Entering inside the house, Kiel walked straight to the kitchen, where he found two similar bony figures preparing the materials to cook.
"Sisters tonight we are having meat"
Saying so, he took out the snake meat wrapped in leaves rom his backpack and placed it in the table.
Hearing his voice coming from the back, both the girls similarly turned around, but both had different reactions on their face. Fawn had glittering eyes seeing the meat, while Amber had a big blush all her face.
"Meat tonight!"
"Yup but that's not all. Look what I've bought for you."
Kiel took out a pouch and handed it to them with a smile. Seeing the small pouch, both girls seemed curious about it. However, after opening of the pouch, both the twins beamed with joy.
"Candies!!"
"Yup candies."
"Brother you are the best" Amber jumped up at Kiel, showing just how much she liked candies. As the twins popped the sweet candies in their mouth and enjoyed its melting sweetness, a worn out voice came from outside, breaking them out of their reverie.
"Girls, I'm back. Is your brother home yet?"
Understanding that it was their mother, the two girls ran out to welcome her. "Mother is back, let's go show her the gift little brother brought for us"Seeing the enthusiasm the two girls were showing, Kiel slowly followed them back to welcome his mother too.
"Welcome home mother"
As Kiel walked out of the kitchen to the doorway, a worn out figure with ragged clothes entered his vision, holding a small bag which seemed to be filled with his vegetables.
"Mamma!"
" Mamma look what little brother brought for us" Fawn was the first one to dash forwards and start showing her pouch full of candies.
"My my… lemme see what your brother had bought for you."
"Fawn don't disturb mother. Mama little brother is back. Would you like to wash yourself first or would you like to drink some water.?"
"Well I'll freshen up a little and then let us start cooking."
'It seems that big sister Amber is still the most sensible one.'
Looking at the three figures happily chatting with each other, Kiel felt a little giddy inside. But then when he gazed at the worn out expression on his mother's face and her tired eyes, all of the giddy feeling inside him vanished and was instead replaced by a feeling of helplessness.
Everything that the worn out figure had done for them in these two years, the hardships she had suffered so as to even lose her healthy glow and even attain a famished figure; everything started passing by his eyes one by one.
Kiel remembered the day when he opened his eyes again after losing consciousness in the forest. He recalled the first thing that he saw was her sobbing continuously in a corner, while praying to the gods to bring him back to her safely. How she smiled and hugged him while still crying, when he called her from her back. How she made preparations to celebrate his waking up and even her enjoyment at seeing him eating healthily again. How she nursed him back to good health, even at the price of sacrificing her own sleep. How she tended to his injuries so carefully that even he felt helpless at her behaviours.
Even those times ventured his mind, when the family thought that their happy days were coming with Derek's return from his successful endeavor. How their business boomed after his father was employed by the provincial baron. And how everyone around them treated them with so much respect. Their smithy even started making hot hair dryers, which soon even became a hot cake among the higher class ladies in the province. Money came rolling, as the demand for these products became more than the production. And with the help of the baron, Derek became the sole supplier of the hotcakes. Those were the happy times; when Kiel felt that these rebirth worlds were not so bad as depicted in various novels of his past life.
But everything changed when a rumour spread that the hair dryers were faulty. The news confused them as they had properly checked everything about the product before bringing it in the market. So they discarded it just as a rumour, as it had no major effect on the market. But even after a few months, the situation didn't subside and instead escalated when even a few cases were witnessed where the dryers damaged the users.
This caused a sudden reversal of their situation where even Derek's Smithing License was confisticated. The devastation that the news brought to their business, with the new news of the injury of Baron's grandchild by the newly developed mace, worsened the situation even more. Derek and Awenasa didn't even get to salvage the situation when the order for Derek's imprisonment came for creating such faulty products. Everything happened so fast, that they could only watch with empty hands. Derek and Remmy were imprisoned. There family lost their source of income and no customers came to their shop anymore. Some even demanded a refund. So, Awenasa had to sell the smithy products at their lowest price to other stores, just to gather funds for ensuring her friends safety. She even had to travel all day to the province so as to make heads and tails of what happened.
