Chapter 17 (1/2)

Chapter 17 – Father’s Gaze＊

A dull pain shot through the back of his head.

The pain forced Luru back into consciousness, and he opened his eyes.

Having only just woken up, he looked around with an absent expression.

The scent of alcohol ran through his nose, but when he heard the clatter of drunkards, ‘Ahh, this is the tavern, huh?’ he realised.

“Have you awoken?”

A gentle, calm and kind voice called out to Luru, and he turned his gaze towards it.

It was a familiar girl with silver hair, glossy like silk, and eyes redder than fresh blood.

However, she looked a little older than she did in the past, and Luru suddenly realised for the first time that an intense seductiveness dwelt about her that she didn’t have seven years earlier.

“…Is something the matter, Oniisama?”

Asked Iris, seemingly in confusion. She was the girl who was officially the adopted child of the Cadisnola family, and it seemed that because they were legally siblings, when they were in the presence of others, Iris referred to him as Oniisama as she did just now.

Luru shook his head at her so she wouldn’t notice what he was thinking about just now[i.e. that she’s hot], and advanced the conversation in the direction of the question he was wondering.

“Umm… Why was I sleeping here?”

“That is because you were unconscious the whole time starting from when you lost to Otousama in the fight.”

At that concise answer, the memories from just before he collapsed rushed up again.

The memory of failing the fight.

And then, once again looking around at the surrounding drunkenness, he found that his father and mother were amongst them, and noticed that they seemed to be drunk; something rare for them.

Whilst looking at this scene, he thought.

‘Didn’t I lose the fight?‘

However, he mysteriously didn’t feel any frustration about it.

It wasn’t as though there were no feelings of ‘because I lost without using my true power’, but more importantly, it was because in the fight with his father, he felt that he did his very best with the swordsmans.h.i.+p he learned.

In particular, the very final exchange made him as elated as the battles he had with the heroes.

The happiness probably came from, for the first time in a while, knowing that an opponent existed that he couldn’t defeat in a serious match.

He didn’t like war, and in his previous life he wanted to avoid it if possible, but he by no means hated fighting in and of itself.

He liked it enough that were it a battle with only their two lives on the line, he would surely enjoy the fight.

“…But I still don’t get why we’re in the tavern. They seem to be celebrating quite a bit… Did somebody just give birth?”

Looking around the room again, Luru felt that the bustle in the tavern was different from usual, seemingly making merry to celebrate some auspicious event.

Hence his question, but Iris seemed to reply in disbelief.

“Goodness… Oniisama. Did you forget why you fought with Otousama to begin with?”

It was an obvious reply to Luru’s question.

Right.

Luru was fighting with his father to show the power he needed to become an adventurer.

And then he was supposed to win against his father, and leisurely start his journey, but…

Preparing a celebration for that in itself wasn’t anything strange.

However, Luru lost.

Despite that…

When Luru voiced these concerns of his,

“It was not an issue of winning or losing, was it? And indeed, did Rusty and the others not leisurely set off on a trip a few months ago after losing? Were they not were beaten down terribly, with a strength that would not be problem for you, Oniisama…?”

replied Iris.

Rusty’s group―――― Mii and Yuuri included ――――were not in the village right now.

The three of them had set off aiming to be adventurers before Luru did.

Though they were of the same age group, the reason they didn’t set off at the same time was because Rusty and Mii were born a few months before Luru, and accordingly, the time when they could register as adventurers came those few months earlier.

Seven years earlier, Mii and Yuuri tried their best to somehow get Rusty to remain in the village, but no matter how much time pa.s.sed, his pa.s.sion towards becoming an adventurer wouldn’t cool down, so they eventually gave up. Since there was no other choice, they began training so that they could come along with him.

There was technically the issue of who would teach them the skills, specifically the combat skills they could need to become adventurers, but because there was the adventurer pair that regularly came to the village, Iris, and finally Patrick as well, in the end there was no problems with finding a teacher.

