The next day, we went to school as usual. And as usual, nobody was enthusiastic for school that day because it was surrounded by holidays. Yep, we had been going on protesting why not make today a holiday as well so we could have had a long weekend!
Perhaps knowing this, the teachers who were assigned with classes on this day tended to take the class more leisurely and used this opportunity as a fun refreshing.
Well, they seemed to remember how it was like when they were students, thus trying their best to innovate to tackle this problem?
Regardless, it was a good thing!
At long last, the time everyone was waiting for finally arrivedâand that was the break time!!
The moment all of us gathered in our usual place to eat lunch together, the topic of the conversation was as expectedâabout the Day of the Dead that we just went through.
âMaaaaannn, it sure was exhausting! I had to wake up very early in the morning, why canât we just move the time to be later in the day?â Dmitria started by complaining.
âBut you slept after the visit to the graveyard,â Valerie interrupted.
âSleeping again
waking up just doesnât feel rightâthatâs a nap time and feels different.â
âYou managed to sleep when we were on our way, riding on the wyvernâ¦,â Valerie said with a judging look.
âStill, why donât we actually try asking for a change? Change must start from us!â Dmitria insisted.
âItâs a long-time family tradition and you want to change it?â
âTime changes a lot of things. Thereâs a need to adapt and improvise, right?â Dmitria winked.
ââ¦Not really. It makes sense to complete all the procedure before the sun is at its highest position. Weâll get our skin burned,â Valerie calmly said.
âThereâs a technology called as umbrella and sunblock!â
âIt is still hotâ¦â
âThen why not go during the evening?â
ââ¦Come on, weâll be too tired to resume activities the next day if we start in the evening,â Valerie still rebutted.
âThatâs why we have to make today a holiday!â
âSiiiiiiiiigggghhhhhâ¦,â Valerie let out a long and deep sigh as her hand covered her forehead in disbelief.
âBut,â Valerieâs eyes suddenly turned sharper than usual as she said, âif we do it in the evening, you wouldnât have enough time to compress your eyes and make it less swollen.â
âEh?â My voice unconsciously leaked out in confusion.
âG-geh, come on, that will only happen once⦠this yearâ¦,â Dmitria looked like she was just found out doing something embarrassing as she continued, âItâs the first time we visited Grannyâs grave⦠soâ¦â
And her expression turned sad in an instant.
Valerie patted Dmitriaâs shoulder before she pulled her for a hug, âAnd there you have the reason why itâs better to do it in the morning.â
Apparently, their beloved grandmother passed away sometime last year and when they went to visit the family graveyard during the Day of the Dead, the family felt the loss once more and tried to joke around about how things would be if Granny was there. For example, âGranny wouldâve scolded you for trying to taste the food thatâs intended for offering!â â¦and after laughing at such scenarios, Dmitria suddenly broke into sobs.
As for the othersâ storiesâ¦
âMy family didnât really go that early in the morning, mostly because Mummy couldnât wake up early,â Ein said.
âCleaning the tombs was so tiring⦠My family insisted on doing it ourselves for âfamily bondingâ time,â Kiri sighed a little before adding, âbut I guess it was indeed fun doing it with the whole family.â
âWe did the whole thing in silence as usual,â Briar said with a bitter smile.
âKuu-chan took me to visit my motherâs graveyard⦠Thankfully my fatherâs side of the family didnât bother having me go with them, so this year I can pay a visit to mother again,â Iris said something heart-wrenching with such a bright smile. That made me hug her in an instant, but all she did was tilting her head in confusion, not noticing that what she said was quite sad to hearâ¦
Carbuncle said that the dragons had no such tradition, and she was glad because that meant her pilgrim to the âoutside worldâ was uninterrupted. When I asked if she would be returning if such a tradition existed, she grinned and said, â
As we shared our usual experiences and any notable stuff happening in this yearâs visit, there was a new information that piqued my interest.
ââ¦Ah, but Mother has a small commemoration by herself that she will do tomorrow instead,â Leticia suddenly added after she and Luca talked about the royal familyâs procession.
âEh? Is she going to her maternal familyâs graveyard?â I asked.
Leti shook her head as she said, âNo. Mother said she went to someone specialâs graveyard.â
Having my curiosity at its peak, I turned my head to Luca and asked in a whisper, âWho is it?â
Luca shrugged as he said, âNo idea. But Mother is going to take me with her tomorrow.â
Still, Queen Shaulaâs secret graveyard visit sparked an idea in me.
