The Farewell (2)
A single small carriage was waiting at the village entrance.
It was too plain to be called a noble’s carriage, yet far too well-kept to pass for an ordinary one.
Sturdy timber and neat fittings. And above all, the horses looked anything but ordinary.
This wasn’t something the Academy had sent. There was no way they would ever treat a commoner entrant like this. The Academy might have been the finest educational institution in the empire, but it was also a social arena for the nobility. They were not nearly kind enough to dispatch a carriage just because one commoner was going to sit an exam.
I thought back to the carriage that had come to collect Isabelle last time. That thing… you could barely tell whether it was a carriage or a treasure chest.
So where had this one come from, then?
“Ahahaha! Provided by Geukwang, you know!”
Geukwang declared proudly from beside me. I looked at her in silence.
“………”
Hold on. Where did she even learn that “by”? Does this world have English…?
How was a ten-year-old commoner kid supposed to get all the way to the Academy in the distant capital? Stick himself to a merchant caravan passing through the village, or walk barefoot the whole way, I supposed.
I’d fretted over it at first—but then, I had Geukwang. Someone who’d lived over a hundred years was bound to have money, right?
"..."
In that instant, Geukwang looked at me.
"…You just made a face like you were thinking something incredibly rude, you know."
Damn it. The longer we’d lived together, the sharper her uselessly good instincts had gotten. I’d have to be careful.
"Anyway."
Once I settled into the carriage, the village unfolded beyond the window.
The little houses, the familiar roads, the dirt path I walked every day, and the fields where I’d dug potatoes. And there, at the village entrance, Lawrence waving.
I watched him for a moment, then opened the window.
"Ahjussi!"
Lawrence lifted his head.
"Then I’m really off!"
A brief silence fell. Then Lawrence broke into a bright smile, as if telling me not to worry.
"Right."
His voice came soft and small.
"Go carefully."
The carriage began to roll forward at a gentle pace. I stared out the window for a long while before a thought suddenly struck me.
Hold on. In fantasy stories, whenever someone sets out by carriage, there’s a cliché that triggers with one hundred percent certainty.
Bandit event incoming or what?!
—Hiiiiing!
Accompanied by the horses’ cries, the carriage raced diligently along the road. When I’d first laid eyes on it, I’d honestly been impressed. A carriage in a fantasy world! Scenery unfurling past the window! A horse-drawn means of transport!
So this is what romance feels like, I’d thought.
But then.
About two hours in, I realized the truth.
"Romance, my ass."
The ride quality was terrible. My back hurt!
The moment the wheels hit even a small stone on the road, the shock traveled straight through my backside and up into my spine.
"Ugh..."
My lower back was screaming.
And why were the seats so hard, anyway? Were these things actually designed for people to sit on?
In the end I pulled out the spare clothes and underwear I’d packed and laid them over the seat. Minimal cushioning. A choice made purely for survival.
"What’s with that face, you know?"
Geukwang, seated across from me, tilted her head.
"Nervous, you know?"
"No."
I answered while clutching my lower back.
"My back just hurts."
"You’re only ten and your back already hurts, you know!"
"I know, right."
I nodded with complete seriousness.
"Then are you all right, Geukwang?"
"……?"
"You’ve lived over a hundred years, after all."
Thwack.
Ow! Something cracked against my skull.
"Talking about a woman’s age is a massive insult, you know!!"
I opened my mouth, then closed it again. What was I supposed to say? Judging purely by appearance she was unmistakably a little kid, but saying that out loud would just get me hit again.
I turned my gaze to the window for no particular reason.
Beyond the glass, broad grasslands and forest roads stretched on. The carriage had been running for quite some time. The village had long since vanished from sight.
It was about time……
I stole a glance at Geukwang. Her cheeks were slightly puffed out in a sulky expression.
"..."
I suddenly wanted to tease her.
"Geukwang."
"You called, you know?"
"Actually..."
The moment I started to speak—
—Screeeech.
The carriage lurched hard without warning.
"?"
And then it stopped.
My body pitched forward for an instant. But after two months of conditioning with Geukwang, this body was no longer that of an ordinary child. I caught the handle and lightly righted my balance.
Thank goodness. Otherwise I would have tumbled straight into Geukwang’s arms. Just imagining it was horrifying. At the same time, I slowly smiled.
Because this situation was far too familiar.
A carriage journey in a fantasy world. A sudden stop. And an ominous atmosphere.
"What’s going on, you know?"
Geukwang turned her head toward the driver’s seat and asked.
A moment later, the coachman’s trembling voice reached us.
"B-Bandits!"
There it iiiis—!!!
I shot to my feet at once and stared at Geukwang with sparkling eyes.
"I’ll go."
"I’ve never in my life seen someone this excited about meeting bandits, you know…"
"That’s permission, right? Right?"
"No— wait—"
Having already secured Geukwang’s permission, I didn’t wait another second. I hopped straight out of the carriage.
The moment I opened the door and stepped outside, faces far more vicious than those of the ahjussis who’d been my teammates in the Tower came into view. They held cold weapons like swords and axes, and there were quite a few of them.
Whoa, this was my first time seeing real bandits in the flesh……! Should I ask for an autograph as a souvenir? Oh right, I didn’t bring any paper.
"Wh… what. A kid…?"
At my sudden appearance, the bandits exchanged bewildered looks. They’d probably been expecting a terrified child.
"Hand over everything you’ve got and we’ll spare your life."
One of the bandits in front drew a blade from his belt as he spoke. I tilted my head.
"Are you guys stupid?"
"What…?"
Just as I’d expected, the bandit looked flustered.
"If you take everything here, a little kid is as good as dead anyway."
