The Baron’s Funeral
The funeral of Baron Bayorn was arranged very simply.
"There's no need to make a fuss just because one man has died. Just quietly send him off to the earth."
The servants, who followed the late baron’s will, held a modest funeral.
“Aah, don’t go. Don’t say that, you fool!”
The voice of the girl, full of melancholy, was directed at the middle-aged man with a bushy white beard. However, the sturdy-looking man’s body was petite, and not a single movement.
But if my companion closes her eyes, I hope it is done with great splendor.
The baron, who had always maintained a cynical attitude towards his own death, hoped that this day would be grandly commemorated. This too was one of his last words.
“Hic, dear-!”
Darin also knew how much he loved her and cherished her. Although it was true that he was annoying and resentful, in the end, he was like a brother who had been together for over 30 years. The grief was not light.
If Kael and Piel were blood-related family, Baron Bayorn was a family not connected by blood. No matter what the circumstances, this man had raised an orphan girl without any background.
He can’t die, he promised me he would come back soon…
Darin had initially denied it and said she wouldn’t hold a funeral like Piel, but unfortunately, her husband and daughter’s situations were different.
She couldn’t know if Piel truly faced death without a body, but Baron Bayorn had clearly returned as a corpse.
Ultimately, on the fourth day after the baroness realized her husband had returned as a corpse, she had to bury him in the ground.
“Aah, please open your eyes…”
In her childhood, before becoming the baroness, when she thought of herself as a man, Darin had spoken to her husband in informal speech. Until he betrayed her from ‘friend’ to ‘man’.
He hadn’t killed her parents himself, and his personality was that of a thoughtful man.
The man in the coffin had a peaceful expression. Sharp scars filled his body that she had never seen with him. Even if he was a barbarian of Bayorn, it was too many scars.
“Who did this? Who did this to my husband…”
Darin, who had spent the night with him, couldn’t have known. She wiped his face and body with clean cloth many times, burning her hatred.
Although the man had forcibly taken her, the resentment had been worn down over 30 years together with him. The traces or remnants had long been washed away by his horrific end.
Darin looked at her husband’s closed eyes with eyes full of tears. It was a weakness that he couldn’t go out easily, but she had felt his strength because of it.
This sturdy man was about to open his eyes and call her name, but why was he motionless? The girl only thought that she didn’t understand.
Was it because of this? It was hard to tear her eyes away from her husband who had become a corpse. She wondered if this man wandering between the living and the dead would return and hear her voice.
“Aah, how pitiful…”
The baroness sincerely pitied the insignificant end this man had faced. Remembering that he had been in love with her for decades, taking her heart, the pity overflowed.
She had no power to save this man.
Still, she could become a better wife.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Baron-”
If she had known he would face such an end, she would have tried to accept him when he was alive.
She was sorry for only focusing on trampling her virginity and scolding him in a mind that didn’t fit the era.
But this too had no meaning.
Only after the precious thing disappeared could she regret it, but the target had long closed his eyes.
“The dead father will not return even if you do this.”
The son’s hand pulling the mother who was lying face down on the dirt mound was hateful.
“If you catch a cold, what then?”
The crimson-eyed girl glared fiercely at her son. This child, who said her father had returned, how could he be so heartless? Unlike her, he was real blood-related, but how…
“Kael, your father has returned, right…?”
It was definitely not natural death, but murder. If he were blood-related, he should be grieving. Otherwise, he should harbor hatred for the person who tarnished the family honor.
“I know.”
However, the calm son only took out a handkerchief to wipe his mother’s tears. His kind gentleness was so desperate, as if saying there is no one else in the world more precious to me.
“Ah-!”
The son who had been treating her gently secretly pulled her shoulder. The wife who had been looking at her husband had to separate from him forcibly. Kael whispered in his mother’s ear as she staggered.
“Still, you have to send him off now.”
The son’s reaction was so bland that chills ran down her entire body. Was it just happy that he had taken her mother?
The mother’s vigilant eyes glared at her son. Kael also looked at his mother in the same way…
- Whoosh.
