Chapter 1
Summer in Zoltan, the Season for Taking It Easy
It was summer, the season when the people of Zoltan displayed their true characters.
“No one’s coming,” Ruti said from a seat in the corner.
“Sure seems like it,” I answered between bites of the leftover medicinal cookies I’d made yesterday.
A pail of water rested on the floor before Ruti. She was cooling her feet in it.
“Zoltan summers are hot,” she added. “Honestly, having no motivation to do anything is kind of refreshing.”
With the power of New Truth suppressing the Hero blessing, Ruti was enjoying the summer in Zoltan. This slothful appearance would’ve been impossible to reconcile for anyone who’d known her as the Hero. However, this laziness was just another aspect of her humanity that my sister had recovered.
Summer was the harshest season in this corner of the world.
Zoltan was subtropical, so the temperature was high. The surrounding wetlands made the air quite humid, too. And to top it off, evening showers were common, and massive storms were also a regular feature.
It left the people of Zoltan with little alternative but to laze around, something they’d been doing in the hot months for generations.
“Yup. Everyone lies around the house, and no one does any work this time of year,” I said.
Anything that could be dealt with tomorrow was a problem for tomorrow. And when tomorrow arrived, Zoltanis reasoned that most everything could probably wait at least another day.
Everyone knew things moved slowly during the summer, so those seeking to get something accomplished would meet in a cool place to discuss their goals. Ultimately, they’d chat lazily for a while, then laugh after nothing was decided and shrug it off, deciding there was nothing to be done about the work delay.
Such was summer in Zoltan.
There were more than a few people who collapsed each year from the heat, so perhaps slacking off this time of year was a healthy and natural response.
“There isn’t much at the market. What should I do for dinner tonight?” I wondered aloud.
Naturally, Zoltan’s merchants weren’t exempt from the lethargy.
Even the construction and transportation workers were slacking off.
Food was more likely to go bad in this heat, and travel frequently met with delays, creating a shortage of fresh ingredients in town.
There were lots of fruits and vegetables that ripened during this season, but Zoltan’s farmers preferred to raise crops that didn’t require much work in the summer.
“Since we’ve got no customers, maybe I should go check the harbor district and see what’s available,” I suggested.
Ruti nodded. “That sounds like a good idea.”
We’d made hand warmers in the winter to get by, but there was no quick fix for Zoltan’s heat. It was too much to handle.
“Brother.”
“Oh, do you want to come along, Ruti?”
“Mhm.”
“It’s hot out there, you know.”
“I’ll bring water.”
Ruti held up a bottle of water with both hands.
It wasn’t the magic item she’d used during her journey, but a ceramic canteen she had bought in Zoltan.
The bottle had been painted an insulating color and sported the image of a round spider for decoration. The image was modeled after Tisse’s partner, Mister Crawly Wawly.
“I like this canteen.”
Since acquiring it, Ruti kept it on her at all times. She took great care of the bottle, making it obvious how much it meant to her.
“All right, we’ll leave the store to Rit and go out shopping,” I declared.
“Mhm.” Ruti nodded happily.
The sky was clear today, save for a few big white clouds bobbing lazily overhead.
It made the heat oppressive. Even a dragon would be panting and complaining.
“It sure is hot.”
“Definitely.”
Ruti and I wiped our foreheads with towels.
She never would’ve done something like this while traveling as the Hero.
Even the heat of molten lava pouring from a volcano hadn’t affected her. It was the Hero’s duty to keep fighting even in skin-melting conditions. Heat had meant nothing to Ruti the Hero.
And with that life behind her, even Zoltan’s awful summer was a pleasant experience.
“Man, it’s hot.”
“Sure is.”
Fresh sweat appeared as soon as we wiped the old away.
This wasn’t quite the temperature of a scorching desert that made you think you might die, but it was enough to worry you might be in danger if you collapsed and no one was around.
Put simply, it was hot. So much so that it made a person want to keep mentioning it.
“So hot,” I groaned.
“I don’t think you have any heat resistance, Big Brother, yet I don’t remember you complaining while we were traveling,” Ruti remarked.
“Well, that’s partly because I got protection from Ares’s magic when the temperature turned life-threatening. But also…I couldn’t whine while everyone else endured with the powers of their blessings. So I just sucked it up.”
