Chapter 14
Chapter 14
Translator : Elizabeth
Right after a fleeting thought like a death throe passed. A clean punch without restraint landed on my abdomen.
“Kuh-huk…!”
A heavy impact covering the abdomen and my body floating into the sky. A sound of breath getting blocked flowed while flying in the sky.
“Mister!”
Me flying away like a scene from a manga. In the flipping vision, Haley’s voice was heard.
“Ugh, blegh….”
While bouncing out of the shop and tumbling just like that. I retched at the sensation as if a hole was punched in my stomach. It was incredibly fortunate that I came out without eating breakfast. Since I hadn’t eaten anything, there was nothing to spill on the floor.
The sound of stepping on planks changes to the sound of stepping on stone floors. Holding my stomach and barely raising my head, the situation was Grandpa Gent had already approached right before my eyes. Haley, not knowing what to do between us, blocked the path between me and the old man even while flustering.
“You didn’t send a single letter all this while, and now that life is a bit bearable, you want to return? You made a very big mistake, you punk.” “G-Grandpa…? W-Wait, let’s talk a bit….” “Move, because I’m going to erase that guy from the world right now.”
While I was still crawling on the floor groaning in pain, the urgent conversation between Haley and Grandpa Gent grazed my ears. Grandpa Gent who has no intention of listening even to Haley’s appeal. At this rate, I’ll really be erased from the world.
‘Th, that….’
I barely moved my mouth, but that was it. …Wrong, the voice doesn’t come out. Was my life up to here? Swallowing a short resignation, I lowered my head which I had barely lifted. At least hoping the last moment wouldn’t be painful.
At the time I shut my eyes tightly at the approaching footsteps.
“He didn’t return, I brought him!”
Haley’s final defense spat out urgently. Only then does the sound of heavy footsteps stop abruptly.
“You brought him?” “Yes, yes! I went around here and there riding a carriage.”
‘…Am I alive?’
Amidst the two people’s conversation, I lifted my head stealthily. After Haley’s cautious answer, Grandpa Gent whipping his head toward me. Wondering if a fist would fly again, I flinched and trembled. It seemed countless words were hidden in that disapproving gaze, but perhaps thanks to Haley, the gaze softened a little.
“All grown up and hiding behind a kid, tsk.”
The old man stopped with pure criticism instead of a fist. It is a rightful remark, but I have to live first, don’t I?
Growl-
The hunger I had forgotten in the fear of death visits again. While Grandpa Gent heads to the restaurant one step ahead. Haley supports me, who was groaning in pain, and says.
“I’m sorry, surely I didn’t know Grandpa would be here….” “I-It’s okay.”
Spitting out the words saying it’s okay like a habit and receiving support, I walked toward the restaurant awkwardly. …Actually, I’m not okay. My eyes are still a bit stinging, and my stomach hurts while being hungry. If I hadn’t gone out today, could I have avoided all these disasters? While imagining such a non-existent world line, my steps were honestly heading into the restaurant.
A table we naturally came to share as if flowing like water. As soon as Haley and I sat down, the old man started the conversation.
“To think you managed to find and bring this guy.” “Yes, somehow.” “Obviously he followed because it’s good that you earn well, right?” “No, he didn’t do that….”
I just kept my mouth shut at the two people’s conversation. Opening my mouth here would only make me the old man’s target. Staying quiet was the correct answer to avoid getting chewed out. It seems the old man thinks I heard the news that Haley did well and followed her excitedly saying ‘Bingo’. I wonder how my image is formed inside the old man. Just when I was remaining silent knowing my position even though I wanted to refute. Suddenly the old man’s cold gaze directed at me.
“Hey, try saying something with that open snout of yours.” “Yes? Um, well.”
Like that, the speaking right given suddenly at the old man’s question. Since Haley doesn’t know the reason I left the village as if running away, I opened my mouth which was itching. The slave trader story came up in the house where only the two of us were, but that fact spread riding the mouth of a keen-eared villager. Knowing what kind of treatment a former slave trader would receive, I hurriedly emptied the house and followed Haley to the city.
“Ah, so that’s why….” “It seemed like someone overheard our talk.”
Haley, realizing the truth belatedly at the explanation, also blurred the end of her sentence mixed with understanding, knowing the reason for leaving the village. While guessing someone seemed to have overheard the conversation. The old man dropping a few words with his arms crossed disapprovingly.
“If you fall out of favor in a narrow village, it’s the end.”
It seems he knows the unique atmosphere of rural villages well in his own way. Even so, the old man occasionally glanced sideways and clicked his tongue ‘tsk, tsk’. It seems he is displeased because his guess that I came out of the village taking Haley’s success as an opportunity was wrong. Does he think he missed an opportunity to beat me up legitimately? I wish he wouldn’t regret that.
“I’m holding back for her sake.”
Soon, the old man pointed at Haley just by flicking his finger without uncrossing his arms and spoke. The old man’s chilly gaze is saying everything. There is no next time, that is….
“Would there be any objection.” “Ah, haha… thank you Grandpa.”
While I bowed my head at the opportunity given for the last time, Haley also thanked him with an awkward laugh from the side.
“Try running away somewhere again and not sending a single letter.”
Despite Haley’s words, perhaps remembering the past days when contact was cut off, Grandpa Gent opening his eyes wide.
“For the rest of my life, I will find you even if I have to search the world.”
The few words that would follow the threat were sufficiently predictable, so dry saliva gulped down past my throat.
“Tomorrow will not come for you.” “…….”
