Chapter 19 - A Toast to the Dead

Kuro's Village - Dawn - Three Days Later

Kuro stood at the outskirts of the village along with several other villagers peering into the distance. Beside him, Kayae was quietly shivering, her clothes sticking to her skin, chilled from the never-ending rain.

Today's dawn marked the third day since Simon had left the village, having departed on the supposedly last trip required to retrieve the remaining supplies. Earlier trips had taken half a day, while the previous one had taken slightly longer, nearly taking an entire day to return. At first, the Kuro and the villagers thought nothing of it, merely expecting that the caravan had been delayed. But, as days passed, the villagers began to worry.

Several of the women rescued by Simon began to ask about their savior after recovering from their ordeal. At first, Kayae had excitedly chatted with the women about him but now, concern had firmly taken root in her heart. She no longer happily chatted with the women and instead mostly kept to herself. Unfortunately, he'd been rather busy dealing with the sudden influx of supplies brought in but, when Kurtin eventually popped in to tell him about the girl, he'd taken off in a flash towards her house.

Kuro looked down towards the girl that was barely a head taller than his waist and lightly patted her head. Hoping that the gesture would at least temporarily lighten her mood, despite feeling the same.

She's worried. We all are.

It was at that moment that a white object slowly began to appear from the forest. Straining his tired eyes, Kuro tried to make out the object. Suddenly Kayae darted off towards the forest.

"It's a wagon!" she shouted in delight as the villagers behind her started cheering loudly. "He's back! Simon's back!"

Kuro's House - Midday

Simon and Kuro sat apart from each other on the floor like they usually did, sipping tea. However, instead of the traditionally used wooden cups, they were instead using a set of porcelain teacups. According to Kuro, one of the villagers found the set inside one of the supply crates and presented it to him. At first, he had tried to refuse them, but the villagers weren't having any of it.

Kayae was quietly sleeping in Simon's lap, having refused to part from him for even a moment since his arrival. Simon was, in fact, rather surprised to see the small girl running barefoot through the mud towards him when the caravan had emerged from the forest tree line. Despite the rather painful flick delivered to her forehead and the subsequent verbal lashing she received for not allowing her wound to heal, Kayae had vehemently refused to release her grip on Simon's leg until he eventually relented and picked her up in his arms.

"So, What took you so long?" Kuro spoke quietly to avoid waking up the exhausted girl while silently wishing Kurtin would pop in and set up a veil for the two.

"We were actually making pretty good progress. On the way back, I spotted a large grove of herbs and decided to set up camp for the night."

Kuro watched as Simon quietly sipped his tea. Despite not mentioning that Simon had returned alone, he knew that Simon had killed the surviving men at some point along the journey back.

Most likely when they camped for the night. Kuro shook his head slightly at the thought. Poor bastards.

"Ah, I do have a request if it's not too much to ask."

Kuro's ears perked up slightly at Simon's words, "A request?"

"Yes. I'd like the man I brought back to be given a proper burial."

Man? Which one? Kuro tilted his head to the side while thinking. There are at least a hundred corpses left inside that wagon. Kuro briefly remembers the first time he had lifted the tarp and shudders slightly. Before he could ponder Simon's wording any further, the man in question began to speak.

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"I've already separated him from the remainder of the trash. He's currently wrapped up in a tarp by the graveyard."

Kuro nods his head, "I'll see to the arrangements, consequently, what about the oth-"

Simon abruptly cut off his words mid-sentence with a distasteful shrug, "Toss the leftovers into a ditch for all I care but strip their equipment first. Despite how useless they were in life, they can at least take some pride in the fact that they'll at least be useful as fertilizer in death."

Kuro's eyes widened suddenly at the cruel proclamation. H-he doesn't care?

In his youth, Kuro had been told to always respect the dead. If not solely for common decency, but to at least prevent their spirits from returning to haunt you long after their death. Yet, the man in front of him had just casually brushed them away as if they were a spec of dirt on an otherwise spotless shirt. Kuro couldn't help but try to think of what the poor bastard had done for such a man to request a proper burial for him.

"Kuro, Are you alright?"

Simon's voice brought Kuro back to his senses. The hint of concern present in Simon's eyes briefly caused Kuro to think that his last words had been a figment of his imagination. Kuro coughed softly before speaking again, "Y-Yes. I'm alright. What were we talking about again?"

"The herbs I brought back. I think I've gathered enough of them to recreate enough of the powder to distribute to the rest of the village."

