“HYAAH!!”
“HUH!!”
“DAH!!!”
Deep inside a forest, a sprawling village stands hidden under the canopy of leaves. If one were to see the village from high above, one would have a hard time evaluating the true size of the village.
“KAH!!”
“GUH!!”
“FASTER!! RUN FASTER!!”
This is Dayun Village, one of many in the world. The inhabitants of Dayun Village fill their day doing menial tasks such as farming, building, fishing, and most prestigious of all,
“GAH!!”
“HARDER!! HIT ME HARDER!!”
“HAAAAAAAH!!!”
Adventuring.
The world is filled with monsters, bad people, and unknown dangers. The world beyond the borders of the village has been described by many as mysterious and unknown. Not only that, fame, glory, wealth, and many more can be found in the world outside. This is why many are willing to risk their lives to dive deep into the unknown. To etch their name into the book of history. To gain as much richness as one possibly can.
“Good work, Kaminess.”
“Damn… No one can ever beat Kaminess in anything, huh? At least no one in her generation.”
“As expected of the prodigy from the Saktu clan. She’ll be a middle-class adventurer in no time.”
The girl being showered with praises is Kaminess Saktu, a girl with long straight green hair and jade eyes. Her equipment and garments give off the vibe of high class because they are. She is from the renowned Saktu clan, one of the most influential clans in Dayun Village. Their family lineage goes way back to the establishment of the Dayun Village as one of the founders. Not only is she strong, but she is also incredibly beautiful with smooth, clean skin and a golden, proportional body.
“Good job, Kaminess. There’s not much I can teach you. You should strive to become a middle-class adventurer, and then you will be assigned a new teacher.”
“Thank you for your time, Miss Baylah. I have learned much from you.”
On the other side of the training field.
“KAH!! Hah… Hah… Hah… Hah…”
“Great job, Igo. You’ll be able to perform a medium-level low-class mission with your current ability.”
“Hah… Hah… Hah… Thank you so much.”
A boy with spiky red hair is panting and sweating like crazy. His rough body is decorated with bruises and dirt, a clear indication of his struggle. The boy’s name is Igo Monten. Unlike Kaminess, the boy wasn’t a member of any renowned clan, as the Monten clan can trace their origin in the Dayun Village about 10 generations ago. Way later compared to the Saktu clan. The Monten clan does not possess any renowned members yet, which is why the a difference in treatment between Igo and Kaminess, where one is surrounded by people praising her while the other is alone.
“Hah… Hah… Hah… Hah…”
“There’s no need to get jealous of Kaminess, Igo. Everyone has their path.”
Igo and Kaminess are both the same age and, unknown to many, are childhood friends with each other, or at least that is what Igo considers Kaminess as. Day by day, that view of their relationship degrades inside Igo’s mind as the gap between them grows even more.
“Don’t worry… Hah… Hah… I know…”
Their first meeting was coincidental, and the rest is history. Igo knows that. He knows better than anyone that he knows Kaminess is simply a miracle. Normally, someone who is so weak and from coming unknown clan would not have even a chance to change names with someone like Kaminess.
Yeah… I guess this is what I should expect…
“I’ll be going home then, teacher. Thank you for everything.”
“Yeah… take care.”
The teacher let go of his student with a heavy heart. He has taught many students in his life before, so he knows when his student has something in their hearts.
Stay strong, Igo. The world is unfair like this.
The teacher has said what he needs to say. Any more than this and he might hurt his student’s pride. This part of his journey needs to be walked alone.
Igo quickly returned to the academy and changed out of his training clothes. He had been studying in this academy for a good majority of his life, but he had never been in the same class as Kaminess. And they rarely interact with one another. This is mainly because Kaminess will always be in the A class while Igo can bounce between the C to F classes.
But even so.
“Huff… Huff… Huff…” Igo walks to one of the cafes near the academy. The place was secluded inside an alleyway, so not many people know this place, and because of that, the cafe isn’t that big. “The usual, please…” The reason he comes here is that this is the place where he and Kaminess usually meet up after school. It’s a place the boy cherishes since it’s one of the few places he can meet his childhood friend. Although… “She isn’t here yet…” Kaminess usually comes after Igo since she is a very important person, but she always comes a few minutes after Igo. The sun is setting, and the wind is picking up.
Maybe I’m just being impatient. Yeah… That’s it… She is the Kaminess after all. There must be a lot she needs to do, unlike someone like me… Yeah… That must be it…
The boy convinces himself as he thanks the waiter who served him his cold chocolate drink. The boy takes a sip of his drink and then starts tapping the table to entertain himself. He waits for his childhood friend to come over to the alleyway corner and greet him as usual, but today, he seems to be more eager to see his childhood friend.
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Is time working more slowly for me? Why isn’t she coming? When did I become so impatient? I usually am okay waiting for her, so why am I feeling like this?
The boy’s tapping on the table and the swing of his feet grow in frequency as he keeps looking back and forth from his drink to the corner of the alleyway. He can picture the silhouette of his childhood friend, but not her coming toward him.
The wind picks up some speed, and clouds roll over to block the orange sky and yet the boy waits. He waits and he waits. Hoping for his childhood friend to pop up from the alleyway, until,
Ah… She must be busy. Things like this happened, so I guess I'd better pack my bag and get going. I can ask her tomorrow.
The boy decides to drink the remaining chocolate in his cup before leaving the money on the table and standing up. He deliberately prolonged his movement while glancing at the corner of the alleyway, hoping that the girl would come at the final second, but the world is far crueler than that. The girl didn’t come until the very end.
I hope she is not in trouble.
The boy walks away from the cafe with heavy steps. On the way away from the cafe, he keeps hoping that he will hear the girl’s voice.
