Volume 3 - CH 2

Act 3-2: The Reunion With Mother After 100,000 Years

「Ka~-Kun!!」

A gentle-looking, tall woman with black hair opened the entrance door of a two-storied building as she screamed and rushed to hug me. Yes, this woman is my mother, the personage who can’t let go of her son yet.

「How’s your condition? You didn’t meet any danger along the way ri~ght?」

She kept touching me as if she was trying to confirm my safety.

「Yeah, I’m safe and sound, Mother!」

If I’m not wrong, this should be how the old me used to speak back then. Somehow, I feel a strong resistance toward this way of speaking.

「…」

My mother grabbed my shoulders and stared into my eyes.

「Ka~-kun, have you grown up a little bit?」

Now that’s a question that I’m definitely going to have a hard time answering.

「Well, somehow!」

I am more than one hundred and thousands years old rather than just “grown up a little bit” though. Yet, this old man has become a joke-like existence in front of his mother.

「I see… Ka~-kun has grown up too.」

She wiped the tears in the edge of her eyes as she hugged me again.

My original plan was to leave immediately after greeting her, but it seems I have to modify that. My mother is an A-rank hunter. She’s an extremely busy person and rarely stays at home.

So I’m gonna escape as soon as my mother is out for her mission. I’ll leave behind a letter in a place that would definitely be found by the live-in employee. There’s no need to make an unnecessary mistake.

「Well, come in! Mother has prepared a meal for you.」

I have no choice but to obey her right now. Well, I guess I have to leave Faf and Myu under the care of Asta, my self-proclaimed butler, and Anna, the two girls’ surrogate elder sister. It should be fine if I leave them for a few days. If that gets longer than my expectation, I guess I have to show my face; otherwise, Faf would start looking for me.

And just as I expected, three days later, my mother left the royal capital for a mission that would take her around two months to complete. You can say that she’s quite a popular A-rank hunter.

I left my letter on the table so that the live-in employee could find it easily. My plan was to head to the northwest side of the royal capital, the inn where Faf and co. were staying!

「C’mon, please forgive me already!」

Currently, I’m headed toward the dining room along with Faf and Myu for early dinner.

「I don’t know master, nodesu!」

Faf is sulking. Yeah, she’s pissed off as I left her for three days.

I mean, in the last tens of thousands of years, we have never been separated even for a single moment. Even though I’m quite familiar with the loneliness of being forcefully separated from my family in the first few years after entering that dungeon, it seems I didn’t take Faf’s feelings into consideration.

「Sorry, Faf!」

I gently patted Faf’s head like usual.

「I won’t be deceived, nodesu! Faf is, Faf is…」

I kept patting Faf, who started to cry, on the head in silence.

A while later, Myu stared at Faf, who was sleeping on my lap pillow after getting tired of crying.

「Is something the matter?」

「It’s nothing…」

Myu’s persuasive power was zero when she spoke with an expression that seemed like she wanted to cry too.

「I’ve told you before, right? Children shouldn’t hold back.」

Myu looked down as she clasped the rim of her knee-length skirt, then said,

「I want to meet my father, mother, and big sister again.」

She cried out loudly. Her tears were flowing down the back of her hands as she rubbed her eyes.

She wants to reunite with her family, huh! This reminds me that Myu is indeed at the edge where she still needs the love of her family. Even I wanted to meet my grandfather and mother when I had gotten swallowed into that dungeon for the weak. That feeling should be even more intense for Myu, who’s still at her tender age.

「Uhm, I’m planning to leave this kingdom after I finish all of my business here. It was originally a journey without a particular goal in mind. So, let’s go looking for your family during that journey. That’s why, be a good child for now, okay.」

「Yesh…」

In the end, Myu bawled as she hugged me.

Nevertheless, upon hearing her story, I realized that she and her tribe had been living desperate lives. Anyhow, the chief’s tribe and Myu’s parents had been besieged by the Amelia kingdom army, thus forcing Myu to escape to the forest along with her older sister.

Since Myu’s parents had realized that they couldn’t escape while bringing Myu and her older sister, they had decided to stay behind to attract the attention of the Amelia kingdom’s army, prepared to throw away their lives for their daughters.

