Chapter 108

Chapter 108

***

Roy felt as if he had entered a noble's castle. It felt like passing through a world of darkness and finally reaching a world of light.

So the thought naturally crossed his mind, 'Is it okay for me to be here?', making him feel slightly uncomfortable. This feeling was similar for everyone, adults and children alike.

"Uh, but first, I think the adults and children will have to be separated."

Caspar, who was walking ahead leading the migrants, said.

"And the cow also needs to be dealt with. We don't have a barn here, you see? Whose cow is this?"

Yulia also spoke with a somewhat troubled expression.

Because the migrants had lived outside pitching tents haphazardly and staying together, they didn't know how things were supposed to be done in proper lodging facilities.

"The cow is ours, but..."

Lena, the eldest of the four siblings, answered hesitantly.

"You can't sell it right now, right?"

"Since we have a long way to go and need to load our luggage, wouldn't that be a bad idea? Let's tie it next to the quarters for now."

"Hmm, should we?"

Caspar and Yulia conversed among themselves. However, there was another problem remaining.

"Our family cannot be separated. We've never been apart before either."

Hartmann's wife Elia said. At that, Caspar pondered with a troubled look before answering.

"We have quite a number of people right now, so I'm not sure. But I think it would be better for the kids to stay in the squires' quarters. Because everyone has a schedule of sorts, so having the whole family next to them might be a distraction. I think the adults should stay in the inner keep, and the kids in the quarters..."

The inner keep and the quarters were both inside the castle, so they weren't very far apart.

Hartmann pondered for a moment before answering.

"I understand. If you guarantee that I can see my son and daughter whenever I want, we will do so."

"There's no guarantee needed. You really can see them whenever you want."

Thinking about it, it wasn't a forced separation and they only needed to live like that while staying here, so Elia couldn't stubbornly insist on keeping them together.

However, she just felt a bit anxious because she had always carried her son and daughter in her arms.

"The facilities are a bit better in the trainees' building, but the atmosphere there is kind of intense. Since competition starts in earnest there, the kids are a bit sensitive. So it would be better to stay in the squires' building."

Yulia said, looking at the kids. But what difference did good or bad make to the kids? They just did what they were told.

In the end, it was decided that Hartmann, Elia, Bremen, and Blatter would stay in the inner keep, while the children would stay in the squires' quarters.

It was the building right next to them, so there was no need to cause a fuss, but their footsteps felt heavy as they slowly drifted apart. Elia kept looking back, and Roy and Becca looked back too.

The orphaned four siblings simply stared blankly and followed along, while Bremen consoled Hartmann and Elia saying it would be fine.

The quarters building used to be barracks in the past, and each room accommodated four people.

After guiding the four siblings, Becca, and Roy into the quarters, Caspar spoke to the squire on duty.

"Hey, are there any empty beds?"

"Yes?"

"They're going to stay here from now on, so I'm asking if there are empty spots."

"Uh... Yes, please wait a moment. Ah, but are the girls staying here too?"

"Of course not. The girls have to go to the girls' quarters."

"Then we need two spots. Please wait a moment."

The squire on duty checked something like a blackboard on the wall. It was a board where various things needed for daily management were written using chalk made from lime and charcoal.

"There are spots, but not next to each other. Here and here."

They were rooms far apart. But this wasn't a situation to be picky about, and Caspar just took the youngest of the four siblings and Roy away.

"You guys wait here for a moment. I'll drop these two off and come back."

Caspar said to the girls.

Getting separated bewilderedly, Roy called his sister, perhaps finally feeling it sinking in.

"S-Sister."

"Don't be scared. Be a good boy."

With that, the two boys were separated from their sisters.

Roy entered the room Caspar guided him to. With Caspar leaving and standing alone in a four-person room, he felt truly alone, apart from his family, for the first time.

Shouts of training could still be heard from somewhere. Approaching the window, he could see people intensely practicing swordplay in the backyard. They looked to be his age or a bit older.

Everyone was serious. Despite the cool weather, their clothes were drenched in sweat. The sword instructor teaching them also maintained a strict expression with eyes as sharp as a blade.

Watching them, Roy felt strangely encouraged. Because all those kids were likely living away from their families too.

