"But..."
"Go ahead, I'll be fine."
The Elder weakly smiled.
...
At that moment.
The sounds of an argument came from outside the house.
Vaguely, it was a few young people arguing over the "corpse".
"The companion's body must be cremated, that's the Elder's order!"
A woman shouted loudly.
"The Elder? That old man is almost starving himself! Still clinging to those ancient rules!" a man sneered, his words brimming with unabashed anger and disdain: "We are the last survivors; only if we live on can there be hope for humanity! Now there's no food, what good is clinging to these broken rules? Does he want us all to be buried with him as his dying wish? That old man should have died long ago!"
