Locke must have been really exhausted.
Dropping onto his bed after returning to his dorm, he slipped under the covers, and instantly let go of his consciousness.
The sky outside the window was still dark, but the whole sky was filled with stars.
There would also be fine weather today.
Setting his eyes on the neighboring bed, Locke also fell asleep in the very clothes he wore to the banquet.
No, rather, it might be on the scale of years.
Though he was not the successor, he couldn’t present himself to the Emperor in shabby clothing.
Did it get creased?
Only having taken off his coat[?1?], Locke lay fast asleep.[?2?]
Then, his eyes moved down to his own garments, and he frowned.
“… Whoa, I accidentally did it,” he murmured.
It was natural, since he had no recollection of changing his clothes.
He didn’t straighten them out afterwards.[?3?]
First, he took of his clothes and changed to his normal clothes.
After he went outside, he washed his face in the communal fountain.
As he used the towel around his neck to wipe his face, his stiff joints slowly relaxed.
“Okay, let’s go!”
Since there was the banquet yesterday, he wasn’t able to go training.
As always, he greeted the sentries who guarded the school entrance though the night.
His destination was Wandering Bird’s Mistletoe Pavilion.[1]
With light steps, Wynn slowly — it would be quite fast to anybody who watched— began running.
Once he filled the barrel at the back of the Wandering Bird’s Mistletoe Pavilion to the brim with water, he began washing the vegetables.
Potatoes, carrots, daikons[2], he washed them all thoroughly, while thinking back to the food he ate at the banquet.
Soft, freshly-baked bread.
A salad with fresh vegetables and thinly sliced ham.
Magically refrigerated rose water, and freshly squeezed fruit juice.
He would probably never taste it again.
Though he had eaten, just by thinking about it, his mouth watered, and he felt hungry.[4]
At that time, the boss, Randell, and his wife, Hannah, also woke up.
Wynn had permission from them to enter and leave through the back door.
He took a deep breath, then exhaled.
He held an image inside his head.
First, he swung the sword once.
He started slowly, then gradually got faster.
During the coup d’état incident, Wynn had killed a person for the first time.[5]
He could see the trajectories of his opponent’s blades during the practice matches, but against more advanced opponents, he couldn’t receive the blows, and was blown away many times.
However, while their magic power was mutually sealed, he was able to perceive the attacks, and evade or block them.
‘I became strong.’
He felt that for the first time.
He was able to perceive her intense intimidation and the path of her blade.
He imagined Leticia’s strikes gradually get faster, until he couldn’t match her anymore.
“Kuh…”
He somehow avoided the last blow aimed at the head, but it destroyed his stance, and he fell to the ground.[6]
‘Strong, huh…’
Leticia was strong, more than he could imagine.
For one, while he could try to see the path of the blade, there was no time to react to it.
At the moment they crossed swords, Wynn knew he would lose.
Otherwise, he would have been cut by the blade.
From the stories of those who saw the duel between the Hero Zaunas, and Leticia, the difference in strength was as big the difference between an adult and a child.
He lay on the ground.
The cool ground felt good to his drenched, burning body.
The sky was beginning to brighten, and birds began to chirp as they flew through the air.
Wynn lay face-up on the ground, watching the sky brighten up.
However, at that time, he reached the point that he was able to follow her sword.
Leticia stood at a distant, high place far, far away, but Wynn still felt happy that she had become strong.
“Okay, preparations complete!”[7]
The second son of the Wandering Bird’s Mistletoe, Abel, inspected the parcel that he had bought yesterday, and picked up a brand new one-handed sword.
He slowly drew it from its scabbard, and stared motionlessly at the shimmering blade, which had never been used.
Yesterday, he was invited to an adventurer’s party for the first time.
Though he was hit by his father Randell, he often visited the Adventurer Guild to take simple requests such as collecting wild herbs, chasing away wild animals and monsters which damaged the fields, and other manual labour.
Their task was to subjugate a bandit group attacking villages near the border.
It was a mission taken in conjunction with other parties.
He couldn’t stop grinning.
“Kukuku…. Fu, fufufu, Ahahahaha!”[8]
He couldn’t hold it back, and ended up laughing out loud.
He felt elated.
Up until then, he had received only menial requests, but this time, he was going to be a member of another party.
Joining a party was a rite of passage for adventurers.
Abel had taken the first step in fulfilling his dream of becoming an adventurer.
He returned the sword to its sheath, and donned brand-new leather armour.
He was to meet with his comrades exactly at noon.
“Ah, My body is trembling a lot!”
Unable to just stand still, he left his room, and moved to the back of the building.
“Hmm?”
He recognized the boy laying face-up on the ground.
Hey, that’s Wynn isn’t it!
