Traveler Package had three options.
-Skill: Traveler Package (LV.1)
-The Traveler Package skill has a maximum level of 1 and includes a total of three options.
The skill holder adapts quickly to any environment.
The skill holder can immediately understand and speak all languages.
Travel events occasionally occur. During events, rewards obtainable through specific actions greatly increase.
The last of the three options had activated.
An event that increased experience points thirtyfold, limited to blacksmithing work.
When I leveled up, I could gain skill points, and by using skill points, I could learn the skills I wanted.
Originally, people could only learn skills that matched their own aptitude, but in my case, since I had aptitude in every field, I could choose and learn any skill I wanted.
In other words, even if I gained experience points through blacksmithing work, I could use the skill points obtained from that to acquire skills in other fields.
Come to think of it, the hunter I met at the guild had said it.
Even if my goal was travel, I needed at least one skill to take care of myself.
Coming here to travel, only to grind experience points because I wanted to level up, would be getting my priorities backward.
If possible, it was right to use events to minimize the time spent gaining experience points and focus on heading toward exploration points.
I did want to ask Layton if I could experience blacksmithing tomorrow, but.......
“Our world fought wars against demons once every few decades at the shortest, and once every few centuries at the longest. The last war happened ten years ago. It was also the war our son participated in.”
The atmosphere was far too heavy to casually ask for an experience.
It was absolutely not the right flow to ask him to let me try it for a day tomorrow.
That did not mean it was something I should half-listen to.
I listened carefully to Layton’s story.
“So the dimension travelers who crossed over in the past joined forces with the locals here and opposed the demons.”
“The dimension travelers truly did everything they could back then. They were in a position where they could return whenever they wanted, yet not a single one ran away. They fought to the end. That is why we were able to hold out and resist until the end too.”
While expressing his gratitude toward dimension travelers, Layton’s eyes suddenly reddened.
Layton’s gaze was still fixed on the metal bow hanging on the wall.
Sensing the solemnity, I carefully called to Layton.
“Mister, are you all right?”
“Hm? Ah, I am fine. I suddenly thought of my son, that is all. If he had lived, he would have been around your age by now.”
The grief of severed bowels.
A parent’s heart is deeper than a river and firmer than a mountain.
Even if rivers and mountains had changed after ten years, how could the heart of a parent who had lost a child change?
I refrained from speaking.
“.......”
Layton gulped down the wine remaining in his glass as if it were water and spoke.
“He never learned the blacksmithing work I told him to learn. He said he would become a hunter and carried a bow around while following Nadan. Then, when he heard that war had broken out, he suddenly threw a fit, saying he would go protect the kingdom. He even promised that once the war ended, he would absolutely inherit the blacksmith’s workshop.”
“Then that bow is.......”
“I made it for him. I obtained rare parts from a high-level monster with great difficulty and made it. So the bow would not break under any circumstances. Perhaps because of that, when the war ended, my son did not return, but the bow he had carried came back perfectly intact.”
There was not a single scratch on the bow.
I had no way of knowing how incredible the material used to make it was, but the fact that it had rolled around on the battlefield for years without even a scratch said enough.
At the very least, I could tell it was not an item that belonged hanging on the wall of a country home.
Layton swallowed the final sip left in his glass and let out a long breath.
“I made it too sturdy.”
The words he threw at the bow were mixed with reproach, and that was not merely my imagination.
As if asking why only it had returned when the son who should have come back did not.
After that, Layton muttered, “I made it too sturdy,” three more times.
Then, after Arte returned from getting the wine, he did not bring up the war or their son even once.
Not even once.
***
At dawn the next day, my eyes opened on their own, and I woke earlier than scheduled.
Perhaps because I drank quite a bit yesterday, my head throbbed slightly.
I heard clattering from the yard outside the window, so I went outside.
In front of the cooking oven, Arte was taking out newly lit charcoal and placing it into a hollow metal cylinder.
Arte inserted the metal cylinder into a donut-shaped teapot with a hole in the middle, then placed dried wildflowers and water inside the teapot.
“You woke early. Did you sleep well last night?”
I swept my disheveled hair to the left and roughly tidied it, then gave a small bow.
“Thanks to you, I slept well. Did you sleep well, ma’am? Mister was snoring quite hard.”
It had been loud enough for me to hear clearly from another room, so how much worse must it have been for Arte, who slept right beside him?
Arte placed the teapot on the table in the yard and laughed heartily.
“I am used to it now. After hearing it for decades, I can sleep soundly even through thunder.”
“By the way, what are you doing from this early in the morning?”
“I am brewing tea. We do not eat breakfast here in Alhen. Usually, we drink a cup of warm tea and start the day.”
It was the same context as waking up in the morning, drinking a warm cup of coffee, and heading straight to work.
The difference from us was that, at an earlier hour, they spent dozens of leisurely minutes having tea time in the front yard of their own home, listening to the natural wind and birdsong.
Arte took one of the three chairs placed around the table and sat down.
“Thank you for yesterday. My husband suddenly spoke about something heavy, so you must have been very flustered.”
“You heard all of it?”
