A Mother's Arrival
The late afternoon sun was beginning its slow descent toward the horizon. It was right after Elia’s training session, and we had just finished washing up in the bathhouse. As we sat down for dinner together, her question suddenly cut through the quiet.
“Ah, now that I think about it, have you heard the news, Master?”
“Hm? What news?”
“Ugh……”
Elia, utterly exhausted from the grueling training, was laboriously cutting into her fried egg. I had been watching her adorable struggle with a fond smile when I turned my head at Zenle’s question.
What news could she be talking about? I tilted my head, my expression full of curiosity, and Zenle swallowed the salad she had been chewing before continuing.
“It seems the movements in the underworld have been quite suspicious lately. A considerable number of underworld guilds are gathering in one place. Even the guilds that had one foot in the legitimate world are showing some unsettling behavior.”
“Hmm… That’s not exactly welcome news.”
“Right? It can’t be a good sign when those rats who used to scatter in every direction start converging in one spot. That’s why soldiers and mercenaries from each kingdom have been keeping a close eye on things recently.”
“Is that so? Has anything actually happened yet?”
“Fortunately, no. It’s still quiet for now.”
Zenle shrugged, adding that the silence felt more like the calm before a storm. She then reached for another piece of chicken and salad, popping it into her mouth. I watched her for a moment before turning my gaze aside, lost in thought.
If it’s strange movements from the underworld… it must be the Worst. It could be forming right around this time.
There was one massive difference between the underworld I remembered from my past life’s game knowledge and the current one. That difference was the absence of a single organization that ruled over the entire underworld.
In the game I knew, there had been an organization called Worst—the head of the underworld. It was quite literally the worst of the worst, a criminal syndicate that dominated the shadows and reigned as king of the dark world. But in this era, no such organization existed yet. There were several dirty guilds—thief guilds, assassin guilds, mercenary request guilds—but they were all small-scale groups operating separately.
However, Worst was an organization that would inevitably appear someday.
Then could the convergence Zenle mentioned be a sign that Worst was beginning to form?
…Should I stop them?
The thought flashed through my mind for a brief moment. Worst was a gathering of people who would later live up to their name as the worst criminal organization in the future. Composed of individuals with exceptional talent yet consumed by malice and vengeance, they would cause countless casualties and spread their dark influence across the underworld.
If that was the case, shouldn’t I stop them now, before they fully formed and caused problems in the future?
…No.
But after a short deliberation, I could only shake my head.
In the first place, there’s no way I can stop them alone.
Worst was an organization built around a single leader known as the Pioneer, with numerous outstanding villains gathered under him. Each one possessed martial prowess comparable to Zenle, who was currently sitting here eating dinner. The only way I could stop Worst would be to storm into the underworld myself and kill every single one of their core members.
Obviously, charging into the vast underworld that spanned the entire continent alone to hunt them down one by one was impossible. Besides, with nothing but circumstantial evidence right now, there was no reason to take such reckless action.
And with Elia here, I can’t go charging in like that.
Above all, I had a daughter I needed to raise. How could I throw myself into a life-risking endeavor when I had Elia, who still couldn’t even eat a meal by herself?
Yet at the same time, I couldn’t simply sit back and watch a dark organization that would one day cause massive loss of life and destroy entire cities. Even if I believed I couldn’t stop them alone, ignoring it entirely would be abandoning my sense of justice.
So I came to one conclusion.
When they start causing incidents, I’ll have to strongly urge the kingdom to launch a subjugation campaign.
In the early days when they first revealed their existence to the continent, I would use my remaining influence and status as a war hero to lead the charge against Worst. My voice carried considerable weight. If we struck with full force before they could fully consolidate, perhaps we could stop them before their activities became truly serious.
Once people see what the Worst are capable of, even those arrogant higher-ups won’t be able to stay silent.
By the time Worst committed a major incident, the kingdom would no longer be able to ignore them and would take the subjugation seriously. What I needed to do was minimize the damage from those major incidents, save as many people as possible, and push the kingdom—which would be hesitant to act aggressively in the beginning—from behind.
I made a mental note to review my game memories again soon and popped a piece of chicken from my plate into my mouth.
It was the first day Elia had begun her physical training. A peaceful dinner time.
A month had passed since Elia began her physical training under Zenle.
