"Haah-!"

Having to shout this out, this is quite a pain. Apparently, I can"t concentrate well if I do not make a sound. Sigh, if there"s someone who has the ability to come and go mentally from one thing to another, tell him to appear in front of me.
Putting my left foot to the side, I stepped forward and turned my body sideways onto the left side. At that time, my right foot drew a circle and pointed towards my left as well. Simultaneously, the sword I wielded with both hands swung horizontally from the right.
Look at this, this is how you"re supposed to slash! By having the sword swing horizontally!
I can"t afford to lose my grip strength!

"Ahhrahh……."

Uhk, a strange scream came out. That"s because my body had been forced along by the sword"s weight. While I was careful to follow the instructions, I didn"t have the time to worry about how I would scream.
Aigoo !

It"s as if my waist had been crazily twisted to the left. Although I did barely stop myself smoothly from rolling to the side, I could hear my bones collide within my waist.

Uhk.

"Ughhhhhhh……."

Aigoo, my back.
To try and swing this heavy sword horizontally while trying to control this without having my body twist away as well was insanely difficult. If I continue like this, it"s either my left or right spine that"s going to break at this rate.
Shouldn"t I be practicing with a lighter sword first? Don"t you think so, you ignorant large man.
Mmmm, my father hadn"t returned yet. Now?

"All right?—?"

For a while, I layed down on the gra.s.s and stretched out. The winter gra.s.s wasn"t too soft as I could feel my bones ache. And the frostiness of the ground caused chills to rise up.
To repeat the same actions every day for hundreds of time, my back and shoulders are throbbing unconditionally in pain. The skin that ripped off from my hands in the beginning were starting to heal at least. The first few days, just by practicing on swinging the sword down, I couldn"t feel anything in my palms as they became wholly numb. Whenever the sword moved, it looked as if there was intense rubbing between my palm and the hilt. No, to put it simply, just by practicing with this heavy sword for the day would definitely cause you to be in this state.
Well, despite running with that iron s...o...b..ard every day, my hand was like a hand of a lady in the prime of her youth compared to my father"s. No, now this hand could only be compared to a patient of leprosy.
But at least the dirty blister marks were starting to settle down.

As for the store, it was just left at the state in which it was. The place I"m residing in is Grillard"s General store owner Mr. Cindebolp - a family who had known my mother for a long time. When I had moved into their house, I first went back to our store and brought back a few things, but I still do not want to return and clean up just yet.
After that incident, there was no one that had frequented Habiyanak as if it was a ghost town. Even if no one said anything of it, after recovering the corpses, the road to Habiyanak became shut off. At this rate, I realized that our village might become a natural part of the White Mountains at this rate.

By chance, I felt my other arm by my side. I"m not sure if it"s my misunderstanding, but it"s much stronger and thicker than before.

If I was like other children growing up with the mindset of becoming a swordsman to pursue their dreams, maybe I didn"t have to go through such hardships right now. Nevertheless, as someone that was thinking of becoming a general store owner along with my changed fate, I became like this. No, has my fate really changed?
Am I practicing like this in order to be a swordsman?
I became lost in my thoughts.

In that brief moment, I was sighing, to have an amusing debt.
For the past 18 years I was someone that had only learnt of how to sell goods, approach customers, and negotiating the value of those goods. Outside of that I do have a few more small techniques, but those were negligible.

But whether it"s my life or my home or my store, they all, without any hope of returning, vanished from my life like a dream. It would"ve been nice if a fire had destroyed the store instead. Then, at least I could construct a new home in place of the burnt building, and be stubborn enough to buy the goods again and set up. Even if it would take extremely long to complete, at least everything can be restored in time. Since there would be people that would give me the courage, and those that would help me as well.
But what I had lost was the foundations of my life, that entirety.
The Habiyanak village that disappeared. My acquaintances. And my mother.
Do I have the strength to rebuild another village? All the people I knew and spent time with, the many relationships that I valued which had frequently entered my life, could I actually restore this? Could I make my mother that had been by my side this entire time return to this place?
There"s nothing I can do with my current strength. At least I can raise my swordsmanship.

