Grandma Sujin stared at me as though trying to see whether I was sincere.
A moment later, she let out a deep sigh and stroked my head.
“Have it your way, you little troublemaker. You are a fine Adventurer yourself.”
“Thank you—.”
“But only those children. That is all I can take responsibility for.”
“What do you mean, take responsibility for them?”
“By the rules, those children are not citizens of Raechia. They are illegal residents—or ghosts who do not even qualify as that.”
As I have said repeatedly, Subura was a place within Raechia that was not Raechia.
Those born in Subura could never be recognized as Raechians.
Even if they slipped in and hid, they could not help but stand out.
People from the wild lands where beasts, not humans, lived.
Once they were discovered, there would be no good ending.
They would either be forcibly driven back to Subura and killed by the people there, or killed in Raechia on whatever charge they could pin on them.
Grandma said she would prevent that.
But how?
“Johan, living a long life means having many opportunities.”
Grandma murmured warmly as she looked toward the distant Doge’s Palace.
“If someone who has lived long has neither money nor power, they are incompetent. But the incompetent cannot survive for long.”
“Agh!”
Grandma left me with that cryptic remark, then suddenly smacked me across the back.
Her hand was fiercer than I expected, and a cry slipped out of me.
“Fairies consider it virtuous not to flaunt their power simply because they possess it... but because of you, I will have to use some of mine for the first time in a while.”
“Th-thank you?”
Without understanding what she meant, I thanked her first.
Carefully watching Grandma’s lovely profile as she looked back on days long past with longing in her eyes.
***
At Grandma’s declaration as the Branch Chief, the Guild agreed to overlook the children’s situation.
In the meantime, I went home to prepare to stay away for a few days.
Fortunately, my parents were not too worried.
When I became a Trainee Adventurer, Grandma Sujin had come by to introduce herself, and they had given me permission to stay out overnight when it involved Guild work.
I had not expected to use that permission like this.
In any case, I quickly packed my things and returned to the Guild.
I heard that Grandma Sujin had stepped out to take care of something.
Having a rough idea why, I went to the children.
After watching them for a while, having dinner, and chatting with the Guild staff, night had fallen by the time I returned.
The older of the two children who had been unconscious was awake.
“Hm? You are awake?”
“Yeah. Th-tha....”
“You should say thank you. Do you have any idea how much trouble you put me through?”
I had not actually suffered that much, but I made a show of it anyway.
It was better to make kids like this feel indebted if I wanted to keep them in line.
Besides, it looked like I really would have some trouble ahead of me.
“So, what are your names?”
“I’m Emilio. They’re Luka.”
“Nice names.”
Beloved and light.
They were probably names chosen without knowing what they meant.
Still, that did not change the fact that they were good names.
Emilio stared for a long while at the star-spattered sky beyond the window before suddenly asking me a question.
“Why did you help us?”
“Is that something a kid who got helped should be asking?”
“That is what I mean. We do not know each other. We even fought.”
The more I listened, the more annoyed I became.
I did not like that a kid his age had eyes like a rotten pollack, either.
With all sorts of feelings mixed together, I rapped him on the head.
“Agh! Why did you hit me?!”
“Because I just wanted to help, and you had the nerve to ask why I helped.”
“I can ask!”
Emilio snapped at me, then bit his lip.
After that, he quietly told me about himself.
“Luka was really sick. I thought they would die if I left them alone.”
“And?”
“I told Dad, and he said to give them alcohol. He said drinking would make them all better. But Luka only got sicker.”
“Are you an idiot? You actually believed that?”
“If I do not believe my dad, who am I supposed to believe?!”
“There is something in this world called common sense. The fact that alcohol is poison to a sick person falls under that.”
“I didn’t know....”
Emilio hugged his knees and muttered.
Feeling sorry for him, I stroked his head.
Just as my parents had done for me, and as Grandma Sujin had done for me.
“It is all right not to know. Not knowing is not a sin. So, did you come straight here to save them?”
“No. Dad was going to make Luka smoke the medicine he said only adults could smoke. Even I thought that was really wrong, so I ran away.”
“Medicine?”
