"System, how long has it been since Remlend came and said it'll take only an hour?"

I stifled a yawn and gazed out of the carriage. As far as I could see, the repairs were done, the bodies were removed, and the paved road was cleaned.

[ It has been 1 hour and 32 minutes, and 28 seconds. ]

What's the hold up, then?

I propped open the carriage door and stepped out. A faint smell still remained in the air, a remnant of the battle that took place.

"Peep!"

Leona fluttered out after me and nestled atop my head.

I'm coming with you. I'm tired of being cooped up in the carriage.

"Young master Luca, did you need anything?" Remlend was quick to attend to me.

"Yes," I replied. "Why haven't we left yet?"

"It's Henry." Nirre came over with her arms crossed. Her blue eyes were focused on the dark forest. Her weathered face was stern. "He has yet to return from there."

"He's probably dead. We might as well get a move on." Blake responded from nearby. He was sitting on the cobblestone road and leaning against the second carriage's wheel, a drink in hand.

Nirre gave him a cold glare, but she didn't refute his statement.

Damn it.

I gazed into the lifeless dark forest with its gnarled giant oaks. It was eerie how quiet it was.

"Peep!"

What is that?? I get a really sinister and dark feeling from those trees.

"Why in the world did he go into the Humton Forest?" I inquired.

Nirre sighed. "We were competing to see who would get the most kills. Henry went after the last one of the bandits and followed him all the way into the forest."

Idiots.

I paced around the forest edge but didn't dare go inside myself. My hands were bare and unprotected, and I didn't want to regress so soon.

"It's been well over an hour." Blake stood up and walked over to me. He looked exhausted, with dark circles beneath his eyes. "He's dead."

"Peep!"

Someone is coming.

Leona flapped her wings atop my head.

It's Henry. I can sense him now. He's injured! Very injured…

"Nirre!" I called back. "Get the antidotes kit here! Henry's coming out."

Blake stepped up beside me and squinted into the cold, dark forest.

"I don't see him. Are you—" He cut off at the emergence of Henry appearing from behind one of the twisted trees.

Henry struggled towards us. His left arm looked to have been mauled by something—its flesh was shredded down to his bone, and his left foot dragged behind him uselessly while he jumped forward with his still functioning right leg.

"I have the box!" Nirre ran over. She gasped when she saw the bloodied Henry pulling himself out of the dark forest.

"Blake, go help bring him in," I ordered. "Tch. Actually, carry him over."

Henry was only twenty or so steps away from us, but I felt he might fall over and die on the spot if he continued his painful procession forward.

Persistence is a powerful thing.

"Aye."

Blake lunged forward and picked up Henry as if he were a child. Then, he ran back and gently set him down on the cobblestone road.

"Peep! Peep!"

Leona fluttered down beside Henry. He was wheezing, and his brown eyes rolled around, incapable of concentrating on anything.

Luca! He's fading. He's going to die if something isn't done.

"Nirre!" I turned my head towards her, but she had already dropped beside Henry and was busy pulling out medical equipment.

"Blake, here, wrap his arm up." She tossed him a roll of cloth. "We need to stop the bleeding first."

Her fingers tapped through the bottles inside the medicine box and pulled out a bright pink potion.

She lifted Henry's head and tipped the potion into his opened, colorless lips. The pink liquid mostly poured inside, but some dripped down his chin. Henry let out a painfully dry cough.

"Henry, what happened?" Nirre asked.

Henry's eyes rolled over towards her.

"The forest…." He gasped out. "It's making them."

"Making what?" Nirre asked.

"They're not human…." His eyes rolled, and he gazed at the forest. A coughing fit overtook him, however.

"Nirre." Blake met her gaze and shook his head.

I gazed at the cloth he wrapped around Henry's arm. It had utterly blackened. The famous Humton Forest poison had already spread.

"Peep! Peep!"

Leona flapped her wings wildly and flew back towards me.

He's dying! Luca! Do something!

Her voice strained into my ears.

"Nirre, is there anything else you can do?" I asked, knowing the answer already.

She gazed up at me with pursed lips. She lifted up a black vial from her box that needed no explanation. Rather than forcing Henry to continue in his struggle, she could give him a way out.

