The funeral was rather immaculate for how small it was.
White lilies lined the aisle. A closed casket rested at the front of the hall, polished to a mirror shine. Her name was engraved in soft gold lettering, delicate enough to pretend that her death was a peaceful one.
Hoshimi stood at the back.
Kira was right beside him, covering her mouth as she began to weep uncontrollably, her cheeks flushed as her cry rang through the halls.
Hoshimi wore black. His posture was rather straight, his hands folded neatly behind his back, eyes fixed on nothing in particular.
People whispered around him, some of them drawn to the crying girl beside him, quiet murmurs, stolen glances and averted eyes.
None of them mattered.
Not a single person that was at the funeral was there for when she needed someone the most, they were all here for the will, or the lack there of. After all the people who were most likely to be there weren't free.
The Patriarch was about to be executed under the court of law, Audrey had died, and the other two children are about to have life in prison according to the Law specifically meant for Witches and immature Witches.
The people around him were all Mirlos that have never even seen her face before, waiting ever so patiently for the money to come rolling out.
"She died so young, I can't believe it, I just saw her a couple months ago and she was doing so well!"
[She's dead] Hoshimi thought.
He waited for something to happen in his chest.
His hands grasped onto his shirt.
Nothing happened.
No tightness.
No aching.
No nausea.
His head was just empty.
[I was with this girl for quite a while yet not a tinge of sadness]
Hoshimi had caught her before she fell.
He remembered the warmth leaving her skin.
[I don't feel anything]
Hoshimi lowered his gaze to his gloved hands, they were steady. Perfectly still.
A priest spoke at the front, voice trembling.
"She was human, painfully so, in the name of Lady Bleu, I hope she rests well in heaven...…"
The words of the priest were drowned out by his thoughts.
[Am I even allowed to consider myself human? Even crows mourn their lost ones.]
Footsteps echoed behind him.
Desperate fingers clawed onto his back, they hooked into the collar of his coat, yanking him backwards. A small forearm jammed across his throat, crushing his windpipe.
"Y-you killed her..It's all your damn fault!"
Elias's voice was raw, his wrists were bound by steel cuffs, blood trickled down his arms where he forced them too tight.
"If only… if only you had…."
His grip tightened hard around him.
"SHE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE YOUR RESPONSIBILITY DAMN IT!" Elias hissed, his breath against her ear.
The pressure on Hoshimi's throat increased. The cuffs sparked violently as mana started pouring out of him, his hands started to shake.
Hoshimi didn't struggle.
"I'm sorry."
The cuffs shattered underneath Elias's awakened mana, he screamed and drove Hoshimi backwards, slamming into the marble pillar. The impact cracked the stone. The mourners scattered, some shouting, others crying.
"SAY HER NAME!!"
Hoshimi's eyes flickered to the casket as a warm crimson ran down his head from the impact.
Golden letters, polished wood.
"I'm sorry.. Elias." Hoshimi's eyes softened ever so slightly. "Audrey's dead."
"W-what the hell is wrong with you!? Don't you feel sorrow!?"
Hoshimi met his reflection on the casket's surface. Pale and untouched.
"I tried my best, Elias." Hoshimi said. "I assigned protection, I tried my best to separate her from Domino."
Elias's hands shook violently.
"She trusted you! Don't you feel anything!? Don't you have any sorrow? Any soul!?"
He paused.
"What would I expect from a puppet that blindly follows orders!"
Elias kicked him in the head, further opening up the gash in Hoshimi's skull.
A snap
He was then immediately cut off by a loud deafening shriek, a shockwave that pushed Elias to the floor, he couldn't move a single inch, it felt like every bone in his body refused to stand, every single muscle refused to contract.
Standing behind Elias, was a girl with pink hair and wispy bangs and eyes that glowed baby blue, a color reminiscent of Neila's.
"Don't look at me like that, you look pitiful."
"You must be Seraphina." Hoshimi replied, picking himself back up. "Thanks."
"Don't thank me, I don't want someone like you to."
"I don't know who killed her, I tried looking around the place but I didn't see a single witch, it must've been an ability at play."
"Why're you telling me this?"
"You were Audrey's friend weren't you? I need your help."
The guards tore Elias away then, dragging him back as he thrashed and screamed Audrey's name like a prayer torn apart by grief.
"What makes you think that I will?"
Hoshimi extended his hand towards her.
"I have a lead on Audrey's killer."
"I doubt it, you said that you didn't see any witch nearby."
"You're a student at Hex Academy aren't you? I got some intel that in the near future, a string of murders are going to occur in the same way as Audrey's."
Her eyes narrowed. "Why would anyone ever kill a student?"
"That's why I need your help, I can tell that you're seething with hatred for whoever killed her."
[Is this world even worth saving? Why am I even following the government's orders in the first place?]
"It has now come the time to discuss the matters of the inheritance of the assets of the Mirlo family."
The people's ears suddenly perked up, Hoshimi sat back down onto the wooden chairs, slouched over as his eyes stared up at the white ceiling.
[Maybe Elias has gotten to me, it was just-... My head hurts all of a sudden]
Hoshimi grabbed his forehead, blood still dripping down from the gash, he stared at his blood red hand, his eyes blurring as his hand twitched.