Surprisingly, the man who called himself Emilio’s father was not merely uneducated.
I did not know where he had gotten tobacco imported from the Archipelago, but he was going to make a child smoke it?
A sick child, at that?
“You did well there. But why did you follow what he said about giving them alcohol, then decide the medicine was not all right?”
“Dad got kind of strange after smoking the medicine. He stopped getting irritated every day because his knees hurt, but....”
“How did he get strange?”
“Whenever he smoked the medicine, he would slump over like a corpse. That was how I was able to run away, too.”
My eyes sharpened at Emilio’s words.
The medicine he spoke of was not tobacco. It was something more dangerous than tobacco.
Tobacco, a powerful stimulant, could not make someone slump over like that.
I was searching through the Sword Saint’s memories for a drug that could have such an effect when Emilio muttered as though airing a grievance.
“Dad said that all the people outside were monsters who ate people.”
To be honest, it was true that the people of Raechia had done terrible things to Subura, and were still doing them.
But that did not mean they were all horrible people.
If anything, because they had enough to live on, most of them were fairly easygoing.
I wondered how I should refute him, but there was no need.
The little bird that had broken out of its prison-like egg and entered the world had already realized that its father had lied.
“But it was not true. They do not cut open children’s bellies, pull out their guts, and eat them. They do not suddenly sell them off as slaves, either.”
“And even thinking that, you still managed to come here and ask for help?”
“There was no other way. I really wanted to save Luka.”
I smiled faintly and patted his shoulder.
Looking at him now, he was better than the Sword Saint, who only realized his mistake after losing his parents.
Better than I was, too. I had only come to understand through the memories of the Sword Saint, who had failed first, after shutting myself in my room out of fear.
At least this kid had done it before losing someone precious to him.
Before anyone taught him, he had overcome his fear himself and escaped his little world.
Thinking that, a sense of pride naturally seeped into my voice as I comforted him.
“Anyway, you did well to get out. You do not have to go back now. You will be able to live far more comfortably than you did in Subura.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. You can eat good food, study, and play. Live freely. Forget all about a place like Subura.”
Emilio did not answer.
Somewhere in the city, bright with lanterns hanging everywhere, he silently stared at a patch of darkness and sank into thought.
Understanding his complicated feelings, I left him with only encouragement and stepped away.
“Then get plenty of sleep. Do not worry about your sibling. They have made it past the worst of it, and we will take good care of them.”
“Yeah, thanks.”
He thanked me more smoothly this time.
Smiling fondly at the little kid’s improvement in such a short time, I went downstairs.
A few hours later, when I returned to see whether they were sleeping well, the bed Emilio had been lying in was empty.
“So, he went after all.”
I had expected that he was not the kind of kid who could stay here alone, eating well and living comfortably.
The little kids who had followed Emilio when I first met him.
Unable to leave them behind in hell, he had gone back to hell.
To fulfill the responsibility attached to that paltry title of boss.
After touching the bed, which still held his warmth, I quietly went out to the Adventurer’s Guild’s backyard.
There, I drew the blunt Pirate Blade I had used during my test and strapped it to my waist.
If he had gone back to fulfill his responsibility, I had to fulfill my responsibility for saving him.
Letting go of a hand I had taken was worse than never taking it in the first place.
It was just as I turned around.
“Where are you going with a sword?”
Uncle Aldo, leaning against the wall with his arms folded, asked me in a cold voice from the shadows.
He was a kind and skilled man, even if he could be a little hapless.
But Uncle Aldo had changed.
Leaning by the door beneath the dim moonlight, he was chilling.
As if proving that he was not merely someone who lived, but someone who had survived.
“Are you going to stop me?”
“That depends on where you are going. Is it the place I am thinking of?”
Unlike my blade, whose edge was dull, Uncle Aldo wore a sword with a keen, living edge at his waist.
His eyes flashed in the moonlight, and they were quite frightening.
But I neither retreated nor trembled.
Once you have made up your mind, do not retreat, even if you fall spraying blood.
The path of life opens only when one presses ahead. Such is the life of a Martial Artist.
Following the lesson passed down through the Sword Saint’s memories, I answered proudly.