Watching as if possessed, he lost track of time, and when the training session seemed to end and the instructor left, most of them sank to the ground.

A few wiped their sweat and headed somewhere, and soon the outer hallway became noisy. Then, squires entered the room Roy was in. Their eyes met.

The squires looked at Roy for a moment, then went about their business chatting only among themselves without talking to him.

"Is this soap?"

"Yeah, I pinched it when we went to the city during the last festival."

"You didn't buy it?"

"Hey, why would I buy something this expensive?"

"Expensive isn't the problem, stuff like this is only for girls. You sissy."

"Then I'm not lending it to you."

"Being a sissy isn't so bad."

"Crazy bastard."

The squires giggled at the silly joke. Then they took out fresh clothes, went out to wash, and only upon returning did they finally speak to Roy, who was standing still.

"Are you new?"

"...Huh? Oh, yeah..."

"Hey, what's with those clothes. People might mistake you for a beggar."

"Isn't he an actual beggar? What's that smell? Smells like shit."

They weren't trying to bully him; Roy actually did smell. Living outside for days made washing difficult, naturally resulting in body odor. On top of that, traveling next to the cow, the smell of dung had permeated him.

Roy blushed in embarrassment.

"Hey, what's your name?"

One of the three squires who looked a bit older stared at Roy and asked.

"Roy."

"Hmm, a commoner. Good. It's uncomfortable if a noble joins anyway. What does your father do? Run a merchant guild somewhere? Is he a goldsmith by any chance?"

"Ah, no. He's a woodcutter..."

Then silence suddenly filled the room. Only the dull thumps of other kids chattering in the hallway beyond the door could be heard.

"A woodcutter? You're not joking?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Then you must have no money at all."

"I was told kids shouldn't handle money..."

"What kind of logic is that. If you have no money, are you going to live off white porridge?"

"...What's wrong with white porridge? Isn't white porridge fine...?"

"Hah."

All three squires sharing the room made dumbfounded expressions. It made sense; because the kids who joined the clan were mostly from lower nobility or middle-class families.

While knightly training was too arduous, dangerous, and time-consuming, the clan taught swordsmanship sufficient to protect oneself in this harsh world.

Among them, kids with exceptional talent or aspiration remained in the clan and built their futures here.

In fact, if one became a formal clan member, bearing the signboard of Viola, they wouldn't be treated poorly anywhere. Rather, nobles and wealthy people would regrettably seek their help.

With the situation being such, many people rushed to send their children to the clan, and since the clan wasn't running a charity, they accepted pupils in order of those who offered the most donations.

In other words, it was abnormal for a woodcutter's child to be here.

Perhaps that was why the squires' gazes towards Roy changed. It was contempt.

"Anyway, you go wash up first. And wash those clothes too."

"Where?"

"Do you not have feet, or no eyes? There's water all around, do you need to be told to know? Find it yourself."

One of the squires spoke coldly.

Ashamed and flustered, Roy left the room. In the hallway, there were many apprentices and squires playing around, but they merely glanced at Roy and no one spoke to him.

Caspar wasn't there, neither was his sister, and Les, the youngest of the four siblings who was supposed to stay here with him, was nowhere to be seen.

With no other choice, he left the building again. He didn't know where to wash, but he remembered the kid sharing the room saying there was water all around.

Thinking, 'Ah, they mean the lake,' Roy left the castle and headed to the lakeside. Then he took off his clothes by the lakeside and washed. Fortunately, the water was truly crystal clear.

But with no clothes to change into, he put his wet clothes right back on after washing them. Even after wringing them out with all his might, it was impossible to remove all the moisture.

Carrying his shoes in his hands, he trudged back barefoot with wet, heavy steps. Returning to the quarters, everyone passing by stared strangely at Roy wearing wet clothes.

Those gazes made Roy shrink in intimidation.

Upon returning to the room, the squires sharing it ignored him completely.

Roy took off his clothes again, hung them by the window, and climbed into bed. Having nothing to his name, there was nothing else to do.

The squires chatted among themselves, went out, and came back in, naturally without telling him the meal times.

