Squeak!
Squeak-eak!
Squeeak!
Squeeeeeak…
For the past few days, the screams of rats hadn't stopped within the manor.
Because of none other than me!
TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP!
I deliberately stomped my feet loudly as I leapt.
For no real reason, I did a full somersault in the air and snuck a glance.
Hm, they're watching me, all right.
The serf uncles working in the fields had their eyes stolen by my flashy moves.
Then a stylish landing.
I immediately drew the bowstring.
THWACK—!
Squeeak…
The field rat struck by the stone arrow let out a mournful death cry.
Then applause and whistles came from the field.
“Ho ho! A gamekeeper's son through and through!”
“You can say that again! Haha.”
“Hey! Keep up the good work, Lark!”
“Here, have some water while you're at it. Here!”
I didn't refuse the cup of water they offered.
It was a huge wooden cup, as big as my head.
I heartily tossed the water filling it to the brim down my throat.
And then, like some legendary hero,
“Khaaah! Hahaha! The water's great! Thank you, mister! From now on, leave the rat hunting to me, Lark!”
“All right! We'll keep counting on you! Just watching you drink makes me feel reassured!”
I handed the cup back to the man and turned around without lingering.
I walked with my shoulders squared to look as gallant as possible.
All of this was, of course, showmanship.
My goal wasn't rat hunting itself.
What I needed, first and foremost, was a reputation for being good at catching rats.
That was why, even when catching just a single rat, I made sure to do it somewhere with watching eyes, and as flashily as possible.
“Heh heh. What's so special about reputation? This is how you build it up.”
As I muttered that, I heard the serfs talking behind me.
“They say that Lark kid is only eight?”
“That size, and he's only eight?”
“Huh? He's way bigger than my son, though?”
“Didn't you say your son was eleven?”
As you could tell from the men's murmuring, my size had already surpassed that of my peers.
I suspected there were about three reasons why I was developing so fast.
First, genetics.
My father had the biggest build among the serfs in the territory.
In Earth units, he looked to be at least 195cm and around 100kg.
Where else would those genes have gone?
Every last one came to me.
Second, sufficient nutrition.
I was a gamekeeper's son.
So, at least when it came to food, I grew up eating plenty.
This was the medieval era.
An era when growing up hungry during your growth years was the norm.
Therefore, my growth had gone relatively more smoothly than other kids'.
Third, the [Growth SSS] talent.
I didn't know its exact effect, but it was an SSS-grade ability, after all.
It was surely having a tremendous influence on my growth.
Because even compared to my siblings and cousins, my growth rate had been abnormally fast.
They had genes and upbringings similar to mine.
Yet if my development stood out even among them?
It was reasonable to see it as another external factor being added into the mix.
“Just as I thought. He's the son of Jade the Giant.”
“Sure. With seed like that, naturally Lark will become a giant someday, too.”
Did even 195cm feel like a giant to medieval people?
The grown-ups called Father a giant, and Father was proud of that title.
“At this rate, isn't the Rat Captain going to change before long?”
“The current Rat Captain is Thomas, right?”
“Well, well, well. Looks like the little squirts will be fighting over rank soon. Heh heh.”
The men's topic of conversation turned to the Rat Captain.
Rat Captain was the title for the leader of the rat hunters.
In Korean terms, it was the alley captain position, the boss of the neighborhood kids.
“Eh. Still, Lark's eight. Isn't Thomas twelve? I'll bet a head of cabbage on Thomas.”
“Heh heh, this guy. Didn't you just see how Lark moves? I'll bet two heads on Lark.”
“Right, right. If they're about the same size, of course you bet on the giant's son.”
“Oh, come on! Age is still something you can't ignore, you know?”
The men tossed aside their farm tools and launched into a heated debate.
Curiosity over who would win in a fight.
Regardless of era or dimension, it was a topic that stimulated men's peripheral nerves.
“Well, then….”
That was enough listening to the grown-ups.