Ever since I was reincarnated here, I never once tried to visit
graveyard. Yes, Reinstâs graveyard.
The idea never crossed my mind as well.
But the idea must have come up in my mind just now for a good reason.
I was trying to close the chapters of my past life and whatâs even better closure than to visit my own graveyard to officially say goodbye to my past self?
If it were before, I wouldnât even thought of doing that.
The timing was just perfect.
To accomplish that, I needed an ally too, and now I had that ally.
***
The next day, Day 13 Month 11 Year 982â¦
Though it was hard for me to wake up early in the morning, there was a saying that âwhen there is a will, there is a wayâ and I managed to wake up very early in the morningâaround dawn time when everybody else in the house was still asleep, except for the stationed maids and guards that were on shift.
The most important thing was how the rest of my family members should still be asleep during this time.
âFenrir, please,â I said to Fenrir who was awake as well.
âDonât take too long,â Fenrir reminded me.
âI understand,â I said as I touched his body and applied my illusion magic.
Before long, what was standing in front of me was no longer the beastly figure of Fenrir. It was a mirror of myself.
âGreat, just pretend to sleep. I will return before breakfast. â¦If not possible, then just sleep in and skip breakfast,â I said.
âI canât really pose as youâ¦,â Fenrir looked a bit concerned as he examined his body with my illusion magic applied on it.
As he did so, I used transformation on myself to change my appearance and tried to conceal my presence as much as I could.
âI get it, Iâll try to be quick. Iâm off now then!â I said as I focused my mana on my shadow.
Before long, I activated the [Shadow Teleportation] skill and was instantly teleported to the outside of my house where there was no one. I marked the shadow of a nearby tree yesterday. Thankfully, it worked without a hitch.
I ran to somewhere a bit distant from the house before I took out a piece of paper that I prepared the other day.
I took a deep breath and extended my right hand before saying solemnly, âHeed my call, o the mighty magical beast whose presence brings forth the great wind and thunder. Lend me your power for a short while in exchange for this little mana essence that I have in my small body to offer⦠I summon thee, [Thunderbird]!â
As I chanted, I felt a significant portion of my mana being sucked into the hand that I extended as a magical formation glowed on the ground just below my hand.
When my chant was completed, the wind was growing fiercer as the magic formationâs light grew stronger.
Because a significant portion of my mana was drained, I could feel fatigue and hunger building up in my body.
This was my first time trying the summoning magic for real.
Of course, I was prepared for it to end up in a failure as I brought some of my saving to pay for an instant teleportation service if needed.
Luckily, I didnât have to do that, hooray!
After the most intense glow subsided, the Thunderbird that I managed to summonâ¦
âEhâ¦â
â¦surprised me because it was smaller than I thought it would be.
But all it had to do was transport me, and though it wasnât as big as I thought it would be, it would certainly be able to carry me all the way to my past selfâs graveyard.
I gently patted the birdâs head before saying softly, âCan you please help me go to this place?â
Then, I told the location and its clue to the Thunderbird.
The Thunderbird then quaked as it spread its wings, signalling that it understood.
I quickly rode on its body and after making sure my grip was alright, I braced myself as I told the bird to go.
The Thunderbird was really fast and it was a miracle I didnât pass out or puke afterwards.
In no time, I arrived in the Grabberton familyâs gravesite.
I leaned to a nearby tree as I tried my best to keep myself hidden⦠and to calm my head that was so dizzy after the flight. My body trembled a bit as a side effect, so before I went to my own grave, I needed to calm myself down.
When I felt better, I started to search for my past selfâs tomb.
As I was familiar with the Grabberton familyâs gravesite, it luckily didnât take me that long to find my past selfâs tomb.
I caressed the shiny tomb; it was clear that the tomb had been cleaned very well just recently and it was quite taken care of. Even after all those years, my tomb wasnât neglected.
The corner of my lips was hooked into a smile upon this realization.
Staring at the shiny tomb with my past selfâs nameâReinst Carnatia Grabbertonâwritten on it felt so surreal.
Just as I was thinking about it, I noticed someoneâs presence coming, so I immediately went to a nearby hiding place and suppressed my presence.
There was no choice, I needed to wait until there was nobody near me as my presence must not be known to anyone here.
I peeked from within my hiding, trying to see who was coming and if they were just passing by or notâ¦
And then my jaws almost dropped.
Because the people who were coming actually stopped right in front of my tomb, but that wasnât the main shocking point.
I was shocked senseless when I recognized their identityâ¦
They were none other than Queen Shaula and Luca!!!