Back then, my duty was to support the Hero.
I knew my limit would come someday, but I was still careful not to let my comrades see my weakness.
“Keeping quiet about my troubles might’ve contributed to the party’s eventual collapse,” I admitted.
“It wasn’t your fault. Ares pushing you out.”
“Thank you… But I think the primary culprit was a lack of trust between members.”
We’d come together and fought to defeat the demon lord, but we’d lacked the presence of mind to sympathize with each other’s problems.
Ruti, Yarandrala, Theodora, Ares, and I… We’d all had our troubles and reasons for wanting to defeat the demon lord.
I never would’ve imagined Theodora siding with Ares and fighting Ruti. Or that Ares would’ve encountered so much hardship after I left.
“There are times I wonder, if I had talked with Ares more, maybe things could’ve ended differently.”
Ares’s funeral had been during a cold winter day, one entirely unlike today.
“I knew his noble family was bankrupt, but Ares wasn’t the sort of man to be pushed to the brink just because his goal of restoring his family had failed. There was probably something between us, something fundamentally at odds with his view of the world…”
“Big Brother, Ares is gone now.”
“…You’re right.”
Ares had died.
Demis guided the souls of the departed to their next lives. He’d told me as much when I encountered him through Van.
Ares didn’t exist anywhere anymore. Even the wood elves’ legendary Resurrection required the soul to be sealed into a physical form before it was reborn. No matter how powerful the miracle, there was no recovering a soul that had been remade.
“Maybe the heat’s thawing out old memories,” I mused.
“Mmh,” Ruti answered.
Perhaps I’ll visit his grave tomorrow.
Supposedly, even if the dead were gone, prayers would reach them in their current life. I didn’t trust Demis would be so considerate, but prayers were for the living as much as they were for the dead.
I needed to dwell a bit on my memories with Ares because I still needed to come to terms with the meaning of Divine Blessings. Tanta would need my help in the future, after all.
Zoltan’s harbor district.
Situated on the western side of the town, the river harbor was the gateway to Zoltan—technically anyway.
There were few merchant ships, and since it was a river harbor, larger vessels couldn’t dock there. However, there wasn’t enough commercial interest in Zoltan to warrant those larger boats anyway.
“It’s nothing compared to bigger cities, but this is where trade goods gather,” I explained to Ruti. “Stuff from villages upriver all ends up here.”
“If that’s true, then maybe we’ll find something good.”
“Maybe.”
Crews were holed up in their lodges, since the road along the river was deserted.
Not even any roadside stalls, huh?
Ruti and I entered a small shop.
“Heyo,” came a lifeless greeting as we stepped inside.
The young man behind the counter was topless and fanning himself. He didn’t show much interest in working, a perfect match for his tone.
The owner of this shop was a middle-aged woman, so this clerk was presumably her son.
“See?” said Ruti.
“You were right. There’s plenty here,” I replied.
The heat had kept away the usual crowd of merchants that would’ve bought up the stock at a place like this.
“With this much, there’s a lot I can make,” I said.
As Ruti and I picked out one thing after the other, I began to get a little excited.
“You throwing a party or something?” the young man asked as he bagged the food for us.
“No. I just feel like making a proper meal from time to time.”
“Even during summer?”
“Spaghetti salad gets old after a while, even during summer.”
“Huh? Change up the ingredients a bit and I could eat it forever.”
Spaghetti salad was the legendary standard summer food in Zoltan.
You’d cook the noodles, cool them in water, add whatever ingredients you had on hand, throw whatever spices you liked on top, and toss it all together. Truly, it was a dish overflowing with Zoltan spirit.
Anything that needed to be cooked went into the water with the noodles. It was also called Zoltan soba, although actual soba was hard to make in Zoltan due to the climate, so you hardly ever saw it in these parts. Someone who moved to Zoltan likely ascribed the term soba to spaghetti salad.
Hardly anyone in Zoltan had ever tasted the real stuff, so the local specialty sharing the moniker was a bit funny.
Some people likely assumed the Zoltan version was real soba. Not that there was any harm to the misunderstanding; I just found it amusing.
Oddities like that were part of what made Zoltan’s culture unique.
“So, what are you making?” the young man asked.
