It was around an hour past midnight. The entire city was already asleep. It was a time when sound became rare and light was precious. Though the two moons were visible among the stars in the sky, they did little to curb the darkness that enveloped the land beneath them. Misunderstood and feared, the people slept through the night in anticipation of the day.

At least, most did. But for some people, even the night was a time for work, depending on the situation.

“Can’t believe those guards were asleep. Why do they even get paid?"

Nail grumbled to the two women behind him. He and Ujel, being veterans with a decade of experience, were already used to seeing the ineffectiveness of the rank-and-file guards. The topic was as old to them as their worn-out footwear. However, the point wasn't to criticize the lazy town guards but to just strike up a conversation. Otherwise, Nail didn't think it would be possible to keep himself calm.

How could he, when storm clouds were gathering between Mie’s brows?

From when they were roused from their sleep to the time when they saw the sleeping guards, Mie acted as she normally did in an emergency. She was alert, guarded, and cautious. She had positioned herself beside Ujel to minimize the chances that they would be split up by a sudden attack, just behind the vanguard Nail. But as the time passed with no enemy, living or otherwise, in sight, she gradually fell to the rear of the formation and became despondent again. Her actions were dangerous. They were a team, and each of them had a role to fulfill. But Nail found that he couldn’t chastise her. He, too, was saddened by what had happened. Though their profession meant that casualties weren’t uncommon, having someone they know die hit especially hard.

That was why all Nail could do was to try and divert her attention. And clearly, he wasn’t very good at it.

“Nothing usually happens at the graveyard, anyway. And there’s nothing here to steal, too. So I think we should cut them some slack. But still, we need to stay alert. We don’t know what kind of undead would appear. The ground here is thick with evil magic.” The only one to respond to his words was Ujel, who looked like she was also struggling to cope with the situation. After all, having to deal with the tension of the situation and also her colleague’s mood wasn’t easy.

They were at the town graveyard to the southwest border of the town. It was a short walk there from the slums, but there was quite a distance between it and the inn they had stayed in. As such, Egan hasn’t joined them yet. It was troublesome to wander around a dark graveyard with the threat of undead around them without a scout, but they didn’t have time to lose.

That didn’t mean Nail couldn’t take a moment to get Mie’s mind back on track, though.

“Well, fresh undead shouldn’t be that strong. At most, we’d only get zombies or skeletons. We can blow all of them away with Fire and then be back within an hour, right?”

“Yes, that’s right! I can focus on purifying the land in that case.”

Their cheerful words were ill-suited to the bleak air that surrounded the graveyard. And they were obviously forced. As expected, Mie didn’t respond at all.

“Ugh…”

They continued awkwardly trying to chat with each other until they reached an impasse in their exploration. By that point, not only were they unsuccessful in trying to talk to Mie, but they were also not able to see anything wrong with the graveyard beside the terrible smell. If Ujel wasn’t there to corroborate the wolf beastkin’s story, then Nail would have thought that he was just being led on a wild goose chase.

Since Ujel was quite exhausted from purifying the land she walked on, he decided that they should take a short break on the only mausoleum in the graveyard. It was constructed there to house the ashes of the leader of the previous highest-ranked adventurer in town, Yulena. She was also Nail’s mentor.

Since he was there anyway, he thought he should pay his respects to her grave. So, he stood up and walked away from his group after he told them that he had something to do.

The mausoleum wasn’t large. However, it wasn’t too shabby either. The building had three large rooms; a waiting area where Ujel and Mie were, an altar for people to pray and leave offerings on, and an underground burial vault underneath the building where his mentor’s ashes were kept. All rooms had polished white walls, and sturdy furniture and were lined with wooden plaques that detailed the person’s heroism throughout her life.

Yulena was, truly and undoubtedly, a hero. An H-Class.

The burial vault’s entrance was hidden underneath the heavy stone altar. The only way to get inside was to push against it from behind. Of course, a large altar made of a single piece of sculpted and polished rock was incredibly heavy. However, it was designed so that if the altar was dislodged slightly in a certain sequence of directions in order, it would then be able to slide smoothly on the glossy stone floor.

