And (N)one Shall Remain

 

Fortunately, the trip from the dungeon back to the capital city was completely uneventful. Nothing cliche like a bandit attack or the likes happened – which to be fair made sense, since the Kingdom practically ruled the human lands alone and tolerated no such scoundrels – and their carriage entered the gates of the Royal Capital shortly after midnight.

 

Since it was such a late hour already, Sir Inolet and Magus Drummond conferred with Cerilla, and all three agreed that the report to the King could wait until the next day. As such, the returning party was allowed to rest undisturbed for the night, free to do whatever they felt like doing, though most just immediately fell onto their beds and slept like a baby within moments instead.

 

Alissa chose to get a much-needed hot bath first.

 

Even at the late hour, some of the palace maids were awake and prepared to fulfill her needs. Within ten minutes of her return to her room at the Royal Palace, a hot bath was already waiting for her perusal. The maids politely withdrew after they filled the bath, well-informed of the summoned [Heroes] and their idiosyncrasies by then.

 

Her room at the Royal Palace was the sort of guest room usually reserved for visiting nobles, and was positively luxurious even by twenty-first century standards, if lacking in some amenities she was accustomed to. Fortunately a private bath was not one of the lacking amenities, as the room was connected to a large bathroom with a bath the size of a small swimming pool that felt positively excessive for one person to use.

 

Then again, visiting nobles usually brought their families along anyway, so maybe it was just right for them.

 

The room’s private bath reminded Alissa more of japanese baths she had seen from movies, or roman ones from historical shows, with separate areas for people to actually wash themselves – separate from the bath itself so as not to dirty the bathwater – and the bath itself, which was practically a waist-height pool easily able to accommodate twenty or more people.

 

Alissa quickly washed herself – fortunately some of the previous summoned heroes must have introduced more modern soapmaking techniques to the world given how they had solid bars of nicely scented soaps – with the large bucket of hot water prepared for her use. It took some effort to scrub the week’s worth of grime that had accumulated on her skin, and she couldn’t help but cringe as seeing the dirt flow away with the now-murky water.

 

She scrubbed herself until her skin turned red and raw at places, and only then did she feel properly clean for the first time in the past week. Needless to say, for someone used to modern amenities, the mere idea of being away from those amenities for a full week – even when her family took her camping they always chose places where there were rivers or lakes to bathe in – much less having to fight against beasts with life and death on the line, was a feeling that was thoroughly foreign to her. No amount of training or preparation would have changed that.

 

In fact, Alissa thought that if it wasn’t for her skill keeping her mind calm and rational she might have had some mental breakdowns in the past month or so she had been in this different world.

 

As she slipped into the pool full of hot water – the maids had filled it with plenty of hot water, knowing that she would likely take a while to clean herself before entering, so that the temperature would be about just right by the time she entered – Alissa couldn’t help but wonder how the others handled the issue. Neither of them had the skill she got, after all.

 

Ethan was probably fine since in some ways, this whole mess was like a dream come true to him. Something he probably dreamed and fantasized about often in their previous world. The way he took on all the obstacles laid before him with an almost childlike glee lent further credence to that line of thought. That, and she knew that he was never one to be easily fluttered anyway. 

 

She had known him since they were both in kindergarten and never saw him panic, not even when he was at times bullied by other, larger kids. It was a memory that made Alissa chuckle, of when Ethan was a small, reed-thin bookish kid that the bigger kids often picked on. She had fought off more than a couple of those for him, even.

 

Of course, all those bullying issues came to a screeching halt when Ethan hit his growth spurt in middle school and the reed-thin bookworm grew out into the school’s new star quarterback.

 

As for Joshua… Alissa didn’t really care about him, as she was never friends with him. They were at best passing acquaintances, and she definitely didn’t like the sort of bullying the clique Joshua was in often did. Even so, he remained one of the only two other people she knew shared a goal with her, that of returning to their homes, so in that sense, they really ought to cooperate somehow.

 

The way Joshua seemed… attached to the young priestess named Vesta was a bit worrisome. Alissa saw how he would often have a hard time sleeping at night during their dungeon run unless it was on her lap. It looked like a rather unhealthy sort of attachment to her, and combined with the mental breakdown he had early on, she wasn’t sure if that was a good thing at all.

 

Alissa allowed her to sink until her chin was just touching the water, seated on the steps that lined the sides of the pool-sized bath. The pleasant heat of the water helped soothe her tired body, which after the week of expedition was sore in all sorts of places she had never thought could even be sore before. It turned out that experience with track and fields or basketball did not prepare one for fighting otherworldly monsters for a week straight. Who knew?