A warning not mixed with even a little bit of a joke. Although I had no reason to leave Haley’s side now, a chilly murderous intent flowed down my spine. Right now too, if Haley wasn’t here, I would have died here. Not a joke, I would have ended my life becoming a blood clot on the street.
“G-Grandpa stop it too! Let’s eat, okay?”
Haley intervened in the atmosphere that froze in an instant, and started mediating with a voice more energetic than usual. Although he was still an old man looking displeased, it was a request from Haley who was like a granddaughter to the old man who had no children.
“Tsk, got it.”
Clicking his tongue and loosening the heavy atmosphere, each started doing actions fitting to do in a restaurant. Ordering food, time of patience, and eating. The ordered foods were plenty, including bread, soup, meat, and accompanying vegetables. Although a bit laborious, menus close to home-cooked meals. But who said it, hunger is the best seasoning. The foods put into the mouth in hunger after escaping the fear of death were truly delicacies.
“Deliciouus….” “Hehe, because we ordered a lot? Eat a lot!”
Haley grinning at the simple and ignorant impression of the meal. Like that, after filling our stomachs literally like a crab hiding its eyes (eating quickly), we exhaled stuffy breaths engulfed in satiety for a while. Afterward, we came to confess the current situation to Grandpa Gent methodically without missing a single thing….
“So, you mean you are living off her doing nothing?” “You omitted too much.”
The old man abbreviating my city adaptation period too simply. If you say it like that, what do I become? It’s not wrong either so I can’t refute.
“Ah! Aui, ayeokeugeong….”
As I was keeping my mouth shut like a mute who ate honey, Haley mumbled something with food in her mouth.
“That, for now won’t you swallow what’s in your mouth and speak…?”
It seems she wants to say something, but a situation where I can’t understand what she’s saying. When I told her to finish swallowing the food and speak, Haley, who moved her cheeks for a long time, swallowed the food gulp and said.
“Mister, today… the mana measurement result, was good!” “What, he didn’t do that until that age?” “I’m telling you.”
The old man reacting to the sound that the mana measurement result was good, and Haley grumbling as if scolding me along with him. As soon as Haley, a reassuring ally, suddenly turned to the old man’s side, I had an ominous premonition.
“Good, you mean it is so?”
Suddenly the old man cutting off the words as if resolving something. The gaze of silence was clearly directed toward me. What did he accept alone, and what did he resolve? Those inner thoughts could not be known until the meal ended. Right. Until the very moment the meal ended.
Immediately after stepping onto the street, the old man suddenly grabbing the back of my neck. As if my clothes got caught on a rock, I couldn’t advance a single step in that state.
“Wh-Why are you doing this?”
The anxiety I forgot for a moment rises swoosh. At the time Haley who was going ahead also stopped along. Grandpa Gent narrowed his brow and spoke.
“Now mock battle with Haley is burdensome, but I guess I can train someone of your level.”
Only then Grandpa Gent’s short resolution of ‘Good’. I ended up realizing the meaning contained in that one word. Why are sad premonitions never wrong. There was nothing I could do at the point already caught. Haley also shows no sign of stopping him at the word training. Eventually dragged safely to the old man’s house, I came to undergo training with unsafe content.
“Lived in the countryside for nothing! You can run only that much?!” “Mister, cheer up!”
No matter if the old man’s yard is at the level of a small vegetable garden, it’s about the 30th lap of running without rest.
“Kuh-huh, ugh….” “Don’t rest your legs! If you stop, it’s the end!”
As I slowed down spitting out breath that filled up to under my chin, the old man hit my back with a stick as if he had been waiting.
“Ack!”
A burning pain remains with a single scream. To think I’d get hit on the back at this age. First is stamina, second is stamina, third is stamina. The point Grandpa Gent emphasizes throughout the training. That didn’t distinguish whether one is a wizard or an adventurer.
“Stop!”
Soon, when Haley left the seat to use the restroom. At the same moment, the running without promise also met its end. For now, I did as told, but a situation where I couldn’t know why the old man suddenly burned with enthusiasm for training. Being out of breath is one thing, but due to the tough training with unknown reason, I decided to ask the old man for now.
“Huh-uh, huff… why suddenly this.” “You would know already, but Haley is a Ruby-rank adventurer.”
As I asked barely with ragged breath, Grandpa Gent explaining facts I already know in a string.
“…? Naturally, I do know… but, why… that.”
Unable to grasp the intention of the words at all, I continued the question even with breath cutting off unnaturally. Grandpa Gent started looking down at me with quite a serious gaze instead of his usual apathetic attitude toward everything.
“Becoming an adult who protects and supports her side means, at least you should have the power to protect yourself.”
Being beside a Ruby-rank adventurer as a familiar existence. The old man who emphasized that meaning lifted the stick again.
“Get up.”
A heavy command weighs down the air heavily. My legs tremble but I stand up slowly from the spot. There was a strange power in Grandpa Gent’s words. A weight that makes one believe he is entirely right. With a quite serious face, he spoke as if solidifying his determination.
“I have the obligation to train you so you won’t die vainly.”
—For Haley’s sake too.
I swallow my breath at the few words of the old man that would have followed behind. This was the old man’s own way of caring for Haley. Training me so I won’t die easily. It seems he thought that was the best and greatest method he could do in his aged position.
“…Under, stood.”
I barely continue the answer. Interests align, and the superiority is clear. Then. There would be only one thing I can do. Only then taking the hands off my knees, I started running around the yard widely, even if slow. Conforming and accepting. That was the best I could do for Haley.