The gang down the sweet lemonade in but a few gulps, rushing to get the celebration running; the celebration of their victory. The group all finish the lemonade at roughly the same time, and Cowboy goes to grab a few cheap beers from the fridge. However, while Cowboy does this, Eden goes over to Old Man, who is pouring himself another glass of lemonade.

  “Old Man, might I ask you something?” Eden asks Old Man.

  “Why you already did, did you not?” The Old Man laughs, but after seeing Eden’s frown and lowered black eyelashes, he quickly changes his words. “I thought you could take a joke, Eden, my apologies. Ask away.”

  “Now I do note how impressive this victory may be, but why may I ask, why are we celebrating? I would call this day a hollow victory if nothing else. Sure I killed the ogre, but it is not like it was an easy task, and Tanker, Tanker died-” Eden questions Old Man, but is cut off by himself, or rather an extremely faint red light. The silence is quickly filled by Old Man answering Eden’s question.

  “Why should we not celebrate this joyous occasion? I mean we just survived one of if not the strongest thing any of us have ever faced in this place. Did I accidentally place Vodka in your lemonade again?” Old Man asks back to Eden.

  “Well, while yes it is wonderful to survive that, you missed the forest for the trees- wait, correct me if I am wrong but did you just inform me that you have been putting Vodka in my lemonade?” Eden asks Old Man, derailing his original point with the sheer confusion he is facing from Old Man’s declaration.

  “Yes I did. What, did you never question why the lemonade was so bitter, or why I always had it in a large container, which was used to mix the Vodka with the lemonade. Though I am rather sure I did not add any to your drink this time. I have a much smaller lemonade pitcher that is not alcoholic.” Old Man answers Eden, now having completely ruined any story elements relating to the lemonade, but fuck good writing I guess.

  I wish I could give the boy something alcoholic to drink. But what if that messes with the spell? Drunkenness tends to disrupt mental effects after all. Old Man worries. But it would seem that Eden has no wish to drink right now, but is rather shocked at this revelation of what Old Man has been doing to his drink. However, he chooses to ignore it to go back to his former point.

  “Anyway, to get back on track, this day must not be remembered as a full victory, washing away the failures in the pursuit of false success. And while I admit that this day should not just be sorrow, if we hide our pain we will not understand the joy that shall come from no longer facing agony!” Eden yells out, catching the attention of the rest of the gang, who seem confused, pardon Old Man, as they just tuned into this conversation. Old Man seems to understand Eden’s words, but understanding the words does not mean he comprehends them, let alone agrees.

  What is he going on about? I can comprehend the reasoning Eden went through, but what will ruining hope bring us? These men lack the constitution to understand, let alone cope, with how their efforts still led a man to his doom. I must stop Eden’s foolish endeavours- no, no I should not. If I talk too much about the battle’s event, the suppression might wear off, and conserving how he is acting right now, I could not imagine how it would turn out if he fully realized what happened. The Old Man thinks, stopping himself from interrupting Eden’s plan. However, the others were not so understanding.

  “Partner what are you preaching about? You sound like a door-to-door priest out on the dunes, apart from the molasses speed your trap is moving with that one.” Cowboy says, confusing the poor listeners about what he just said.

  “Sir! I do not understand your orders, sir! What do you mean about today being a sad one, sir!?” Soldier yells out. The two's interjections leave Eden with a confused look on his face, scratching his chin with his finger and looking up in space.

  Do they truly not understand the sorrows they should feel? I mean, how much damage was done on this day? Let alone what they must have faced beforehand. Wait, they have clearly been here for a long time, so long that they lost their ability to see tragedy, being desensitized to it. Eden solemnly believes, hoping to reinvigorate the two’s morality.

  “My comrades, no friends, I shall ask you but one question to answer yours. Is death a statistic, a fate, or a failure?” Eden asks Cowboy and Soldier, who do not seem to comprehend what Eden is getting at. After a moment of thought for the two however, they come up with their answers, with Cowboy talking first.

  “Boy I reckon that death is a fate all face. We all end up in either the grassy knolls or the fiery pits, no exceptions.” Cowboy answers with all his heart.

  “Sir! I believe death is a statistic, a fact of life, a certainty. There is death in every corner of the world, sir. So that leads me to believe that death is nothing more than a statistic, a number put on a document, Sir!” Soldier answers, lacking the passion Cowboy had, but the determination in those words outweighs that 10-fold. But Eden looks, disappointed at the very least.

