That put him in an “upper mid-level” position among the foot soldiers, where he was closer to the highest rank than the lowest rank, and although his skill as a fighter wasn’t exceptional, this was a considerable jump in status for a youngster with less than a year of service behind him.
His increased value as a person caused a big change at mealtimes too.
“You look like you need a good meal.”
“...”
When he lined up to be served his dinner, he was surprised to find that the soup served into his wooden bowl was rich with ingredients.
He was also given a good amount of boiled prit (asparagus, essentially).
He gulped as he looked up at the girl serving him. She was a slightly chubby girl, three or four years older than him, smiling at him affectionately.
Though he wouldn’t have said she was beautiful, many of the soldiers were little better than dogs in heat, and she was more than cute enough to get their attention.
“Hey...”
“Keep moving, Kai.”
For some reason he was rudely shoved from behind and forced to move on, but the girl continued to watch him as he walked away, and finally gave him an awkward smile.
Then there was an elbow in his back, then a kick to his shin, and Kai didn’t know what to make of it.
“It’s like spring’s in the air, Kai.”
Manso beside him looked coldly at the amount of food in Kai’s bowl.
Kai had never noticed it before, but Manso seemed to have a slightly bigger helping than those around him.
Now Kai understood how Manso was able to share a morango with a hungry child: Manso’s dinner servings were large enough that he didn’t have to focus on just his own hunger. Manso was similarly well-treated by the women.
Then as the prayer began, he looked over at the baron who was reciting the usual lines. The baron’s family were always assured good-sized meals, and Kai decided that someday he’d eat meals like that himself. He felt as though that wasn’t beyond his reach anymore.
“And we give thanks to the brave spirit of the land god who resides here in the land of our forefathers.”
“We give thanks,” chanted everyone in unison.
Whatever prayers he might say to the god that had given him such incredible power, it would never be enough.
Kai had always felt that the standard prayer was tedious, but now he understood why the baron looked so serious each time he said the words. The baron was never hesitant to give thanks to the god who blessed him. At the same table, Olha and Lady White said their prayers with just as much feeling.
In contrast, the baron’s first wife Lady Carolina, his second wife Lady Falda, and the children at the ends of the table would never inherit a guardian. Their prayers sounded less sincere, and they looked at their food with disinterest. They didn’t feel gratitude, they just felt tired of eating the same food every day in this rundown village.
The fresh texture and slight grassy smell of the boiled prit filled Kai with a sense of satisfaction at the nourishment he was getting. The soup actually contained potato and cured meat, and it felt strange to have to chew. It was completely different from the soup he used to just drink.
He savored it at first, but then hunger got the better of him and he greedily finished the whole thing. Even though he had more than most others, it still wasn’t enough. Kai was a growing boy in need of more nutrition.
He looked up at the ceiling and sighed, and then he felt he was being watched.
To the side of the baron was the serving girl from earlier looking right at him. She smiled when their eyes met. He’d heard that the women who worked in the castle would eat in another room after the men had finished their meals. There was a group known as the women’s association that was led by the baron’s first wife, Lady Carolina. The women’s association set clear rules regarding appropriate behavior between the men and women of the village, and some said that the group controlled the foolish men of the village from behind the scenes. The serving girl was no doubt a member.
“She’s not so bad looking, that one.”
Kai froze up as Manso poked him in the side with an elbow.
That night, Kai waited for the other soldiers to fall asleep before slipping out of the barracks.
In the darkness, he scaled the towering stone walls of the village with ease and landed on the grass outside. For just a moment he gazed at the sky. It was full of stars, as if a box of jewels had been spilled over the borderlands. And then Kai began to run with great energy. He ran with the power of a guardian bearer, the power he’d had to hide during the day.
I want to see the valley...
The urge filled the boy’s heart, and he couldn’t resist the impulse any longer.
12
The valley was in the forest near the village of Banya.
In his impatience, he couldn’t hold himself back. Each step forward launched Kai several yules into the air, and he’d travel as much as 10 yules before landing.
When he ran at his fastest, Kai must have traveled about 1 yuld for every 100 steps, which meant that he could travel the 50 yulds to Banya in just 5,000 steps. He sailed over the gentle hills and low vegetation of the borderlands, and Banya was in sight before even half a toki had passed.
This must be more than 50 kilometers an hour.
It was an impressive display of his power as a guardian bearer, but Kai’s feelings were focused on what lay beyond Banya — he was thinking about the beautiful valley.
He’d traveled in roughly a straight line, making many large holes in the fields of the village with his feet. The soil was soft, and every step Kai took was like an explosion, sending dirt flying in all directions.
Whatever. They hadn’t repaired the fields anyway. I worry about the village though...
They had at least cleared away the bodies of the orgs, but the ridges of the fields were still a mess, and soldiers’ footprints were still visible in the soil.
