Name my muscles?
It was so ridiculous I felt like I might ascend from sheer disbelief.
The moment that emotion showed on my face, punishment came down.
THWACK! THWACK!
Two forehead flicks on an entirely different level.
"Uaaagh......"
Pain exploded through my forehead as though my skull were splitting.
I clutched my head and groaned.
When Elder Aaron raised his hand to flick me again, I hurriedly signaled surrender and accepted reality.
Elder Aaron crossed his arms with a look that said I should've done that from the start.
"Muscles are always right. They never betray you so long as you give them love."
"......"
"And the first step in that love is, naturally, giving them names."
"......My muscles are named Dans."
"Which muscles?"
"Huh? What do you mean, which ones? Obviously all my muscles together are Dans."
Elder Aaron shook his head.
"No, no. That's not it. You have to give each part its own proper name."
"......"
"Look carefully at my James and Garrod."
Elder Aaron flexed the biceps in each arm one after the other.
The masses of muscle, damp with sweat, displayed their firm contours proudly.
Seriously.
In more ways than one, he was an incredible man.
Was he really the Mercenary King and not the Muscle King?
"And what about Max and Orro?"
The veins in both forearms bulged vividly.
One by one, each section stood out along with its name, reminding me of bronze diamonds.
"The basics of muscle training are to develop every part of the body. So you have to share your love with all of them."
"Uh...... Mm......"
"You still only have Dans?"
Elder Aaron prepared another forehead flick.
A forced smile naturally appeared on my face.
I hurriedly improvised names for the rest of my muscles and announced them on the spot.
Of course, I only referred to my muscles by name when Elder Aaron was around.
When I was alone, I had no intention of going out of my way to call my muscles by names.
I didn't think I was that devoted to muscles.
More than anything, it was way too embarrassing.
No matter how I thought about it, this wasn't normal.
***
'Now we're mountain climbing?'
I followed Elder Aaron on a trip to Mount Crote near the nursing home.
The main purpose of the hike was, naturally, my training.
Director Denia had objected out of concern for me, but with Elder Lephiri supporting the idea, she eventually accepted it.
Elder Aaron had managed to persuade Elder Lephiri and get the result he wanted, but whatever the reason, the trip went ahead.
Officially, it was meant to help me grow.
For now, though, we were simply wandering around Mount Crote without any specific destination in mind.
"Elder Aaron, may I ask you something?"
"Sure. What are you curious about?"
"When are we supposed to arrive at our destination?"
"Huh? We don't have one."
"What?"
"The whole point is to experience different things in nature."
"......"
Without a word, I pulled a water bottle from my pack and wet my throat.
'There he goes again. This old man is starting up again.'
The sky was gradually turning pale yellow.
Sunset was drawing closer.
If night fell while we were out here, we would obviously have to deal with wild animals, the cold, and the darkness.
"Elder Aaron, the sun's about to set. I think we should start looking for a place to stay."
"Already that late? Fine. Let's settle down around here."
Elder Aaron glanced at me.
He seemed to be thinking about something, but there was no way for me to know what.
So I simply let it pass.
"We'll have to move quickly. Howell, go gather some dry branches from around here."
"Okay."
I took a net for carrying the branches and set off.
It would become difficult to find my way back once it got completely dark, so I couldn't go very far.
Fortunately, there were dry branches scattered here and there nearby.
I picked them up one by one and put them into the net.
Then a savory scent brushed against my nose.
A cluster of mushrooms was gathered beneath a hornbeam tree.
Their shapes looked familiar.
They were mushrooms I'd often been served in my previous life because of my illness.
Lingzhi mushrooms and shiitake mushrooms.
There were plenty of them, and they looked beautiful too.
Their colors were vivid and their shapes clean, making them look delicious.
'Elder Aaron will like these too.'
They would be good eaten as they were, or added to a warm broth.
My mouth watered on its own.
'I've gathered them all. I should head back.'
The sky was growing darker.
The forest after sunset was sinking into shadow, making it difficult to see.
I calmly drew holy power toward my head.
Light stirred to life around my head and illuminated the surroundings.
I'd left markers along the way, so I had no trouble returning.
When I arrived back at the spot we'd chosen earlier, everything except the firewood was already prepared.
"Oh, you brought quite a lot."
"Hehe. I brought something else too. I'll start the fire first."
"Huh. You know how to start a fire too?"
"I read about it in books and practiced a few times in the nursing home's yard."
"Kwahaha. You really do exceed common sense every time. Fine, show me."
"Okay."
I carefully started a fire with the wood I'd gathered.
The branches had dried well, so they caught quickly.
A pot heated over the flames.
Inside were the mushrooms I'd brought, water, the spices Elder Aaron always carried, and a few pieces of dried meat.
The seasoning, made from dried herbs and ground chili peppers, deepened the aroma of the mushroom broth.
"Kwah, that smells incredible. I never dreamed you'd come back with mushrooms."
"Hehe. I'm not exactly ordinary."
"Already getting cocky, are you? Brat, you really are far too different from other kids your age."
"People usually call that exceptional."
"One forehead flick and— Tch. Fine. I'll spare you today because of the mushrooms."
Before long, we sat with the pot between us.
As I ladled out the rich broth and wet my lips with it, the chilly night air became almost irrelevant.
The warmth settled deep into my body and made me feel more at ease.
"Krrrr. These mushrooms are the real deal."
I shrugged with a smug smile.
"You little—"
"The mushrooms."
"Tsk."
For all his roughness, Elder Aaron did live up to the title of Mercenary King in one respect.
He was a man's man.
