I didn’t spend all my time just training with Father however. He knew the importance of kids having time to play and fool around, so he would always set aside time for me to do whatever I wanted, including going to the village and playing with the kids there.
I really didn’t know if I wanted to do the latter, after having quite the bad experience with my last trip there, when Marina was still around, but I certainly could use the change of pace. Being all cooped up inside didn’t feel healthy for me.
And so I would walk around the village, looking at the fields of wheat and potatoes that the farmers were no doubt growing earnestly. I would be greeted by them, and even offered to stay a while and have some food with them, if it were lunch time. They were truly honest people, I thought, and it was heartwarming to see them being so friendly to me. I just hoped that they weren’t doing it just because I was the son of the knight that was protecting them.
As for the village, that bully immediately turned pale the moment he saw me, before evading me entirely. I couldn’t help but smirk in response. It certainly felt good being feared by the bully like this, after what happened to me in my old life! Imagine, being scared by a boy 7 years younger than you! A mere 5 years old!
In a fantasy world like this, where things weren’t as “civilized” as my old world, perhaps overwhelming force would be the best solution to a lot of your problems.
There was another incident however that humiliated him even more.
I was visiting the village that day, on one of my day offs, where I found him and what I assumed to be his underlings hounding over a girl.
She had a long, black hair that was parted in the middle. She was thin, thinner than what I would expect to be healthy for a girl of her age, which seemed to be around the same as mine, maybe a little bit older. She was also short, shorter than me by one or two inches, and had a larger than average forehead. Judging by her look, which suggested some level of malnutrition, and her dull and simplistic black dress, she was definitely not from a well-off family.
To my surprise however, instead of being all scared like I had expected her to be, what with the three boys being bigger than her, she instead was glaring at them like an angry tiger.
A starving, really angry tiger.
"You little brat! Do you even know who you're talking to, huh? I'm the village chief's son, you know! You outsider should give me some respect!"
Outsider? So she's new here? That explained why I never saw her around.
"You will never be deserving of respect! You are nothing but a cruel bully who oppresses others!" She pointed back at him, her whole arm shaking with rage.
Wow, she really was one fiery girl. Usually you would expect her to have a bright red hair if she's this kind of a character.
Ha, and the three stooges actually flinched from that!
"You little!"
The bully--I couldn't really be bothered to remember his name--moved forward in an attempt to grab her long hair, no doubt to give it a good long pull.
Only for her to grab him on the shirt, before punching him straight on the gut.
"Guwaaahhh!"
With just that one punch, the bully knelt over, holding his stomach as if he was experiencing excruciating pain.
Holy fucking shit what was that?
"D-demon! S-she's a demon!"
"S-she can't be human!"
The two underlings, seeing what she just did, immediately ran away. The bully immediately followed, tears trailing down his fat cheeks.
And then, she grinned triumphantly, folding her arms under her completely flat chest.
W-who is this kid? How did she just beat up a boy nearly twice her size like it was nothing? She had no muscles in her body, and she had barely any meat either!
C-could it be? That she really is not a human? I don't see anything fantastical at her! No horns, no long ears, nothing!
"Hm? Hey, what are you looking at?" She glared at me once she noticed my presence.
Eeek, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!
“N-nothing! J-just passing by, that’s all!” I nervously replied.
She eyed me suspiciously.
“T-that was impressive, by the way! What you did there!” I continued with a somewhat forced smile. “How did you do that? Knocking him out in one blow like that! You didn’t seem like you’d be capable of doing something like that, judging by how you look.”
I was just about to call her scrawny. Bad idea.
Her expression suddenly softened to my surprise, and— Wait, was that a look of sadness on her face?
“I-I don’t really know,” She answered, her hands shaking as she curled them into fists. “I was born this way, you see…”
And then, she ran away.
With how fast she was, even if I wanted to catch her, I wouldn’t be able to.
It was the very first time I met her.
And it would not be the last.
----
I was now six years old.
I still continued my sword training with Father. And I had to say, I seemed to be getting better at it. I was now sparring with him as my training. Although I obviously could never win, I actually was starting to dodge and parry his blows.
Well, I wasn't in any delusion that he was going all-out with me. No doubt he would be able to beat me in a split second if he was truly serious.
I met the strange girl a couple more times on my visits to the village. I now knew her name. Sherry. Not her last name though. And she was working as a helper in one of the village farms, milking cows, cleaning weeds, and even splitting firewood. She seemed to be worked hard by the owner of the farm, an old, bitter grandma who was too weak to work her plot of land by herself.
And, from the teasing she got from the other kids, she seemed to be an orphan. The old lady had brought her from the nearest city to work on her farm.
No doubt as cheap labour of course. God, she's still as skinny as ever. I can't help but be worried about her.
Maybe I should ask Father if there's something we can do about her.
My thoughts about her were soon put in the backburner however.
Marina was coming home after all.
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