Kai turned and watched Banya disappear into the distance behind him as he effortlessly flew through the air. The village was dark and lifeless, and it looked as if no more than a few dozen people could be left living there.
That village is done, I guess.
He continued to cut through Banya’s fields until he entered the forest, at which point he felt he knew the way to the valley from intuition alone.
The valley... must be this way.
Somehow, he could clearly sense its location.
The valley and its beautiful lake weren’t particularly deep in the forest, and yet they were unknown to humans. Most likely this was because of a large stretch of wet marshlands controlled by the lagarto which separated humans from the valley. Kai was careful to detour around the marshlands that were the lagarto’s territory, and he did his best to keep his footsteps silent as he traveled through the forest.
Without losing his way even for a moment, Kai arrived at the spot where he could see into the valley. He pushed his way through dense greenery, and a breathtaking view suddenly appeared before him.
“The valley...” Kai felt ready to burst with happiness the moment he saw it.
The valley. He hadn’t just dreamed it after all.
Less than a month had passed since he’d made it back from this place, but despite not having been away long, he was filled with relief to see that it was still safe.
Kai couldn’t wait any longer. He leapt over the edge of the cliff. Although he knew that the lake was below him, jumping off a cliff in the darkness of the forest was a reckless act. But Kai’s faith in the valley was strong, and he knew it was ready to catch him.
After a few moments flying through the air, he landed in the lake just as he knew he would.
He plunged into the cold water with a great splash and then surfaced to take deep breaths of the valley’s cool air. He splashed his arms and legs playfully and then let himself float on the surface of the water. Then Kai laughed from his stomach.
I just l
ove this valley, he thought with no uncertainty.
He even considered simply living right there in the valley.
His view of the starry sky above was narrowed by the cliffs that surrounded him. The village elders had tried to teach him the names of the stars many times, but the only star he knew was the star over the northern pole. He gazed into it and pointed right at it. Istiara, the northern pole star, appeared to twinkle at that very moment, as if it realized Kai was looking at it.
“I’ll bet it was you making that bird call!” Kai shouted with a laugh. He felt a strange sense of friendship toward that bird call that he remembered hearing in the valley.
The trees whose branches had mostly been bare were now covered with green leaves, as if what he’d seen before had been an illusion. It should have been a surprising change, but to Kai it felt strangely natural.
For a short while, Kai carried on acting on whatever whim took him, but eventually he stopped laughing and got to his feet in shallow waters and examined the shore.
In the light of the stars he could only see the branches of the great tree as a vague silhouette, but the inscription that he’d cleaned during his last visit gave off a slight glow in the starlight.
Kai viewed the scene in a daze for a while before wading over to the shore and producing fire magic above his palm.
With the flame burning as brightly as a torch, his surroundings were made visible by the soft red light. The valley had been restored to life, but there were no signs of living creatures larger than birds or insects. Here and there were surprised cries from birds that must have been shocked by the sudden light.
“Sorry about that,” Kai told them, as if speaking to another human. “I’ll put it out in a moment.”
As promised, he soon put out his fire magic.
It wasn’t just Kai’s physical strength that had increased when he became a guardian bearer; his vision had also improved considerably. As long as he could be sure that nothing in the area meant him harm, the dim light of the valley was more than enough.
He splashed some water over the gravestone and began to scrub at the areas he hadn’t cleaned during his previous visit. He soon became absorbed in his attempts to repay the grave of the land god for the blessings he’d received.
He’d learned from women who washed clothes that the bark of a small tree known as cru could be removed and rolled to create a convenient tool for scrubbing away dirt. There was a similar tree nearby, so he borrowed some of its bark for the sake of scrubbing the grave.
“All right. That’s about done.”
He’d lost track of how much time he’d spent on the task, but Kai felt satisfied as he stretched his limbs and admired the gravestone that was now free from dirt.
Finally, he picked some small flowers that he didn’t know the name of and placed them in front of the gravestone as an offering.
“I’ll make an offering for you too.”
The org that had fallen to the bottom of the valley with Kai had been given a burial based on Lag’s traditions. A few rocks had been placed by a round mound of dirt to serve as a grave marker. Kai placed a single flower on top of the mound of dirt.
Though he hadn’t slept a wink since leaving Lag, Kai didn’t feel sleepy. Ever since gaining a guardian, his body seemed able to function with barely any need for sleep.
With nothing else to do, he found a recess in the roots of the great tree that matched the shape of his rear, and he rested there. But it’s a rule in life that time spent comfortably passes quickly. He saw that the sky had started to brighten and quickly jumped to his feet in surprise, wondering where the time had gone.
He wanted to stay and felt as though he had to tear himself from the place, but he couldn’t just give up on the village. He said a prayer once more to the grave of the land god and turned to leave.
The cliffs would have presented a challenge for most people, but Kai easily found the footholds as he climbed to the top. For someone with a guardian bearer’s power, the cliff felt like a bouldering wall fit for a child. He virtually glided up the rock surface and reached the top with ease.
