The Secret Code of Monsters.

Chapter 120 Ch.119 Tomb
"Man must die once."

Souvenirs that symbolize these words - cut the deceased's hair, treasure it in a pendant or inlay it in a ring, seal it with wax and cast it in a mask, or use paintings and sculptures to convey thoughts.

However, with the advent of cameras in the past two years, taking photos with the deceased has become a popular practice.

Although it is expensive.

Roland didn't know if Minth Chloe's family would keep any photos, but Orlando Wilson...

There would be a group of men and women who were not real relatives, holding their noses and taking pictures with his corpse.

"You're in a really good mood today."
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of course.
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The thought of Orlando Wilson's wealth being eaten by vultures like his rotting corpse, the thought of Chloe's wailing before her death, his future fame...
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Haha.

"I beg you not to laugh at the funeral."
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I'll try my best.

The funeral was held in a suburb of London.

It seemed that Chloe's family paid for the funeral, invited a monk from the church to preside over it, hired a black horse, and a special hearse, including pallbearers, coffin bearers, professional mourners, photographers to take pictures of the scene, and servants to distribute souvenirs.

Funerals need to be decent enough.

The better Chloe's family did in this regard, the more the Wilson family's stinginess was exposed - on a cold winter day, some of the Wilson family's "relatives" were wearing thin clothes, leading their children, or carrying hand-woven cake baskets:

It was filled with cheap stuff.

When Roland and Randolph got off the carriage, quite a few people had already gathered in the cemetery.

Many people glanced at the carriage and glanced at Randolph's face briefly.

then.

The expression on Roland's face froze.

A young man dressed in black walked through the winding stone road in the dense forest.

"Look."

someone said.

The young man lowered his eyes of a rare color, with some hair scattered on the sides of his face.

He had a thin waist but an upright posture. When he stood next to the stone statue, his jet-black windbreaker and lazy black hair tied into a tail were blown by the winter wind.

"Who is he?"

someone asked.

The ladies in black crepe dresses all gazed into his cold, bright eyes, their gazes sweeping over his shoulders, chest, waist, his straight, unpleated black trousers, and his spotless leather shoes.

After one circle, return to the face again.

"Who is he?"

More people asked.

They whispered to each other, either to their companions or to the servants.

Most people had never heard of Roland's name, but a few guessed his identity based on his appearance and rumors in the circle.

"…Roland Collins, a policeman."

"The church police."

Especially the last sentence, which disappointed many young ladies.

Their movements seemed to be prearranged: they followed Roland's movements of the eyes, the rotation of the head, and the slight twirling of the heels.

Until I saw him walk into the crowd, with a look of loss in his eyes and a faint sigh.

"Why isn't he a noble?" a certain young lady sighed, which was also the inner thoughts of all the unmarried ladies present: "Even if he is a businessman with a clean family background and a wealthy family, it would be fine..."

However, the identity of "church police" can only stop these unmarried ladies.

It can’t stop ladies who are already married but whose lives are not going well (or whose husbands have died).

They were excited but evasive in their words. They all asked their friends to go around and find out about Roland's identity. Thus, a grand name-guessing game, accompanied by obscene jokes, echoed over the cold cemetery in winter.

Some even started to order servants to spread blankets on the weeds, pour tea, and bring out cakes while chatting...

We continued to talk about the Mr. Golden Eyes while eating.

Roland knew nothing about this.

He followed Randolph, half-supported by his valet, deeper into the cave.

Leave your name on a black leather slip - Randolph wrote it for you.

During this time, Roland also spotted many men and women in uniform black robes:
Unlike church or police uniforms, their longer, fashionable pendants hanging from their waists were almost entirely made of bone. Each of them wore a hideous bone mask, a large hood, and on the fingers exposed by the cuffs - the index finger, a silver ring was made with a white, bone-like stone inlaid.

Strange outfit.

"Gravekeeper of the Ring of Eternal Silence."
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They are not ritualists.

"Of course, most of them are not even apprentices. According to what that big fool said, if you choose to join the Ring of Eternal Silence and happen to have no connections, then you will probably be like them."

Three years.

After one year of collecting bones and one year of guarding the tomb, and the silent ceremony on the winter festival, only those who stand out are qualified to become silent people.

Three years.

The apprentice's knowledge will be open.

——Actually this is the best.