  “That answer reveals your greatest flaw, your lack of humanity, no doubt because of what this tower had done to you.” Eden states, continuing before anyone else may talk. “The question I had asked, was one I found in a book, Truth in Hypocrisy I believe it was called. In that book, it explains what the answers mean, and which one was truly right. Cowboy, your answer, while not wrong in a sense, takes away the thought of free will within that belief. Our lives are not tied to a predetermined book, after all. Soldier, your answer is also not wrong, but only to those who did not know those who died. Life is valuable, practically sacred, and of those who know the one who died, it is devastating, or at least it should be. But for those who knew not of the dead man, it would be just a statistic to them. You have lost your humanly to blanket true yet immoral ideals.” Eden preaches to the two, but the words hit everyone in the room, as they apply to them all. But they still have a question, what was the right answer. Soon after the pause, Old Man asks.

  “Eden, I get your point, but would not all of those answers be wrong. Not all death is a failure, such as a peaceful one or one caused by another. There was no failure on their part, but simple bad circumstances.” Old Man asks Eden who quickly responses.

  “You ask for the correct answer, Old Man. Well there are two, either all of them or none of them. All the three are right in a sense, but combined it becomes a rather true description of most deaths, but that most reveals why none of the three are a right option. You cannot sum up death as a whole, and none shall ever do so. Death is different for all, but the morning that comes with it should be as natural as the overcoming of it.” Eden respectfully explains to them. Everyone looks down at their cups, full of cold beer, but yet it now burns to drink any of it. Eden then goes to sit down, and grabs one of the beers not in a cup, but rather in a standard can.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “But even so, one factor that is true for all deaths, is that death is only meaningful to those that live. Only those who live see the aftermath of death, and only the living can morn. But sorrow cannot overtake your life, but rather be held to your heart, never forgotten, but never used as a crutch. So let us drink, drink for those who could not join us to take a sip.” Eden declares, as he cracks the beer can open. The fizzles of the can ring out in the silent room, but yet it feels louder than ever before for the old men, stunned by Eden’s words. So stunned in fact, that they do not properly register that Eden is drinking. The men instead all take a seat at once, and begin to drink their beer. It is not a high quality beer by any means, but it gets the job done, as long as the job you wanted to get done was getting drunk. The group sits in silence for around 10 or so minutes, with sound only being made from the screeching of chairs on the stone floor, the grabbing of another beer, and cracking the beer can open. Sometimes the pouring of beer is heard, as both Old Man and Soldier prefer their drinks in cups rather than cans. Regardless, they drink can after can, and only after they each have drunken around 5 cans each till someone breaks the silence.

  “Hiccup sir, why did we not bring Plantus with us?” Soldier calls out to no one in particularly.

  “Soldier, my companion, thy’s query happens to be elementary to answer. Plantus unfortunately lack the capability to attend due to the foolish monarch’s decree to our comrade. Hence, his absent.” Old Man goes on about as he drinks another beer, finishing it off. He then lets out a drunken burp before standing up, walking outside the room. However, he is walking all funny, and almost falls down as soon as he walks more than a foot.

  Old Man clearly drank too much. Eden thinks, but his thoughts get interrupted by a weird sound in his stomach. It would seem I am not much better, though I am still decently functional, or at least I think I am. Anyway, I should probably help the group with their drunkenness. Eden concludes.

  “Alright guys, I think we have had enough. Now I am doubtful any of you have the ability to return to your homes, so please just sit down and sleep. Do not bother with grabbing more drinks, we are almost out of them anyway.” Eden instructs.

  “Oh come on Eden. Let us party a little more!” Cowboy says, weirdly without any of the cowboy feel found in his voice.

  “No, Cowboy. Something about this does not feel quite right, though I am unsure what that exactly is.” Eden responds to Cowboy, who groans a little but still accepts this. The rest seem to follow with this idea, except Old Man, who instead crawls to his room. Eden was going to stop him, but on second thought, he realised that it did not matter all too much, and he was going to his room anyway. So instead Eden goes to his room, taking a remaining 3 beers with him. After a short walk, Eden reaches his room, and goes to the stone bed laid with hay. He sits on the bed, and goes into thought.

  A lot as happened today. I found out what this place truly is, made some comrades, fought for my life, and now we just finished a party. But why does something feel wrong? Why do I fell as though I should be sorrowful for some event? Did something happen and I forgot. No, that is ridiculous. There is no way I would forget something that happened so soon, right? Eden ponders, but finding no real answer, or any answer at all in fact. After about a minute of sitting in silence, Eden randomly decides to scan through his system windows, having nothing better to do. His dead eyes scan throughout his items, new-found title, and his skills. But it is on the skills page where he finds something, or rather he finds one of his old skills: alcoholic.

  Maybe this skill could help? I mean, if I am forgetting something, alcoholic should at least help deal with any mental blocks that could have caused this. And I mean, they call alcohol a truth serum for a reason. Eden concludes, as he goes to crack open the beers and drink them with haste, trying to get drunk. However, he only needs to drink two of the beers to get the desired effect.

