“And to even change the shape of your body for this...... you really do make sure to go the extra mile for everything. As expected of An—”
“Stop it already!” Being bathed in the gazes of the passersby was too painful. If there was a hole in the ground, then he would jump into it. The side ditch was too narrow and wouldn’t suffice.
“A-Anyway, you’re in the way of my work. Children should go home already.” Sharlo brandished his shovel, and assumed the stance for shoveling.
“I-I apologize. I had no intention of getting in your way...... Then we will take our leave now.” But despite saying that, Lynfil fidgeted a brief while, until she finally managed to say out loud, “Lastly, just one more thing I want to say............ I am very happy that we were able to meet again.” Then she turned toward the direction of the Central Plaza and ran off down the road.
“Ah, Lyn-chan, wait for me!”
“You will become lost~”
The two other girls also ran off.
A beautiful lady that he had not noticed till that moment also bowed to him, then set off in pursuit of the three. Maybe she was the guardian or parent of those children.
(What was that just now? What... just happened......?) The country’s princess was walking around on the streets with not a guard behind her, accompanied only by an unfamiliar woman and her children? Even for an undercover inspection, that was far too strange.
(Don’t tell me, did that guy arrange this too?) The large man’s disagreeable smile floated up in his mind, causing him to become incensed once again (But still, is she going to be all right? This town’s public order is on the good side, but even so......) It bothered him, but he hesitated to follow his sister’s back with his eyes. So naturally, his eyes only fell on the remaining quota, which only served to drain away his motivation again. But even so, he wordlessly resumed working, all while remaining mindful of his movements and consciously trying to scoop the sludge with less strength.
“Quite a lot of unnecessary motion is gone, I see. Glad to see you’re getting accustomed to it.”
The voice from his back caused his hands to freeze again. Sarcasm flew out of his mouth unbidden, directed toward the large man standing beside him. “What point is there in getting better at something like this, huh?”
“The point in getting better at cleaning ditches is that you are better at cleaning ditches. But that’s not all, of course. What you found useful here, you will find useful in most other physical labor jobs. In the first place, your base is in swordsmanship and martial arts, so just by remembering the basics, you could become an asset in high-paying quests like bodyguarding and magic beast hunting.” Taking advantage of Sharlo’s dumbfoundedness, Shouzou continued with a smile. “So, how was it? Sometimes it really is beneficial to reflect on and remember the past, isn’t it?”
“You... did you already know......”
“Right before I asked for custody of you, I dug up all the information I could on you.”
“Does that mean my sister also...... you even brought Lynfil over here?”
Shouzou raised a hand to his chin. “No, her appearance was as much a surprise for me as it was for you. That was a complete coincidence.”
Immediately after exiting the public office located on the side of the Central Plaza, he had bumped into someone completely unexpected. For some reason, together with his wife and daughters, there stood the princess.
“I talked with her for a bit. She talked about you very joyfully and boastfully.”
“She just overvalues me, despite being the true genius herself. What is there about me to boast of......” His sinking emotions caused him to also lower his eyes.
“Indeed, I also agree that her valuation of you might be a bit too high.”
Hearing it said so clearly sounded like it was not him that was being belittled, but his sister. Anger spiked through his mind. He reflexively glared up at Shouzou, only to find an unexpectedly gentle face greeting him.
“You see, valuation from other people is always affected by personal opinion. Your younger sister’s feelings of reverence for her brother are too strong, which is what leads to her higher-than-reality valuation of you. In contrast—” Here, Shouzou’s eyes turned serious. “Be it the king or Jilk or any of your instructors, their overly high expectations of you had caused them to constantly undervalue you.”
“Eh......?”
Shouzou slowly nodded for him to see. “You heard me. Undervalue. You may not have natural born talent like your younger sister has. However, every single person, no matter who they may be, possesses something that can allow them to transcend ordinary human limits. This holds true for you as well.”
Sharlo had gotten lost, and Shouzou did not hold back in poking at the exact reason for it.
“You are a very forward-facing man. And I mean that in a bad way. So badly you do not want to recall your painful past that you fixate your eyes only on your front, as a venue of escape. You are doing that even now. Is it not true that your mind is only occupied by the quota you have left, and that doing so is making you depressed?”
“That... that’s......”
“What you need is to stop sometimes, and to look back with courage. Look.”
What Shouzou pointed at was the unlidded part of the side ditch that Sharlo was currently working on. Half of it was still packed with sludge, and half was already cleared. However, even the cleared part was already slightly invaded by more sludge. Add that onto the fact that he hadn’t exactly made it sparkling clean in the first place, so at a glance even that part looked dirty. But even so—
“You felt with your bones how much effort it took to clear even that amount of sludge. But tell me, is what you have achieved only this little bit?” Shouzou’s finger shifted to point behind Sharlo.
As if guided by the finger, Sharlo turned around. Far off in the distance, he saw the Central Plaza. The sun was setting, and many people were walking to and fro. And stretching beside the road was the side ditch, covered with stone lids. Far beyond what had occupied his mind today, his quota for the day, the ditch continued all the way off.
“The ditch from the Central Plaza to all the way here has been cleaned by you and you alone. With the lids placed back, most people probably don’t even notice it. But it is hard, undeniable evidence of what you have achieved today, yesterday, and all the days going back.”
Sharlo could not say anything. His vision blurred with tears.
“From this moment on, stop letting yourself be thrown around by other people’s valuation of you. You yourself set an objective standard, then you value yourself once each day. Just by doing that, you will change greatly. No, let me rephrase myself. By doing so, you will regain your true self.”
It was nothing difficult. In fact, it would be a very easy thing to do.
“At the end of each day, take only a few minutes before you go to bed. Do a quick comparison of the ‘you’ from yesterday, and the ‘you’ from today.”
“And... that’s it......?”
“Indeed. Just by doing that—” Shouzou turned his eyes toward the far off Central Plaza. “—you can become a man that that girl can boast about in truth.”
Within Sharlo’s blurred vision, only a single girl’s figure was clear. There, standing beside the side ditch at the position where he had started today, stood the girl who had continued to look at the back of her beloved brother all the way through the years, without end.
(Ahh, so that’s how it is. What I truly could not bear was—) The pure feelings of expectation from this young girl. He had thought it far beyond him, and had given up trying to meet that expectation.
Sharlo tightened his grip on his shovel. The only thing left after that was to immerse himself in shoveling sludge.
—For the sake of surpassing who he had been yesterday.