I opened my eyes. The light of the sun peered through the curtains, the birds were singing softly, and my head rested comfortably against a pleasant pillow–The same thing as every morning for me. Nothing out of the ordinary in that regard… The only difference was the hollowness within my heart.

  The funeral is today. I need to prepare…

  Despite me thinking the word ‘funeral’ most clearly, and knowing exactly who it was for–I somehow failed to realise immediately that he truly was gone now. It had only been a few days ago when I found him.

  A loud bang stirred me out of my thoughts. I had unconsciously punched the wall and actually left a crack in it.

  I looked at my fist, unblemished. It was easy to forget about the fact that I was an official knight. It has been a while since I last delved into it now.

  I sighed and headed to the bathroom. I took a quick bath, did my hair, and put on a black dress. Looking outside, I could see that the day was bright and without clouds. What an awful day for it to be so sunny.

  It’s time to go.

  “Miss Nebulo”

  “Ah. I am glad that you could make it, Mari”

  “How could I have skipped saying goodbye to the boss? I and countless others wouldn’t be where we are today without him”

  “Yet, not many showed up as you did. It really means a lot to me”

  “I… If you need anything, Miss Nebulo, don’t hesitate to ask me, alright? I’ll always be loyal to you!”

  Mari pushed her hair behind her ear as she spoke, and I nodded.

  “I’ll make sure to remember that”

  I stood in front of the cemetery, although many people would have normally shown up, I had preferred to only allow the people who actually knew him to witness the funeral. I had a blazing hatred for all of those newer newspaper publications. Ever since the concept of journalism had been made freer and more accessible, so many rats and slugs had crawled into the fray.

  To me, journalists were nothing but minstrels who thrived off tragedies, half-truths, lies, and were, for the most part, all bought by different people to recite propaganda disguised as reporting. Utterly despicable. I would have to be dead for even a single one of those creatures to be allowed anywhere near the grave.

  …The graveyard itself was quiet. Even the birds seemed compelled into silence here. Only distant caws could be heard. This cemetery was relatively recent… One built for the wealthy outside the city and surrounded by tall walls. It was much quieter here than inside Tolten, a far superior resting place for those who deserved peace at last.

  As I looked at the far horizon of the early morning, someone approached me in a hurry.

  “Don’t run so much, Adem. You look like you’re going to pass out”

  “Miss Nebulo… Miss Eleanori is here, and she wants to-”

  “Tell her to fuck off! If she dares to even put a single toe in this cemetery, tell the gravedigger to get his shovel ready, because we’ll be burying an extra body today!”

  I slightly pulled on my collar.

  “Apologies for the outburst, didn’t mean to yell at you…”

  “I know, Miss Nebulo… But she seems quite determined to be present for the funeral…”

  “How determined that whore is doesn’t change anything. If I see her face inside the cemetery, I am going to give the place a new paint job. This is non-negotiable. I am not letting his murderer pay her respects to him. Who does she think she is? Now that he is dead, she likes him again? This bitch is only after the inheritance and wants to make good figure to not be bashed in the newspapers… Just tell her to go work on the street to make some money. She’s not getting a thing from him”

  “I understand, Miss Nebulo”

  Adem went away, leaving me alone with Mari again.

  “Miss Nebulo… Is it true that Miss Eleanori is not in the will at all? It doesn’t seem like he would have removed her…”

  I reached out and pinched Mari’s cheek. The young woman blushed abundantly in response, but did not make any move to remove herself from my grasp.

  “Don’t worry, Girly Pop. I didn’t do anything to the will. His will states that his wealth will go entirely to Jeanni, while the rights to the business will go to me… And since anything that is unattributed for is specified to go to his closest family member, it means that I am the sole person to get anything in the will. This bitch must have assumed otherwise, a nice twist of fate, don’t you think? She doesn’t even deserve to live in the first place”

  The bell tolled, meaning that the funeral was soon to begin.

  The people invited to the funeral were few.

  There was I, Mari, Adem, Maarkus, and a few other employees. Maarkus had been his only friend.

  “My deepest condolences, Mara. I know how close you two were to one another. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask me”

  Maarkus had the same words for me as everyone else did.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  “The same is true for you, Maarkus. If you need help, you know where to find me”

  The area was eventually deserted, and only I remained in front of the grave. I had barely listened to what the priest had said. Everything had been kept as short as possible. He had always disliked lengthy ceremonies and events, so it would have felt insulting to hold one of those now.

  I knelt in front of the gravestone. Looking at what was written upon it.

  Here lie the members of the Nebulo family:

  Feron Nebulo

  Lativa Nebulo

  Jeanni Nebulo

  Leton Nebulo

  They had all left… So early. I was alone now. I was the only Nebulo left. I have no children. I have no husband. I have nothing but what was left behind and memories.

  I pressed the bridge of my nose.

  Why the hell are tears not coming? Why do I have to look so impassive about this? I have never felt sadder in my entire life, and yet… It looked like I didn’t care. It did not matter what others believed, but when I looked at myself in the mirror–It bothered me.