  Notice! User has become drunk.

  Notice! Skill “Alcoholic” has been activated.

  Eden’s sight doubles, and becomes increasing blurry. His hearing, feeling of touch, and smelling has dulled. But his mind feels sharper for some reason. Too sharp, almost sharper than ever before. A faint red light surrounds Eden, but instead that light is a green one. But in just a second, the green light breaks, though it is soon to not be the only thing that breaks. Suddenly, memories resurface, or rather are now focused on. Eden relives them like a dream, but they were more of a nightmare than anything. He sees the death of Tanker, and how he acted in his wrath afterwords. Eden's eyes widen to a shocking degree, and cold sweet appears on his forehead. He launches himself off the bed, and begins the pace.

  How did I forget!? How did I forget such an event!? No, forgetting is not the right word. I simply did not process the information. But why? Why was Tanker’s death not processed? I have seen many deaths before, and never had this problem. No, no, no, no nononononono! This is not an isolated event. Why can I not remember the first decade or so of my life? Why I have forgotten so much? No, forgetting is not the real question here, but rather why have I not been questioning all of this? When did I become so accepting of what is going on? When did I give up on asking questions? This makes no sense! None of this tower does! But then why have I not asked one important question in the last couple of months. No, why did I never question anything in years? I mean, the world was taken over by overgrown chickens for Christ’s sake! But yet, I such silently accepted this knowledge. Why? Why? Why!? Eden screens in his mind, as questions echo throughout it. He wonders why he never asked about thus and that. He wonders why he never even questioned the existence of anything, like how any man should. He only asked simple questions, ones of little worth. But as Eden internally panics, Old Man rushes into his room.

  Shit! I let Eden drink too much! I hope nothing about him broke. Old Man thinks as he rushes into the room. However, his worst fears have come true; Eden has realized how out of character he has been.

  “Eden! Please tell me you are fine.” Old Man yells out, but he gets no real respond. All Old Man hears are mudders from Eden, mudders of a wide variety of questions to never be answered. Old Man looks down to the floor from this respond. He clenches his fist, and begins to walk right towards Eden. It is clear that the drunkenness has left Old Man’s body, as he walks with a pace of conviction.

  “I am sorry, Eden. I hope this works.” Old Man says, more to himself than anyone else. He walks up to Eden, who has yet to even notice Eden, and kicks him in the gut. Eden goes flying back, being flung straight onto the wall of the room. Eden is not heavily damaged, but this has drawn his attention to Old Man.

  “Why! Why! Why did you strike at me! Why-” Eden goes on about, but his stopped from his throwing up for a while. Only until a solid minute passes does Eden stop throwing up.

  Notice! User is no longer drunk.

  Notice! Skill “Alcoholic” has been deactivated.

  Eden’s body suddenly glows red, but it disappears as fast as it appeared. But once the red light is gone, Eden returns to “normal”, but looks a little dead in the eyes.

  “Are you good now, Eden?” Old Man asks Eden with a hit of fear never heard in Old Man’s voice until now. Eden says nothing in response. But this time, it is clear that Eden is not going crazy right now. Regardless of that fact, Old Man is still unsure of what to do.

  “Grab the others and follow me.” Eden calmly orders Old Man, who just complies. Old Man quickly goes to the kitchen, and find the group who has been sleeping for about an hour. Eden’s inter panic seemed to mess with his perception of time, making what would have taken about a minute take an hour. But Old Man still wakes up the crew, who after looking at Eden say nothing. They all instinctively feel that Eden has comprehended the tragedy of today. They all follow him outside, though they lagged far behind due to the time it took Old Man to wake everyone up. Once they catch up with Eden, they see that he had just finished carving on a stone, and he has one of the beer cans with him.

  Tank, a trusted comrade

  A man who died an honourable death, a death for his comrades.

  While he was not well known, he shall live on in our hearts,

  till death pulls us together once more.

  As he reveals this to the group, he picks up the beer, and pours it all out on the grass in front of the stone. The pouring of the drink is pleasant to the ears, almost fulfilling to the group. Once Eden finishes this, they all look at each other, and in unison they put one of their hands up and do a salute to the stone. They salute for a long time, at least 10 or so minutes, and they do not stop until they all seem fulfilled. No, content is a better word.

  “I shall remember you until the day I die. No, we all will remember you until all of us die, Tanker. See you at the pearly gates.” Eden states, looking right at the stone. His eyes have gone back to normal, along with the rest of him. His questions have disappeared, and his mind is like before the newly made blocker. Any rage Eden would feel has been replaced with sorrow, which can be found on everyone’s face, though it is wiped off once they hear something behind them. Why is behind them, you may be asking? It is a wood spirit holding a bag. Plantus has come to visit.