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Chapter 22 – Awakening
At Allen’s side, Theresia was screaming.
“H-honey?! This can’t be happening! R-Rodan, you’re-!!!”
Rodan arrived home on a simple wood and cloth stretcher. Theresia rushed up to him. His eyes were closed and he wasn’t moving. She begged him to open his eyes, to wake up, but he didn’t move.
“Don’t worry, Theresia. We’ve already treated him.”
“Eh? No way, you couldn’t have…”
Theresia looked at Gerda as if to say “Isn’t that too good to be true?”. Rodan’s clothes were dyed black. It didn’t look good.
“I’m serious. We used some Müllerswort.”
“Ah? Huh? You can’t afford that….”
It sounded like the herb was normally too expensive for serfs. While Gerda kept trying to convince Theresia that he was telling the truth, they brought Rodan, who was still unconscious, inside. They put him into the bed he shared with Theresia. There were about 20 people who had helped carry him in. It seemed like everyone that participated in the hunt was here.
“Oi, Beth, Bodro, could I ask you guys to get me some water?”
” “Yeah.” “
Because Theresia was out of it, Gerda issued instructions. Apparently, they were preparing hot water. Allen went to the living room and prepped the fire.
(Why? Why is this happening?)
He didn’t know what was going on, but he wanted to do what he could.
“You guys are fine, you should grab the carcass and go home. We’ll be fine.”
” ” “Hah!?” ” “
The voices of the men echo, with a sound that says “How could you say such a thing?” It startled Mash awake and he began to cry. There were a lot of strangers in the house. Theresia hugged him, and tried to soothe him.
“I know, I know. But there’s too many people here – you’ll only get in the way. I’ll handle the rest, so you guys should just go home.”
” ” “Fine.” ” “
“Ah, and, don’t do anything rash.”
“Huh!? This whole mess only happened because of the commoners! You agree, right Gerda!? We should all go!!!”
Beth, who had been fetching water, cried out in disbelief. The crowd snorted in agreement. The light of the torches danced on the spears leaning against the wall. The weapons shined with a dangerous glint. Mash was startled again, and started crying loudly.
“Oi, Beth. I’ll take care of it. So go grab the carcass and go home. Tell me that you understand.”
“I-I understand…”
Gerda was angry, but not the way Beth was. He spoke with a quiet strength. Beth and the men were overwhelmed by the pressure, and replied meekly.
The men apologized for the disturbance, and left the same way they came. Eventually, everyone was gone, except Gerda.
Theresia and Gerda stripped the blood-stained clothes off of Rodan.
“!?”
Theresia was shocked by the scar on Rodan’s belly. It looked like he had been ripped apart and welded together.
“Like I said, Müllerswort is the real deal. We were lucky that the apothecary had one.”
While he said that, Gerda helped Theresia wipe down Rodan’s body with warm rags. Theresia had calmed down a little, and noticed that Rodan’s chest was rising and falling.
“But how did you get such an expensive herb?”
“….When the knights were here, they gave me some gold coins. It was a good thing that I saved some.”
Mash finally cried himself to sleep, and Allen laid him down to bed in the kids’ room.
“What happened? Was it really all the commoners’ fault?”
Allen’s face surprised Theresia dnd Gerda. They’d never seen him like this before. His eyes burned with anger. How could someone do this to his beloved father? Theresia also looked at Gerda. She also wanted to know what happened.
“It’s a bit of a long story. Let me get some water first.”
Allen filled the wooden cup with water from the water jar. Apparently Gerda was quite thirsty, because he drank it all in one go.
“For some years now, the mayor had been asking us to bring commoners along for the Boar hunts.”
The Boar hunts had always been done by a group of around 20 serfs. However, it seemed that the commoners didn’t like that. Everyone who helped out in the hunt would get a chunk of meat, sometimes more than 20 pounds. And the people who helped transport and butcher the dead Boar would get around a third of that. That would usually be around another 50 people, and they were also all serfs.
The serfs did the hunting, the serfs did the butchering, the serfs got the meat. The commoners only got a small portion of the meat, from when it was traded for firewood, salt, and other necessities. If they wanted any, they would mostly have to buy it from the mayor.
“The commoners wanted Boar meat. So the mayor told the commoners that they could join the hunt, but nobody stepped up.”
The mayor wanted them to join. The commoners wanted meat but didn’t want to join. Hunting meant fighting a monster. It wasn’t like the hunts were a walk in the park. In fact, in the past 10 years, plenty of people had died. But still, the hunts went on.
They risked their lives. Nobody had to ask why. The reason was obvious – their families.
