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Imperial calendar, the year 1093
It was a bright and peaceful morning, as always. The time for lunch was nearing but the streets of the city were full of movement and people talking could be seen anywhere. There were a lot of adventurers preparing themselves by buying potions, food, weapons, and things alike. Merchants were thrilled since they were, probably, making a lot of profit, and restaurants were very busy while preparing meals for all kinds of people.
I was walking in the streets, at a modest pace, holding a black box in my hands. I then spotted a group that seemed to be pretty happy, since they were laughing with big smiles on their faces.
'They look to be in a good mood… I will try asking them. Maybe they are feeling generous today.'
I approached the group of people, probably adventurers, and then I stretched my arms and showed them the black box.
They lowered their sights and stared at me for a few seconds. After that, I opened my mouth and started to speak.
**
…
…
As I slowly opened my eyes, the sun that was permeating the room slightly, started to greet me. I got out of the bed still covering myself with the sheets while still feeling sleepy.
'Is it morning already? I better start doing some light stretches.'
I let go of the sheets and started doing some light stretches. Small rays of light started to hit my body and a weak gust of wind gave me shivers.
"Kyah!"
I made an embarrassing sound and tried to cover my body with my hands, in an attempt to protect myself from the cold.
'Damnit! I forgot that this region is cold. My friend was right, I can't sleep around these parts without proper clothing.'
I reached my adventurer's clothes in the chair next to the bed and put them on. After dressing myself, I decided to look in the mirror and see if anything was wrong. There, I saw that my hair was a little disheveled.
"Ops! I can't leave without brushing it. I don't want to show others that I woke up just recently."
I brushed my hair a little and left the room. Upon going down the stairs, the owner of the inn saw me and started to speak.
"Oh! Miss elf, you only woke up now? I was starting to get worried since it is almost time for lunch haha. Can I get you something?"
As expected, the owner of the inn was eyeing me with lustful eyes. His eyes were dancing around my body, but they mostly stared at my breasts.
'Sigh… Males will be the same wherever you go.'
Starting to feeling disgusted by his eyes, I spoke.
"Hello, owner. I will be going to a tower with my party at lunch hour, that why I'm only waking up now."
I gave a simple smile and left the inn feeling proud about my answer.
'Yes. Just like always, simple, sharp, and elegant.'
After I left the inn, I encountered my party members at the entrance of a restaurant and we engaged in a conversation. The topics of our conversation were mostly always the same. We talked about work, how to divide the loot, we tried to trick each other, some tried to seduce me, etc.
We were happy and laughing, but suddenly, some kid approached us and stretched his arms towards us. On his hands, we could see a black box. It was a strange situation, however, what caught our attention wasn't the box but him.
In front of us was a kid, between 5 and 8 years old, pointing that black box towards us. He had white hair and white skin, but his left arm was covered in bandages, including his hand. He was wearing a simple light-grey shirt and light-brown pants alongside, what appeared to be, second-hand shoes without socks.
His appearance was eye-catching, but what caught our attention, even more, were his eyes. The color of his eyes was a vivid bright-honey, which was beautiful, to say at least. However, all this beauty was ignored after we saw his pupils… They weren't normal. They were shaped like a crucifix and had the color white.
'Woah… My friend was right, the ghost of the church really exists. Urgh… His eyes are creepy to the point that it's giving me shivers. Maybe if I give him a silver coin he will leave faster.'
I was reaching one of my pockets for a silver coin when he opened his mouth and started to speak.
**
"Good morning, steemed adventurers. Would you guys be kind enough to donate to the church of light today?"
I raised the box in my hands a little more, to demonstrate that it was for the donations. I felt a little happy as I saw them search their pockets, probably, for coins. A few seconds later, they were placing copper coins inside the box and I could see that an elf lady reached the box holding a silver coin.
'How lucky… She must be feeling good today.'
"Thank you, kind adventurers. May the light of the sun guide your path."
As soon as the donations ended, I thanked them and moved away from there, afraid that the elf lady would change her mind and request her silver coin back.
After a few more minutes of walking and asking for donations, I sat around a tree and started to count my earnings of the day.
'Nice… With that silver coin, I managed to reach my quota for the day earlier than I expected.'
Thinking about how I wouldn't need to walk around town till afternoon, shadows started to appear in front of me, symbolizing that someone or something was behind me. After closing the box I turned around slowly and saw three thugs looking down at me.
"… Who are you? What do you want with me?"