Extending my right hand, I started to grab the hilt of the sword. It hasn"t been long since this had been a part of my life. From the time I met Mirbo at the inn to now, it hasn"t even been half a month, and compared to the 18 years, it"s a period where I don"t care whether I have this or not. But right now, this is the tool that can sustain my life.
To repeat it again, from morning to night, other than practicing the sword, there was nothing else I would do.

"Ahah……."

Nothing, this feeling of having to restart with nothing.
What am I doing exactly? Why do I have to practice the sword?
It"s as if I was a baby born anew, as if I had just come out from the caves after 18 years of seclusion. Well, it"s not much different in real life. 18 years of managing a grocery store to a reclusive monk in meditation that is.
Suddenly, I thought of my father.

I had already vaguely expected it. That my father would leave someday. To the land he belonged.
From the moment I first saw him, my father"s splendid attire - inside the prison, I initially saw a dark-blue cape and a rare silver full plate armor engraved with sentences and inscriptions that allows you to switch from a sword to a magician"s staff - made me think that there was no mistake this man was of a extremely high status, but it was a sight to see my father bowing down to the people, especially to those who had somewhat grasped what kind of person he was. Not only that, the chiefs of Ember and Grillard came in search of my father and requested him to be the temporary representative of the province. Of course, my father rejected their request with a single sentence.

"I don"t want to reduce the time I spend with my son, who I was separated from for 18 years at all."

To the far southern province, where the capital of Blue Country was, the most famous Nim-Narshinyak Salvation Knights leader was my father.
Ahhh, whenever I say this, it doesn"t feel real. When I first heard of this, I was greatly shocked, but now when I say this, I could feel my face flushing.
Anyways, although I"m saying this as if this story was relatively uncommon, but when I first heard of this from my father, I remember not believing the story at all and staring at him suspiciously. So, I asked.

"If you had such great strength, then how did you not find my mother and I?"

My father had always had an apologetic expression on his face whenever I brought forth this kind of conversation. It was always the same, so it was a bit uncomfortable.

"The time when I fully inherited the position was a mere 5 years ago. Before then, I had secretly tried to find out by using other people, but it did not work. For the last five years, it was extremely busy trying to seize command in inheriting such a large organization……."

When the relationship of my mother and father was first discovered (of course, it was brought out to light after my mother fled. My father fairly "with courage" revealed his relationship with Ijinz to the high temple of Dunarion. If you see my father"s face now, I can"t possibly imagine him in his twenties. Hmm) it was rumoured that there was criticism that arose within the territory of Nim-Narshinyak. Even though he belonged to the famous Knights of Salvation that could refuse the king"s orders, the subject of criticism became so large in hand that he was nearly expelled.
My mother, a female shaman who couldn"t marry and she wasn"t a silly person from Blue County, but Purple County which had the largest religious sect where she is highly revered as the shaman of life "White-Clothed Dunarion." To have such a woman bear a child and then flee, the aftermath must have been significant. I know as well, but the ire of society are very frightening.
That father, who had overcome all those disturbances and time to become the leader of that organization, just how difficult of a task it must"ve been.

"… So after the power had stabilized to some extent, I was finally able to search directly now."

While I was reminiscing to what my father had said in retrospect, I could suddenly hear footsteps approaching. Mm, it"s probably too late to stand back up. Seeing how these sounds are now very close that is.
…… Still, it"s better than continuing to lie down.

"Father, you"ve come?"

Urgently rising my body, I saw my father walking towards me equipped with his plate of armor. Even now, it will take some getting used to to see such an elegant, refined figure of my father at times. But, there was one thing in his hands that wasn"t usually there.
An bottle of wine in this daylight, what could"ve happened?

"Fabian, want to walk a bit?"