Naturally, the mother bowed her head first. She wasn’t afraid in this situation. She was angry from head to toe, but the son had raised his face with a love-struck expression.
Darin, in response to the monstrous son’s behavior, silently screamed and turned her head. If she kept staring, it seemed the son would kiss her in front of the servants.
The young lord, no, the man who would become the lord, looked down at the girl who was ignoring him, then shouted at the servants.
“The Baron would also want the funeral to be held as soon as possible.”
When the new owner of Bayorn spoke in a soft voice, the servants bowed their heads. Most of them were crying following the baroness, but obeying the lord’s command was absolute.
“You don’t have to rush like that, do you?”
The baroness’s plea to her son shook the heavens. Kael frowned for a moment then shook his head. He had been deprived of the right to violate his mother, but he had no intention of allowing the woman he loved to cry in another man’s arms.
“Here, if you say no, I’ll stop you.”
Of course, the mother would not accept the son’s words at face value. It was not someone else’s, it was her husband’s funeral. There were too many regrets to send him off to the earth so quickly.
The baroness, who had lost her dignity, argued with her son for a few minutes. Kael, who had been answering calmly, sighed a few times, then whispered in his mother’s ear again.
Do you want to hold a wedding with your son at your husband’s funeral?
Darin had no choice but to keep her mouth shut due to the son’s whisper that had descended subtly on her ear. She hated her son for not allowing even this, when she didn’t really want it.
“Ah, I understand. I understand, so just once…”
Was the mother not pleased with her insistence even after doing this much? The prospective lord’s face crumpled again.
However, she did not pull her away.
Considering her mother’s intact mind, it was right to show this much consideration.
Tap, tap. The girl with the small stature returned to her husband. She no longer opened her mouth and did not touch him. Because of her foolish son who was jealous of her dead father, she had to mourn only with her eyes.
The crimson eyes, which had been filled with grief, carefully scanned the middle-aged man. She wanted to engrave the appearance of her husband who would not return, and remember him for a long time.
“Madam, it seems we should cover the coffin now.”
How much time had passed? An hour? Two hours? I don’t know. The baroness had ignored the servants’ calls and just stared blankly at the middle-aged man.
It was going to rain soon. If so, the dirt would fill the dug grave again.
“...Young master?”
The workers, who had been cautiously watching, turned their eyes to the new master. From today on, they would have to call this man Lord.
“Finish it quickly.”
Kael answered in a flat tone. It was a short answer, but since he was the only sane ruler in Bayorn, its force was not ordinary.
The gathered workers, facing the baroness with a blank expression, flinched again. However, their conscience could not defy the command of the beast that had become a tyrant.
“I’m sorry.” The workers who were filling the dirt bowed and apologized every time they passed by the baroness.
She shook her head saying it was okay even while crying. Her appearance of tightly holding both hands and only looking at her husband’s corpse was precarious.
- Bang!
“Ah-!”
Darin’s simple sound of the coffin closing sounded like intense thunder. It meant her heart had stopped.
Soon, one shaman appeared and recited a traditional prayer for the lord. The words pouring out from his mouth in a reverent manner meant that the Baron would be at peace in the heavens.
Even in the midst of the servants wetting their eyes with tears, the young lord did not frown once.
However, the servants judged that the young lord was trying to show a composed appearance as the new lord.
Thud. The white coffin with a white bear carved on it was stuck in the ground below, and dirt began to pile up quickly on top.
“...Cappy.”
The girl who had been with the owner of the tomb for a long time recalled the man’s real name in her mouth. Thinking about it, it was frequent that his name had been mocked as a girl’s since childhood.
Each time, this foolish man would laugh heartily and reply “Is that so?” The smile that could no longer be seen.
“You forcibly violated a woman who said no and where are you going…”
When speaking to others, he would explain that he took the children’s names from angels, but...
“Where are you going!!!”
It was not the case, but the girl with crimson hair raised the blood pressure in her throat and began to scream.
Whether she sank into despair or not, a neatly arranged graveyard now had one tombstone erected on it.
The woman who lost her husband hugged him and screamed powerlessly as the best she could.