Seraphina sat down beside him, legs crossed as she stared daggers into him.
"Tell me now, that was Audrey's little brother, her entire world to him. Why's he pinning everything on you?"
"Why'd you think he's being arrested in the first place? He was the one who caused the destruction of the estate, and the murderer of the fake patriarch, I pressured him into getting himself arrested."
"Then what's going to happen to that bastard Adrian?" Seraphina sighed. "Is he going to be let loose again? But the priest said that there wasn't anyone left to take up the will."
"At the very least I had to do this for Audrey." He said, with a straight face, "I found traces of DNA from Adrian that led to the car crash and the death of Audrey's mother, in addition to that, the second child of the patriarch had some burnt hair on his corpse that related back onto Adrian. I guess he had some people in the police, directly hindering the investigation."
"It's more government corruption isn't it? You should atone for your sins, you failed as a bodyguard. Fix this damn world will you? That will be the first step to your atonement."
Hoshimi stared at the priest in front of him with tired eyes.
"I'll try."
"I'll kill you if you don't."
"I know."
"The moment she got her phone back, the first thing she messaged me was about you."
"….."
"She said that you were her savior, she'd keep yapping non stop about it, at some point it got annoying, you could call it jealousy. Then it stopped, I stopped getting messages from her."
Tears started streaming down her cheeks, her fingers clenched her black pants, as she bit onto her bottom lip.
"I hated it, I hated it so much, I was happy, so happy when her messages started flooding my inbox for the first time and-and it was taken so quickly in an instant, why are the Primordials so cruel, how could they be so cruel?"
[I keep wondering why women keep venting out at least something to me, I guess it might be because of the sword inside me, somehow makes them feel safe]
Then came the sound of paper rustling.
The priest pulled out a sheet out paper, the contents of the text only he could see.
"In accordance with the will of Johan Mirlo, the assets of the Mirlo family were to be passed down to his children. But due to recent events, the children are unable to accept the assets, luckily, the youngest member of the family—Elias—had written down a will beforehand, handing down twenty percent of all assets to Neila Shaw. Since the other eighty percent will be left unaccepted, the rest will go to her as well, inheriting the entire family's assets."
"That's bullshit!! Then why did I even come here!?"
"She's not even part of the family! He was my uncle damn it!"
Neila's eyes twitched, as she leaned against the window, a terrifying grin spread across her face in the reflection.
"Oh the tragedy!" She stood up from her seat, striding in front of Audrey's casket as she spread out her arms, her voice echoing through the halls.
"Grovel before me, mongrels! Unlike you all who were only here for the money, I was truly close with the kind people of the Mirlo family, its such a shame that I didn't see through their facade, it was my fault for believing the best in people." She dabbed a perfectly dry eye with a hankerchief that she spawned in from thin air.
"Fucking liar!! I'm going to slander your name!"
"I have millions of followers, you're getting your name dragged in the mud!"
From her pocket, she pulled out a thick stack of crisp hundred-dollar bills. With a dramatic flourish, she tossed them high into the air, letting the cash flutter down like confetti.
"Let this be a tribute to the Mirlo family's generosity! For their kindness! And for my newfound inheritance!"
The mourners, who moments before had been seething with indignation, paused. Eyes, sharp as flint, tracked the descending bills. A few tentative hands reached out.
"You think you can buy me with money!?"
"This isn't going to change anything!"
She reached into her other pocket, pulling out a handful of luxury car keys – gleaming Porsche, Ferrari, and Lamborghini emblems glinting under the chandelier. She sent them spinning through the air, their metallic clatter echoing with chaotic invitation. A sinister smile ran across her face, an expression that reached the depths of hell.
"Scatter like the monkeys you are! You materialistic, deprived souls! Consider this a celebration!"
Chaos erupted. People abandoned all pretense of mourning, diving, pushing, and scrambling over each other. The quiet, dignified funeral dissolved into a frantic scrum of grabbing hands and desperate grunts. The priest, caught in the undertow, vanished into the sea of people, his dignity lost somewhere between a Range Rover key and a wad of fifties.
"N-Neila?"
Seraphina's eyes widened, her hands still shaking.
Hoshimi, meanwhile, watched the stampede with a blank expression, a flicker of internal amusement dancing in his violet eyes. Elias's suffering was now secondary to the spectacle.
[I guess if people aren't bending over to you because of money then maybe you aren't throwing enough at them, money truly gets you everything]
"She made a Witch's Oath with Elias, basically blackmailing him."
Hoshimi crossed his legs, watching closely towards the stampede.
"Huh? How'd you even know that?"
"Elias was suffering backlash from failing to abide by a Witch's Oath, this must've been one of the clauses in the contract or he would not have given that much to her."
"Hm." Seraphina muttered. "I can't believe that I used to admire that demon."
Seraphina looked over to Hoshimi, he started to disappear, starting from the legs, her voice cracking.
"W-where the hell are you going."
"I figured that maybe." Hoshimi's eyes wandered towards the keys on the floor, his hand covering his mouth to hide his expression. "It's free money anyways." He vanished entirely, leaving only a faint shimmer in the air.
[I'm sorry Audrey, I genuinely am]