The Weight of the Past
Asdin stared at the mumbling Pun. The staff he held in his hand gave a loose, rhythmic tap against the ground.
Pun glanced back and forth between Asdin’s eyes and the tip of that staff.
To be honest, it was still hard to believe. To a boy who had lived his whole life playing with peers in the village, Asdin’s martial prowess was both dazzling and terrifying.
“What are you sorry for?”
Asdin asked. His voice held no emotion. Pun, whose attention had been elsewhere, was startled and began to stammer.
“Th-the first day. When I gave you a hard time. I wanted to apologize for that…”
“What about the others?”
“They’re with Toby.”
“So you came alone again.”
“Huh?”
“Back then, too. The others didn’t come, but you did.”
Asdin turned his body, which had been facing the village entrance, toward Pun.
“I’ll accept your apology, Pun.”
“Ah, thanks, Asdin.”
“Though I don’t know why you took so long to come.”
Urnil chimed in, sardonically supporting Asdin’s piercing remark. A gentle breeze blew, causing Asdin’s silver hair to flutter. There were many people in the village, but none with hair like his. To Pun, Asdin’s hair looked like a dandelion made of sunlight, scattering into pieces. He laughed awkwardly and spoke.
“Actually… everyone is just a bit wary.”
“Wary?”
“You wouldn’t know since you came from outside the village, but a big incident happened here once. Toby’s family were the victims.”
“Don’t tell me. Is it related to Mr. Srem?”
Asdin focused his attention on every word Pun said. Pun was currently explaining why he and Srem had become unwelcome guests.
“Please. Tell me what happened.”
Asdin said earnestly. He had lived his whole life as a prince, and then as an Exile. The reason Asdin could put up walls against the children was because he had never truly felt the normal distance between people. But accumulated feelings eventually pierce through like an awl. For Asdin, Srem was that very awl.
“Are you close with Mr. Srem?”
“He’s my companion.”
Pun tilted his head. To Pun, who had grown up believing that children were merely beings protected by adults, Asdin’s words were difficult to understand. Instead of grasping the value of that bond, he told Asdin what he wanted to hear.
“Since you’re curious, I’ll tell you.”
Pun looked around for a moment and walked in one direction. There was a stump left over from a large tree, as if it had been made for sitting and resting. Pun sat on it and patted the spot next to him. Asdin sat down beside him.
“It’s a bit hard to talk while standing.”
Then, Pun began his story.
“A long time ago, Mr. Srem brought an outsider here. Seven years ago, maybe? I don’t remember it clearly, but Toby seems to.”
“How old are you now?”
“Eleven. Same age as Toby.”
“Then that would have been when Toby was four.”
“Yeah.”
“What happened?”
“Toby’s younger sibling died.”
Asdin couldn’t continue. The fingers that had been gripping the staff tightly loosened. Asdin, who had been rubbing the staff with his thumb, finally asked.
“How?”
“The person Mr. Srem brought was a murderer. He said he didn’t know it himself, but anyway, that murderer killed Toby’s sibling.”
Asdin felt something was strange. He himself, the Pun in front of him, and even Toby, who treated him with fierce hostility, were not very old. If it was seven years ago, they would have been at an age where just walking and running was the most fun thing in the world.
“Wait a minute. They would have been really young then. Considering Toby’s age, that means the sibling was almost a newborn, right?”
“Yeah. The child was only two years old.”
“To kill such a young child… what kind of person…”
Suddenly, Asdin reached a conclusion. But immediately, he thought that couldn’t be it. How could a good person like Srem have a connection to someone like that?
Asdin looked at Pun with eyes trembling with anxiety. And he asked.
“What, what kind of Exile was it? That murderer?”
“His name was Kizzel.”
Asdin felt his heart crumble.
“Kizzel…”
“Asdin? What’s wrong?”
Pun was startled and moved slightly away from Asdin. Asdin’s expression was terrifyingly unchildlike. He bit his teeth so hard that his cheeks bulged, and his eyes shone as viciously as a beast’s.
“That bastard… he came to this village, too?”
This time, it was Pun’s turn to be surprised.
“What do you mean ‘that bastard’? You know that murderer?”
Asdin nodded. The speaker had completely swapped. Asdin told Pun about how he had faced Kizzel and survived while living in the forest last year.
After hearing the whole story, Pun couldn’t speak. He had thought Asdin was a child with a unique aura. But to have fought a serial killer and survived?
If Toby had said it, he would have dismissed it as a child’s bluff. But since Asdin had started staying in the village, Pun had seen him swinging his staff or doing something in front of the village chief’s house or in secluded spots many times.
‘If it’s him, maybe he really did beat up a serial killer?’
It was natural for Pun to think this.
“But you couldn’t catch him?”
“Yeah. He ran away.”
“...It’s surprising that the murderer was alive for seven years, but it’s even more surprising that you fought a serial killer and survived.”
Pun leaned his upper body forward, dangling his legs from the stump. He looked like he was contemplating what to do since the topic had shifted. Fortunately, Asdin spoke first.
“So that’s why Toby hates Mr. Srem. Because he thinks Kizzel, whom Mr. Srem brought, killed his sibling. And that’s why he hates the day he brought him, too. Because it was brought by the person who brought the murderer.”
“Ah, yeah. That’s right. That’s why. Oh, and about that, Asdin.”
“I’m listening.”
“Umm. So, please don’t hate Toby too much.”
Asdin looked at Pun with fresh eyes. Pun said.
