In front of the house I saw Dad talking to someone. The big man with a lot of mud on his armor, if I'm not mistaken, was one of the adventurers who spoke in the village square earlier. If I'm not mistaken, he said his name was Einar Ragnarsson, similar to the names of northerners... yes, maybe he was indeed a Northerner because on his waist he had a sword and an axe, my father said that was a characteristic of northerners fighting.
"Come here, son!" Called my father who noticed my presence, as did Einar who looked at me and smiled.
But strangely what are the northerners doing here? shouldn't they be on the Ingrisia continent? nor, as people say, they should be just a bunch of barbarians, who love to plunder every country they go to.
"Is this your child?" Einar asked Father while glancing at me, his smiling face really made me doubt what people said about northerners. "What's his name?"
My father's gaze seemed to tell me to answer his words, "Isa... Isaac Zizara," being in the middle of adults made me feel a little nervous.
"My name is Einar Ragnarsson, nice to meet you Isaac!" he turned his gaze back to Father. "So, what about my request? did you manage to convey it?"
"Yes, I have done it as you wanted."
I don't understand what the two of them are talking about, but I can't move away from here, my legs seem to be holding me back.
"That's great to hear, thanks! Can you do the same today too?"
"No way, it's already late today, it's too dangerous to travel to the capital. If you want tomorrow morning, I happen to have a lot of orders from traders in the capital, how about it?"
"Yes, that's no problem." Einar handed something like a rolled letter with a stamp to father. "Oh yes, we're short of wine and food today, can you bring it to our tent? I'll pay it to you later there."
"How many?"
"As much as you have."
"Okay, I'll take it to your tent in an hour."
"Thank You!"
"You're welcome, it's a pleasure doing business with you!" After father said that, Einar, who didn't lose his smile, looked at me and father alternately, then he walked away, leaving the two of us in front of the house. Because there was no lighting around the house, we could no longer see Einar, whose presence had been swallowed by the darkness of night.
"This is an adult problem Isaac, you're still too young to know." Right after he said that, Dad went inside the house for a moment to put away the letter Einar gave him earlier. "Let's help dad deliver Isaac's things! We have to do it quickly before your mother gets angry for leaving the food on the table to get cold."
I followed father to the warehouse. There I helped raise food items such as; rice, meat, alcohol, and vegetables along with fruit. The adventurer bought so many of our products, we even had to transport them in two horse-drawn carriages. Yes, even so, my father and I are used to it, so it's not difficult for us to move a lot of things onto the train.
"Why are they ordering this many, Father?"
"I don't know, for tomorrow's food supplies maybe, father doesn't really know either." My father drives a horse-drawn carriage and so do I. That's why we had to shout to speak. "Or maybe they just want to enjoy it, because you know life as an adventurer means you have to be prepared not to see tomorrow."
"Aren't they afraid?"
"Father was never an adventurer, so I don't know. You'll have to ask them directly if you want to know."
It didn't take long, I could see the light of a campfire along with a group of adventurers sitting around it. Aware of our arrival, Einar, always the leader of the adventure group, walked over to us.
"Sorry for having to interrupt your time at this time of night."
"It's okay, just relax, you have also fought hard to protect our village, our country."
They both smiled. Einar ordered his two men to help father store all the food on the carriage. Meanwhile, I, who didn't know what to do, went to the place where the adventurers were gathered at Einar's direction.
"Who's he?" asked a woman whose gaze looked scary to me.
"The son of the farmer I visited earlier." Einar surprised me by suddenly standing behind me. "His name is Isaac. And Isaac, the woman who is talking to you is Margaretha, then the drunk dwarf is named Donovan."
"How old are you?" Margaretha asked again.
"Eight years."
His eyebrows raised, "Wow, you are the same age as my little sister, Jennifer," he said. "Yes, even though he's a bit more noisy, I'm sure you two will definitely be good friends."
