LS – Extra 8: Visiting a grave in summer

The isekai (Traced) also has seasons. 

The northernmost, which is Torin, is the most temperate zone, and it messes up my senses, but the points of interest in the seasons are similar no matter the world. 

They have a buddhist-like custom of visiting graves in the summer, but this is a world that has been influenced by Yugura Nariya. 

He has added a tradition that’s easy to get intimate with. 

“Well, it is better than cleaning the graves in winter though.” 

I have come to a certain graveyard in Taizu. 

We already visited the grave of Haiya after the war, so we are currently in a simple common graveyard that the sun doesn’t reach much in. 

This is the place where the people who have committed crimes, have no relatives or hometowns, or don’t have people to mourn for them are located. 

The ones I know from here are Dokora, the people of the bandit alliance, and a part of the anbus of Mejis that were sent to us by Raheight. There’s also the adventurer Pashuro. 

There’s a gravekeeper, but they only clean the bare minimum. I have requested to clean it for this occasion though. 

“Are these guys sleeping peacefully? No, I doubt that…” 

I was basking in memories that I didn’t really want to remember while cleaning. 

There’s people who were simply caught up in all of this, and also people who lost their lives providing support, but…well, there are also people who have taken care of me. 

I doubt it will reach the people themselves, but I am giving them my heartfelt thanks. 

Ekdoik, who I agreed to meet with here, showed up while I was doing this. 

“You already began, huh.” (Ekdoik)

“I would lose most of my work if we were to begin together.” 

Ekdoik said he also wanted to clean this grave, so we decided to do this together, but…he clearly doesn’t have cleaning tools. 

He is planning on using magic to manage somehow just as I imagined. 

“Pashuro would dislike it even if I were to clean his grave as the one who killed him after all.” (Ekdoik)

“No doubt about it.” 

Ekdoik killed Pashuro for the sake of his own desire. Right now he has gotten out of that fence and is building up a peaceful life. 

It is exactly because he was saved that he still feels guilty about sacrificing Pashuro for his own sake. 

But the one who made him do that was me. 

They were more like just people with common interests rather than comrades though. But relationships change. 

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Ekdoik and Girista are now like close friends. 

It is not like there was zero chance Pashuro would have followed that same path. I do have my own thoughts about that. 

In the end, we are cleaning the graves as similar people. 

There’s nothing productive about thinking of speculative scenarios. But we are taking our time here to clean the graves, so it is not bad to delve into such speculations every now and then. 

“Fumu… It would be faster to just scrape off the whole surface.” (Ekdoik)

Ekdoik moved his chains freely and scraped off the dirt and moss from the surface. 

It looks as if he is doing a fierce attack on the grave from an outsider’s perspective, but the grave is actually returning to a state that’s close to new. 

I am glad I came to clean first. 

“Something like this, I guess.” (Ekdoik)

“Hasn’t it gotten a size smaller?” 

“There should be no issues if we just rebuild it stealthily every few years.” (Ekdoik)

“You have gotten sly.” 

“I will take that as praise. By the way, is Ilias not around?” (Ekdoik)

“She is cleaning the gravekeeper’s hut.” 

Ilias is different from me and Ekdoik in that she doesn’t feel bad about them. 

She killed them with clear hostility, so she would clean this up indifferently with magic. 

That isn’t bad in itself, but the person themselves would feel conflicted about being made to clean this. I can’t really talk about others though. 

And so, I thought it would be better to help out the gravekeeper, so I asked her to do that. 

I should follow up on her later, but I did clean up her parent’s graves carefully when we went to visit their graves, you know? 

Once the cleaning was over, the graves were indistinguishable from before. 

I am sweating here, but Ekdoik has not sweated a drop. 

“That’s awfully clean…” 

“Dokora is also sleeping here. I have to at least look after it since he looked after Rakura.” (Ekdoik)

“That’s true.” 

“Ah, you will be heading to Serende later, right? I am planning on heading there soon. How about going there together?” (Ekdoik)

“Ooh, please. Can we go to Torin while at it?” 

