Chapter 1472: Lathers' Funeral

The Randall Valley City Public Cemetery is divided into the East District, Southeast District, and South District according to the development time. Among them, the South District is a cemetery built in the last ten years or so, and the funeral Xia De was to attend was right here.

Because he knew the address in advance, he did not get lost when rushing over. But just as the taxi driver said, the big earthquake last week caused too many tragedies. On this foggy Monday morning, there were quite a lot of people in the cemetery.

No matter which part of the Old Continent, funerals need to be held in the church for the final farewell ceremony. But because it had been too busy recently, the church's farewell ceremony was simplified. The time Hillis reserved was ten o'clock in the morning, and because there were two funerals lined up before, Xia De's arrival at nine-thirty was just right.

When Xia De found Hillis, the group attending the funeral had all arrived and were standing and talking beside the grave chosen for Mr. Lathers on the side of the church.

The four great witches and four witch apprentices were very conspicuous. The tall great witches were all wearing black long skirts, black hats decorated with black artificial flowers, and veiled. Their red, gold, brown, and black hair was all pinned up, looking very capable.

As for the young apprentices, they were dressed differently; only Tifa was still in a black and white maid dress.

And the real relative at this funeral, that is, Hillis, was wearing a black velvet narrow skirt, with a black slim-fitting coat without any decoration on the outside, and a white flower tied to her chest. The black hat also had black artificial flower decorations, only she was not veiled.

Besides the nine people, some members of the Golden Dawn also came here. However, these ring mages did not approach the witches but stood on the periphery, as if on guard.

When Xia De's figure appeared from the hazy fog, the girls discovered him at the first moment. And when Xia De also arrived under that bare big pine tree, Hillis directly opened her arms and hugged him.

The witches said nothing; Miss Bernice even gently patted Hillis on the back. The two were best friends.

"There is probably about twenty minutes left, we will enter the church then."

Miss Aurora said softly on the side. This lady usually likes to wear various gemstone rings, but today, attending the funeral, she only wore a relatively simple black gemstone ring.

Hearing her voice, Xia De immediately thought of what happened after eating lunch yesterday. He immediately let himself get rid of distracting thoughts and gently patted Hillis on the back.

The young girl took a long time to let go of Xia De and stood beside him with her head down. Xia De asked again:

"Where is the coffin parked now?"

"In the church basement, the church people will arrange to send it to the auditorium in a while."

Miss Galina said. This was the first time Xia De saw this great duchess of the North wearing this style of clothing, but she was still very beautiful.

"I thought the funeral would be held at the Church of the Forsaken."

"Since Father chose to become the guardian of the earth, I think his faith is not limited to my Lord."

Hillis spoke beside Xia De, her voice a bit hoarse.

"The stone statue is heavier than a corpse. Won't the church people discover that the coffin is not right?"

Xia De asked again, and this time Miss Bernice answered:

"It doesn't matter, I carved runes that affect gravity inside the coffin."

The beautiful blonde lady had a sorrowful expression on her face behind the veil; she was sad for Hillis. And seeing Xia De looking at her, the witch gently hooked Xia De's hand, and then a note appeared in Xia De's hand.

So Xia De put his hand into his pocket, opened the note, and rubbed it with his fingertips.

【It says: Come to the opera house at nine tonight, I promise you, I will give you a solo performance.】

"She" whispered the content of the note to Xia De.

So Xia De nodded slightly to Miss Bernice imperceptibly and asked again:

"Corpses for such public funerals need to be registered at the police station. How was the reason for death written? I remember, in the official records, Mr. Lathers went missing more than ten years ago."

"I let Margaret

help change the official records."

Miss Sylvia said, pointing to the princess who was talking to Miss Rita Swift and Miss Hayley Aurora. To hide her identity, Margaret wrapped herself up tightly today, and her veil was the thickest of all. However, Xia De could still see her turning her head slightly and smiling at him.

"It's not a complete modification of the records, just modifying some details, changing the missing to finding the corpse after missing. Because the tomb was damaged in the earthquake, we thought of holding a supplementary funeral and moving the tomb. The Golden Dawn more than ten years ago was not a very famous opera troupe, so few people remember this gentleman, and the modification of official records will not attract other people's attention."

Miss Sylvia explained. This youngest great witch was also dressed simply. It's just that when she was speaking, her eyes were staring at Xia De's eyes. Xia De thought she probably also thought of what happened yesterday afternoon.

"That's good."

Xia De sighed. The atmosphere of a funeral is always sad. While talking, he looked up at the tall trees in front of him:

"This location is really well chosen."

