Syllis’ eyes shone brightly as he seemed to admire me.
“I-I never thought that people like you would exist in this world…” he said.
“People like me?” I asked.
“Good people… all of you, Emeraldine, and the rest… all of you are just good people… It is hard to believe it… you always assume that such type of people is unrealistic in this world,” said Syllis.
“Is that so? Are we really that rare? And I honestly don’t find myself as a good person. I just felt like I had the chance of helping, and I just did it…” said Emeraldine.
“I mostly helped because Master did it…” said Partner.
“…I cannot stand to see beast-kin suffer in such manner. As a former King that once ruled over my kin, I have developed a soft heart for weak people in need.” Sighed Lucifer, mostly treating this as a bad thing for some reason.
“I-I see… I suppose everyone has their different reasons.” Said Syllis.
“Well yeah, we have all our own different reasons, it is always different, and it varies from person to person, but mostly because I wanted to do something. I’ve always felt like I could never be able to do anything (in my previous life), that I couldn’t change people’s lives nor leave an impact on the world… so now that I got the power to do so, now that I can see it within my grasp, I just wanted to try it out… And I can’t really bring myself to see such a cute race as rabbit-kins die miserably to disease, right?” I asked.
“C-Cute…” muttered Syllis.
“Haha, sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you or your people… I won’t call you guys cute anymore.” I said.
“No, it’s fine… I suppose it is one of our traits to… look a bit adorable…” sighed Syllis.
“Maria is like that… You can’t really try to find something too deep in her actions or thoughts. She often does things out of the blue, just because she wants to… She’s very free. I guess you could say that after what she went through while being alive… she just wants to have a “life” without regrets now, even now that she’s dead.” Sighed Lucifer.
“Oho? You seem to know me so well, Casanova~” I said while smiling back at Lucifer.
“I-I am only talking about what I’ve known about you since we met… I-It’s nothing more than that!” said Lucifer while crossing his arms and averting his gaze from me.
“You don’t have to be so shy.” I sighed.
Syllis giggled as he saw our interactions. He seemed rather happy and carefree.
“Now that you’re here, I should really tell you something important,” I said.
“Huh? What is it?” asked Syllis.
I prepared myself to tell him this, but I was having a hard time. I didn’t want to see this cute boy crying, but it was something I had to tell him because it was necessary for him to know about it. If I delay the inevitable, it will only hurt them more.
And so, I decided to speak about it…
I told him about what I found while exploring the spider dungeon using my snakes and what I saw there, the bones and the souls of the rabbit kin…
Syllis slowly grew paler as he looked into my eyes with sorrow slowly building up inside of his eyes. The light in them didn’t dissipate, but his shone brighter than before as tears began to slowly leak from his eyes.
“It has been over four years since then, but… I guess we had already assumed the worst… Even then, I couldn’t help but… always had that faint hope that my parents would one day be back, somehow… I guess,” sighed Syllis.
“Well… They’re not completely gone. Their souls and bones are here… I think there might be a way to bring them back… But it’s really up to you and then if both parties agree to this… You see, Partner used to be just a skeleton before, but after growing strong enough and evolving, she regained her flesh and even the skeleton’s original appearance… but I suppose your parents wouldn’t be the same as before. They would be Undead.” I said.
Syllis stood there in silence. I could understand how he felt. This wasn’t something normal you asked a person about… Maybe I shouldn’t have done it.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to….” I said.
“No, it’s fine. I think… I don’t know… In one way, I am… I just want to see my family again, even for the last time… but in another way… It… it somehow feels wrong for me to bring them back after dying so gruesomely… I think it could be for the best if they rest in peace.” He sighed.
“I see… You’re also the older brother of your family… So you should tell this to your sister… I don’t think that’s a place where I should get involved… Also, you’re technically their chief now, so I will let them see the souls one last time. We’ll do a purification ceremony where we’ll bury their bones here and make some graves… Well, we’ll purify the bones too, so they don’t become Undead by themselves.” I said.
“Thank you… We all really appreciate it,” said Syllis.
“Don’t worry. Emeraldine will also help in that regard. She’s pretty good at that.” I said.
“Yeah, leave it to me. I have purified many lost souls before. Freeing them from anguish is part of the power of Light.” Said Emeraldine.
“You’ve done so much for us already… Thanks… I really mean it, thanks a lot…” sighed Syllis.
In the end, I knew this would happen. Not everyone just wants to force their people to just come back as Undead. Many would desire them to rest in peace instead, especially because spirituality and the afterlives are well-known facts in this world and not just beliefs.
I often wonder if there is the Goddess of Death Hel… and do souls go to Helheim?
Or maybe… is there another place?