I asked with an imposing tone while straightening my back. I could see that they were your day to day thugs, as they didn't look that special. They were fat and wore ragged clothes, utilizing wooden planks or metal pipes as weapons.
"Give us the money if you don't want to get hurt."
"That's right, kid. If you still want to be able to walk, you better hear us."
"…"
Two of them blurted out basic tactics straight from the "intimidation for thugs" book, and one remained silent. Looking around me, I could see that I managed to arrive at the poor side of the town.
'I was lost in thought because of the silver coin and ended up in here. Damn… I was careless.'
When I was thinking about my carelessness, one of the thugs started to approach me to grab the box while speaking.
"Hehe. That's right, you stupid kid. Stand still if you know what is better for y-URGH!"
The moment he closed his distance and kneeled slightly, I pulled the box closer to me with one hand and punched him, with all my strength, in the nose with the other.
― THUD!
One thug fell to the ground with his hands holding his bleeding nose. Right after that, another one tried to swing a wooden plank at my head from my left, but I smoothly turned my body around and dodged it, making him trip in the end. After witnessing his friends getting "owned" by a kid, the last thug took out a metal pipe stared at me silently.
"…"
"…"
We remained silent for a few seconds, but it was then.
― SWOOSH!
I hugged the box and started to run with all I had.
*
After some minutes of running and hiding, I managed to escape from the thugs. I was sweating and breathing hard.
"Huf… Huf…"
'I'm still weak against someone armed with something that isn't a wood plank. I should go back to the church. It's already past the hour of lunch and I'm hungry.'
While catching my breath and walking slowly in the direction of the church, I saw an old lady cleaning the entrance of her flower shop. I knew her, so I decided to approach and speak.
"Good afternoon granny Sophia."
I spoke in a friendly way and she turned around. The moment she saw my face, a small smile appeared on her face and she returned my greeting.
"Hello little Sieg, how are you doing? Are you still collecting donations? You sure are sweating a lot…"
"No, no. I already finished. I was just fleeing from some thugs, you see."
"Oh? That's dangerous Sieg. You know that the lower part of the city is really dangerous."
"Yeah, you are right. I will try to be more careful from now on…"
We both engaged in a friendly conversation but after a few seconds, we said our goodbyes and parted ways.
After walking through the city to reach the church, I ended up passing in front of some stores like an armor store, a blacksmith, and an alchemist store. Those stores were really high-class, so they had a lot of customers.
'Looks like the people who frequent those stores make quite the profit if they can pay for their services…'
Upon reaching my destination, I was immediately greeted by a pretty nun. She was fully dressed in a nun attire, but parts of her hair were visible, showing that she was a green-eyed blonde.
"Oh?? Sieg, welcome! How was your day, did you struck gold?"
She was a happy person, no matter the situation. Her enthusiasm was, sometimes, suffocating but it was good having her around.
"Hello, Sister Natalie. I'm good and just like you said, I struck gold today. I managed to get one silver coin as a donation."
I opened the black box and showed her how much was inside. Since I already counted it, I said to her how much, exactly, I acquired.
"There is 1 silver coin and 12 copper coins."
"Woah!? Seriously?? Amazing!"
She was so happy that she looked like a kid, jumping and screaming around.
"What is all this ruckus in front of the church?!"
An angry voice came out from the church. The owner of the voice was another pretty woman wearing the same nun attire as Natalie, but without the headpiece. She had long, silk-like black hair and blue eyes. The imposing figure she maintained gave her an "unapproachable" air, but her voice was sweet like the wind.
"Amelia! Look, look! Siegfried managed to get 1 silver coin!"
"W-what??... T-that's not fun, even if it is a joke!"
Sister Natalie grabbed the black box and ran to Sister Amelia, to show her the coins inside it. Sister Amelia couldn't believe what she just heard and became flabbergasted when she saw a small silver coin inside the box.
"I-I can't believe it… Y-you really got one…"
They were too happy for just a single silver coin. 1 silver coin was equivalent to 100 copper coins, so it wasn't that much. However, knowing the situation of the church, their happiness was understandable. The Siberia Empire allowed the Church of Light to use small parts of the land, free of charge, but with the condition that it wouldn't receive monetary help from the empire to maintain itself.
'With this, we might be able to pass the rest of the month without trouble.' I thought.
It was then.
'?!'
Sister Amelia gave me a big and tight hug. It caught me totally by surprise since I didn't even saw it coming. As she was tightening the hug, she started to speak.
