***

Progress has been made!

For the first time I was able to follow with a few of the simplest swordsmanship forms. Sister is very impressed, and Jacen is just happy to “help” me by pointing all my mistakes and showing me the “right way” to do the moves.

Should I tell him he is teaching me his own errors and mistakes instead of something even remotely like what sister does?

I guess I should not. Let brother have some fun for now. It would be a bit too hard on him if I were to break his self-confidence.

Okay poop-brother, I know. Swing with the elbow, not the back, right?

Yeeeeah.

Ah, Ann just corrected him. “What do you think you are teaching Al?!” and the such.

Sister is a bit scary when the subject is swordsmanship.

I will pray for you poop-brother.

***

Later that night brother told father that I could do some of the basic swordsmanship techniques.

“Is that true Ann? How much talent does he have?”

“Uhm. He has a lot. It is a bit frightening even.”

“Really? That’s my son!”

Let’s use this chance to learn a bit more about father’s life before becoming a militia guard.

“Father also use swords?”

“Me? No, your Oldman was a spear user.”

“Spear? What is this?”

“Uuuhm… a spear is a type of weapon.”

Jacen seems to have become interested as well.

“Father used spear? Not sword?”

“That is right. Spears are much better for an adventurer after all.”

“Better?”

“Really?”

I also became curious. Why would a spear be better than a sword?

“Yes. Because you don’t need to come close to use it, so it is much safer to hunt monsters with a spear.”

Oh, I see. Spears are useful for adventurers because they usually fight against monsters and the such. It makes sense. No one wants to be close to something that can be a bit threat to you.

Still…

“Father, if spear is better, then why do the hunters use bows?”

“Uhm? Oh, that is because most of them use both of them. Adventurers sometimes use even more weapons than this. A good adventurer may carry as much as five or six different kinds of weapons.”

“Six! That many?”

“That is right. But the spear is still the best of all.”

“But why they carry so many weapons?”

Father gave sister a meaningful look. She seemed a bit angry, but remained as she was.

At that moment I thought something would happen, however…

*sigh* “Well, each weapon is useful for a different thing Al. Especially when you are hunting monsters.”

I was speechless. I had a suspicion that father’s and sister’s behavior had something to do with she choosing to train the sword. Since she is ten years old it is obvious that she intends to follow some kind of violent path in the future, and I guessed father was against it.

Still, he decided to keep talking to us.

What is this? I am unsuspectedly happy and, at the same time, I simply don’t know what to do! The goddess surely said I would have loving parents but this much seems so perfect…. My eyes are watering out.

That is bad, I won’t be able to control this. It’s a big one. I hugged father with all my strength and let it out.

***

“Oh my, John your son is such a crybaby! Here Al, your father is ok. The monsters can’t get him inside the house.”

Mother is patting my back, but I am not crying because of that. I am crying of happiness. Genuine happiness. I cannot be more happy than now.

“Haha. It’s fine, it’s fine. Al is still young. I bet even Jacen is worried about monsters.”

“I.. I am not! I’m not worried about monsters at all!”

“Hehe. That’s my son! Come here then. Let’s get your brother back on his feet. Come on Al! Everyone is watching you know!”

I know, I know! Thank you for embarrassing me even more! There, I am done crying! Now I am angry at you!

…joking. I may have lost myself for a moment but I’m not the kind to just let it take over me forever and ever.

“There. That’s a good boy.”

“Very well, no more monster talk tonight then. Let’s just finish dinner and be thru with it.”

Aaah, I should try and go back to the main topic, but wouldn’t it be weird if I was to bring it up again?

Yep, it would definitely be weird. And I don’t want to get even more weirdness inside this house of ours. Let’s just wait for other opportunity to ask father about weapons and the such. I bet he will be more willing to talk to us now that he has given up on his stubbornness with sister.

Ouch!

Jacen, that hurt! Why are you poking me?!

When I looked at my older brother, there he was, looking at me with an annoyed expression.

The talk in the table changed from the previous theme, and now father is telling how a subordinate of his just brought his son to be a recruit. Since the boy is only fourteen years old he will stay as an assistant until he is ready to become a recruit. In this time, he will be helping with moving stuff, preparing food and also having basic combat training.

It’s a mildly interesting topic, so I am listening attentively.

OUCH!

He poked me again!

One of these days poop-brother…. One of these days…..

***

Jacen’s poking kept going on for a few days, until I finally decided I had enough and started to tell Ma every time he did it.

It’s an impressive amount of times and he became ever angrier at me for a while, but eventually father decided to get serious and give him a sermon, which made him stop it.

It was the first time I saw mother looking for father’s help in order to solve something on the house, but it was very effective.

That’s the power of fathers for you!