No matter how irritating I was, he didn't break the promise he'd just made.
After that, I occasionally teased him as though venting all the complaints I'd built up over time, but Elder Aaron simply let it slide.
"Tch. If you're done eating, let's clean up."
"Okay. I'll take care of the pot and dishes."
As I cleaned up with Elder Aaron, I was reminded once again of how remarkable Grixita Nursing Home was.
Its residents were lively elders to begin with, but whenever something needed doing, most of them showed no awkwardness about handling it themselves.
They must have been revered as heroes in their respective fields.
Even so, most of Grixita's elders took the initiative themselves.
'I really should be used to it by now, but because of more than thirty years spent reading historical accounts, the contrast still feels fresh every time.'
In my previous life, I'd never met anyone who could truly be called a "great person" or a "real hero."
I'd only read about the shining achievements of historical figures in books.
"Howell, don't forget your push-ups and sit-ups. I'm going to sleep first."
"It's bad for you to sleep right after eating."
"Says who?"
"Books."
"Brat, I know more than whoever wrote that book, so I'm fine. I'm sleeping first."
"Okay. Good night."
Heroic disposition aside, perhaps natural stubbornness was the same whether a person was old or young.
'Maybe I'll just do a light hundred today. Fifty push-ups and fifty sit-ups.'
After finishing what I considered an appropriate number of push-ups and sit-ups, I began preparing for sleep.
I laid out a blanket neatly and lay down.
This was the first time in either of my lives that I'd slept in the mountains.
And I was doing it in the body of a ten-year-old child.
Even so, I wasn't particularly afraid.
Enjoying the warmth of the flames, I slowly closed my eyes.
Wild animals could appear nearby at any moment, but I felt at ease.
No matter what kind of beast showed up, it wouldn't be more than a single punch's worth of trouble for the Mercenary King.
***
The tenth day of living in the mountains.
I had gradually grown fairly accustomed to a camping life I'd known nothing about.
Aside from a few basic ingredients, it had long since become normal to gather most of our food from the surroundings.
That would've been impossible for an ordinary ten-year-old.
I could adapt this quickly only because the soul inside this body was in its thirties.
Today, too, I practiced several of the Mercenary King's Secret Techniques from dawn onward, repeating them again and again.
I trusted that they would prove useful someday.
'Still, where does Elder Aaron keep wandering off to?'
At dawn, he would give me instructions about what to train and what food to gather.
Then, around morning, he would leave camp.
He never told me where he was going.
If I asked, instead of an answer I only received a nuclear-grade forehead flick.
'Ugh...... No matter how I think about it, that's not a forehead flick a human being should be capable of......'
Even though his destination remained a mystery, he always returned around the afternoon.
And the first thing he did was check whether I'd properly completed the day's training.
Naturally, he evaluated my training by examining my muscles.
When it came to muscles, he was practically supernatural.
Just by looking at how swollen my muscles appeared beneath my clothes, or feeling them with his hands, he could tell how much I'd worked my body that day.
For example, he could tell within a margin as narrow as whether I'd done 200 push-ups or 198.
On the second day, I hadn't trained as much as he'd instructed.
Then he caught me lying about it and subjected me to a hellish barrage of forehead flicks.
They had been so powerful that I could still feel the phantom aftermath in my head.
"Haaa. I should exercise."
Remembering the pain, I continued with my morning physical training.
Eventually, evening came.
Elder Aaron, who had left early that morning, returned.
"Howell! Did you finish today's training properly?"
"You're ba— Huh? Elder...... What in the world is that......?"
I stopped walking toward him.
There was a living creature beside Elder Aaron.
It wasn't unbelievably huge, but its mere presence was imposing enough.
Elder Aaron laughed heartily as though it were nothing special.
"Kwahahaha. All right, let me introduce you. This is your boar friend."
"What?"
"Don't fight. Get along nicely."
The boar stood beside Elder Aaron looking utterly dejected.
Judging by its size, it seemed somewhere between a juvenile and a full-grown adult.
Considering the difference in biological age between humans and boars, it might actually have been about my age.
The problem began when Elder Aaron stepped away.
The moment the boar was alone with me, its entire demeanor changed.
It seemed to regain the pride Elder Aaron had crushed.
Every ounce of stress it had accumulated because of him practically radiated the desire to take it all out on me.
"Snort. Snort."
It snorted loudly as though voicing its displeasure.
At the same time, it scraped its hind feet against the ground, looking ready to charge at any moment.
A friend who wanted to attack me to the death the instant we met.
What a wonderful friend.
'All right. What do I do now?'
There was a saying that a lion trained its cub by throwing it off a cliff, but even that had limits.
Even if this wasn't a fully grown boar, telling a ten-year-old boy to fight it was obviously beyond common sense.
But when had the Mercenary King's teaching ever been normal?
Rather than waste time complaining, I decided to find a way out of the situation in front of me.
'Tsk. It's not even going to give me time to think slowly.'
The boar snorted as it closed the distance.
I lowered my stance and watched it carefully.
Even if it wasn't yet adult-sized, it was still more than large enough to be threatening.
"Huuu."
"Snort. Snort."
The boar stopped right in front of me and met my gaze.
As though telling me to get down on the ground and crawl in surrender.
"Hey, hey. Openly demanding my surrender is a bit much, don't you think? Now I have to beat you out of sheer stubbornness."
I wasn't an ordinary ten-year-old either.
I used the basic enhancement holy arts Elder Lephiri had taught me to strengthen my entire body.
Energy surged through me.
'Good. I can do this.'
The boar was letting its guard down.
Now was my chance.