I folded my fingers one by one as I spoke.
"Dying this way or that way—it’s the same, isn’t it?"
"……."
"If you were in my position, wouldn’t you at least try to resist?"
The bandit put on a genuinely thoughtful expression.
"I… is that so?"
……What.
Why were the bandits this dumb? Against my will, I found myself thinking of Geukwang still sitting in the carriage behind me. It was a similar brand of denseness.
"Hey! Out of the way!"
That was when it happened.
"What are you standing around dithering for!"
A man with a massive scar across his face strode out from one side. He was unmistakably the leader.
"You’re going to waste time on one little brat like that?"
He drew his sword.
"Kill him and take the carriage and the horses."
"Yes!"
At the leader’s command, the bandits raised their weapons as one and charged toward me.
"Scary, you know! Scary, you know!"
I threw both hands up and shouted. For a moment the bandits’ faces froze.
"……."
"What’s with that way of talking."
I grinned.
"How dare you ignore Geukwang’s speech pattern."
I picked up a fallen branch from the ground.
"You bandit ahjussis get a million knuckle sandwiches, you know."
The next instant, I kicked off the ground.
And then—
Thud.
I drove the branch straight into the skull of the bandit right in front of me.
"……."
For a moment the surroundings went quiet, as if time itself had stopped. A single branch and a child’s small body. And an unbelievable scene. It looked as unreal as a shot from a movie.
"Kr… kuh…… Marco!"
Someone shouted the name of the fallen bandit. I tilted my head.
"Oh, so this one’s name is Marco?"
It was the kind of name that felt like it belonged in an anime. One Pie—something. But that was as far as the commentary went. I simply walked forward.
"You… what the hell are you, you little bastard!"
The bandits began to panic. The composure from earlier was gone; now they only eyed one another uncertainly.
A confused, disorganized mess.
"For people who call themselves bandits…"
I flexed my nails. I drew up the power that had been sleeping inside my body. And then—
Heavenly Killing Star
Aren’t you a little too stupid?
If you don’t know, you die! Kehahahahat!
Huff— huff—
Logan ran into the forest, gasping as if his breath would tear free of his throat, putting the mountain path behind him.
He was the leader of the bandits who controlled the road to the capital. In the past he’d been a mercenary of some renown, and he had survived countless battlefields.
Which was exactly why he knew what he had just seen.
"What the hell…… that monster……!"
At first he’d thought it was just a little kid. The boy hadn’t looked like a noble. No expensive gear, no one who resembled an escort. Seeing only a lone carriage sitting there, he’d judged it easy prey.
But that judgment had been completely wrong.
What the child held wasn’t a sword. It wasn’t an axe, either.
Just a single tree branch.
Yet the moment that branch swung, Logan knew it on pure instinct.
That wasn’t a weapon.
The child himself was the danger.
The kid who stepped into the middle of the bandits with that small body didn’t hesitate for even a second. He moved as naturally as someone who had lived through this situation countless times.
Aiming for the head. Aiming for the throat. Breaking arms.
Not a single motion wasted.
It was strange to call it swordsmanship. It was different from the martial arts said to have come from the East as well.
But after decades as a mercenary, Logan could tell with absolute certainty.
Those weren’t movements meant for fighting.
They were movements optimized solely for killing.
Impossible…….
How could a child’s body move like that?
The boy wasn’t trying to win against his opponents. From the very beginning, he was only thinking about the fastest way to cut off the other person’s breath.
I have to run.
There was nothing to think about. Losing his subordinates was a shame, but that wasn’t what mattered. They were just greenhorns who knew how to swing a blade a little. He could always gather people again. He still had the name he’d built as a mercenary.
What mattered was surviving. Logan clenched his teeth and melted deeper into the forest. No matter how outstanding that kid was, following him into woods this dense would be impossible.
That was what he thought. Or rather—what he wanted to believe.
Decades of mercenary life. How to run. How to hide. How to shake a pursuer.
He prided himself on knowing those better than anyone.
And yet—
—Thud.
Something suddenly caught his foot.
"……?"
Logan flailed, trying somehow to get his toppling body back upright. At first he thought he’d simply tripped on a stone lying by the path—but something felt wrong. No matter how he looked at it, this body of his was not the kind that fell so disastrously over a trivial rock.
To stand, Logan slowly lifted his head.
And then his body locked solid.
Someone was standing right in front of him.
A small frame. Black hair. And a child whose entire body was soaked in blood.
"Where do you think you’re going!!!"
That was the last sound Logan ever heard.
Half a day after we finished cleaning up the bandits, we finally arrived at the capital where the Academy stood. Neither Geukwang nor I got tired—our bodies had already left the realm of ordinary people far behind.
The problem was elsewhere.
"Ugh……."
I stood limp in front of the inn.
"I want to wash up as soon as possible."
My condition was an absolute mess. Bandit blood had dried and stuck to my clothes and hair alike. The sticky texture was revolting.
"Sigh, you know. Sigh."
Geukwang let out a long breath beside me.
"Who told you to take a blood shower, you know."
"It couldn’t be helped, Geukwang-sama."
"What is that weird honorific now, you know?"
Explaining Traits and Heavenly Killing Star would only wear out my mouth. From Geukwang’s perspective, this was simply a situation where a child had smashed a bandit gang and gotten covered in blood.
In the end we took a nearby room on Geukwang’s coin.
The moment I entered, I headed straight for the bath. Tomorrow was the Academy entrance exam. Finally! That day was coming!
Of course, the fact that the innkeeper nearly called the city guards after seeing a blood-drenched child was no secret.
And the next day, the entrance examination for Astel Imperial Academy arrived.