The crowd was enormous.

Nateaser only got busier since I got here, exactly a month ago, but this was something else. The Lesser Races seem to have gathered from the broader area to honor the late gladiator at their funeral.

"Don't blame yourself, Nati, none of us could have stopped her." The chieftain tried to comfort me, but my tears wouldn't stop coming. She had her arm tied up and broke quite a few ribs yesterday. With our expert healer gone too, it was up to Gitaut to treat the wounded, and there was only so much his spirits could do. "We fell right into her trap."

The entire village was dressed in black. The gargoyle trampled our courtyard badly, but the damage was easy to fix. We couldn't bring back the dead though. Everyone mourned, all of us differently.

"I'm going to murder the Elder, slowly, in front of a crowd at least this big." Omerta cried too. She was in a state of constant madness ever since she found her brother's corpse yesterday. "I will make sure she'll be in as much pain, as I can inflict on her. I'll learn new spells."

It was the first time I had seen her like this although we hadn’t known each other for long. People tried to express their sympathy, but most decided to avoid her. It was a huge gathering, I always felt anxious around this many people, but now it was to signify how much the strange big orc was known and loved around here. I was sure, that if we held longer with the cremation, even more people would have come.

"Nothing will bring them back now, I understand how you feel, but don't let the hatred take control of you." Charlotte tried to reason with the orc witch, but it would take some time for her to calm down. It was the same with all of us who knew them. "They hated to fight and wanted a peaceful retirement life, had their weird quirks, and yet, they were always the first to jump into action when it was to protect people, they wouldn't want you to waste your life on hatred and revenge."

The orc chieftain had her way with words. Even though I knew she must have been just as devastated by this loss. Not to mention her severe injuries. She was the personal assistant of a famous mage, a real academic as Hana would say. Their body was put on a large pile of wood now, with the dismembered heart placed on a stand in front of it.

"We will forever keep their heart at the center of the village where it belonged," Charlotte explained to the people who gathered. In the ranks, I saw everyone from this village, most of the beastmen from Fenna's tribe, the few survivors of the Demon Lord's army, and many more. "All who knew them believed that they can't be defeated. They never were, for decades in Cranta's Arena, and never were, even after retirement."

Some people I've met for the first time held speeches, talking about the deceased. While yesterday’s battle was devastating, Hana was the only actual casualty within the tribe, and it was due to a large part of their sacrifice, fighting the lizardmen swarm and the Elder at the crossroads. But as it turned out, there were many more heroic, interesting, or straight-up comedic tales that the people could tell about them. And even more, from when they were still widely known as Hank.

"We'll never get an orc like them ever again." The leader of the hunters claimed. "The way they handled the spear was something else."

I wished I would have heard these all from them instead, but to be fair, they were much more humble than that. And in a sense, they were just like me. The circumstances were different, but in the end, we were both stuck in the body of the opposite sex after all. Whether it was due to strange magic or our beliefs mattered very little.

"I will encase their heart into ice so it can never rot away." The orc witch claimed, casting the spell right away. The cold swept across the courtyard as the clear ice surrounded the post with the heart on it. They sure had an enormous piece, as large as my entire head. "The body might be cremated to set Hana's soul free, but their heart will remain with us forever. We will all miss you, brother."

The ceremony would go on for multiple hours, but the pyre had to be lit before the people could run out of stories to tell. Another beastfolk girl, Ember handled the fire, who also fought at the crossroads. She had a large, battered pointy hat, and a ragged red tunic full of flame symbols. She looked as old as Fenna, but I was told, she was sixteen and not just by the looks. Yet she seemed to be a proficient witch already.

"I have cremated hundreds of lizardmen at the crossroads, and then a hundred of our soldiers, but none of them burned with flames this bright and high." She noted knowingly. She wouldn't even blink, staring at the pyre for a long time. "I didn't know them, but it is a clear indication, of how great the fire in their heart must have been during their life too. And seeing them fight, they were a skilled, fearless warrior."

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"I didn't know them for long enough either." I couldn't stop crying, no matter how hard I tried. At the end of the ritual, all those hundreds of visitors were offered a meal, but it only reminded me how we lost both our excellent chefs on the same day. The Elder wasn't satisfied with killing Hana, she also took Lambert. And I was about to look at his good sides. I wanted to ask him to teach me about magic.

