Father's Reluctant Consent
The day after getting thoroughly beaten by Father. My body ached in places I didn't even know existed. Unable to help with the farm work, I lay in bed groaning in pain.
“Ugh…”
Even when I tried to hold it in, the throbbing pain forced groans from my lips. Father must have known he'd hit me too hard—he didn't call for me even while working the fields. Yesterday's talk had ended without any approval or refusal, just the beating. Though only a day had passed, Father's attitude was clearly different from before. Usually, even after a scolding and a solid thrashing, he'd act like nothing happened the next day and speak to me warmly. This time felt different.
“Just rest well today.”
“…Yes.”
Father didn't drag me out to the fields like usual. Mother gently stroked my hair and told me to rest. I stared at the door that clicked shut, then turned my gaze to the ceiling.
‘Well, I must've looked pretty childish.’
This was a world without a clear line between child and adult. Though I was worked like an adult, I was only thirteen. Even grown men over twenty rarely left the village, so of course they'd be shocked at a snot-nosed kid wanting to go out.
Still, I needed to gather some information about this world. Pardin was so remote that we barely heard news from the capital, let alone neighboring villages. Even if the ring was a scam item, there was nothing I could do with just that. Living as a farmer's son and working the fields might be fine, but in a world with growth and monsters, threats were bound to come. At the very least, I needed to figure out what point in time this was.
‘Whether it's before everything starts, or already in progress…’
The hidden ring at least confirmed this world was extremely similar to the game. So if this was a world with a protagonist like the player character, I needed to know whether we were before, during, or after the ending. If it was after a happy ending, it wouldn't matter much. The problem was if we were still far before the ending or right in the middle of it.
Oath of Eternity, or OOE for short… It was a game with tight time management. If you didn't keep the enemy forces in check in time, they'd launch an all-out assault that wiped out the protagonist and all allied forces before you could react. And by “allied forces,” I meant every region where people lived. No place was spared—not even remote rural villages like this one. They'd be swept away without mercy, like a vacuum cleaner.
In other words, Pardin was no exception. I had no intention of getting caught off guard while farming in ignorance. I didn't know where the protagonist was or what he was doing, but I needed to check if he was handling things properly. I'd skipped most of the story, so not much stuck in my memory, but there was one thing I was certain of.
‘At the very least, it's definitely not me…’
I was not the protagonist. Why was I so sure? Because the protagonist of this world was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. From the very start, the player's beginning point was a grand mansion in the capital. He grew up receiving affection from countless female characters at the Academy—an elite educational institution in the capital meant for raising initial stats. A classic overpowered character who only knew success.
That meant he had absolutely nothing to do with a remote village like this or the son of a farmer.
To understand how the world was moving, I'd have to go somewhere that at least received news from the capital. But the spots where Father had hit me yesterday throbbed and pulsed.
“Haa…”
A sigh escaped my lips and fell to the floor. How was I supposed to convince that stubborn father of mine? Running away in the middle of the night wasn't an option either… I understood his feelings, but I wasn't saying this out of childishness. Still, I couldn't exactly say, “This world might go to hell, so I'm going to check on the protagonist!”
So the talk of traveling fizzled out. Three days passed without a single word exchanged between father and son. While I was soaking hard bread in soup to soften it, Mother suddenly elbowed Father in the side. At that, Father finally opened his mouth.
“…Shen.”
“Huh? Yeah?”
His low, serious voice without a trace of playfulness made me flinch. Startled, I answered without thinking and looked up to find Father's eyes fixed straight on me. Overwhelmed by the pressure from our height difference, I quickly dropped my gaze to the table.
“Look at me.”
Unable to speak, I lifted my head slightly. Maybe he was still angry after beating me so badly—his furrowed brow sent a chill down my spine. I waited nervously for what he would say.
“Do you hate farm work?”
“Huh?”
What came out of Father's mouth was an unexpectedly ordinary question. I'd thought he'd give a firm, forceful refusal about traveling. Caught off guard, I let out a dazed sound, and Father repeated the question with a hint of irritation.
