19 Mourning

Later in the afternoon, Galahad's parents came crashing in through the door. The two of them had been waiting over a week to see their son again, terrified of what happened to him.

At first, They rejoiced at finding out they could finally visit their son, but once they took one look at him, it seemed they were on the verge of tears. His parents had been dreading to see how badly Galahad was hurt, and now that they had actually seen him, the effect was just breaking them apart. Tears began to flow around his bed.

"Where's Brett?" Galahad asked between their sobs. The crying made him feel uncomfortable. His range of emotions were still still compressing into a shriveled ball in his chest.

"He is currently running the shop, he was concerned you would wanna wait to see him when you were ready yourself." Said his father through the stream of tears that fell into his bushy beard. Strands of beard hair stuck out in every which way because of the apparent lack of upkeep.

"Oh alright." Galahad said disappointedly, he'd rather not have to deal with tears multiple times in one day. "At least this gives him some practice before he fully takes over the shop, huh."

"Yeah." Said his parents in unison. They gave a quick glance at one another with a shared thought that Galahad noticed but couldn't pick up on.

'Are they hiding something about the shop?' He thought. He put that assumption aside and just considered it his paranoia for now.

Galahad and his parents talked for a little while, avoiding the subject of his friends, the dungeon, and his wounds. It seemed like a nice chat in the surface, but each of them felt it was very theatrical.

They were truly estatic to learn that Pavell was clearing him from the medical center in a few days. She had been waiting for Galahad's parents to arrive before giving him the good news, she wanted them to look forward to something together as a family.

After circulating around the touchy subject, Sora asked the question they had on their minds for over a week. "How did you escape?"

"Oh well- wait . . . uh." Galahad had no idea how to start his answer so he grabbed his bag from under the bed to show them.

Galahad rummaged through the partially burned bag that was returned to him after the nurses let him get out of his bed straps. He then found his once new magic array glove torn to shreds. It was sad to see, but the item it was wrapped around was even worse to show them.

He pulled out a perfectly unharmed karmic plate and held it next to his own karmic plate. His was no longer in the arm brace, it was just a crumpled mess of cracks with shards missing from the surface.

He found his crystal completely shattered in the arm brace, a bit of exploded shrapnel was lodged into it, piercing the crystal all the way through. So how did he leave if he had no return spell?

"I checked the name on the plate. Its Trista's crystal." He said while trying to pool some of his mana into the item, trying to get it to display the name again. Nothing happened.

Even though his body was healing at a nice rate, his mana usage was getting worse as the days went on. When he asked the nurses about it, they told him that its most likely due to his body putting all its effort into healing, so he shouldn't be trying to use his magic.

"Oh god." Whispered his father. He took the crystal and cradled it in his palm like it was a fragile bird.

"Did she not make it?" He asked with more tears ready to flow. Followed by a slap in the back of head by his much more slender wife.

Galahad shook his head. "I have no idea, I was unconscious when everything happened." He pointed against his burns as well, indicating he didn't know how that happened either.

His parents took the lie with the truth and were none the wiser. After that, left came by everyday before the medical center gave Galahad a release form.

*****

Galahad walked home a little unsteady at first, it took him some time and a lot of effort to fully regain his balance outside. As strange as it seemed, the painful effort of going outside was the best part of his day. The fresh air and freedom of mobility was drastically better compared to spending so long all cooped up in the medical center with a Stem in his throat.

He ended up learning quite a bit from the nurses as he talked to them about the Stem and other medical tools used in their treatments. Whenever they watched over his tests, they were very polite and chatted about the things he was most curious about. Distractions were sometimes the best aids in treating patients.

A Stem was a fast acting drug distributor that latched onto the lining of a patient's stomach with root like pins, a small but effective enchanted item that he had no idea existed until now. It's most useful enchantments were administering drugs and paralyzing the nerve endings to the gag reflex.

Another magic tool was the cane they had loaned to him for walking. It had an L-shape handle with a small magic array embedded to bottom and had lines that stretched up the shaft with a pattern that reminded Galahad of the enchanted cloak Rosetta wore the last time he saw her. The memory was still fresh in his mind, stabbing at his heart like little needles.