There are also bad ones. For example, those where the rituals fail.

"People without qualifications are not welcome anywhere."

"Roland, don't forget one thing: from the beginning to the end, who was the one who was asking for it? Was it the sect asking for the mortals?"
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in contrast.
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Mortals crave mystery, and mystery chooses the best.

"Most people who are qualified or ambitious will choose to join a large sect - this means higher salaries, more rare knowledge, more powerful backgrounds, and more abundant resources."
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To be honest, I haven’t seen so many people in the Inquisition... Logically speaking, shouldn’t the Holy Cross be the best choice?
The flames paused.

"You also said it was the Holy Cross."

"The Inquisition and the Church...are not the same thing."

Roland was thoughtful.

Mingsi Chloe's tomb was built extraordinarily grandly, in the cleanest and best-located place in the entire cemetery: there were no weeds or gravel, and no neighbors of unmatched status - of course, if one wanted to get on the 'list of eternal rest', first of all, one's identity had to comply with the cemetery's regulations, and at the same time, in order to avoid disputes, the cemetery manager would also ask for the opinions of the 'neighbors' families.

Such people would never live with workers in steel mills or textile factories.

This is true in life and in death.

They never met, never ate or drank at the same table, and never even spoke a word to each other - but these two people from different worlds were closely related to each other's lives.

The poor think that their good life comes from the big guys.

The big guys...

Oh, they thought so too.

"It's so beautiful. I can't believe this is just a cemetery." Roland murmured softly as he looked at the stone building outlined by the flames.

To put it bluntly, it was built like a small single-story Gothic-style palace.

The entire tomb is made of ivory-colored stone bricks. The four sides are carved with elegant patterns with small arcs, from the bottom of the wall to the arch. The lines are smooth and the patterns are clear. The entrance to the tomb is first painted with black pointed iron bars, and then the door -

As tomb robbing is a popular trend nowadays, this has become something that has to be done - although no one would come to this kind of cemetery to steal.

In addition, there are stone sculptures on both sides of the tomb.

One is of the Holy Cross and the other is carved into a long-beaked bird wearing a mask.

Roland had seen it in a book.

It is said that some believers in the Ring of Eternal Silence once saw a bird wearing a bone mask in the Winter Tomb, the resting place of the Lord of the White Crown in the Wasteland, in the Sleeping World.

They said that it was the incarnation of the White Crown Lord of the Wasteland.

Bone White Pigeon.

“This stone sculpture is not cheap.”
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indeed.

The stone sculpture itself is not the one that is snapping its fingers.

——Not everyone can erect a bone dove statue next to a tomb.

This means that someone in Chloe's family paid a large sum of money to the Ring of Eternal Silence.

A very large sum.

Correspondingly, the Ring of Eternal Silence will also protect the tomb of Mins Chloe - they will regularly clean the area around the tomb, sweep away fallen leaves, frost, snow or mud to keep the tomb tidy and clean. At the end of each month, people will come to pray and comfort Mins Chloe's painful soul (this was what they guessed correctly).

Tomb robbers would never dare to come to such a cemetery to steal.

There are always people guarding here all year round.
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If I die, I won't be buried here.

I remember Yam once said:
After her death, it would be a great blessing if she could lie in the coffin and rest peacefully.

Because with the introduction of the Anatomy Act, the bodies of people who died in asylums, poorhouses, and prisons would be donated to medical and teaching institutions.

As for whether it is "free of charge" or not, it depends on how the directors negotiate the price with those people.

Anyway, the family of the deceased won’t get a penny.

Roland still remembers it clearly.

Yam told him very seriously at that time:

No matter how poor you are, when you grow up, you have to pay the funeral club fees every week.

This is to prevent the body from being torn into pieces by butchers with knives after death and then thrown to wild dogs or scattered into the river.

That's right.

But so far, he hasn't paid a penny to the club...

I heard that it is also the property of the Ring of Eternal Silence.
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wrench.

"what."
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Where will you go after I die?

"Let's go clubbing."

Roland:?
"Idiot, of course I died with you."
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Shouldn't you run into other people's heads?

"…I didn't realize you were into minotaurs."

Roland: ...
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What…cow…head?

"I mean, you want me to run into someone else's head?"
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Of course not, I just want you to be alive.

"Don't think that a nice word will make me forget that you ate vegetables all day yesterday."

(End of this chapter)