One could only say that the old uncle's research still had some merit.
Child, can you see the wind?
A gentle breeze blows past—you can sense it, yet you cannot touch it.
Can you truly perceive the speed of the wind?
Unless you activate your Elemental Sight the moment you meet them, it's nearly impossible to defend against that first-strike kill.
The old uncle and little Eula dug a pit and performed a cremation for this group of beings that, at the very least, still retained human form.
This band of horrors was beyond saving; Cid knew this clearly. Cremation was the only way to send them off.
Once a mistake of this magnitude is made, it becomes extremely difficult to undo.
To fall into corruption is, perhaps, the beginning of being rejected by the world. In most cases, the only option left is to be reforged.
Let their souls return to the ley lines and be cleansed.
It was a good thing that, back then, the old uncle hadn't fallen so far as to become a useless waste kept by little Barbara.
Otherwise, the one turned to ashes would probably have been the old uncle himself.
The old uncle was, at least, relatively reassured about little Eula.
When they had chatted by the campfire on the snow mountain in the past, the girl had mentioned that, as part of the Lawrence family's curriculum, she had once carried out executions on death-row prisoners.
But even so, he couldn't help feeling a little uneasy.
Although it was little Eula who, while on the ship, had prepared herself mentally for the possibility of giving or receiving a funeral.
No matter how strong or mature little Eula was, she was still just a child!
That was how the old uncle felt—the same old uncle who, just moments ago, had needed little Eula's support after vomiting.
Cid checked on little Eula's condition.
Hmm. It seemed he was the only one who needed looking after.
The old uncle decided to focus on the task at hand. The brief funeral rite had now concluded.
It was time to continue searching for Hanachirusato.
The old uncle drew out a bottle of Electro essence and released it onto the fox statue, but nothing happened.
The old uncle fell silent.
This great fox statue… it seemed to only respond to Electro…
No wonder, after all this time, only the Traveler had been able to participate in the Sacred Sakura Cleansing Ritual.
The old uncle only specialized in Anemo…
Wasn't this just asking for trouble?
"Let's go, little Eula. We'll rest our feet in Konda Village. It looks like the old uncle won't be able to send her off after all."
Little Eula looked at the old uncle, aware that his mood wasn't the best right now.
In the end, when the two of them left, they left behind only a single tombstone.
There were more than twenty people, and the old uncle truly didn't want to rummage through the bodies of the deceased, so he burned them all together and had them share one tombstone.
On the tombstone, the old uncle didn't even carve any names. He simply stabbed the tachi blades that wouldn't burn into the ground in front of it.
The two continued on their way.
…
"Have you heard? Lately, a strange person from Liyue has come to Inazuma. He specializes in killing those ronin who wander the wilderness practicing their swordsmanship! After killing them, he even erects tombstones for the warriors he slew! What a kind (yasashii) hero!"
"Oh? You mean the Ronin Slayer? I've heard that not a single ronin who encounters him survives. How could someone so bloodthirsty be called kind?"
"But isn't that a good thing? Those fools running around with swords only cause trouble for ordinary folk like us. 'Slayer' isn't exactly a flattering name!"
"Still, slaughtering ronin so openly is bound to make him a target, right?"
"Personally, I hope to see rivers of blood."
…
"Damn it, why do we keep running into these guys on the road?"
The old uncle, who had been cutting straight across mountains and ridges—perfectly stepping into every single ronin hideout on his way to Inazuma City—sighed at how long the journey felt.
And these ronin who kept popping out, declaring they wanted to test their blades on him.
Seriously? Why were there so many ronin in Inazuma?
…
"We have no retreat! That damned warrior-slaying machine is coming straight for us! There's no way back—our only chance to survive is to meet him head-on!"
Damn it all, the tombstones that little Hu Tao had left me are almost running out!
The old uncle, who at the beginning could still lament how easily life fades, now felt that his sense of the value of human life had grown increasingly numb.
These days, every time he recited the rites for the departed, he needed a long while to calm his heart before he could cast them.