“We got some nice-looking peanuts and tomatoes, so I was thinking a peanut stew.”
The young clerk looked shocked. “Putting peanuts in a stew?!”
“Yeah, make a peanut paste to put into it. It goes well with the tomato’s acidity.”
“Huh, what do you know. You must be good at cooking, mister.”
“I just enjoy it is all.”
“I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near a stove in the summer.” The young man shrugged. “Zoltan soba is fine by me.”
Ruti and I walked back carrying the bags of groceries.
A shimmering haze hung over the road, and summer insects chirped shrilly, their forms lit in the colors of dusk.
Ordinarily, we would’ve heard the voices of children playing, but even they had admitted defeat to the unrelenting sun.
“I know some of the kids are inside playing board games,” Ruti said.
She often played with the local kids. Her mastery of the wyvern race game had won her the respect of the kids in our section of town, as well as that of those living in the central district and out in Southmarsh.
That’s why she knew so much.
Other kids had avoided her in our home village because of the Hero blessing. In Zoltan, however, she was looked up to as an older sister-type who was good at games.
I couldn’t have been happier for her.
“It’d be dangerous for kids out in this heat,” I remarked.
Even though neither of us had any resistance skills active, our blessings still bolstered our resilience. Every adult had a Divine Blessing, and even if it wasn’t raised to a high level, it still afforded some extra hardiness against the temperature.
Children who’d not yet awakened to their blessings were a different story. They collapsed more easily. A parent looking away for a few moments only to turn back and see that their child had passed out was a fairly common story.
It was safer for children to play where adults could supervise during the peak of summer.
“We were exceptions,” Ruti noted.
We had connected with our blessings the moment we were self-aware.
Presumably, that was because the Hero and Guide were blessings with special roles.
Demis created the Hero to recreate the first hero’s soul. To have the bearer behave in a fitting way from birth, it was necessary for their blessing’s impulses to restrict the direction of their entire life.
The Guide existed to watch over and safeguard the Hero until they had grown enough, so it was also necessary for it to be active from birth.
Thus, both of us had never known life without a Divine Blessing.
“Because we weren’t normal children,” I said.
Ruti nodded. “Mother and Father left us alone.”
“Can’t really blame them, I guess.”
We didn’t need parents. That had strained our relationship with our mother and father terribly. They were just ordinary villagers, and we were too different.
The Hero and Guide were designed not to be affected by things like parents, though.
No matter what sort of parents they had, the Hero would develop healthily. It was that way by intent.
Our situation was precisely as Demis had envisioned.
“But you were there for me, Big Brother. Then and now.” Ruti took my free hand with hers. “No matter what Demis planned. I was never a normal child, but I was happy. Because you were there for me.”
“And I had a happy childhood because you were there for me, too,” I replied.
“But you went to the capital in order to become a knight.”
“Th-that’s because I knew that someday you would set out on a journey…”
“I know. You always worked hard for me.” Ruti peered into the distance while we walked. “Still, I always hoped to spend summer together when you were away.”
“…We would’ve had a great time.”
“Mhm.”
While peering beyond the heat shimmer, I pictured our younger selves holding hands and walking.
When a child connected with their blessing, they were considered an adult.
Ruti and I were born linked to our Divine Blessings, so we’d never had childhoods.
“Divine Blessings, huh?”
I broke off a blade of grass growing on the side of the road and put it in my mouth. I blew on it, and a high-pitched sound issued from between my lips.
Ruti’s eyes widened in surprise. “I didn’t know you could whistle like that.”
“A knight taught me how when I was in training. He told me you’d love it if I showed you.”
“Oh. So why did you never show me?”
“…I was afraid it might be a little childish.”
“But I was a kid back then.”
“That’s true, but…I was, too.”
I’d been immature. I’d learned to make grass whistles to help Ruti smile, yet I’d never shown her because I was afraid she wouldn’t enjoy something so ordinary. Thinking back on it, I realized she would’ve enjoyed it just fine. However, I was only a boy at the time. One who’d left a small village to live alone in a big city far from home.
“So you never showed me because you were afraid,” Ruti said.
“Well, yeah,” I admitted, a little bashful.
“You were a child. Just like I was.”
“Yeah. I was.”
I whistled on the grass again.
“Let me try.”
