Chapter 94 – Everyone’s Losses (1/2)

I don't know how long I sat there, but eventually I pulled myself out of that daze.

The little shirt was dripping, and I was pretty sure that not all of it was leftover water from the washing.

My eyes were sore, my top was even a bit wet, and my nose...well, anyways, I forced my emotions down. I couldn't just spend all night feeling sorry for people who were no longer around.

I cleaned myself up and finished up taking care of the clothes.

All the adult clothes went into my bag, but the children ones...I left them to the side. I didn't want to take some of them out by accident, and I couldn't think of any way to actually use them. Even the babies in the other room couldn't wear them any better than any other clothes, so it would be better to just use the larger adult clothes as base material for them instead.

Once I was done, I went back to the previous rooms, and in each one, I gathered up the remains then placed them all into a stone container and incinerated them, reducing all traces of the people they were into ashes before collecting what was left and placing them into a single jar.

I didn't know what these people's custom was for the dead, but I was worried that if I didn't do this, some of the women sleeping in the other room would become obsessed with the remains of these people, even if it was only to find the bones of those that were dear to them.

We simply didn't have time for that.

The bones of well over a hundred people condensed into a single large jar. While the jar was huge and taller than myself and wider than my outstretched arms, it was still a single jar that fit within these rooms.

To be honest, I figured that the remains would be much smaller, but even the bones when reduced to ash still took up a surprising amount of space. Doubly so when it was the remains of so many people.

Once I was done, I decorated the giant urn by modelling flowers of every kind I could think of onto the surface.

I didn't know if it was appropriate, but leaving it plain felt too dispassionate.

Then again, since the remains interred inside of this giant vase was that mostly of men, would it have been better to go for something masculine instead? For this world, such things would probably be weapons or something?

But they were all killed in violent acts, so that was probably not appropriate at all. Especially considering that most of them were likely peaceful people in the first place. Farmers and craftsmen, merchants and administrators.

With a sigh, I put the vase into my bag, somehow stretching its mouth to go around its wide body.

[Sorry Alicia, making you go through all that.]

[...Those people were really bad, weren't they?]

[Yea. I guess they were.]

[What about the ones you kept alive?]

(Those huh?)

[I don't know. They're just kids after all.]

[But what if they do something bad again?]

[Then they need to be punished.]

[Don't they need to be punished for already doing bad things?]

[...Yea, I guess they do.]

That point wasn't really my choice though. I probably had no say in what sort of punishment they'd get. Since they were basically bandits, normally in a setting like this, they'd be executed or condemned to be slaves.

Both options kinda ruined the entire point of sparing their lives though.

(But it's true that they probably helped destroy quite a few lives. Or rather, the lives of everyone who was forcibly brought to this mansion.)

I wasn't looking forward to discovering what their fates were to be. While it would be nice if there was some sort of concession due to their age, the crimes they had obviously committed were quite severe as well.

sigh

It was better to simply concentrate on the present rather than the uncertain future at this point.

Once I confirmed that I hadn't forgotten anything in these rooms, I went upstairs to the ground floor.

Since I would probably be bringing the women to the bastard's throne room place for some sunbathing, making sure it was a safe place was the priority.

I went around and examined the walls and remaining fragments of the ceiling. With a hand on the fragmented stone and prodding the cracks with my shadow, I fused the stone so that despite its rough appearance, it wasn't likely to collapse without a decent amount of force.

And with that, I returned to where everyone else was.

The view through the large, open windows was still dark, though if my estimate was right, it was nearing daybreak.

Nobody had blankets and there wasn't anything to block the dissipation of heat from the room, but fortunately it was reasonably warm in this room, thanks to the sheer number of people. Everyone huddled together to preserve their body heat with the babies in the middle.

From what I could see, there weren't any people who looked uncomfortable in this bizarre arrangement, but most likely it was because they had gotten used to living like this.

When I thought more about it, the groupings looked similar to the groups that were put together for exploring the building. Most likely the groupings were these people's closest circles in the first place.

Well, it was probably a good thing that they had people they could implicitly trust like that.

I cleaned up all the cooking equipment and dishes then got to work on breakfast.

Today was going to be oatmeal.

It felt like such a grandparent food, but I liked to have it once in a while before.

With lots of berries...and honey.

In fact, that was exactly what I was going to do. Make it close to a quarter fruit and a large dollop of honey.

Fortunately oatmeal was a simple affair. Just throw in flattened oats into a pot of water and let it simmer until soft, then add everything else in.

The only choice ended up being more or less whether the fruit was stirred in or placed on top of each bowl. I was in the latter camp, with only the honey stirred in, so that was what I did. The pot had lots and lots of honey added as it was nearing finished while I chopped up all sorts of fresh fruit into bite-sized pieces and mixed them in a bowl of assorted berries.

Starting from some of the closest groups, people were slowly waking up.

Why they woke in such an order didn't need to be said though, despite the sun's rays having hardly started to bounce off of the leaves past the rough windows.

”Those of you who've woken up, walk three laps around the room. Everyone needs to build up their strength before we head back to the village. No breakfast until you've finished.”

With my reasoning quite clear, the groggy women all did as I asked, each even waking up their closest friends.

The room was quite large, maybe around twice the size of a school gymnasium, but still three laps wasn't much. Most children could run that, let alone walk. Even then, many of them had trouble doing the whole thing. Some even had to rely on others to help them make the whole distance.

If they were this bad off, then making the day trip all the way back to the village on soft and uneven terrain was going to be a nightmare. If only I had realized their atrophy on the first day, we could've made quite the progress by this point.

But lamenting about such a regret wasn't going to make things better. All I could do was make sure that everyone did what was needed from here on.

