The cleaning was the easy part. Whether it was the broken carriage or the dirtied corpses, I cleaned every grime and blood. At some point in the whole thing, I didn't feel like I was cleaning the scene after a skirmish, and I was back in a rickety house cleaning it for the whole day. It was therapeutic, as it was terrifying to think of.
I took the weapons sticking into their bodies, carefully removed their deformed and burnt armor, and peeled off their bloodied clothes from their skin. It was only then that I could summon water magic and begin cleaning their bodies for the next step.
Cleaning the dead felt heavier than simply burning them to ash. Seeing their lifeless eyes and being the one to close them before holding their cold hands was psychologically difficult.
Was this the reason why the Hound Faction would much rather do this kind of ritual?
Speaking of the ritual, it was quite the long and detailed list that Holly gave me; the only reason I was able to memorize it all was because of the built-in note-taking feature in the system.
The system that we obtained wasn't the most helpful in all of the world. It lacked extensive detail and only worked in specific fields. I couldn't even upgrade my stats like in most systems I've read in my old world. This was more akin to an on-the-go info card. It had its perks, of course, like the note-taking feature—that didn't need any form of input other than what I thought of—and the restrictions. Ho, boy, the restrictions.
The time when I hadn't unlocked my system was torturous.
I finished up cleaning the last bodies before moving on to the next step, shaking off the memories of that time. I had a different goal now; thinking about the woes of something that had already happened wasn't going to help in any way. In fact, it only made me emotional. And I was getting sick and tired of being emotional all of the time.
About the ritual, despite Holly not adding it to the list, I made sure that I set aside important-looking trinkets and placed them in a bag with their respective 'dog tags'. They looked similar to the ones on Earth; however, the material was different, along with an enchantment around it. Upon closer look, I realized that it was a spell that stored genetic information as well as a recording of their last moments before death.
When I mistakenly grabbed one of them, I was assaulted by memories of a knight being overwhelmed by the same hyena anima I fought earlier. He was eventually skewered by the spear after a small scuffle and was finished off with a stab to the side of his neck.
After the first vision, I made sure to take extra caution with the rest of the dog tags while still making sure that everything important to their person was taken care of.
Now that the cleaning was done, I sliced open the side of their torsos, scooping their innards and leaving their hearts. It was an awkward operation with the incision coming from the side, but it was what Holly said, and I wasn't about to deviate.
Their innards were intended to be food for the local wildlife. According to Holly, this was to make sure that even in death, even if other people thought that they died for nothing, feeding their innards served as "something." Unfortunately for these Knights, there weren't animals found for miles after the whole fight, and I doubted that they would be back in this spot until a couple months of silence passed.
Instead of leaving them there or storing them in my inventory, I scattered them all over the field and cast a preserving spell that should last the 'food' long enough for a few scavengers to pick it up. It was the best thing I could do in this situation.
By the time I finished, the Knights had finished bleeding out, and I got started with the last step: decorating them in the clothes they died in and creating molds of dirt around their bodies.
This was easier than the previous ones, and I managed to finish right on time as the others got back from their bathe.
Holly looked on in shock.
"You're back. I was just finishing."
"The carriages... the bodies... you're done?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
"Not yet. There are still some Knights that-"
She cut me off again by walking up to me with her hand over her chest. She smelled of sunflowers and the humid air in the summer. The smell of my toiletries was a whiplash of information for my noise compared to the blood and guts I was subjected to for the past hour and a half.
Holly bowed deeply, tears flowing down her red-rimmed eyes. "Please accept my deepest thanks. From the bottom of my heart and with the remnants of the sun's fleeting light as my witness, I owe you my life and the lives of my children to come."
Ezekiel joined beside Holly. Instead of a hand over his chest, he offered his hand toward me. "I owe you mine, as well, Lady Willow. I couldn't thank you enough-"
"I understand that you're feeling a lot of emotions right now, but we're burning daylight. Excuse my crass, but I don't want us to be caught up in a ceremony by nightfall. Bounty Hunters have a system when they hunt; more of them are no doubt coming after the first few had died either to finish the job or to confirm their kills."
"I... see." Seeing her distress, King clawed at the side of her leg until she bent down to carry him over her front. The woman looked more relaxed with the bear in her arms, but the tension remained.
"You still want to help us? After everything that has happened?" Ezekiel looked ready to burst into new sets of tears.
Instead of replying, I turned to Holly and said. "I found these." I opened my inventory and handed Holly the dozens of bags with the trinkets belonging to the fallen knights. More importantly, I handed her a black box with delicate patterns embedded on each side, coated with gold. "I think it's better if you would take care of them than I would."
Holly hugged me. I was caught off guard, frozen in place for a moment as my mind tried to catch up to what was happening.
I brought my hand to her back, patting her reassuringly. She continued to hug tighter. I could feel King's judgmental look without looking at him; he was no doubt displeased at being placed to the ground without another word just like that.
Ezekiel grabbed the bags from my outstretched hand and placed them in the string backpack I didn't notice he had on him. He bowed at me again before turning and walking toward the fallen with a solemn look on his face.
Holly remained in my arms. I started to think that she wouldn't be coming off for a couple more minutes until she finally pulled away, the tears from her eyes smearing across her face.
"I can't thank you enough."
I nodded and said, "You don't need to. No one should go through something like this. Especially a child." When Holly didn't respond, I continued, "You should get going with the ceremony while I take a bath. If you need any heavy lifting, King would help you out. We'll get going as soon as you finish. Scream if something bad happens, do you understand?"
"I- I understand."
"Good. King, you heard me."
The bear huffed before nodding his head. With that, I grabbed my shirt and armor I threw away and made my way to the river to wash up. The stench was really starting to get to me.