Thus forced to starve, Roy endured by thinking he could see his parents the next day after sleeping through the night.

When evening fell, there was roll call, and Roy tried to fall asleep in bed. The night deepened. But sleep wouldn't easily come.

Compared to sleeping outside, the bed was practically floating on clouds, but with a heavy heart, sleep eluded him.

Then, unable to hold in his urge to pee any longer, he wore his still-damp clothes and went out.

After solving his problem and returning, the door to the quarters wouldn't open. Huh?

Afraid of waking others, he couldn't knock on the door, and the people standing guard near the castle gates were unfamiliar and scary, so he couldn't approach them either.

Asking a stranger for help was too difficult a task for young Roy.

Looking around the inner keep where his parents would be, light leaked from windows here and there. He desperately wanted to go to where his parents were, but he didn't.

So Roy decided to do what he was good at. Enduring and pushing through.

Stars twinkled in the night sky, and behind the quarters, the four siblings' cow was tied up. Right now, the only familiar presence for Roy was the cow. Hugging the cow, he sobbed quietly for a moment. The cow turned its head toward the boy as if wrapping him in a hug.

Shivering from cold and hunger, Roy curled his body, crouched next to the cow, dozing off, essentially staying up all night. Only when the sun rose the next day was he able to reenter the quarters.

No, he couldn't enter the quarters. It was because he ran into his parents coming out of the inner keep.

"Roy."

His mother Elia called out to Roy. She wore an expression that couldn't even dream that her son had stayed up all night outside.

However, his mother had washed cleanly and wore new clothes, looking truly beautiful, and his father looked like a majestic knight.

So Roy blankly stared at his dramatically transformed parents.

"How was the quarters? Was it uncomfortable?"

"...Yeah. It was fine. It was so comfortable, I passed out."

"Right? Mom was actually worried, but the people here are so considerate. Enjoying all this for free makes me feel guilty."

Roy merely smiled, hiding the truth. Because growing up fast to relieve the burden off his sister, mother, and father had been his long-standing wish. He couldn't become a burden.

His mother seemed incredibly excited, as if she had reverted to her girlhood days. She looked so dazzlingly beautiful that Roy couldn't say anything.

"...So about that, if you're okay with it, Roy, you could continue staying here."

Roy didn't properly hear what his mother was saying. He only registered that he must continue staying here.

"Uh, what about Mom? What about Father?"

"Well, it's not decided right now, so I'll try talking it over."

"Ah..."

"Why? Do you not like it?"

"Ah, no. Just."

"You'll be ten soon. The time has come to step out of your mother's embrace. It will be hard, but you must accept it. An opportunity like this will never come again."

His father said.

Roy stood blankly for a moment, then forced a smile.

"Right. You're right. A comfortable bed, not starving, and learning swordsmanship. No one's coming to kill us either. I'll never have an opportunity like this in my life."

His father reached out and stroked his son's head.

Feeling his father's touch, Roy thought he must endure and push through now, just as his father had endured for their family. He was merely nine years old.

Though it wasn't strictly finalized yet, Roy had to continue staying at the quarters for now.

After that, he followed the squires around, catching on quickly and learning things over their shoulders one by one. He attended roll call, ate the free white porridge, and attended swordsmanship classes in the corner as if almost invisible.

Fortunately, there were no beatings or the like. He merely had to endure the cold stares, contempt, and loneliness.

He occasionally ran into his sister Becca, but they couldn't talk for long. This was because, despite being siblings, there was a rule that men and women had to be separated until becoming trainees.

His sister seemed to be having a hard time too, but being with three of the four siblings, she seemed to be managing somehow.

However, Les, the youngest of the four siblings and about Roy's age, adapted remarkably well. He acted amiably toward the existing squires, running errands here and there, and in Roy's eyes, casually wandered around wearing a stylish gambeson and a cape.

Roy approached Les, who was with other squires.

"Les, Les."

"Huh? Roy."

"Did you buy that? The clothes."

"Ah, this? You just ask the clan quartermaster for it, and they give it to you. Didn't you know?"

"Uh, I didn't know."

"Really? Follow me. Let's go together."

