Chapter 58

Celine exhaled heavily as she approached the iron eagle.

“Are you okay? If we take a break…”

“It’s okay, it’s okay.”

Even though Leonhard repeatedly asked her to take a break, each time, she shook her head. If the ghost came upon them again, she would be nothing more than a burden, far from helping. So, she had to align the bones as quickly as possible to shake off the ghost.

“Le—!”

Celinescreamed, startled by his face as he suddenly drew closer to her titled body. Leonhard spoke to her calmly, holding her in his arms stably.

“It’s not surprising, but seeing that you’re surprised, it looks like you’re not feeling very well. When we get out of here, take the week off.”

“…What if a ghost comes?”

“I’ll throw it. Like before.”

“….”

She couldn’t laugh because she knew it was never a joke.

“Are you very unwell? As expected, we should take a break…”

“I’m okay!”

Celine shouted, covering her face with her hands.

She couldn’t get her mind off the look on Leonhard’s face as he drew closer with concern. The lava zone was better for her. At that time, her life was in danger every moment. However, he was now completely focused on her, and she seemed to go crazy with embarrassment.

“Just, let’s go…”

While he seemed a little puzzled, Leonhard agreed with her words that the time was of importance. He immediately started running while holding Celine.

‘…He runs well.’

Celine thought blankly as she was held in Leonhardt’s arms.

She may be light, but she was still a grown woman. After struggling all day, it would be a burden to hold her and run with her. Nonetheless, Leonhardt ran without a moment’s rest and reached the large building adorned with a giant iron eagle.

“Is this right?”

“Yes.”

She nodded her head. Because it was a stage with not much presence, the details she couldn’t remember well came to life when she actually saw it.

“There will be bones in this. If we align it right before the ghost catches us, it’s done.”

The huge door was locked, so he had to smash it with Rashir.

‘Originally, I needed a key to get in here.’

The door broke into shards, and Celine jumped over the door and entered. There was a vast hall and several doors.

‘It was in the hall.’

Glancing around for a while, she was looking for the bones. The hall was full of old furniture and all sorts of other things, so it was not easy to find something. Celine lifted the moldy duvet when she found a pile of firewood infested with bugs and frowned.

“Is it that?”

Leonhard pointed his finger at the sofa where the cushion fell.

As she approached slowly, she could see the bones of a person who had turned yellow and scattered untidy.

“We have to align it.”

“To make it to its original form?”

At that, she nodded her head and picked up the shin bone. Since she was in a hurry, Celine didn’t even feel disgusted or fear. However, the moment she tried to align the shin bone with another bone, her head went white.

‘Is this the shin bone right…?’

In the game, a solid line was drawn like a puzzle, so all she had to do was fit it inside.

But, it was different now. She had to put everything in the right place, relying on her senses and knowledge. Still, all Celina had seen was the bones of those who died thousands of years ago in the museum, a few times at best.

“May I?”

“Yes, yes!”

Leonhard immediately snatched what was supposed to be the shin bone from Celine’s hand and then began to align the bone with speed.

‘…Wow.’

Celine gazed at him in astonishment.

About ten minutes passed, and on the sofa laid the well-arranged bone. All of a sudden, a whitish mass flowed through the shattered door. As she immediately avoided it, Leonhard pulled Rashir from his waist. Despite that, the ghost didn’t attack any of them.

Suddenly, she realized.

‘…It was here to find its bones.’

She couldn’t remember if there was an event like this. Still, the ghost’s movements looked like it was embracing its bones. Very slowly, the shape of the ghost, which looked like a chunk of mass, became transparent.

When Celine was exhausted and sat on the floor, the ghost had completely disappeared. Leonhard swung Rashir a little at the place where the ghost had been a while ago.

“It’s completely gone.”

“…It must not have been able to rest because it could not find its bones.”

“I don’t know.”

He could not agree with Celine. A normal obsession wouldn’t result in a ghost.

The cases he had seen so far have been cases where they became a ghost because they couldn’t bear bitter regrets. If a person who simply couldn’t find their body becomes a ghost, the world would be full of dead ghosts.

“Anyway, we’re done with what I’m doing here.”

Celine slowly walked out of the hall.

“Look, Leonhard. It’s sunlight!”

The hazy fog seemed to have disappeared with the ghost, and the sky was clear and blue without a speck like winter. Celine closed her eyes, enjoying the sunlight. She could feel neither the heat of the lava field nor the unusual moisture of the mist.

She knew instinctively.

There was no music, so it looked like the third stage of True Ending wasn’t over yet. Nevertheless, at least what had to be done in this abandoned village was over.

