Spilled Water
“Cough.” “Pfft…”
The bread I’d been chewing caught in my throat, while Ilena choked on the water she was drinking. We both started coughing at the same time. Yet even as we made these pitiful sounds, Mother had no intention of dropping the subject. Before our coughing could even subside, she drove the point home.
“I’d love to see my grandchild soon. Grandson or granddaughter, it doesn’t matter to me.”
“Mother, what on earth are you—”
“What do you mean, what am I saying? Do you even know how old I am? My friend who lives over in Penada Village already has three grandchildren!”
I was twenty-eight now. People could marry from the age of twenty, so I was already running a little late. I glanced at Ilena, hoping for rescue, but she deliberately avoided my eyes. Mother, however, wasn’t about to let her escape.
“Sweetheart. You’ve been waiting beside me all this time just to meet Roen, haven’t you? Doesn’t that mean you’ve been carrying a torch for our boy?”
“I’m not sure… I do have this vague desire to have him, but…”
Why would you say it like that right here?! You’re making her misunderstand!
Sure enough, Mother’s face lit up. She clapped her hands together with a bright smile.
“Perfect! That’s exactly what having feelings means! Son, did you hear what Ilena just said?”
“Wanting to have someone and wanting to marry them are two different things, Mother.”
“I’d be overjoyed if Ilena became my daughter-in-law. Son, are you listening?”
She had no intention of hearing a word I said. They say people grow more stubborn with age, and Mother was the living proof. She stood up first, gathering the empty bowls.
“I was going to take you out to the fields with me, Roen, but I’ve changed my mind. I can handle today’s work alone. You two stay here, talk things over calmly, and pick a date. I’ll give you some space.”
“Ah, no!”
I wolfed down the last of my breakfast and shot to my feet.
“As your son, it’s only right that I help. That’s what I planned to do the moment I decided to come home.”
“How admirable. Still, showing your mother a grandchild would be even more admirable…”
“What should I bring to the fields? Just tell me! I’m all grown up now—I’ll be quite useful as a laborer!”
By injecting as much enthusiasm into my voice as possible, I somehow managed to derail the conversation. Out of nowhere, marriage talk. Ilena only wanted to have me. She had already done so much by taking care of Mother all this time; I didn’t want to burden her with the additional weight of marrying me.
Besides, Ilena was actually a demon. She only looked human because she hid her horns and wings. If Mother ever learned the truth, her opinion might change completely. A marriage between human and demon? That was impossible.
“Mother, we should head out right away. The sooner we start, the sooner we finish and can rest.”
“She said it’s fine. I’ve always managed the fields by myself. I’ll prepare the tools, so you focus on your future bride first…”
“Let’s just go, quickly!”
I gently pushed Mother along, coaxing her out the door before she could circle back to the marriage topic again.
“Ilena, don’t bother cleaning up after breakfast. I’ll take care of it when I get back.”
“You’re already dividing the housework? Sweetheart, our son is already showing signs of becoming a wonderful husband…”
“We’re leaving, Mother!”
Even though we were heading out for grueling field work, the smile never left Mother’s face.
After Roen left with his mother Glinis, Ilena remained alone at the table. Her gaze refused to leave the bowls in front of her—especially Roen’s soup bowl, scraped perfectly clean.
“He ate every bite… Ehehe…”
It might have simply been to fuel himself for the hard labor ahead, but Ilena felt pure joy that Roen had enjoyed the breakfast she prepared. She fell into thought, replaying the earlier conversation.
“Marriage, huh…”
“……What is this?”
When I stopped by the shed, I was stunned. At first glance the farming tools looked ordinary, but they were anything but. The moment I gripped the hoe, I could tell these implements had been crafted with painstaking care by a master artisan. They were even enchanted to reduce the physical strain of use.
“These are excellent tools. Almost too excellent.”
“Aren’t they? Ilena bought them for me.”
“Ilena did?”
Once I knew she was the one who had provided them, I noticed details I’d missed before. The steel was the same high-grade material used for weapons by powerful demons. So this was how Mother had managed the fields alone without difficulty. Good tools truly made all the difference in efficiency.
But steel finer than what most weapons were made from, further enhanced by magic that lessened fatigue? If I sold these as premium weapons instead of using them to till soil, I could probably earn enough to buy a house in the city.
“Hup…”
Thanks to the experience of helping in the fields since childhood, I adapted faster than expected. Even so, I couldn’t match Mother’s pace. She was a seasoned veteran, clearing weeds at twice my speed. It was hard to believe she was the same person who had nearly died from a cold.
I couldn’t lose to an elder! I decided to make up for my lack of technique with youthful energy. The more I worked, the more my old instincts returned, and my speed gradually increased.
“Good work. Let’s rest a moment,” Mother said.
