Chapter 1 – The Village of the Falling Cherry Blossom, Rana
A brilliantly burning house, under the ashes, all that remained were corpses. His mother, who was usually scary was now patting his head. He, who had become frightened and was crying.
“It’s okay, Yuuto. Mother and Father will definitely protect you.”
While in her warm embrace, he saw. That his kind father was wielding a staff as large as himself to fend off the enemy’s wind blades, and manipulating the water to extinguish the flames.
But the number of enemies mercilessly increased, as he could no longer stop them himself. The mother, who saw this, before he even knew was holding a gleaming red sword and shield.
“Yuuto, run. Run far away with your legs, and absolutely do not look back okay? This is your final… promise with mother… Now, go!”
Saying that, his mother stood before his father with her shield prepared. He ran, with all his strength. But then, he broke his promise and ended up looking behind. That scene, he would never forget it.
An armored group who were trampling on his collapsed mother and father. They were using their swords, spears, and clubs to strike his mother and father. But among them, there was one who was holding a flag. And there, he saw…
“Mother! Father!”
Yuuto jumped up. But, the previous scene was nowhere to be seen. There was only a used up campfire, his bag, and a water canteen.
“Again d.a.m.nit…. I’m getting a bit tired of this already.”
Muttering that, Yuuto took his canteen. After pouring a mouthful of water in his mouth he rinsed and then spat it out. Currently, it was early morning. Even the sun was not up yet. He was on his way to Rana.
Yuuto kept on walking and walking along the highway. On the neverending road, he just walked. Multiple times he had pa.s.sed by traveling merchants, their carriages, and other travelers. With their directions, he just continued on his way to Rana.
After walking for a while, he noticed something on the left edge of his sight. There, he saw a group of armored knights riding their horses while making shrill sounds.
Royal Knights. They were a platoon of knights directly under the command of the king. Maybe they were in the midst of training, Yuuto observed them for a while.
While he was looking at them, suddenly a light pink colored flower petal gently, and calmly pa.s.sed in front of his eyes as if it was riding the breeze. Just what was it? Yuuto looked at the direction the petal came from, it was the road to Rana.
“Ooooh….”
There, Yuuto saw a scenery he had never before seen in his life. Large trees with blooming flowers the same color as that floating petal were on both sides of the road.
As the wind gently brushed the branches, and an uncountable number of flower petals immediately danced into the air, as it created a fantastical view.
“This, yeah. It’s quite amazing.”
Yuuto nodded. It was certainly as Ashidaka said, this scenery would forever be burnt into his memory. ‘A sight for the sore eyes’ was probably a good way to explain it. So, if he just followed the road surrounded by these trees which bloomed with light pink colored flowers, he would reach Rana.
After confirming that, Yuuto continued his way towards Rana with a small bit of expectations fluttering in his heart.
After pa.s.sing through the road of the pink petals, he saw a big open gate.
The hustle and bustle he saw and heard from there, unlike the noisy bar at Sax village, was not unpleasant to him. Some people stacked up pasture on a cart while moving it with an ox, others carried crops in a basket on their back. Both women and men were wearing clothes he never saw before.
“So this is Rana village. It’s more prosperous than I expected.”
Because everything was new to him, Yuuto felt his heart move as the view was really comfortable. He decided, that he would immediately book a room in an inn and look around the village. Even if it meant holding off on his job, he wanted to tour around this village.
With an excited heart, Yuuto wanted to pa.s.s through the gate but……
“Hold it, brat.”
He was stopped. It was probably this villages gatekeeper. He thrust his long spear in front of Yuuto and glared at him with beastly eyes.
“You b.a.s.t.a.r.d, you’re an outsider, aren’t you? What’s your business here?”
The gatekeeper asked Yuuto with a low voice filled with suppressed intensity. But Yuuto without any cowardice, and without returning his glare simply replied while looking at his eyes.
“I heard there was a guild here so I came to accept a request. Can’t you let me pa.s.s?”
Hearing that, the gatekeeper thought something for a while and exchanged gazes with the two robust guards sitting near him.
Both of them stood up. One of them picked up a wooden club that was leaning on a tree, and the other one neared him while cracking his fists.
And then, the three surrounded Yuuto.
“Brat, this village is ruled by us, the Zenji family.”
“Those troubles we have that you guys talk about will be dealt with by us… So, we don’t need no guild here.”
“An outsider. And hearing you talk about guilds, you’re a mercenary right? You were hired by those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds in the kingdom to investigate us, right?”
They surrounded Yuuto as each of them shouted things at him one after the other. All three of them were releasing their killing intent as they positioned themselves to take Yuuto down.
“Huh? Wait you’re wrong. I only came here to accept……”
Yuuto frantically tried to explain in order to clear the misunderstanding. But, then he noticed something.
Kingdom? Investigate them?
This was what bugged him. Why was the kingdom investigating about their internal affairs?
“Wait! The kingdom is investigating you guys…? What the heck are you saying? I got nothing to do with that…”
“Shut up! We’ll never hand this village over, and we’ll never let rascals like you who were employed by the kingdom lay a hand on our village! Get ready to be clobbered you stinking brat!”
The man, with a cry, rushed straight at him.