Goodbye Riddly Village II

They took the same route as yesterday, but Adam had cleared it so nothing snagged on Carolyn's outfit. Carolyn was also making an extra effort to stay light on her feet and avoid dirt. Thanks to these measures, they were able to reach the grave marker without a messy incident.

Unlike when she visited yesterday, there were now a couple of wooden structures set up around the memorial. There were three unlit standing torches, one north, one south, and one east of the grave marker. Each of these three reached the height of Carolyn's chest. West of the grave marker was a circle of shorter lit standing torches, with their heights only at the level of Carolyn's thigh.

Carolyn took a moment to appreciate the work that Adam and Harold had done before moving into the circle of standing torches and bowing towards the grave marker. Once she was inside the circle, Adam, Harold, and Kathy each stood at one of the taller torches and lit them. Once they were all in position and the torches were lit, Adam started the ceremony. While Carolyn intended to dance, they would be the ones to make the music.

"Awww~"

"Laa, lala, la la laa~"

"Aww aww aww aww aww~"

There were no instruments in the days when the send-off ceremony was first performed, so it was the norm for the participants to use their voices to accompany the holy maiden. At the sound of Harold's third melodic 'aww,' Carolyn slowly raised her body. She pulled her left leg backwards while stretching her right hand forward with her left hand perpendicular to her right and parallel to the ground.

"La lalala, la lalala~"

"Awawaww aww~"

"Aw aw."

"Lala lalalala lalalala lalalala."

"Awawaww aww~"

Carolyn danced gracefully to the tune made by the three's voices. Their song aroused the minds of the lingering spirits, while her dance attracted them and melted the chains holding them down. As she had been well trained in all major art forms, including dance, Carolyn's performance was nothing if not excellent. In this deserted village, a dance that people would certainly pay to see unfolded.

...

"Awawwwwwwwwwwww aw."

"Ha... ha..."

It was noon when the song and dance stopped. Send-off ceremonies were usually shorter than this, but starting preparations after dawn and ending the performance at noon was more common among traditional families. Carolyn had been dancing for almost three hours, so she was obviously tired, but she remained on her feet until all the torches were extinguished, which signified that the ceremony was complete.

Once the ceremony was over, Carolyn almost dropped to the ground, but Kathy hastily grabbed her before that happened. Her voice was hoarse and itchy after all that singing, but she didn't dare compare her suffering to Carolyn's. Even traditional ceremonies would have substitutes for the role of the holy maiden, so there was no one who could rightfully admonish her if she stopped earlier, and yet, she danced as best as she could for the entire duration.

"Kathy, do you think, they liked it...?"

"Of course! If they didn't like it, then they must have already lost their minds."

"Hehe... Thanks."

Slightly comforted by Kathy's response, Carolyn finally allowed her eyelids to lower. With sincere admiration in her eyes, Kathy looked at her sleeping face. Even if Carolyn had turned out to be a clumsy, naive flowerhead, Kathy would have still been willing to serve her because of the debt that she owed to her mother. However, in a little more than a day Carolyn had proven her exceptional character and potential to the extent that Kathy wondered if she was worthy to join her cause.

"She's even more impressive than I imagined."

"I agree. She'll most likely grow to be as sagacious as her mother and as physically adept as her father. I can see why that guy has such high hopes for her."

"Why are you acting like you don't have high hopes for her too, Captain? I thought I was prepared, but if Kathy wasn't so close, you probably would have reached her before she did."

"I was only acting as expected. You should be doing more training if you weren't able to do that much."

"I agree. Not that I would let anyone take this duty from me."

Knowing that he couldn't win against these two in an argument, Harold raised his hands in surrender.

"So what now? Do we wait for her to wake up?"

"No. Let's get her back so she can sleep in a proper bed. She deserves that much."

And so they left Riddly Village with Carolyn on Kathy's back. It would be a long time before she or anyone else visited, but despite the ominous circumstances under which the village was destroyed, there was not a single scary story featuring it. For it was well known that a saint had once blessed this land, a story heavily endorsed by a certain red-haired woman.

Some time later, Carolyn awoke in her bed at Teri's house. She quickly sat up once she noticed where she was and looked around, but there was no one else in her room. She was in her holy maiden attire, with her veil on a chair next to her bed, so Carolyn figured that she had been brought back to Noral Village while asleep. Honestly, her muscles were protesting against any movements that brought her out of bed, but if Adam and his team were still around, then she wanted to say her thanks.

With that as her motivation, Carolyn somehow struggled out of bed and left the room. The sky was noticeably darker than she last remembered, but there was still some time before night came. Carolyn couldn't find anyone inside the house, but after opening the front door, she found Teri sitting down at his usual spot overlooking his medicinal field.

"So you're up. It looks like you pushed yourself quite a bit this time."

"My apologies. I remembered your teachings, but when it came time to perform, I just couldn't tell myself to stop."

Teri always reminded her about how important it was for a medicinal practitioner to be mindful of their limits, and yet she had overexerted herself and ended up collapsing. It was disappointingly similar to the time when she first started learning from him, but his comment in this instance was much more lenient.

"If you understand that much, then there's no need for me to reiterate. Besides, I'm not so hardheaded as to not make an exception in this case."

"Thank you, Mr. Teri. Did Adam and the others already leave?"

"Yes. Kathy was particularly reluctant, but she backed off once I told her that you needed rest."

"That does sound like her, but it's a bit of a shame. I wanted to thank them for everything."

"Adam figured you would say something like that, so he told me to tell you not to worry about it since it was their job."

"I see. Still, I hope I get to see them again sometime."

Although Carolyn knew that Hanson's shadow soldiers had a headquarters near the village, based on his attitude it would likely be hard to get permission to go there.

'Honestly, I feel like he's hiding far more than I can even imagine. Still,'

There was much she didn't know, but as she looked at the falling sun illuminating the horizon, Carolyn confirmed her resolve once more.