Les took Roy and headed to where the warehouse buildings were. It was where weapons and food were stored, and upon speaking to the person there, they actually roughly gave clothes, shoes, and capes that fit him.

Roy couldn't contain his surprise. Because he didn't receive old clothes as a replacement, but genuinely new clothes for free, he hadn't known such a thing was possible.

In fact, it was something provided only to formally enrolled pupils, but compared to the high donations, it was trivial. Naturally, giving them to Roy, Les, and the other kids was under Bolka's special instructions.

The stitching was meticulous, and the gambeson wasn't stuffed with cheap scraps, but filled with a mixture of sheep's wool and down.

In a daze, Roy looked at Les, who was walking energetically, and spoke.

"You're truly incredible."

"Huh? What is?"

"Making friends, adapting well."

"Ah, that? I lied."

"Huh?"

"I told them my parents ran a cattle farm under a lord. Then everyone treated me nicely?"

Les's parents were completely dead. His father had languished and died from a bandit's blade.

"Are you allowed to do that?"

"Do what?"

"Can you really lie like that?"

"Who cares. The kids here are living away from home too."

"...Anyway, thank you."

"For this? We're friends, aren't we."

At the word 'friend', Roy finally felt his heavy heart becoming somewhat lighter.

With this, Roy barely managed to adapt to the clan life little by little. He didn't know how things would turn out in the future, but the adults didn't seem to want to leave here either.

However, it was the fifth day since arriving here. At dawn, Les came to wake Roy up, left the quarters, and headed somewhere. It was the warehouse building.

The door had a padlock, but it was only hooked on pretending to be locked; in reality, it wasn't locked.

"I'm only telling you this. Because we're friends."

Les casually opened the door and went in. But as fate would have it, Rickart, who had woken up at dawn to get some fresh air, was watching from afar.

Les took Roy and headed towards where the food supplies were. There were high-quality hams, cheeses, alcohol, and the like wrapped in paper filling the shelves.

They were stockpiled to be provided in emergencies or for clan members going out on business outside the dominion.

Therefore, expensive potions were nearby, as well as premium alcohol specially collected by Bolka, a lover of alcohol.

Among them, Les casually grabbed some ham and cheese as he pleased and started eating.

"L-Les."

"Huh? Why?"

"You can't do this."

"Why not? Ah, afraid we'll get caught? It's fine. The quartermaster only takes a rough look in the evening. Sometimes he comes in the morning, but since we have to leave before roll call anyway, we just must go before then."

"That's not it. You just shouldn't do this."

"What are you talking about?"

Roy and Les seemed to have starkly different values.

Unlike Roy, who had properly learned what he must and must not do from his parents, Les had been without a mother for a long time, and even his father died, so he didn't care about the means or methods when it came to survival and fulfilling his greed.

Feeling that this was definitely wrong, Roy fidgeted alone, but Les remained incredibly nonchalant.

"Should I try drinking some alcohol?"

"Les, please..."

"I told you not to worry."

Les stood on his tiptoes and reached for the premium alcohol on a high shelf. Then, an accident happened. The bottle tilted and ended up tumbling to the floor.

Crash!

In an instant, the two boys froze completely. This wasn't something they could fix by cleaning it up. The traces of their crime were left in plain sight.

As if time had truly stopped, the two boys blankly stared down at the broken bottle. The only thing moving was the spilled alcohol seeping across the floor.

Then Les abruptly left the warehouse without even attempting to clean up.

Roy followed his friend for now, but suddenly, from outside the door, Les pushed Roy back inside and shut the door from the outside. Then, a clicking sound was heard.

A fact that he absolutely could not accept, and did not want to accept, crossed Roy's mind.

"L-Les?"

Roy called his friend. But only the sound of increasingly distant footsteps was heard through the door.

He roughly tried the door, but just as he ominously predicted, it didn't open. He was locked in here. Roy was so baffled and shocked that his heart pounded as if it would burst.

Then, whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, the door opened before roll call. It was an adult man standing with his back to the light. He was none other than the quartermaster.

He Spoke.

"Caught ya. You little rat. I'll chop off your hand."

The quartermaster dragged Roy out with a rough grip.

Rickart was merely watching quietly from his room's window in the inner keep.