I passed her the blade of grass. She blew, producing a sharp sound on her first attempt.
“Wow, you’re good,” I praised.
Ruti beamed. “Only because I copied you.”
Seeing her smile made me grin, too.
It had been some time since she started suppressing the Hero using New Truth, but lately, she’d been smiling more clearly.
We laughed and grinned while comparing grass whistles. It was the sort of thing two much younger siblings might have done.
Once I was back in the kitchen, it was time to make dinner.
Not a single customer had come by the shop while Ruti and I were out getting ingredients.
Deliveries to clinics and merchants would have to be our source of income for the season.
“I need to reconsider our stock,” I muttered.
If I made medicine at my usual pace, we’d have too much.
Herbs grew plentifully in the mountains during summer, though, so I thought to gather what I could there and dry the plants or make them into pastes so they would keep until needed.
“Red,” Rit called out from behind me. Turning around, I saw she had an apron on. Her hair was tied back, and she looked fired up. “I’ll help out, too!”
“Thanks. Could you take care of the prep work?”
“Got it!”
Rit picked up a kitchen knife and started cutting and trimming the rainbow trout.
I handled most of the cooking, but recently, Rit was pitching in more.
When I asked her why, she claimed it was because cooking together was fun. Obviously, the work went faster with more hands, but I didn’t mind the time required. I liked making food for Rit and Ruti.
So for Rit to help simply because she enjoyed it, too, not to make it more efficient, felt like bliss.
Today’s menu was a southern-style peanut stew, marinated trout, gnocchi cooked in cheese, a tomato and paprika salad, caramel pancakes, and mead.
The stew would have to simmer for a while, and the trout needed time to soak in the marinade. I was making the gnocchi from scratch, and cooking down the caramel would take a bit.
This is extravagant.
Such a dinner would’ve been impossible on a normal work day. The lazy Zoltan summer, when no one was working, made this possible.
“Warm the milk and butter, add the flour little by little, then lower the heat and stir while adding salt and ground herbs,” I muttered.
“What are you making, Red?” Rit asked.
“Gnocchi. I’ve been using pasta made at the mill a lot lately, so I wanted to make one from scratch like this, too.”
“Mmm, it smells nice!”
“Because I made sure to work some herbs into the dough. It’ll be delicious.”
“I can’t wait!”
“Rit, when you’re done there, would you mix the dough here for me?”
“Got it, I’m almost finished. Just chopping the onions.”
“Okay. I’ll make the marinade, so you work the dough until it’s smooth.”
“And after that?”
“Take it off the fire, add some egg yolks and cheese, and keep mixing. Once that’s done, it’s just a matter of getting the dough into the right shape, but I should handle that part since I have the Cooking skill.”
“Roger!”
We were preparing a meal that required fire in the dead of a harsh summer. When I glanced at the side of Rit’s face, I spied a bead of sweat running down her bare nape. It was a bit exciting.
“Hm?” Noticing my gaze, Rit looked back at me. Her cheeks flushed slightly, and she smiled.
I pulled my eyes away, a little embarrassed. My gaze went to her beautiful, pale hand stirring the pot, then to the blue sapphire ring on her finger.
The engagement ring I’d given her.
“Heh.” I laughed.
Rit cocked an eyebrow. “What?”
“Nothing. Just thinking how happy I am.”
Rit’s smile blossomed into something beautiful and bright.
“Me too!”
Neither of us spoke for a while.
While the cylindrical gnocchi cooled, I got to work on the peanut stew.
First, there was the matter of crushing the peanuts into a paste. Preparing medicines had made me accustomed to the method. Meanwhile, Rit chopped the other ingredients and put them into a pot.
The kitchen knife slipped into the fresh red tomatoes with satisfying ease. Apparently, the fruits had been gathered in one of the mountain villages upriver.
Summers were supposed to be cooler there. The trout hailed from the same region, as it happened.
The tomatoes weren’t anything special, but they were fresh and ripe. They hadn’t been raised at one of the famous places farther north, yet they were perfectly suitable for a simple, happy dinner table.
“That’s it for the prep work!”
All that remained was the chili pepper and water. Then I’d add the peanut paste and let the whole thing simmer.
Basically, most of our work was done.
““Good work!”” Rit and I said to each other.
