It was a wide clearing at the edge of the forest. On one side stood a makeshift shelter roughly cobbled together from scraps of board and wooden posts. The Forest Warden stood in its shade.
Rustle.
When the boy he'd been waiting for arrived, his gaze slowly swept over the boy's whole body. Just like back when he'd brought him here a few months ago. Then his gaze stopped on the boy's hands.
An axe, gripped tight. Not only had he carried it all the way here, he still showed no intention of putting it down.
"Serf Berak."
"Yes."
When the warden stared at him, the boy bent deeply at the waist. In truth, for a commoner like the warden, just bowing the head was enough. That was an attitude often seen in serfs who groveled before anyone above them. Even then, his hands and waist moved out of sync, making it awkward.
However politely he tried to act, there was no dignity to him whatsoever. Seen like this, he was nothing more than an unremarkable serf boy.
"I hear you do the work of more than two grown men."
"It's not that...... I mean, y-yes, sir."
Even his flustered look at not knowing why he'd been summoned was something often seen in serfs. But if the reports were true, whether his manner was ordinary or not didn't matter at all.
"No need to be so tense. I'm not here to reprimand you."
The boy was still stiff. The Forest Warden reached out and pointed to a corner of the clearing.
"Pick that up and move it."
It was a huge log. So thick you couldn't wrap your arms all the way around it. Well over twice the boy's height in length. A size two grown men could barely move together.
A large-scale hauling job to the city was coming up. He meant to test whether the kid could be drafted for it.
A laborer whose height didn't match the others would need to put out far more strength than everyone else. That was why he'd prepared the log.
The boy dropped the axe and stood before the log. He grabbed one end, crouched, and gathered strength into his arms and legs.
Part of the warden was still doubtful. A kid like that, really? It'd be a wonder if he could even lift it. Just as he stood staring like that.
"Hup—."
With a light grunt, the boy slowly straightened up. The log came up along with him and settled onto his shoulder.
He hung his head low as if it was quite a strain, but he'd as good as passed already. Yet the boy went further.
Plod, plod.
Silent, slow steps headed forward. The log, slanting from his shoulder to the ground, dragged along behind him. Dust rose, and a long furrow was left on the ground. Had he gone about ten steps like that?
"Enough."
THUD.
The log hit the ground, and a dull boom rang out.
A moment of silence. The Forest Warden looked genuinely surprised. He'd heard as much, but seeing it in person was something more.
"Hmm......"
Over more than ten years of picking trees and laborers, he had learned something. Appearance is the result.
The straighter and thicker a tree, the less deeply an axe bites. A tree with sparse knots is that much easier to work.
People were no exception. Broad-shouldered men lasted long. Those with thin waists collapsed within days.
But what about the boy before him?
Maybe a little over 130 centimeters tall? He didn't stand out at all from others his age.
Same with his build. Not so small you'd call him puny, but a lean frame that didn't exceed average either. He didn't have thick bones or bulging muscles.
But the sight of him carrying that log with such a body.......
'An insect.'
Yes, it brought exactly an insect to mind. Like an ant carrying food far larger than itself on its back.
"That's enough. In a few days, you'll join the hauling job. Make sure you don't get hurt until then."
"Yes, sir."
"You may go. You still have today's labor left."
The Forest Warden's gaze lingered on Berak's back for a while.
With this much strength at that age, leaving him to merely haul logs would be a waste.
How best to handle him so he'd bring the most profit. The Forest Warden's deliberation deepened.
***
'Did I get away with it?'
Berak's heart had been pounding ever since he was called to the Forest Warden. I can't let them find out I'm hiding something. That thought had filled his head.
Shirking forced labor. Deceiving an overseer. He couldn't think of such clear charges. But he knew well that nothing good would come of being found out.
So when he got the order, Berak was relieved. If the warden had known his strength, he wouldn't have prepared something like that as a 'test.' It was a log he could have dragged around with one hand.
Still, so it wouldn't look too easy, he moved as slowly as he could. He even hung his head in case his calm expression gave him away.
In the end, he wasn't reprimanded, and today passed safely too, but.
'If I'm caught, I'll probably be punished hard.'
This time he had outright deceived the Forest Warden. But there had been no choice.
'Even if I revealed what I've been hiding all this time now, I'd be punished all the same.'
Then should he not have hidden it from the start?
'No, that's not it.'
A serf couldn't decide anything on his own. Even if he squeezed out all his strength, they'd just keep him from resting, like in the village.
Then the watching would only get closer, and the road to learning letters would grow farther away.
But he couldn't stay like this, either. Berak sensed that.
There was always the risk his strength would be found out. In the end, he would have to leave this place. As soon as the chance came.
"Mmm."
The leg of the man tossing beside him landed on his chest. Berak pinched the man's clothes with two fingers and lifted lightly.
A grown man's leg floated up and dropped to the side. Berak turned his back and curled up toward the wall.
A dirt floor only half covered by straw. The farthest corner even within the serfs' quarters. No matter how much praise he got for working well during the day, it was one thing that hadn't changed to this day.
Every time he fell asleep, it seemed to be telling him. That this was his place.
Berak hated that. It was another reason he wanted to leave.