“It’s not like Toby hates you for no reason. The village adults said his family are pitiful people. That they were deeply scarred. Of course, the other kids probably ostracize you because they’re closer to Toby…”
He was a kind child, even if his focus was a bit lacking. His speech felt a bit rambling and long-winded, but that wasn’t a big problem in grasping a person’s character.
“I’ll do that.”
Asdin nodded and replied to the mumbling Pun. Only then did Pun let out a deep sigh and look relieved.
“Then, are we friends?”
As expected, it was a question that seemed to skip a step. But because Asdin knew it came from good intentions, he smiled and nodded.
“Yeah. We’re friends.”
Asdin’s village life could by no means be called enjoyable. However, after Pun approached him and opened his heart, Asdin’s heart had a little more room to breathe.
Although he couldn’t mingle with the children, that wasn’t a big problem. Because all the adults, except for Toby’s family, treated Asdin warmly. Even to them, Asdin was a much brighter child than the village kids.
“Oh, Asdin. Where are you going today?”
“Ah, Mr. Hawson. I have an appointment with Mr. Nik today. He asked me to teach him how to set traps again. I’ll be going now.”
“My goodness, if one wants to make an appointment with you, they’d have to make it fifteen days in advance.”
“Would you be surprised if I had an appointment fifteen days from now, too?”
“What! Th-then how about the twenty-first day?”
“I’m sorry. Even then…”
It was always like this.
Whenever the village adults were in trouble or needed something, Asdin would appear and help them as much as he could, and his proficiency was something the other children lacked. Naturally, he was bound to be loved by the adults. On top of that, there was Pun, who visited at least once a day to spend time with him, whether they talked or not.
He didn’t know it himself, but Asdin had gained the greatest peace of mind in his village life so far.
“Did I do something?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
Only Urnil, who knew the results, was looking favorably upon Pun.
It is a natural law that a group forms around those who are more outstanding. By the same logic, Asdin, the most outstanding child in the village, was gradually exerting an influence that made him look up to by the other children.
However, the other children couldn’t go to Asdin. Unlike Pun, they hadn’t apologized, and Asdin was cold to children who didn’t muster the courage. On top of that, Toby’s anger was too frightening to apologize.
But Pun wasn’t the type of child who made friends to show off his superiority. Pun always stayed friendly with his existing friends, and thanks to that, the other children were slowly breaking down the walls they had wrongly built during their first meeting with Asdin while hanging out with Pun.
Because of this, even if Asdin couldn’t properly mingle with his peers, he wasn’t lonely. They were busy, beneficial, and happy days.
However, Toby didn’t think so. To Toby, the anger over his sibling being murdered was, before it was his own, something transmitted from his parents. The anger of a boy who had been influenced by that rage his whole life could by no means be seen as something that had formed naturally.
The anger formed toward the murderer and Srem had been piling up, unable to vent its hostility toward a clear target.
But Asdin appeared and mentioned Srem, and the boy’s anger finally found a clear target. The anger, once it started to pour out, was expressed as fully as the mass it possessed.
‘He’s a companion. Why do you speak ill of him?’
When Asdin said that, Toby thought of Asdin like this:
‘A companion of a murderer!’
If he was a companion of the enemy who killed his sibling, he was also an enemy. Quite a long time had passed since their first meeting, but Toby still couldn’t digest that grudge.
Toby’s parents had no idea of the magnitude of Toby’s anger.
“Here.”
Asdin bowed his head to the adult in front of him and received the item being handed to him.
“Thank you, Mr. Higni.”
“Make sure to dress well from now on. I measured the size carefully last time, so it should fit.”
Higni was the eldest in Demz village, excluding the village chief, and was the person in charge of all the mending work. He was usually a bit blunt, but apart from his verbal style, he was a man of great affection.
Asdin looked at the items he had been handed. A poncho that was a bit sturdier with added fabric and larger, and top and bottom garments made by tanning leather thinner after removing the fur were neatly folded.
“Thank you so much. For even making these clothes for me…”
“That’s enough with the thanks, go put them on quickly. Let’s see if they suit you.”
Higni waved his hand as if to say it was nothing. Asdin ran to the corner of his house and changed his clothes. The pants, which were slightly roomy, were as easy to move in as the poncho. The waist width was a bit wide, but when he crossed the two strings attached to the waist and tied them in an X-shape over his head, the height was fixed exactly at his waist. Asdin draped the top over it and put on the poncho.
And he looked at his reflection with a strange expression.
“This is my first time.”
Asdin didn’t mean that these kinds of clothes were his first, but that they were the best clothes he had worn since leaving the royal palace. Higni gave a thumbs up instead of words.
Asdin thanked him once more and came out of Higni’s house. Then, someone who had been leaning against the building wall asked.
“Are you done?”
“Yeah.”
Asdin turned toward where the question came from and answered. Pun was there. Pun blinked his eyes hard as he saw the clothes Asdin had received.
“So that’s the new clothes you got. Wow…”
“Do they look okay?”
“Yeah. They suit you really well.”
“Thanks.”
Asdin, who was now used to life in the village, often went around with Pun. The adults of Demz village viewed this phenomenon favorably. The children of Demz village usually hung out in groups, enjoying the pleasure of playing pranks at the edge of the village and picking tree fruits.
However, Pun, who had started hanging out mainly with Asdin, naturally became interested in Asdin’s actions.
Asdin did the work adults did, skillfully within the standards a child could manage. Seeing that up close, Pun also naturally sparked a small flame of interest in the work adults did.
And it was the same on this day, when Asdin put on his new clothes and came out to help with herb gathering.