Fabro looked at his village, it was not looking good. He approached An who was still crying over the body of the village chief. He placed his hand on her shoulder.
She touched his hand and cried even louder, she turned around and hugged him. It will be okay, you have to be strong, for everyone. She looked around and the villagers were looking at her.
She let go of him, wiping away her tears. What should we do now young miss? Her people were looking at her for guidance. She turned and looked at him, he nodded slightly. We will have the ceremony of shadows by midnight.
We will figure out the rest tomorrow. They gathered the bodies of the diseased and gently placed them down on a neat row, covering them with white funeral cloths. They gathered wood and logs.
Midnight came and funeral pyres were made, the corpses of the diseased were placed on top of them. Everyone was wearing black gowns with hoodies.
An took a burning torch and approached the pyres, she lit them on fire one by one. A soft hum rang out from the women, men with their deep voices followed suit. They were singing the song of shadows.
It had no actual lyrics just harmonious hums. The fire burnt to the sky lighting their faces. The shadows danced in response moving with light of the flames.
May you souls lay within the embrace of the Endless Shadow An said softly in a chant like tone.
The song and the fire burnt till morning, the funeral was over, the ashes of their people scattered to the winds, their souls lay within the soft embrace of the Endless Shadow, peaceful without sorrow or worry.
Now it was time to figure out where to go from here. A servant of a noble disappeared here, even if he wasn't an important figure they might still investigate and that would everyone in danger.
Fabro looked at An, so what your decision little miss, he said teasingly. Well I think we should find somewhere else to live. That exactly my thoughts but unfortunately there's nowhere safe in the empire anymore.
That a problem, she said with a sigh. Why don't you move into the mountains? Asked Yamiko. Are you crazy? That place is teeming with spirit beasts, there's no way we would survive there, replied An.
No she might have a point. What? You agreeing to this Fabro? It will be dangerous yes but we just need a find a region with low rank beasts and I might have a way to masks our presence.
She sighed, if you say so, I will trust you, our fates are in your hands now Fabro. Well that certainly doesn't put pressure on me. It doesn't? I really thought it would, she said with a playful smile.
He could tell it was forced, she was trying to lighten the mood but she was still hurting. He smiled a little, well I'll be off then. He flew at a hundred times the speed of sound, within a few minutes he was already within the mountains.
He searched for the place with the smallest density of mana, it took a while, he had to do it slowly and cautiously, he couldn't fly too high or move too fast here lest he provoke the natives of this place.
He heard from his grandfather that this place was ruled by a legendary grade sovereign beast. He knew how powerful beast with legendary bloodlines were. They were rare but he had fought one when he was at the sky grade realm or master realm.
It was a grueling battle, it was the most grueling battle he had ever heard, the first time he had almost died, he won at the end but still, it not something he would like to try again. He couldn't even imagine how powerful a sovereign beast was and did not want to find out.
The area he found was located between two mountains, they were lush with trees but as it was winter the mountains were white and so was the canopy of the trees. The area between them was large and flat.
Two rivers flowed from the mountains, they were almost frozen over with large pieces of ice floating on them. The slopes of the mountains were gentle causing the rivers to flow slowly.
He looked at this place and nodded his head. This will do, it had a low mana density, was flat and obviously fertile plus it looked easier to defend, it only had two entrances unless one decides to fly over or climb over the mountains but he could probably find a way to deal with that.
Now he just had one last thing to look for, he started jogging north, towards the entrance that in the direction of the empire.
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An was talking to the maid called Yamiko, the older of the twins she had learnt. So what you relationship with Fabro? He's our boss. Boss? Not master? Wait are they even different? She asked.
Kind of, boss means we his employees and master means we his servants or retainers, however you want to say it. I thought I heard you call him master though.
Well you see, he found my sister and I five years ago, he saved us from a slave caravan. He gave us our lives back, gave us food, water, a roof over our heads. He didn't look older than us, we thought he was some noble kid who's bored.
That he would abonden us when he was done playing with us. We were wrong, he was a peasant just like us but he was strong. He told us we could leave whenever we feel like it.
We had no where to go so we decided to follow him, he gave everything without expecting anything in return. Well that sounds like him, she said. We acknowledged him as our master, God did he hate that.
He told us never to address him as master so we did not but deep down we think of ourselves as his servants not because he asked us but because we want to, we made that our purpose.
Wait if he said not address him as master then why did you do it? He has a playful and kind personality, that the one we address as boss but there's another side of him, a darker more imposing side.
In that state he doesn't mind being addressed as master or treating us as his retainers rather than friends so my sister and I take that opportunity to serve our purpose. So it was your decision to be servants? Yes, I..... thought I made that clear.
Everybody continued packing their stuff until morning, then they heard galloping sounds. Everybody went to look, there in the distance was a man clad in black armour with a black cape flowing behind him.
He was standing on top of a giant black mountain goat head between it horns, his hands folded on his chest. He looked really cool. Over 200 hundred goats were running behind him each the size of an elephant.