Chapter 4

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Chapter 4 – A Boy Who Aspired To Knighthood

A pharmacy in Simurgh, three years before the Brave’s triumphant return

“Thank you, Wynn,” said the female apothecary who owned the shop, having received the herbs and mushrooms the boy had gathered. “Here’s your payment.”

“Thank you very much, Auntie.”

“You’re alone again? What happened to that girl that used to come with you?”

“Uhm, well… She had to leave the city. Family circumstances.”

“I see. A pity, you two were like two peas in a pod. You must be lonely.”

He did feel pangs of loneliness. In the month that had passed since their final sparring match, every one of his chores, instead of being a boring routine, reminded him of Leti. She had always stuck close to him, regardless of what he had been doing. Peeling potatoes, reading books together during his breaks, they would do that together even when Mark and Abel, the innkeepers’ children, had invited her to play with them. To be honest, he had often thought she should just go and play with them, but everytime he had brought it up, she would start crying or throw a tantrum. She was his dear friend, and she had wanted to be with him and him alone.

He wondered if she was able to get used to the life in the new place and worried about whether she could get along with the family she married into. Because yes, he still thought Leti had been married off to a distant noble. He hadn’t had the free time to attend the parade celebrating the Brave’s departure from the capital. He wasn’t rich, he couldn’t afford the newspapers with illustrations depicting that event. He had heard merchants and adventurers gossipping at the inn about the whole thing, but even in his wildest dreams, he wouldn’t expect that Leti was the Brave that had gone on a journey to defeat the Demon Lord. There was no way for him to learn the truth.

He just knew that they would probably never meet again. She had stressed that she would do her best and come back as soon as she could, whatever ‘doing her best’ had meant in this context. She was a hard-working girl though, so he didn’t doubt she would.

All he could do was continue his life of solitary training.

“It’s fine, Auntie. But thank you for your concern. Looking forward to the next time!”

“Thank you for your work. Do come again!”

I can’t lose to my dear friend! he thought, firing himself up. Then, slinging the bag over his shoulder, he left the pharmacy.

For a year now, Wynn would complete requests from the Adventurer’s Guild while on his morning jogs. They would be simple tasks, like gathering some herbs or delivering letters to different parts of the city, and there was never a shortage of them because there were only two official postmen to deliver correspondence within Simurgh, making it more efficient for merchants and nobles to hire the Guild to handle mail. The remuneration for those jobs, and an occasional tip received from a pretentious noble with a penchant for flaunting his wealth, allowed him to save up enough money for his goal.

He wasn’t alone in roaming the streets that early in the morning to slip letters underneath doors or into the hands of a sleepy doorman. There was no shortage of beginner adventurers who couldn’t cope with monsters yet and had to limit themselves to easy jobs, like gathering mushrooms on the outskirts of the forest. Thanks to this, the Guild’s delivery service would be prompt and cheap.

“Wynn! Stop swinging that stick, boy, and go to the market to buy ingredients!”

“Yes, Aunt Hannah.”

Wynn’s workload increased again after Leti had left. His aunt, finally not having to be mindful of offending a noble family, was glad she could give him more work. And she had done so without restraint. Before, he and the girl would have time to practice with his wooden sword after he finished drawing water. Now, Hannah made him go to the market during that time to restock the inn’s supplies. He was happy to do that extra task, though, for the task of shopping to have been left to him meant that Hannah finally recognized him as a full-fledged adult.

Thus today, he again ran to the market with the shopping list in one hand. Even though the sun had not yet risen, the place was already busy. There were other children like him also running errands, merchants dressed for long travel and farmers from nearby villages selling their produce and handicraft. The customers at this time of day would be mostly employees of other businesses that sought to restock before the opening hour. The normal citizens, adventurers, and travelers would show up later, once the sun was up.

Wynn slowed down since it was hard to keep running in such a crowd, and set his footsteps in the direction of the stores Wandering Bird’s Roost usually bought their supplies from. But half-way in, he suddenly stopped. There was a stall selling meat skewers to the customers, its wares sizzling over the hot coals and spreading enticing aroma all around. Many people had been drawn in by the smell, some already drinking beer and wine in spite of the early hour, and his eyes too became glued to the juicy meat.

Wynn’s mouth watered instantly.

He hadn’t had his breakfast yet, and he had just recently finished running buckets of water from the neighborhood’s well, a task demanding enough to make even adults complain. He was a growing, healthy boy. His stomach grumbled. His feet started to unsteadily stagger towards the aroma and—

I’ll do my best and come back as soon as I can! Leti’s voice suddenly rang in his head. She was out there, working hard, all alone in an unfamiliar place. And he? Here he was, an aspiring knight with almost enough money saved for the Academy, almost giving in to temptation. How could he? With the help of this newly found determination, he turned his head away, tearing his eyes off the juicy meat. This was the first battle in an ongoing struggle that would repeat itself every morning from now on.

Later that day, while washing carrots and potatoes, Wynn suddenly asked himself a question – Will I really become a knight?

It was a concern he didn’t spend that much time dwelling on, but one that started gnawing on his mind recently. He knew that, even though the Academy opened it doors to anyone that could afford the fee and pass the exam, an overwhelming majority of its students would be children of nobles, landowners, and rich merchants. He was no longer a starry-eyed five-year-old with a dream. Now, aged twelve, he was well aware that this dream was reaching above his station.

Observing the innkeepers’ children didn’t help. Mark, now fifteen, had began to apprentice under his parents, learning how to cook and manage the account books, preparing himself for the day when he would take over the family business. He was now proactively helping with his father’s work and no longer played around like before.

Then, there was the thirteen-year-old Abel who, despite being sent to work in a number of companies Randall had connections with, would often run away to return home. Today, the younger of the two brothers had done it again, and announced loudly, “I wanna become an adventurer!”

This naive declaration caused a vein to pop out on Randall’s forehead, and was welcomed with a fatherly fist to the boy’s ear.

“Do you now… I understand, Abel, this small town and inn are just not good enough for you, right?”

Hannah, still prone to spoiling her children, as usual jumped to the defense of her bawling son, but for once, her husband didn’t stop.

“You are being a naive fool, boy!”

Wynn could hear the shouts clearly as he was cleaning in the kitchen, and those words pierced his heart.

He was just like Abel, chasing a dream beyond his means. Would it really be fine even if he saved enough money? Wouldn’t he be just wasting his time attending the Academy when becoming a knight was just a pipe dream? He had no parents to support him. His only friend left for somewhere far away. There was nobody to turn to for advice. He only had the weight of hard work expended to pursue his goal, weighed in money he had saved over the last year, to push him to keep working hard. Both at his job at the inn and in his own training.

In the end, he just couldn’t let himself lose to Leti who was definitely doing her best somewhere far, far away.

Author Note: Sincere apologies to those who expected a reunion. It will come a bit later. (TL: In chapter 6 )

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