Nora held Vaile down with strength that seemed out of place for one of her build, yet the residual parts of the game made it so that she could easily do so. Vaile tensed up and fully expected Nora to try and disrobe him, but Nora did not. Instead, he felt the soft wet droplets of her tears fall on him.

He opened his eyes and saw Nora trying (and failing) to hold back her tears as a look of pain and loss covered her face.

“Why can’t you all just leave me to my grief?”

…

Nora had sealed herself away for… she didn’t know how long. All the hours seemed to blur together as she tried to console herself in her quarters. However, everywhere she looked there was something that reminded her of Seivalt and the fact that she had repeatedly been a massive douche to him. She had always expected that he would outlive her, but for him to die the very day her beloved got here…

She was a bit of a tsundere in the regard that she acted antagonistic to her ancestor but had really cared quite deeply for him. All her attitude and rude behavior was a front so that she could seem tough and worthy of respect, but deep down she was still just as enamored with the legend that was Seivalt as anyone else. She just had a more personal connection to him than any other person.

After trying to find a place where she could shut out the anger that she felt towards herself, she entered into her ‘Sanctuary’. However, the second she laid eyes on her shrine to her beloved, she broke down. The old man, Seivalt, had raised her on stories of Vaile’s exploits. He had told her heroic tales about Vaile rescuing people from death (people who were hostile mobs), saving princesses (that were hostile mobs) and denying terrible and merciless people their ill-gotten gains (Taming/ stealing mobs and Raid Bosses from under the nose of other Players).

If there was one thing that reminded her of her lack of foresight more than anything else, it was the shrine to Vaile that she had built over the decades. And now she was looking at it. She did not even notice when the hidden door closed, when the alarm bells indicating an intruder rang or when the hidden door opened again.

What she did notice was the sensation of someone sneaking up behind her.

She wheeled around and saw Vaile looking at her. She did not register his words and instead tackled him out of the ‘Sanctuary’ and onto her bed (which was entirely coincidence and good fortune, as if they landed on the floor someone could have been injured).

Every time she tried to speak or open her eyes, she thought of Vaile, which led to her thinking about the tales told to her by Seivalt, which led to her remembering how much of an asshole she had been to him and how she would never be able to ask for forgiveness. It took all she had to try and hold back the waterworks, but it still wasn’t enough. Her sniffling was audible even to her, and as she tried to deal with the emotions swirling inside of her she could not bring herself to move.

…

Vaile was running out of time to get Nora to the funeral. It was only a matter of four more hours before the service would begin, and if Nora did not show up then a costly power struggle would be inevitable. Vaile was almost out of options, so he tried his best to deal with the situation at hand.

“Here goes nothing.” He thought as he forced Nora off of him and onto the bed.

This seemed to have the desired effect, as it stunned her for just long enough for Vaile to sit up and hug Nora tightly.

“Wh-what are..?!” Nora tried to stop Vaile, but he refused to let go.

“Just let it all out.”

“B-but!”

“No buts. I am here, so take my shoulder and let it all pour out.”

The next few seconds seemed to drag on for eternity, but a sniffle from Nora signaled the beginning of the healing process. She burst into tears and sobs as she held Vaile tightly.

…

An hour had passed, and Nora was now far more composed. The knowledge that her grief was not seen as weakness seemed to help a lot. She still had Vaile wrapped tightly in her arms and the occasional sniffle and tear would either be heard or roll down her face.

“Seivalt would have been fine with it.”

Vaile’s words caught her off guard.

“What?”

“Your actions and words. He would have been fine with them. Do you really believe a man as old and as capable as him couldn’t see that your actions and words were not how you truly felt?”

Nora almost started sobbing uncontrollably again.

“But.. but I was… And I never got to…”

Vaile patted her on the back.

“Then do so now. Get prepared; Seivalt’s funerary service is in three hours. If you don’t show up, then a civil war is destined to happen. You can’t imagine the number of people who tried to get me to support their group or faction as the ‘legitimate heirs to the Tyrant’. So, you need to put on a tough face for a while before showing that you really did care for him. Any sane man would be able to see that you did not feel the way you seemed to if you show up and wear your emotions on your sleeve.”

Vaile pulled away from Nora.

“I will head over there. You should get changed into appropriate attire.”

Nora tried to reach out and grasp at Vaile, but he had already teleported away.

Nora looked down at her hands before clenching them. She took a deep breath, got up and walked over to her walk-in closet. She had to choose the ‘appropriate attire’, as Vaile had put it.

…

Vaile entered the large cemetery and made his way to the place where many had gathered. Seivalt’s body was in a casket made of the finest wood and coated in a varnish that only kings could afford. However, if he could have seen the people around him, his own subordinates, plotting and scheming and preparing for the whole organization to shatter like glass he would have rolled in his coffin.

As Vaile got closer, several toadies tried to solicit him for his support, but Vaile ignored them and pressed on closer to Seivalt’s body. It was morbidly funny, Vaile thought, that in the game a corpse would just poof into a lootable item but in this world you actually had to deal with corpses that were not undead. Sure, there had been corpses in the game, but they were always just scenery. This new world, however, played by entirely different rules.

Minutes passed and then an hour and Vaile still had seen neither hide nor hair or Nora, the true successor to Seivalt’s legacy. He was beginning to wonder if she even intended to keep the Red Mountain Bandits from splintering, but then a hush fell over the crowd of threats to the legacy of Seivalt.

Vaile turned around and saw the crowd part.

Nora was walking through, her face covered in a mourning veil and her body covered in black leather, metal and fur. The outfit would not have looked out of place on the body of a warrior princess mourning the loss of her father, as it was both functional and aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Her two folding semi-automatic one-handed crossbows were holstered at her hips alongside her two handaxes, all of which were plainly visible from the front. On her back was a black cloak that was rimmed with white fur that had black spots throughout it. She was pulling no punches when it came to presentation.

Above all of this was the face that even her veil could not hide the obvious signs that she had been crying heavily. In fact, there were still a handful of tears streaming down her face every now and then.

She approached Vaile and took his arm, and Vaile listened in delight as the talk of breaking apart the organization or trying to take control of it turned immediately to accusation of disloyalty and treason. Vaile leaned to Nora’s ear and whispered something to her that made her smile a bit.

“I have the names, you have the authority to pass judgment, and they have the gall to try and return to the fold after plotting insurrection. After this, I don’t think I will mind if you teach them who the new Tyrant really is. Just don’t expect me to want to watch or listen. I’m not a sadist, after all.”