When I came to, it was an unfamiliar ceiling.
So I thought I’d been reborn.
After hearing my last words, I thought God had gone, “All right. Let’s see just how prettily you live,” and that Episode 1 of God’s Ecology Journal was about to begin.
But that wasn’t it.
Instead of pure white clouds, the ceiling was rough timber, and the one who greeted me wasn’t some benevolent god, but a foul-tempered-looking old man.
“Oh? You awake?”
Two words.
Far too short to sift any information from, but the situation and surroundings were enough.
I sprang up, then immediately flattened myself to the floor as if that momentum had never existed, bowing deeply to the old man.
“Thank you, elder! Thanks to you, I lived!”
“What are you talking about?”
But the old man merely snorted and tried to walk past.
“Hehehe, why would you try to hide your good deed? Though I may be an uneducated street orphan, I know gratitude when I owe a debt. Please don’t make me into some shameless rogue who turns his back on kindness.”
No.
I was a rogue who forgot debts and knew nothing of gratitude.
Calling me a great son of a bitch would not be wasted.
The reason I was saying this anyway was because I wondered if there was anything more I could squeeze out of him.
Because if he was the type to pick up and save an unaffiliated kid dying in the street, I couldn’t even guess how much of a pushover he might be.
Because I wanted him to at least toss me a coin.
That was why I did it.
“Is that so? Good, then. Come do the laundry.”
Huh. That wasn’t how this was supposed to go.
***
“Elder. The food is ready.”
“Is it? Let’s see… Ptooey! You little bastard! You’ve finally turned my rice into a biochemical weapon! A precious talent who should have been born in twenty-first-century South Korea was born into a medieval fantasy world instead! The heavens are truly heartless!”
“…Yes.”
Biochemical weapons, chemical engineering, twenty-first-century South Korea.
I couldn’t understand a single thing he was saying, but I let it pass.
In exchange for room and board at the old man’s house, I had already done the laundry, drawn water, adjusted the water level over the submerged weeds—rice paddies, according to the old man, or whatever they were—fed the cat, and even prepared a meal.
It hadn’t even been half a day, but I’d already grown fairly used to his abuse mixed with incomprehensible terms.
“Tsk. No fun. The impact’s already gone. Still, I mean it when I say this tastes awful.”
“Thanks for showing me your sincerity.”
“It’s a pain, but eating this garbage would be even more torture. Once we finish eating, I’ll teach you how to cook rice.”
“Eat bread like everyone else.”
“Bah! Koreans live on the strength of rice! Don’t tell me you’re some unorthodox bastard who eats bread for breakfast!”
“I skip breakfast. I’m lucky if I don’t starve all day, so what breakfast?”
The obsequious way I’d been speaking had, at some point, returned to normal.
Because I’d realized it along the way.
What kind of people we both were.
From what I’d figured out, the old man had a foul mouth and didn’t particularly care whether my tone was respectful or not.
“Earn money.”
“Where?”
“Do I have to tell you that too?”
He was also completely immune to the whole orphan, pity-me routine.
So much so that I wondered why he’d picked me up in the first place.
Even another orphan wouldn’t treat me like this.
“Why did I pick you up? Because my disciple ran away not long ago, so I didn’t have anyone to do the laundry. Tsk. His swordsmanship was hopeless, but at least he could cook.”
“I can believe it. The laundry was practically rags.”
I sighed and put a spoonful of the soup I’d ladled for myself into my mouth—
“Ptooey! Fuck, what is this!”
“Are you stupid? You saw me eat it and still shoveled it in?”
“I thought you were exaggerating. Ugh, how do you even eat this? The soup reeks of water, and the bits are tiny but as hard as pebbles.”
“Because it isn’t soup?”
“Excuse me?”
“Rice, you see, is a dish made by pouring water over these grains and steaming them with pressure and heat. Not by boiling them until they vaguely bubble.”
No.
“Then why didn’t you tell me?”
“I thought there might be some delicious recipe only I didn’t know.”
“What would an orphan know about something like that? Bread, rats, whatever it is, if it can be digested, the default is to throw it all in, pour in water, and boil it.”
“Ugh, filthy.”
……
“In any case. Once the rice is cooked and becomes proper rice, you eat it with side dishes. Fortunately, there are some side dishes my disciple made before leaving, but I’m worried about the future.”
……Endure it.
It’s only because the old geezer is here, but this is a house with a ceiling and a floor.
I remembered the old geezer’s face when I’d asked if water leaked in and he’d looked at me like, What kind of idiot is this?
I suppose that much wasn’t even something to worry about.
And that wasn’t all.
Taste aside, there was enough food that I wouldn’t starve to death.
And if there was room for improvement, then nothing could be better.
If I told the beggars back in the clan, they’d either punch me in the stomach and tell me to stop bullshitting, or sob and beg me to take them with me.
“I’m going to sleep now. Wake up early in the morning. At the very least, I want to eat rice for dinner that I didn’t cook myself.”
