Chương 60: To The Good Morrow

"Those are… Veilwalkers." The first thing Enel noticed was their silence. Oak Coast was not empty, far from it. He could see all these shadows moving through the pale fog, walking along the road—some even passing by them. One even stopped in front of Tiny.

"G…" His head shook, and the veins on his neck began to etch themselves into his skin as he tried his best not to make any noise. Fortunately for him, the Veilwalker went on its own way. It was dragging a net filled with fish bones. Tiny watched as it disappeared and went back into the fog, moving toward the coast. A coast Tiny truly wanted to see, but could not. There was another one there, a man sitting on a broken crate on the dock, holding a rod.

A woman was sitting in front of a pail, moving her hands as if washing clothes. They could all see them through the fog. But none of them spoke. The sea, from the stories Enel and the others had heard, was supposed to be loud… but it barely made a sound at all. They could hear the waves, but everything felt like a whisper. The fog swallowed everything. Sound, color, warmth… life. Soon, however, a sound was made. The old man. Bernard stepped forward, one hand gripping the side of the horse.

"... No," he whispered. Tiny looked at him.

"Sir Bernard?" Bernard's breath quivered. His eyes moved from house to house, then toward the road leading deeper into the town.

"No, no…" A woman passed near them then. Lamb's hand immediately went to her sword, but the woman did not look at them. She only walked forward with a basket hanging from her arm, her bare feet dragging against the mud. Her skin was pale, almost the same color as the fog. Her mouth hung open slightly, and her eyes stared at nothing. Enel stared at her, then listened.

"She does not breathe," he whispered.

"But… her heart is still beating. All of their hearts are."

"That is impossible," Tiny said.

"It is slow," Enel said.

"But I hear it." Guinevere stayed behind him, her eyes following the woman until she disappeared back into the fog.

"Do not let them wound you," she said.

"If a Veilwalker's blood enters an open wound, the Veil's contagion may spread faster."

"W-what…?" Lamb slowly turned to her.

"But-but I have been scratched by vemons numerous times. Am I… am I going to turn into them?"

"You do not have to worry," Guinevere said.

"Vemons only seem to pass their corruption to their own kind."

"That… is not very comforting," Lamb whispered, stepping closer to the cart. Another person walked from the fog, then another. They moved slowly, not toward Enel and the others, but around them. It was almost as if they could not even see them. They just continued on their way, doing whatever it was they were doing. Repeating the same things over and over again.

"No…" Bernard's knees shook beneath him.

"I know her," he whispered. Enel looked at him.

"Who?" Bernard pointed toward the woman carrying a basket, walking toward them.

"Grima," Bernard said, his voice cracking.

"She sold dried fish near the road. She always… she always gave the children the broken pieces for free." The woman, Grima, stopped. And for the first time since the group had just spent their time standing there and not knowing what to do, a Veilwalker looked at them. Grima's empty eyes moved toward Bernard, and her mouth opened wider.

"Ber…" A rasping sound crawled out of her throat.

"Ber… nard…" Bernard also stared back, shaking his head.

"I… I am truly sorry. I was—" The woman lunged at him before he could finish his words. Enel gently grabbed Bernard by the back of his cloak and pulled him away, and Lamb moved at the same time. Her sword flashed through the thin fog, and the woman fell apart before she could reach the old man. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. No blood came out, only a pale liquid that spilled across the mud.

"Is that… her blood? She was already dead, right?" Lamb stared down at the body, her grip tightening.

"I did not just kill her? Because… it did not feel good. At all." Lamb did not have time to contemplate at all, however, because as soon as Grima's body dropped to the ground, the Veilwalkers who were doing their own things stopped. All of them, slowly turning their heads toward Lamb.

"Uh…?" Tiny backed away, also turning his head toward Lamb, who was about to let out her Breath.

"M'lord," she asked.

"Your orders?"

"Wait." Enel looked down at the woman Lamb had cut. Her mouth was still moving, though only gnarling whispers came out. Her fingers scraped against the mud, reaching for nothing.

"Are they dead?" Enel asked Guinevere. Guinevere stared at the body, then at the others watching them from the fog.

"I do not know." Enel's eyes moved to Bernard. The old man had fallen to his knees. He stared at the woman in the mud, both hands trembling over his mouth.

"Sir Bernard," Enel said gently.

"Are they dead?" Bernard closed his eyes, shaking his head for a moment before he nodded.

"They are suffering," he whispered. Enel also closed his eyes then, nodding to himself as he stepped forward. He clasped his hands together and bowed his head.

"Urtmother," he whispered.

"Please guide them home. Sovereign of the Seven Laws, please protect what remains of them. If their souls are lost, then let our hands open…" One of the Veilwalkers shrieked and rushed at him while he prayed, but Lamb cut it down before it could touch him.

"... may they find peace, and may they find what was lost and what was once loved." Enel opened his eyes.

