Buried Past II

"Oh... In that case, let me help you," the soldier offered Kies.

"What? But why?" Kies didn't understand why the soldier wanted to help him find his own grave. "It's going to take some time to find it and don't you have to do your job?"

"Well, no matter how long it will take, I know that searching with two people will always be faster than searching with one. As for your second question, my job is to help those in need," the soldier smiled.

"Oh. Thank you then." Kies accepted the soldier's help and the two of them entered the graveyard and began searching for the grave.

"You start at this end and I'll start at the other," the soldier suggested. He went to the other end of the graveyard and the two of them began to go through the graves one by one to find the person that they were looking for, which, of course, was actually himself. But that wasn't something that he could tell the soldier.

Starting from the left and working his way right, Kies went through the graves one by one. Shockingly and yet not very shocking at the same time, most of the graves belonged to young men. They were just barely adults and were probably unlucky and were forcibly recruited not too long after they turned the age.

Kies even saw a gravestone of a soldier who was still way too young to even be recruited. It looked like he joined the army "volunteeringly," which meant that he probably had to because his family was poor and they needed the money. He could've had a long future ahead of him and it was disappointing that someone as young as him had to die.

It didn't matter to the nobles who died. All that mattered was that they were profiting off the war and that sole reason was why it continued for so long even though it should've ended long ago. At least half of all the gravestones here were within the last year. It was when the war took a disastrous turn for them.

The war created many heroes, but for whatever reason, they only emerged on Otane's side. Maybe it was because the soldiers of Silverfield had no reason to fight other than to survive. On the other hand, Otane suffered loss after loss and was desperate to keep their kingdom from being destroyed. Unlike Silverfield, Otane's soldiers had a reason to fight.

A reason to fight... Kies thought back to the wind spirit's words. Was that the reason why people could become so powerful? To fight for something. To fight for anything. As long as there is something worth fighting for, people will fight to the bitter end. Even if all hope is lost, the reason to fight still stands, and that reason has led Otane to be victorious when they shouldn't have won. If he found his reason to fight, would it be the same for him?

Kies shook his head, water dripping from the top of his hood and spraying in all directions. He had been too caught up in his thoughts and walked past several gravestones without even looking at them. He went back to the gravestone of the young soldier and crouched down. He put his hands together and paid his respects to him. Although Kies felt no grief for him, he did feel sympathy. After all, they were both soldiers who were being forced to fight for something they didn't want.

Kies got up and walked down the row of gravestones again. None of them in the column were his. He continued to the next row and went down. Then the next. And then the next. He walked through row after row, looked at countless faces, but had yet to find the one that belonged to him.

Kies decided to take a short break after he finished going down another row and looked around the graveyard. Almost everyone had left. There were still a few people, including the soldier, who were still here. However, something caught his interest in the corner of his eye. It was presumably almost night by now but there was still someone entering the graveyard this late. It was difficult to see who it was since the rain was falling heavily.

Kies watched as the person walked down the path and then turned into one of the rows near the edge of the graveyard. Interestingly enough, that was also where the soldier was currently looking. He had yet to give up and was still helping Kies search for a person with gray eyes. Suddenly, the soldier jumped up and waved at Kies.

"I found it!" he shouted. It was very unexpected and Kies didn't know how to respond. He had finally found a clue to his past life after so long. Well, it wasn't that long, but it did feel like an eternity after he lost his memories. He ran over to the soldier and stopped in front of the gravestone he was at.

When he arrived, he accidentally kicked mud onto the slate and quickly bent over to wipe it off to find a person with gray eyes staring back at him. But the only problem was that it wasn't him. It was a picture of a young girl in a dress. Just like him, she had gray eyes. "This isn't-" But before Kies could finish his sentence and tell the soldier that this wasn't the person he was looking for, the soldier interrupted him.

"Is this your sister? You have my deepest condolences," the soldier says in a regretful voice. Before Kies could explain to him that it wasn't the person he was looking for, the soldier patted him on the back and said, "I'll leave you two alone now. Once again, I'm very sorry."

Kies saw that the soldier meant what he said. He didn't say anything and watched as the soldier walked away. He felt guilty not telling him the truth, but maybe it was better this way. It was going to be hard to explain that this wasn't the right person. He really thought that he might be the only person with gray eyes considering how rare it is but apparently not.

Kies had gotten his hopes up but in the end, he was disappointed. Anyhow, it was too late to continue searching and he needed to go. It sucked, but maybe if he had another chance to, he could come back in the future and continue searching.

Kies stood up and got ready to leave when someone suddenly appeared behind him and gave him a startle. "I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but that's your sister right?" Kies turned around and saw a girl in a raincoat standing in front of him. She had her hood on and it was covering her face. Kies could only see her nose and mouth. The rest of her face was hidden from view.

"Yes... she is," Kies hesitantly replied. The cloth covering his soaking wet cloth that covered his mouth made his voice very muffled and stuffed. "I came here to pay her a visit."

"I see. I came here for the same reason as you then. I came here to pay my brother a visit. Just like your sister, he was killed during the war." Though Kies couldn't see her face, he knew that she was trying her best to hold back her tears. Her voice was a little cracked and it sounded like she was going to break at any second. The war had claimed someone that she loved.

He may not know what that feeling felt like, but he did know that it was worse than him forgetting his memories. Both of them were missing a piece of themselves. "Then we both share one thing in common," he told her, referring to how they both lost something important to them.

"Well, I hope your sister is in a better place now... and also my brother too. It's getting late now so I should go."

"Yeah, I better get going as well."

The two of them said goodbye to each other and the girl walked away. She stopped by a grave not too far away from the one he was at and stared at it for a few seconds before continuing away. Kies watched her silhouette fade into the rain before leaving himself. He took the same path as her and walked past the grave that she had been looking at.

Out of curiosity, he glanced down at the girl's brother. Upon seeing the grave, his eyes widened in shock. He closed his eyes and rubbed them and then opened them again to confirm that he wasn't seeing it wrong. No, it was real. At the bottom of the gravestone was a picture that he recognized with ease. Just like the gravestone of that unknown girl, the boy in this gravestone also had gray eyes. But more than that, he also had his face.

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