Chapter 16 – Family Circle

Luna Maria and I had brought back the sacred orchid grass from the dragon cave and was greeted and blessed by all the gods.

“Well done.”

“Finally done.”

“Good job.”

“I did my best.”

When praised by each god, they gave us permission to leave. Luna Maria and I rejoiced and jumped on the spot but Miria stabbed out a nail.

“Yes, that’s it. I’ve given you permission to leave but I haven’t allowed any impure heterosexual exchange,” Miria broke between the two.

Of course, I didn’t do that but it’s embarrassing to say that face-to-face. I kept a little distance from Luna Maria.

It was Reus, the all-purpose god who proceeded with the story, perhaps because he was amazed at such an exchange. Reus, in the shape of a steller sea eagle opened his mouth. “Anyway, Will’s departure has been decided. He will leave ten days later.”

“Why not right away?” Luna Maria asked.

“There is no deep meaning. Will will reach adulthood ten days later. I thought it was just right.”

Besides. Reus overlooked the gods. “They need to be prepared. Let’s spoil them for another ten days.”

When Ronin heard those words he drank a lot and said “I’m sorry.”

Miria raised her hands with a smile like a flower.

While rubbing his long beard Vandal muttered “Do you want to make a mathematical formula that uses time efficiently?” Seeing the motivated figures I sighed. I thought this would be so cute that I couldn’t afford to sleep for the last ten days. However, I didn’t feel unpleasant.

I had a desire to see the outside world that didn’t fit the tight feeling within my chest. After all I felt lonely in saying goodbye to my family.

It wasn’t an eternal farewell but I was certain that I wouldn’t see them for quite some time. To dispel this loneliness, on these last ten days I will return to my childhood. I decided to give my best to my fathers and mother.

In this way, Luna Maria and I spent the last ten days in the dwelling of the gods and did something different on every single day.

Ronin, the sword god, practiced the sword as usual. “A man speaks on his back.”

Without saying anything extra. He spoke with the sword and practiced from morning till night. Seeing this scene Luna Maria spoke, “I understand the secret of Will’s strength. If you practice like this, you will become stronger.”

As she said this I scratched my cheeks with my fingers because she said something quite irrelevant. Actually, the training I was doing now was very lukewarm. The usual training was not like this. Ronin cut a lot out on his final conversation with me.

Even if I explained this to Luna Maria, she wouldn’t believe it but usually I dropped ten large trees from the top of the basin at the same time as I practiced cutting them. Compared to that, this was a walk in the park training but I thought that I wanted to talk with my sword for the last time with ease. I gained what I wanted out of the training session so I had a conversation with Ronin from morning till night.

I spent this time with the sword god but my mother Miria spoiled me. She made my favourite menu from morning to night, we took a bath together and she made me new clothes. When we took a bath togetger she washed my hair with a special shampoo.

“Your hair is shiny like a girls. You need to take good care of it during your trip.” she said as she stroked my hair. Miria always said this since she wanted to raise a girl so she could raise a beauty. She stabbed me with her nail telling me to not come back because it was too mushy.

“If you want a girl, you might want to take a bath with Luna Maria. Her hair is worth grooming.” Beautiful black hair comes to mind but Miria doesn’t seem to be sloppy.

“I suddenly came to kidnap my cute Will but it seems that the roots aren’t bad. *If I met him in a different way, I might have felt like a daughter.”* Her fighting spirit burns “I’m the only one who can take a bath with Will. I won’t lose to such a little girl,” she said stating that Will couldn’t do it yet.

“I can’t really enter here when I grow up.” When I said this, Miria hugged me.

“No,” she said.

I was reluctant after that, every corner of my body was washed and she put me to bed. Well, it was within the range that I could put up with thinking that it was only another ten days of this.

On days when I didn’t practice the sword with Ronin I stayed in Vandal’s study and read books with him. There was almost no conversation. Vandal was very focused when reading his books. I didn’t say anything for about three days, even afraid to go to the bathroom.

