A day had passed since the 'accident' and Naya had yet to move away from her place next to her parents, she had tired herself trying to wake them up and ended up falling asleep. By the time she woke up, a deep frown was on her face.
"Mister, what is this smell?" She asked, wrinkling her nose.
"That's the smell of death..." Answered Leo with a low voice. His mood heavy.
"Mother and father should take a shower when they wake up then! So does everyone else, it's really really bad!" She replied.
Letting out a sigh, Leo slowly spoke.
"They will not be waking up any longer child. They already left for a better place." He said as he studied Naya's expression.
Looking back at him as if he was crazy, Naya pointed back at their bodies before speaking.
"But they are right here?"
"Yes, but their spirit has long since departed this plane." He answered.
"But, why would they leave me behind then?" She asked as if feeling betrayed.
"W-was it because I didn't listen when mother asked me not to go to the forest?" She choked, as tears started to well up in her eyes.
"Mom! I'm sorry, please come back! I-I'll be a good child now! I promise!" She pleaded while pulling at her mother's helm, yet to no avail. Her eyes remained closed, her body still.
Unable to continue watching the scene, Leo walked towards her before gently patting her head, he made sure that all of his skills were already suppressed lest he accidentally kills the child.
"They didn't want to leave you behind, they will be waiting for you when your time comes." He spoke, trying to make his sound softer to comfort her, yet it still came out gravely.
"Why is it not my time yet? Do I also need to die to go with them?" She turned to look back at him, tears still streaming down her face.
Ever so gently, Leo brought his monstrous dark palm and wiped her tears away before speaking.
"No, you have to continue living, your parents along with everyone else will be waiting for you. But you must stay alive until your time comes. That's what a good child would do, and that's what your parents would want you to do." He said.
"En, I'll be a good child. If I continue being a good child, will I meet them again?" She asked while wiping her tears away.
"Yes." He replied before gently patting her head once more.
"Now, to help them get to where they need to be we must first help them" He added.
"Help? How?" Asked Naya, confused.
"Everyone has a soul inside of their bodies." Said Leo while pointing his finger towards where her life flame was.
Staring down at her own chest in puzzlement, Naya asked.
"I also have a soul?"
"Yes, it is precisely our souls that go to the next place where your parents and all the villagers went." He said.
While Leo had no real understanding of souls and the afterlife. Looking at how all the corpses lacked their life flame or so he came to call it, he assumed that was what people in his previous life called a soul.
"Okay, and how do we help?" Asked Naya while nodding her head in understanding.
"We bury them back to earth. The final resting place for our physical bodies." He said.
"Bury?" She asked, confused.
"Yes, child." Answered Leo. Leaving the bodies behind to rot would not sit right with him.
"Okay! I'll help mother and father's soul go to the better place! I'll be a good child!" She nodded
******
And so Leo and Naya stood next to each other, one looking like a grim reaper, the other a young cute child struggling to keep her tears at bay as they stood next to two graves with two giant rocks Leo pulled out of one of the houses that served to mark them.
His strength was surprisingly inhuman or was it unsurprisingly considering his new monstrous-looking body? He was able to easily dig out the graves for all of the villagers using brute strength and even managed to pull the rocks out of one of the houses to mark the graves.
Looking at Naya, he once again gently patted her head before speaking.
"You're a good child, a strong child. And your parents will always be watching over you. Even if you can see them, they are always there. Remember that." He said as he while pointing at the location of her
"En," She nodded, as she wiped her tears with one hand and held the other close to her heart, where her 'soul' was at.
Naya still did not know what exactly death was, or why her parents had to die and go to the better place, she still did not know why she was left behind, she still did not understand a lot of things.
What she did understand, however, was that if she wanted to meet them again and go to the better place, she had to be a good child, she had to wait for her time to come, she shouldn't rush it. The mister said that rushing it was bad.
Her parents wouldn't want her to rush it, and so she will not! She will be a good child, and she will live until her time comes before meeting everyone else in the better place.
She found herself wondering about where they all went, if death took everyone to a better place then that would mean that death was a nice thing! But it should not be rushed, she reminded herself.
While Naya was thinking about such thoughts, what she failed to notice was that Leo who was standing next to her had his body slowly shake as its dark fog began to change, gradually going from its previous obsidian color to a more lighter one, before finally settling at a gentle gray color.
Shocked, Leo looked at his own palm, before staring at the floating screen that suddenly appeared.
<Beware for he has come, he who was missing for an eternity, he whom you have forgotten, Death has descended. Rejoice for the end is here!>
<Name: (Leo)Death Race: ???
Age: ~
Affinity: Chaotic Neutral
Magic: Dark
Skills: -Life steal (S-Rank)
-Death's kiss (S-Rank)
Titles: The End - Otherworlder-Death>
Naya's eyes suddenly lit up before turning to look at Leo.
"Mister, a screen appeared! It says death has come! Does that mean he came to take mother and father and everyone to the better place?" She asked as her eyes lit up.
"Wait mister, your color changed!"
Leo did not seem to hear anything she was saying as he stood there rooted in place staring at the screens that appeared, only one thought swam in his head.
'Death? What the fuck?!'
Wasn't there another boy (no name) that looked to be around Naya's age? In a previous chapter those two we're the only kids around so where is he? Did he make a trip to another village with relatives? Was he older than he seemed and died too? Or perhaps author forgot and needs to do a retcon and/or edit? In any case, thought you should know.
Well MC should have enough details to make some plausible theories and explanations to his situation and this world: living things heal a ridiculous amount and nothing dies (this concept of deathless world MC is still wrapping his head around and hasn't seemed to have fully comprehended and hasn't really thought about what they said), MC was going to have his previous life memories erased but it failed and so system concluded it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things (meaning MC wasn't accidentally brought here and has a purpose), that announcement and additional title of Death (plus his original name is now in parentheses with Death being his name) plus his abilities in general should allow him to start really thinking over everything he has gone through since he died and arrived here.
I do wonder why Death wasn't a thing at the inception of life? Perhaps the soul intended to become Death (MC) was "lost in the mail" and arrived on Earth where time moved differently and they have only been able to get the soul back now (probably couldn't just use some other soul as it would be shoving a square peg in a round hole, assuming this theory is correct at least).
Not really asking for an answer as I am fine learning with MC but writing such comments can be good.
It’s always great to see readers investing their time in the story as that really is what makes writing them all the more fun, In response to the question about the little boy, that will be addressed in the next chapter, he was not forgotten, don’t worry about that, while the MC’s thoughts about everything will also somewhat be addressed in the next one as well.