“Let’s see… Up, right, left, right, down, left...”

As if to confirm his recollection, a crisp clicking sound echoed against the hard walls. When he touched the altar again, he found that the entire assembly could be moved with the slightest nudge. He didn’t know how it worked, though.

After moving the altar a few meters to the front, a narrow staircase came into view. And when he took his first step down, a set of glowstones embedded at regular intervals on the walls started to light up.

“Nice. That bald bastard’s designs still work.”

The man who had created the mechanism behind the altar’s unlocking process and the automatic glowstone activation and charging was her mentor’s party member, a scout. He had used his experience with traps to design it. Of course, being a trapper himself, he also included some nasty effects on the mechanisms. For example, if the altar was pushed the wrong way, the mechanism would lock itself and reset only after a week had gone by. Trying to force it would seal the stairway using continuously-charged magic stones. It was also useless to dig out, as there were mechanisms underneath the floor that could detect it and afterward activate another set of magic stones that would bury the burial vault deeper into the ground. There were many other contingencies prepared, but Nail had unfortunately forgotten about most of them already. All he needed to know was how to properly open the entrance, anyway.

For every fifth step he took, a set of glowstones would light up the path ahead of him, while a set would dim from behind. It illuminated the pristine white walls that surrounded the staircase sufficiently. Impressively, despite not having visited for over a couple of years, there were no signs of dust on either the walls or the stairs. It wasn’t like anybody cleaned it, either.

Nail was the only surviving person who knew about the altar sequence, after all.

“Even the dust’s scared of you, master.”

When the last of the echoes of his voice faded, he was finally able to reach the burial vault. There wasn’t much headroom. Nail was fairly tall, but he reckoned that even someone like Matthias would have to duck. That said, there was only one more trap he had to get through. And to do so, all he had to do was sprint the last several meters.

He didn’t need that much speed. Just a simple few strides were enough. He very quickly arrived in front of the pedestal in the middle of the room. A few seconds after he did, the space behind him exploded into a fiery blaze. It only lasted for a brief moment before the fire disappeared. The blast was also limited to a certain space above where his eyebrows were at.

“I still can’t believe you’d install such a stupid trap. Just because the master's dead, huh?”

Needless to say, the explosion was meant to burn hair off. Nasty. And to be more accurate, the ceiling was purposely set to be very low so that their hairlines would be the only thing in the way, regardless of the person’s height. It was obviously made by someone who disliked hair.

Thankfully, after getting past that area, the ceiling rose to a comfortable height of around three meters above the ground. Upon stepping in, an entire array of glowstones lit up to illuminate the entire room.

It was grand. The party members of the deceased hero certainly did not skimp on the budget. The floor was made of finely-polished marble. The walls were made of glass and the slates were made of different colors. The patterns depicted some of her most heroic feats in life, such as defending a village solo from an upheaval. There were obsidian pedestals around the room that enshrined the weapons she had used throughout her career, preserved as they were on the day that she died. At the back was a mannequin, exquisite in both detail and refinement. Even its black “hair” was so well-sculpted that it didn’t look much different from the actual thing. It wore her armor in a way that made it look exactly like her during her peak, posed in a victorious stance. And in the middle was a much wider pillar, made of marble and lined with gold. At around chest height, it was at a perfect viewing level of what remained of her body; naught but ashes inside a glass urn.

He stood reverently before the urn. His hands were clasped and his eyes were closed in prayer. Time went by quietly. His mentor disliked small talk, so by extension he felt uncomfortable doing so even on her remains. Perhaps there was a fear that she would rise from the dead just to slap him if he did. Additionally, nothing much happened during the two years that had gone since he last visited her resting place. He was still B-ranked. He was still in the same rank he was before she died. And he was still single…

“Oh, wait. There is that…”

They had a new party member that came in within that period. She was a genius from the royal academy who had graduated young and achieved the highest accolades in her batch. But instead of pursuing a career within the capital where she could live a life of riches and fame, she became an adventurer instead.

He had never actually understood why. Nobles and educated commoners had much better prospects in their lives. Why were some of them willing to dive into mud and dirt to eke out a meager living?

