'Libo, load this onto the cart. Aldeth. Do you mean to tell me you've been sleeping at the base of this tree for two days?'
Udo directed Ribo to load the roe deer onto the cart, then walked over to Aldeth and held out his hand.
Aldes took his hand and stood up.
'I was so thirsty after hunting this one, I chewed frantically on the berries of the ash tree that fell to the ground. I was about to collapse.'
'Aldeth. You must be very thirsty, so let's get you some water first.'
Libo loaded the roe deer on the stretcher and handed Aldeth the sack he wore around his waist.
Aldeth gulped down the water from the sack.
'Here, Aldes. Have some jerky.'
Libo gave Aldeth the jerky.
'Ah. I see. Why did you rush off by yourself?'
Woodod said to Aldes in a pinch.
'If I hadn't run like that, do you think you could have caught the mule deer?'
After two days, Aldes felt rejuvenated, whether from the water and beef jerky or from sleeping without the world for two days,
but he felt a surge of strength in his body.
'Since I left Arenberg Castle, I've caught four so far today, so I'm only one away from my original target. From now on. I just need to catch one on the way back.'
Woodard said.
'While I was out here dreaming. You've got two. Good job. Maybe we can get one on the way back.'
The group headed south. They walked along the goat paths, keeping their eyes peeled for game.
They had been walking for about two hours.
'There. There's something, I think it's a boar.'
Fuso said.
The three vassals had been searching for Aldes for two days and were tired after another two hours of walking in the forest.
'Everybody, stay right here, I'll get him.'
Aldeth felt a strange sense of confidence. He pulled out the sword at his waist.
'It's not a bow, it's a sword. Before you get too close. He'll run away.'
Udod said.
'You talk too much. Just stay.'
Aldes walked slowly toward the boar, which was about 15 metres ahead. Hearing his footsteps, the boar raised its head and looked at Aldes.
It was a large boar with huge tusks and looked to weigh 200 kilos.
Woodo told Aldeth to stay still, but the boar's size made it seem dangerous. Woodord drew his bow from his back and aimed at the boar.
If Aldes was in danger, he would shoot.
Aldes closed the distance a little and ran towards the boar. The boar ran towards him, baring its huge tusks to meet him head-on.
The distance between Aldes and the boar gradually closed. Ten metres, eight metres, three metres.
Then it happened. Aldes swerved sharply, ducked to the side, and stabbed the boar in the left side of its neck with his sword.
The boar collapsed in a heap of blood, having hit the artery in its neck.
Udod had taught Aldeth swordplay at the castle, so he was familiar with Aldeth's level of swordplay. But what he had just witnessed far exceeded his expectations.
He knew Aldeth had some talent with the sword, but it didn't make sense that his skills had increased by leaps and bounds while wandering the Boundary Forest.
Udo lowered his arrow.
'Aldeth. What happened?'
Udo said as he ran to Aldeth. The other two vassals also ran to Aldeth.
'Hahaha. See?'
Aldeth said triumphantly.
'Yes. I saw it, I saw it with my own two eyes, but you look nothing like you did when you trained with me in the castle. What happened to you?'
'I don't know. Somehow, I thought I could handle a boar of that size on my own, that's all. You've killed your target of five.'
Woodod thought that Aldeth's transformation was the strangest of all.
He loaded the boar he had just killed onto the cart. Five boars on a cart was quite heavy.
Two men took turns pulling the cart, and they continued walking south.
Aldes wanted to know how much power was in his body. The sudden change of direction, just before they collided with the boar, was fast, even for him.
It was strange. He slept for two days, dreaming under a giant ash tree. Something had changed in his body.
The group walked for three days, camping along the way, until they finally arrived at Arenberg Castle.
The people in the castle were watching a cart with Aldes and three vassals enter.
Rannefels is not only short of food in Arenberg Castle, but also in the villages. They have been travelling into the mountains in search of food.
In the mountains surrounding Rannefels, they could only hunt small animals such as axes, ducks and chickens.
This time it was the larger animals that were brought on the cart.
Aldes met his father, Hugo, the lord of the manor, in the hall of Arenberg Castle.
Libo, the cook, had brought the cart to the cookhouse to skin and dismantle the meat.
'Father,' he said, 'I have returned safely from the bordering forest. I have killed five roe deer and a wild boar.'
Aldes's family gathered in the hall.
'Yes, we have heard. You had a hard time.'
Aldes's father, Hugo, was thin, with brown hair and brown eyes.
