With the deepest sorrow, we announce that James Earl (Madcap), age 27 our most beloved nephew, cousin, family member and friend passed suddenly on Tuesday, July 12, 2019, while in the hospital.
Those who knew James, even just a little, lost a shining light in their lives.
He loved antiques, reading, tinkering with miniature models, girls with big boobs, anime and discovering strange and unusual things. He attended XXXX in the XXXX and built a strong repertoire there over the five years he spent studying, eventually being retained as a historian at the university due to his excellent grades and work ethics.
James being the amusing eccentric he was, was a ray of sunshine brightening the lives of those around him.
We are so grateful to the many doctors, nurses, specialists, musicians, art therapists, and volunteers that worked tirelessly to cure James of his cancer.
But the reality for James and so many young people out there is that lung cancer is an ugly, nasty beast that leaves a path of destruction. For James and many others before him — cancer kills. Those that are 'lucky' enough to survive endure long term debilitating side effects and the constant fear of relapse.
During that time, however, he never lost his sense of humour and loved to tease the doctors and nurses.
From childish pranks to the "hazing" of interns and new staff doctors, he was forever a prankster. Nothing caught people off guard as his response to "see ya later alligator".
James will be missed every day by his Aunt, Mary Wilson, his cousins, Karen, Talon, Madison, his grandparents Jeanette and Dougie, and his many, many great friends.
We know James is now with his parents, Joan and Mia Earl and is loved here on earth as well as in heaven.
A private funeral service was held at XXXX Cemetery in XXXX and a memorial service is planned for a later date.
Please do not send flowers. Remembrances may be made to...
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Excerpt from James Earl's Obituary, written and published by his surviving maternal aunt, Mary Wilson, in XXXX, on the 29th of July, 2019.
...
It was late at night.
Levi watched as eerie shadows, which stood out prominently against the stone walls of his 'new' room, dance to the silent melody of a flickering candle flame.
Looking away from the muted performance towards the silvery crescent moon which hung majestically in the sky, Levi grew nostalgic, his eyes unfocused as he reminisced about his rather short time on earth.
Letting his mind drift away with the thoughts of how similar this world, Anno, seemed to Earth, a cool autumn breeze blew over Levi's body causing him to shiver.
He looked down towards his bare chest covered in crystalline droplets of sweat and bandages wrapped around his torso soaked up in blood from his treated wounds.
"So I really did die..." He sighed
"And this should be what, Heaven?"
"No... I wasn't the person you would tag as a saint."
"Hell? Probably not, I wasn't necessarily evil either..."
"That's if internet trolling wasn't taken into consideration."
"Besides, this place, at first glance doesn't seem so bad." He muttered softly to himself turning to look at the maid tasked with watching over him, dozing off silently in the corner. He really couldn't blame her, It was late at night and she had probably been working all day and might have just really needed to rest.
Turning back to look at the beautiful starry night, unpolluted by city lights he tried to rationalize his current situation.
"Transmigration?"
'Is this my reincarnation?' He asked himself again gripping his head.
'Probably?'
"Maybe? I don't know."
The idea of 'transmigration' and 'reincarnation' was not foreign to the soul once known as James. His old life had countless television dramas, web serials and web novels that depicted numerous renditions of such events. Until his own transmigration, however, it was only a fanciful delusion, a tale of myth and fantasy that no one really believed was real.
He laid back in bed as he tried to sort his mind out.
Letting all unnecessary thoughts slide, he got familiar with his new memories and present self.
.
.
'Levi von Greifenberg-'
'-The second son of Aden von Greifenberg, a powerful duke in the kingdom of Algrim. The son of the man who also happened to be the king's former right-hand advisor and sworn brother.'
'That's me, the current me.' He said, staring down at his hands. Getting to his feet he walked to the open window. Looking out at the purplish night sky, dyed by the rising dawn, slowly a soft smile crept up his face.
'Finally!' He muttered.
'Good ol' Lady luck finally decided to be lenient with this damnable soul of mine!
'A highborn noble.' he chuckled.
'Of one of the most influential families in this kingdom?'
