| Author: Tensei Mikami | Original Source: Syosetu | Word Count: 2269 characters |
| Translator: Jiro | English Source: Re:Library | Word Count: Unknown words |
| Editor(s): Robinxen | ||
“Hey! What are you doing?!”
The young Lichter yelled1, waving a stick around.
“Run! It’s Lichter!”
“Make a run for it!”
The village children scattered like spiders. This was an everyday scene in that small cold village.
“Good grief… Hey, Tieck. You okay?”
“Thank you, big bro.”
After the village children scattered, they revealed a ragged boy crouched in the center. Tieck, who was two years younger than Lichter and would turn eight this year, smiled at his brother, showing his gap-toothed grin.
“Bro look, it’s a sweet potato! I managed to protect it. Hehe… Though they managed to take the other three from me…”
“A sweet potato… Don’t mind that, how are you wounds? You’ve got scrapes all over.”
“I’m totally fine.”
“Yea, right. Show your big brother.”
“Ouch!”
Lichter forcefully rolled up Tieck’s clothes. Beneath them he saw new bruises all over his body. They were so fresh that Lichter couldn’t help but swallow hard.
“They sure got you good… Does it hurt?”
“No. This is normal. It’s fine.”
“No it’s not. I won’t forgive them. I’ll make them pay this time.” Lichter said.
“Please don’t.”
“What?”
“I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me bro.” Tieck said, laughing.
It was a noble smile that did not belong to an eight-year-old child, who had just been beaten to a pulp.
“I can’t! Your body won’t last like this.”
“Of course it will. I may be weak, but I can take a punch. And besides, you’re already doing enough by being a mercenary. You don’t need to waste time on me.”
“Aren’t you angry?”
“No, not at all. After all, this is all because I’m weak. If I was strong like you bro I doubt that any of this would’ve happened!” Tieck said, to which Lichter hit him on the head.
“You fool! It’s not okay to beat people just because they’re weak! Those punks are the bad ones here. You haven’t done anything wrong!”
“Bro, that hurt! Don’t hit me while saying that!”
“Wait… Tieck, we need to hurry. It’s already sunset!”
“What?! You’re right!”
The sun was already beginning to set. They hurriedly picked themselves up, nodded to each other, and ran off. They couldn’t afford to just sit still. After all, if they didn’t make it in time, they didn’t know what their ‘father’ would do to them.
◇
A rag house with a strange smell was Lichter and Tieck’s home. However, the brothers were only in the house at dinner and bedtime, spending most of the day outside.
Today, their ‘father’ was drinking again.
The man held an ill-groomed woman, whom he’d picked up from God knows where, by his side and poked at a sumptuous meat dish that the brothers had never had the pleasure of eating.
Lichter and Tieck were about to hand over today’s earnings to the man, stomachs whimpering. Lichter had earned two copper coins by working as a mercenary, but Tieck had nothing to hand over that day.
However, that was to be expected. In the end, nobody would be interested in buying sweet potatoes from an ordinary field of a rundown house.
The man mercilessly yelled at Tieck.
In their house, if a child did not pay two coppers to the parents, they would go without dinner and would have to sleep outside. For a child who wasn’t even ten years old, it was an absurdly severe atmosphere.
“Stop it! Tieck’s body won’t handle it! Stop this madness!” Lichter yelled.
“What?! A weak body is not an excuse for not being able to make money in this world! If that’s the case, he should just go and sell his body to some b̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲ tomorrow!”
“You b̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲!”
“Thanks to who do you think you’re able to live like this, you brats?! You should be grateful that I picked you two up when you had nowhere to go!”
“And who asked you to do that?!”
“You’ve gotten quite talkative, haven’t you?!”
“Urgh…!”
Lichter clenched his teeth hard as the man hit him with a liquor bottle. The flesh on his head tore off, and the young Lichter slumped to the ground. The man mercilessly darted the sole of his leather shoe at Lichter’s head2.
“Please, stop! You’ll kill him! Please! Stop!”
“You damn brat! You’re both not eating today! You’re sleeping outside! Got it?!” The man yelled while delivering a final blow to Lichter’s abdomen.
Lichter was sent flying out of the rag house, letting out a pained cry.
“Big bro!” Tieck left the rag house after Lichter, spilling tears.
“Dear, please don’t make me watch such things. It makes me sick.” the woman said.
“Haha, forgive me. That aside, now that the kids are gone we can finally-”
“Pay up first.”
Tieck pouted at the sight of his older brother, who was vomiting while curled up and looked in so much pain. Blood was also visible in his brother’s vomit, proving that he had taken a considerable blow.
“Hehehe!”
Despite this, Lichter was laughing while curling from the pain. His smile was ever so cheeky.
“Big bro?!”
“Hehe. Tieck, look.”
Lichter said and took out two round loaves of bread from his pocket and showed them to Tieck. It was a brand new round loaf of bread, not even moldy, ready to eat as is.
It was a feast for the likes of them who knew nothing else but soup made from salt and boiled tree roots, or small sweet potatoes.
To Tieck, the round bread looked more precious than any jewelry.
“What?! Big bro! Where’d you get that?!”
“I saw an opportunity just as he was about to kick me away and snatched them. Hehe, that’ll teach him. Let’s get out of here before he notices.”
Tieck burst into tears as Lichter smiled cheekily at him. For Tieck, his brother was the only ray of hope, the hero in his despair. Unlike his weak self, Tieck viewed Lichter as a real hero who was kind-hearted and powerful, capable of anything.
Tieck found solace in his brother’s presence amid his difficult days. And it was the same for Lichter. Tieck was the one he aimed to protect, his only blood family. Although he never knew what his real parents looked like, Tieck was the reason he could endure the hard days.
Lichter chuckled softly as he gave the bread to his brother.
“How is it, Tieck? Is it good?”
“It’s good! I never knew bread could taste this good!”
“You didn’t, huh… Tieck, here. Eat this one as well.”
“What?! I can’t do that… What about you, bro?”
“When I was outside today the adventurers treated me to a lot of things. I’m not hungry at all.” Tieck’s cheeks puffed up involuntarily while looking at Lichter as he was sniffing his snot.
“That’s not fair, bro! How lucky… I didn’t know that happened when you went outside…” Tieck muttered.
“Sorry, sorry. That’s why I want you to eat this one. Take it as an apology.”
“Okay. But if you ever eat outside again, please share it with me.”
“Of course. I promise.” Lichter said, patting Tieck on the head.
He then pinched his empty stomach as hard as he could, while swallowing his saliva.
(Tieck… You don’t need to be strong. One day I’ll become strong enough so that you never have to go hungry again.)
The young warrior’s dream, however, was never realized3.