Even in the short time taken to climb up, the light of the sun had started to give color to the leaves of the forest.
What even is bouldering anyhow? he wondered idly.
Kai clapped his hands loudly as if chasing those idle thoughts away, and then, in the dim light of daybreak, he began to run.
The past-life memories that had allowed Kai to be where he was today were now in harmony with his knowledge of the world from his current life. His rapid development as a guardian bearer had brought him a constant feeling of calmness that had let him think more clearly.
No matter how valuable a piece of knowledge might be, if it didn’t fit in with his current reality, it was no more than trivia. A lot of the ideas that came to Kai were like that, but he was in the habit of quickly dismissing such thoughts. That way, Kai found he could organize his thoughts without getting caught up on the small details.
As Kai traveled the route home, he decided that he’d build his own cabin in the valley. He felt convinced that the valley belonged to him. His heart fluttered with excitement at the thought of turning the valley into a comfortable world of his own.
The sun had just finished rising when Kai quietly curled up in his own bed in the village of Lag.
When he heard the other soldiers starting to get up, he also got up while pretending to sleepily rub his eyes.
They said good morning to each other and then washed their faces by the side of the well. They discussed the weather as they walked toward the steaming dinner hall. It was just another day in the village he called home.
When Kai asked himself whether he felt a sense of belonging among the people here, he couldn’t deny it that he did. But at the same time, he felt that half of his soul now belonged to the valley.
Kai’s stomach rumbled in response when the smell of breakfast being cooked drifted over from the dining hall.
Kai had no parents. They’d been caught up in an attack by demi-humans on another small village that had been controlled by House Moloch. When Kai was still an infant, House Moloch’s reign over that village had been crushed and consigned to history, and Kai’s parents had died in the process. Scenes resembling the downfall of Banya had once happened close to home. Kai had been left with no close blood relatives, so he’d been taken in by this village. Thoughts of his home were on his mind as he lined up to be served breakfast.
The reason he felt the need to return to Lag was because they provided the food that kept him alive each day. But he felt that there was more to it than just the food itself. He knew all too well how much effort was required to keep everyone fed in the barren borderlands.
“Remind me what work we’re doing today.”
“Probably putting the northern fields in order yet again. It’s so damn boring.”
“If you want food, you work to earn it,” Manso scolded his squad. “I want no complaining from any of you.”
Kai absentmindedly joined the chorus of “Yes, sir,” as he did every day.
Manso sighed as if he thought Kai was only half listening.
The squad naturally moved with everyone ordered according to their age, and Kai was at the rear.
Kai rubbed at his plate with the sleeve of his clothing while the men made small talk that he didn’t think was worth listening to. Then he realized that his clothes were still a little damp.
I should probably avoid jumping into the lake next time, he decided.
Part 2 — A Small Paradise
13
Thus began Kai’s secret visits to the valley.
Kai couldn’t bear to be away from the place for a single day, so he’d slip out of the village when it got dark each night, and then he’d travel 50 yulds to his beautiful valley.
“This valley is the best.”
Each time he visited the valley, he never grew tired of cleaning the gravestone of the land god, and he would pray
to it passionately after he’d cleaned away any dirt. Then he’d enjoy relaxing in the quiet atmosphere of the valley for a while before starting work on one of his personal projects.
Kai’s current fixation was the search for an area of land where he could build his dream house. Over the past few days he had been exploring every inch of the base of the valley.
The inside of the valley was a circular space that was 300 yules in diameter. It wasn’t particularly wide, but Kai had it all to himself, and to him it felt like a vast area.
He’d already found several spots here and there that were to his liking.
Fresh water came from the surface of the rocks in a small cave. Lots of tiny crabs were hiding in a narrow stream. An angular rock that jutted from the ground formed a rugged hill.
He named the cave “Western Water Cave,” the stream “Crab Stream,” and the hill “Rock Hopping Hill.” To put it bluntly, he was really bad at coming up with names.
That island thing looks kinda interesting.
Some distance from the shore of the lake that filled a third of the valley, there was a spot where grass and trees grew from something like a shoal. It looked like it was just wide enough to fit a small hut on it.
The wetness of the area would be a problem, but that could be worked around by building the hut from wood and giving it a raised floor.
After walking around the forest once and returning back to the grave of the land god, the “harvest” that Kai had gathered was so much that it was almost spilling from his hands. Further from the walls of the cliff, he’d found fruits and vegetables and an incredible variety of mushrooms. When he found a collection of small red fruit known as maca, he felt guilty for keeping them all to himself. Ever since demi-humans had started to invade, the villagers had rarely had a chance to eat maca, making it a treasured desert.
Kai sat down in front of the gravestone while he ate the maca and messily slurped the juice from it.
Wherever I decide to build my cabin, I need some wood before I can start.
Teogonia: Volume 1 (Premium) Page 8