Hugo looked troubled by the challenges of running the Boldo family. The Boldo family had been prosperous in the past, but since Hugo was a child, the family's financial situation had deteriorated, while the Gerjo family to the east was thriving.
Hugo has been trying to figure out how to get the Boldos back on their feet, but he doesn't have a solution.
Recent reports from Treasurer Barry on the financial situation have only increased his worries.
Aldes saw the look on his father's face, and though he didn't know the details, he knew that things were not looking good for House Boldo.
'Brother. Are you hurt? The forest on the border is huge, isn't it?'
Aldes's younger brother, Tari, asked. Tari is two years younger than Aldes. He's 10 years old. He's a fragile boy.
'Hey. Didn't you hear? I killed a really big boar with a single blow.'
'Oh. Really? You were that strong. You're not lying, are you?'
'Go to the galley, Chef, and ask Libo. If it's true or not.'
Tari listened to Aldes and ran to the kitchen. He wanted to find out for himself if his brother was so strong.
Aldeth ate and chatted with his family, then went back to his room.
Aldes was the eldest son, the heir apparent to lead the Boldo family.
As the eldest, he wanted to ease his father's burdens, but he didn't have the strength to do so now.
He wanted to know more about what was going on around him.
Twice a week, Aldeth is tutored by Wintry, the bachelor of House Boldo.
His lessons consist of reading a book that Wintry assigns him to read and having a dialogue with her.
This time, the book was The Chronicles of Midgard. The book was quite thick.
It was too much for me to read and teach in one lesson, so I read the book and chatted with Wintry as I went along.
Today was a lesson day with Wintry. Aldeth had eaten lunch and was waiting for Wintry in his room with his book open.
A few moments later, Wintry entered Aldeth's room.
Wintry was 73 years old, a tall bachelor with white hair and dark eyes.
He had been with House Boldo for many years, and was the lord's counsellor.
'Have you finished reading where I told you to read?'
'Yes, I have.'
Wintry flicked open the book.
'You're halfway there now.'
'It's a thick book, and a lot has happened in the world we live in in the meantime.'
'Yes. The land we live in now, this village, this castle, myself, all of it was built by our ancestors. Crises happen everywhere, but just the fact that we are still breathing and living like this, we should be grateful to our ancestors.'
'I want to see the world, I want to go to different places, wherever they are: mountains, remote villages, remote islands, wherever.'
'Aldeth, you will lead House Voldo in the future, just like your heart. I don't know if you'll be able to travel much.'
'Is it hard to travel freely when you're a lord?'
'Yes. You can't be a wandering minstrel and travel freely. If you're a lord, you must govern your lands well, make them more prosperous, and know in advance what crises will come to them, so that you can overcome them.'
'Being a lord. It's a stifling position.'
'If you are born the firstborn of a lord, it is a fate you must accept.'
'Speaking of fate, it's a heavy word, bachelor. As for the dangers to the realm, well. War would be the greatest danger.'
'Plagues and natural disasters are also great dangers, but war is the most devastating. You can win a war, of course, and take land, increase your slaves, and increase your wealth, but if you lose a war, you lose everything you have, not only your life, but your family is killed, or you are enslaved.'
'What was the biggest war the world has ever seen?'
'Later in the book, there's a section about the greatest war the world has ever known. The greatest war in Midgard was fought over five hundred years ago.'
'That's a long time ago. If it was a big war, a lot of people must have died.'
'That's right. The hardest hit was on the continent of Merfeld.'
'But Merfeld is far to the east, across the ocean.'
'Yes, and of course, the continent of Henneruk was also heavily damaged.'
'But. How did such a great war end?'
'By a hero. By a hero, who won the war and ended it.'
'Who was that hero?'
'A man named Siegfried. According to the records, he mercilessly slayed the demons with his great sword skills. Those who had been defeated were encouraged by his deeds and fled, and those who had been living in hiding took up arms and went to battle.'
Aldeth, listening to Wintry's tale, remembered a dream he had not long ago, while sleeping in the hollow of a great ash tree in the Boundary Forest.
'By the way, bachelor, was Siegfried the man with the brown hair and blue eyes?'
'How do you know? That's right, now that I think about it, Aldes, your hair colour and eye colour are the same as Siegfried's.'
Aldeth realised that what he had seen in his dream might actually have happened in Midgard over 500 years ago.
Aldeth wanted to check one more thing.
'Bachelor, at that time, when the people of one continent were so disfigured, so dead, and so fleeing, the demons crossed the sea and invaded the next continent, didn't a man named Siegfried come along and turn the tide?'
'Aldeth. What are you asking me, having read the book to the end, and pretending you haven't?'