Chapter 5: Five: The Returning Bloom, The Scattered Blossom
Login Required
This content is restricted. Please log in to access it.
On the plain where many lives had perished, a knight's figure rushed toward the center of the stench of death.
"I had a bad feeling and came to see, but for it to be this bad..."
The knight muttered to himself in an exhausted tone. His voice held the same muddiness as the song heard earlier.
"Simon, Craig... To think I let such strong men, such young men, die."
"It wasn't just Simon and the others; I let many soldiers die as well."
Muttering to himself, the knight threw off his helmet.
Eventually, the knight advanced before Koai and her companions, dismounted, and knelt.
"It is an honor to meet you for the first time. I am Jeremy Schager, the one who leads the Prester Order—no... who led it."
"It may be an informal request, but at the very least... I wish to mourn the soldiers who fought so bravely. Would you permit it?"
The knight requested to perform last rites for his soldiers. Perhaps it was a gesture that was halfway to surrender.
"What's the plan, Your Majesty?"
The large man, Akudo, prompted Koai for a response, but her attention was focused solely on the eyes of the knight who called himself the commander.
The knight's eyes seemed gentle somehow, and Koai remained silent.
The knight seemed to take her silence as permission.
"O God, O divine grace."
"Save them from their sins, lift their souls to the heavens."
"O God, grant them salvation. 'Piria'."
With the knight who finished the chant at its center, a soft light like sunshine spread far and wide. It had no effect on Koai and her companions, but it seemed to have meaning for the corpses and the mortally wounded who had not yet died.