（They were such fools!）

They were not supposed to fulfil their duty as parents by dying. That should be done by protecting their daughter on the run. They should’ve chosen to survive even if they had to sip muddy water. They should’ve done everything to survive. That’s what I would’ve done if I were in their place.

Nevertheless, the one who caused this event was the hero-sama. One of the reasons the Amelia kingdom invaded the beastfolk tribe was the existence of the hero, which gave this kingdom the energy spared from not fighting the demon king.

Even though it sounds like a joke to me, the scripture did say that the demon race was a bitter enemy of everyone. And yet, the humans invade those they regard as “Lower Species,” who should’ve been their comrades-in-arm in the intense war against the demon race.

Well, the church’s creed about the demon race being evil itself is a big fat lie. In the first place, the ancient document that I found in that dungeon said that the human side was the one who had first declared that the demon race was evil.

Yup, I really shouldn’t put my trust in this sh*tty kingdom called Amelia. I mean, this sh*tty kingdom even involved that tomboy Rena Groat and Keith Steinberg into their politics.

This sh*tty kingdom had literally taken them as hostages. Naturally, if they dare to hurt them, I plan to let this kingdom see the hell on earth. However, I don’t wish to live a life full of such turbulence.

Thus, I’ve concluded that moving along with Rose, the princess of this sh*tty kingdom is the best option for the time being. Rose will ascend to the throne as long as she wins the competition for the throne.

Rose still lacks experience, but she isn’t an idiot. Once she ascends to the throne, she should put a stop to that useless conflict against the demon race and prioritize reorganizing the messed up internal organization of the kingdom—in short, put a stop to that useless war against the demon race. By doing that, she will automatically make the hero party obsolete.

As the current king will decide the content of the competition for the throne, it seems there’s still some time left until the next term. As for how long it’ll take, my prediction is around three-four years. During that time, I’ll evacuate Rena and Keith along with their families, while at the same time, finding a replacement royal guard for Rose.

I had planned to get into contact with Rena and Keith during my stay in this royal capital. However, I found out that the two of them had gone abroad to study in the centre of the educational institution of this world, 【Babel】, along with the hero party.

The reason they sent Keith too might have been that they wanted him, whose gift was archmage, into the hero party too. Sending him to Babel was the preparation for that.

Anyhow, everyone at the hero party is studying in Babel. No doubt about it! There is a deal between 【Babel】 and the Amelia kingdom regarding the matter of the demon race’s subjugation!

「Yo!」

Someone called out to me. I raised my face and saw that a tall, muscular man with a beast-like air around him was standing in front of me.

「Zack! Did you come to the royal capital too?」

「Well, something along those lines. Rather, I became Princess Rose’s knight too. So, best regards.」

Zack sat on the seat right in front of me and began to order food.

I see! I had thought that Rose might scout this fella after that tournament. But, this is the best and most convenient development for me.

Zack’s talent in martial arts is amongst the best I’ve ever seen. Moreover, despite his overwhelming strength, he’s a proud warrior. Ability-wise, he won’t fall behind the likes of those fools from the kingdom. Thus, you can say that he’s the best choice as my replacement for Rose’s royal guard.

For the future, that is! The current Zack is still a greenhorn. I have to do my job as the royal guard until Zack’s strength reaches my minimal standards.

The problem is whether Zack is willing to train under me or not. He regards me as his rival. I’ve never seen anyone with such admirable mental prowess obediently receiving the teachings of those they regarded as their opponent.

Well, maybe I should try to ask him first!

「Zack, I’ll train you starting from tomorrow.」

「S-SERIOUSLY!?」

I was rather taken aback when Zack leaned forward with a blood-curdling expression.

「Yes, but I have to remind you that I am a swordsman. Thus, I’m not very well versed in hand-to-hand combat. That’s why the only thing that I can teach you is a skill that allows you to become stronger during combat. Are you willing to accept it?」

「OF COURSE! As long as I can become stronger! Yahoo! Accepting the princess’s invitation was the correct choice, after all! That old man’s definitely going to cry once he hears this!」

Although I have no idea what he’s talking about, training Zack to become stronger will work in my favour. I’m gonna train him thoroughly starting from tomorrow.

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Character Design: Rena Grotte… Another Kai’s childhood friend and member of hero party… Airhead. Btw, her weapon looks badass. Her gift was sword princess.