The dawn dew lifted,
and the city slowly began to awaken.
The sound of doors opening and people’s footsteps spread through the alleys.
Arku’s day was moving along, not much different from yesterday.
But the morning in the protected zone was different.
Yesterday, they had arrived here and gone through the registration procedures,
then spent a hectic day being assigned places to stay.
And today,
there was only one thing the Silver Moon Corps had to do first.
Kalen lay inside a simple wooden coffin.
His face was already bloodless, but his expression was strangely peaceful.
The sword wound that had brought him to death was wrapped beneath his clothes and cloak, hidden from sight.
One by one, the members gathered.
Rangnan stood before the coffin, and beside him, Yun silently kept her place.
Now, under the name of a temporary public security cooperation unit,
Bido stood there as well.
Rangnan stood before the coffin.
He lowered his head for a moment, then opened his mouth.
“Kalen was someone whose life was stolen by the Empire.”
His low voice continued quietly.
“He lost the place he could return to and came to the Silver Moon Corps, and here, he lived again.”
“He saw the same things we did, and longed for the same things we did.”
Rangnan’s gaze rested on the wooden coffin.
“He held his place until the end. And he saved his comrades.”
A brief breath passed.
“We see the today that Kalen could not. So we will not forget.”
When Rangnan finished speaking,
Yun, who stood beside him, slowly closed her eyes.
“Memory remains.”
It was a low, brief sentence.
Rather than a eulogy, it sounded like words confirming the burden the survivors would have to bear.
Then someone spoke softly.
“We remember you.”
Those words were soon quietly repeated from the mouths of others.
Small voices overlapped one by one, until at last they remained as a single sentence.
“We remember you.”
Bido, too, belatedly moved his lips.
Almost no sound came out, but he had clearly said the same words.
Only then was the coffin lifted.
The hands holding the front and back did not waver under its weight.
Those who silently took their places slowly left the protected zone.
The footsteps following behind were not loud either.
Raymond and the two military policemen followed at a slight distance.
Rather than part of the funeral,
they looked like people confirming that this movement remained within the permitted bounds.
When they left the protected zone and passed through the alleys,
merchants just opening their doors and people drawing water stopped in their tracks and looked at them.
No one spoke to them easily.
Those who had been in the forest until yesterday were walking through the city today with a dead man before them.
At the city gate, there was a brief check.
When one of the military policemen stepped forward and exchanged a few words, the guards opened the way without further questions.
The moment they passed between the thick city gates and the outside air touched him,
Bido unknowingly drew in one long breath.
The air outside the city was colder than within, and emptier.
The road leading east was not wide, and the moisture that had gathered overnight still remained on the soil.
Wet blades of grass brushed against their feet.
Those carrying the coffin silently switched places now and then.
When Yeonhwa moved her hands, Taejin took over, and then another pair of hands shared the weight again.
Rangnan was always close to the coffin.
Yun walked at the same pace, about half a step behind him.
She did not step forward, but not once did she take her eyes off it.
Miryeong quietly watched only to make sure Bido’s steps did not fall behind.
Bido could not take his eyes off the coffin.
The wooden coffin moved forward without shaking,
but the fact that Kalen lay inside it still felt distant somehow.
That a person who had breathed with them,
who had moved with them, was inside that box did not easily feel real.
The road did not continue for long.
After they moved a little farther east from the city gate, a low hill came into view.
On the hill, dry grass swayed sparsely in the wind,
and among it, old gravestones and earthen mounds were scattered here and there.
It was Arku’s burial ground.
The group climbed the hill in silence.
With the coffin raised, no one hurried.
Only the wind passed by them first, sweeping over the hilltop.
At the place where Raymond stopped, the edge of the hill opened out into a slightly flat space.
It was a spot a little away from the old graves.
As if someone had left the place empty, the grass was short and the earth lay exposed.
The two military policemen stopped behind them and came no closer.
Raymond also stepped back a few paces.
From here on, it was their task.
The coffin was slowly lowered.
The sound of the wooden coffin’s bottom touching the earth was smaller than expected.
That one small sound made the fact that it was the end even clearer.
For a while, no one moved.
Only the wind brushed over the hill, pressing the dry grass down and lifting it again.
The first to step forward was Rangnan.