“Yes. I am going to Subura.”
“Why?”
“Because I have to take responsibility.”
At my calm answer, Uncle Aldo tapped his forehead with his index finger.
“Is there anything more you need to take responsibility for? You said you would help, and you helped. That is enough. You do not need to risk your life to help again.”
“Can responsibility be fulfilled by passing on only a moment of warmth, like a spring breeze that brushes by for an instant?”
Perhaps it was because I had quietly taken out and put on the Sword Saint’s mask while we spoke.
I did not stumble over difficult words as I calmly poured them out.
The vague thoughts I had only turned over in my head flowed smoothly, borrowing the Sword Saint’s experience and memories.
“I believe deceiving a seed into sprouting in winter is worse than leaving it as a seed in frozen ground. If you have given it warmth, you must remain and nurture it until it sprouts and flowers bloom.”
Uncle Aldo glared at me for a moment before suddenly bursting into laughter.
After laughing and slapping his thigh, he abruptly pulled a gourd from his waist and drank deeply from it.
His Adam’s apple bobbed several times.
Then he wiped the liquor from his mouth and grinned.
“Kid, you will die acting like that. Think of the parents who raised you so dearly. And you said it was your dream to fix your leg, did you not? Do not do anything dangerous.”
It was sincere advice.
My answer was brief.
“I am merely fulfilling my duty. Rather than eke out my life as a beast, I would rather live one day as a person.”
“Ha! So you are going no matter what? To a place where you could die, all for one Subura brat?”
“I am not planning to die, but... yes. I am going.”
This was not reckless courage.
Thinking about it calmly, I was much stronger than I had been a few months ago.
I could not even compare myself to how I had been when I first received the Sword Saint’s memories.
I had gained more strength, and I had grown accustomed to handling a sword.
At this level, I might not be able to face every Subura thug, but I could save one person.
That was the conclusion of my sober judgment.
Uncle Aldo stared at me before saying, as though spitting out the words,
“Fine. Then I will go with you.”
“What?”
“Believe it or not, I think very highly of you. Like an Adventurer, you are thoroughly self-willed. Romantic, too.”
“Uh... thank you?”
“If you go alone without knowing the roads there, you will only wander around all night. You need someone who knows the place well, like me.”
“You know Subura well?”
At my unconscious question, Uncle Aldo looked down at me, rolling only his eyes, and muttered eerily.
All while simply patting my head.
“I know it well. Who does not know the hometown where he was born and raised?”
“Ah....”
“That kid happens to be the son of an animal bastard I know. It worked out well, did it not? If you understand, follow me.”
With that, Uncle Aldo grinned and turned around.
His back as he led the way looked so broad that I could not say anything.
After walking for a while, he stopped, quietly looked at the moon, and asked,
“Ah, there was something I did not say earlier. Do you know what happens when someone who only does things that shorten his life lives a long time?”
“I do not know.”
“He becomes a hero. Most of them croak before then, but if they survive, that is what they become.”
I could not respond carelessly to those words.
I did not think I would become a hero.
It was not as though I possessed any particularly righteous or noble will.
Anger, hatred, and shame at the contempt and pity I had received for being born crippled.
If I traced against the current, farther and farther upstream, every reason for my actions lay there.
Learning swordsmanship and studying. Working as a Trainee Adventurer.
Even trying to save the children who seemed to overlap with me.
They were all manifestations of the twist in my heart.
If no one else did, I knew that fact well.
How could someone like me be a hero?
The reason I could not voice those thoughts was that Uncle Aldo looked too lonely.
His back looked narrow as he walked into the shadows of Raechia’s streets, beautiful beneath the mingled moonlight and lanterns.
How long did that silence continue?
Uncle Aldo muttered to himself in a voice tinged with regret.
“Duty, duty... It is about time I started looking after something like that, too.”
“Then you will become a hero too, Uncle?”
“Puhaha! A hero, at my station? That would be impossible, but perhaps I can at least become a person.”
Uncle Aldo burst into laughter again, as though my words were absurd.
The nighttime road was not frightening with a dependable companion beside me.
Even if the darkest shadow awaited at its end.