“So, why did the commoners go this time then?”
Allen asked.
“…… Maybe it’s ‘cause a hero appeared among the serfs.”
A serf was a Sword Saint. And during the banquet, the knight commander didn’t praise the mayor, nor the bigwigs of the village. It was Rodan who received a direct compliment from the lord. After the banquet, everyone in the village knew about it.
“At the start of the month, the mayor wanted to talk to Rodan and me. He said that he had about 5 young men who wanted to go, and he wanted us to take them. Well, it was basically an order.”
By order of the mayor, Gerda trained them. For the past 10 days, they met several times to practice taking down a Great Boar. But the young commoners didn’t want to join the group with the most skilled serfs, and they had a bad attitude. But still, Rodan kept training them.
And then the day of the event arrived – today. It went just as they had planned, just as they had trained.
Allen had asked Rodan many times how to hunt a Great Boar. It was simple: lure it out, surround it, and stab it with spears.
“It takes more experience to be on the lure team or the spear team, so we had the commoners join the wall team.”
They gave the commoners the easiest role. But still, someone messed up. When they saw the monster, they were so scared that they couldn’t move. The wall collapsed and the group ended up in a fierce melee with the Boar.
“Rodan was stabbed by the horn on the tip of the Boar’s nose. And here we are.”
All in all, the rest of the job was pretty straightforward. They took the Boar down, but Rodan was seriously injured.
Then, Gerda said that he had talked long enough and went home. His wife and daughter were waiting for him, and would be worried.
After Gerda left, the house was quiet. Theresia was holding Rodan’s hand. His eyes hadn’t opened yet. When Theresia told him to, Allen went to bed.
The next morning, after Theresia and Allen were both up, Gerda arrived with a large chunk of meat. He said it was Rodan’s share. When Theresia saw the meat, she realized again how he had risked his life. Theresia collapsed, knees on the dirt floor, and broke down in tears.
“Rodan wake up yet?”
Gerda, while trying to avoid touching the crying Theresia, poured water into the water jar.
“Don’t worry. I’ll help you through the winter. And you don’t have to worry about having your baby.”
Gerda said that he would take care of things – the cold winter, and the baby in her belly.
“Ah, th-thanks….”
That was when it happened.
“Where am I?”
Rodan opened his eyes. He looked lost.
“R-Rodan!!”
Theresia embraced him. He moaned like the wound wasn’t completely healed. Mash joined in with “Papa! Papa!” and hugged him.
The three of them hugged, crying.
Allen looked at them. He watched the 3 of them hug.
(W-what am I doing?)
To be honest, Allen didn’t really care whether or not he was a serf. He was a serf because it was the only option, but he was also okay with being a prince or a nomad. Anything was fine. Back when he was Kenichi, he played a lot of games. He started when he was only seven or eight years old. He had never chosen a game based on the main character’s parents, because it didn’t really affect his time with the game.
But now, he was the child of Rodan and Theresia, who were serfs, struggling to survive. And, he had a younger brother, and the new life that was growing in Theresia’s belly. He realized that, in this world, he had things he needed to do.
He felt something awaken inside of him. For the first time since he had come to this world, he felt like he was standing on his own two feet. After six years in this body, he finally felt like he was starting a new life.
“Oh, you’re up, Rodan.”
Gerda said, looking at Rodan. He looked like he was in pain.
“Gerda? I’m still alive?”
“Yeah, you’re a lucky one. Everything okay?”
“Yeah.”
Rodan tried to get up, but he layed back down, holding his abdomen and wincing. It seemed like the wound wasn’t fully healed.
“Ah, well. I’ll take care of the Boar hunts from now on, so don’t worry about that. And I’ll help take care of your family over the winter, so just rest for now.”
Their old friend gave them his rough but reassuring word.
“A-ah. Sorry ‘bout all this.”
“You’re wrong, Dad.”
“Hm? Dad?”
Rodan noticed an unfamiliar word. Something was different. Theresia also looked at Allen, as if to ask him what’s wrong.
“I’ll take care of our family. Take your time to rest and recuperate.”
“Huh? Ah, thanks, but, Gerda said….”
Rodan couldn’t finish his sentence. Allen’s eyes were burning with resolve.
“I will definitely protect our family.”
It was the end of the fall of his 6th year. It was then, in that village, that he resolved to work with all his might. On that day, Allen’s eyes were opened.
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Thanks for reading! 🙂
JATranslations 
Lmao, what? He was gonna pick the swordsman over the sword saint, but picked the most OP job, became he could only be an serf.
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