"I'm home!"
A year had passed since then, and I finally returned to Secondary.
My reason for coming back was to bring my mother to the Royal Capital. Lord Haurezel had built a massive manor for us in a prime district of the city. It was absurdly large. Considering it was only for me and my mother, I began to wonder if Lord Haurezel was a bit eccentric.
To give you an idea of the scale, even at my current top speed, it took several seconds just to run across the grounds. I suppose that doesn't quite capture how big it really was, does it?
Regardless, I was probably twice as fast now as I had been a year ago. The reason for my newfound speed was entirely the Lecherous Geezer’s fault. For an entire year, he had dragged me around for daily training.
Honestly, I wasn't sure if I should call it training or state-sanctioned abuse.
"A person cannot run until they die. Now, run," he would say. He made me run for three days and three nights until I literally collapsed from exhaustion.
"For now, just swim until you faint," he would command. He made me swim right at the base of a waterfall. I actually got swept into the basin once; I genuinely thought I was going to die.
The worst part, however, was the actual combat practice we did every day after I had pushed my body to its absolute limit. I was sliced to ribbons daily. Despite being a total lecher, the old man was monstrously strong.
Still, after a year, I felt like I had closed the gap considerably. I could finally see his back—the goal I was chasing. I probably couldn't surpass him yet; the Lecherous Geezer told me that wasn't something I could achieve through training alone.
People only truly grow strong on the battlefield, by overcoming real combat.
That was why he focused on my foundations for now—so that my strength might bloom one day. That was his justification for the hellish special training. Truthfully, the Lecherous Geezer seemed like he wanted to continue, but he had to return suddenly for some reason.
I was granted a vacation, and since I heard the house was finally finished, I decided to come pick up my mother.
"Leo!"
"Still the same as ever... Oof."
As soon as I opened the door to our temporary home, my mother greeted me with her usual full-force flying hug. It had been a year, so I suppose I couldn't blame her. I wanted to give her a squeeze back, anyway.
"Honestly! You didn't come home for a whole year! I was so worried!"
"Are you doing okay, Mom?"
"Yes! Of course I am!"
I had been worried she might have been lonely all by herself, but then... Wait.
I looked past her. A handsome man with blonde hair and tanned skin was sitting at our table. When he saw me, he spoke up.
"Hey there! Leo-kun! Nice to meet you."
"Who... Who are you?"
"I'm your father."
My mind went blank for a second.
"Oh, stop it! Amuroi-san! Don't joke like that!"
"Ahaha, sorry, Nina-san."
Right, a joke.
"Let me correct myself then. I'm Amuroi, the man who plans to become your father."
"Huh?"
"Oh, honestly!"
Plans to become my father? Was he saying he intended to marry my mother?
I see. In that case, I’d have to have him draw his sword. I wasn't about to hand my mother over to anyone weaker than me. My Sword Aura began to flare.
"Ahaha! Scary! I'm kidding, Leo-kun! I'm just a young man who evacuated to this town, just like Nina-san."
"Amuroi-san has been such a help to the other refugees! There are people here who can't go shopping or are struggling to find enough to eat, and he supports all of them. He even carried water for me today!"
"I... I see. Thank you for looking after my mother, Amuroi-san."
"No, no, don't mention it. Just think of me as a tragic soul who can only communicate through bad jokes."
Amuroi-san extended his right hand. When I took it, I felt the calluses. These were the hands of a swordsman—and a highly skilled one at that.
"I'm Amuroi."
"I'm Leo. Technically... I'm a Knight Commander."
"Is that so? Yes... you're exactly as Nina-san described."
I glanced at his left hand. There was no emblem. Was he a laborer? Or was the sword just a hobby? Despite his words, his bearing and presence made it impossible to believe he wasn't a knight. My intuition was screaming at me.
"You're a knight, aren't you?"
"Hmm? Ahaha, no, no. I'm just someone who looked up to knights. I train, sure, but I fail the exams every year."
"You don't look like a failure to me..."
"It's all surface-level. I haven't been able to accomplish anything..."
