Chapter 28: Confession

Playing knight with Kurena was over after 16:00. As the sun was about to set early, Kurena ran home.

I cooked dinner while helping Theresia who was pregnant. By the time we finished cooking dinner, the blood drained as well, so it was time to move Albaheron to the mud room. I was not sure if I should leave it hanging outside the house overnight.

I’ve killed 10 of them, so the story that I often have an Albaheron hanging in front of my house is pretty well known to the serfs who live around me. I was once asked by a serf to give him some tips on how to catch them at the watering hole, but I didn’t explain beyond catching them when they came down.

In order to avoid letting others see the Motherent I hunt, I hunt in the thick grass of fallow fields. Naturally, the weeds are dead, so they make a rustling noise when someone comes into the field. If someone came into the fallow field and made a noise, I would stop the hunt, but that never happened.

“So, this is how you killed ten Albaherons?”

“Yeah, Father.”

While we were eating dinner, Rodan spoke to Allen.

“It’s amazing.”

Apparently, he was quite curious about it. Allen does farm work and fetches water with his extraordinary strength. I think it was quite a large field, but he finished harvesting potatoes in just two days. He also hunted Albaherons as a matter of course. I’ve always thought he was a smart kid, but lately he’s been showing even more power than that.

I look at Teresia. She looks a little uneasy. She doesn’t say anything to me, but she seems to be quite concerned. I looked at Rodan again.

When Mash falls asleep, I want to have a little talk with Mother and Father.

I said as I looked at Mash, who was struggling to eat beside me.

“All right.”

Rodan seemed to understand just from those words of Allen’s. As for Allen, he thought it was about time. He had been thinking of talking to him about why he was so strong.

Nowadays, with his parents at home, Mash doesn’t get upset even when Allen is not home. He falls asleep as soon as Allen plays with him a little.

When I returned to the living room, I found both Rodan and Theresia sitting there, as if they had fallen asleep. They seemed to have been waiting for me for a long time. Allen also sat down in his usual place.

“I think of Allen as Allen.”

Before we even started talking, Theresia  said that no matter what we talked about, she would never change her mind about me.

“Thank you, this is going to be a little long, if that’s okay.”

“Hmm.”

Rodan replied.

“Actually, I got a notice when I was one.”

“”A notice?””

“Yes, a notice from God.”

“”??””

“Allen. I give you wisdom and power.”

“”Power?””

“Yeah, like I was smarter and more powerful than other people. That’s how I felt.”

“Hmm.”

“And I will give you a test that a hundred men may not be able to accomplish. I give you wisdom and strength to overcome these trials.””

“A hundred!”

A trial to be done by 1 person which should be done by a 100. Regardless to say, it is a very difficult trial.

Rodan had referred to leveling up as overcoming God’s trial. I decided to use an expression to match that.

“How can God give Allen such a trial that even 100 people can’t accomplish?”

Theresia exclaimed.

“Well, I guess that means you’ve overcome one of those trials today.”

“What?”

However, Rodan seemed to have gotten the point of the conversation. Rodan touched Allen’s cheek.

“In case you haven’t noticed, you had a scar right here until lunch.”

On his cheek was the wound he had received the first time he had fought Albaheron. He was about to be eaten, and his cheek had been cut with the tip of his beak. Now it is gone. Allen hadn’t noticed.

(What? Does this mean that whenever I level up not only will I recover all my strength, I will also heal any of my old wounds and stuff?)

It was the first time I learned this fact. So, when Rodan was seriously injured, the other serfs tried their best to defeat the Great Boar. This was because if they could defeat him, there was a chance that Rodan would overcome his trial and make a full recovery.

“I think it was probably the first time I’d ever been through a trial. Because I feel stronger now.”

“I see. So, it was a notice from God. Did God give his/her name?”

There are a number of gods in this other world. The question is which god is giving Allen the trial.

“Um, it said Elmea.”

“The Creator, Elmea. Don’t call him that.”

“All right. I’ll address him as ‘The Creator’ in public.”

“Well, yeah…”

Not a shred of faith.

“So, what happened at the appraisal ceremony?”

At the appraisal ceremony, Allen was given an E for all abilities without talent. Rodan had always wondered about this. He didn’t think that his son was very gifted, but he never thought of him as that weak.

“That’s because two months ago, Elmea gave me another notice.”

“Well, recently, huh?”

“He said that there was no mistake about my abilities because they are based on my growth rate and the speed at which I could overcome trials. As for my talent, he said it couldn’t be fully evaluated because it is new talent. I don’t know about my actual talent either.

“Oh, really?”

Allen decided not to answer about being a Summoner. It was a talent to summon magical beasts out of thin air and use them. It might cause some kind of misunderstanding. It was the first time that Rodan and Theresia had heard of this talent.

I think I’ll give it a little more time and take the opportunity to confess again and talk about it slowly.

For now, I’ll just explain that I have been given a divinely imposed trial that even 100 people could not accomplish, and that I have been given wisdom and strength to overcome it. This is to explain about my wisdom and power.

Of course, I haven’t given any explanation for my reincarnation. From the very beginning of my reincarnation, I’ve been trying to hide the fact that I have memories of my previous life. If black eyes and black hair are a notice of reincarnation, the surprise of the villagers could mean that the number of reincarnated people themselves is quite small, or even none. I thought it might be a reaction in the small village, but the Knight Commander was also looking at me closely. Apparently, black eyes and black hair are quite rare.

Theresia hugged Allen.

“Now I kind of understand why you kept throwing stones at the tree until the bark peeled wide open. Now you are fighting Albaheron for your family. I wonder if you’ve been fighting God’s trial all this time alone.”

“I wish I’d heard it sooner.”

“Yeah, I wish I’d heard that sooner. I’m your father, you know. Oh, so you were wise because God gave you wisdom.”

“Sorry, Mother, Father. I’m sorry it took me so long to tell you. I’m just trying to get through this trial.”

Now about my future plans. What? Theresia looked at me with a puzzled expression. Her adorable child was about to embark on the path of shura, a path of trials and tribulations that no hundred people can overcome.

“Oh, yeah, that’s right. It’s a test given to you by the Creator God. If it’s too much, you can always turn to your mother and father.”

Rodan, however, apparently agrees. For Rodan, who had been involved in boar hunting all his life, the trials of God were closer to him than to Teresia.

“Thank you.”

“Have you told anyone else about this?”

“No, I haven’t even told Kurena.”

“Well, the Creator God is absolute. Just don’t say anything to others.”

“Some people don’t take it well when we say that we are the only ones who have heard God’s voice.”

(Well, they were my parents, so they believed me.  But if I say it to anyone I meet and tell them, they wouldn’t believe me without any proof, and they might say I’m playing God.)

“Yeah.”

“It’s just…”

“What?”

“Can I brag a little to Gerda?”

“……”

“No?”

“No, but…”

“Oh, yeah. He was bragging about how Kurena is a Master Swordsman. He needs to see that my kid is pretty awesome too.”

Apparently, he was a humanistic father who was quite jealous of his best friend’s daughter because she was brilliant.

We didn’t talk much, but the awkwardness of the past few days was gone.