The ground was harder than Ulric expected.
He had decided the least he could do for his father in this world was to give him a proper burial.
Even though they were basically strangers when he awoke in this world, his father was the only thing that made him feel he wasn't alone in this world.
Now he was gone.
He stood there for a moment, staring openly at the newly dug grave.
Before walking back to his wooden house and picking up his father, laying him down to rest.
Ulric stood there, simply unsure of what to say.
He didn't know him too well, but he knew enough. "You were...a good man."
With those words, dirt slowly fell over the corpse, covering it piece by piece.
A heavy wind passed through the destroyed village. Eventually, Ulric turned and walked away.
He decided to leave and never come back to this place.
He would start his own Journey in this world.
The first few days of his travel went by quickly.
Ulric would walk until sunset, where he would sleep anywhere he could, beneath trees, on the side of the road like a homeless person, and inside caves.
During his travel he would constantly go back to the battle against the red hair demon boy.
How he is unintentionally decaying the world around him. He came to the obvious conclusion of it was from him not being able to control his Lich powers.
So he made sure to suppress these powers, not using them unless he was in danger or he needed to beat some ass.
Or if he wanted to train in the future.
By the fifth morning of his travel, all the food he had taken from the destroyed village was gone, he just had a bit of water left for a couple of days.
Thankfully, he had found berries growing along the edge of stream and ate those instead.
The days were quiet.
But he kept walking...and walking.
One day, in the distance he could see an abandoned destroyed farmhouse. Its grass clearly overgrown, he wondered if the same thing had happened to it as to his village.
Ulric kept walking.
It had been over a week since he started his travel.
Ahead of him, the thick forest trees seemed to thin.
Somewhere in the distance, he thought he heard someone loudly singing, it was a horrible sound.
Making his way through the forest, he locked eyes with someone. With the first person he had seen in over a week.
A Drunk...Priest?
Hiccup* "Hewo there, friend." The words came out as if his tongue was tied.
The man wore a priest's robe, bottle in his hand, his steps wandering left and right, clearly about to fall over.
The sun came out about 2 hours ago, and this priest is already drunk?
Taking another drink from his bottle before lowering it.
"Why are you wandering around drunk in the woods?" Ulric asked
"Mistakes were made."
The drunk man extended his free hand cheerfully.
"My name is Heiter."
Heiter? Isn't that the priest of the future hero party? Does that mean the rest of them are around here aswell?
"Name's Ulric," he said, shaking Heiters sweaty hand.
"Ulric!" He repeated happily.
Ulric could smell the alcohol oozing from his breath every time he spoke.
Heiter glanced up the road and then back to the forest behind them, before a mischievous grin came across his face.
Offering the bottle in his hand. "You look like you could use a drink."
With no hesitation, Ulric snatched the bottle from his hand and chugged it in one go.
He had run out of water just yesterday.
"Thanks." He said, handing him his bottle back.
"You know, there's a small village down the road."
A village? Finally, after over a week.
Heiter raised the empty bottle, a stupid smile all over his face.
"They have a tavern..."
"A tavern?" Ulric asked
Heiter nodded seriously. "Yep, I personally checked it out earlier."
" I was planning on heading back for...research purposes," he said. "How about it, come along?"
Before Ulric could answer, Heiter started walking off and started drunkenly singing in his awful voice.
After a moment, he followed.
Not long after, a small valley appeared beyond the trees.
A village sat at its center.
After arriving, the place seemed very lively.
Farmers up and early starting their day, Children chasing eachother through the roads until their mother angrily called them back.
Wooden Houses and unlit lanterns along the dirt roads of the village.
Walking alongside the dirt road, Ulric had noticed something strange.
It looked like a silhouette of a little kid. He was not human, but more like a ghost or soul.
It was standing looking through a window of an old house, as if he was waiting to be let in the house.
Ulric had no idea how he knew, but he could tell that the kid was dead.
Before he could continue to think, "Come on Ulric!, We're almost there!"
Heiter yanked at his sleeve. Looking back, all he could see was the silhouette of the child.
On the eastern side of the village, the biggest building was their destination.
The village Tavern.
Even though it was early in the morning, you could hear the amount of drunk people inside.
Laughter filled the room as they entered, mugs clung together, as lively music was playing in the background.
"Two ailes!" Heiter shouted as they sat in their seats.
The drinks arrived quickly.
"To fateful encounters," Heiter said, raising his mug.
"You say that to everyone you meet in the woods?"
Heiter took a big drink before answering.
"Only to those who look like they have had a long week," he said. "With my awesome years of priest experience, I can tell you are dealing with grief."
Ulric hadn't realized it. It wasn't him who was experiencing the grief of losing his father.
It was the original Ulric.
Somehow, even though he had taken over his body, the body could still grieve over his dead father.
"Luckily...there are two great ways to get over grief."
"Yeah? What's that?"
"Time," Heiter raised his mug, "and alcohol."
Alcohol?... This guy is a genius.
He stared at Heiter chugging down his mug, then he finally took a drink.
Time quickly flew by, as the night sky took over the bright blue sky.
Lanter lit up the village with an orange glow.
Three people, two men and one woman, searching for something.
"I told Heiter to prepare for leave in a couple of days. I haven't seen him at all today." The tallest out of the three said.
"He's probably drunk in the tavern again." The shortest of them said.
Standing outside the village tavern, the group of three could hear the bustling music, and laughs from outside.
A row of men, short and tall, all with their shoulders over each other on top of tables.
Singing and kicking their legs out one by one in rhythm to the music all together.
Of course, they found the person they were looking for.
Their fourth party member, Heiter the priest.
They found him in the row of dancing men, tears running down the side of his face.
Singing and dancing along as he clung shoulder to shoulder with a blonde man wearing glasses.
"Welp, we found him."
.....
End of Chapter 5