Elia’s stamina was increasing steadily and rapidly. Though it had only been a month, the girl who used to collapse after failing to run even one kilometer was gone. Now she could easily complete a one-kilometer round trip, her overall muscle flexibility had improved dramatically, and her muscle density had also increased. Thanks to that, she had even begun incorporating light strength exercises despite it only being a month.
I watched as Elia, with Zenle’s assistance, stubbornly continued her shuttle runs with lunges.
“Haaah… Haaah……”
“Almost there, young lady! Just one more time!”
“B-but you said… that a while ago… too…!”
“That was just the round-trip run. This lunge shuttle is only one more round trip. Why are you making such a fuss! Hurry up and run!”
At Zenle’s shameless response, Elia shot her a resentful glare, but she didn’t stop moving her legs. She knew this really was the final round.
With her short legs barely carrying her across the finish line, Elia let out a deflated sigh and approached the window, supported by Zenle.
“Haa… Daddy……!”
“Ahaha, good job, my daughter.”
“Yeah……”
Her face glistened with sweat from training under the sun. I gently wiped Elia’s sweat-drenched face with a towel I had pre-soaked in cold water. She leaned into my touch, letting out a tired but happy laugh.
“Hehe……”
Every time I rubbed her cheeks with the towel, her squishy, mochi-like cheeks stretched adorably. It was endlessly cute.
As I was wiping Elia’s face, Zenle, who had slipped in through the back door at some point, approached us. In her hands were two wooden swords. Her intention was so obvious that I could only let out a soft sigh.
“Haa… Do we have to do this today too?”
“You were going to train anyway. Sparring with someone is better than training alone, so why not kill two birds with one stone, Master?”
“You always come at me with such deadly seriousness that it’s exhausting……”
“The young lady has excellent observation skills. Watching our spar will surely help her.”
“Ugh, if only you couldn’t talk.”
No matter how good Elia’s eyes were, what could she possibly learn from watching me fight even a little seriously? It was obvious she wouldn’t even be able to see the movements properly, let alone learn anything from them. Yet here Zenle was, shamelessly using Elia as an excuse to spar with me. It was infuriating.
When I gave her a cold stare, Zenle awkwardly scratched the back of her head and averted her gaze.
“Haha… When else am I supposed to spar with you, Master? Do you think opportunities to spar with the ideal that every swordsman on the continent dreams of are that common?”
“…Please stop using such embarrassing titles. The ideal of all swordsmen? Really?”
“That’s far too self-deprecating, Master.”
“It’s not self-deprecation. I’m genuinely embarrassed. My foolish disciple.”
Of course, despite bantering like this, I had every intention of accepting the sparring request. Ever since Elia’s first day of training, Zenle had asked to spar with wooden swords whenever she saw me training alone. We had already been doing this five days a week for a full month now.
It certainly felt more like real combat than just hitting a training dummy alone, and the clash of swords gave it more of a training feel, so I was satisfied with it too. The only problem was that Zenle always came at me with such deadly seriousness that it left me exhausted. Still, that in itself was good training, so how could I refuse a sparring session that benefited us both?
Just as I was about to take the wooden sword Zenle offered and head to the training ground—
Knock, knock, knock.
Suddenly, the sound of knocking echoed from the front door of the cottage.
“Hm?”
“Who could that be?”
“At this hour……”
The three of us naturally turned our heads toward the door. My expression remained calm. Zenle looked like she was preparing for battle, just in case it was an ambush by some thug. And Elia’s face had brightened up considerably as she stared at the door.
Because Elia already knew exactly who was standing beyond that door. I, having sensed their presence, knew as well.
“Mom!”
That was why Elia shouted in a voice even brighter than when she had called for me earlier, and ran toward the door. At the same time, Zenle’s face shifted into one of confusion as she watched the scene unfold.
“Mom…?”
Zenle had believed that I, her adoptive father, was Elia’s only parent. So the mention of a mother clearly didn’t make sense to her. Her utterly bewildered expression showed that countless thoughts were racing through her mind.
And that expression turned to pure shock the moment Elia opened the door.
Creeeeak—
“Mom!!”
“Oh my, my daughter. Why are you covered in so much sweat today?”
“Hehe, I just finished physical training!”
The moment the door opened, Elia threw herself with all her might into the arms of the person who entered. The woman embraced her as if she couldn’t help but indulge her. Zenle, who had been wearing a deeply puzzled expression, took one look at the woman’s face and shouted with her mouth wide open.
“L-Luina?!”
Because the person standing there was none other than Luina—the legendary archer and fellow war hero of the Human-Demon War, just like me.