 

She soaked her tired body in the bath for what felt like hours, but was likely only half an hour or so, until the water turned lukewarm, before she rose from the pool and dried herself with the towels left for her use by the maids. Once she was properly dry, she went into her room and opened the drawers of the cabinet to fish out a fresh pair of loose, comfortable silken pants as well as a tunic of the same material meant to be used a sleepwear and clothed herself.

 

The moment she laid her head on her pillow she drifted off to dreamland before she knew it.

 

******************************

Early the next morning, Alissa saw the others at the breakfast table. Given their status as summoned [Heroes], not even the king dared to demand that they report to him like a subordinate. Instead, they made their report as part of the chatter while they ate their breakfast together at the King’s table. Sir Inolet and Magus Drummond told the bulk of the tale, with Alissa and the rest only chiming in if they were asked or when explaining bits their chaperones had missed.

 

The breakfast itself was a rather late one. Alissa herself had overslept, but she was not even the last to arrive, as Joshua and Ethan were even later. They probably had to clean themselves up first after they woke up, since they likely slept right away the night before. Other than them, the Fifth Princess was also at the table, along with the priestesses Cerilla and Vesta.

 

Despite the topic of the conversation, Alissa, Ethan, and Joshua paid little attention to most of the report and ate heartily. The past week of eating only travel rations through the dungeon trip made them miss the lavish, freshly prepared breakfasts they were used to in the past month. All three of them ate until they could eat no more, their appetites even making the queen chuckle in amusement.

 

What followed after the breakfast was done – close to noon, as it was a very late breakfast – was a far more somber matter, though. The three young [Heroes] were invited to attend the funeral of those members of the royal guards and temple guards that had lost their lives during the expedition, something that still weighed on their minds.

 

Of course, they were allowed to decline, but none of the three made use of that privilege. Even Joshua chose to join them for the funeral.

 

The funeral itself was a solemn procession, which took place in the large cathedral built directly in the palace grounds. The building had a sort of antique look not uncommon to buildings of worship on earth, though its features seemed pretty mixed up. The architecture looked almost as if someone built the lovechild between a baroque style catholic cathedral with a mosque, then further decorated with statues that depicted all sorts of creatures only really found in fantasies.

 

Eleven coffins of dark wood, painted a pristine ivory white, were laid side by side at the raised dais just before the altar. The altar itself depicted the four gods worshiped by the humans, only known by their monikers of “Courage of the North”, “Wisdom of the East”, “Discretion of the South”, and “Innocence of the West”. 

 

Those gods were depicted as humans with proportions that would fit a statue of greek gods or goddesses. The Courage of the North was clearly a warrior of sorts, clad in heavy armor and wielding a massive two-handed sword which rested on his shoulder. The Wisdom of the East looked quite asian in features, with robes not unlike what Magus Drummond and Joshua wore, wielding a staff in hand with a monocle over one of his eyes.

 

The other two gods were females. Discretion of the south was depicted as a masked, cloaked woman whose features were nearly indistinguishable through her clothing, while the Innocence of the West wore robes nearly identical to those worn by the clergy present. The latter god was depicted as a friendly-looking, short, and chubby woman whose freckled face held a wide, almost motherly smile.

 

Despite the clear importance of the funeral, the ceremony itself did not take particularly long. An old man Alissa recognized as High Priest Solon – the same man Sir Inolet and Magus Drummond joked about before they left the dungeon – personally led the sermon, and while it was a solemn, quiet ceremony, it barely took twenty minutes from the beginning to the end of the whole thing.

 

After the ceremony was finished, the high priest gave a last speech praising the efforts of the brave youths who gave their lives for the common good of the human race in flowery, yet respectful words. Then groups of temple guards in ceremonial armor – not very different from the faux roman style of armor they wore in combat, just far more decorated and bling-y – lifted the coffins on their shoulders and marched out of the cathedral in a parade perfect single file.

 

The cemetery where the dead would be interned was located just outside the palace grounds. Apparently it was tradition to bury those who died fighting alongside the heroes of each generation there, though that number rarely surpassed fifty people per generation. Eleven adjacent graves were already dug on a still-empty plot of land, where the coffins were lowered slowly and respectfully to their final resting place.

 

As Alissa watched the temple guards fill the graves with earth and bury the coffins, she couldn’t help but think about the past week she had gone through with the dead guards. The scenes in which they perished – all in that final fight – kept repeating itself in her mind, and would have probably haunted her in her dreams if not for her skill keeping it at bay.

 

In the end, she couldn’t hold it in anymore and turned to Sir Inolet, who was next to her. She asked a question that had been on the tip of her tongue for the past day, bluntly and straightforwardly to the old knight.

 

“Was all this… worth it?” she asked with doubt seeping out from every syllable she spoke.