Should I start hunting rats again? The moment that thought crossed my mind,
“Hey! You punk! Lark!”
Speak of the devil. Guess a serf like him could never be a gentleman, huh?
A shout came from the far end of the farm road.
A gravelly voice for a boy.
“You! Who said you could hunt rats as you please?!”
A mean-looking boy was walking this way.
It was our manor's Rat Captain, Thomas.
He had two lackeys with him, and every time their captain said something, the lackeys chimed in with a line each.
“This punk. What do you take the Rat Captain for?!”
“You want to get hunted like a rat? Huh?”
All three of them looked thoroughly angry.
Why were they angry?
Simple.
Because I broke the rat hunters' long-standing custom.
Originally, if you wanted to become a rat hunter, you had to go to the Rat Captain first and be acknowledged, but I'd deliberately skipped that convention.
What that meant was obvious.
A challenge to the Rat Captain.
“Heh heh.”
I snorted with amusement.
I'd been waiting all along, wondering when he'd come.
“Come on, hurry up.”
As if to live up to my expectations, Thomas's group strode toward me.
They kept shouting and calling my name, but I didn't really respond.
I just quietly set my wooden bow and quiver down on the ground.
Even if it was just a kids' fight, who knew what kind of trouble I'd land in if I used a weapon?
The manor I currently belonged to was part of a territory called Gias.
The lord's house of Gias had been a knightly family for generations.
Maybe that was why fair duels among the territory's residents were rather encouraged.
However, seriously injuring your dueling opponent or fighting with weapons was strictly forbidden.
Because of that, a unique culture had emerged.
In Gias territory, disarming yourself meant issuing a challenge.
“This punk's putting his weapon down?”
Thomas also flung the wooden stick he'd been holding to the ground.
Then he charged at me with ferocious momentum.
“Hup!”
Paying it no mind, I loosened up my shoulders a bit.
At the same time, I spread my legs and bent my knees slightly.
It was judo's jigotai, which I'd learned in my past life.
With my center of gravity lowered as much as possible, I stared into Thomas's eyes as he charged in.
[Bravado A]
[Luck B]
These were Thomas's talents.
He must have taken the Rat Captain position on bravado and luck.
Sure enough, his pupils wavered with agitation.
He was probably surprised to see my weight class.
He might not have noticed from far away, but I was no longer built like an eight-year-old.
Just from the look in Thomas's eyes, I could tell what he was thinking.
He's probably screaming, Lark, you punk! When did you get this big?
Thomas and I belonged to the same community, but we didn't cross paths much.
You could say we were people who only knew of each other's existence?
On top of that, I'd been keeping to myself all this time.
There'd been a lot to learn from the family elders, and my mental age wasn't low enough to run around playing with kids my age.
So the last time Thomas and I had crossed paths was at the village feast two years ago.
In the meantime, I'd achieved tremendous physical growth, enough that I wouldn't lose to Thomas on weight class alone.
An eight-year-old going toe-to-toe with a twelve-year-old on size.
This was SSS-grade growth.
It was my own body, but it was truly mysterious.
If I was surprised, how must he feel?
A moment ago, Thomas had definitely been appalled by my size.
But his feet didn't stop.
Probably because of the lackeys watching from behind.
So he's a captain, for what it's worth.
Heh, the little punk. He knows how to keep up appearances, huh?
“Waaaaagh!”
As if trying to forget his fear and panic, Thomas spurred himself on even harder, and once he got right up close to me, he threw a punch like a man eating mustard through his tears.
But as for me,
“Haaah…!”
With a battle cry, I snatched his arm as he charged in.
At the same time, I spun my body and pulled Thomas in.
Thomas pitched forward with the very momentum he'd come flying in with, and
“Aaargh!”
With a cute scream, he spun in midair and slammed back-first into the ground.
A shoulder throw.
Cleanly executed.
“Uuuurgh….”
Groaning, Thomas rolled around on the farm road.