Amuroi-san’s expression clouded with a brief flash of sorrow. With his striking blonde hair and tanned skin, he looked like a character straight out of a painting.
"Now then! Leo-kun! Let's get some food! It's already dark out!"
"Oh... right."
"If I had known Leo was coming home today, I would have made a cake," my mother lamented.
"Don't you worry about that." Amuroi-san thumped his chest confidently. "Leave it to me! It's the return of a national hero! We have to celebrate!"
I watched, curious to see what he would do.
"Please, let me have some eggs!" he called out to the neighbors.
"Ahaha, if it's for you, Amuroi-san, take as many as you need! You're the one who gave them to us in the first place!"
"I need some sugar!"
"Of course, Amuroi-san!"
"And flour! Milk! Any fruit you can spare!"
Amuroi-san went from house to house, pleading for ingredients with deep, polite bows. It was clear that everyone in the village adored him. Even though they were all struggling, they shared their food eagerly, as if they were desperate for a way to pay him back for everything he had done.
My mother leaned in and whispered to me. "Amuroi-san has worked so hard for all of us who lost our homes in the Dragonia invasion."
"I can see that."
"I heard that Amuroi-san lost his own parents—his entire family—in the war. Even so, he decided to do what he could, and he spends his time helping people all over town with his friends."
"He's a very kind person, isn't he?"
I wondered if he had some ulterior motive. But you can't move people's hearts with calculation alone. During our brief contact, I felt an overwhelming sense of genuine goodness from him.
"Amuroi Cooking! Let's get started!"
"Wait, you're the one cooking, Amuroi-san?"
"Nina-san taught me how to make cakes! Besides..." He looked over at the mountain of food he had gathered. "This is too much for Nina-san to handle on her own. Let's make a massive batch and share it with the whole village!"
"That's a great idea. I'll help too!"
"Oh! Much appreciated, Leo-kun!"
"My, looking at the two of you, you almost seem like brothers! Amuroi-san, you're about twenty, right?"
"Yes! I'll be nineteen this year. And Leo-kun is..."
"I'm turning fourteen."
"I see... then we really are close in age. You're the same age as Ryu."
"Ryu?"
"Ah, no. It's nothing! Come on! Let's get to work!"
Ryu... I might have misheard him, and it was a common enough name. But hearing it for the first time in years sent a jolt through my chest.
We ended up making a mountain of cakes, turning the evening into a village-wide festival. This was a world of endless war, but moments of joy like this were necessary.
"Mind if I sit here?" Amuroi-san asked, gesturing to the spot next to me.
"Of course not."
"Man... you really can eat."
"It's just that it's delicious."
"Hehe... Hey, Leo-kun. What do you fight for? Why did you become a knight?"
"Eh? I suppose... because I want to protect the people precious to me. When my mom almost died during the Dragonia invasion, I realized I wanted the power to keep everyone safe."
"I thought so. Everyone feels that way. It's out of love, isn't it? Everyone just wants to protect something, yet we keep fighting. Why do we have to keep killing each other?"
"If someone becomes the True King, the wars will end," I whispered.
The True King... that was the name given to the one who would remain after all the Regalia Emblems had vanished. It wasn't clear who had started the legend, but that was what people called it.
"Do you really believe that?"
"I don't know. I'd like to find a better way. But as long as people have power, maybe war will never truly go away."
"Honestly... it's enough to make you sick. That's why we fight, isn't it? We wage war because we want to end war. We kill because we want to protect. If this thousand-year battle is ever going to end..."
Amuroi-san looked me straight in the eyes.
"As I thought, a True King is necessary. Thank you."
"Thank you? For what?"
"Nothing. I just realized I'm still too weak. Leo-kun, let me say one thing. Think of it as total nonsense if you want, but if you're ever taken prisoner in battle, I want you to give them the name 'Distaris'."
"What does that mean? Distaris?"
"It’s just a whim. But I don't want you to die. Not you, and not Nina-san. So please, remember it. And if you ever find yourself in a fight you can't win, I want you to surrender immediately."
With that, Amuroi-san stood up and walked away. I watched his back as he left, tilting my head in confusion as I finished my cake.