CHAPTER 141: MOURNING AND FESTIVITIES

With the battles put to a pause, the morning in the thirty cities of the 3rd floor had gone with the returning soldiers greeting their families.

The homing of the victorious soldiers and the embrace of their families had filled the various streets of the cities.

The first thoughts that the families who saw their members returning to the cities after mysteriously vanishing from their posts around the walls were something unexpected.

They had not seen anything like this, so the families remained in hiding till the morning broke.

Even though the place outside the walls was still corrupted, they made sure to protect the others by keeping the protective barriers even in the absence of the soldiers.

Since all of the remaining natives who were fighting against the waves were shifted to the special area for the last battles, the cities were left vulnerable.

Since even the players were transferred out of the tower after the end of the quest, the remaining natives were afraid of what to do from that point on. But they held on and made their way towards the inner regions of the safer areas.

Afraid that something bad might happen to their people, they had already steeled their resolve to tell the children the bad news they did not want to hear.

The disappearance of all of them was strange to the natives who were in hiding, so for the remainder of the night, a strange horror stayed with the natives of the thirty cities, anxiety being dominant in the mothers and elders.

The Red Night was a curse, and many lives were taken every time the red moon descended upon them. Throughout history, there have been times when the people of the cities have almost lost everything they had.

There were 30 cities right now, but in the beginning, there were only three large cities throughout the floor, and these three cities lived in harmony.

One was a religious capital for the floor, one was a trade capital, and one was the educational capital of the 3rd floor.

With the appearance of the Red moon, however, these three cities had constantly evolved and become something that could fight against the monster waves in the most optimal manner.

New cities were built, and with time, the cities evolved into the iron fortresses that they are right now.

The death ratios were very high in the beginning, with many people giving up their lives just so the others could live on.

Throughout the centuries that this floor had endured the Red moon, they had learned and countered the monsters with the best of their efforts... at least, that was how they remembered it to be.

Unaware of the true meaning and purpose of the curse, they will always have memories and knowledge that the Witch had wanted them to possess.

The power of the Higher Floor Witch was beyond the comprehension of the people of the lower floors, and it would stay like this forever.

But then again, it was for the best.

"It looks lively out here, huh?" KiRA saw the decorations and the people gathered in the city plaza with a little surprise.

Izzy had been helping the people around when he spoke out, and just hearing his voice brought her attention to him.

"Kai!" With a shout, she jumped down the ladder without caring about the decorative lights she was supposed to fix and ran up to him.

"Oy, oy," Before he could even say anything, she was already hugging him warmly with a smile.

She seemed happy; however, the higher heartbeats that he could feel as he hugged her back told him a different story.

’Seems like she’s sad as well...’

The homecoming of the heroes.

The natives and the Players who supported them till the very end were pretty rare, but they still supported them till the bitter end.

When everything was concluded, the players who returned with the remaining natives were held as heroes equally by the natives.

The sadness of losing many of the natives was there, but the deaths of the players were also mourned by the families who had known them for the last few weeks.

To any of the natives who had lost their parents, their partners, their loved ones, this war was an event that they would curse for the rest of their lives.

But then again, they couldn’t just mourn for their loss and stay stuck in the same place. The natives of the 3rd floor were used to the loss of their own. The loss of the outsiders who had sacrificed themselves for the sake of their people was something the natives were sadder about.

KiRA knew about the nature of the people on the 3rd floor the best. He had been here when the players didn’t even know about the quests, and he had lived in each of the cities for long enough to know about the common people and how they lived.

The fact that so few people had died this time brought the natives more joy than the sorrow of losing the ones they loved. There were very few individuals who still mourned for the dead after half a day had passed.

"Izzy, it’s fine. I know you don’t like it, but that’s just how they live." Izzy was sadder that the natives weren’t as sad as they should be.

She believed that the losses and the morning that followed should not be disrupted. For a healthy continuation, both the loss and the mourning of the loss should go hand in hand.

The children who lost their parents should be sad and crying; their relatives who are still around, their elders and siblings, should be looking after them right now.

The ones who had lost the love of their life should be cursing the red moon and even the captain guardian who could not save them, perhaps the colleagues who accompanied them on the battlefields.

The mothers who lost their young children should be in tears right now, screaming the names of their children.

It should be like that. That was how it should have been, but the truth was something else.

The children were happily playing around even after losing both their parents, the ones who had lost the one person they loved the most in the world were helping with the decoration with a presentable expression.

The mothers who had lost their children looked pretty happy as they watched the younger ones play in the plaza. They worked on the festival preparations, instead of preparing the coffins of their sons and daughters.

The city was preparing for the festivities instead of crying for its lost ones. And it had been like this ever since they came back to the city... ever since the rest of them learned of the losses incurred in this battle they had won.

"What’s the point of this facade, Kai? You cannot convince me that they aren’t sad or in pain. You cannot tell me this is for the departed. What’s the point of showing they are doing well? Why keep the tears and the emotions locked inside their hearts?"

Izzy was utterly confused and saddened by this sight.

She was just realising how much more real all of this felt compared to the game. In the game, all of these things were events that the players did not really experience completely.

It was simply a time-skip, and they would experience what they needed to experience in that game. Despite how realistic it may be, it was still just a game.

But in this tower of nightmarish ends, she felt each and every one of the emotions that were hidden under the masks of smiles.

"It’s not as complicated as you make it, dummy." KiRA pointed out towards the other side while holding her hand.

"Do you see those children? Do you know what kind of stories they had grown up with?" It was a simple question, but Izzy did not have any answers to that.

The children of the city seemed happy right now.

All the children around her were ones she had known for a while now. She knew their parents and their siblings, and she had fought alongside them on the battlefield.

She saw some of their deaths firsthand. And she was enraged by most of them.

Though that did not mean she would know stories that the children of this floor had grown up listening to.

It wasn’t a specific detail she had ever paid much attention to in the first place.

"Their parents and siblings, their guardians, had been preparing them for living without them for a long time. Here, look through these when you get some time." KiRA handed her a children’s storybook that was famous in the city.

It was something famous in the other cities as well, but players who are mostly focused on the upcoming war never got the chance to go through the books that were for the general masses.

Few players would have come across these old books that the natives had stopped producing.

And even fewer would ever be interested in the lost culture of a floor that they are on in times of war.

The stories were something like folklore for them that they knew by heart already. They did not need books for those things, but the players still needed them to know more about this world’s culture.

"It’s just how they grow up. They see the deaths during the red moon differently. Well, you will realise it during the festival as well." KiRA tapped her back and started walking.

The festival preparations were still pending, so they should finish them first.

Izzy and the rest of them who were having similar thoughts would realise the reality of this floor soon...

And going forward, they would know how they were, in fact, living in different worlds each time they entered the tower’s floors.