Chapter 107 Chapter 107 – The Corpse
After a couple of minutes, Nick stood up.
By now, over ten minutes had passed.
Horua's heartbeat hadn't returned.
He was dead.
There was no denying it anymore.
"Did he have any next-of-kin?" Wyntor asked from the corner.
Nick slowly shook his head. "No. His parents died, and he didn't have any friends or family..."
"Except for me," Nick said quietly as he looked down.
Silence.
"What do you want to do with the body?" Wyntor asked.
When Nick heard that, he felt the void in his chest return, darker than ever before.
Right now, Nick felt like he could never be happy again.
In one way, he felt like he had been hollowed out, but at the same time, he also felt like the entire world was putting immense pressure on him.
Nick felt like reality wanted to crush him.
His body?
This question felt so surreal.
Nick had to decide what to do with Horua's body?
It was so strange.
How was any of this real?
How had any of this actually happened?
For a while, Nick didn't answer.
There were no cemeteries in the Dregs.
If anyone died, the body had to be handed over to the officials.
Nobody knew where the bodies ended up.
Most likely, the bodies were fed to a Specter.
It sounded cruel, but what alternative was there?
There was no earth in the city, which made burying the body impossible.
Burning the body was also not possible since none of the fires one could start with the available materials was strong enough to actually turn the body into ash. It would just leave a charred body behind, making things even worse.
Keeping the body was also bad since it would rot.
Additionally, the Parasite would probably just consume the body when nobody was looking.
Might as well feed it to a useful Specter.
Nick wanted to keep Horua's body, but he knew that this was not realistic.
"Give it to the coffin," Nick said with a shaky breath.
It sounded cruel, but it was the only thing Nick could think of.
Wyntor nodded.
"Do you want to say goodbye?" he asked.
Nick looked at Horua's corpse.
A nearly twelve-year-old boy.
Horua was so thin and pale.
Nick still remembered how he had defended Horua from the gangs when his parents died and how they had been living together for almost a year.
Even though it had only been a business relationship at the beginning, they had quickly become friends.
Nick also remembered how hopeful Horua had been when Nick had told him that he could turn him into a Zephyx Extractor.
And then, tragedy happened.
'It's all my fault,' Nick thought as he looked at the corpse with pain.
"I'm sorry," Nick said quietly as he kneeled beside the corpse.
Nick gently held Horua's hand.
It was ice cold, soft, and thin.
A child's hand.
"I'm sorry, Horua," Nick said with a shaky voice.
"Wherever you are now, I hope you won't meet someone like me."
"This is all my fault."
"If I hadn't been so stupid, you would still be alive."
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