8 Mind Play (1/2)

The encounter I had with that young girl left me perplexed. She wasn't the strangest person I've ever met in my life, but her atmosphere, her demeanor, were unusual. Not in the sense where it was awkward no, but in a way where it was broken.

I'll try to take a look later on about that, but for now, it's time to go home. I played all day with the kids, and I did my physical training early this morning. It should be good for today.

As I walk to go home, I perceive near my house the friend of Astris, Favel.

I don't know much about him, but through the year, I'm now able to identify quite easily his personality. He's not a shy guy but simply someone who doesn't like to talk for nothing. Saying that he's a pure and straightforward guy would be wrong, but not completely wrong too.

It's simply that he doesn't like unnecessary things. In that regard, we could say that he's indeed a straightforward kind of guy, but just showed in a different way.

He's near my house, clearly waiting for me, and it doesn't seems to be some kind of idle talk.

I approach him, his gaze meet mine, as calm as ever.

”I was waiting for you, Varos. Astris is not free today, I'm here to keep you informed about the situation.” He said formally.

”It's still hasn't been made public but the arrival of the Knight will be delayed. It seems there's some kind of urgent matter that needs to be treated. It's still unknown how long his delay will be, but I think it will be at least for another year, or else they wouldn't bother to prevent us even it he was coming with several months of delay. The training will continue, but it will extended” Favel said, seemingly lost in his thought.

”Oh I see” I plainly say.

Favel stared at me, and after a moment said ”Varos, what do you think of Astris ?”.

I'm a bit surprised of his question but I answered quickly ”Nothing, he seems like a nice person” I said with a fake smile.

Favel looked at me frustrated at my simple answer and simply brushed off his question by saying ”You're right, I think the same too... Have a nice day”. And without waiting for my reply, he left like nothing happened.

It seems there's some kind of discord happening between him and Astris, he's 14 years old since recently, he matured physically a lot since the first time I saw him, he's almost 170 meters, his face gained in maturity, but he still looks like a kid anyway. Thanks p.u.b.erty for that.

The thing that concern me first isn't his problem but rather, the problem of the Knight delay. I really wonder what's going on. Well, I know so little about this world that thinking about it that problem is actually meaningless, it frustrate me to know that...

Well, let's go home for now...

-------

I open the door of my home, I look for my mom, she isn't in the living room, she must be at her bedroom. I opened the door and I see her staring at the ceiling, lying down weakly in her bed.

A open letter is posed on her blanket too.

She's getting weaker recently, I'm feel more and more concerned about her health.

She didn't react at all at seeing me enter her room ”Mom, I'm here” I say while looking at her dazed face.

It looks like she suddenly wakes up from a dream ”Oh Varos, my dear, sorry I didn't heard you enter the room. How was your day ?” She asked worriedly of me as always.

”It was fine mom, by the way, what were you doing now, you were at staring at the ceiling” I asked curiously.

She remained silent for a moment, but then said with a smile ”Varos, I have two good news for you”.

It's rare for me to hear her saying that. She knows I can hardly be surprised, so for her to say me that, it must truly be a good news.

”What is it” I asked with a tinge of excitement.

”The first one is that the elders of the village are back, but most importantly, they opened their free teachings for the kids of the village. You always wanted to learn more about the world, so it must be a good occasion for you” she said with a smile on her face.

It's true that I have always been curious about the world I'm living in, my mother doesn't know a lot about the outside world, and she only told me some basic knowledge. So having them teaches us about the world truly help me.

I thought about asking my questions to other adults, but they usually simplify their explanation at such point that it doesn't move my knowledge, and if I try to be a bit more specific about that, it freaks them out. So I learned to hold my tongue for that kind of matter.

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To be honest, I was quite happy to hear that, and I couldn't hide all of the excitement from my face, so I asked after calming my emotions ”That's cool, but what the second good news ?”

The first one was already the best that could reasonably happen to me, so I truly don't know how the second one could be equal or greater than the first one.

After a moment, she said with a shaky smile ”Your father sent me a letter, he will be coming at home very soon”. She said that with happiness and emotions, but for a brief moment, a weird expression appeared on her face too.

”Oh !” I exclaimed while trying to be excited. To be honest, I don't have a lot of memories from my father. He came very rarely to home, and he usually stays at home only for a few days, to come back a few months later each times.

From what I heard from my mom, and from the short interactions we had me and my dad, I can say that he seems like a man of honor who's pride remains in his work. He always looked at me with love, same for my mom too, and he send us each month enough money for us to live properly.

But compared to before, he sends us a bit less of money, the explanation from my mother was that it was currently harder for him to sell and exchange his merchandise for some technical reason that she doesn't seems to understand.