“Master. Our new party member is amazing. Even if she had only started less than two years ago, she can already keep up with us. Insane, right? The problem is…” he hesitated. He recalled that his mentor vaguely disliked being approached about personal issues. She was kind of apathetic. But despite that, she was known to give… advice back when she was alive. So even if he couldn’t expect anything now, he had become so used to just speaking his mind that he just continued.

“She lost her sister recently. Expectedly, she’s taking it hard. And I have no idea how to cheer her up. It would be nice to get some advice, y’know?”

Of course, he knew that he wouldn’t get a reply. If he did, then… wouldn’t that be bad? She’s been dead for several years. Well, it was just a prayer, anyway.

“You used to tell me that people should pick themselves up. You didn’t like encouraging people. But we ended up relying on you all the time.”

Her party members would often merrily recall the times when they were feeling low, Yulena would begrudgingly offer them advice and give them a really bad pep talk. It was clear that she hated doing it. She did it anyway. It was her way of showing concern. She wasn’t good at it in any way. Most of the time, they wouldn’t even know what she was talking about. But somehow, they would always feel much better after. Perhaps they felt that whatever problems they had were nothing compared to Yulena’s, who couldn’t have a heart-to-heart even if her life depended on it.

“Fine. I’ll try cheering Mie up again.”

Persistence. That was probably his defining trait. His mentor often told him to stop sticking his nose into other people’s business, but he couldn’t help it. Just as his mentor unenthusiastically extended her hand to him when he was little, he wanted to do the same for others.

Just as he made peace with his decision, an explosion came from behind him. The trap was sprung again. He quickly changed gears, and his mind instantly started processing the possibilities. It was impossible for someone to just sneak up behind him when Ujel was guarding the only entrance to the mausoleum. If someone were to pass her, she would have alerted him in advance with one of her strange spells. But since Mie was still sulking and not responding to anybody, there were only two possibilities.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

It could be Ujel. If it was her, then there wasn’t a threat to anything except her hair. That was still a cause for alarm, as she valued her hair highly.

The only other possibility was that it was someone else–and if Ujel didn’t sound an alarm, then it could only be someone who had hidden himself since before they came.

Was it the culprit?

That… would make sense. The mausoleum was located in the middle of the graveyard. It was the best place to hold whatever it was that the culprit wanted to do.

Thinking that, he turned around and grabbed his spear, ready to thrust the moment he confirmed his suspicion. Interrogation be damned. He could do that after he had stabbed the guy.

But all he saw was Mie, whose face was twisted in displeasure.

… Her hair was quite safe, but her hat was slightly singed.

----------------------------------------

“This is…?”

Those were the first words Mie had said since they left the old church. That fact alone gave it a lot of pressure, and Nail struggled to reply even if the answer wasn’t difficult. The result was an awkward pause that made Mie shift her irate gaze from the urn to him.

“It’s my mentor.”

“Oh.”

Her expression softened as she turned her eyes back to his mentor’s ashes. They once again sank into silence.

Nail had never felt that uncomfortable with someone before. Not only was she unapproachable because of her mood, but the atmosphere inside the burial vault was also not conducive for a chat. The only thing he could hear from the suffocating silence was the sound of his heart beating through his chest. If not for that, then he would probably have run away already.

It must have been hours since someone spoke again. But in reality, only a few minutes had passed. Surprisingly, it was Mie once again who took the initiative to talk.

“How did she die?”

Nail hesitated for a moment before he replied.

“… Suicide.”

A small gasp escaped Mie’s lips.

Yulena was undoubtedly widely-known. Her fame and stories reached far and wide as one of the heroes of mankind. However, not many knew about her death. Publicly, it was announced that she had died from a sickness that she had kept a secret from everyone. Though it had various inconsistencies, such as the difficulty of hiding it when one of her party members was a renowned apothecary, the story stuck and became the accepted reason.

Only the people close to her, as well as the lord of the town, knew how she met her demise. And nobody knew why because she wasn’t the kind of person who liked to talk about her problems. All they could do was make useless conjectures. Their only hope was her diary, which Yulena persistently wrote in. If they found it, then perhaps they could shed light on the reason why she did what she did. But after years of searching, none of them found it.