Rit, Ruti, Tisse, Mister Crawly Wawly, and I took our seats around the dinner table.
“You went all out today!” Tisse looked shocked. Well, as much as her subtle demeanor would allow anyway.
“Lately I’ve been keeping meals simple because of the heat, so I decided to put in a little effort for a change.”
“You aren’t kidding,” Tisse replied. “I can say this with confidence now that I’ve taken the Cooking skill, these dishes take quite a lot of time.” She picked up the bowl of peanut stew. “This smells great.”
“It’s a dish from a town called Mzali. The locals serve it over dumplings made of corn flour. However, I adjusted the flavor to complement a stew-style dish,” I said.
“I’ve been to many places for my work as an assassin, but I only ever paid attention to their baths and oden communities.”
“I never really noticed any oden communities… Is oden really so widespread?”
“Should you look closely, you can usually find at least one person manning a cart in a town.”
“I didn’t know that.”
Tisse tried a spoonful of the stew. “Delicious.”
I nodded, saying “Good,” then had a spoonful for myself.
The chicken meat had absorbed the peanut and tomato flavors and tasted excellent.
Seems like it came out well, if I do say so myself.
“Herby gnocchi in hot cheese…I love it!”
“Tasty. It goes well with the acidity and feels good in the mouth. As always, I’m glad to have your cooking.”
Rit had started with the gnocchi, while Ruti was enjoying the trout.
I enjoyed my time spent cooking, but I loved when we all got to partake together of my work most of all.
It was a tranquil moment.
Night.
Rit and I were lying in bed together, enjoying the relaxed night.
Moonlight filtered through the window, gently lighting the otherwise dark room.
“Zoltan’s been peaceful since we returned from the ruins,” Rit said.
“Yeah,” I replied. “Everyone can finally take it easy.”
“It really is hot, though… I miss Loggervia’s refreshing summers.”
“It was never this warm back in my hometown.”
A peaceful, restful, lazy season.
When I first came to Zoltan, I’d intentionally forgone practicing swordsmanship to make a statement about living a more relaxed life. That hadn’t changed, but it was less about any particular philosophy and more because the heat had sapped my will to do anything. If a younger me saw this, he’d be speechless.
I did my best to keep myself mentally disciplined, though, if nothing else.
When I told Rit about this, she answered, “I hold my shotels every day!”
“You really love your weapons, huh?”
“Mhm. Always have. I’d skip out on practicing the sorts of things expected of a princess to train instead.”
“Haha, I can picture that so clearly,” I said.
“But when I started sneaking out of the castle to go adventuring, I still made sure to practice with musical instruments and study the arts. If I didn’t keep up a facade, people were bound to get suspicious.”
A princess was expected to know of such things to be considered marriageable.
There were many well-to-do houses that instructed their daughters in writing, arithmetic, manners, poetry, dancing, music, and the like.
“You’re well-rounded,” I remarked.
“Well, most of my studies were pretty half-hearted,” Rit confessed. “There’s nothing to really brag about. Dancing was fun, though, so I did a fair bit of that.”
“I’m not surprised you didn’t get too into it. You weren’t interested in preparing for marriage.”
Rit wasn’t the sort of princess to wait around patiently to be wed for some political reason. Of course she’d hated all those lessons. They didn’t match her goals.
Perhaps her frustration over that had found an outlet in her love of sword fighting and adventure.
“You know, when we learned that I had the Spirit Scout blessing, I think Father understood that I wouldn’t behave like a proper princess. That’s why he had a sword made for me when I was young and tasked Gaius with instructing me, even though he was already busy as guard captain.”
Rit’s father, the Duke of Loggervia, had judged that it would be better for her to learn a practical fighting style from Gaius, a man who’d survived countless fights, than study the textbook self-defense and physical exercise of a normal princess.
I thought it was fair to say his choice was correct. Spirit Scout was a blessing meant for a reconnaissance to safeguard forest villages. Its impulses compelled the bearer to protect their community, but to do so independently, outside the local soldier retinue.
Rit’s personality undoubtedly played a part, too, yet her blessing’s role in her sneaking out of the castle and acting as an adventurer couldn’t be denied. She’d elected to aid people with her swords rather than exist as a princess tucked away in safety.
