Chapter 208 - The Burial Ground

By the time of the burial, between seventy and one hundred militia soldiers had gathered.

Peter even wanted me to address them, but it did not feel right to me.

As sad as I was about the deaths of two members of my squad, I was also ashamed that Brakk and Oren might have been the two members I knew least.

I had developed a close bond with Rokan and Daren, mostly because of the brothers’ nature. They were straightforward and without guile, and they acted around me as though I were their elder brother, even though I was younger than them.

I had also gotten to know Silas, especially because of his cooking ability.

But Brakk and Oren had remained subordinates to me.

Other than a few tidbits I had heard when they shared stories with the squad, I had never gotten to know them on a more personal level.

The biggest reason for that was Corvin.

He had been their leader before they joined my squad, and his betrayal during our first mission as a death squad had made me wary of Brakk and Oren as well.

Over time, I had learned that they did not have any strong feelings about Corvin or his death. By then, however, we had already established such a firm leader-subordinate relationship that most of my communication with them took place through Garran, who was their unofficial leader within my squad.

So saying anything now felt disrespectful to them.

Or worse, it felt like using their deaths to manipulate the militia into thinking that I was some great leader who deeply cared about all of his subordinates.

The entire burial process took place in silence.

Only the sound of shovels could be heard across the burial ground.

As soon as the process was over, something surprising happened.

Garran sank down and sat on the ground.

Afraid that his injuries had worsened, I rushed to him, only to see a single tear in his eye.

I had known that Garran felt a tremendous amount of anger after Oren and Brakk’s deaths. His killing intent had made that obvious.

But I had not known that he felt this much sadness over their passing or that Garran was capable of showing sadness like this.

“Failed them. Failed leader,” Garran said, looking at me.

It reminded me of when I had first put him in charge.

I had known that Garran was not leadership material. Yet somehow, he had become responsible for others. Someone who usually spoke in one-word sentences had effectively been leading the defensive side of my squad for almost two years.

And he was not merely leading them.

During that time, he had started taking the position seriously.

Now, it looked as though he was taking the blame for their loss upon himself.

Moreover, he seemed to think that he had failed me in some way.

What happened next was not something I had expected.

Barry placed his hand on Garran’s shoulder and said, “It is my fault as well. If I had been a little quicker, I might have stopped that archer.”

For a fraction of a second, I forgot the grief of losing two squad members.

Barry nearly apologizing and Garran showing sadness were not things I had ever expected to see in my lifetime. Yet within a few minutes, I had seen both.

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It looked like I was not the only one being affected by the squad.

All of us were changing one another, little by little, over time.

Regrettably, this was not the time to assign blame for Brakk and Oren’s deaths. And if Barry and Garran could be blamed, so could I.

After all, both of them had died less than twenty meters away from me.

But the leader in me knew that none of us were responsible.

We had faced more than ten Tier-3 enemies. Even considering our terrain advantage, that was a huge number. And we had lost only two members of the squad while killing eight Tier-3s.

Any commander worth his salt could tell that expecting a better outcome would only have increased the number of casualties.

If Barry had tried to be any quicker, that arrow might not have been sticking out of his shoulder but through his heart.

If Garran had tried to take on the earth mage, he might have been the one being buried instead of Brakk.

“It is no one’s fault,” I said. “The simple truth is that we were outclassed today. For the first time, we faced this many Tier-3 enemies. From tomorrow onward, I want all of you to be more cautious.”

Then, looking at Barry and the rest of my squad, I continued, “Don’t let today’s mistakes make you more reckless. Pushing yourselves any further would only cause us to suffer more losses, and I honestly don’t want to lose any more of you.”

Then, giving Barry a forced smile, I said, “Somehow, even you obnoxious bastards have become people I really don’t want to lose.”

My words brought small smiles to a few of their faces.

Then I sat there on the ground with Garran until he was ready to have his injuries checked.

Once Barry and Garran had been treated at the infirmary, my squad gathered again.

This time, we met near the campfire to have dinner. The conversation was mostly carried by Rokan and Daren as they talked about the things they used to do with Brakk and Oren, or the things Brakk and Oren had taught them, with Silas chiming in from time to time.

“You know, we didn’t know what guilds were. We didn’t have any in our village, so Oren took us to the guild when we arrived in this town,” Daren said.

“Yeah, they even bought us a new silver chain for the mammoth tooth,” Rokan added, showing us the chain we had created after defeating the Tier-3 mammoth.

It had been one of our first real fights as a squad.

And one of the most difficult.

“And Silas had to haggle to reduce the price of the chain,” Daren said, putting his hand on Silas’s shoulder and giving him a smile.

The mention of the chain and the mammoth gave me an idea.

“What do you all think about having Brakk and Oren’s names engraved on the mammoth tooth as a remembrance?”

Peter nodded. “That is a good idea.”

“Yeah. I think they would be happy,” Rokan added.

One after another, everyone agreed with the idea.

As the conversation continued, I made my way toward Peter.

“After the Tier-5’s domain lifted, I wrote a simple will, just as I did before my first large battle. I mentioned that if I died, I wanted my savings divided among my friends from Stonegate. But with your contacts, would you be able to make some changes to it?”

Peter nodded. “That should be fine. What changes do you want to make?”

“I would like to provide five mana crystals’ worth of gold to the families of Oren and Brakk, and I want that done as soon as possible. I know they both have families in Briarmont. As for the division after my death, arrange for whatever I have left to be divided equally among my friends and the surviving members of our squad.”

Peter gave me a surprised look. “Are you sure about that? No matter how much they have changed, they will never use that money for anything good. And I can assure you that, considering your achievements in this war, the amount they receive would be absurd. It would allow them to do things I dread even thinking about. Also, with their achievements, it would be very hard to keep them locked up.”

This time, I laughed at Peter’s words.

“After I am dead, they will no longer be my concern. If you survive, make sure nothing bad happens.”

I patted Peter’s shoulder.

“After I am dead, even if the world burns down, I could hardly give a fuck about it.”

Then I lay down where I had been sitting and started staring at the stars scattered across the sky.

Today, we had not only lost two squadmates, but I had also realized that Frosthallow was learning about us.

The soldiers who had attacked us today had all been chosen to counter my squad.

They had sent two Tier-3 archers specifically to counter Barry and bypass the defenses of Garran and his unit, who were very difficult to hit behind their large shields.

They had sent a spear unit that pushed the militia back with every volley and created fear with fiery shards.

And then they had sent seven tier-3 warriors to keep Varric, Kael, and my other squad members in check.

The mage was not merely cruel. He also knew that my squad was important to me. Using that as a weakness, he played with Brakk’s life and then killed him in a way that would give me nightmares for the rest of my life. That was probably why he had done it—to make me afraid. And I hated to admit that it was working.

The only reason I had been able to kill three Tier-3 enemies was that two of them had underestimated me.

One warrior had been caught by surprise by my speed, effectively putting up no fight.

The mage had underestimated my mana spell and been caught off guard while escaping.

And now, I was afraid.

Afraid that the next time I stood on the wall, I would not be so lucky—that there would be even greater losses, and I would just stand there and watch members of my squad die, just as I had watched Brakk die today.

Frosthallow was extremely adept at learning from its mistakes, and next time, no one would consider me weak merely because I was Tier-2.

Just as I was struggling with my thoughts, a light kick to my shoulder interrupted me.

When I looked around, I saw Leif and Lela standing over me.

“What are you two doing here?” I asked as I sat up.

“We are here to protect your ass,” Leif replied with a smirk as Lela rolled her eyes.