A New Kind of Training
Warm morning sunlight filtered in through the window.
It had been a long time since sunlight felt this good. For the past twenty years, sunlight had been nothing more than an alarm — a signal to get out to the potato fields and start working.
To spend a leisurely morning in bed like this… wait.
What was that? I pulled back the blanket and found a small girl sleeping soundly… ah. Lily.
Wait. Why are you here?
"Hey. Wake up. Hey."
"Mmm…. Ah, Hero, you're awake?"
"It's not 'you're awake' — why are you even in here?"
"I told you I wouldn't give up, He.ro."
Heh. What a truly astonishing kid. I'd locked the door for two days just to be safe, and the moment I left it unlocked, she pulled this stunt…
Not that it was a bad thing, exactly… but this was genuinely dangerous, you know?
Oh. Come to think of it, she'd stopped calling me Oppa? That hadn't been so bad. A little disappointing, honestly.
"Hey, I told you not to do this…."
"So what? I just slept. What, are you scared?"
No. Your character changed. Give me back my innocent, cute Lily.
"Just kidding~. So, what are you doing today?" Lily asked, stretching.
Well. What should I do today? Honestly, I hadn't done a thing in the two days since I'd come back. I'd just loafed around and eaten.
"Time to get started. Training."
"Ooh, the Hero's training?"
"Yeah. The Hero's training. And you're going to help."
"Hee, I'm fine with that. I like Oppa so much, after all."
Huh? She called me Oppa! That's not the important part — don't just casually ambush me like that.
"Is that so…. Well, first I should go see the king."
"The Hero seeks an audience with His Majesty!"
"Oh, send him in."
He sounded delighted. Well, I'd done nothing for two days — of course he'd started to worry. At this point I was less a Hero and more a man who just sat around eating through the kingdom's food stores.
"My boy! It's been too long! So, what brings you to see me?"
"Well, I've been thinking about the journey ahead, and… I figured I ought to start training."
"Training! Training is excellent! So, how can I be of help?"
"I'll need a few people, for starters. And, well… a modest activity fund wouldn't hurt."
That clinking sound again. Mm. No matter how many times I heard it, it never got old. Had someone put a spell on those coins?
"So, where are we going now? A cliff? A deep forest? A cave?"
"Hold on, aren't your expectations of me a little too high? Why would I go to any of those places?"
"To absorb the energy of nature, or something like that?"
Yeah, no. You can't get stronger with unscientific methods like that.
"We're going to the blacksmith first."
"The blacksmith? Ah, you're going to forge a weapon to slay the Demon King!"
She seemed to be operating under a serious misunderstanding, but whatever. Let's just go.
A muggy heat that hit you the moment you got close. The clear, ringing sound of steel being struck. Craftsmen who never stopped swinging their hammers, even as sweat poured off them.
The blacksmith's forge.
"Excuse me?"
"Yes, coming!"
Oh, a fine-looking middle-aged man. Arms hardened by thousands of hammer swings a day, and copper-toned skin that testified to every hour spent in front of the furnace. Let's just not mention the receding hairline.
"Well now, if it isn't the famous Hero himself!"
"Yes. I came to place an order."
"To think you'd commission a Hero's weapon from the likes of me…. Of course, if you leave it in my hands, I'll give it everything I've got."
"No, I didn't come to order a weapon."
"Pardon? Then what exactly are you looking to commission…?"
"It's a rather unusual item. Would that be all right?"
"Hmm, let's have a look first. Could you sketch it out on this paper?"
Well, it was a simple enough object. I took the pen and sketched it out without hesitation.
"Here. Done."
"Hrm. An iron bar, and… is this some kind of cap?"
"Yes. The bar has threading, like a screw, and the cap twists on."
"Understood. And discs with holes in them…. The sizes all vary, and you want them this thick? You wouldn't even be able to throw these."
"Well, they're not for throwing. So, can you make them?"
"Yes, nothing here looks particularly difficult."
"How long until they're finished?"
"The bar I can use one I already have, and the discs just need holes punched through. Cutting the threads into the bar and the caps will take a bit of time, though."
"Could it be done today?"
"Today's plenty. No — I'll have it done in five hours. It's an order from the Hero. That's the least I can do."
"Thank you. I'll be counting on you."
"Yes. Come by around one or two and you can pick it up."
"Oppa, is this right? Weren't we supposed to be training?"
"What, so you've settled on calling me Oppa now?"
"That's not the point…."
