“Hey, what are we gonna do about feeding him? I mean, nothing’s about to come out of there, right?” the man asked suddenly, staring at the woman’s chest as she held Tenma.
“O-Of course not...!”
They looked at each other awkwardly. Unfortunately, none of the women in their village had given birth in quite some time. In fact, it had been over a decade since a child had been born there. The average age of the villagers had always been a bit on the higher side, and there hadn’t been any new long-term residents in recent years. The few younger folks who did come to the village never stayed long because they couldn’t deal with the quality of life. So the village was well on its way to becoming your standard rural village suffering from population decline.
After this conversation, the two of them quickly went around to all the women in the village who had child-rearing experience for advice on how to care for Tenma so he didn’t starve. Thanks to these ladies, they found out that Tenma would do just fine on goat’s milk. Next, they visited the local goatherd and asked him if they could have dibs on any milk his goats produced.
Since Tenma’s new parents had carried him around the village with them on their quest, all the residents had become familiar with him, even though it was only his first day living there. Within a few days, the minute he was spotted, a crowd of villagers would gather around him.
◊◊◊
Three years had passed since the couple took me in. The man who’d brought me to the village was named Ricardo, and he was a hunter. His wife was named Celia. The two of them used to be adventurers, and apparently they were pretty good at it, because in their heyday they’d made quite a name for themselves. But now, they were my new parents. They weren’t alone—there were a lot of other former adventurers in this village too.
Around two hundred people lived here, and over a hundred and fifty of them were either former adventurers or something in that same vein. It was a small village, but we had farmlands as well as a huge forest where one could pick good-quality medicinal herbs. Thanks to their prior experience as adventurers, the villagers were well acquainted with the local geography and would gather the herbs themselves, or else serve as guides for people who were seeking the herbs but didn’t know the way. This brought in some money, and although none of them were rich, they all lived comfortably.
Recently, they’d begun to allow me to walk around the village by myself. Previously, my mom, Celia, would go everywhere with me and never let me out of her sight. I thought it was a bit overprotective, but she had good reason for doing it. I think it happened about five months after they’d taken me in. Back then, Mom and Dad did everything for me. They fed and bathed me, of course, but they also changed my diapers.
That was only natural, because at the time, my body was still that of a baby’s—but mentally I was different. I was in the same bizarre situation as a certain boy detective; I was a baby on the outside but an adult on the inside. Because of that, having my diaper changed was mortifying. So mortifying that I started holding it in, to the point that it made me sick. And that made Mom cry...
Of course that made me feel even worse, so I decided to get over my embarrassment. I swore to myself that once I was able to walk, I’d go to the bathroom by myself. I was so determined that I started standing and walking on my own much sooner than normal. And the very first place I wanted to go was to the toilet. I’m finally free! Or so I thought, but the second I squatted over the toilet...I fell in. And got stuck. Really stuck.
Even though I was finally able to walk, my muscles were about as strong as those of a tadpole that had just sprouted new legs. I couldn’t hold a squat for very long at all. It took about an hour for my mom to find me and rescue me from the toilet. When she saw the upper half of my body protruding from the hole in the ground, she started tugging on me frantically and pulled me out. She rescued me, but obviously I was filthy and absolutely reeked.
That’s when Mom muttered something and waved a hand. In seconds, my body was clean again. That was the first time I’d ever seen someone do magic. That day was truly unforgettable to me...in more ways than one.
Another advantage of being able to walk was going outside on my own. I never went very far from my house, but my mom still worried. She’d say, “You can’t take your eyes off this child for one second, because there’s no telling what he’ll do!” and she wouldn’t give me any freedom. Not that I could blame her...
So even though I was finally allowed to walk around on my own, I could only explore within the village, where I had eyes on me at all times. I wasn’t allowed to go near the forest by myself yet. Still, I was happy that I could walk freely where I wanted.
“Heeey, Tenma! Over here!” a villager called out, having spotted me. He must’ve just gotten back from hunting, because he had several birds slung over his shoulder.
“Hi, Uncle Mark.”
“Hi there. Take a look at this haul, Tenma! I got five birds!”
These pheasants looked a lot like ordinary pheasants; they weren’t great at flying, but they were fast. They weighed around one to two kilograms each, and they were delicious.
“Ricardo helped, though. He got three pheasants and a boar. He’ll probably be home soon, so let’s prepare the meat while we wait for him.”
Uncle Mark was also a former adventurer, and he’d been friends with Dad since they were kids. He liked to teach me archery while we waited for Dad to get home from hunting trips. Of course I couldn’t use an adult-sized bow yet, so it was pretty much just playing pretend. But I felt like I was gaining experience points anyway. After I’d managed to hold the bow a few times, Dad finally returned.
“Welcome home, Dad. Looks like you had a good trip!”
“Hey, Tenma. Look at all this loot! I’m gonna have Mom fix us a feast tonight!” Dad grinned as he took the wild boar out of the pack he had over his shoulder. It still gave me a strange feeling to see him pull a two-hundred-kilogram boar out of that little bag.
“Man, that magic bag of yours sure comes in handy... Wish I had one.” Uncle Mark’s comment put Dad in an even better mood. The magic bag was a treasure of his that he’d gone through a lot to obtain back in his adventurer days. It was a rare item that was difficult for even the best magicians to create. It could hold creatures weighing up to five hundred kilograms, not including things attached to the carcass, like parasites, microbes, or eggs—basically, anything with weak life force didn’t count.
“It really is useful. I’m surprised they say it’s only an Common bag. If it were just one tier better, it’d be good enough to be the family heirloom of nobles, or a national treasure or something.” My father was the owner of this particular bag, of course. All items in this world had a tier. The tiers were Poor, Common, Good, Special, Excellent, Legendary, and Divine. The tiers applied to magic too. So even though Uncle Mark was jealous of the bag, it was actually of a lower tier. Moreover, Legendary and Divine items only appeared in fairy tales and other folklore, so generally Excellent items were considered the highest rank.
“Oh, that reminds me, Ricardo. Did you hear the sage is coming home?”
“The sage...you mean Merlin? First I’ve heard of it! Why, it’s been over ten years since he left!”
“Who’s Merlin?” I asked.
“A weirdo,” both Dad and Uncle Mark answered in unison.
“The strongest magician alive right now, who’ll probably go down in history. He’s well known for being eccentric, and he used to live in this village,” Uncle Mark elaborated.
“One time he charged buck naked into a dungeon overflowing with monsters and fought them all off. Another time, he showed up to an audience with the king wearing just his robe and nothing else underneath. He was also pretty fond of strolling all over town wearing only his underwear,” Dad said.
Sounds more like a perverted nudist than just a weirdo, I thought.
“Oh, and he’s got the God of War’s protection, which is pretty rare for a magician,” Uncle Mark added. My father nodded in agreement.
Hmm, if he’s got the God of War’s protection, no wonder he’s a weirdo. At that moment I realized that I, too, had the protection of the God of War, and felt kind of bummed out.
“Well, enough about that. Let’s butcher the boar and have us some dinner! Mark, you start the fire. Tenma, you call over some of the neighbors to help us.”
“Okay, sounds good! Ah, but I didn’t bring my flint today,” Uncle Mark said.
“Oh, that won’t work, then. All right, Mark. You butcher the boar, and I’ll start a fire with magic.”
“Dad, I wanna try to light the fire. Teach me magic!” It seemed as good of a time as any to ask. Dad thought for a moment, and then, since lighting a fire was the most basic magic of all, agreed to teach me.