"Its to alleviate the stress of weight against your midsection and lower body wounds when you're walking, you can return it when you feel you can walk without too much pain." Pavell told him when she sent him down the magic lift to finally leave. "Just don't rely too much on it and make sure to apply the fruta oils to your burns in the morning and before sleeping."

Galahad thanked her for everything, just as the lift descended. He met up with his parents in the lobby and greeted them with a smile.

He shuffled home, despite his parent's wishes to call a carriage. He didn't want to waste the money when he just wanted to walk back to his own home, eat food that wasn't made at the medical center, and sleep in his own bed before figuring out a way to save his friends.

Once they arrived at the shop and forge, they were greeted by the door of the shop slamming open. Out came running a brown haired man in his late twenties, fear scrawled across his face and hands protecting his head.

He nearly fell while sprinting down the stairs and jumped at the sight of Galahad and his parents. None of the three Mystroff's understood the scene until the fourth Mystroff came screaming and yelling out the doorway of the shop.

"Fucking pull a stunt like that in my shop again and the last thing you'll see is my hammer ramming into your damn teeth!" He shouted as he swung an actual forge hammer with yellow and orange flames rising off the end. It appeared his hammer was doused in one of his creation class abilities.

"Good gods Brett! You look just like father when you do that." Said Galahad to his flaming sibling.

Brett was so distracted by his seething anger, he didn't realize his family had arrived. He turned and saw his brother for the first time in two weeks, though it felt so much longer to him.

His face went through various expressions of emotion before walking down the stairs to see them.

Brett put on a normal face before retorting to his older brother's comment. "Well what can I say, father's rage is a gift that keeps us from being shoplifted."

Brett chuckled and brought up his hand to shake with Galahad.

Galahad swapped the cane to his bandaged hand and shook his brother's. Then he pulled him in for a small embrace from the side.

"It's good to be home." He told Brett.

*****

Death is celebrated and mourned in many different ways. The town of Teramore rarely has a memorial, so Galahad didn't know what to expect. He barely remembered the one he went to so many years ago. He just remembered going into the church of the Nine and then a dinner afterward.

Galahad was sent a scry message indirectly via his mother's karmic plate and it asked if he wished to speak during the eulogies given from the families. He declined and said it wasn't truly his place, he declined for a different reason though. 'Telling everyone there about how I'll miss them is just too much of a lie for me to tell. Last thing I need to do is come off as weird and suspicious.'

Everyone in the shop was dressed up black clothes and put on heavy coats, the weather was extremely gray this time of year. It had yet to snow, but many were estimating it to arrive in the next week or so.

The bells at the top of the crystal towers were ringing that it was now noon. That's when Galahad and his family began walking out of the forge doors on the first floor, he was taken aback by the sight along the streets.

Hundreds of people were quietly walking across the stone streets, heading in the direction of the church in the south. It was the largest of the three churches in the city.

Galahad was shocked at the mass of people who were going to the memorial. 'They're all coming to honor the teams? I didn't think we amounted to this big of an audience.'

Derock walked up from behind Galahad and seemed to know what he was thinking.

"It was like this the last time we lost someone below. Everyone here knows that the dungeon is risk that you and all the other teams take to cull the demons beneath us. They are all here to mourn the sacrifice."

Galahad nodded and began to walk with the masses. He was slower than the rest because of his cane hobbling. The only noise was the sound of shoes hitting stone and slight whispers.

The Mystroff family arrive at the front of a white wooden building. It didn't stand very tall and wasn't made of stone blocks like most of the city buildings, it almost seemed pale in comparison to the rest of the city structure.

It was constructed entirely through donations given to the church by the people, something that made the attendees to the Church of the Nine much more proud of their beliefs.

'To be humble and kind is what makes a man stronger than most.' Was etched across the main gate to the building, reminding people that power is not the key to everything.

It was also something that agitated the Royals of New; they believed themselves to be all powerful, yet the humble churches were much more influential than they ever were.

Galahad wasn't sure about who was inside the building, but he knew he wasn't going to find out. The crowds were standing outside the building and still growing, there was nowhere near enough room for everyone in the streets, let alone the tiny building.