“…Something is strange.”

At those words, she opened her eyes and looked at Leonhard and got terrified.

After the mist lifted, all around were tombs. The narrow path they walked through in the mist was the only space without a tomb, while the rest of the land in the abandoned village was full of tombs without a single cross, let alone tombstones.

“This… this is all…”

Celine was stunned. She had no memory of seeing these graves in the game.

‘No, I saw it…!’

Celine recalled images of these muddy mounds in her faint memories. Still, it was drawn with simple graphics, and it didn’t even have a tombstone so she thought it was a simple background.

“I should take a closer look.”

Saying so, Leonhard started walking along the road and Celine quickly caught up with him. Seeing him, who would have slowed down in consideration of her, walking fast, the situation looked grave.

Ten minutes later.

They glanced around quite a few places but found no land without a tomb. Leonhard stopped in an area where there were a lot of tombs before looking around for a while. Unlike other tombs, the tombs here had quite neat headstones embedded one by one.

‘…No.’

There was a sudden realization.

At first, this was just a cemetery. All other tombs were nothing more than places where the dead were buried.

“…Was there a war?”

“If it’s a war, they can’t bury each one like this. The winner would have gathered the losers together and burned them down.”

Leonhard answered firmly and looked at the tombstones one by one.

“I think… It must have been an epidemic.”

Celine read the epitaph that Leonhard was looking at. There, a single line was engraved along with the name on the rough stone.

[ Be healthy in heaven. ]

“This…”

Instead of answering, he pointed to the nearby tombstones one by one.

The blue-gray eyes widened.

“It’s all the same.”

“Yes. To die of this disease at the same time… It could only be an epidemic. The fact that there is only one line means that there were too many deaths at the same time.”

Leonhard turned his back slowly before beckoning Celine.

“Come on, let’s go.”

“Then, that person…”

Even though she did not refer to it as a ghost or a skeleton, he knew who Celine was talking about and parted his lips.

“It seems that it was the last survivor. They probably dug all the graves near the building.”

Celine was choked. At the same time, her stomach hurt so much that she couldn’t move.

“How lonely have they been? It would be scary, and painful…”

Leonhard’s answer was rather rigid.

“Fate is inevitable.”

At those words, she lowered her head.

“I would have become a ghost, too.”

“Anyone would.”

Leonhard agreed.

“Still, don’t feel guilty. Even with your magic, it wouldn’t feel any pain. Didn’t it actually look like they found rest?”

“…Leonhard.”

Celine raised her head and saw Leonhard’s eyes, who said so. He expected tears but was a little startled when he met her determined blue-grey eyes.

“I want to bury them in a proper grave.”

“I see.”

Leonhard nodded his head.

Celine was able to find a clean tablecloth in the swamped hall. She put the white bones on a tablecloth that was once white but had now turned yellow like the bone in front of her.

As she went out, Leonhard gestured to her.

“There is not enough land… Only here.”

The place he was talking about was right next to the broken door.

As she got closer, she saw a hole large enough for an adult male to fit in. It looked like it had been dug by Rashir while she was cleaning up the bones. Celine carefully shoved the white bones piled up on the tablecloth into the hole.

“I will cover the soil.”

When he nodded his head, Celine focused her mind for a moment.

A breeze began to surround her, and it gradually turned into a strong wind. Celine lifted her hand and moved the dirt around the grave. Finally, a tomb that was no different from any other tombs around was completed.

‘There must be a tombstone.’

At the thought, she picked up one of the largest pieces of the broken door and pulled out Ringzor.

‘What should I write…’

She wanted to write the name at the very least, but she couldn’t know anything about those who died alone. Suddenly, Leonhard gently snatched away the piece that Celine had intended for the tombstone.

“….?”

He painstakingly engraved something with the dagger-turned-Rashir before returning it to Celine.

[ May you rest forever. ]

“That is the only epitaph that can be given to one who was once a ghost.”

“….”

Biting her lips, she couldn’t think of any other proper words. Celine then slowly placed the improvised tombstone on the tomb.

“….!”

At that exact moment, the music that seemed to bring out tears of relief just by listening to it rang in her ears.

“What’s going on?”

Leonhard, who sensed an abnormality, urgently asked her, but she could not say more than this. Instead, she peered around her.

The third stage of the True Ending route was over. It meant that there would definitely be a box.

‘That’s it!’

Between the nameless tombs, there was a box that she had opened over and over again. As she ran to open the box, Celine didn’t pay attention to Leonhard’s gaze.

“What…”

The box fell to the ground from her loosened hands.

It was an empty box with nothing inside.