On the other hand, while everyone looked pretty tired and a few had wobbly legs when they reached the cooking station, when they finally sat down with their food, they ate at with renewed vigour. It looked like there was a nice fringe benefit to this exercise, it seemed.

”So, after doing some investigations, I have some announcements to make.”

After everyone finished their meals and were resting on the floor or in the refilled baths.

”First, the good news! You might be aware that yesterday one of the groups explored a bit of the floor upstairs and ended up enjoying some...sunbathing.”

Frankly, the word itself grated at me, and my recently born prejudices had made me shudder at the very thought of enjoying something as evil as sunlight. But the fact that as long as you weren't a vampire, it was actually something enjoyable was a fact, and standing in the way of something that these people could easily enjoy was in poor spirits.

But despite how I hesitated to say the word, the response itself was quite good. The very idea struck a chord with them all and even the ones who got to enjoy their time upstairs told the others how great it was.

(The sunlight huh? I never did actually see the sunrise for myself. Looks like I'll never get the privilege to either.)

It was something that I never really thought much about before, or even cared much about. I was an indoor person and never really thought about enjoying the light of the sun on my body, but now that I was unable to do such a thing...

”Haaa. Is it really such a good thing? So you really want to drown yourselves in sunlight until your skin burns to a crisp!?”

Before I knew it, those words came out of my mouth.

”Ah, umm, sorry. I shouldn't have said that.”

You can't unring a bell, but at the very least, those apologies needed to come out. What I said wasn't right.

[I don't regret losing my body, Scarlet. Even if I don't have any limbs of my own to move, I still don't mind. Since I'm with you.]

I had to catch myself as surprise almost overtook my body.

[Thanks Alicia. I'm happy you're with me. You too Claret.]

”Master...”

A few of them looked like they wanted to speak up, but I cut them off and continued my talk.

”Anyways, so it seems like you guys will enjoy it, I figured we'd increase the size of the groups and let everyone spend some time upstairs in a room without a roof. How does that sound?”

The sounds of cheering and excitement filled the air. It looked like most of them were looking forward to it.

”So, we'll go with the same order as before, but three groups at a time. Hopefully everyone will be able to enjoy some time today.”

Even more cheering broke out and quite a few people started to talk to each other about the day they were now looking forward to.

”The other talk...we'll leave for later. I think you all deserve a chance to enjoy yourself first! Can the first three groups gather around?”

While my words were a bit ominous, the excitement overtook it immediately.

Originally I was going to announce the news about the dead, but when it came to it, bringing up such bad news right before everyone was allowed to have a bit of fun was completely counter-productive. The news could wait until until they've had their fun.

Dim, purple light made its way through the enlarged windows at the back of the room.

Everyone was enjoying a nice, hot bath after getting covered in dust from the room upstairs.

Keeping everyone safe in a room filled with broken stone slabs all day was frustratingly difficult when I could barely move a handful of steps from the entrance of the room.

Even if there was no worry about any pieces of stone falling from above, the ground was littered in the broken slabs that once made up the walls and ceilings. I naively thought that everyone would just find a nice place to lie down and enjoy the touch of the sun's rays, but every group ended up having a few people who wanted to wander around, exploring the room.

They balanced themselves on narrow pieces of stone, they crawled under overlapping slabs, and some even tried to climb the walls, using the cracks in them as hand and foot holds.

While they've all healed, I had more than a few burns to show for all the work I put in keeping them safe.

But in the end I could only sigh about it all. It wasn't like I couldn't understand that they wanted to be able to do things they were denied for so long.

I only wished that those desires would manifest in ways that wouldn't make me panic.

(Well, at least they apologized about it and toned it down afterwards.)

Dinner was cream stew, full of hot milk, soft potatoes, and sweet corn along with a healthy dose of vegetables.

If only I had chicken or some other white bird meat.

Other types of bird or reptile meat could be substituted, but the dark meats has stronger flavour that was a little unsuitable for cream style soups.

(Clams would be nice as an alternative though.)

If I had access to seafood, that was an option for sure, but I hadn't even seen the ocean in this life.

(Or rather, in either lives now that I think about it.)

It wasn't like I lived near the ocean in the first place, so that wasn't really anything unusual, even if I was able to eat fresh seafood whenever I wanted. Earth was pretty great when it came to being able to move material around at the speed the demand wanted

Putting all those non-existing options aside, the stew was quickly eaten up and the pot was emptied despite making more food than I had the day before.

Just moving their bodies a little had such a great effect on their appetite. It was pretty gratifying to see such early results.

But as everyone relaxed and rested after their meal, there was one thing I needed to do.

That they needed to hear.

”Everyone, gather around. I need to tell everyone about the continuation from this morning.”

My louder than usual voice got everyone's attention. Everyone came in close, making a circle around me.

There was some whispering but that died down when I put down my bag.

”Many of you have been wondering what had happened to everyone who was brought with you, but wasn't in this room.”

Quite a few people exclaimed out, asking about what I had found, and many more nodded their heads, staring daggers at me in the hope that somehow that would make me hurry up.

But if anything, I wanted to delay the announcement as much as possible.

Of course I wouldn't do that, as it could destroy the trust I had built up in these last few days.

No, even if I didn't, it could destroy what trust they had managed to create for me, but that I couldn't stop.

I opened my mouth to continue, but the words stopped in my throat.

I tried again yet sound refused to make its way out of my mouth.

On the third attempt, I only managed a choking sound, and at that point I simply gave up.

Memories of what I had found had drowned out my voice and I wasn't able to say what was needed.

If my voice failed me, then I simply had to show them.

My hands shook, but I forced them to pull out the first body from my bag.

There was an audible gasp. No, many gasps that came so quickly together that they almost sounded like one.

Without stopping my hands, I pulled out the second body, then finally the third.

Unable to make any sounds, I simply kneeled before the bodies, head down in repentance.