***
Until now, Berak had been using his strength moderately, reading the room. But now he had a benchmark.
Exactly as much as he'd shown in front of the Forest Warden. Any less and they'd say he was slacking. Any more and his deception would come out.
But 'putting out an exact amount of strength' was far harder than Berak had thought.
Overflowing strength meant it was hard to control. From the moment he raised the axe, his arms and shoulders drew taut on their own.
His muscles heated up first even without his putting force into them. Like a rolling cart taking a downhill slope all on its own.
Stopping that was quite hard.
Of course, he had held back his strength plenty of times before. But back then, he'd just roughly used less. Now it was different. He had to draw a line at exactly how far.
Every time he brought his arms down, two muscles inside pulled in different directions. One tried to strike down, the other tried to stop it. The faint tremor born of the two locking together shook his elbows and shoulders.
Before he knew it, Berak's eyes were on the axe in his hands, not the tree.
It was no longer chopping to cut trees. It was 'chopping for the sake of chopping.'
Each time he swung down that way, the insides of his arms tingled as if burning.
At first he thought it was just tension. But as time went on, he realized.
'I'm not using less strength. It's more like I'm using all of it in reverse. That's why it's hard.'
Stopping took more energy than striking. By the end of the day, his whole body was worn out. His clothes were soaked with sweat like everyone else's.
Since the letters had appeared, it had been a long time since anything was this hard.
Berak didn't know it, but this was the first training he had ever done outside of set tasks like farm work or woodcutting.
「Body Proficiency + 1」
「Axe Proficiency + 1」
'Letters I haven't seen in a while!'
[Strength: 252] hadn't changed lately. Berak guessed it was because he'd gotten too strong.
Back when he was farming, too, there had been more and more days when the letters didn't show. If he'd kept at it, wouldn't [Stamina] have stopped too?
'Don't tell me I'm starting to get stronger again? No, the shapes are different. I cut trees just the same, so why are they different?'
No matter how much he thought, only frustration piled up.
'I wish I could tell what's different......'
Then the letters showed a new form. As if responding to his thoughts. Just as they had once before.
◎ Education
[None yet]
◎ Labor
- Farming ... 279 times
- Woodcutting ... 157 times
◎ Training
- Strength Control Drill
- Axe Swing Drill
'The letters changed, didn't they? Maybe they're telling me what's different. But... I still can't tell.'
Berak still didn't know their meaning. He just came to his own conclusion.
[Stamina: 248]
[Strength: 252]
[Refinement: 0]
[Body Proficiency: 1/100]
[Axe Proficiency: 1/100]
'For now, I should try to change the shapes of these new letters.'
And so, days of his own self-directed training during work went by.
「Body Proficiency + 1」
「Axe Proficiency + 1」
As Berak wiped off the sweat he'd poured out again today, someone spoke to him.
"Hey. Are you sick or something?"
It was Martin.
"No."
"Then why are you dripping sweat like this? A kid who never seemed to struggle at all till now."
"Ah, that's just from working a little harder."
Berak evaded the question.
"What kind of nonsense is that? Tch. Then again. It's not like saying you're sick would change anything."
"I'm not sick, though......"
"For us, if we're sick, we can just rest and take less pay. But it's not like you can skip work. Today, you just eat all of it."
Martin shoved his bread ration at him. Berak felt uneasy. It looked like he'd gotten food out of Martin's misunderstanding.
"I'm fine. Really."
"Enough, kiddo. Hurry up and hide it somewhere. You think you can just keep holding it out like that?"
Neither the overseers nor the other serfs liked a commoner looking after a serf separately. Martin knew that too.
"Thank you."
Berak now knew where Martin's kindness came from. He'd mentioned it now and then. That as recently as last year, he'd had a son about Berak's size.
'Had' was a familiar story to Berak too. In the village, children who never saw tomorrow were common. He himself had nearly not made it through a winter.
"Get a good night's sleep. We have to head to Delmore tomorrow."
"Delmore. Where's that?"
Berak knew they'd both been drafted for the hauling job, but he didn't yet know the exact destination.
"It's the city where the lord lives."
"Then... what should I do if I meet the lord?"
Martin chuckled.
"We won't be meeting him. We just unload outside the castle walls and that's it."
Berak nodded. His heart was pounding. He might not see him in person, but wasn't it where a tremendously important person he'd only heard about lived? Besides, a 'city' was something he'd long dreamed of.
"They say the air in the city is sweet."
"Sweet?"
"They say nobody goes hungry there, and every street smells of bread."
Martin looked at Berak without a word, then laughed briefly.
"Sure, it'll smell, all right. Of shit, not bread."
"Then it's like the village......"
Berak tilted his head.
"There's more to do than in the village you know, but... Oh, dear."
"What is it?"
"I'm going to look around a bit when we get there, but I don't think it'll be easy for you. So don't get your hopes up too much."
"Ah."
So just like how their quarters and meals were different from the commoners'. Even there, serfs probably wouldn't get to look around.
"It's fine. It's better than staying here doing the same work."
He meant it. Ever since the letters appeared, Berak had been thirsty for experience. He had come to realize that it led to new letters appearing.
"Geez. I told you not to expect too much."
Seeing Berak's expression, Martin let out a light sigh.