Her blessing had impacted her life significantly.
“He was right, but I think you’re the sort who would’ve slipped out of the castle regardless of your blessing,” I said.
“Of course!” Rit agreed. “When I heard stories of Father’s past, I thought he was a huge hypocrite for scolding me.” Rit furrowed her brow in frustration.
When the duke was a young prince, he and his close friend Gaius had apparently embarked on a quest to defeat evil lords and mountain bandits and bring justice to the world.
Rit’s personality was a spitting image of the duke’s.
Demis handed out Divine Blessings. They weren’t inherited from parents or influenced by an individual’s upbringing. However, Rit’s father was the Duke of Loggervia. Blessings aside, she had definitely inherited many qualities from him. Any who knew the man would recognize Rit as his daughter immediately.
People were more than just their God-given qualities. A blessing didn’t define everything about one’s life. That Rit rested happily in my arms now was proof enough of that. It had nothing to do with Divine Blessings.
“So hot…”
Rit shifted, moving away from me a bit.
The summer heat threatened to be more troublesome than blessings.
The following day brought no new customers, so I set out to make two deliveries, both to clinics. Once that was done, I bought some flowers and headed to the cemetery.
The plot stood a short walk from the residential sections of Zoltan and was unsurprisingly deserted.
Not many would brave the heat to visit a grave.
That didn’t mean the place was quiet, though. Summer insects chirped and buzzed loudly. I walked the weedy path, and when I turned a corner, I saw a boy with a hat that didn’t quite conceal his pointed ears.
“Big Bro!”
It was Tanta. His face lit up upon noticing me.
“Hi, Tanta. Why are you out here alone on such a hot day?”
“I came to tend a grave.”
“Even in this heat? That’s nice of you.”
“Hehe.” Tanta grinned with undisguised embarrassment.
“Who’s grave is that?”
“My aunt’s.”
Gonz’s wife.
“She grew sick and died before I was born, so I don’t know what she was like…”
“I imagine Gonz doesn’t like to talk about it much.”
“Uncle Gonz gets sad when he mentions her.”
Gonz was a master carpenter—the best in Zoltan. Should he wish to marry again, he’d have plenty of options, but he remained single out of his devotion to his wife.
When Tanta had contracted white-eye, Gonz panicked more than Tanta’s parents, Nao and Mido. He’d thought he was going to lose a second person he loved to disease.
I’m really glad we were able to save Tanta.
I looked around. “Gonz isn’t with you?”
“No. He comes on special days, but that’s it.”
“I see…”
“That’s why I take care of the grave. The priests say that graves are places for the living to pray, so it’s fine if there are weeds, so long as people can still pray, but… Um, I don’t know how to put it…”
“You want a place of memories to be pretty,” I finished.
“Right! That’s what I was trying to say.” Tanta nodded.
Those who died were reborn, so functionally, there was no one in a grave. That’s how the church saw it anyway.
“Uncle Gonz gets sad when he visits the grave, so he doesn’t come very much, but if it were a mess when he did, I think he’d be even sadder.”
“Yeah.”
“That’s why I want to keep it neat. I never met my aunt, but Uncle Gonz loved her, so I’m sure I would have, too,” Tanta said with a big smile. He looked glad to have conveyed his feelings. His grin befit a child, and his posture had that young, straightforward earnestness to it.
“Do you mind if I help clean the grave?” I asked.
Tanta looked shocked. “You’d be willing to help?!”
“Sure. Your aunt was dear to Gonz, and I’d like to think I would’ve liked her as well.”
“Thanks, Big Bro!”
I drew my bronze sword and started clearing the weeds on the opposite side of the grave from Tanta.
“Do you need to get back to your store?” the boy asked.
“It should be fine. Rit’s watching the place today. And just between us, there aren’t any customers in the summer.”
“Haha. Everyone in Zoltan knows that.”
We smiled and cheerfully chatted as we worked.
Gonz didn’t have any children. And if he stuck to his choice not to remarry, he’d likely never have any. As a result, he really doted on his nephew Tanta. Gonz was over the moon when Tanta said he wanted to be a carpenter.
Tanta had inherited plenty from his parents, of course, but he’d gained something from his uncle, too. Gonz and his wife were a part of who that boy was.