  The only thing I could muster an outburst of emotion for was that bitch Eleanori. I had always known that she couldn’t be trusted. I should have been harsher about it with Leton… We might be twins, but I was still the one with the role of the older sibling. Even as an adult, I should have looked out for him with greater attention.

  Why did I allow this? This damned woman did not deserve anything Leton had to offer her. She did nothing but give the final blow when he was already at his lowest.

  “...Ah”

  I had clenched my fist so hard that my fingernails had cut into my palms. I was bleeding.

  A deep sigh escaped my lungs. I needed to find something to occupy my mind, but what could this something be…?

  I placed a clump of blue scorpion grass upon the grave before leaving the cemetery.

  The next morning, I put on my usual attire and walked from home into the heart of Tolten… It was there, at the junction between the commoner and the upper class, that Leton and I had started everything. Using the money I had acquired from leading the familial trading business, and Leton’s talent in the mechanical–We had bought a place called Harvey’s Diner and made it into our own place.

  Quickly, adults and children alike were seduced by the place. Leton’s mechanical entertainers were unlike anything else anyone had ever seen before. The novelty alone spread the word… On my end, I took charge of the advertising, the handling of funds, and I was also the one to set the foundations for the food that we were going to be serving.

  In the end, we truly diversified. Nowadays, this first location serves all sorts of dishes from all over the continent. That is, without mentioning the many other restaurants we opened, most of them being franchise restaurants.

  It had been a massive success from the very beginning, and this success had not waned. Leton’s constant innovations had really kept the business alive and thriving. Now, however, the genius mechanist was gone. People were still going to come. At this point, the restaurant was simply too popular and beloved to fail now.

  Nonetheless, the constant innovation was not going to happen anymore…

  On my way there, I crossed the path of several newspaper stands–Those things were really everywhere now.

  The headlines were all rather similar…

  Father of mechanics dead!

  Leton Nebulo officially laid to rest in–

  What will become of the master mechanist’s empire?

  Glamorous co-owner, Mara Nebulo, set to take over the fraternal business…

  It was all about my brother’s death. Most of the titles were dramatic beyond what was reasonable. Some even talked about the bitch… This is making me consider buying the places that write these newspapers, just to shut them down.

  I ignored these vultures and soon stopped in front of the very first restaurant I had opened with Leton… ‘Coco’s Coven of Delicacies’, I had always found the name a little odd personally, but this place was full of nostalgia for many people.

  The automaton entertainers were beloved characters now. The sale of plushies of them was a lucrative business on its own. They could walk around during the day, they could be trusted to take care of children, were even capable of interacting with adults just fine, and could, if necessary, detect a threat to the establishment and give an alarm to employees.

  If anything, it wasn’t just a restaurant anymore. It was basically a daycare. All employees needed to know how to look after children at all times.

  I walked into the restaurant and soon took a seat in the main office. I have been working here for a long time now, though it isn’t uncommon for me to go down into the main rooms or into the kitchen. There just wasn’t much to do inside an office all day, and I needed to move.

  Regardless, I could feel like something was on the top of my tongue… Staying here was not good for me. This place had too much of Leton infused into it. The designs of the robotic entertainers had all been thought out by him, and now, I couldn’t help but see how they reflected my brother in their appearance and personalities.

  It was… Suffocating, to say the least. It made me feel too much like he was still alive and well. It was uncanny. It was disturbing… I needed something to get away from these thoughts.

  Mari and Adem soon entered my office, as per usual, they were here to give me a morning report each, but also, as per usual, there wasn’t much to be said. The mascots were put under maintenance and cleaned daily. The restaurant itself was cleaned without fault after the end of every day, and the stocks were never lacking. Everything was run without fault.

  Mara was quite proud to be able to say that there had never been any accident that was the fault of the company.

  Instead, most of the time supposed to go toward reporting was spent by Mari and Adem bickering together. If I were a clueless fool, I might assume that they liked one another, but I had not been cradled directly next to a brick wall in my youth. I knew very well that both of them were competing for my attention.

  Unfortunately for them, one was far too scrawny and submissive, and the other was immediately disqualified due to not having the necessary equipment.

  I stood up and walked over to something kept within glass, exposed inside my office like a memento.

  The good old Glown costume. I had worn it quite a lot in the past. At the start, people didn’t really trust machines to actually be capable of being around children safely, so I had put on the costume to create a human presence… I wasn’t the biggest fan of children, but children had loved me dearly.

  Even if my audience wasn’t my favourite, I had to admit that playing the role had been a highlight of my life for certain…

  My reflection in the glass overlapped with that of the clown mascot, and suddenly, it was like lightning went off inside my brain.

  “Ah! I know what to do”

  “Miss Nebulo?”

  Both Adem and Mari spoke at the same time upon hearing me mutter to myself.

  “My mind needs to work on something new, and for some reason… I can’t help but feel like my brother is there to help me with it… I will open a sister location to this very establishment, with my own characters”

  “Yes, that is the correct course of action…”

  I stared out the window, and for a moment, I waited for a response from someone that was neither Mari nor Adem. Weird, who could I have possibly been expecting an answer from?

  ___

  End Of Volume 1: The Forsaken

  Start Of ???: Brighter Yesterday