"Yes, after a while, when the weather is warmer, I plan to move my mother's tomb here too. The underground tomb area where my mother is buried has had severe water seepage in the soil layer in recent years."

Hillis said in a low voice again. Xia De thought for a while and still said his idea: "Actually, I have a way to turn that stone statue into flesh and blood."

Hillis looked up suddenly, and other witches also looked at Xia De. Xia De shook his head:

"Not resurrection, just turning the stone statue into a corpse. Mr. Lathers is already dead, and his soul cannot return. This cannot be changed."

So Miss Bernice looked at Hillis, and the latter pursed her lips and nodded: "That's fine, burying a corpse is better than burying a stone statue."

Although the corpse was stored under the church, family members would not be stopped if they wanted to take another look before the funeral.

There was no need for everyone to go. In the end, only Hillis, Miss Bernice, and Miss Sylvia followed to the church basement.

The church basement of the cemetery had a place specifically for storing corpses. Because the first two funerals had already been held, Mr. Lathers' funeral was the last one before noon, so there were no other family members here.

The young priest who brought the group was sensible and left the place to the four. Xia De reached out and opened the brown lacquered wooden coffin, then saw that the stone statue in a sitting posture had turned into a lying posture by some means.

After confirming with Hillis for the last time, Xia De reached out and pressed on the forehead of the stone statue: "Active Soil."

The spell obtained from the Earth Divinity emitted a faint golden light under Xia De's hand. And in that light, the gray stone slowly transformed into the color of normal human skin.

Because Mr. Lathers was a normal person before being petrified, when the transformation was completed again, what lay in the coffin was a corpse as lifelike as a living person.

Hillis lowered her eyes and shed tears: "Father."

Miss Bernice glanced at Xia De. Although she saw Xia De use this spell to treat Miss Galina early Saturday morning, she was still curious about this spell that was almost a miracle.

No matter how you look at it, this doesn't look like a normal spell. Although spells and sorcery are both supernatural powers, they also have to follow rules.

The corpse's hands were originally placed on both sides of the body. Hillis reached out and moved the corpse's hands to her chest, then took off the ring she was wearing and placed it in the two hands.

"If the corpse is kept from decaying, maybe one day, I mean maybe, Mr. Lathers is willing to leave the group of guardians, maybe he can be resurrected."

Miss Bernice said softly, but Xia De knew this was absolutely impossible. The combination of guardians is not reversible.

"No, he won't do this, and I don't want to do this either." Hillis shook her head and stepped back from the coffin:

"Father has passed away, I don't want to wake up the dead, I won't..." "That's good."

Xia De nodded and put on the white bone ring he finally got from Mia before going out, which was the document-level relic "Ring of Eternal Life." After rubbing it twice, he took a deep breath and exhaled slowly: "Breath of Time."

An imperceptible gray airflow sprayed out from his nasal cavity. After covering the corpse, the corpse, which was like a living person, quickly withered. Although it did not rot, under the ten-year limit acceleration of the current "Breath of Time," it turned into a withered mummy in the blink of an eye.

"Goodbye, Father."

Hillis said goodbye softly, and then solemnly closed the coffin lid. Miss Sylvia asked Xia De worriedly:

"How much of your lifespan was consumed just now?" "No consumption."

He shook the ring on his hand. He didn't tell anyone except the doctor about the devil's "reward": "I found a way to offset the lifespan consumption. Of course, this is the power of the relic, so that sorcery of mine still cannot be used easily."

The four returned to the ground to meet with the others. At nine-fifty, the group finally entered the church under the guidance of the priest and sat down. Under the priest's presiding, the funeral farewell process began.

The Lathers family was not prosperous, and there were no relatives to call in this generation. Plus the process was simplified, so the link of elders recalling the deceased's life stories was skipped, and Miss Lathers went directly as a daughter to conduct the final mourning.

The great witches sat in the front row, followed by the members of the Golden Dawn, and Xia De and the witch apprentices sat in the back. Because Xia De had also met Mr. Lathers, Xia De would also deliver a short eulogy in a while.

On the way here, he had temporarily prepared a short paragraph in his notebook. Just as he was lowering his head for a final check, he suddenly heard someone walking from behind and then sitting beside him.

Xia De turned his head and saw that the face was Mr. Thomas Granger, that is, the "Guardian." ===== CHAPTER 1473 =====

Xia De turned his head to look and discovered that the face was Mr. Thomas Granger, also known as the "Guardian."