“I'm asking if you hate working the fields.”
If he asked whether I hated farm work, the answer was no. The labor was tough, and farming was at the mercy of nature's whims, which could be exhausting. But it wasn't something I hated enough to run away from. There was a sense of accomplishment in it. He must have assumed my talk of traveling was an attempt to escape inheriting the farmer's life.
I shook my head and answered hesitantly.
“…It's not that.”
Father fell silent for a long time. I glanced at Mother, but she only watched Father quietly. In the suffocating tension, I took another bite of the now-soaked bread. Finally, Father spoke again.
“So you're saying you didn't bring it up because you hate farm work?”
“Yeah.”
“Haa…”
If that had been the reason, I would've run away long ago. When I answered without a shred of hesitation, Father let out a deep sigh. The weight of that sigh made me shrink back nervously.
“Do you remember when the merchant is coming?”
“Now that you mention it, it should be about time…”
‘Merchant?’
I perked up at their conversation. Even a remote village like this wasn't completely cut off from the outside world. Traveling merchants appeared randomly, selling goods not available locally at high prices. In a place this isolated, they were probably the only people who regularly traveled between villages and cities.
The fact that they were bringing up the merchant… Did that mean I could expect a positive outcome?
I cautiously spoke up.
“Does that mean you'll let me go?”
“On one condition!”
The booming shout made my ears ring. No matter how many times I heard that voice, I could never get used to its volume. Startled, my eyes flew open as I focused on what came next.
“Don't stray far from the carriage! You have to stay right next to the merchant at all times! Got it?!”
“Y-Yes…”
I couldn't tell if he was worried or scolding me. The three-day silent standoff between father and son ended that day.
After returning to the usual farm work and rest, I shared the good news with the few friends I had in the village. Rein, my friend who was two years older, looked genuinely surprised.
“Uncle actually gave permission? Really?”
“Yeah. I got beaten pretty badly before he did, though…”
I rubbed my still-throbbing calves and shoulders, proudly showing off the bruises. Mir, a year younger than me, had a different reaction. He leaned against the wooden fence, resting his chin on it as he spoke.
“Aah! Should I ask my dad too? Why do you get to go alone?”
“It's just going to another village or city. I'm not wandering around fields or forests or anything.”
I tried to explain that it wasn't some grand adventure like other travelers, but Mir still looked envious.
“That's still something~”
He kept grumbling with a pout. Something about the way he dismissed my beating so casually soured my mood. Then go get beaten half to death by your own dad and come with me. I swallowed the petty thought and just glared at him with a frown.
Our little trio disbanded the moment someone got hungry. Usually, Mir—who was sensitive about meal times—made the first move.
“I'm going home.”
“Hey, are you hungry already?”
“Yeah, I'm heading out first!”
Unlike Mir, who left without hesitation, Rein lingered. Once he was gone, the atmosphere felt strangely empty.
“Yup.”
Rein hopped off the fence with a small sound and landed on the ground. Honestly, there wasn't much to talk about in this remote village, so I was about to leave when—
“Shen!”
“Huh? Whoa…!”
Rein suddenly grabbed my arm and started dragging me somewhere. All I could see was the back of her head, brown hair swaying as she pulled me along. The sound of rustling grass accompanied us to a narrow path between buildings.
I called out to her from behind.
“W-Why? What's wrong?”
She stopped. Then, with a sudden twist, she spun me around by the arm. Off-balance, I stumbled and ended up sitting in front of her.
“Agh!”
Still sore from Father's beating, my body had no strength. I looked up to see Rein's face, her expression dark as she muttered something under her breath.
“…What?”
“You'll come back, right…?”
When I asked what she meant, Rein spoke a little louder.
“You're coming back, aren't you?”
“Of course. I'm not leaving for good…”
Rein's gloomy expression brightened at my answer. She raised one hand to her mouth like she was about to whisper and spoke softly with a faint smile.
“…Promise?”
With that, she turned and walked away, the grass rustling under her feet. Fifteen years old and already that destructive— she'd probably break plenty of hearts when she grew up.