“…Yeah, got it.” (Ekdoik)

There’s someone who caused quite a lot of trouble, but it is someone that I comprehended and sympathized with to a decent degree. 

If I were to worry about every single personal connection, I would eventually end up spending all my days visiting graves, but…I would like to go at least at the times when I have the time to. 

“Ooh, Counselor-sama and Ekdoik-niisan.” 

“Muh, Rakura…and Mix, huh.” (Ekdoik)

Rakura and Mix were holding flowers. 

We did tell them our plans today after all. I did expect them to come together. 

“Isn’t this grave cleaner than the one of Haiya-dono…?” (Mix)

“I am sorry. We have already finished the cleaning.” (Ekdoik)

“That’s okay. You saved us the trouble. We just have to pour water on them. Glug glug~.” (Rakura)

“Is that okay, cleric?” 

Both of their objectives are probably to visit the grave of Dokora who they are somewhat acquainted with. 

According to what I heard from Ekdoik, he is someone who gave her advice that led her to aim to become a cleric, but…the person herself still doesn’t remember. 

Ekdoik said he would tell her when she is close to remembering. 

“They are ruffians, but wouldn’t it be better with alcohol?” (Mix)

“Don’t wanna. That’s a waste. I would rather drink it myself than pour it on graves!” (Rakura)

I did bring alcohol, but I feel like she would pick it back up if I were to offer it to the graves, so I will stealthily leave it here later, okay, Dokora? 

That said, Ekdoik was offering dried meat. Dried meat? 

Ekdoik chuckled, most likely because he noticed my gaze.

“It is what Pashuro liked.” (Ekdoik)

“Aah, you can bite it off and the flavor comes out if you continue chewing it after all.” 

You can eat it wildly or carefully, and it lasts long. 

It must be food that matches him well as a whimsical person and an adventurer. 

“He apparently was grilling them with that gauntlet though.” (Ekdoik)

“Doesn’t that burn mana…?” 

“It apparently gives it a peculiar taste.” (Ekdoik)

Speaking of which, Girista did say before ‘I would like to eat Pashuro’s dried meat again~’. I am a bit curious. 

Isn’t it still in the treasury of Taizu? Let’s try asking Marito next time. 

We finished visiting the graves, regrouped with Ilias, and helped out cleaning the surroundings of the gravekeeper’s hut. 

It is different from your regular graveyard in that it is used less frequently because it is for criminals, so it is only maintained rarely when there’s a shift of government officials.

The current gravekeeper apparently has their hands full with maintaining the hut over the graves. 

That’s why there was quite a lot to do, but…I felt conflicted about the maintenance of the tools used to bury the criminals.

“Visiting graves in this fashion doesn’t feel bad as a feature of the season…” (Mix)

Noon went by and the temperature was perfect, so we are having a bit of a break time. 

Everyone was relaxing in the shadows. 

Everyone was in a more solemn mood when we were visiting the grave of Haiya, but…this time around, it was Dokora, even if we were close to him to a certain degree. 

Everyone was relaxing and enjoying the atmosphere. 

“Relaxing in a cool place would be best though.” 

“You say stuff that makes you sound like an elderly, Counselor-sama. I do agree though.” (Rakura)

“Ahaha… How did you enjoy the summer evenings in your homeland, Mister Friend?” (Mix)

“Summer evenings, huh… Ghost stories… Like, telling scary stories?” 

“Scary stories?” (Mix)

“That’s right. Like, telling bone chilling stories to forget the heat?” 

But this is a fantasy world. Ghosts and monsters exist. 

Ghosts and undead are scary, but they are categorized as monsters after all. 

If anything, it is close to the feeling of wild carnivore animals. 

“Bone chilling stories, huh… If we are talking about life threatening, I would say the fight I had against Ofaro was chilling.” (Ekdoik)

“Let’s separate from combat and go for a more daily life topic. Like a dead person standing next to you while you are sleeping.” 

“Necromancy, huh.” (Ekdoik)

“That’s not it. I really do need to explain.” 

