Over the next few minutes, my mother would continue to repeat a series of actions. First, she would look at me, as if to make certain that it was really me that she was hugging. Then, she would bury her face into my shoulder, before backing up to look at me again.

It seemed that, even after all this time, my mother still deeply cared for me. After she had calmed down, mom put a ‘closed’ sign in front of the bakery and led me to our living room, which hadn’t changed a bit since my departure. It felt like years since I had been here, even though it hadn’t even been a full year. I guess something about the repetitiveness of my life at home had made my adventurous life seem more lengthy?

“Should you really be working in that state, mom? It looks like my little sibling could be born any second now!” I chastised.

“Oh don’t start acting like your father, Arthur! He’s been nagging me to stop working since my first month. These days, he won’t let me leave the bedroom unless he’s around. Since he needed to do some deliveries today, I thought I’d prepare some of the pastries in advance. Now that you are here, why don’t you tell your father that you were the one to make them? I’m sure he’ll be happy!” she said, in an attempt to hide her work from my father.

I shook my head with a smile. There was no way I would help her cover up for her actions. This close to the birth of her child, I couldn’t let her work herself to the bone. The thing was, when my mom started working, she wouldn’t stop unless someone forced her to. I empathised with my father’s plight.

“So dad will be back in a few hours, then?”

“More like a few minutes. There weren’t that many deliveries to do today, relatively speaking.”

I hummed, secretly excited to surprise my dad.

“Speaking of, how has business been while I’ve been away?”

At this, my mother sighed.

“Decent enough, though we had a rough patch near the end of my pregnancy. Your father is having a difficult time getting all of our orders done on time on his own, losing us some customers as a consequence. Still, after your stunt in the royal tournament, all of a sudden everyone wanted our bread. Your father has been run ragged over the past few weeks. I can’t wait to get this little troublemaker out of my body!” she complained, though I could tell that she was secretly very fond of her soon-to-be born child.

“Don’t worry, mom. I’ll help dad out for the next few weeks. Afterwards, though, I’ll have to focus on my training.”

My mom opened her mouth, presumably to thank me, but we were interrupted by the sound of our front door opening. From the bakery, I heard my dad’s voice call out.

“Ari, why did you close the bakery already? We probably missed out on some sales!” he said, as he entered our living room. When his eyes fell on me, he paused. For a moment, he stood as still as a statue as he stared at me with a disbelieving look in his eyes.

Then, he broke out into sudden laughter.

“Arthur, you’ve returned! Of course you have!” he said as he threw what he was carrying to the side and sat down next to me. He threw his arm around my shoulders and gave me half of a hug, messing up my hair.

“You’ve let your hair grow out, I noticed. You probably had a lot of girls coming up to you in the capital, little man!”

“I’m not so little anymore, dad.” I countered, a little embarrassed.

My father adjusted remarkably quickly to my return and wasn’t as emotional as my highly-pregnant mom. Still, it was obvious he was relieved I had made it in time for the birth. The past few months must have been overwhelming for him.

Over the next few hours, I caught up with my parents, telling them all about the adventures I’d had and the people I had met along the way. Wisely, I chose not to include the battles that had been particularly dangerous. My dad could probably handle it, but my mother didn’t need those worries right now. I did tell them about the invasive spiders I had annihilated, but now about the bandits that Cerion and I had faced off with.

When I started talking about the tournament, I quickly realised that it had been broadcasted all over Roa, which meant that it had been broadcasted, and was still being broadcasted, in our local square. My parents hadn’t been able to watch all of my battles, but they had watched the most important ones. When they heard my in-person account of the events that had occurred, they were even more impressed.

“To think that that little girl from the village would make it to the tournament as well! Fate truly can’t be underestimated!” my mother had exclaimed, when I talked to them about Rheana.

When I described Emeri and my fight with her, my mom couldn’t seem to stop giggling at my recounting of the tale, while my father nodded knowingly for some reason. I didn’t really understand what the big deal was. Emeri wasn’t so weak that she illicit such a response from people, I thought.

After a while, I asked them about how life had treated them during my absence. They first talked about mom’s pregnancy. Apparently, a wandering healer had been in town at the time and had immediately been able to tell that mom was pregnant. As a result, they had been able to find out early in the pregnancy and notify me. Like mom had explained earlier, business had been rough, though they managed to say afloat, just barely. This news gave me conflicting feelings. I felt a little guilty for abandoning them. At the same time, I could hardly have stayed home. Not with my affinity forcing me into conflict. After the tournament, my affinity had steadily started to grow again. Now, it had reached a full 599, the temporary maximum. Once I advanced, my affinity would start to grow again, for better or worse.

