense he didn’t do anything throughout the day but just attending a funeral, he was already feeling weak mentally. Staying in such a rowdy atmosphere was draining to the brain.

He and Leo already planned their schedule for today with Rose, so before even coming for the military funeral they already decided to leave before the time clocked 2:00 pm.

They didn’t have anything for today again, but tomorrow was the day that Benny’s parents decided on doing their local burial ceremony to commemorate the memories left behind by their son.

Though they cried a lot today during the military burial, their relatives that came with them were still able to take the both of them back home in preparation for the next day.

The burial being organized by the old couple was a very small one, and it would be very brief that is why Clark and Leo decided to go there a day before it is officially done.

They already did their best to honor their deceased friend, but they still saw it as a priority to attend this last ceremony in remembrance of him.

Benny’s ancestral city, Bone City was one of the least developed cities in the whole of Southern Sparta. It was even more backward than Leo’s home city, which just showed how awful it was.

From here to Bone City was a long journey, this was another reason why both of them decided to go there early, but this was still not the ultimate reason.

The ultimate reason was security.

In such a backward city, it was almost certain that the insecurity problems there would be numerous. Clark already made a silent vow to protect the couples, he was not going to go back on his words now.

This time, they took off by air which was faster.

By the time that they got to Bone City, only 30 minutes has passed. Driving the sports car down the airplane, they took to the streets yet again.

Another 15 minutes was quickly depleted before they found themselves in Benny’s ancestral home. Mr. John Hart as a father was proud of himself to have erected a building where countless other parents failed.

Though it was just a bone of a building before, it was still a shelter that could shield him, his wife, and his child from the horrors of the world.

When his son finally made it as a soldier, Benny took it upon himself to renovate the building. He didn’t make it bigger; he didn’t expand it; he just changed some essential things to make it look more modern and nicer to the eyes.

As a child who lived and grew there for more than half his life, he knew all the nook and crooks of the house.

Under his guidance and instructions, a perfect renovation that kept most of its former look in place was done.

Looking at the building, Clark and Leo could practically see the imprints of their friend all over it. As roommates when they just started their career, they knew almost all of Benny’s antics and preferences.

Most preparations for the burial ceremony were already done, so only a few superficial things were being perfected.

They both didn’t see the old couple; they were probably cajoled to sleep to help them forget about the pain of today.

After making sure that nothing was wrong here, they both finally left and located the only nice hotel in the region to have a proper rest.

They woke up in the evening.

After getting themselves some much-needed dinner, which replenished their exhausted mental reserves, they both stood up and went on a foot tour around their friend’s city.

For the first time, they were finally able to see most of the things that Benny told them about during their discussions physically.

They visited the internet café that was Benny’s best playground when he was younger. They visited his best restaurant, indulged themselves in the local food, did a lot of other things before they finally retreated for the night.

Getting back to the hotel, they spent the night peacefully.

The next morning, they both got dressed in a pair of black casual jean trousers and a black polo shirt before going out.

By the time that they got to the building, the burial ceremony already started. Clark was right, the strap of cloth that he brought back was the substitute for their son that the parents buried.

Surprisingly, though the emotions ran high like expected, the old couple no longer cried. From their expressions, they were in pain but tears did not fall from their eyes.

After getting the consent of the father, 2 of the relatives around finally started filling the grave amid a song of mourning being sung by another of the relatives.

What shocked Clark was that a security breach was detected.

He thanked his God for being present. Before the group of thugs could act, he shot them dead from a distance while Leo sneaked closer and stealthily dispatched their bodies.

That way, the burial ceremony was not interrupted and everything continued.

Because of this occurrence though, Clark noted to himself that he would make sure that the old couple leaves the city. They could not stay here at all when the city was like this.

The ceremony only lasted for 30 minutes before coming to an end.

Before leaving with his best friend, Clark put a call through to the Sergeant who was the leader of the city’s military division.

Unlike other military divisions that he was familiar with, this one was much smaller and so also was the bar of entry to become its leader.

When the Sergeant confirmed that a genuine Captain was the one talking to him, he practically fainted in shock and delight.

He thanked Clark, promised him that no harm would befall the couple, and also promised him that he would make sure they leave the city in a week.

Clark was satisfied with that, so he finally turned to leave.

The past few weeks since he returned from the great Himalayan peaks were extremely eventful. From this to that, he never had the opportunity to rest.

After fulfilling all these, now he finally had the time to focus on his training and his upcoming attack against the Persian tigers organization.

It was time to move on.

[Thanks for reading.]