To Abel, he was more than just an employee of the restaurant.
“Oh? Abel? What is it? You look happy.”
Abel puffed out his chest, as Wynn stayed on the ground, merely turning his head towards him.
“I became an adventurer!”
“Adventurer!? You did?”
“Yeah, that’s right. Today at noon, I will be going with a party to complete a request.”
“Good, so Randell-san let you.”
Wynn raised just his upper body, and thought of Randell, Abel’s father, and the proprietor of the inn.
Since the older brother Mark was a better successor to the inn, Randell was unable to hide his irritation at the younger brother Abel’s earnest aspiration, but he may have changed his mind.[9]
“The old man[10] has nothing to do with this! I will become an adventurer with my own power!”
“Eh? So Randell-san doesn’t know about it?”
Abel’s expression instantly hardened.
“I am joining the party and becoming an adventurer. I’m not following that old man’s orders anymore. Unlike a knight cadet like you, I am now an independent adult.”
To Abel, since Wynn was close in age to him, he was an existence that couldn’t be ignored.
Mark and Abel ordered Wynn, who lived in a small shed behind the inn, around for the smallest things, treating him like a servant.
Abel was conscious of the girl named Leti, who was prettier than other girls, and his heart leapt at a glimpse of her.
It was love at first sight.
Though they played together, Leti never left Wynn’s side and stuck to him.
Soon, Abel realized that Wynn had a different worldview than the others.
He wanted to become a knight.
That the dream that Wynn, who swung his wooden stick, had.
What was this servant-like commoner orphan saying?
Even then, Wynn never gave up.
He took his time when drawing water, holding buckets in both hands to decrease the number of round trips he had to make.
Moreover, understanding that he didn’t have enough money to pay the enrollment fee for the knight school, and ended up going to the adventurer guild in his free time.
That day, Abel heart that Wynn took a job from the adventurer guild, and secretly took a peek.
Unlike Abel, who was treated like a child, seeing Wynn be treated like a mature grown-up was dazzling.
His elder brother would succeed the inn.
That was what he thought he would do.
However, Abel admired Wynn, who worked with grown-up adventurers.
‘I will become an adventurer.’
He couldn’t accept that despite having the status of a servant, Wynn was treated as an equal by adventurers older than himself.
That was why he saw becoming an adventurer as a triumph.
“With the attempted coup, the empire’s knights have a bright future ahead of them, don’t they? Because of that, the knight school is temporarily closed isn’t it? When are you ever going to become a knight?”
“Hmm, when will I become a knight, huh?”
Wynn muttered with an unusually weak tone.
Many of the instructors were included.
If they decided to prevent commoners from becoming knights, Wynn’s dream would end there.
Unlike Wynn, who was despondently thinking about how he may not achieve his dream, Abel happily drew his newly bought sword.
“How is it! See it? Behold this sword! Even though it looks like this, it can cut three demonic beasts you know?”
He wore a proud expression on his face.
Wynn was lost in thought, merely gazing at at Abel as he swung his sword around.
“That’s right! You have a practice sword right? Let’s have a match!”
Saying this, he suddenly pointed the sword at Wynn.
“Is it fine? What about injuries?”
“It is not a duel.[?4?] Do you not have practice opponents since the school closed down? I’ll practice with you. Let’s go.[?5?]”
“I’m not interested.”
“Wouldn’t it be bad for a grown-up adventurer to go all out and beat a knight cadet student? I’ll make the blows light.”
“If you’re going that far, then…”
Finally, Wynn slowly reached for his sword, and Abel chuckled.
He had decided that he was superior to servants like Wynn.[12]
“Okay, let’s go!”
Though he said that it wasn’t a duel, he had swung the sword, intending to injure him.
However,
“Onii-chan?”
He suddenly heard a dearly missed voice.
It was Abel’s first love, now grown up, and sporting a smile.[13]
Translator notes
This is a more correct name for Wataridori Pavilion. I will try to go back and edit Wataridori out later. literally: Migratory Bird’s Mistletoe Pavilion–back Radish-like. google it… A daikon literally means large root…–back Some translators add images, but… here’s the raw: 丁寧にダシを取った白身魚の濃厚なスープ。–back Translating during lunch avoids much envy…–back Is it coincidence that this “kill” in Japanese is “Kiru”–back Is this real? is this just fantasy?–back Abel’s POV–back I do believe this is a three stage laughter… See Tensei Slime (currently being translated by Guro)–back kinda Wynn’s POV, this sentence–back I think sometimes people call their fathers “old man”, maybe use “Pops”?–back Seems to have connotations of silent in a dumb way…–back …What?–back Leti just saved Abel… from the frying pan, at least…–back