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"The bandits..." Henry gasped out. His remaining good arm reached up towards me. His brown eyes tried to focus on me.

"Young master Luca, don't touch him," Blake whispered. "Your face and hands are bare. It could spread to you."

"I know." I kneeled beside Henry. "I'll be careful."

"Young ma—"

"Henry, just say what you need. Forget the formalities. Save your breath where you can." I ordered.

"Tell Micah… The dead live in the forest…." His right hand reached and dropped something beside me.

"Remlend, give me your gloves," I ordered.

I didn't even look to see where he was. I knew he, in his overly observant fashion, was close by.

"Young master." Remlend leaned over my left shoulder and handed me a pair of his spare white gloves.

I pulled them on, noting the smooth lining inside.

With my hands protected, I reached over and dragged over the artifact Henry's now limp hand had let go of.

My jaw clenched at the item's sight.

[ Perception: +1 ]

[ Perception: 44 ]

The System confirmed my suspicions.

"Peep! Peep!"

He's shaking! What's happening to him?? Luca!

Tsk. This isn't something a child should see.

I put my other hand over the flustered little ball of fluff on my shoulder and held her in place.

Henry's whole body was convulsing, and another coughing fit overtook him. He was wheezing and coughing up nothing, like a deflated balloon. It was a miserable sight to see.

"Nirre. Give it to him," I ordered.

"Blake, hold his head down." Nirre cracked open the black vial over Henry's opened lips. A black smokey liquid rolled out and fell into his mouth.

"Peeeeep!!!"

Why are you holding me! Let go! I can feel him fading. He's dying!

Leona pecked and clawed at my hand. It would have been bloodied by her, but the glove Remlend lent me prevented any injuries.

Hmmm. Does he have them reinforced with hidden mana stones?

Let me out!!!

I was impressed that despite her unstable emotional state, Leona maintained the facade of a baby chick rather than exploding into a ball of flames. It would have been impossible for me to hold on to her in her true form as a phoenix.

Henry's breathing slowed down, and his convulsions stopped. His eyes rolled towards me before drooping closed.

"PEEP!"

HE'S DEAD!!

I pulled away my hand and let Leona out.

"Peep!"

Why didn't you save him!?!?

She glared at me with her golden eyes.

"He couldn't be saved. The only thing that could be done was to give him a quick and painless death," I whispered an explanation to her.

"That's right, young master Luca." Nirre incorrectly assumed that I was explaining myself to them. She spoke gently. "The poison he was exposed to was from the deeper parts of the Humpton Forest. We have no effective antidotes against the poisons that far out. So giving him the Dark Dream Potion was the kindest option. You did the right thing."

"Peep."

Hmpt! I don't believe it. You could have tried to keep him alive and find a cure.

Leona flapped her wings and flew back inside the carriage.

I could tell she was upset. It was childish. There was no way to save him, not even with my knowledge of the future; there never was a method to save those who wandered too deep inside the Humton Forest. But she was a child. Despite all her ancestral knowledge, Leona was still a child and had someone near her die.

Damn it.

I clenched my jaw.

I had not expected anyone to die, especially not Henry. Not now. I knew it wasn't my fault that he died, but it was still frustrating. It felt as if I was desperately trying to catch something, yet it still flowed between my fingers. I still lost someone.

Why did he go so far into the forest? Why didn't anyone stop him?

I gazed at his now limp body. His face was ashen, making his dark curly hair seem even darker. I barely remembered him from my original life. He was just another guard serving in the Frey manor. I never really bothered getting to know him then, and now, after just a few repeating days, I felt a certain connection to him.

My chest tightened.

I had seen many deaths in my original life and, to some extent, had become desensitized to loss, but it still hurt.

"We should toss his body into the forest," Blake wearily suggested.

I glared at him.

"He's infected." Blake stared back into my eyes. "His body is polluted. If we bury him back home, he'll infect the soil. So we must toss him into the forest with the other corpses."

I knew he was right, but it was infuriating.

"No," I replied. "We'll burn his body. We'll give him a Barakian funeral. Here, on the road."

I knew we couldn't even risk transporting his body to an unpolluted region, so the funeral would have to take place on the road.

