Allowing his servants to handle all the funeral arrangements, Apolo went to his room and tiredly fell asleep.

As astonishing as it may seem, time did not stand still. When the young man realized how much he had slept, he found himself staring at his room's ceiling, remembering that he had promised a nobleman's worthy funeral for one of his deceased servants. In truth, to avoid reliving what had happened on the journey to the ministry, it was a good idea to satisfy the departed. Besides, he would soon be traveling to the Ring Town to buy creatures, so it made sense to do it before that trip.

Apolo changed his clothes and descended the stairs to instruct his butler to take care of the final preparations. However, it seemed that Mateo had already taken the initiative with the request, and a funeral in the estate's cemetery would be organized in a few hours. Given the customs in the empire, it was quite common for nobles or those with power to prefer being buried where they had lived their whole lives, so having a private cemetery was not so unusual, and in fact, every house in the capital had one. As time passed, these cemeteries became more colorful and attractive.

After finalizing the details, Apolo found some clothing that was more elegant than usual and left the mansion to go to the cemetery with the rest of his servants. Apolo's cemetery was quite large since the mansion seemed to have many years of history, and many owners had passed the keys to the estate. There were a total of four large vaults and more than 100 buried dead, each with their respective tombstones. Unfortunately, the cemetery was somewhat neglected because Apolo was still procrastinating on hiring gardeners to fix the garden. Thus, the weeds concealed the beauty of this place.

The truth was that hiring gardeners wasn't exactly too costly, and Apolo could even use the servants he already had to fix the weed problem. However, the young nobleman refused to alter the order of priorities set by his ancestor. According to his ancestor's legacy, the garden was the last place to put a single crystal, and under that strict order, Apolo deliberately forced his servants never to work in the garden.

Upon arriving at the cemetery, Apolo found all of his servants there. They had already dug a new grave, improvised a coffin, and crafted a tombstone from the wood used for cooking every day. It couldn't be said that this was precisely the funeral of a nobleman due to so many improvisations, but Apolo staunchly refused to remove one of the dead who had already slept eternally in his dungeon from the coffin. The same applied to the tombstones; even though they were no longer used to physically identify the corpses, spiritually, they had already been assigned to another owner. Therefore, the young noble preferred his acquaintances to build a tombstone with their own hands.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

—Could we not bury him in one of the vaults, my lord?— one of the servants asked upon seeing Apolo had arrived.

—Have you opened any of the vaults?— Apolo asked seriously.

—No— the servant replied immediately.

—Good, very good, you have been wise. Anyone who dares to open one of these vaults will be put inside and locked in until they starve to death—Apolo responded. He himself didn't know what was in the vaults and had no desire to find out; they belonged to ancestors of other nobles, whom he clearly didn't want to offend—Well, let's begin the funeral. Who will say the first words?

—You should do it...— Orrin commented quietly.

—Well, if that's what you all wish...— Apolo said, approaching. Fortunately, he had lived through more funerals than he would have liked, so he roughly remembered what to say on these occasions. Apolo stood in front of all the servants, grabbed the coffin, and without much effort, placed it in the hole. Then he took a shovel and began to fill the hole with the soil they had removed a few minutes earlier to create the hole. Afterwards, Apolo handed the shovel to another servant and said:

—Cristóbal, I, Apolo of the Black Forest, bid you farewell with a smile today, for I know that your duty to your ancestors has finally ended, and now begins your new journey guiding the young ones who bury you this morning. Rest in peace, Cristóbal, for I swear to ensure that no one disturbs your rest this morning, this day, this night, and until the end of my days, when together we will guide those who bury me.

The servant who took the shovel filled the grave a bit, and when he finished, he also said a few words to the deceased. Then he passed the shovel to another servant, and gradually, the grave was filled as the servants bid their farewells. Meanwhile, Apolo watched in silence as everything unfolded, asking his ancestors to change his fortune, hoping this would be the last time he would have to organize a funeral for someone. When the grave was completely filled, Orrin approached it and spoke his final words. He then placed the tombstone on top of the grave, thus concluding the not-so-noble funeral they had improvised. However, the solemn and sad faces of the other servants and, above all, their words, made the funeral worthwhile to ease the hearts of all present.