Kuro's eyes rapidly focused, "Really?"

He nods his head quietly while motioning for Kuro to lower his voice, "Yes, but we have a slight problem." Simon swiftly produced an herb from a bag at his waist and promptly presented it to Kuro, who proceeded to examine the herb closely.

"What's the problem?"

"The problem is, despite knowing what the powder is composed of, I've got no idea how to properly prepare the herbs required to make the powder."

Kuro nods his head while stroking his wrinkled chin, "Couldn't you just ask the person responsible for making the powder in the first place?"

Simon shook his head silently, "That's not possible. Apparently, she passed away last year. Her husband, Krython, I believe, isn't aware of how she created the powder either. According to him, the only one left that might possibly know is his daughter who disappeared six months ago."

"Krython's wife? Shit." Kuro let out a sigh and reached for a flask. He'd been drinking more often ever since Simon had appeared, it seems. Reminiscing on that thought, he unscrewed the cap and took a quick sip. Instead of the usual potato vodka, he was instead drinking something called whisky or something like that. According to one of the now-deceased men, it was the camp commander's preferred drink. Kuro couldn't help but hate the man, but even he had to admit that the man's choice of liquor was quite good.

Simon tilted his head to the side at the familiar smell, "I-Is that whiskey?"

Kuro smiled slyly and let out a quiet chuckle at the rare sight of Simon being genuinely surprised. This caused him to frown, which caused the elder to laugh even louder before passing the flask.

Ooo, genuine surprise and even a hint of annoyance. This stuff must be good.

Simon quietly accepted the flask while still staring coldly at Kuro, who couldn't manage to wipe the broad grin off his face, "Hmm..."

Simon shifted his attention to the flask and briefly gave it a quick sniff before downing a small mouthful of the brown liquid. His expression softened somewhat as he enjoyed the flavor, "Needs Ice."

Kuro's eyebrow tilted upwards, "It needs ice?"

Simon nodded his head while passing the flask back, "Aye, the proper way to drink whiskey is with ice. Generally, you put ice into a cup, pour the whiskey on top of it, and then wait a few minutes for the liquor to react. At least that's how I like it. Some prefer to chill the entire bottle and drink it that way so the liquor doesn't get diluted but I digress."

"I see, to Karnia!", Kuro briefly lifts the flask up into the air before taking a sip and passing it back to Simon, "Krython's wife."

Simon nods his head, "Ah. To Karnia, may you rest in peace." he finished by repeating the gesture and downing the remainder of the flask. "You know, at first I thought it was merely a coincidence but, why does everyone's name in the village start with a K?"

Kuro smiles and slaps Simons back, "Took ye long enough to ask. It's a tribe thing I guess you could say. Back in the old days, all beastmen would share a common first letter in their names. The practice has fallen out of favor from what the women told me earlier but we still use it. Generally, the letter is taken from the village founder's name, and my grandfather was named Krayton hence the K. If someone leaves the village or is exiled the letter is taken away."

"So, Kurtin's name would be Urtin and Kayae would be Ayae?"

"Aye, that's the gist of it. Just remember that it's considered rude to remove the village's letter from their name unless they've told you to. It's akin to walking up and calling them an exile or something like that."

"Got it...Uro." Simon smiled wildly while holding up his hands in surrender while looking at the clearly annoyed elder.

"Now then, since the two people responsible for the powder's creation are deceased or otherwise missing, I suppose we'll have to find an apothecary or at the very least an experienced herbalist to find a way to recreate it."

Simon tilts his head to the side at the unfamiliar term. He could more or less understand what an herbalist was since it shared a common word that he already knew, but apothecary didn't share that distinction, "Apothecary?"

Kuro nods his head briefly, "Aye, type of medicine man. They specialize in using various substances to brew potions and restorative salves, among other things. Their goods are exceedingly expensive but invaluable when you don't have access to more traditional healers."

"I see. Does the village have one of these apothecaries?"

Kuro shakes his head sadly, "Unfortunately not, we used to, but..." Kuro's voice trailed off suddenly.

"Karnia?"

"Karnia. She was the village's apothecary, and her daughter, Kyria, was her only apprentice." The village elder glances at the sleeping girl in front of him and shakes his head. "Kayae tried her hand at it as well but, you can probably guess how well that went."

"Got bored and ran off?"

Simon lets out a tired sigh Kuro's nod, "So, we'll have to look elsewhere then."

"So it seems."