Chapter 76 – Early Snowstorm (1)

The public cemetery of Section 3 had been constructed with higher priority, even though all manpower was mobilized to build the defensive walls.

It was a place created to honor the souls and courage of the deceased who had lost their lives in this mutant raid.

“…….”

All the people of the Ember were gathered in that public cemetery.

They stood firmly, without uttering a single word.

Yet, under everyone’s gaze, there was a man standing silently in front of the public cemetery.

“Aylen…….”

The scoundrel Aylen Vale, who had returned as a magic engineer.

Everyone fell solemn before him. No, they had no choice but to be.

Having bustled about to save even one more citizen, he had ultimately suffered a severe injury and fallen unconscious.

Although he had saved only about ten people, because the place he belonged to was such a small Ember, he was no different from a savior to everyone.

In other words, he was a hero.

Such a man had finally woken up.

A week was a short amount of time, but because the achievements he accomplished were not small, the citizens could not help but feel it was long enough to express it that way.

However, his injured right arm was still wrapped in bloody bandages along with a splint.

What that implied was that Aylen might have to live the rest of his life as disabled, which was exactly what the citizens had feared so much.

However, the silence created by the crowd of nearly a thousand people was due to something other than their pitiful looks at Aylen’s injury.

“To think that the first place he visited as soon as he woke up was here.”

“Then, the fact that he was wandering around the streets of Section 3, which had no connection to him, was also……?”

“……Indeed, that must be it. It must have been to commemorate the other heroes who deserved to be treated well if they had lived.”

The citizens murmured in admiration, never taking their eyes off Aylen, who stood with closed eyes before the thirty-odd gravestones made of ice.

They had all questioned the news that Aylen was walking around Section 3, but the question was fully resolved when he was discovered at the public cemetery.

He had come here to commemorate and mourn those who had died.

That was something any citizen of the same Ember ought to do, so it was not particularly worthy of being looked up to.

But this case was different.

In terms of it being the very first thing Aylen, who had rapidly risen as a hero of the Ember within a week, did as soon as he regained consciousness.

“……Aylen was truly a hero.”

Someone murmured with respect, and that voice flowed into everyone’s ears amidst the silence and settled in their hearts.

Without exception, everyone gathered in this place recognized Aylen as a hero.

It was an atmosphere that formed naturally even without Aylen explaining wretchedly or shouting.

It was just when the citizens were looking at the motionless Aylen with a strange fever in their eyes.

Step, step—

Aylen moved his steps and headed toward the left corner of the cemetery.

Standing before the gravestone there, as if his hand was not even cold, he raised his trembling right arm and caressed the gravestone.

Then, he began to gaze at the letters written on the gravestone for a long time as if engraving them in his heart, and started to murmur.

“Jerry. Attracted the attention of the mutants and lured them into the alley to save his young siblings.”

“Toby. Ran around ringing the warning bell at the risk of his life to alert the Ember of the mutant intrusion.”

“Claire. Did not evacuate to take care of her sick mother and stayed by her side until the end…….”

The inscriptions written on the gravestones were all earnest stories.

The citizens also knew the reasons why the deceased had ended up that way, so many sobbed and wiped away their tears.

However, to put it another way, the reason they became the deceased was also to proclaim that they were true heroes.

Since they had all died for the sake of others, they were heroes of the Ember who were no different from Aylen.

If there was any difference, it would be that they died and Aylen survived.

It was just when Aylen had visited all thirty-odd gravestones, calling out each name and reciting the cause of death.

Thud.

Suddenly, standing before a gravestone, Aylen knelt down.

And then, he wrapped the coat he had brought around the gravestone.

On the chest of the leather coat, a golden badge symbolizing the top scorer of the qualification exam was pinned.

In his own way, he was showing respect for their sacrifice with the most valuable thing he possessed.

“Heh…….”

At that, the people who had wondered why he had brought a coat he would not even wear let out a deflated breath.

They had been inwardly suspecting that Aylen’s sacrificial actions were impulsive or calculated, but all of his behaviors disallowed such speculation.

However, there was a fact even more shocking than hanging a coat with a magic engineer’s badge on the gravestone.

“That’s Katrina’s gravestone……!”

Of all things, the gravestone that Aylen hung his coat on belonged to Katrina Vengard.

This was something that could bring a huge shock to all the citizens of the Ember.

Although there was no practical connection between Aylen and Katrina’s death, because Katrina had passed her right to receive treatment to Aylen, the citizens thought that Aylen had inherited her soul.

Of course, the citizens also knew that was not actually the case.

It was just that Katrina’s death was such a huge event, so it was like brainwashing or assigning meaning in their own way to overcome the grief.

However, Aylen, who had just woken up and had not heard even a single sentence of explanation about himself and her, coincidentally hung the coat on her gravestone.

Whether that was truly a coincidence or intentional, they did not know.

But if it was a coincidence, it was fate; if it was intentional, it was the same.