Once the crystal tower bells rang on the new hour, the sounds of an amplified voice was beginning to speak.

A priestess's voice soft voice could be heard all across the freezing air, using a device similar to the one Galahad witnessed at the dungeon event.

She spoke about the risks that came with the dungeon, the sacrifices made to keep civilization safe, and other crap Galahad couldn't stand hearing about.

Each parent spoke about their child, Galahad heard the pain in their voices. Each word they spoke only resolved the steel vow he made to himself. 'I will save them. I will save them. I will save them.'

Eventually the speeches ended and no more families were speaking into the amplification crystal.

The crowd shuffled a bit as a group of people were walking out of the church, most likely the families that had spoken. Galahad would have figured they'd wanna leave as soon as possible, but that wasn't the case.

The movement ceased and then a white streak of light shot up into the sky, originating from somewhere the roof of the church.

The streak went up through the clouds and all eyes lost sight of the magic spell. Galahad had no idea what to make of the event.

An explosion of air could be heard from miles up in the air, then a ripple of wind made the clouds shimmer and grow darker.

Snowflakes began to fall from the newly grown clouds and land on the crowd. A baby could be heard cooing at the freshly falling snow from within the crowd. It was a shared moment that no one expected to see. Galahad was like everyone else enjoying the sight that will be remembered for many years to come.

'Why the fuck do you think they will remember this shit? No one remember's her memorial. A few snowy fireworks aren't gonna bring them back, that's your job dumbass.' Thought the contradicting voice in Galahad's head.

The irritation of standing in the crowd suddenly grew in the back of Galahad's mind. He wanted to start walking back, but he needed to wait until everyone else was moving.

All he could do was stand there and watch the snow, and ignore the death stare growing nearby, it was piercing the side of his head the entire time he looked up at the snowfall.

*****

They returned early in the afternoon, stripping down from the stuffy black clothing and changed back to their regular attire. The events of that day were emotionally draining on everyone. Galahad was the last to enter the room and he needed to be careful around the parts of his neck that wasn't covered in bandages.

Everyone sat in the living room on the top floor with a plate of snacks on the small coffee table. The couch and chairs were taken over with laid out misconstrued limbs and torsos, no one was in the mood to move.

Nobody spoke, but Galahad finally brought up something he had been waiting the last few days to mention.

"I think it's about time to get my own place. Not right this instant, I mean with all the stuff that's been happening and it will be a while before I can reapply to a team for the dungeon for money."

Galahad had been thinking about the best time to tell his parents what he was thinking.

If an adventurer class wanted to work in the dungeon, but didn't have a team; they could apply to the Enlistment. The Enlistment was a system that form teams that are made and balanced by the Guild. Working with his friends was a benefit that let them skip the waiting process in the Enlistment.

"Actually, we've been thinking about that." Said Derock.

Galahad looked up from his chair and stared at his parents with furrowed brows.

"Your father and I talked." Interjected Sora. "We know that your feeling a lot because of the whole incident. We're not gonna pretend to understand how you must be feeling, but we want to help."

Galahad didn't like where their tones was leading, but he kept his body language from revealing the anger rising within.

"We don't want to sign off on anything that lets you go to the dungeon in Teramore for a little while. We would be happy to just have you work in the shop with Brett for the time being.

Galahad was livid and knew he shouldn't be getting mad about it. His parents were doing the responsible thing and making sure he didn't do anything even more harmful to his body.

Due to his parent being registered as witnesses for the agreement to his dungeon contract, their approval would be needed on a new file when he grew strong enough to reapply. Something Malex did not believe possible back in the medical center.

Galahad sat in the chair, listening for half an hour about the responsibilities his parents were hoping they could slowly introduce him to when he was healthy enough. Each task was meant to sound appealing and useful, but all of their words were nothing but pain to Galahad.

At one point he quietly stood up, grabbed his coat and bag, then walked down the downstairs to the exit. His parents were stunned and didn't move; Brett almost spoke out about Galahad leaving behind the cane, but then thought it was best to hold his tongue.