"Sit down!" Einar told me to sit near him, next to Margaretha. He took a glass containing alcohol and meat that Margaretha had grilled thoroughly. "I just bought a lot of meat and alcohol, you guys can still enjoy it as much as possible, so eat and drink until you're satisfied."
Suddenly this made all the adventurers cheer with joy. Unlike the other adventurers, Einar and Margaretha seemed much calmer. The two of them were more quiet, warming themselves in front of the fire while grilling meat for them to eat, unlike the other adventurers who looked very excited and drank a lot of alcoholic drinks.
Margaretha and the other adventurers seemed to still be descendants of this country, only Donovan and Einar were different among them all. The thing that is very strange and makes me not understand at all is, how can they still enjoy food and drink, and laugh so cheerfully when some of them are seriously injured and have lost several limbs?
"How can you all laugh like this?" they started looking at me with strange eyes, it seemed there was something wrong with my question. "Don't you feel pain? Aren't you afraid that you won't have the chance to see tomorrow? why can you laugh like this? when some of you were seriously injured, lost several body parts, and... also lost your comrades? Why do you guys look so happy?"
They were all silent, I asked this not out of sympathy but more out of curiosity. However, for some reason they all just laughed, laughed very loudly as if laughing at the question of a small child like me.
"Why are we happy you say?" one of them spoke. "Son, let me tell you something, being adventurers means we already know the risks, and of course we are also afraid of being faced with death. It's true what you say, what if we can't see tomorrow? That's why instead of spending the day in sadness, we prefer to enjoy our days with happiness."
"Well, being sad won't bring them back, so we'll keep laughing at them here."
"After all, why would you be an adventurer without knowing the risks."
"Death scares us, but it's the reason why you keep trying to live."
They were strange, they kept saying things like death, happiness, and living as an adventurer, but even more strangely at the same time I started to think that they were really great and cool.
"Can I become a great adventurer like you guys?" I don't know why I suddenly asked like this.
"Yes, keep practicing and you will get a beautiful female partner like Margaretha," said Donovan, who is from the dwarf race, a race that often spends the day drinking alcohol. But even so, he was able to react quickly, pulling out his dagger to block Margaretha's fast attack. "Hey! hey! that's dangerous Margaret! what are you doing in front of this little kid?"
"You're not worthy to say something like that, damn drunkard!" Margareth looked annoyed, but with a small nod Einar asked Margaretha to sheathe her sword again. "You're lucky Donovan!"
And Donovan didn't seem to care about Margaretha's warning, he was so engrossed in his alcoholic drink. Judging from his movements, he must have been very drunk.
"Don't fight, we are all friends here," he said as he handed me a piece of meat. "Yes, by training hard maybe you will be able to become an adventurer who might even be stronger than us."
I accepted a piece of meat from him happily. "But I don't have any special talents-"
"Listen Alex, great power makes you strong, but a wise mind makes you alive." Uncle Einar pushed a little wood so that the flame wouldn't go out. "Talent is important, it's precisely what will make you look special. But it won't be useful if you don't have the determination and good mentality to survive. I've known quite a lot of talented people who died horribly, because they didn't have the determination and good mentality to survive. And also never be arrogant, you must remain humble."
"But don't most adventurers love to brag about themselves? even you guys?"
Einar and the others laughed.
"Yes, people like that will face the end of their lives sooner, therefore you have to be a good child so as not to make your parents sad." Uncle Einar averted his eyes as did I, seeing my father walking towards us to pick me up home. "Your father has come, go home quickly!"
My father bowed his head slightly as a form of gratitude while Uncle Einar just smiled and raised one of his hands. Because previously we had to use two horse-drawn carriages to bring food, my father told me to take care of one horse-drawn carriage. Luckily I had been taught how to use it, therefore I didn't have too much difficulty using it.
"Father, in the future I want to be an adventurer like Uncle Einar."
"Seriously?" Dad asked with a laugh, he didn't seem surprised by what I said. "Looks like this is going to be a serious conversation. Try telling your mother again tomorrow, if you dare say it then father will support your wishes!"