Well, you wouldn't know this, Lily, but what I just ordered is called a barbell. In the world I came from, it's the best friend of anyone who works out. Just wait, Lily. In two months, your Oppa is going to show you what a jacked Oppa looks like.
And what was the other eternal companion of every gym-goer?
The answer was protein. Before a workout, after a workout, and at every opportunity in between — you drank protein.
And I was going to be the first gym bro in another world to taste it.
"I was told you were looking for me…"
"That's right. You're Orhan, correct?"
"Yes, I am."
"I hear you run a mill?"
"Yes, that's also correct."
"Would it be possible for me to take a look at the mill?"
"Of course. No problem at all."
Lily trotted along behind us all the way to the mill, her little steps working overtime to keep up.
"Hero, what business do you have at a mill?"
Would you look at that. She's being all polite because someone else is around?
How infuriating.
I leaned in and whispered against her hair — right where her ears would be.
"Hey. If you don't call me Oppa, I'm not answering. Just so you know."
"Nngh. That's cheating…." Lily grumbled, ducking her bright-red face. That was cute too.
"Here we are."
"Thank you. I'm sorry, but would it be all right if I poked around a bit inside?"
"Yes, that's fine."
Now, where would it be? Probably sitting in some bucket or other.
"Ah, is there something you're looking for? If you tell me, I can find it for you right away."
"What kind of oil do people around here usually use?"
"Pardon? For cooking, we typically use soybean oil."
"Good. So after you press the oil from the soybeans, what do you do with the leftover pulp?"
"We usually throw it out, or use it as compost."
"I understand you supply cooking oil to the palace, this village, and the village across the way. Is that correct?"
"Yes, that's right. Ours is the largest mill in the area."
"Then you must produce a considerable amount of soybean pulp."
"Yes. We get about three barrels of it a day."
"Excellent. Would you be willing to sell that pulp to me?"
"Pardon? It's waste, so I'll just give it to you, but what on earth would you use it for?"
"The purpose isn't important. How much do you have on hand right now?"
"I was too tired yesterday and just went to sleep, so there are about six barrels stacked up. How much would you like?"
I ran the numbers quickly. At a hundred grams of protein a day, two months would require six kilograms. Soybean pulp was about one-third protein, so… eighteen kilograms. Call it twenty, roughly. Each of those barrels looked to weigh about two kilograms…. Ten would be enough.
"Ten barrels, including what you have now."
"Take these six today, and you can pick up the remaining four tomorrow."
"Good. Someone will come by today and tomorrow."
"Ah, then I'll have it ready for them."
"Yes, thank you."
"Oppa, is this right? We haven't done a single bit of training today."
"We can start tomorrow. Tomorrow. I've already sent people to the blacksmith, so how about our cute Lily has a meal with this Oppa?"
"Oppa, your personality's changed somehow. Why'd you get so slick?"
"Look who's talking. Innkeeper! Table for two!"
"Yes, yes. What'll you have?"
"I'll have this. The chili pasta. And she… what do you want?"
"I'll have the same as Oppa~"
"The same for her as well."
"Are you two siblings? It's nice seeing you get along so well~"
"We're not siblings!"
"That's right, thank you~"
Our answers crossed in midair.
After the innkeeper left, Lily puffed out her cheeks and glared at me.
"What, what. What is it now."
"Why did you say we were siblings? Do I only look like a little sister to you?"
"What else am I supposed to see you as? You don't want to be my little sister? I'd love a cute little sister like you."
"I never said I didn't like it…,"
"And if you were my little sister, I could dote on you all I wanted."
"You really have changed, you know that? Are you even the same gentle person from that first day?"
"I'm still gentle, though?"
"Well, that's true."
Hahaha. We laughed at the same time.
"Just eat already. It'll get cold."
"Okay."
I watched Lily slurp up her pasta, my eyes bright with anticipation.
"Why are you looking at me like that? Ah, wait — this is crazy spicy!"
"Who told you to order the same thing as me?"
"Oh my god!"
I handed a glass of milk to a Lily whose face had gone full moon-red, and teased her to my heart's content.
"Ah, I burned my mouth. But you really will pull pranks like this now. You have changed, Oppa."
I'd changed?
Had I changed?
Well… maybe I had.
Now, even if I thought of Flo… no. Even if I thought of that piece of trash, it didn't hurt the way it used to.
Of course I was still sad. Still angry. Still had this tightness in my chest.
But I didn't want to die the way I used to.
If I'd changed.
If I really had changed.
Then it was Lily who had changed me.
And I'd changed her, too, in my own way.
Lily really was a remarkable girl.