Things that shouldn’t exist are present. It is hard to make the residents of a fantasy world recognize that fear, but I try to explain it somehow.

That alone wouldn’t be enough, so I ended up telling them scary stories by the time I noticed to give them a taste. 

“Basically, it is okay to just tell scary experiences that others can sympathize with in your daily life? I personally shrink up when I hear the angered shout of Ani-sama.” (Mix)

 “That’s a bit different, but…well, that’s fine I guess.” 

Ilias is nodding at the back. 

I understand the feeling, but let’s try to nod with a bit less strength, okay? 

Even Marito would be hurt by that. 

“It was scary when I broke the barrier of the Grand Church.” (Rakura)

“I can’t empathize with that…” (Mix)

“I am impressed you didn’t lose your job.” 

“It was as scary as that time when I went ‘Uhm… Ah! I did my best today as well!’ and tried to drink alcohol, but there was none!” (Rakura)

“I can understand that a bit.” (Mix)

I wonder what kind of face Pope Euparo would make if he were to hear that she is categorizing those two as being equally scary. 

Trying to imagine that is scarier. 

“Do you have something, Counselor-sama?” (Rakura)

“My life was threatened on the regular after all… Well, we are talking about daily life here, so the time when I was attacked by the Mana Eater doesn’t count…” 

“That’s scary enough though.” (Ekdoik)

“Let’s exclude the times when Marito would be aware of my plans despite me not telling him…” 

“I-I wonder where that leaked…” (Mix)

“Hmm… Something in common… Something in common… Aah, I guess this group has at least experienced it. It is about the story of how to do Comprehension.” 

Everyone froze.

They managed to experience my mental state in my body within a simulated world at Gahne.  I displayed my Comprehension there.

I made the worth of my existence into nothing first, and formed the other party through the factors obtained from the outside . 

It is a method similar to ‘becoming the character and getting in their shoes’ that actors often do. 

The result was overwhelmingly negative. To the point that I was prohibited from using it for the foreseeable future. 

At the time when Ekdoik stepped into complete awakening and was about to become me, he apparently learned the method, but said ‘it would be better to comprehend others the normal way’ and sealed the memory. 

“That’s not good…” (Rakura)

“It is true that that was a scary experience, but…are you saying there’s a story scarier than that…?” (Ilias)

“It is not like it is that scary though… I have stories about the time when I comprehended drug addicts and suicidal people, and it got troubling in a lot of ways that—” 

“I don’t want to hear about that! I don’t want to hear about something like that!” (Mix)

“Not good, huh. The punchline was that it was troublesome because it was hard to return from that though.” 

“Even if you tell us the punchline, we know that this might become something so scary it could show up in my dreams!” (Rakura)

Of course, I learned from that mistake and told myself ‘let’s live humanely and try not to become dangerous people’. 

That’s why I tried to not comprehend Blue when she wanted to die. The person herself is a Demon Lord, so she can’t die, but I can. 

I could have happily killed myself. 

“But well, it is not all bad, you know? When I comprehend lunatics subjectively and objectively, I would feel even more strongly ‘Aah, I don’t want to become like this. Let’s tread with caution’.” 

“The problem is that you would join the lunatics with one wrong step.” (Ilias)

“It is as Ilias says… You really are the scariest, Comrade…” (Ekdoik)

“Didn’t you overcome that? Also, don’t say it as if it were a punchline like ‘manjuu is scary’.” 

“…Manjuu is scary? What’s that?” (Ekdoik)

This is off topic, but my rakugo jokes are really popular with everyone thanks to the influence of my neighbor who was pretty knowledgeable about it. <Rakugo is a form of traditional verbal entertainment.>

Marito took a liking to rakugo more than anyone, and he called me almost every night for a good while. I don’t like that it developed into something similar to the 1,001 nights from Scheherezade. 

——-

Reigokai: With this, we have finished the extras. A shame since there’s still a lot left they could have explored. 

However, that means the journey has truly ended. I have already written all I have wanted to say. 

Hope to see you in the next isekai!