Chapter 2

Chapter 2. Fifteen years?

Valanus had been here fifteen years ago? I could not understand what that was supposed to mean. I seized the man by the collar.

“When Valanus was here, what happened to the children who lived here? What happened after that? Tell me everything you know.”

“I-I do not know! I just bought this place!”

The man thrashed with a terrified expression. The moment I heard that the building had been sold, I felt all the strength leave me.

Valanus had been sold and turned into a brothel?

I had no idea what had happened after I died. This man did not seem to know anything.

There was no need to talk any further, and I did not want trash like him in our home either.

“……Get out. Take everyone still left in this place with you and disappear.”

When I released him, the man scrambled out of the office. Even after the sound of his footsteps faded, I stood there for a long while, rooted to the spot.

A cloying scent of incense filled the room. My stomach churned. The scene that had remained in my memories was gone, and amid that unfamiliar fragrance, I was left alone.

I could no longer hear my disciples’ laughter.

I stood there in emptiness for a time before moving. I had no time to lose myself in sentiment like this. I had to grasp the situation and find the children.

I headed into the city. Fifteen years had passed, but there might still be familiar faces left. I had to find someone who could tell me what had happened.

When I entered the city, I saw a restaurant that was still open. The sign was old, but its shape was familiar. Even after fifteen years, it was still here.

The restaurant was quiet. When I sat at an empty counter seat, the owner approached me. She had gone from middle-aged to elderly.

“Would you like to order?”

“……Soy milk soup, please.”

I spoke the name of a dish I had often ordered. At that, the owner’s gaze turned somewhat strange.

“That is no longer on the menu. Where did you hear about it?”

“Yes. I heard about it long ago.”

“Is your father’s name Dane, by any chance? You look exactly like him.”

I was slightly taken aback when my name came from the owner’s mouth. Well, of course the resemblance was strong. I had merely become younger. Instead of clearing up the misunderstanding, I nodded.

“Yes. My father told me about this restaurant. He said the soup was delicious.”

“Huh, how strange. He was a man who lived with his whole life tied to his disciples. When did he ever have a child?”

After saying that, the owner headed into the kitchen. The restaurant I had visited only a few days ago had become old in an instant.

Fifteen years. Fifteen years had passed. Why had I come back to life? Why had I taken on the young appearance of a twenty-year-old? I had many questions, but there was something more important than all of them.

“Here you go, your soup. I will give you the bread on the house.”

“Thank you.”

I received the warm soup, but I had no particular appetite. I had not come here to eat in the first place. I began speaking to the owner.

“There are a few more things I would like to ask. I came here to find my father’s Domus.”

Domus. The place where my comrades, my disciples, and I had lived together. A Domus was an organization similar to a guild, but there were a few differences.

First, a guild was a profit-oriented group that recruited proven members and operated through them, and people were relatively free to transfer in and out.

A Domus, however, was closer to a kind of family.

It took in children who had nowhere to go, educated them through apprenticeship, and accepted them as family without discriminating between geniuses and ordinary children.

My comrades and I had been the children’s teachers, guardians, and protectors. I had to find my disciples.

“Are there any members of the Valanus Domus left in this city?”

“Valanus fell fifteen years ago.”

“How?”

The owner looked somewhat troubled, but after glancing at me, she opened her mouth.

“The city was attacked fifteen years ago. Many people died, and all the adults of Valanus died as well. Since there were no adults left to care for them, the children were scattered too.”

Not a single adult in this city had looked after the children?

It was a true shock. After all, there had been quite a few guilds and Domus organizations deeply connected to Valanus, and our reputation had been rather good.

“When I went to the Valanus Domus, it had become a brothel. Do you know why that happened?”

“I do not know much. Some people say the brothel owner took it by force. Others say he bought it……. Well, even if he did buy it, considering how the children scattered, maybe he bought it for a pittance.”

When I imagined how the children must have lived after I died, my head spun. I pressed a hand to my forehead, then spoke.

“Do you know anything about where the children went?”

“Well. Ah! Cesare is in this city. He came back a few years ago and has been working here as a mercenary.”

Cesare. A young face with a bright smile came to mind. Fifteen years had passed, so he would be twenty-seven now. I could not even guess what he might be like.

“Do you know where Cesare is staying?”

“Not exactly…….”

“Could you ask around? Please.”

Along with the cost of the food, I held out another 50,000 batz. The owner pocketed it and gave a friendly smile.

“I will ask the customers, so come back tomorrow.”