“What about… her party members?”

“They’re all dead, too.”

“Oh.”

Mie didn’t ask for the details. Fortunately, Yulena’s party members all died natural deaths. It was just mysterious how all four of them died within the span of three years.

“She was a hero, huh? You were mentored by such a person. How did you fare when she died?”

Nail had already recovered from the grief. He remembered being irreconcilable for a couple of weeks when his mentor died. And that was despite his own party members’ attempts to comfort him. As for her party members, whom he treated as brotherly and sisterly figures, he had recovered slightly faster from the news.

“I see…”

Mie seemed to sink into her thoughts. Her eyes never left the urn that was enshrined before her. It took her a few minutes before speaking again.

“What if… your mentor didn’t commit suicide?”

Her question was vague, but Nail had enough of a brain to know what she meant. “What if she was murdered instead,” was what she was implying. The answer came to him naturally, and he laughed.

“I wouldn’t do anything,” he said. “Master was the kind of person to take revenge on someone even if she was dead.”

Another period of silence took over. But it was much less oppressive than before. Looking at the young fire mage beside him, Nail saw that her expression wasn’t as grim as it was when she came down. He could even go so far as to claim that it was a rather decent poker face.

She paced around the room and looked at the weapons on the pedestals. They spoke no words throughout that time and simply satisfied themselves with the grandeur of the burial vault. After a while, she stopped at the statue of Yulena and said,

“You don’t have to cheer me up. I’m fine now.”

“Shit. She heard me?”

Her words felt like a blow to his heart. He even visibly recoiled. But she paid him no heed and continued.

“I already gave those kids a piece of my mind already.”

So he heard. Her outburst from earlier that night could be heard through three walls. Though they had expected her to lose her temper, it was still startling to hear such grief-stricken words.

Then, Mie sat down on the cold floor. She hugged her knees and looked up at the statue with a lost look in her eyes. After a while, she asked, “Do you have any siblings?” She took off her hat and pressed it up against her chest. “I have. Other than Aina, there are also Toril and Lycca. Both boys. Younger.

I don’t actually know them. They went with my dad to the elven continent. I was just ten years old back then. Didn’t see them until after twenty years. By that time, they had become strangers to me. All of them.

When we ran away from home, Aina became the last of my family. Now she’s dead, too.

I’m alone. Again.”

After leaving those words for him to chew on, Mie sunk into another one of her bouts of silence. Nail simply waited for her. It was good that she was talking. He didn’t want to interrupt her for fear of saying something stupid. Sometimes, it was truly best to just shut up and listen.

But those words never came. It was already too late by the time he realized he made a mistake. He did, right? The air became thick with the oppressive feeling of Mie’s renewed despondency. Before he could utter a word, she had already stood up from where she was and had walked all the way back to the staircase.

She turned her head slightly to the side and said “You should get some rest. We still have a job to do.” Her tone was completely numb to the emotions he expected her to harbor. But behind the monotonous voice, he clearly felt it. The disappointment.

He fucked up. Probably. He uselessly reached his hand out towards her figure as it disappeared with the light.

“God damn it!”

Too late. Too late. His mind repeated those words in an insane chant.

Before he knew it, he was panting behind Mie, holding her wrist.

“... What?”

“I’m sorry!”

Her eyes widened. Shock. That was all that she expressed. He didn’t know why. All he knew was that he was glad she was. It pushed the darkness that clouded her face away.

“Why the hell are you apologizing?”

She had a weak, trembling voice. But unlike before, it felt more natural, less forced. In response, he gripped her wrist harder and said:

“I don’t know!”

“Hah?”

“I just… felt like I needed to say something.”

The shock returned. Then, confusion. And after that, irritation. Awkwardness, interest, anxiety, then finally…

She raised her hand and swung it to his face. Being a warrior, he had an excellent dynamic vision. But the thought of dodging or bracing himself didn’t even occur to him. And that would be painful. Anything fire mages did that related to heat had more intensity.