Even then, I couldn’t catch up. She had already finished half her share of the field and was resting comfortably.
“How many more fields do we have?”
“Five more after this.”
“…Pardon?”
When I looked around at the fields we’d been tending together, their scale was far from ordinary. And she was saying we had five more like this?
“I remember our fields weren’t this large.”
“They weren’t at first. We’ve expanded them little by little over time. Strangely, the work always goes smoothly.”
She was right. Even splitting the work between us, we had finished an enormous field in less than thirty minutes. But I already knew the reason. The tools were excellent, but the entire field was also covered in a vitality-restoring spell. No matter how taxing the awkward posture, the magic healed the fatigue instantly.
This had to be another of Ilena’s gifts for Mother.
Thinking of her made me wonder what she was doing while we worked the fields.
“Wait a moment!”
A now-welcome voice. Ilena was trotting toward us, wearing a wide straw hat and carrying a basket on her arm.
“What brings you here, dear? Shouldn’t you be working at Hesed’s farm right now?”
“This. I forgot to bring it earlier.”
Ilena reached into the basket and offered us two small, round, compressed bundles. They carried a faintly bitter yet pleasant herbal scent.
“What is it?”
“Medicine that’s good for the body. Steamed herbs pounded and shaped into balls.”
Ilena leaned down and whispered into my ear while I sat.
“It’s what I asked Gebura to prepare last night. You remember.”
“Ah, right…”
Gebura had said he would bring medicinal herbs until I recovered. But Mother didn’t miss the brief exchange.
“I’m hurt. What are you two whispering about that I’m not allowed to hear?”
“M-Mother? It’s nothing.”
“It’s fine. I don’t mind at all, so keep talking between yourselves from now on.”
“I was planning to. Oh, here—have this too.”
What Ilena pulled from the basket next was a glass bottle of milk. It felt cold even through the glass.
“Thank you. I was just craving something cool to drink.”
“Why thank me for something so small? Is the work going alright?”
“Thanks to you. I see you’ve been tinkering with both the tools and the field.”
“Ah… You noticed after all. Well, you are the swordsman who cuts magic.”
Oh no. Mother’s ears perked up and she leaned in closer.
“Cuts what?”
“Mother, didn’t you know? How skilled Roen is with a sword… Mmph!”
Clink.
I slapped my hand over Ilena’s mouth, but it was already too late. Mother had dropped the milk bottle Ilena had given her. Her hands were trembling after hearing that I had wielded a sword.
“Roen, my son. Is what Ilena said true? That you used a sword?”
“What exactly have you been telling her all this time?”
“She only said you worked together at the guild. This is the first I’ve heard about you using a sword. Is it true?”
“……Yes.”
Ever since Father left home, Mother had repeated the same words to me without fail.
Never take a weapon into your hands as long as you live.
Or you’ll end up becoming a worthless man like your father.
I had broken that promise.
I was lucky that Ilena hadn’t revealed the truth until now. Father had been an adventurer. It wasn’t that he didn’t love us. So the reason he never returned after leaving home was probably…
“This is perfect timing. We’re resting, and we have drinks. Tell me,” Mother said. For the first time, real anger edged her voice. “What exactly did you do after you left home?”
Ilena looked at me with an expression full of apology, having read the atmosphere. But the water had already been spilled.
“As Ilena said, I took up the sword.”
“I told you never to touch a weapon no matter what! What if you had never come back, just like your father?!”
“I had no choice.”
Yes—there are no secrets that last forever. I decided not to lie.
“Because I fought for you, Mother.”
“For me? For this old mother of yours, you should never have fought at all!”
“It started with mercenary work, but it ended with the Crusaders.”
“Crusaders…? If it’s the Crusaders, then…”
From Mother’s reaction, it seemed even this remote village had heard about the Crusaders.
The Crusader War. The conflict between the humans who held the eastern half of the continent and the demon race of the west. The Demon King Ilenater’s forces had crossed the boundary line. In response, Eladia and the Gares Church united the entire human realm into a single alliance. That alliance became the Crusaders.
Though it ultimately strengthened the political power of Eladia and the Gares Church, without the Crusader War, the human world would have been destroyed.
“I’ll forgive you this once. Since you helped save the world, I have no choice but to forgive you.”
“Thank you, Mother. Besides, I returned safely in the end, didn’t I?”
“Still… from now on, never take up weapons again. At least not until the day dirt covers my eyes. Promise me.”
Never again…? I thought about it, then nodded.
“I understand.”
“You really mean it?” Ilena asked, her voice thick with surprise, but my decision remained firm. After all, if a situation ever arose where I had to take up arms again, the world would already be in ruins.
“Thank you… thank you so much…”
Mother took my hand and began to sob.