*Tap* *Tap* *Tap* *Tap* *Tap*
She is not coming…
The boy’s footsteps grow faster and faster as he leaves the cafe. At one point in his journey, his walk becomes a sprint. The sight of the boy running down the path toward his home becomes the sight of the passerby.
“Igo?”
The boy has been using this route home for his entire life, so he has become a local to this path. Seeing the boy who usually walks down the path with his childhood friend running as if he were being chased by death itself was a surprise to everyone.
“Igo? What’s wrong?”
“Hey, are you okay, man?”
Several people try to talk to the boy, but he ignores them as he sprints with all his might.
Ah… Since when have I become so accustomed to Kaminess… Our lives are so different from each other… I should have known things like this would happen soon enough…
“Is there something wrong, Igo?”
Back home, the boy couldn’t shake off the feeling inside of him. It’s a weird feeling that he can’t immediately identify, but it’s clear that it affects everything about him as his older sister instantly figures out that her younger brother is carrying a heavy burden.
The Monten clan is small in the Dayun village, consisting of at least 12 families, and Igo’s family is one of them. His family consists of a mother, a father, a big sister, Igo himself, a younger sister, and a twin younger brother and sister.
The family is frugal with their spending as the parents of the household work as farmers, and the oldest sibling works in a restaurant as a cook.
“Nothing…”
“Liar… You didn’t come home with Kaminess… Did you fight?”
“Not necessarily. She was just busy…”
“She was busy in the past, but you never came back home like this. There must be something else, no?”
“...”
Igo despises that he can’t hide anything from this woman. Her name is Sophia Monten, Igo’s older sister. She had long straight red hair, longer than Kaminess’s hair, as this woman’s hair reached to her knees, and glowing pink eyes.
“I overheard that she is recommended to be a Middle-class adventurer.”
“Ah… I see… Things like that tend to happen regardless of what you do. Someone in your generation is getting promoted faster than you.”
“It’s nothing… It’s just…”
“You’re not a failure, Igo. People usually become middle-class adventurers in their thirties. You are on the right track. It’s just that Kaminess is a beast on her own. Amazing people like that exist, no? The previous generation had several of them, your generation had several of them too, and I’m sure the next generation will have them too. Amazing people exist in each generation, Igo, but there’s nothing wrong with being normal.”
“Mmmhh…”
“Lift that chin, Igo. I’m sure that Kaminess will still want to be your friend even if you both are in different classes.”
“Did you keep in contact with the amazing people in your generation then?”
“That is… Well… Rarely… We are all adults. We have our jobs and activities, but that doesn’t mean we’re not friends anymore. We just don’t hang out as frequently as before.”
“I see…”
“That’s just how life is, Igo. People walk away as new ones come in. Can you count the number of people that you have been friends with from childhood who are still with you?”
“...yes.”
“See? Maybe it’s time for Kaminess and you to drift apart. Maybe it’s not. You can ask her tomorrow, no?”
“I guess so…”
“For now, let’s cheer up and think positively.”
*The Next Morning*
“Here you go, kiddo. Two packs of gummy candy.”
“Thanks, Auntie.”
The next morning, Igo gets up earlier than usual and walks to school. He bought a pack of gummy candy, which he knows is Kaminess’s favorite candy. The boy wants to give it to his childhood friend, who he thought had a very busy day yesterday. Being gifted your favorite candy should cheer you up, right?
The boy happily walks toward the sprawling complex that is the Saktu clan’s housing. Unlike the Monten clan, the Saktu clan consists of hundreds of families, so their clan alone can create a massive walled complex inside the Dayun Village.
“Morning.”
“Morning.”
The boy greets the guards who are standing ready at the complex gate as he leisurely walks into the complex. The reason why he can easily walk in and out of the gate is that he is not the only one. The Saktu clan’s complex is big enough that they need merchants to come in to fulfill their everyday needs.
“Hah… Hah…”
The boy walks down the road toward the biggest house in this complex. The house is so big that the number of trees needed to give it coverage can be considered a forest. This is the house of the head of the Saktu clan, which is where Kaminess resides. Yes, Kaminess is the daughter of the head of the Saktu Clan.
“It’s still close, huh…”
Kaminess usually waits right outside the gate to her house, but since Igo arrives earlier, it’s only natural that she is not there yet. Unlike the gate earlier, entering the Saktu clan’s head’s house is not as easy. Igo won’t be able to just waltz in, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t know where to go. He has visited the house on multiple occasions before, so he knows where he needs to go to be the closest to Kaminess without being inside the house.
The boy quickly hides away from the guards guarding the head clan’s house. He climbs up into one of the trees that are outside the wall.
Alright. After this, Mr. Jaka will pass, and after that, there’s a gap that I can use.
Right as he predicted, one of the guards, the man known as Jaka, walks past him, and he instantly jumps toward another tree. This tree’s trunk is inside the wall, but the branches are so big and sprawling that they reach outside.
Alright! I’m in! I just need to wait for Kaminess.
“Leave Igo Monten alone, Kaminess. This is an order.”
The deep and authoritative voice is a voice that Igo knows very well. It is the voice of Kaminess’s father, the head of the Saktu Clan.
“That’s just how life is, Igo. People walk away as new ones come in.”
The dialogue between him and his sister last night plays in the boy’s mind.
I guess this is the part where we drift away.
The boy’s mouth didn’t twist into a frown but a smile. A knowing and calm smile as if the boy had known that this day would come a long time ago.
Thank you for everything, Kaminess. The days I spent with you will always live in my memory as the best days of my life.
The boy claps his hands together before bowing deeply. A single tear is shed from the boy’s eyes as he throws Kaminess’s pack of gummy candy against the wall.
I wish you luck in your future journey.
And then the boy ran.