"Let us give them rest, Lamb." Lamb looked at him for a moment, then rolled her shoulders.

"Finally," she muttered. She raised her left hand and wrote in the air. [Harden.] The word sank into her skin, and a dull sheen passed over her arms and neck. She then tightened her grip on her sword and stepped past Enel.

"Protect the others, M'lord," she said.

"I will do it." Enel looked at her, then stepped back as she stepped forward. Lamb glanced at the figures in the fog that seemed to still hesitate… then she clapped. The sound cracked through Oak Coast, and all the heads twitched and snarled.

"Come on, then!" Lamb shouted, lowering herself almost into a wolf-like stance.

"Come on!" And they came. There were even more of them still hiding from the houses, from the alleys, from the docks. They dragged themselves out of the fog one after another, some even crawling from beneath the stilted houses. And they all rushed toward Lamb, but none could reach her. She sliced through them, her sword flashing through their soft bodies with ease—but Lamb was quiet now. She saw their faces as she cut them down, and her teeth pressed into her lip each time their bodies fell apart.

They were much softer, yes… and much, much weaker than ordinary vemons, but the weight she felt each time she struck them felt like nothing she had ever cut through before. It was… heavy. Some managed to move past her, but Enel stepped in front of them each time and pushed them back for Lamb to cut. Tiny stood behind Enel, his eyes refusing to look at them first. Still, he forced himself to look, and his eyes squinted as if realizing something. Guinevere was not looking at the carnage at all.

She just raised her hand, letting her fingers trail across the fog. As for the old man, he had his eyes closed the entire time. It took a while. Long enough that the sun that had not been visible earlier was now slowly making itself known above them. And when the last Veilwalker fell, Lamb stood alone in the middle of the road. She looked down at the bodies around her, then slowly lowered her sword. No one really said a word, and they just gathered the bodies after that. Enel carried most of them.

Tiny tried to help too, though he kept wiping the tears from his face with his sleeve when he thought no one was looking. They made a pyre near the edge of the shore, where the fog thinned enough for the sea wind to reach them. Enel lit the pyre, and the flames trickled slowly at first, then rose with the sea wind. Smoke curled into the fog, and for a while, all of them watched what used to be the people of Oak Coast disappear into ash. Tiny approached Bernard quietly.

"I… am sorry." And the old man looked at him, his lips trembling. But after a moment, he lowered his head and whispered, "I am, too." Tiny did not really know what to say after that. And so, he only looked at Enel and the others.

"There are no children," he said. No one answered him immediately, and all of them just looked around the town.

"There were no children," he repeated.

"Not even one."

"... Maybe they just grew older?" Lamb raised an eyebrow.

"If that was the case, then their clothes should have been smaller." Lamb's eyes narrowed.

"Then… maybe they left like the old man?" Bernard closed his eyes.

"Perhaps."

"Or someone took them," Lamb said, then she shook her head and focused on the beach in front of them.

"You know, Enel… this is our first time seeing the ocean, right?"

"Yes." Enel nodded.

"Me too," Tiny whispered. Lamb stared at the fog swirling above the waters.

"It looks scary."

"It does."

"Guinevere said it was supposed to be beautiful." Lamb sighed. She was about to say something else when she noticed Guinevere was not with them, and was instead crouched near one of the broken carts on the beach.

"What… is your future bride doing?" Everyone turned their heads to Guinevere, watching as she picked up something from the sand. She patted it clean for a moment, then walked back to the group.

"I saw an insignia burned into the cart," she said.

"It resembles a crown, but not quite."

"A crown?" Enel narrowed his eyes at the cart, and there was indeed an insignia resembling a crown there, with what seemed to be an eye in front of it.

"I found this, my lord. It is a letter."

"Can… you read it?"

"Most of it has been burned." Guinevere wiped the sand from the edge.

"But there are familiar words."

"Words?" She turned the paper slightly and started reading.

"Fail… contain… Veilguard." Tiny's eyes widened as he looked at Bernard.

"The Veilguards… They came here?" Lamb stepped closer to Guinevere, staring at the burned letter.

"Maybe they took the children away."

"Perhaps," Guinevere muttered, then once again let her fingers trail in the fog.

"And the fog is thinner here, and less… alive. I would assume they found a way to remove it, but failed."

"What?!" Tiny looked back at Bernard, lightly gasping.

"Then maybe meeting them helped, old man. Maybe some of your people survived because of you." Bernard's eyes remained closed, and he did not answer. And while the group was discussing with each other… someone watched them from the docks. The man crouched behind a boat, most of his head covered by his cloak.

"Who are these people?" he whispered.

"I… need to tell the others about this."

"Tell the others about what?"

"Wh—?!" He quickly turned, only to see golden hair moving softly beside him.

"Wha—" the cloaked man turned back to the pyre, but Enel was indeed no longer there, and was instead crouching right beside him.

"Good morrow to you, stranger," he casually greeted.