As a disciple, I had something similar and I was able to kill as much time as I could just by reading a book. I read novels that were popular in the city. Vandal was reading an undeciphered book of ancient magical civilisation. However, although time passed slowly, Vandal murmured.

“-By the way, there was a book you wanted to read.”

Speaking of which, he presented the book to me from the back of the bookshelf.

“Read it in the middle of your trip. It’s a good way to kill time.”

“Is that okay? You said I couldn’t read this.”

This book was written by a crazy wizard named Lynn Bazam. Called an evil book, it was said to lead those who read onto an evil pathway and was treated a s a forbidden scripture. It’s a book that I was sometimes warned to be careful on not read as I was too immature.

“Soon you will be an adult. You will be able to distinguish between good and evil and I want you to become an adult who swallows all of it together.”

“Good and evil combined together.”

“Then, you will be able to save many people not just good and evil. To do that, you learn a lot.”

“Okay. I will not waste the knowledge that father Vandal has given me.”

“You can waste it. Just make a choice. I ant you to have the ability to select what you really need from the infinite amount of information.” Vandal looked far away for a moment and then returned the book he was reading. I didn’t say anything more and reread my novel.

While I was spending time with the three gods like this, Luna Maria was attentive and left me alone. When she trained as a shrine maiden she went to the depths of the forest alone. When Luna Maria found a waterfall she cleansed her body there. Practicing being hit by the waterfall. Naked, she meets while praying to god.

“-I met the long sought hero. He is a wonderful person but when I saw him, I became confused.” When she saw how he lived in harmony with his family, she felt envious. Luna Maria lost her parents and family at an early age and had been practicing in the temple ever since. It had been years since she felt the warmth of family. Therefore it seemed unavoidable to envy the friendly Will but Luna Maria, who is serious about her roots was warned of that.

“Don’t be envious, when you’re envious that feeling turns into jealousy,” she told herself but no matter how much water she took her anxieties would not go away. When Luna Maria was in agony a small bulbul arrived and spoke to her.

“Mither Goddess shrine maiden. Don’t worry.”

“…Is that voice Reus sama?”

“That’s right. I’m talking in the form of a bulbul. You seem to be refraining yourself from seeing Will and the others.”

“… You can’t hide this from god? That’s right.”

“It looks like you’re envious of such a warm family.”

“Yes.”

“Envy is not a bad feeling. It must be turning into jealousy.”

“But I’m not confident. I feel like I’ll get caught up in ugly emotions someday.”

“Then jump into that happiness for yourself.”

“Jump in?”

“Yes. Just go inside to Will and the gods. They will be happy to welcome you.”

“Miria may bully you because of her own jealousy” Reus joked.

“But I and the others…”

She could hear Will’s voice from a distance. Apparently he had come worried about Lunar Maria who had rarely been seen.

“Will is a child as you can see. At the same time he cherishes the gods as parents, he also considers the mountain animals to be an important companion. Everything he loves is his family. It doesn’t bother him if a blind shrine maiden joins in. No, he’ll treat you better than anyone else.” the bulbul left after its prophecy but Luna Maria argued.

“Is that so? Then why isn’t Will coming closer?” When he heard sound, Will stopped at a distance several tens of meters away. If it was either family or friends, he wanted to get closer to them. However, it was Luna Maria was misunderstanding his intentions.

“Will is stuck because you’re naked. A girl with a beautiful naked body, a boy can’t easily see someone’s daughter’s nakedness,” Reus said before taking off. His words reminded her that she was naked. There were only women within the temple and she was able expose skin without any worries.

However, she remembered that she should not expose her skin in front of the opposite sex.

“I’ve never felt inconvenienced by being blind but I have to be careful from now on,” Luna Maria wiped her body with a towel and put on her clothes, heading for Will. After this, there was a cake that Goddess Miria baked with a grand feat that Will invited everyone to eat together. Ronin drank while Miria but the cake. Vandal read books while eating. Will happily looked at them with a smile.

Luna Maria remembered the feeling of fun for the first time in a while.

*I honestly have no idea what she is trying to say here… any insight is welcome.