— Lior —
(Several days after I parted with Sirius.)
Another name for the place where I used to live is the ‘Ruin Forest’. It is a vast forest that can throw off your sense of direction. It’s also a terrible forest where even intermediate level adventurers can be attacked at any time by the dangerous demons that lurk around the area.
In my case, I kept my sense of direction and since even the demons ran away, while glaring at me, I treated it as a normal forest when I went through it.
There were no particular problems that way. While eating the burned meat of the demons that attacked me, I continued walking until I finally came out of forest onto the highway.
Then, I suddenly realized… I was consumed with regret that I didn’t notice in the past.
“Haa… I’m a failure…” (Lior)
Since I was talking to myself more, I was still focusing but this time, it didn’t feel like my willpower was wilting away.
I felt that my favorite sword was getting heavier. While trudging along on the highway, I turned my gaze in the direction of where that guy and others might be.
“Why… didn’t he invite me to travel together with him?” (Lior)
Sirius said that he wanted to go to school, because he wanted to see the world and to gather experience.
Even with his strength, he couldn’t join the adventurer’s guild, because he was still a minor and it would incur further problems. But he should have realized, that there would have been no problems, if he introduced me as his guardian.
He could have declined, but if I had said it, I would be regretting it less now. The feeling of regret sure is unpleasant. To be fair, judging by that guy’s personality, the probability of him accepting my proposal was probably not high.
When I think of it… I can’t help, but be annoyed.
“Nuaargghhh—! A lifetime mistake!” (Lior)
My life was devoted to the sword up until now.
I love to fight. Fighting strong opponent makes me happy. That was going to change now but… I found three new enjoyments in life.
First is a kid called Sirius.
He has a childlike figure, but what’s inside of him exceeds me… what a monster. He is a close friend of mine and a rival who wins of our fights against me than he loses. Fighting with that guy is now my purpose in life. To win more than losing is my goal now. Having a so called goal is good. Meeting that guy really was a good thing.
Then, he brought Emilia.
She is Sirius’ servant and disciple. She is a lovely girl from the silver wolf tribe. During our first introduction, my heart trembled, when she called me Ojii-chan. As for me who devoted my life to the sword, I don’t need disciples, especially a kid. I thought that I didn’t feel a yearning for kids or grandkids as well, but the burst of feeling at that time is something hard to forget.
Although that fool treats her as a grandchild, but for me Emilia is just a cute kid. Whether it’s foolish to have grandchildren or anything, whatever it is, it’s all good.
The youngster who is the younger brother of Emilia… Was he called Reus?
Normally it’s a principle of mine not to memorize names of people that I don’t recognize, but I acknowledged his hunger for strength. He keeps on challenging us, even after continuously losing against me and Sirius. That spirit is similar to mine.
He holds natural kinetic vision and he is a man of exceptional talent, who will surpass me sooner or later.
Well, I absolutely won’t say such a thing in front of him. I think I will call him by his name, if he were to reach half of my true strength.
He is Sirius’ disciple and my disciple too. Since his characteristics resemble mine, when I was young, I have shown off and taught him various techniques involuntarily. The reason is I have decided not to take any disciples, so for me that youngster will become my last disciple. I clearly saw him grow every time I met him. It has been fun teaching such a youngster.
The chance to travel and have fun with those three together… and I saw them off without being able to do anything. Come to think of it, isn’t this quite the miserable talk?
If I were to say it properly, If I could stay with the cute Emilia, see and take care of the youngsters, and fight that guy at any time. It would have been a wonderful thing!
And yet, here I am – traveling alone, while he goes to school with his two disciples… Arrgh, I’m so jealous. I’m so jealous, you know!
“Ojii-san, be careful!” (??)
“Run away, Ojii-san!” (??)
For some reason, it was getting noisy behind me. So, I deviated from the highway and took my distance.