Chapter 1 Stepping into the outside world (1/2)
Chapter 1 Stepping into the outside world
Translator: Tchu
Editor: Scar
At first, Shaar Thunder contemplated for a long time, while trying to understand the last words and the technique evaluation from the old man.
With his low education level, he only knew that “creative” should be a compliment, while “turn in my grave” seemed like a bad evaluation.
When concerning the cultural and educational studies of Shaar Thunder, the old man was very irresponsible. He only taught him the simplest things. When reading the old rotting books that the old man left to him, Shaar Thunder could barely recognize 80% of the words and what was even worse, he could not understand half of the meanings behind words.
Not only that, the old man even forbad Shaar Thunder to read his book collection. Every time, Shaar Thunder got caught by the old man, he would get beaten up by a stick. Only when the old man drank himself to sleep, Shaar Thunder would have chance to sneak in and had a look at the books.
Most things written in the books were related to “cavalry tactics”, such as “Changing course” “Encirclement” “Outflanking” and so on. Other than that,the books also taught about battle plans, how many supplier wagons a campaign needed, various troop deployments according to the specific terrain, river bank battle, plain battle, canyon ambush and so on.
In the beginning, Shaar Thunder thought that these were war stories, just like the fairytales and campaigns the minstrel in the tavern told. After reading them, he began to see the difference. Compared to the beautiful and vivid stories told by the minstrel, the book collection of the old man was dull and boring.
Shaar Thunder had twice summoned up courage to ask the old man about the content of the books. At the first time, the old man hit Shaar Thunder’s head with his stick and the wound got swollen for three days. The second time, the old man was drunk and did not actually hit Shaar Thunder’s head, but trampled on his foot and stared at him while cursing. “During my youth while leading soldiers to battles, when I encountered a disobedient boy like you, I would have cut him down….”
Well, according to the old man whose mouth was full of fantasy stories, he not only “had been” a renown swords master on the continent but also “had been” a general leading armies to battles.
Was it really true?
No matter how stupid he could be, Shaar Thunder knew that a general was not someone who could not even afford to buy liquor. However, this old man could only buy the cheapest black ale when drinking. That liquor was not only spicy, but had also a strong sour smell. Plus, he had to sell his last copper tooth to pay for it.
Shaar Thunder came to the conclusion. “If he was a general, then I would be the emperor.”
In the end…… concerning the assessment of his axe techniques, did the old man praise or scold him?
Fortunately, this would no long cause him headache.
After spitting out these last words, the old man died.
If we would use the old man’swords, his death would be described as “creative”.
When Shaar Thunder came back from cutting firewood, he saw the old man lying on the ground, with no breath anymore. He died on the road – He climbed down the bed and crawled to reach the cupboard with the liquor bottles. What a pity that he was too old and too weak. He managed to crawl half way then became unable to breath and died on the spot. His hand was trying to reach the liquor cupboard until the very last moment.
If taken from another view, it could be said that the old man was someone with a strong personality. Even when staring death in the eye, his messy personality did not change. The reason being, the old man forgot that the liquor cupboard had long been emptied –not even a drop was left.
Shaar Thunder buried the old man.
He wanted to bury him behind their shabby house in nice place, surround by mountains in the open air. Behind a sloping hill he found a canyon, where he dug a hole inside and then filled it with mud and stones. While setting the tombstone, Shaar Thunder encountered a troublesome issue – the absurd thing was, after all these years, he did not even know the old man’s name.
Before he passed his eighth birthday he used to call him “father”. After that, he started calling him “old man”. As for the people in town, they called the old man “old drunk” or “old bastard” and so on.
Shaar Thunder sat in front of the grave for a whole night. Sighing, hesplit a block of wood in two and engraved one line of ugly written words onto it:
“The old man is buried in this place. I hope your soul rest in peace.”
He then rushed to the town and brought with him the most valuable things in his household – he sold the broken axe for three copper plates and traded it for one bottle of liquor.
One bottle of liquor for three copper plates was without doubt the most “upscale” liquor Shaar Thunder had bought in all these years.
Even so, he poured out this bottle of liquor on the grave of the old man without second thoughts. Watching the liquor slowly flowing into the earth, he did not even had a small sip.
When the sun started to rise, Shaar Thunder’s whole body was frozen and he finally decided to stand up. He stood up before the grave, looked at the wooden sign.His face showed an indistinctness expression.
“All right, you are gone now old man and I am the only one remaining. “