"Aunt, I will be going out for a while." All the simulations I ran in my head before actually asking it seemed naive now that I saw her surprised expression. After a momentary surprise, her expression turned to that of worry. I could never plan a conversation with aunt Ella.

"What are you saying, son? Go where?" She asked, her face looked genuinely surprised and worried.

Aunt Ella had been taking care of me ever since my parents disappeared five years ago. Her husband, Mr. Harry Hangham, was my father's intimate friend.

I remember so vividly, the downpour on the night he came to our house, his face dripping wet, but at the time I couldn't tell how much of it was sweat.

My parents left with him the next day.

They had received an urgent summon from someone important. I couldn't make out through their conversation who exactly summoned them but the night before they left, I peered through the door when they were talking by the fireplace, their expressions grave. I couldn't comprehend much of what they said at the time but now that I think about it, the way my father rose up sighing and then curled an accepting smile, they were heading for something dangerous and they knew it.

I never got a word about them since.

I huddled beside the table my parents sat at the night before they left, quivering. I was alone, I was hungry and I was afraid.

No fire, no food and no one left with me.

But somehow, I don’t know why, no tears came out. No emotion came out for that matter, I just simply sat there. Was it because I hated my parents for leaving even though they knew they wouldn't come back?

Then one day the light pierced through my eyes like needles when someone suddenly opened the door.

Bandits?

I didn’t care, I was going to die anyway.

But then I saw them, a red haired lady wearing a black dress and behind her was a girl, no older than I was, grabbing onto the lady’s dress.

I had no track of time, was it hours, days or weeks after my parents were gone? I didn't know.

‘Everything is fine now Son.’ Hearing her gentle tone, my mind refused to believe I was seeing the person in front of me for the first time.

She hugged me tightly and the wall of ice I had made to hold back my emotions couldn’t withstand that warmth. I was reduced to a puddle of tears.

Come to think of it, I was lucky to have survived, there were a lot of instances of snitching and murders at the time.

Ever since, aunt Ella and Sara lived with me. My parents had requested her to take care of me in case they do not come back. Why did they even leave if they knew I was going to be alone?

[Hey brat, what are you thinking about? You have an aunt waiting.]

I snapped back to the present and impulsively shook my head, surprising both aunt Ella and Sara, who were sitting across from me around the round dining table.

"Ahh, Yes. I am going to go train in the city, I want to become an adventurer," I said.

It was something I wanted to talk to her about even before meeting Adron so it's not a complete lie.

I wanted to be strong, to be strong enough to let my family live a good life.

"No. I won't allow you to go there, why would anyone in their right mind want to do that? To kill themselves in places their families won't ever know about." She rebuked as she glared at me, her eyes were fierce all of a sudden.

After a brief moment of silence, she got up and dragged her chair beside me, then clasped my hands and glanced at me with her dreary eyes, almost guilty.

She always gives me this look when I talk about us having a better life, is it because she thinks I blame her husband for taking my parents away? I don't understand what exactly is she thinking? Even she knows she is getting older so why isn't she letting me start doing what I can?

"But mother, how long are you going to suffer all by yourself? I am more than enough to handle the responsibilities now, to take care of you both. I don't want us to spend all our lives here, we deserve better mother." I said soft yet sternly and realized my lips had curled into an awkward smile.

My aunt's face lit up, it was for the first time I had called her mother. I realized how long I made her wait, it was my fault to do it so late, she more than deserved to be called my mother. After all, she never left me because someone called for her, I can't remember a single day in last five years when she wasn't there for me.

…

'Mother,' His voice echoed inside my mind for an eternity.

At that moment, everything seemed trivial: poverty, loneliness, our future, the farms... None of those things mattered. A warmth enveloped my heart, this child gave me something I wasn't meant for.

To him it must have been hard losing his family to my husband.

I still had Sara with me but Steve, he had no one and yet here we were, he not just forgave but called me mother. For a moment, I was tempted to comply with anything he said but it wasn't his burden to bear. He was young and didn't understand the world enough yet.

I don't want to lose that pristine smile of his to the cruelties of this world.

True, adventurers earned wealth early on in their career but even the most seasoned veterans could not guarantee their survival and Steve was weak, not mentally but physically, he lacked the one basic thing most of the adventurers had, he wasn't a blest.

Which means even if he ends up as an adventurer, his party members will most likely use him as a decoy in those wicked beast's lairs.

"No, Steve. What we deserve is being together, not enjoying at the expense of one risking his life." I rebuked but my tone came out gentle.

Tears welled up in my eyes as every cell in my body screamed at me to say yes. But it was true, I didn't fancy those luxuries and I made sure to instill it in both of their minds to not be enticed by the embellished lifestyles.

All I wanted was for the three of us to be together. I was fine with us sleeping hungry a night or two, but I couldn't gulp down a meal that came with the life of any one of them at stake.

"Mother you have to trust me now, you can't keep doing all this forever. If I don't go, we may live together until you are old. I and Sara may also find a spouse, a happy peasant but I won't be happy. I'll be here and yet absent and that will make you unhappy too-"

"But Steve" I cut him off, no longer able to hold back the stream of tears rolling down my cheeks.

His eyes were wet too, he knew exactly what he was asking and the toll of it but he was right.

You can't hold on to him forever Ella. A side of me was elated at the fact that he didn't receive God's blessing. The blessings were actually a curse in guise.

I just don't want him to leave, what if he meets a fate similar to that of...but I can't deny the boy the right to choose his own future either.

"How are you going to do it? You are not even a blest! Unlike others, you don't have anything to rely on in the face of danger."

"Trust me, I am not weak. I will become stronger at the academy too, and I promise I will never go in places… situations that I know I can't get myself out of." He said confidently but his words weren't just optimistic, there was something more to them, something to back them.

I stayed silent, deadpan, desperately clinging to the hope that maybe if I don't answer then he'll turn back. But his eyes didn't change, his resolve didn't waver even though he sat silently beside me for an hour.

He was going to go, you knew it didn't you Willwin?

Adron Athav

Yup, kid's life is full of melodrama all right.

I haven't met my parents but almost all my war buddies were shoved out of the heavens by their guardians, sparing a few like me who went on to fight because of the old coot One.

He used to say in that snide tone of his 'Young one, I understand if you don't want to wager your life in battle. Perhaps, your strength would be better used in the administration.'

But here, this whole house got all hearts and flowers over just letting this kid go out for a few days. As much as I enjoyed the play, it all got pretty boring, pretty soon and judging by her apathetic face, I am sure little Sara agrees.

"Your father knew you were meant for something bigger... Now, since I know you’ll go even if I refuse, take this." Ella had a faint smile as she came out of their little store room with a leather pouch in her hand.

She handed that pouch to that boy with a golden medallion, it had two swords with their tips placed on a fire's base. "You may not have known it before, but your parents were no small adventurers. People owed them, big people."

The boy was startled when he opened the pouch, it seemed to have that supreme currency he told me about, gold. But not long after his daze, he was really angry and confused. "You always had this and yet...yet you never spent any? We could have lived more comfortably than any landlord in all of Durlan."

"I couldn't, son. You may not know it now, but this isn't nearly enough to help you on your journey. Life is hard Steve, the world you seek to live in is dark. Your father left this with me for if the day shall come when you decide to walk down the path he did." The kid's aunt said with a solemn face, all of her sentiments were wiped off now.

Calm down Adron, don't curse the poor lady for hauling our time even though she was going to let the boy go anyway. Humans are difficult but well, what I am glad about is hearing all the big talk Ella did about the brat's parents. If what she said was even somewhat true, then I think we can skip the ‘making the big guns owe us’ step now.