"Master." Ayane spoke as tears of joy threatened to fall from the corners of her eyes. "Words cannot express the happiness I now feel."

And none were needed as your soft tailed wife continued to embrace you.

===

Flickers of light abounded. It was a warm welcome to most, but a great annoyance in the eyes of a certain ghost.

Yumi floated around the graveyard as she followed you—a habit the both of you were getting used to. She flinched when passing under a particularly strong ray of sun, grumbling but otherwise unaffected.

You didn't say a thing as you went about your business. Today you were here to evaluate some materials Ayane had spotted; your vixen happened to find some tin ore by the surface when noticing a few gold coins hidden by the ground, finding both of these things as she was watering the newly added plants by the two graveyards— bandit and innocent both. Yet only one of these places held a shrine, noted by the distinct gate (a torii, you think Ayane called it), that almost welcomed you towards it.

"Even wretched scoundrels and forgotten slaves are given respect and honor." Yumi noted. "And this was your idea, Maste- Savant Lord?"

"Yeah, it was." You confirmed. "It just didn't feel right to not have anything."

And you might need it for someone in the future. But that wasn't a thought you liked to have in your head.

"But for such lowly life? And names you know nothing of?" She looked at you curiously. Seeing your unchanging expression, she continued "You are a strange one, Savant."

"Well, to be fair my wives and I initially burned and threw out a bunch of bodies the first time the Bandits invaded. Remember that?"

"Fate's cruel hand weaves the mundane, bespeaking actions already done and foretold." She basically said that that's how people usually deal with corpses.

"I mean, it wasn't pretty. We were too tired to dig up graves after dealing with the invasion, but if we just let them out in the fields we would've had to deal with the stench and the monsters."

"How curious, the reverence you bestow upon the deceased, like whispers of forgotten legacies dancing in the twilight of your actions."

"This sort of thing wasn't too uncommon back in my old world."

"Maybe so." Yumi sighs. "It reminds me home. Even that fox woman of yours, though she makes graves better and honors the dead, still doesn't fully understand what it's like to honor the dead."

"Hey, you can't deny she's trying." You defend Ayane's clear attempts to give those that passed some honor.

"Did she think about making a grave to begin with?" She asked. At your silence, she sighed. "Whatever the case, I appreciate the gesture you've made to us spirits— whether we wander this world or not— o Savant Lord."

You let the subject fall at that.

Speaking of Ayane, she was here as well. She greeted the both of you politely.