He picked up a shovel that had been set to one side of the burial plot.
After looking at the coffin for a moment, he silently struck the earth.
There was a dull sound as the damp soil split apart.
That sound came a second time, then a third.
Soon, Taejin came up beside him and took another shovel.
Yeonhwa also silently lent her hands.
The three of them did not speak unnecessary words.
The shovel blades cut into the earth, the soil was pushed aside, and the shallow hollow gradually deepened.
Bido stood still and watched.
His fingertips were cold.
Though the scene before his eyes was clear, it continued to feel distant somehow.
Kalen was dead.
He already knew that fact.
He had seen Kalen’s death with his own eyes.
And yet, standing before the sound of the earth being dug,
those words only now began to sink slowly inside Bido.
Miryeong stood beside Bido.
She said nothing.
She merely stood nearby.
When the grave had reached a certain depth, Rangnan set down the shovel.
After briefly steadying his breath, he turned toward the coffin.
“Lower him.”
Yeonhwa and Taejin placed their hands on it again.
Rangnan took the opposite side.
The coffin was carefully lifted,
and from the hands of the three, it was slowly lowered into the grave without wavering.
The wooden coffin touched the bottom.
This time, there was no sound.
The coffin placed beneath the earth was creating a distance from the world with strange speed.
Yeonhwa was the first to take a step back.
Taejin also stepped back with his head bowed.
Rangnan remained before the grave a little longer, then picked up the shovel again.
He pushed in the first shovelful of earth.
Thud.
The sound of soil falling onto the coffin rang out.
At that brief sound, Bido’s shoulders trembled ever so slightly.
Taejin pushed in the second shovelful.
The third was Yeonhwa.
After that, there was no need to decide an order.
Little by little,
the earth slowly covered the coffin.
Bido could not move for a long while.
It had been close enough to touch if he reached out, but now the soil blocked the space between them.
Kalen had been near, but he was growing farther and farther away.
Then Miryeong looked at Bido very faintly.
There was no urging.
Only a quiet gaze, as if to say it was now his turn.
Bido slowly walked forward.
He did not pick up a shovel.
Instead, he stopped before the edge of the grave and bent down.
With the tips of his fingers, he gathered a handful of earth.
It was cold and damp.
Bido looked down at that soil for a moment, then placed it on top of the coffin without a word.
Rustle.
The sound was smaller than anyone else’s shoveling,
but to Bido, it sounded the loudest.
His lips slowly parted.
His voice was so low it barely escaped.
“…I’m sorry.”
Whether those words scattered in the wind, whether anyone heard them, he did not know.
But Bido stood there for a long time afterward.
Then Rangnan pushed in more earth again,
and Taejin and Yeonhwa silently lent their hands.
Until the coffin was completely out of sight, no one hurried.
Only when the earthen grave at last settled into place like a small mound did everyone’s hands stop.
On the hill, one newly made grave remained in silence.
From the freshly covered earth, the faint smell of damp soil still rose.
Whenever the wind passed, only the tips of the grass swayed quietly.
Rangnan stood before the grave first.
After closing his eyes for a moment, he spoke in a low voice.
“May you rest eternally in Mother Moon’s embrace.”
After him, Yeonhwa stepped forward.
Her unwavering voice fell briefly.
“May you stand beside the Dragon God.”
Taejin and Miryeong also bowed their heads in silence.
Raymond offered a brief salute from where he stood a step back.
Only after a long while did Bido open his mouth.
“We will remember you.”
Lastly, Yun stood before the grave.
She looked at the freshly covered earthen mound for a moment, then spoke slowly.
“Those who remain will remember.”
For a while, there were no words before the newly covered grave.
Only the wind brushed over the hill and passed on.
Unable to turn away first, anyone at all, a brief silence settled over the place.
As if unwilling to break that silence, Raymond carefully took a step closer.
He stopped beside Yun for a moment, then spoke very quietly.
“Yun.”
Yun turned her head.
Raymond looked toward the grave once,
then continued, unable to hide the apology in his expression.
“I’m sorry to bring this up now.”
After a brief pause, he took out a sealed document from inside his coat.
“But there is a task that has been assigned to you.”
Yun looked at the document for a while, then slowly reached out her hand.