Chapter 75 – Sacrifice (5)

It was the seventh day since the mutant disaster, which resulted in a hundred casualties, had occurred.

At the construction site of the defensive wall on the outskirts of the Ember, hard labor of moving, cutting, and erecting logs was continuing.

“Come on, come on! Everyone move quickly. We have to finish quickly to eat, do we not!”

The construction foreman Merel Wayne shouted with an intentionally lively voice to lift the sagging atmosphere.

“…….”

However, the workers did not reply.

They only continued their work in silence under the dark clouds that had neither hope nor light.

There was no vitality in the people’s eyes.

Just a few days ago, families, neighbors, and friends had passed away in large numbers.

The efforts of the Magic Engineering Department, which had breathed life into the Ember by announcing plans to manufacture golems and develop magic engineering equipment, also went down the drain in an instant.

Someone said that the emergence of mutants was a curse from God, or that God was punishing them.

Since the only god in this world was the Sun God, such words were enough to break the citizens’ will.

Because those words meant, in effect, that God had abandoned them.

“Meal preparation is finished. Everyone, please have your meal first……”

A young woman with the smell of food all over her body said to the workers with a dark face.

Likewise, without even replying, the workers only trudged toward the distribution center, dragging their bodies exhausted from hard labor.

*Bubble, bubble—*

As white steam rose into the sky, the smell of meat wafted.

It was a clear meat soup made by boiling ice and wolf meat together in a pot.

“This again……”

A worker who received his share of meat soup muttered grumpily.

It was a menu that had not changed since a week ago.

Although they knew it could not be helped because they had to save ingredients as much as possible due to the appearance of mutants and the upcoming snowstorm, they could not feel energized when the meal was like this.

Besides, the only meat was pieces floating on the pale broth.

Calling it meat soup was just a name; a clear soup containing only large bones was their single meal.

“Endure and eat it. If the snowstorm gets longer, you will miss even this.”

“It is not that… I feel like a sour smell will come out of my mouth, a sour smell.”

However, it was a time when they could not complain.

It was not just them eating such poor meals; the entire Ember was living like this.

*Gulp, gulp.*

People who drank the meat soup in one breath on the spot wiped their bowls clean with their eyes and finished their short meal.

They gathered in groups of three or five around the campfires lit in oil drums and began to warm themselves.

The lunch break was long, but eating took less than ten seconds, so spending this time was also a chore.

Naturally, talks began to pass between the people warming their frozen bodies at the campfires.

“Is Rick okay? I heard his injuries were severe.”

“Yes, fortunately, the treatment seems to have gone well. Mia said he might be discharged within a few days.”

“What about Sena? I heard her leg was broken.”

“Sena is……”

Words asking about their well-being, like who was okay, and how someone’s condition was.

Those were words spoken about the wounded, but.

“They lost their family, so would they be in their right mind? There is no way they are fine.”

“…….”

“He watched his son die in front of his eyes while spraying a fountain of blood from his neck. The shock must be immense.”

Those were also words spoken to the people left behind, the bereaved.

Because the bereaved were actually living like ghosts while refusing food and drink.

However.

“The dead are dead, and the living must live. We cannot be soaked in such sentiments forever. A week is enough time to shake it off.”

“That is true, but still—”

“Stop, you should not speak weak words either. Although we are not connected by blood, those who left were also another name for family to us. Is that not so?”

“……True.”

“Above all, it is not good for the Ember or themselves. We must help them pull themselves together as soon as possible and do a single person’s share. That must be what the dead wish for as well.”

This world was a world that could not keep death for long.

Helping the left-behind ones to move forward without wavering was the duty of a neighbor, and the virtue of those living in this world.

“It is time to work again. Everyone, let’s move!”

When working, one minute felt like an hour, so why did an hour feel like one minute when resting?

In the midst of the break that had finished before they knew it, the strict command of the construction foreman Merel Wayne fell.

“Let’s hang in there just a little more. We are already at Section 9. Once we do just two sections, this tiresome protective wall installation will be over, so let’s pull together!”

“Yess……”

The workers replied, albeit with weak voices.

Because although Merel Wayne acted strict, they knew he was rather trying to change this dark atmosphere somehow.

Just as the people were returning to the work site on the outskirts of Section 9.

*Scritch, scratch!*

From far away in Section 9, the sound of a saw was heard.

Someone had remained alone without even eating, engrossed in work.

The protagonist of that sound was David Vengard, who was sawing a log.

“David……”

Everyone who stopped in their tracks looked at him in shock.

It was a greater shock than the day when the blood of the dead was splattered.

The struggle of a survivor who lost his family was like madness, even to the point of being bizarre.

*Drip, drip.*

Blood was flowing from David’s fingertips.

Because he had chopped wood and sawed all week without rest, his palms were completely split.

Blood ran down the saw handle, soaking the blade, and the blood on the blade left red bloodstains on the cross section of the log.

David was overworking himself in the grief of losing his wife.

“…….”

However, no one could stop him.

How could one stop a person who only worked day and night without saying a single word or even eating?

Because even his sons could not stop him in his madness, no one dared to stop him.