At least it was fortunate that Cesare had stayed here. Once I had a grasp of my disciples’ situation, the next question surfaced in my mind.

The mysterious attackers who had raided the city. Who on earth had they been?

“You said the city was attacked. Do you know who the attackers were and why they did such a thing?”

“I do not really know. I heard all the attackers died. So it seems they did not investigate much.”

They had failed to uncover the reason behind that horrific tragedy?

I could not shake the uneasy feeling. Amid it all, I remembered the words the attacker had left as his final testament.

“Still, I cut through the tree’s trunk. Someday, even its roots and new shoots…….”

The man had definitely said that. In a tone with a clear purpose. As though everything was not yet over.

Rage and questions quietly boiled inside me. Who on earth had they been? I had to discover their purpose, but finding my disciples came first.

In the end, I left the restaurant quietly without even touching the soup. At least it was fortunate that I had learned where Cesare was.

What had happened to the other children? What had they become after fifteen years? I clenched the necklace tightly and set off.

***

“Cesare is staying at the Horned Whale Inn.”

Around noon the next day, the owner brought me good news. I had thought it would take a long time to find Cesare, so this was a relief.

I had spent the night at the Valanus Domus, but I had not slept properly. It was thanks to the men the brothel owner had sent.

I had beaten them half to death before sending them away, so I could only hope things would stay quiet for a while.

The Horned Whale Inn. So that place was still here too. Feeling a strange sense of nostalgia, I set out.

Cesare had become a mercenary. I could hardly imagine it. The Cesare in my memories had been a little child who had only just started learning the sword.

Twelve-year-old Cesare, who had once brought me both hands full of raspberries and smiled with juice on his fingers. His raspberry-red hair and olive eyes were vivid in my mind.

Would I be able to recognize him? With that thought in mind, I had almost reached the Horned Whale Inn.

Then the inn door flew open, and I saw someone come tumbling out as though he had been thrown. The man crashed into a pile of luggage and fell with a loud clatter.

“You lunatic! Do you have any idea how much you owe, yet you have the nerve to start demanding alcohol in broad daylight? You alcoholic bastard!”

The man who shouted was a face I had never seen before. However, his red hair and green eyes were painfully familiar.

His age now looked to be exactly in the mid-twenties. So he had grown a great deal with time. 

He had quite a fine build……. No, he had put on quite a bit of flesh here and there……. His stomach stuck out a little, and perhaps his hair had begun to thin, because his hairline had receded quite far…….

He was very different from what I had expected, but even so, seeing my grown disciple was deeply moving.

I felt my eyes grow moist. Perhaps because I was staring, Cesare must have sensed my gaze, for he turned to look at me.

“Who are you?”

“You have grown so much. I hardly recognized you.”

I approached Cesare and clasped his hand tightly. Cesare looked flustered.

“What? What did you say? No, you look younger than me…….”

“Yes, of course you would be surprised.”

I patted the startled Cesare’s hand and smiled. Joy and relief overflowed inside me.

“I was terribly worried. I wondered whether something might have happened over the past fifteen years. You even opened an inn. I am so proud of you, Cesare.”

“Cesare?”

Cesare looked at me with wide eyes, then furrowed his brow.

“I am not Cesare!”

“Hm?”

But his hair color and eye color were exactly the same. So were his age and gender. As I stared at him in confusion, he roughly shook off my hand.

“The Cesare you are looking for is that bastard! Let go of me!”

Dumbfounded, I released his hand and turned around. When I looked back, I saw a man buried in the pile of luggage.

It was the man who had just come tumbling out of the inn. Even while sitting, the large man was clearly rather tall.

He had a hood on, so I could not see his face well. With an uneasy feeling, I approached and pulled off the hood he was wearing.

As soon as I drew close, the smell of alcohol hit me. It was not even noon yet.

I saw shaggy red hair that had not been properly cut, and a filthy beard.

His green eyes swayed hazily, just as a drunkard’s would. Each time the man breathed, a foul smell drifted from him. It was not only the smell of alcohol, but a stench as well. As if he had not washed properly in a long time.

“Ah, fuck……. What?”

A thick curse slipped from the man’s mouth. He glared at me with beastlike, menacing eyes. I spoke in a trembling voice.

“Cesare……. Are you Cesare?”

That could not be. The Cesare in my memories had been a small, gentle child. A child who had fled in horror whenever one of the masters came back after drinking.

The huge man with the thick beard glared at me. He spat on the ground and said.

“I am Cesare. Who are you?”

I stared blankly at that face in shock.

This man was Cesare?

My young and gentle disciple, Cesare?