Anyhow, winter is coming so there is an ever-growing amount of tasks to be performed and my own duties increased.

Since my coordination is a lot better these days, mother has started to give me more things to do.

Also, mother’s friends have started to notice how much of a helper can a young son be, so they decided to have their own sons and daughters help as well.

The kids are staring at me with such hatred in their eyes…

I am not the one who made you be born in a time before children labor laws were invented! Please spare me!

Yet, a positive consequence of that was that the children started to become part of the everyday talk of the housewives, as well as talking between themselves.

Of course, the ones between one and three years old can at most babble a few words here and there, and the ones between three and five usually try to ditch the duties their mothers give them to play amongst themselves.

But on the rare occasions they felt like being helpful, I actually took the place of “big brother” amongst them and taught them how to do stuff.

Jacen disliked being taught by me, so he put triple the effort to surpass me in all things the housewives have put us to do.

Since he seems to have natural talent and has a better coordination than I have now, he did it in no time.

Veni, vidi, vici. Well done poop brother. You have taken my spot of glory!

I feel like being the one to poke you now.

… let’s do it. Just this once.

****

Winter has come and is almost gone by now.

I have witnessed some interesting things. Like how detoxification magic works, when father was helping mother deal with a lot of meat which was being made into sausages. It is very anti-climactic, but I made sure to ask father to teach me about it. He said something on the lines of “some of these days”.

Indeed, father and mother have been the principal form of distraction we had this winter.

Both have been telling us stories about a lot of things. Dad has a lot of stories on monster subjugations, labyrinths and adventurer lifestyle. And mother knows a lot of folk tales and legends.

Why is this so interesting?

Because sister and brother enjoy those with the same passion as I do.

It seems father and mother have been hoarding stories for years now. Ever since they opposed sister’s dream of following the path of a warrior.

It was a subtle, but intense, form of coercion. She could do whatever she wanted with her life, but they would do their best to keep her oblivious about the world.

I don’t know how long has this been going on, but from what I have heard of father and mother’s pillow talk it has been happening for at least two years now.

So this winter was special for us. I and brother could listen to folk tales and our father’s adventures, and our parents have finally decided to accept Ann’s choices.

By the way, it seems she is decided to become a knight.

It isn’t easy, but every year the kingdom promotes a tournament. Those who finish in the top ten strongest warriors, without exception, gain a seat on the knightly order of the kingdom.

Of course, sister has no chances of winning at her current strength. Not only she lacks in power, but in technique as well. So the first step is for her to move to our county’s capital and enroll at a dojo.

Father cannot afford to pay her expenses, but she intends to double-time working as a city guard or even as a maid. However, father made her swore never to work as an adventurer.

Apparently women usually don’t become adventurers except in the last of cases. Even prostitution is a better option for most of them.

I don’t know exactly why, but this is how things are.

When I was curious and started to pressure father to tell us more about it, he became sad and reflexive. Mother hurriedly had a “need” to cook some complex food, so she took me out with her, to help with the cooking.

I know mother, it was insensitive. Sorry.

Oh, of course, me and brother have made sure to ask father more about the spear and other weapons as well.

What we discovered was something like this :

Spear: Good to take down enemies at a reasonable distance, especially monsters with big bodies and soft hides like the ones around our region. Father believes to be the best of all weapons, but recognize it is tough to use against human enemies, since they tend to avoid the pointy end and get too close for it to be effective.

Sword: Good to take down closer enemies and also against humans. Father says adventurers usually have one for when their spears break, they have to face bandits or the monsters they are fighting again are too small or get too close to them.

Daggers: Father says they are very useful as last-resort weapons. All adventurers carry at least one with them, usually tucked in their boots.

Mace: Surprisingly not only useful but a first necessity item in labyrinth exploration and many kinds of monster subjugation – because it can smash open monsters with tough carapaces like insectoid monsters or monsters with bone armor or made of crystal.

Bow: A must-use item for hunting anything. If you can take a monster down with the bow then you won’t need to come close to it. That’s why adventurers build their weapons in order of necessity. First, the spear. Then, the bow. Then the dagger. Then another dagger. Then the sword. And lastly the mace. Six weapons to cover all kinds of possible encounters with monsters.

Father himself never got to the point of owning a mace, but on his adventuring times he would use all other four. At least until he made it big and decided to settle down, that is.

Alchemical Oils: Those are a bit more rare to be possessed by adventurers, but all want to have eitherway. They are usualy slimy oils which are highly flammable. You can just throw them on the ground to get a monster out of balance or throw a torch on them and create a distraction.

***

Winter came to an end, but father still hasn’t taught any of us anything practical. Even though I bothered him for a long time, he didn’t teach us the spear or magic or anything…

Sister seems to have understood something, but Jacen is as lost as me.

