Chapter 8: Five Years Later
"Found you, Shiro!" A boy said with a cheerful smirk as he patted Shiro's shoulder.
"Well, I'm defeated," Shiro said as he raised his arms in defeat.
"You've got to hide in better places, Shiro," the boy said as he walked away to find more of his friends.
Sigh, so tired... Shiro couldn't help but mumble inwardly.
"Now it's your turn to do the boring thing!" The kid chuckled, teasing the next kid in line.
Closing his eyes, he turned around and started counting from one.
The other kids, in excitement, rushed towards different places, trying to hide themselves stealthily. Shiro, on the other hand, lay on the sand near the seashore.
"The sea looks beautiful today as well." A smile appeared on his face.
The boy had to find about 7 to 8 more of their friends, so Shiro had time to relax for a while.
Just as he was about to fall deep into sleep, the boy came back and yelled at him, "Shiro! Let's play another round!"
"I'm tired..." He groaned, complaining simultaneously too. But judging from the boy's expression, it was obvious he wouldn't leave Shiro.
"But it's your turn to find us, Shiro," the boy stated as a matter of fact. Persistence flashed through his eyes.
Shiro wanted to rebel. However, he soon gave up. "Fine. I'll count to 100 if that's what satisfies y'all."
"Okay!"
With another deep, adultish sigh, Shiro massaged his head as he turned around and closed his eyes, starting the count from 1.
"99, 100! Come out, come out wherever you are!"
Shiro heard some giggles behind some of the trees, which was a big giveaway of his friends' position. But he had no intentions of exposing them.
Pretending that he didn't hear those muffled laughter and idiotic giggles, Shiro was on his way. One would find it very difficult to believe that these thoughts were the thoughtful sequences of a five-year-old, but it was the truth.
With a nonchalant attitude, he walked towards the village, more specifically his house.
'If I'm the seeker, no one would blame me for not finding them!', Shiro thought to himself as he skipped to the village.
Those friends of his would realize that Shiro was no longer present in this region. But Shiro was sure with the idiotic maggot-filled brains they possessed, they'd just assume he went to another region trying to find them.
Shaking his head getting rid of such thoughts he increased the pace of walking. Finally after 20 minutes or so, the 5-year-old adorable-looking Shiro finally reached his modest house.
"Mother! I'm back!" Shiro, who was known to have a mature outlook, would become nothing but a child in front of his mother.
Even though he put up childish behavior, his sharp eyes almost instantaneously noticed her worried look and dry eyes.
"What's the matter, mother?"
"Nothing." The mother waved it off as she continued doing her job. Her fingers stretched getting hold of a seashell. Simultaneously she got hold of a thread that was thin but sturdy.
With some skills, she tied the thread around the seashell in such a manner that it just elevated the cheap ornament's beauty.
On the other hand, Sera was separating beautiful seashells from the ugly ones.
"Mother, I'm hungry..." Shiro said, to which his mother gestured towards the bed. Nodding, Shiro almost instantly spotted the basket on top of the bed. Three brown breads could be seen.
Strolling towards the bed, he grabbed a piece of bread and ripped it into two unequal parts. That took quite the effort, an effort of a total of 5 minutes.
Placing the large ripped piece of bread back on the basket, Shiro monotonously placed the smaller portion in his mouth.
Ting!
Maybe it was just Shiro's imagination, but he felt like his teeth just tried to bite a solid piece of weapon.
Bread? No, I'd like to call it a lethal weapon...
He had to try two more times before his teeth successfully sunk into the bread.
After biting in, another problem had to inevitably follow. This bread was drier than the hottest desert!
Complaining once again, Shiro tried his best to swallow.
F*ck! I think I'm choking!
Though Shiro did not know what that curse word meant, he had heard a few grown-ups using it in a distressed state. So he figured that this was the right time to use that bad word.
After another intense battle that was two minutes long, Shiro finally managed to defeat the hard dry thing swallowing it.
'I think weapons should be replaced by this bread. It can at least break a rock, right?'
He had already lost his appetite in that intense battle, but he had to finish that piece. Or he'd be nothing but a skeleton.
Come on, Shiro! You can do it!
Five minutes... A new record! Even though he ate that kind of bread every day, he could never get used to it.
"Well, Shiro, Sera, take care of the house. I'm going to sell these shiny beauties. Take care of the house." Saying this, Loyola grabbed the huge wickerwork containing all the sea shell ornaments and then walked out of the house.
"Sis." Suddenly, Shiro called out.
"Mn?
"Why's mother so worried?"
"Don't you know?"
"Know what?"
"Oh! I thought you'd know everything." Sera teased Shiro innocently. After all, Shiro liked to put the front of being better than other kids and knowing better than the adults. Seeing her tease him, Shiro pouted.
Despite her just being at the age of 9, even she was somewhat influenced by Shiro, being somewhat more intelligent than those around her age.
"Those tax collectors are gonna be here in a month. It's said that a higher official himself is going to come. Sigh, two months earlier."
Shiro couldn't help but raise his eyebrows as he heard her words. No wonder Mother was so worried. Sigh, I wish I was all grown up, then I could earn money and ask the man of the house.
When I grow up I'll give us three the best life. We'll live in a big house near the seashore and sleep with a full stomach. Heck, we'll eat meat every day! We'll live happily ever after...
For some reason, all of a sudden Shiro had an ominous feeling. An unexplainable sensation.
But he proceeded to ignore it, lost in his imagination of how proud his mother would be when he'd become a successful person.