Divine Blessings were given by God, and blood came from the parents, but there were other things someone could pass on to a child through love.
I would never know Tanta’s aunt. Her soul no longer existed, having been remade as part of Demis’s plan. However, she survived as a part of Tanta.
I was certain of it.
“I’ll help you out, too!” Tanta said.
After we’d cleaned Tanta’s aunt’s grave, we went to a nearby well to rest and get some water.
My body felt liable to wither beneath the sun, and the cool well water proved a refreshing treat.
“You came to visit a grave, right? So let me help!” he added.
“I appreciate the thought, but are you sure?” I asked. “Don’t you have plans to play with your friends?”
“Not really. Everyone stays inside during the summer. I like being outside more, so I’m usually on my own.”
“The heat doesn’t bother you?”
“Nope. Hot and cold never bother me! Pretty neat, right?”
“It is, but don’t push yourself. Intense summers can be dangerous for kids.”
“Okay, okay. But don’t forget, I know more about Zoltan than you do!”
“True enough.”
Tanta was a half-elf born and raised in Zoltan. He knew the dangers of the hot months better than me.
“Have there been any developments with your Divine Blessing coming?” I questioned. “You’re at the age when most kids connect with theirs.”
“I’m not sure. It sort of feels like something flickers in my heart before I go to sleep and stuff.”
“That might be a sign that your blessing is emerging.”
“Yeah…”
“Telling you it’ll all be fine feels a bit too flippant. You’re a good friend, Tanta, and I promise that I’ll help you do whatever you want in life.”
“Thanks, Big Bro… I really am worried. I want to be a carpenter, but what if I get a bad blessing?”
Tanta still hadn’t linked with his Divine Blessing, yet he possessed an unusual resistance to heat.
What if…
“No, it can’t be…,” I whispered to myself.
No matter how powerful the blessing, its abilities only took effect when the bearer linked with it.
Even if Tanta was a Cardinal, his resilience in Zoltan summers could be a natural inclination.
“Young Tanta has been given the same role as me: Cardinal.”
That was what Van’s comrade, Cardinal Ljubo, had told me.
Cardinals held special positions within the church. They stood at the top of the hierarchy as a collective dubbed the College of Cardinals. It was the decision-making body that selected the head of the church.
Only those with the Divine Blessing of the Cardinal were permitted to join. As such, anyone discovered to possess a Cardinal blessing was expected to be sent to the church to be reared properly.
Such a thing was not without benefits, though. Cardinals of the church wielded tremendous influence, and with it they could acquire whatever wealth and fame they desired.
A grand life as a powerful figure wasn’t out of the question for anyone who became a cardinal of the church. However, Tanta dreamed of being a carpenter like Gonz.
“Big Bro?”
“Hm? Oh, sorry, I was lost in thought for a moment.”
“Are you okay? Is the heat getting to you?”
“Ahaha. I’m fine, I’m fine.” I smiled and stood. “Shall we?”
“Yeah!”
I held Tanta’s hand. It still had the softness of youth, but I noticed a bit of roughness. He’d been practicing with carpentry tools lately. That was probably why.
We headed to Ares’s grave. Weeds grew fast in summer, and the area around the Sage’s resting place was covered in shrubs that rose to my knees.
“I come by every month,” I said with a sigh. “These weeds are relentless.”
“This grave looks better than the ones around it, though,” Tanta replied.
We split up and got to work.
Like Tanta said, a lot of the surrounding graves were worse off than Ares’s, utterly buried in wild grass.
That was partly due to the laziness of Zoltan’s populace, but it was also the fate of all graves. They were places of memories. And as those memories were forgotten, so were the places associated with them.
The local church that managed the cemetery would take down an abandoned grave that fell into disrepair. All that would remain was a small name engraved on a stone slab at the back of the plot.
The memories would be lost forever, and the names of the deceased would be ones of many in a list.
“Hey, Tanta.”
“What?”
“After I die, would you take care of this grave for me? Once a year, no, once every three years or so is enough.”
“Huh? Are you sick or something?!” Tanta looked like he might cry.
“N-no! Not at all! I’m talking about after I get old!”
I hurriedly corrected myself.
Tanta looked a little shocked, and then started laughing. “You aren’t that old, Big Bro! Don’t scare me by saying weird stuff.”