Well, I keep training. I am though enough to train with sister for almost the entire day now, and even though mother don’t appreciate losing my help there are days when just there isn’t a single thing to do – on those days I train with sister for a bit longer.

Jacen has gotten a cold when he tried to imitate us, but sister pushed him into training even while sick. I thought he would collapse, but when his situation started to turn serious father used a detoxifying and healing magic combo on him and he became healthy again.

Almost two years without using it once, and now he has started to use it as if it was the most common thing in the world!

What is up with this?!

Well, there is the thing with sister, so maybe it’s because of that.

The thing about magic though…

It is just weird.

Father will impose his hands and then start chanting something that isn’t made of words at all. It’s like a mantra or a tune. It seems the tone is very important, but isn’t this like singing?

I can see how hard can it be to use this kind of thing in the middle of battle, so I am not surprised to know that only rarely an adventurer uses magic against monsters.

Well, I guess I will have to wait until he teaches me.

In terms of sword practice I have already mastered the theory behind all of the forms sister knows, but I am still ways from being able to actually do them.

Because they require a lot of training.

For example, to be able to swing my twig in a straight line with all of my power I need to have the same strength in both my arms, and also to be able to use both at the same time in different positions of the handle, both positions accurately held.

On another words, I have to become ambidextrous. Sister seems to have been able to learn it in a few months, but in this she says my progress must be even faster, since young children should be able to quickly learn ambidexterity as long as they train from a young age.

****

Spring has come, and we have one less person on the house.

And the reason is because mother makes him go outside everyday.

My older brother, that is.

He just turned five, and five years old is the age when the kids are supposed to go outside and play with the other kids in the village. When they are supposed to start getting a social life.

The birthday party reflected that well, since he got a lot of presents meant to be used with others – a whipping-top, some wooden marbles and the like.

Still, Jacen didn’t want to do it for the first week or so, and a few weeks later he tried to shut himself inside of his room.

Mother forced him to go out, even as he screamed and cried all the way.

I wondered if he was being bullied, and for a moment I thought of letting he become a hikikomori or something.

However, he’s still my brother. Even after poking me and making fun of me, he defended me when one of the older kids tried to hit me.

So I decided to help him the best way I could. That is, allowing myself to cry.

I had been suppressing it for quite a while now. It isn’t easy for a young child to hear another cry and keep his emotions in check.

So I cried and ran, giving him a hug.

He himself stopped crying. I guess the surprise move worked. Maybe it was even superefective, as mother as well had stopped yelling at him.

Oh, even sister is getting here in a hurry.

It seems I had accumulated a lot of crying inside of me, so I cried really loud. Mother is worried, hugging me.

“Al, son, what happened? Al ?”

Sister and brother are starting to get shaken as well. I need to stop this. It’s hard, but I can do it.

I can do it.

I did it. I suppressed these emotions.

That was hard!

I wonder if it is because I have gone too long without crying. I suppose I should blow off some steam from time to time.

Mother is still inquiring me. Okay. It is my chance to make things work now.

“Onii… onii-san don’t want to go! Why mother make he go! Don’t hurt Onii!”

“Oh my goodness, Al….”

Everyone is making a relieved face. Jacen is even more surprised now.

“Ann, go with your brother and see what is happening. I need to do the laundry.”

“Okay Ma. Don’t worry Alvin. Your big sister will take care of everything, okay?”

*snif* *snif* “Okay…”

False tears? Emotional manipulation? Shameful behavior for a man?

I know not of what you are talking. The situation really made me feel really bad you know? I am only a toddler, even if I am much older in my mind!

That is why, none of this is fake. It may be a bit mischievous though.

A secret. I won’t tell anyone if you don’t, ‘kay?

Anyway, that night sister told us of how she had beaten up a 9-yrls-old who was bulling Jacen really bad, and how after she even beat up the kid’s older brother, who was fourteen already.

That gave father a hell of a headache since the older brother in question was supposed to become a recruit of the town’s militia as soon as he reached fifteen. At first, when he came home, he was furious with Ann. She started to get angry too, but then mother intervened and calmed things down. After explanations father had a mean look on his face. He even talked something in the lines of:

“So, Robert’s kid has been bullying Jacen hum… and his older brother was backing him up, even while being my subordinate… it seems I will have to give those two some discipline tomorrow”.

I pity the fools.

From that day onwards Jacen would leave the house proudly. He even started to come back later than he was supposed to and had mother give him a sermon on that.

Life isn’t easier without him, but it isn’t harder as well.

It is a bit lonelier not having him with us during morning training with sister, but the time I used to spend with him I have put into training harder and one other very important thing.

So I am not really idle or bored.

Which I guess is a good thing.

***