It"s a relief. It seems that he had nothing to say about me skipping practice and lying down.
I"m not exactly sure but if I was a subordinate of the Salvation Knights of my father, then I felt that I would already be receiving a harsh scolding. To lie down on the ground stretched out during practice, pack your bags and go home immediately!
… … cowering from that useless imagination, my shoulders shrunk back without reason as I trailed behind my father.

While I followed from behind, the "Grillard"s Green Flag", a bar located on the border of Ember emerged. My father entered first, so I followed in.

"Sit."

The owner Mr. Srems was a bit clumsy while managing the bar. It has only been a few months since he had inherited the place after his parents had pa.s.sed away. Mr. Srems after wiping his hands on his ap.r.o.n for some time, ran towards our table.

"What would you like to order?"

My father was slightly smiling while looking towards me. Then he spoke.

"Bring us two gla.s.ses, and what"s the most delicious pie here?"

"Gla.s.ses…… Ah, and all the pies are quite tasty……would you like to try the custard cream pie?"
So we faced each other with a custard cream pie and the bottle of wine that my father had brought.
He took off the cork firsthand. As the cork was pulled out, an unfamiliar, but strong scent leaked out. It was a smell quite piquant yet unique.

"Over there in the south, if you travel to Harmatan Island, there"s a castle and territory that the Narshinyak family have lived on past a hundred years from generation to generation. The Yemorand Province is the administrative district of our country, and the castle"s name is called Pia Yemorand. You may very well know, Pia Yemorand is the name of the star in where the 11th Arund "astrologist" had reigned. Currently, my friend is managing it on behalf of me so I only visit there once a year or so to take a look."

The wine was poured onto the gla.s.s. It was a ripe grape color.

"This is a famous wine that originated from that place. Yemorand wine is the name, which is famous even in the land of Mabril."

My father raised his gla.s.s, which I imitated.
Thick but aromatic, and looked quite strong as well.

"In order to prepare for this journey, I had visited the province of Yemorand to acquire an exceptionally great bottle. This had been sealed for 87 years from this year. You could say it"s a bottle of wine that"s incredibly difficult to a.s.sess in terms of value due to how rare this is."

Thinking about how much of what I"m swallowing are essentially gold coins, it almost made me choke in my throat as it struggled to go down.

"…… This is the bottle I prepared for the three of us when I would meet you and your mother."

The silence this time weren"t from the gold coins stuck in my throat. There was something larger that made it difficult to breathe.

"Fabian."

My father called for me who was continually keeping silent.
I should reply. In order to swallow up the clogged wine in my throat, I emptied that expensive wine in a breath"s time. You"re not supposed to drink wine like this, but I had not much of a choice.

"… … Yes."

The sunlight that shimmered through the open window glittered on the floor.
On the wooden table was my father"s hand. It was the hardened hands of a warrior that had endured countless battles and hardships, which he could destroy the table within an instant. Nevertheless, it was peacefully placed on top of the table.
But, it was a hand that would return to that world sooner or later.

"I long that you would sincerely think of me as your father."

I am honestly thinking like that as well.
I don"t want to be a burden in your life. I don"t want to be a question that you have to solve.
But I also need you. Since I would be alone, awfully lonely. You are the only string that connects us in this world.
What irony.

"Yes…… you don"t know how glad I am that you haven"t abandoned me or my mother, still being alive safely. Through these gloomy events, I thought about this too. I should be grateful towards the heavens that had separately kept Father alive, as if a miracle, and if you had come late, then I might"ve reverted back to my old self and expect myself to restore all these earlier mistakes to their original state, and be excessively selfish, is what I had thought."

Since my father"s gla.s.s was empty, I poured him another gla.s.s. I also ate a slice of custard pie. As I performed these routine activities, I tried to think about this from my perspective and tried strenuously to accept it. And I tried to make the right decision.

"I have something to say to you today, and something to show you as well."

TL Afterword

Longer chapter, but very entertaining for me seeing him not only summarize his feelings, but also have bonding time with his father. To be able to have a lot of my questions answered finally.

Translator: Calvis
Proofreader: Sai101