"… Thank you, Sieg. Again, you helped us pass a moment of necessity. Now, we can relax a little."
'…No, Sister… I'm not good as you think…'
The hug of Sister Amelia was warm and comfortable, but I wasn't feeling good internally. The things only I knew were attacking my mind to the point that I was starting to feel pain.
Not wanting to worry the two nuns around me, I forced a small smile and said my goodbyes as I was entering the church, to eat my meal.
While eating a bowl of food that contained rice, salted potatoes, and small pieces of meat, I could feel that my body was a little sticky from all the sweat I generated while running away from the thugs.
'This is a little disgusting… But I have to endure it until I can finish my training session.'
I wasn't the only orphan leaving in the church. There were other kids as well, and because of that, we were only allowed to take one bath per day. Since I didn't want to sleep unwashed, I steeled my mind and waited patiently.
After almost finishing my bowl of food, I, suddenly, started to remember my 'past life'. The grandiose life I possessed by stealing the only chance someone had. The lie and sin I carried during 25 years, and the nightmares I had, every night, about it.
― CRACK!
I felt something crack in my hand. When I looked, I saw that the wooden spoon I was holding, craked in the middle because of my strength.
"… Fuuu…"
Feeling restless and stressed, I deposited my bowl in the kitchen, threw the spoon in the trash, and prepared to leave the church. Since the church was located in a desolated space, nature was right next to it.
― Tap, tap, tap…
After walking for about 15 minutes, I reached a small hill surrounded by a forest. While looking around, to make sure that no one was there, I arrived in front of a big tree that was darker than the others. Then, I started to climb it.
― Rustle… Rustle…
After climbing the tree and reaching the top, I took something that looked like a small log of wood, just a little bigger than my arm. When I took the "thing", I started to descend and finally reached the ground. Under the sunlight, the "thing" turned out to be a sword.
'Hm… Is the rust around it getting worst? Every time I hold it seems a little different.'
The sword was full of rust. I found the sword in the forest one day and was using it to train my body.
― THUCK!
I unsheathed the sword and pierced it on the ground while I started to speak to myself, to encourage me.
"There's no point in thinking about something like that right now. My best course of action is to exercise and train with the sword. That is my job…"
After saying that, I started to do some stretches and right after then, began more serious exercises like pull-ups using a tree, curl-ups, flexions, etc. After almost an hour of exercise, I picked the sword and closed my eyes.
― Inhale… Exhale…
With my eyes closed, I started to breathe deeply and remember the group of knights that I saw training one day. Attack stances, defense stances, swords clashing, dodges, shouts, footsteps… It felt like everything was happening in front of me and I was one of the knights training.
'The best knight I saw there… Yes, him. The captain of the knight's group.'
After thinking about the captain of the knights, I started to assume the same stance he had. I held the sword with my hands and put it in front of me, moved my right foot slightly to the back, and straightened my back while flexing my knees a little.
I stood still and with my eyes closed. The soundless environment around me was frightening. There was no animal, no wind, nothing at all.
― Traaack.
It was then.
The wind returned in the blink of an eye, moving a branch and creating a rustling sound. The sound was clear and I moved the moment I heard it.
I rapidly lowered the sword to the left side of my waistline and pointed the blade to the ground behind me. I bent forward, slightly, and used my right foot to push the ground, as hard as I could. I moved forward, like a rocket, and with a swift movement, I cut through the air with a diagonal slash, that went from the ground to above my head.
― SLASH!!
Not satisfied, I turned my wrists right and cut the air again. But this time, the attack seemed to turn back in time as it slashed, diagonally, from above my head to the ground, until it stopped alongside my legs, on my left.
― SLASH!
I performed a deadly attack in seconds. The strength I put on the slash was great enough to shake the air around me.
It would be strange for a 7-year-old kid to, almost, defeat 3 adults. I was lucky that the 3 thugs that tried to attack me didn't do it together. However, my physical prowess was the fruit of my efforts and painstaking training. Surprisingly, my talent with the sword was excellent as well.
The moment I was thrown into this world, I cried, but I refused to give up on life just because of regret. I swore that I would change and not commit the same mistakes ever again.
"Huf… Huf…"
I was tired and required oxygen, but I refused to put the sword down.
'I refuse to repent living a life of sadness. I will change. I will struggle like many others and acquire happiness with my own hands!'
"Huf… One more time."
Just like that, I trained until night came.