The two lackeys, who'd belatedly followed their leader, said with their mouths flapping open and shut,
“Wh-what? What did I just see….”
“No, more importantly, I'm sure he said he was eight….”
Then one of the men working the fields shouted.
It was the man who'd bet two heads of cabbage on me.
“Tch! You little rascals. That Lark is the son of Jade the Giant. You think he was going to grow at the same speed as you lot?”
At those words, Thomas, who'd been lying on the ground, freaked out.
“Eek! Lark was the giant's son?”
The lackeys looked at Thomas as if he were the most pathetic thing in the world.
As if asking how he didn't even know that.
“…Thomas. Didn't you know that coming in?”
“…You didn't know he was the giant's son? Mr. Jade is famous.”
Then Thomas got up and raised his voice at his lackeys.
“Hey! You guys! Why didn't you stop me?! If you knew Lark was the son of the great Mr. Jade, you should've stopped me!”
Whether Thomas really hadn't known, or was desperately pretending he hadn't known, I couldn't tell.
Well, not my business anyway.
At any rate, once Thomas lit twin wicks of fury in his eyes, the lackeys started fiercely defending themselves too.
“Well… even so, we never thought you'd get beaten by an eight-year-old!”
“Yeah! And he doesn't really play with the other kids. That he'd grow that big… we really didn't know either!”
What are these punks whispering about among themselves right in front of me?
“Thomas. Thomas. Hey….”
One of the lackeys picked up on my displeasure.
At that lackey's gesture, Thomas cautiously turned to look at me.
Then, covering his expression with a shameless smile,
“Ah. Lark. Just as I thought, a hunter's blood runs in your veins. Congratulations on passing my test! I acknowledge you. From now on, you're an official rat hunter of our manor. Hahaha….”
Wow.
Truly a guy with expertise in [Bravado].
He's packaging what just happened as some kind of entrance exam?
“Well, I'll be off, then.”
Thomas hurriedly turned around.
Then he tried to leave the scene with his lackeys in a hurry, but
“Where do you think you're going?”
I grabbed him by the scruff of the neck.
Thomas slowly looked back with an awkward smile.
Answering him with a bright smile, I continued.
“You've got to leave the Rat Captain position behind, don't you?”
At my demand, Thomas's expression rotted in real time.
And then, finally,
“Why are you doing this to me, seriously?!”
He burst into tears.
The universal rule of kids' fights.
Whoever cries or gets a nosebleed first loses.
This was a law that applied the same way in another world, too.
“What's so great about Rat Captain?! You do it! I'm not doing it!”
With that, Thomas ran off into the distance, and his lackeys vanished somewhere too.
Thomas was probably heading home, and the lackeys were probably off to spread what had just happened all over the neighborhood.
Fweet— Fwee—
As I watched their retreating backs with satisfaction, whistles came from the field.
“Lark! That was awesome!”
“A giant's son through and through!”
“Wait. Has our manor ever had an eight-year-old Rat Captain?”
“There hasn't been one. Even Jade the Giant made Rat Captain at ten, you know? I'm the same age as Jade, so I know.”
“Then is this the birth of the youngest Rat Captain ever?”
“Ha! Well, well. Looks like we've got something to chew on with our drinks tonight.”
The men chattered away excitedly.
The Middle Ages, short on entertainment. And within it, the hard-pressed life of a serf.
For those people, what kept life lively would be the small upsets in their everyday lives.
So the incident of me becoming the youngest Rat Captain would surely spread fast through their mouths.
“Hmm… hm!”
I can already hear the sound of my reputation rising.
“Yes, everyone! For a world without rats, I will become a Rat Captain who works day and night! Please leave the rat hunting of this manor to me, Lark!”
As if I'd become president, I gave my Rat Captain victory speech.
Receiving my supporters' enthusiastic cheers, I cheered inwardly.
With this, the first stone toward my rise in status had been laid.
“Well, then.”
On to the next step.