Perhaps the only thing that could stop him was death.

“What are you doing? Get to work, quickly!”

Unable to watch any longer, Merel Wayne shouted, and only then did the workers frozen in place move.

They also wanted to throw everything away and sit down, but.

“We must work, work. We have to earn the price of their lives, do we not.”

As Merel Wayne said, doing so would be disrespectful to those who had already left.

Their deaths were for the living.

Struggling to survive was the true respect, mourning, and commemoration for their deaths.

*Clang, clang, clang—!*

The work continued without any words passing between them.

Even though they knew they had to shake off the past, they could not escape easily because the scale of the incident was so large.

They had to wait for time to heal them, but no one knew how many days and nights had to pass for this sadness to fade.

“Good grief…… I wish there was some good news.”

Merel muttered.

As he said, an immediate change was needed.

Whether it was making a golem or going out to the snowfield to take revenge on the mutants who were the root of this disaster.

However, those were all futile words.

Because this tiny Ember did not have the strength to achieve anything, they could only endure and endure.

In the midst of that gradually depressing atmosphere, someone ran over shouting.

“They say Aylen has woken up! He must have just woken up, because he is wearing patient clothes and heading somewhere……!”

“……!”

The gazes of the workers, who had dead eyes, turned all at once.

Their eyes were shining brighter than the stars in the night sky as if they had never been like that.

At the time of the incident, Aylen Vale’s deeds had spread and spread, turning him from the representative troublemaker of the Ember into a hero.

His return was the only way to reverse the gloomy atmosphere of the Ember in an instant.

So their eyes could not help but turn.

“Aylen woke up? Where, where is he!?”

“Let’s go, let’s go see Aylen!”

Throwing their equipment on the ground, the workers began to search for him.

Before long, the street formed a long procession of people going to find Aylen.

“My goodness…… I cannot even stop them.”

Although constructing the protective wall was an important task ordered by the leadership, so leaving during work was unacceptable, Merel only stared at them.

To him, Aylen was the punk who snatched the glory of being a magic engineer from his sons Thomas and Willus, and a guy he did not like at all because his intentions in approaching the leadership seemed impure, but.

“There must be days like this too. Yan will understand.”

He also did not want the Ember he lived in to become desolate.

In addition, since he had overworked the workers in accordance with Yan’s unreasonable demand to build the defensive wall quickly, he could not stop even this deviation.

“Hey, David.”

Thus, Merel approached David and tapped his shoulder.

Since David was gripped by the madness of failing to protect his wife and could not hear the noise around him, Merel tried to tell him directly.

It was at that moment.

*Whoosh!*

“……!”

With his face dreadfully distorted, David instinctively aimed the saw blade at Merel’s neck.

At that, while gulping, Merel spoke step by step.

“Aylen Vale has woken up. Why don’t you stop this and go see as well?”

Did that name, Aylen Vale, act as a trigger?

“Who…… woke up?”

The pupils of David, who had lost his reason, found focus.

Perhaps the person who had waited for Aylen to wake up so much was not his parents Demian and Rebecca, but him.

“Where is Aylen?”

“I do not know either. Why don’t you follow the people even now?”

“…….”

Gently putting down the saw, David joined the procession without a word.

His body, which had become very thin in a week, was pitiful.

“He was not originally that kind of person…… I had a narrow escape.”

Brushing his neck, which had almost been cut off, Merel followed behind him.

He was also one of those who had been eagerly waiting for Aylen’s…… no, the hero’s return.

“But Aylen was in Section 3? Why did he go there?”

At that moment, such words were heard from the side Merel joined.

It was talk about Aylen’s direction.

“Indeed. His house is in Section 1, so what on earth is there?”

Though he did not know if that drunkard was still like that now, even the tavern was in Section 6.

Section 3 was a place completely unrelated to him, so they could not easily guess the reason Aylen had headed there.

It was in the midst of various groundless speculations passing back and forth.

“Aylen will be fine, right?”

Someone brought up another topic.

This time, the reaction was hotter than before.

“Since he is fine, he is walking around, you idiot!”

“Geez, do not say such unlucky things.”

Criticism poured down in an instant.

The one who had worried about Aylen protested against the criticism poured on him.

“Who are you calling an idiot?”

“What?”

“Do you not remember that Aylen’s right arm was wrecked? Waking up is one thing, but I said it because I was worried if it was okay!”

The majority fell silent.

They had forgotten it in their joy of Aylen waking up, but they recalled that his arm, pierced by the mana bullet, had been in tatters.

This was a serious problem.

A hero had finally returned, but if it was a scarred glory, what meaning would there be?

Now Aylen was not a troublemaker. He was a real man and a hero who risked his life to defend the Ember.

The entire Ember would fall into sadness over his injury.

Just as the death of Mrs. Katrina Vengard did.

“Let’s go quickly……!”

The speed of the procession quickened with anxiety.

Whether Aylen’s condition was good or bad, they had a burning desire to confirm it with their own eyes.

Having searched Section 3 like that, they finally arrived at the place where Aylen was.

“……!”

Aylen Vale.

The place he sought as soon as he woke up was none other than the public cemetery.