The Barakian Empire had one of the least polluted areas on the continent. The one bit of helpful knowledge I had from the future was that, unlike everywhere else, the Barakian people burned the dead rather than burying them. Unfortunately, the reality was that everyone and every living thing had a little bit of the pollutants inside them. Thus, the infection's roots gradually spread even further when the dead were buried in the ground.

"How?" Nirre asked. "We don't have any wood nor the right mana stones on hand to give such a funeral."

I gazed back at the carriage.

"No, there's a way," I replied.

Leona would hate it, but she was intelligent enough to realize that a proper funeral was a much better solution than tossing his body into the forest unceremoniously. Of course, it wasn't right to ask such a thing of a child, but she was the only one that could help.

I stood up and walked over to the carriage.

"Leona?" I said in a soft voice and peered inside.

She was huddled under a peppermint-scented handkerchief. Her little yellow feathers were ruffled up.

"Peep."

I'll do it.

"I didn't ask you anything yet."

You didn't need to. I heard everything from over here. I have good ears, remember? But I have a condition and one question.

"Oh? What is the condition?" I asked.

Remember how you said you regressed every time you died?

I nodded.

You have to promise me that you'll save him on your next regression. I like that human.

"Of course." I smiled.

I had no intention of watching anyone near me die needlessly, and Henry was part of that list.

"You don't want me slicing my neck now and restarting?" I half-joked.

No.

Leona moved her head from side to side.

I don't want you to die either, even if you can regress.

"Fine," I said. "What's the question?"

"Peep!"

Leona spread her little yellow wings before me.

I'm in this form. To create a large fire, I'll need to transform back into a phoenix, but won't that be a problem? You said it's dangerous for me to reveal myself.

"Don't worry." I shook my head. "I have a solution for that as well."

***

The sun was closing in on the horizon's edge. Leona and I were alone with Henry's body. Our only company was the dark and gnarly forest on either side of us.

I had ordered one carriage to drive back towards the capital and prevent travelers from coming until my signal arrived. The second carriage I sent forward, towards the Town of Ascot, to stop any travelers from that side.

The road curved, and thus neither carriage was within sight to witness Leona's transformation.

Nirre had protested that it wasn't safe to leave me alone on the road in case more bandits made their way out of the forest.

"Nirre," I had explained. "I have a way to give Henry a Barakian funeral. And if any enemies come, they will also get a Barakian funeral."

As to how I would achieve that, I just smiled and invoked my brother's name. "Micah said I should keep this ability a secret."

That had shut everyone up immediately. Even Blake seemed to wake up from his perpetual weariness.

"Leona, if you'll do the honors?" I stepped away from Henry.

Leona flew away from me in the form of a chick and exploded in a ball of fire. I felt heat radiate off of her as she transformed back into the form of a phoenix. A long, bright golden fiery tail and long elegant wings expanded in the air. Her true form was much larger than the one she had taken on.

She bowed her head before Henry, whose body I covered in my now unwearable clothes from the trunk that was blasted during the battle.

"I wish you restful peace," Leona's voice rang aloud for the first time since yesterday. I had grown so accustomed to her speaking into my mind.

She lifted her head and expanded her wings. A blinding fire enveloped them, spread out from their tips, and encircled where Henry lay. A fire formed over his body, vanishing him from my view.

I stepped back. The heatwave was enormous. I felt that if I stepped two steps closer, my eyebrows would singe off, and my eyes would melt.

What is that?

I frowned and squinted.

A dark shadow seemed to lift up within the giant fireball that Leona created. It bounced around within the fire sphere before gradually diminishing and vanishing.

Once it was all gone, Leona returned her wings and extinguished the fire she had created.

A scorched black section remained in the cobblestone where Henry had laid. A long, thin line of smoke floated up into the sky was all that remained of him.

"Thank you, Leona," I said.

She turned her long neck and gazed at me.

"Luca, there was something inside Henry." She moved her large golden wing towards the dark forest. "It was the same evil darkness I feel from these trees."

Horses and carriages approaching sounded from each side, having seen the smoke signal.

Leona exploded into flames and transformed back into a small yellow ball of fluff. She fluttered up onto one of my shoulders.

"Peep!"

My ancestors' memories didn't have anything like this. The world was green and beautiful. Just what happened in these past couple of centuries?