The pain he expected didn’t come, though. He knew why. Because he was leaning forward with his arm reaching out to hers, her other arm wasn’t long enough to reach his head.

“Uhh…”

“Shut up!”

With a beet-red face, she tried to free herself from his grip. But there was a vast difference between someone who trained with a spear all day and another who used a staff. She wasn’t able to shake him off.

“Let go!”

“Not until you forgive me.”

“For what?!”

“I don’t know, either!”

He continued acting like a creep, which seemed to work. At least, it greatly annoyed Mie so much that her previous grim mood was slowly but surely being suppressed. While she tried her best to get away from him, not only were their strength leagues apart but so was their stamina. At the end of their scuffle, Nail had already recovered from his sprint while Mie was panting harder than he did earlier.

“Let me go already…”

Perhaps owing to her stubborn nature, she insisted on being left alone. But after everything that had happened, Nail was completely sure about one thing; what he needed to do was to talk to her. Directly. He wasn’t smart, and he didn’t know how to cheer someone up, but that didn’t matter.

“I told you. I’m not letting go until you forgive me.”

“The fuck are you talking about? Forgive you for what?”

“I don’t know. Maybe you wanted me to suggest getting a punch in on your dad? Or to your brothers? Sorry for not doing that, then.”

Anybody would be baffled by his words. Nail himself had no idea why he was asking for forgiveness. Maybe it was for the fact that he didn’t know what to do.

“You’re really an idiot. You know that, right?”

“Better than anyone else.”

He tightened his grip on her wrist in a physical show of his conviction. Mie seemed to understand the message. She ceased her futile struggles and hung her head.

Nail had never sharpened his hearing so hard until that night. He didn’t want to miss a single word she might say. He almost wanted to stop his heart after finding that it was making too much noise.

But she didn’t speak a word.

Instead, they stayed there for what felt like hours. In reality, it might have only been several minutes. But the tension and silence crippled his sense of time. So he forced himself to speak.

About what? The weather? Who cares?

““What–””

He spoke.

And she spoke at the same time.

For the first time in a while, they finally met each other’s eyes. Nail suddenly found himself lost in her pair of dark, pit-like eyes.

He immediately found himself averting his eyes, even feeling slightly flustered. Mie sighed.

“Jerk.”

He looked back and was startled.

She was finally smiling.

----------------------------------------

“Where have the two of you been?”

Ujel greeted them when they returned. She looked quite worried and tired. Perhaps Mie had left without telling her, or she did when Ujel was taking a nap. The latter would cause problems, of course. But Nail didn’t intend to chastise her for it that time.

“It’s getting bad out there. My purification is being pushed out. No undead arose yet, though.”

“Is Egan back yet?”

“Yeah, but he left again to check the surroundings.”

It looked like they were going to get their action after all. Nail would have liked it if nothing happened, but it seemed that it was just a pipe dream.

What was up with the number of undead-related incidents lately, anyway? Two in a row was already alarming. The undead doesn’t grow from trees.

“... You think that noble kid had anything to do with it?”

Mie’s words roused their interest. Unfortunately, nobody could deny it. But Nail had a feeling that they were just people caught in a bad place at a bad time. It happens occasionally.

“Well, whatever. I need something to vent on, anyway.”

If ever the undead did decide to rise, they were there to make sure nobody was hurt. They were the highest-ranking adventurers in that town, and their ranks were not just for show. Mie and Ujel together made for a devastating combination against the undead. Holy and fire spells were their bane. If anything, he was just there to protect them.

“Huh? Mie?”

Usually, the half-elven mage girl did things by the book. She rarely tried to stand out besides being an annoyance. She was the kind of person who exerted just enough effort to get the job done.

But if that was so, then how could she qualify to be a part of a B-ranked party right from the start?

“I’m fine. We can’t let those things hurt anybody, right?”

Nail nodded in approval. She smiled in response.

“Yeah. When they appear, burn them back to the ground.”

“Roger.”

Pleased words came out of her mouth together with hot tongues of fire. And her black eyes glowed red.

Maybe he should have worn lighter clothes.