'Even still I struggle to understand how lucky I currently am.'
'I guess it's a result of all those times when I didn't stick a kick-me note on my student's backside during my time on earth.'
With a myriad of strange, sometimes downright eccentric thoughts he stood quietly muttering, sometimes even giggling, to himself watching as the morning sun ushered in a new day.
...
A while later...
*KNOCK* *KNOCK*
Just shortly after his night-long reverie, Levi heard a soft knocking on the door.
"Cough, come in," Levi said clearing his throat, smoothing out his expression.
The door opened and Sir Lancelot walked in.
"Levi, how are you feeling now? You look worn out, did you not get any sleep?" He asked in a concerned, fatherly tone.
"I am fine, thank you for asking."
"Good then, I guess it's best you should know what going on now. " Lancelot said, his expression quickly turning stern.
"Your father sent a message home that arrived yesterday by carrier pigeon. In the letter, he sent news about the ongoing war and the possible fall of the capital. "
The sudden information was confusing, to say the least, well that was until he remembered that Algrim, the kingdom he is currently in is embroiled in a war with its neighbour from across the Morgan Channel, A kingdom by the name Hertalese.
Aden, his father in this world had been in the capital for a few weeks now helping with the war preparations when they got a whiff of an impending invasion from some of their foreign spies, but the invasion happened much earlier than anticipated, almost literally catching the residing nobility with their pants down.
His memories of the war details were very vague but Levi did know that the war wasn't supposed to happen until at least two months from now.
"When the message arrived your brother Sean quickly spread the news amongst the nobles to sow discord, right before he robbed the treasury and escaped." He continued.
"Hmm, I remember," Levi replied nodding.
After his 'brother' spread the news about their, 'impending doom', he immediately decided to loot the treasury and flee, though Lancelot and a couple of his father's loyal men tried to stop Sean, from Lancelot's tone he could guess they didn't succeed.
It was during the chaos that the previous Levi got injured when he took the shot for Lancelot.
Sean had robbed the treasury clean, and the other noble families had all fled with their men.
This was terrible news, especially now that most of his households' main knightage had gone to defend the capital. With the other noble families leaving, his father's fiefdom would lose a large portion of its defensive force.
"How many men do we have left?. " Levi asked with an exasperated sigh.
"Fifty-seven," Lancelot answered with a sigh of his own.
Hearing this Levi cringed in distress.
While that might seem like a large number, before the war this household alone had close to five hundred men, and if the other noble families who were sworn to his household were included that number could double.
For a fiefdom of Aden's size, fifty old men are nowhere near enough to maintain law and order or defend the town from harm.
Additional, the capital's fall could spell doom for him given his father's political status and relationship with the royal family.
'Maybe I should just probably just run away, right?'
'Or I should start drafting another obituary for myself.' The young man mumbled inwardly.
'But looking on the bright side, at least this time I get to write it myself.'
He joked, but with an empty treasury and the lack of a reasonably sized military force, it was clear to him that his odds weren't looking too good at all.
Lancelot looked at him with hesitant eyes before sighing like he had been forced to make a very hard decision.
"If you don't want to stay we can flee tonight and... " He started but was interrupted midspeech
"What? No, I'm staying," Levi retorted casting Lancelot a side glance, inadvertently forcing a look of surprise on the viscount's face.
Half expecting Levi to decide to flee immediately, he was caught by surprise he heard his response. The young master wasn't known to be among the bravest of men, to say the least, hell you could even describe him as cowardly and you still wouldn't be doing justice.
But though the prospect of leaving all these problems behind seemed enticing, in reality, it won't make much sense in the long run.
Assuming the nobles hadn't fled nor treasury looted clean, there might have still been a lot that could have been done to salvage the situation, but now it's a different story altogether.
With no resources, there is very little are very little options to choose from.
'If all fails I'll run.' Levi thought drumming his fingers against the wooden desk by his bedside.
'I mean, who wants to die immediately after being reborn?'
'But I'm not going anywhere yet, at least not without trying to hold my ground first.'
'Just when I was thinking things were starting to look up for me. He sighed inwardly.
'I'm still so unlucky...'