April 05, 1410

Ray woke up to a knock on his door, he looked out the window, and saw it was morning. Ray told the person who was knocking to come in, Vincent poked his head in.

“Here, catch!” Vincent said, as he threw a black bag at Ray.

Ray sat up, and caught the bag, and looked inside. It had black clothing.

{Already!? Don’t tell me I have to do another mission!}

Ray quickly looks at Vincent with a wide eye, and a worried look.

“Why are you looking at me like that? What’s wrong?”

“Uhh, what is this for?” Ray asked.

“They are holding the funeral today, we are going to attend.”

“Oh, sorry I thought this was another mission.” Ray said.

“What! No, you’ll get your mission, when it has been delivered, by one of the three messengers.” Vincent said.

“Wait, so you are telling me there is one more?” Ray asked.

“Of course, you thought only two people would be able to deliver all those letters by themselves?”

“Kinda, seeing how one of the guys was so… devoted?”

“Oh, you met Drogo, don’t worry, while Drogo takes his job the most seriously, the other two are more than capable of delivering letters without being really overdramatic.” Vincent said.

“Who are they anyway?”

“The messengers are hybrids trained personally by the elders, while weak, they are most advanced at traveling at high speeds. They aren’t really useful in a fight, so the elders just use them to deliver their mail.” Vincent said.

“So each elder has their own messengers?” Ray asked.

“Kinda, sometimes one of the messengers takes another elder's mail, if the destination is on the way, like how Driscull gave you mail from your master when he was originally someone else’s messenger.”

“Wow, so my master must be pretty strong to have a messenger deliver her mail.”

“You have no idea.” Vincent said, as he shrugged his shoulders.

“Oh ok, will everyone be attending the funeral?” Ray asked.

“Yes, now get ready, we will be leaving in a few minutes.” Vincent said.

Vincent closed the door, and Ray got up, and took a shower and put on the black clothing. It was only a black shirt, with black jeans. Ray picked up his bed where he hid the clothing, and his mask. Ray dusted off the mask, and examined it.

{Apart from the lower part of the mask it should be fine to use again, I just need to clean it from the mud, and blood.}

Ray was about to try on the mask, when he heard Vincent's voice. Ray quickly put everything back together, and left the room. He made his way downstairs, and saw Vincent in similar clothing, but he had a long cloak on him that reached to his knees.

“Ready?” Vincent asked.

“Ready, as I’ll ever be.” Ray answered.

They both walked out the door, and started heading towards the village.

“So what should I say, if the other villagers asked me where I have been?” Ray asked.

“I told them you were with Viola in my home, that I forbid you from coming out until I knew it was safe, don’t worry we made sure to discuss that near other villagers, so they would spread the rumors for us.”

“I see, do you know if they had any leads, on Viola, or me?”

“No, they wouldn’t have been able to track you two, once Viola took you to the woods.” Vincent said.

“Ok.”

“I’ll do most of the talking, we will only be there after they are done doing the ceremony, we will say a few words, and then go back home, don’t act weird towards the people who knew your victims.” Vincent said.

“Right.”

As Vincent, and Ray enter the village, Ray notices how quiet everything is. All the stores were closed, no villagers could be seen. They passed a couple of houses that were burned, or were damaged during the fight. Vincent, and Ray continue walking towards where the church used to be. As they got closer, Ray heard wailing, and weeping.

{Keep a straight face, this is something I have to do.}

As they reached the clearing of where the church used to be, Ray saw the blessing of Sez that used to be in the altar room, on top of the rubble. In front of the rubble were graves, Ray counted fifteen.

Most of the villagers were on either side of the graves, in front of two graves were a teenager, and two children.

{I did that to them, I made them orphans.}

“Keep up.” Vincent whispered to Ray.

Ray looked around, and saw some of the knights had kept a perimeter around them for safety. Vincent walked on ahead, Ray made sure to keep a close distance. Ray forced himself to keep a calm, and steady face. Vincent first walked up to Brandon, and they started talking.

“Brandon, how are you doing?” Vincent asked.

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“Vincent, I’m doing the best I can.” Brandon said.

Brandon looks exhausted as he hasn't gotten much sleep in the past two days since the mission. His eyes were baggy, he was wearing only a blue cloak, with a white tunic, with a sword strap to his side.

“Is there anything new going on?” Vincent asked.

“No, we just finished the funeral service. I am going to stay here for a while, until more of my knights come back from patrol.” Brandon said.

“You should get some rest, you look like you're about to fall over.” Vincent said.

“I can’t! After losing Roger, and Sierra there is no one else to manage the knights here, I need to do my best, I can’t afford to get some sleep right now.”

“Look I understand, but what will happen if you just collapse, that will cause more worry to your knights, and that is the last thing we need. I am sure if anything major happens, you will know about it immediately.” Vincent said.

“I. I’ll think about it.”

“Good, now then, Sam, and I will be heading to the other villagers, and paying our respect.”

“Ok… It's good to know you are ok, Sam.” Brandon said he was studying Ray, which made Ray uncomfortable.

“You too, Brandon. I’m glad you made it out.” Ray said.

As Vincent, and Ray approached the crowd of villagers, some of them came up to Vincent and started talking to him.

“Hello gentlemen, what a day it has been.” Vincent said.

“Mister Vincent, is there something you need from us, anything you want us to help with?” One of the villagers asked.