But, because Rusty was learning swordsmans.h.i.+p from Patrick, taking that into consideration, Yuuri and Mii wanted the positions from rear guard to middle guard for themselves, so they chose Yuumis and Iris as their teachers, and in the end they left the village quite skilled.

Before they left on their journey, as expected, the three of them ended up stuck with fighting their teachers just like Luru did; Rusty fought with Luru, Gran and Patrick, whilst Mii and Yuuri fought with Yuumis and Iris. The result was that Rusty and the others suffered a crus.h.i.+ng defeat.

In other words, the pride that was growing in the three of them was smashed to pieces with a ma.s.sive hammer.

Having said that though, the fact that they had pretty much become skilled beyond any normal novice adventurer was evident from what Gran and Yuumis said, and since things were fine then, in the end they were permitted to leave the village.

In these seven years, Rusty, Yuuri and Mii had decided that to become an adventurer, they would first head to the royal capital and join Gran’s clan, and it meant that right now they were supposed to be in the capital, doing their best as novice adventurers.

The letters from Rusty and the others that arrived once a month said basically that, and they seemed to be having a great time; enough that reading this made Luru want to hurry up and leave for the capital, as though he were a normal boy from the countryside.

Luru heard that the families they left in the village received letters from them at regular intervals too, and despite being novices, they seemed to be flouris.h.i.+ng as full-fledged adventurers.

Even the three of them who had lost in their battles against their teachers were allowed to leave the village.

If you thought about it just a little, you’d realise that there was no way that Luru, who had put up quite a good fight, would be forbidden to leave, but Luru somehow ended up with the idea that if he didn’t win then he wouldn’t be allowed.

It might have been a preconception born from his long time as a demon king, where loss was immediately tied to death.

Luru now realised that he had a disposition towards thinking that he had to absolutely win to achieve his goals, but because that wasn’t necessarily a bad trait, he gave up on correcting himself.

“And hence, this party is for celebrating your departure, Oniisama. …Though it may be presumptuous of me, it seems that it is also celebrating the departure of I who will be accompanying you… Having said that though, as expected the most important one is you, isn’t it, Oniisama? Incidentally, after we determined that there was nothing wrong with you, we immediately started the party here… Since then, Okaasama and Otousama have been in the middle of the tavern, speaking endlessly about their memories of you, Oniisama.”

Having been told that by Iris, Luru strained his ears to hear those ‘memories’ or whatever, and found that they were endlessly repeating stories from his first cries after birth, through to the fight with Patrick, and up until when he collapsed at the end from a single blow.

And the audience nodded along, going ‘mn, mn‘, and occasionally shedding tears whilst opening up drinks without end whilst they listened.

“…I’m surprised they haven’t gotten bored yet.”

Said Luru in shock, and Iris suddenly laughed in reply.

“Drunkards are probably that sort of thing, regardless of the era.”

Luru completely agreed.

And while he was at it, it didn’t apply to just eras, but to races as well.

After all, even to the demon race, parties were more or less this sort of thing.

Whilst memories of scenes that existed in this world in the distant pa.s.s came to mind, Luru nodded deeply at Iris’ wise words.

Even this party that seemed like it would continue until the end of the world had to end, and as the number of dead drunk people, sleeping people, and people returning home became to steadily increase, the party slowly came to a close.

Medea and Iris returned home first.

Luru had actually planned on returning home with them, but Patrick said things like ‘since you’re a man, isn’t it fine to stay a little longer?’ and ‘drink, drink’ so he was denied the option of leaving his seat.

The legal drinking age in the Kingdom of Lezaad was fourteen. In other words, it meant that there was no problem with offering Luru a drink today. Having said that though, he wasn’t going to force Luru, and it seemed somewhat that this was just a pretext.

Since it couldn’t be helped, Luru listened to his father’s story on loop whilst drinking [i.e. the stories he’s been telling endlessly], when his father’s face suddenly turned serious, and after looking around to check that there was n.o.body listening, spoke.

“…Luru. Why didn’t you fight me seriously?”

In that moment, Luru lost his breath in shock.

Shocked enough that his father could probably see his expression stiffen.

And then, seeing Luru’s face, his father burst out in laughter.