At those times Kiel could hear his mother wailing at a corner in her room at night, yet she would still smile at them in the morning to not worry them. But how could she hide her swollen and her tear filled eyes due to the excess sobbing. There family encountered a 0ne-eighty degree turn in just a few months.
The family had no income and four mouths to feed. At that time, Kiel was still in his truama due to the experience he had suffered and could do nothing but watch on helplessly as a little kid. However, Agatha didn't lose herself in her sorrow. She strengthened herself, and started working to feed her little kids. She would go early in the morning to work at others houses and come home with ragged and coarse hands, trembling legs and tired eyes. Yet she would never show any dissatisfaction and would straight away go for the house chores and cook for them. Then she would start to knit clothes at night to sell them. She worked hard, but just earned enough to feed them scrapes.
Working at others houses like a servant and even sacrificing her sleep,Kiel watched his mother's whole transition from an elegant lady to a lowly slave.
The scarcity of food and no help from the villagers whom they considered as close family bought a heavy burden on their mind. Kiel could often hear whispers like 'convict' and feel the isolation, although the villagers still seemed cordial to them on the surface. Sometimes Kiel even saw his mother being harassed by the villagers. The situation became so worse that Agatha even planned to sell their smithy to feed her kids.
Often Agatha would cry silently in her room at night, due to all the bad events occurring. Seeing his mother at those times, Kiel would also feel his eyes becoming wet, and he would only curse himself for being so helpless and weak. 'Why? I the greatest genius of the century, am now helpless in this situation! Only if I was stronger, mama would not be so sad.'
Kiel could do nothing at those times. He even wanted to work to help the family. But who would recruit a three years old kid to work? So he could only practice like mad, in the hopes that he would one day help Agatha. But it would only make him more hungrier. Kiel remembered that there were often times when he even had to eat weeds just to satisfy his hunger and lessen the food load on his mother. But he would still continue to train like an idiot, as it would give him hope; hope for the better. And let's not talk about their clothing and stuffs.
The situation only became good when Anabelle once saw him training his sword in the backyard, when she came to treat Fawn who had high fever at that time due to the sudden change in living conditions, and wanted to take him as her disciple. She thought that the little kid would not understand the term master and she even thought about coaxing him. But Kiel only asked a single question to her before accepting her offer.
"Will you give me food?"
From then he would train her sword arts from morning till night, and would even help her in her Welfare Centre. In return she would provide him some money and give him some meals. Kiel would even eat less and secretly bring the foodstuffs for his sisters. Only after then, the conditions became a little better for them.
As Kiel continued his training like mad, he felt himself becoming better at his sword and archery very fast. He could feel himself improving very fast, when he used his chakra cultivation in conjecture to training his body. Kiel even overcame his trauma of the woods and started hunting for small animals, and sold the meat for money, or bought the hunt home for meal.
But instead of praising him, Agatha would even berate him to not go into the forest, to just focus on his training and leave the household to her. She even worked harder, so that Kiel would not venture into the forest, and in return would become even tired. So Kiel had to take hard steps, and forced her if he didn't give up her job, he would run away from home. Only then she stopped working. But even then she would continue to knit and sell clothes. And Kiel could do nothing about it.
"Oh! Kiel you are here! Your sisters told me you bought home some meat. Did you go to the woods again? Didn't I tell you to not venture there."
Kiel came out of his reverie when he heard his mother's weak voice berate him again. But how could focus on what she was saying. Looking up close the wrinkled filled face, coarse skin and the one or two white hairs on her head even when she was in her late twenties, made Kiel want to cry hard. But from his eyes never dropped even a single tear. His eyes seemed to have dried up from all the crying over these years.
"Are you even listening to your mother!"
"Momma I'm fine. I've grown up now. Next week I'm even going to the province for the Mana ceremony. You should just stop working and focus on resting now. See how thin you have become! You have worked hard enough these years. Let me handle the rest now. And why do you stubbornly work even now? Is your son not enough?"
But all he got in return was a big smile gracing his mother's face. She inched forward and caressed his hairs like always, then spoke her favourite words.
" Silly child. You will not understand. After all... I am a mother"
And Kiel never understood.