“It was obvious he was deliberately trying to send me out. The last time he brought up our son was five years ago. It was about time for him to let the air out of his chest once. Thank you for being someone my husband could talk to.”
“I am glad I was of some help.”
The water inside the teapot slowly boiled, and even after the temperature reached its limit, it did not cool easily, steeping the dried flower petals for a long, long time.
When I asked, she said it was simmered for a full thirty minutes.
They simply did not set a meal table, but the time spent making it was no less than the preparation for any ordinary breakfast.
While we waited for the tea to steep completely, Arte asked me about my next schedule.
“When are you thinking of leaving? Tell me if you need a packed meal.”
“As a matter of fact, there is something I would like to ask you regarding today’s schedule.”
“Please say anything. It is a dimension traveler’s request, so I ought to listen.”
The Blacksmithing Experience Event was only valid today.
Last night, Layton’s chest had been so tightly pressurized that I could not bring it up, but now that he had poured out his feelings and the pressure in his heart had lowered today, it seemed worth trying.
I had already made a plan.
It was a plan I could attempt because I knew Layton’s family circumstances.
I told Arte about the surprise plan I had thought up overnight.
“The truth is, there is something I have in mind, and I would like you to listen and decide whether it would be all right to try.”
Throughout my explanation, Arte’s expression changed from moment to moment.
By the time I finished explaining, Arte covered her mouth with her hand and spoke words of gratitude.
“Thank you. If it is something like that, then I would rather be the one to ask you. I am sure my husband will be happy too.”
***
Thirty minutes later, Layton came out to the yard, and the three of us leisurely drank tea, waking the sleeping cells in every corner of our bodies.
It had been thirty minutes since we began warming ourselves while sipping warm tea.
The first person to get up was Layton.
“Hey, have you decided on your next destination?”
“I think I will go deep into Cat Forest.”
“That is an area where monsters appear, you know? It is a dangerous place to go as part of a trip.”
“It is one of the places I was recommended to stop by. There must be a reason they recommended it.”
“If you are going, I will not stop you. You remember the hunter you saw at the guild yesterday, right? Try talking to him. If you ask him to go with you, he will not refuse.”
His name had been Nadan, if I recalled.
The guild manager had said he was the best archer in the Alhen Region.
I did not know how dangerous an area where monsters appeared would be, but if I went with a skilled person, I would be able to build special experiences safely while learning a great deal.
“I will go see him in a little while.”
“If you are going to Cat Forest, I will need to prepare equipment suited for it. Come to the blacksmith’s workshop when you are ready. I will prepare it in advance.”
Layton left his seat, and I returned to the house and changed into the clothes Arte had brought me.
When I finished all my preparations and went to the blacksmith’s workshop, Layton was already placing a long iron rod inside the furnace and heating it until it glowed.
Then, while absorbed in his work, he showed me his broad back and spoke bluntly.
“I placed the equipment on the workbench behind you. It is equipment made with materials obtained from level 20 monsters, but for a place like Cat Forest, it should be quite useful.”
“I can take it with me when I leave in a little while.”
“Leave in a little while? Were you not leaving now.......”
Layton turned his head in puzzlement as he spoke, then stopped mid-sentence and opened his eyes wide.
It was because of the outfit I had come out wearing.
At the moment, I was wearing blacksmith’s work clothes.
They were the work clothes Layton had prepared for his son, but which had never once been worn by him.
Layton’s pupils shook violently.
“You, what are you trying to.......”
Arte, who entered the blacksmith’s workshop one beat late, answered in my place.
“I gave him permission.”
“You!”
“He says he wants to experience blacksmithing work for one day. Please stay by his side and guide him.”
“What on earth are you thinking?”
“Let us hang up clothes that a dimension traveler wore now.”
Instead of asking Arte whether she had already known, Layton gripped the tongs in his hand even harder.
It was all something I had suggested.
I had told her that I wanted to let Layton taste even a little of the feeling he had hoped to experience by teaching his son his own work, a wish that had never come true in the end.
I knew very well that I could never become a substitute for his son.
Still, since I was a special guest called a dimension traveler, perhaps his memories with me could paint over the sad past just a little.
This was the first house I had stayed in after coming here, and they were people trying to give to me without holding anything back. I thought hard because I wanted to be at least a little comfort to them.
Layton was silent for a while, then spoke brusquely, as if reluctantly accepting it.
“Pick up that hammer over there. You need to at least swing a hammer if you are going to tell people somewhere that you experienced it.”
Layton’s guidance was the exact opposite of his way of speaking.
He gave me easy work that even I could do, stayed beside me constantly so I would not get hurt and never left, said nothing while I worked, and each time one task ended, he carelessly tossed out a single word.
“You are good.”
In addition, while I worked, messages continuously flowed into my head.
[Level increased. Level has risen from 1 to 2.]
[Level increased. Level has risen from 2 to 3.]
[Level increased. Level has risen from 3 to 4.]
When the experience, which had lasted only four hours, ended.
My level had reached 4.
And the moment the event ended, Layton placed his hand on my shoulder and said.
“You pass. Congratulations on clearing immigration.”