This would not have happened, if I had known how to cast spells earlier. I was slow and panicked a lot, even with the crystal Fenna gave me, it took me way too long to go on the offense. I was completely helpless against the Elder, that single hit I managed to land on her was due to my enormous luck, and the fact, that she underestimated me.

"She called me the Goddess the entire time," I mumbled once I had the time to think through the recent events by myself. I tried to find a quiet spot as soon as the pyre burned. I got way too tired around this many people. Yes, I never corrected the Elder on that, but where was Alex all this time? She was gone almost for a week now.

And she didn't return even as the battle raged on. Where did she disappear? She would instantly show up whenever I was hurt, or if she just felt like it. Technically I wasn't harmed this time, but everyone else around me was, and I couldn't protect them alone.

It was only thanks to all of them, that I was still here and alive today. That I could witness the flames dancing, to honor the deceased. The ceremony soon turned into a drunken festivity.

"I don't want to sound insensitive, but I came here in the hopes I could eat Sir Lambert's meals. And that Church woman snatched him right away." The dwarf complained, getting sufficiently drunk himself. He brought multiple barrels worth of alcohol, alongside a fully functioning smithy on his huge carriage, but it seemed like none of the booze was to survive this day. "What am I gonna do now?"

"Don't worry, dwarf. I'll bring that cowardly wizard back, even if that's the last thing I'll do." Omerta claimed, diluting her grief with wine as well. "I wonder what spell I’ll learn first. Something that could cause immense pain, but wouldn't kill her outright."

"There are still hundreds of lizardmen wandering around, but they no longer seem to be controlled by a single will." I caught the beastmen captain of the decimated army talk. He was called Gorgon because he had horns instead of animal ears, but he lost one in the brutal fight yesterday. He was relatively sober, discussing his plans with the goblin who brought Hana back on his wyvern.

"We could interrogate them if only they spoke the common language." He pondered, waving the Fire Witch closer to them. "What do you think, Ember? Was it that Church woman controlling them too?"

"I'm almost certain, Avalon." The cat girl nodded. She wasn't allowed to drink due to her age, but she didn't miss her chance to stuff her face with all kinds of foods. The two rival chefs could cook much better, and I half expected Hana to come back from the dead, and yell at the hunters and cooks who took over their duties, but that was not to be. "I found another one of those crystals when I burned the bodies."

"I suspect she targeted us, and you just got caught up in all of this. I apologize for your losses," Charlotte joined in on their discussion. Her arm was finally healed, but I couldn't see Gitaut anywhere. "If I would have let you enter the village, maybe we could have fought them better."

"I don't blame you, Chieftain." Gorgon shook his head. "You just tried to protect your people. I would have done the same. The village would have been destroyed, had that battle happened here."

"For real. That Elder or whatever was completely bonkers." Ember added, seeming a little intoxicated. I guess she found a way to get some beverages after all. "And the lizard shamans, but I heard you got attacked too. Those things, what are they called? The one Hana used too. Bam, they shot the Church woman."

"The crossbows were indeed invaluable in the village's defense. They were invented by Nati over there." Charlotte gave me away so easily, and I could no longer hide in a quiet corner. She dragged me right into their discussion. "Of course, they are not for sale, they are our secret weapons, and I can't even imagine, what would have happened, if the humans also got their hands on them. Or you New Order guys. No offense."

She seemed at the very least tipsy too. That was a first since the tribe had limited access to alcohol before, never enough, to see anyone get drunk in earnest. The dwarf smith was to blame for it this time.

"One thing is for certain. She took Lambert back with her, and you say, he's the only one that can cast banishment." Gorgon summed up the situation. "Whatever her plans might be with him, we can assume, he won't be fighting against us. This means that if there is no real threat to the Demon Lord, there is no reason for him to sit behind the Gates of Hell."

"Are you planning to invade the continent?" Charlotte raised an eyebrow. "I'd rather you guys didn't start a war. I prefer peace."

"The war has already been started, and the Elder attacked you, not us." Avalon shared his thoughts. "You can't hope, that she will leave it as is. Sooner or later, she will be back. You need us."

"If she comes, we will fight her. But Nateaser will always remain neutral." The chieftain claimed firmly. "We will defend ourselves, and everyone who seeks refuge here, but I will never take sides in a war."