“Please, my friends, that is my line. I will offer my full support in rebuilding the village to the way it was, we must stand together in these hard times otherwise we will lose to those filthy hybrids who have already taken so much from us.” Vincent said, as he looked towards the grave, with a solemn look on his face.

“Yes, I knew we could count on you Mister Vincent, the others had their doubts, but I knew you would be there for us!” One of the villagers said.

Vincent put a hand on the villager's shoulder, gave him a fake warm smile. “This is my home, you are all my family, I would never turn my back towards the village.” Vincent said.

“Thank you, Mister Vincent, if anything else, I knew we could at least count on you for being there for us.”

“Please, thank my nephew, he is the one to convince me to come out today, and offer my services.”

The villager walked up to Ray, grabbing his hand and thanking them. Ray felt extremely uncomfortable. He looked towards Vincent, but Vincent just nodded his head, giving Ray a sly smile. Ray had no choice but to copy Vincent.

“Thank you, thank Sez you aren’t hurt.” The villager cried.

“Uh, yes. I thank him everyday. I am glad that most of you are still alive, I wish I could do more to help.” Ray said.

“Please don’t worry yourself about that, Sam, you, and uncle are a godsend to this village, we don’t know where we would be without the two of you.

{In a far better place.} Ray couldn’t help but think that to himself.

“It's going to be ok, I am sure Vincent will offer all he can to help rebuild the village.” Ray said.

“Yes, come now, let us go somewhere more private about this, Sam, I will be right back, you stay here for a bit I will be right back.”

“Uh, wait! Are you sure, I shouldn’t be going with you?” Ray said, nervously.

“It’s fine, go pay your respect in the meantime.” Vincent ordered.

Ray wanted to argue, but bit his tongue, and turned around walking towards the gravestones. Each grave had a wooden mark of Sez, on top of their graves, and wooden plaque describing who they were. Ray went through each of them, learning the name of the people he killed, or indirectly killed.

{Lesli, Evan, Sara, David, Gabi, Dennis, Angel, Ricardo, Juan, Zack, Jack, Jill, Sierra, and Stevan, Junior and his siblings are still visiting their mom.}

Ray walked to the front of the new cemetery, being in front of Sierra graved.

“Here lies the knight who bravely gave her life to protect this village.” Ray quietly said, as he read the wooden plague.

{If I did become a knight who I have known you Sierra? Would I have cared about you? I. I have to stop thinking about that, this is my life now, there is no turning back. Sierra, I hope despite everything I have done, despite everything I will do, that there will be more like you. I am glad I met you. Rest in peace, and goodbye.}

Ray felt a teardrop coming out of his eyes, he quickly swept them away, before Vincent could see him crying, Ray ready himself, and went towards the people he made orphans.

Most of the crowd were already leaving the cemetery, as he got closer, he heard the two children quietly weeping, while the oldest, Junior, comforted them.

“Junior.” Ray spoke out loud.

Junior looked at him, wth spuffy red eyes.

“Ah! sorry I didn’t mean to be loud.” Ray quickly said.

“Hey, Sam right?” Junior said, as he placed his hands on his siblings shoulder.

“Yes, I just wanted to come, and pay my respects.” Ray said.

“Jose, Julia, let the nice man pay his respect.” Junior said.

“Oh no, please! It’s ok, I don’t mean to interrupt you guys!” Ray quickly said.

“It's ok, our parents taught us to let others grieve as well, isn’t that right?” Junior said to his siblings.

The two children nodded, and slowly got up, they took a couple of steps back, an Junior motion with his head to let Ray go on ahead. Ray took a deep gulb forcing himself to stand in front of the grave he is responsible for. Ray bowed to the grave pretending to pay his respect.

{I know what I did can’t be forgiven, but I had no other choice in the matter, it was either you, or my sister, and I. I’m sure the both of you would have made the same decision as me. Regardless, I am sure Vincent will take care of your kids for you. Rest in peace Paul, and Samantha.}

Ray took a deep breath and face back towards Junior, and his siblings.

“I know Vincent must have told you, but please if any of you ever need anything please don’t hesitate to ask, all of you need to go get through this. I am sorry for your loss.” Ray said.

The little boy who was Jose was crying even harder, while the girl looked at Ray with sad eyes.

“Did you lose anyone, Mister Sam?” Julia asked.

“... No, I am just a visitor from another village, Vincent is my only family here.” Ray said.

“Oh ok.” Julia whimpered.

“If you don’t mind me asking, what will you do now?” Ray asked.

“I’m not really sure to be honest, I’ll do my best to make sure we will be ok.” Junior said.

“I know what I am going to do!” Julia said, with an angry look on her face.

Ray and Junior look at each other, not knowing what to do. Ray bent down at their level.

“What will you do?” Ray asked.

“I will train, and get stronger, so I can hunt down those monsters who took mom, and dad from us, I will never forgive them!” Julia said.

“Me too! We will train really hard!” Junior said.

Ray was surprised, he saw a little bit of Eda in the two kids. He put his hands on top of their heads, slowly patting them.

“Never forget what they took from you.” Ray said.

The two children had more tears coming out of their eyes, and nodded as hard as they could. Ray stood up, and nodded at Junior, and turned the other and left.

‘Never forget.” Ray whispered to himself.