“S-sorry… Maybe the heat’s got me a little sentimental.”
“What’s that mean?”
“It means I’m feeling overly emotional.”
“Oh, I understand! You’ve been drinking, right?”
“Er, not exactly…”
“But Uncle Gonz cries a lot when he drinks, so that has to be it.”
I see…
I laughed out loud, and Tanta joined me.
“This Ares… Was he your friend?”
“Hmm… No. I wouldn’t say so.”
“What?! Was he your brother?!”
I snorted at the thought.
Having Ares as a brother…would’ve been challenging.
“No, he wasn’t family, either.”
“Then why are you visiting his grave?”
Why?
It was hard to put the feeling into words.
“Because of memories, I guess.”
“Hmmm…”
We continued in silence for a while.
Eventually, we started chatting again. Apparently, Mido had intended to raise his level a bit, but when he took out his old sword, he found it was rusted. Nao gave him an earful over it. By the time Tanta finished with that story, our work was done.
I placed the flowers I had bought and stood.
“Shall we go?” I asked.
“Sure!”
No sooner had Tanta answered me than he whirled and looked back.
“What is it?”
“It felt like someone was watching us…”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Someone tall, wearing white clothes… A really pale, white woman was looking at me…”
I followed Tanta’s gaze, but couldn’t sense anyone.
Even if peace had dulled my instincts, there shouldn’t have been anyone in Zoltan who could get close to me without my noticing other than Ruti and Tisse.
“I don’t think anyone’s there,” I said.
Tanta’s expression clouded. “Huh. I guess I imagined it. That’s a little scary.” He seemed a little scared. This was a cemetery, after all.
“Don’t worry. We can handle any enemy,” I assured him.
“Really?”
“Really. Should a dragon show up, I’ll drive it away.”
“Hahaha. Even for you, that’s a little too reckless.”
“Not at all. For you, I’d do it without breaking a sweat.”
“Hehe, thanks… If you’re ever in trouble I’ll help you out, too.”
“I’ll be counting on you.”
Tanta smiled bashfully.
“Hey, since things are so calm at the shop and you don’t mind the heat, why don’t we visit the beach sometime?” I suggested.
Tanta’s eyes lit up. “The beach? Wow!”
“Yeah, we could bring some tents and camp out. Maybe borrow a boat and go fishing on the water, too.”
“Sleeping in a tent?! Fishing out on a boat?! Oooooh!” Tanta fidgeted excitedly. “You mean it, right?! No take backs!”
I nodded. “As long as your parents are okay with it.”
“They’ll be fine with it since you’re going!”
I’d tossed out the idea on a whim.
Truthfully, I’d just meant to suggest something fun to get Tanta’s mind off whatever had frightened him. And with signs of his blessing emerging, I couldn’t deny I harbored a faint hope that I might be there for him when it awoke to talk with him about it.
“I’ll hold you to that, Big Bro!”
The beach trip was just a spur of the moment idea, but after seeing Tanta so excited, I was glad I’d brought it up.
I’d have to invite Rit and the others when I got back.
It was evening, and I had returned to Red & Rit’s Apothecary.
Rit leaned in excitedly when she heard my proposal. “We should make it a trip out to the island!”
There were meringue cookies made from yesterday’s leftover egg whites, and a pitcher of water with lemon in it on the table.
“The island?” I asked, surprised.
I hadn’t expected that response.
“Yeah! There’s one to the south of Zoltan that’s perfect for swimming. Apparently, there’s lots of food to be had there, too. Wouldn’t that be great for a summer vacation?”
“What about possible storms?” I said.
“Mmm. Well, it might be dangerous on the coast, but there’s a village farther inland that has places that can withstand bad weather,” Rit answered.
“Sounds like it should be okay, then. We can have fun camping, fishing, and playing in the sea.”
I grew excited as I imagined it. I took a mental note to bring supplies for a barbecue.
“We should invite Nao, Mido, Gonz, Ruti, Tisse, and Yarandrala, and make it a big group trip,” Rit suggested.
“Good idea. It’s not like Gonz is working anyway,” I agreed.
If he was going to skip out on work, why not do so in the best way possible?
Rit smiled upon noticing my growing enthusiasm.
This summer promised to be quite memorable.
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