“Huh? You’re sleeping already?”
“Go home and ask your grandfather. Old people naturally sleep early at night… Ah, damn! You don’t have either of those!”
With those words, the old geezer disappeared into the cabin.
…That bastard, seriously.
***
The next morning.
“What’s this? Why are you filthy again?”
“It’d be stranger if I were clean.”
“Ugh, filthy.”
……
“Go wash in the bathroom. It’s connected to the waterway, so use soap too.”
“…Pardon?”
“Hurry up.”
Before I knew it, I’d been pushed all the way to the bathroom.
No, wait.
Waterway? Soap?
What was he talking about?
Soap was an extremely high-class item, a luxury used only by nobles or merchants.
Even then, the lower sort only washed once every few days.
What could there possibly be to see in a country bathroom like this…
…Crash!
***
“Mm, much better.”
“Haaaah, I feel like my body is melting.”
“Kekeke, you’ve completely become a mountain bumpkin.”
“Yeeees. I’m a country bumpkin.”
“…Tsk. Did you break? Get a hold of yourself. Let’s cook rice. If you want to wash again today, you’ll have to do your share.”
“Yeeees. Cook rice… Wait. Again today? What do you mean? Elder, are you saying you enjoy bathing every day?”
“Don’t be surprised by something obvious.”
The old geezer—no, the elder—answered as if it were nothing, but his shoulders were held high. It was the bearing of a great man hiding his delight.
“Rice, did you say rice? How do I do it? Please teach me!”
“Kukuk. So you’ve finally been corrupted by bathing.”
While I was bathing, a thought suddenly occurred to me, and I asked, “If the waterway, whether groundwater, lake, or river, lies within a lord’s territory, what happens if the lord says, ‘That’s mine, so why are you using it?’” He replied, “I’ll tell him to fuck off.” It was seriously so damn cool.
The bath-tinted glasses came off after an entire week had passed, even after I learned how to cook rice, make simple dishes, and handle chores.
In other words, one week later.
“Catch me. If you land one valid hit, you win.”
“Yes, sir.”
The scheduled day of training arrived.
“You aren’t hesitating? It may be dull, but the edge has still been sharpened.”
“Everyone who hesitated went back to the warm embrace of their parents.”
“How fortunate. However, if you hold it like that, you too may be able to ask your grandfather whether old people sleep early at night.”
The old man apparently didn’t like the look of me very much.
Well, that was only natural.
How many chances would I have had to hold a weapon?
The dagger shifted little by little according to my fingers, which twitched uneasily.
In the blade, which was not exactly short at around thirty centimeters, my tense eyes were reflected.
But.
This was a body that had already been punched in the gut and survived death.
That tiny—no, it wasn’t exactly tiny.
In any case, I had lived too harshly to be afraid of a blade.
“……”
The trembling tip of the knife settled.
My hand instinctively took the proper grip.
Following my extended right arm, my shoulder opened, and I placed my right foot forward.
My breathing steadied, and my gaze sank low.
It was the Jeden the Fight Form.
“Ho.”
The old man’s eccentric face twisted into a savage smile.
But I didn’t care.
The old man’s body was packed with muscle, his footsteps made no sound, and his casually lowered arms had become shields that could respond to any attack at any time.
In other words, he was a living fortress.
Even so, I did not give up.
I searched endlessly for an opening in the fortress.
Heat gathered around my eyes.
They became bloodshot, capillaries bursting and dyeing my vision red.
Even so, my wide-open eyes did not waver.
I searched endlessly for an opening in the fortress.
Any wall would do.
If I could find so much as a crack in a brick, or even in a pebble smaller than that…!
“!”
I saw it.
For an instant, with the illusion that a tiny point had been dyed the color of gold, my body shot forward.
Toward the old man’s side—
Thwack—!!
***
The old man, Luke, scratched his head as he looked at the kid rolling in the distance.
“Did I hit him too hard?”
His previous disciple had been a madman who poured everything into defense.
Because of that, his standards had risen too high, and it seemed he’d made a mistake in controlling his strength.
Well, it didn’t look like the kid had died, at least.
No. That wasn’t the important part.
The opening on his left side had been a weakness Luke had deliberately exposed.
In other words, a trap.
There was no way a brat around eight years old could aim for it.
However.
No matter how openly he revealed it, there was no chance an ordinary person could find it. And even if they did find it, they wouldn’t have the guts to aim for it.
And yet the brat had charged in.
At the age of eight, he had found Luke’s weakness and forced his body forward.
If the one he had targeted had not been Luke, but a thug—no, even if Luke raised the level a little and made it a guard, could they have blocked him?
A little kid who only came up to their waist, targeting a weakness with that momentary burst of speed?
“…Kuk.”
Well, he didn’t know about that. But this much was certain.
A fairly interesting fellow had rolled into his lap.
If the kid had heard it, he would have protested that he hadn’t rolled in, Luke had picked him up, but that didn’t matter.