The moment the place where Aylen hung the coat was Katrina’s gravestone, it meant the result would not change.

“Aylen!”

In a moment where a myriad of emotions crossed, someone rushed out from the crowd in a solemn yet heated atmosphere.

He was David Vengard, Katrina’s husband.

David, looking haggard, frowned and staggered as he slowly moved toward Aylen.

David’s atmosphere, with a face full of sorrow and regret and at the same time engulfed in absolute anger and resentment, was unusual.

It even looked as though he might harm Aylen.

Yet, no one could block his way.

Because David was the real protagonist of this tragedy, the very person who had to bear the weight of that sorrow alone.

They had nothing they could do except just watch.

“…….”

In the midst of that, was he planning to endure David’s twisted resentment?

For whatever reason, Aylen simply stared at David, who was approaching threateningly.

As the distance between the two narrowed and the tension escalated without limit, David finally stood before him.

Now, the citizens were swallowing hard.

They thought that whatever was going to happen, would happen.

“……!”

At that moment, David’s hand reached out toward Aylen.

Fearing that another tragedy might unfold in this place, the citizens reached out with hands that could not touch them.

However, David’s hand did not become a fist and strike Aylen.

Instead, he merely caressed Aylen’s hand gently, as if feeling sorry for him.

“Aylen, thank you. And I am sorry……! My wife and I have placed too heavy a burden on your heart. I am sorry, I am truly sorry!”

At David’s outcry, the citizens’ eyes welled with tears.

They had expected him to pour out his anger at losing his wife onto Aylen, but to think he would apologize instead.

It was a scene that even the citizens, who well knew the kind nature of the Vengard couple, could not easily imagine.

“…….”

Aylen did not answer and simply clasped David’s hand.

That attitude made it seem as if there was no perpetrator but only victims in this place, so they should neither apologize nor receive one.

Was it because of Aylen’s detached appearance?

“Thank you, Aylen…….”

Flop!

David, who had poured out a torrent of tears, looked at him with a peaceful gaze and collapsed against his shoulder.

It was because he had abused his body without eating or sleeping for a week.

Aylen picked up the unconscious David and left the place immediately.

Judging by the direction he vanished, he was likely heading to the hospital ward.

“…….”

Thus, only the audience remained in the place where the protagonists of the comedy and tragedy had disappeared together.

The lingering emotion was so great that they could not leave their seats for a long time.

Before them, only Aylen’s coat, swaying in the snowy wind, fluttered bleakly like a falling curtain after the play ended.

* * *

“Mia, please take care of David.”

I visited the hospital ward and immediately slipped out of the place after leaving David in Mia’s care.

Her hostility toward me had grown larger than before.

She seemed to believe that David’s half-dead state was because of me.

I could have argued back, but I did not.

Since what I did in front of the public cemetery would reach her ears soon anyway.

There was no need to spend energy on something that would resolve itself if left alone.

But the reason I did not bicker with her was not simply for that reason.

‘They said the snowstorm really doesn’t have much time left now. There is not much time remaining…….’

I had been lying unconscious for a week.

Then it meant the snowstorm would arrive in about three weeks.

Within that time, I had to prepare for various problems that could arise, whether it was a magic engineering prosthetic, a mana gun, or preparations against mutant raids.

Of course, since there was a leadership, it was none of my business to care.

But how well could the leadership of this small Ember possibly perform its role?

I intended to personally check and prepare across all areas, from food to resources, out of distrust toward them.

But those were all secondary things, and there was something I had to check first when the snowstorm came.

That was none other than the fundamental device that allowed the city to be called by the name of Ember.

The inspection of the magic engineering generator, the Eternal Embers.

‘When I saw it before, the level of the Eternal Embers was no different from that of the early cities. There is a high probability that a problem will occur.’

A primitive magic engineering generator from the early Ice Age.

An early-form, loophole-ridden invention that had not developed at all since its creation.

Before leaving for the First Ember, the Eternal Embers of our Ember, which I had caught a glimpse of, was exactly like that.

It had not been modified or reinforced at all due to various reasons such as political friction or its small scale.

Indeed, its performance was such that it could not even cover the entire radius of the current thousand-person residential area.

Making the gravestones of Section 3’s public cemetery, which was built on the outskirts, out of ice was partly because it was difficult to process stone, but it was also possible because of that reason.

“Let’s go. I will only know the details once I get there…….”

With an unexpectant heart, I began to head toward the heart of the Ember, the Eternal Embers, which was emitting heat with a *whoosh* sound in the distance.

At this moment, whether the actual power of the Ember belonged to the leadership or the magic engineering department was meaningless.

Our Ember was like a lamp before the fierce wind of a snowstorm.

The lamp of ours that I inspected was in a far more wretched state than I had expected.

“What is this…… Rather than an Ember, it should be called ashes.”

The ashes left after everything burned down.

The Eternal Embers of our city was practically a dying ember.