Sacred Brother

I don't know how much time I spent staring at her.

For what seemed like an eternity, I stayed without moving an inch.

My entire body hurt, but it wasn't the physical pain I was feeling at this moment.

A deeper pain was surging from inside me.

I wanted to scream, but I couldn't anymore.

It's only when the light of the day began to fade that I woke up from my stupor.

I couldn't just stay there.

I had a family awaiting my return.

Arthur Waldemar had planned to abduct my sisters in six weeks, but I didn't have any way to know if all the preparations were complete.

I couldn't just hope that his death would stop his schemes.

I forced myself to stand.

I couldn't stop here.

My hands were still covered with blood while the black trousers and shirt I wore were almost completely tattered.

I was also covered with dust and blood but I didn't care. I had something else to do before leaving.

I shifted my gaze toward the corpse of Arthur Waldemar. The disgusting view of his crushed head made me flinch a little. I could still feel my hatred and resentment towards him that made me kill him.

However, I couldn't leave him like that.

It was already surprising that no animals came earlier to enjoy a free meal. I was sure that if a deviant had been around, he would have already shown up.

I approached his body.

When I saw closely his face horribly distorted by my violent blows I felt my heart quiver. It wasn't the first time that I beat up someone. The smell of blood was already well engraved in my mind and soul.

However, I never killed anyone even in my previous life. I fought many times, but the fights always stopped before any fatal injuries.

When I killed him, it was as if I was in a trance, but seeing him like that I understood what I did.

It was a murder.

Nothing less, nothing more.

I killed someone with my own hands. It wasn't an accident. I let my rage and sorrow take the control of my action.

I wasn't disgusted because I took another life. I was just afraid because the guilt that was supposed to assault me wasn't there.

I had the horrible sensation that I lost something important after killing him. As if a piece of my soul just shattered.

I shook my head to get rid of those thoughts.

I didn't know anything about the funeral rites of this world, so I chose to burn his body.

I've already recovered enough to make a small fireball with my hand.

I raised my arm aiming at my grandfather's body.

However, I couldn't shoot.

I only had scorn and hate for this man, but he was already dead.

No matter our sin or grudge, everything ends when you die.

That was what I thought.

I should at least respect his body.

I shot the fireball at the ground to my right side. Once created it wasn't possible to make a magic disappear. I painfully remembered this lesson with the ice I used to attack Amanda.

It took me nearly an hour to make a hole deep enough with my earth magic. Even for me, the consumption of mana was quite high, so I had to rest a couple of times to finish the process.

I finally pushed his body into the hole roughly dug.

It took me a long time to bury him. One of the reasons was probably because I wanted to delay my next task.

I went near the ice coffin created by accident.

I held back my tears as I saw her perfect face trapped in the ice. It wasn't easy for me to face her in this state because, even if I realized that my affection for her wasn't real or reciprocal, I still lived with only her for four entire years.

I spent every single day under her care.

I trained under her watch and ate what she prepared for me.

In my dull and lonely training, she was the only one supporting me.

No matter what, I never wanted to hurt her.

However, it was too late.

She was really beautiful and was doomed to remain that way until the ice melted.

I didn't want to use fire magic in an attempt to free her.

I probably didn't have enough mana to do something like that anyway.

As a result, I pushed the coffin of ice in the same grave as Arthur Waldemar before using wind magic to push the earth on their bodies.

With my task accomplished, I finally sat on the ground beside their grave.

I was tired but it wasn't over. I wrote a little sentence on a small piece of wood and placed it in front of the freshly moved soil.

"I'm sorry Amanda, but this is where you will rest. I'm sure you would be happy beside him. Thank you for everything you taught me these past years. I will definitely make good use of it."

I turned heels and started to leave in the direction of the nearby forest.

I stopped and looked at her grave one last time.

"Farewell Amanda, I hope you will find peace in the next world."

I finally left and entered the forest alone.