My dad, noticing my discomfort, consoled me.

“Don’t feel bad, son. Nobody could have known your mother would become pregnant so soon after your departure.”

“I still feel bad, though. How about this; after the tournament, I’ve gained myself quite a fortune! Why shouldn’t I share some of that wealth with you two?” I proposed happily.

To my surprise, my father and mother instantly refused.

“Absolutely not. That’s the gold you’ve earned yourself. What kind of parents would we be for taking our son’s gold?!” my father exclaimed, while my mother nodded along.

“Come on, dad. Even if it isn’t my fault that the bakery has hit a rough patch, doesn’t it make sense for me to help you two out? Soon, my sibling will be born. Will you still be able to keep the bakery open while mom recovers and you’re stuck caring for the little one?” I countered, leaving my parents momentarily speechless.

“On top of that, aren’t I rich? Like really, really, really rich, compared to the average baker? Even if I give you guys 1000 gold, I would still have 50 times that amount left.”

Hearing this, their eyes threatened to fall out of their skulls. Indeed, my fortune was about 40000 gold at this point, which, for an average family was an immense amount. I had to be known that very few people received a class suitable for combat. Even those that did never really got past the second tier. Classers that did make it to tier 3 were in the minority, and even they wouldn’t have more than a few hundred gold saved up. Only the truly exceptional or people of high birth came across gold as frequently as I did, at this point.

“Mom, dad, think of it like this. I feel guilty for leaving the two of you by yourself these past however many months. If you just received my gift, that guilt would be alleviated.”

That was a lie. How could guilt be lifted simply by giving someone gold. As long as my parents accepted it, it didn’t matter.

“Arthur, we…” my dad began, before falling silent. I continued to stare at them for a moment longer, before they finally accepted.

“Fine, as long as it makes you happy.” My father said gruffly.

“It does.” I replied with a smile.

We talked for another few hours. By the time I fell onto my old bed, the sun had long since set.

-Scene transition-

Over the next few days, I helped my dad out with deliveries around town. This turned out to be far more tedious than before, since everyone now recognised me not as Arthur: the baker’s boy, but as Arthur: the tournament’s finalist.

Everyone was acting like they knew me well and like they were owed a private account of my journey. I didn’t want to act impolite either, since my parents would still be living here after I left in a few months. That meant that I had to entertain each of their requests as best as I could, which took a lot of time. The only reason I even finished my deliveries by the end of the day was because my stats allowed me to traverse the town at record speeds. By the end of each day, I was totally exhausted, mentally.

I took it easy as far as training went, these days. Instead, I reignited my efforts to explore my mental state using mental palace. The first time I entered it since the tournament, I noticed something strange.

To begin with, my wooden shack was still there, thankfully. On top of that, my little forest had survived my period of neglect, and even expanded a little. A few rose bushes had joined my group of plants, though they remained on the outskirts. I wasn’t sure what they signified, but they were there.

As for the 'strange’ thing I mentioned, there was a black ball. No, really. A black ball had appeared in my mental space. The undulating ball of smoke remained floating above my shack. It didn’t react to my touch and stayed still, for the most part. Something about the ball was captivating. Maybe the way it flowed into itself was what caused this, or maybe its deep black colour was what fascinated me.

For a moment, I panicked, thinking that the black ball represented the abyss. Then, I calmed down. There was no way this ball was connected to the abyss. Most likely, this ball was my essence! My [Blackened essence], to be precise.

Since it didn’t seem to be harming my mental space, I just ignored it and continued to meditate for a few hours, before hitting the hay.

Like this, a few weeks passed, until one morning, everyone in the house woke up in a panic, except for my mom, ironically.

Het water had broken.

My father and I rushed her to the town’s clinic, where the healer was thankfully free to support my mother’s birth. A few older ladies joined the healer to help with the birth and shooed my father and me out of the room, where we waited nervously.

After a few hours, we heard the loud cries of a new-born baby, which made me feel a sense of relief that I couldn’t describe with words. My father rushed into the room first and I hurriedly followed him. Once inside, we found my mother with a small bundle in her arms. She looked worn out and exhausted, but the happy glean in her eyes was unmistakable. Mom handed dad the bundle, who then handed it to me a few minutes later. Like this, I met my little sibling for the first time.

“It’s a girl.” My mom said proudly.

I nodded. Seeing the tiny, vulnerable little thing in my arms, I made a pledge to myself. I wouldn’t let anybody hurt my little sister, for as long as I lived.