Surviving the Game As a Barbarian [EN]: Chapter 291

Lavigion, where more than half of the kingdom’s population resides.

Although the upper class lumps all those living here together as commoners, there’s a wealth gap even within Lavigion.

There are explorers and self-employed individuals who run decent businesses.

These people live in houses on the main streets near the plaza. Such places have good security and a reasonably decent living environment.

But…

‘So, he lived in a place like this when he was young.’

Away from the main street, if you go through the back alleys into a large block, the situation is different.

Poor security where the guards’ eyes don’t reach.

The buildings are old and worn, divided into dozens of rooms, with people living in a single room.

The bathrooms and kitchens are shared.

Even the Barbarian inn that cost 500 stones a night was only on the outskirts, not in a place like this.

“……”

As I followed Raven into the alley, the wary gazes of the residents poured in.

It was similar to my experience in Bipron.

Everyone was just wary, and no one came up to pick a fight.

Rather, they lowered their eyes.

‘Geez, have they never seen a Barbarian before?’

While I was feeling the advantages of being a Barbarian, I realized how poor Raven’s living conditions were.

Because this wasn’t the crowded main street.

Those people would also fully guess that I was following Raven.

‘And yet, no one is stepping up……’

Yeah, it’s not their business to worry about, right?

Well, whatever. I don’t plan to keep Raven here for long either.

Squeak. Thud.

Soon, Raven, who had been walking behind me, slipped into a building and closed the door.

At first, I didn’t even realize it was a house.

It was just a door attached to the wall.

‘Well, should I wait a bit?’

After arriving home, I leaned against the wall and killed time.

It was about 20 minutes later when Raven’s mother, who had finished work, appeared.

It wasn’t hard to recognize her.

Her hair was far from the glossy blonde, and she was much taller, but her face was a carbon copy of Raven’s.

“Are you Arua Raven’s mother?”

“Yes… Who, who are you…?”

To say that she must have been a beauty in her younger days, there wasn’t much of an age gap between us.

At most, she was in her late twenties?

Did she have a child in her early twenties?

I was staring at her with a strange feeling, and Raven’s mother asked me with an anxious expression.

“Did that child cause some trouble again…?”

“It’s a bit much here, let’s go outside and talk while having something to drink.”

“…Yes.”

I went out to the main street with his mother.

And we went into a tea shop that served as a cafe in this era.

“Don’t worry. I’ll pay.”

“Yes…”

It felt very strange to talk to her.

Her face was a carbon copy of Raven’s, but her way of speaking and everything else was completely different.

“Order whatever you want to eat.”

“……”

“If you don’t have anything, I’ll order for you.”

Thanks to my experience with ‘friend gatherings,’ it wasn’t difficult to order without a woman’s help, and as expected of a tea shop, the order came out quickly.

Of course, neither I nor this woman touched it.

Sigh, where should I start this conversation from……

“First, let’s clear up the misunderstanding. I didn’t come to argue because Raven caused some trouble.”

“Yes? Then…”

“I’m Raven’s friend.”

“A friend… you say?”

“Barbarians don’t care about age.”

“Oh, I see…”

His mother nodded, though with a reluctant face.

I could roughly tell what kind of personality she had.

She’s just the opposite of Raven.

“I met him today after a long time, and he had a wound on his face.”

“Ah…”

Soon, his mother realized why I had come, and her face turned pale.

However, thinking about it again, was she somehow wronged?

“That’s… not something you should be involved in.”

She had been too scared to say anything, but she drew a clear line on this.

It was certainly a very fundamental statement.

A crazy world where you go to the gallows if you can’t pay taxes.

It’s not a problem for parents to beat their disobedient children. No, in this world, the one who says something about it seems more abnormal.

But…

“Involved? Don’t use difficult words.”

I am a proud member of the Barbarian tribe who doesn’t know such things.

“If a friend is beaten, I will take blood vengeance.”

When I said it calmly without any particular emotion, his mother flinched. Well, would she ever have heard of blood vengeance [a tradition of retaliating against those who harm a family member]?

From what I heard, she just seemed to be working in the kitchen.

“…So, what do you want from me? Do you want me to stop hitting him? Is that what it is?”

“No, let him go.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know, don’t you? Raven has the talent to become a great mage.”

“…Because of that person’s bloodline.”

His mother said that and pressed her lips together.

There was a clear light of hatred in her eyes.

It seems she thinks of him as a husband who cheated and abandoned the family……

It’s not my business to worry about.

“Send Raven to the Magic Tower.”

“I don’t have the means to do that.”

“I’ll pay all the necessary expenses.”

“…Why would you go that far?”

“I just felt like it.”

His mother was silent for a long time at my answer.

And she muttered something strange.

“That child will abandon me.”

Huh?

“Someday, he’ll become a great person and look down on me. Then, he’ll eventually leave for his own world. Just like that day, because he has that person’s bloodline…”

Ah……

“Isn’t something wrong? Why is that child’s life so easy? He’s clearly my child, but I’ve never met anyone who helped me for such a reason in my entire life. But… but why is that child…”

After that, all sorts of emotions of resentment poured out of his mother’s mouth in the form of disorganized words.

“Come to think of it, I didn’t have any talent either. I was slow to learn how to read. But that child learned and used magic at that age.”

Her husband and daughter. The targets were mostly those two, but in the end, it was regret and dissatisfaction with her life.

I listened to her story quietly.

The trauma caused by her husband’s affair.

Her hatred was complex and festered, so much that it couldn’t be summed up in such a short phrase.

How long had it been?

“Are you done?”

I asked, and she answered.

“Okay. I’ll send him to the Magic Tower. He’s a child who doesn’t resemble me except for his face anyway. If he disappears from my sight, I’ll feel a little better. Yes. I want to feel… better now.”

“Then that’s settled.”

As soon as the conversation was over, I got up from my seat and paid the bill. And when I came out of the store and tried to give her the money, his mother refused.

“I don’t need it. The Magic Tower sent someone a few days ago anyway. They said they would support everything, so send him to the Magic Tower to take the test. It seems he caught their eye because he was running around using magic at a young age.”

“…I see.”

“Isn’t it strange? All I’ve built in my entire life is this one room in this sewer.”

After that, his mother staggered like a person who had lost her strength and headed towards her house in the back alley, and I watched her from behind.

It wasn’t that I felt sympathy.

But even so.

“What was my life, anyway?”

The words that woman left behind at the end kept lingering in my mind.

***

After that, time passed quickly.

His mother took Raven to the Magic Tower as promised, and Raven was recognized for his talent at the Magic Tower over several days.

For reference, I was able to hear the details of the process from Raven, who came to the library every other day……

“You’ve been accepted into the Artemion School…?”

“Yeah, that old man over there likes me. He doesn’t look down on me just because I’m a kid.”

In the end, was that old man Auriel Gavis right?

I thought that if I sent him to the Magic Tower from such a young age, his future would change a little.

‘Come to think of it, I don’t know when he entered the Magic Tower…’

I thought he would have gone after he was over ten years old.

After all, wasn’t Raven the one who said he would become an administrative mage when we first met? I thought that there would be a change of heart later due to some incident.

“But why do you look like that?”

“It’s nothing. Anyway, it’s good that you entered the Magic Tower.”

“…I’m a little worried. Can I do well?”

“You will become a great mage. I guarantee it.”

“Hehe, really?”

Anyway, my conversations with Raven weren’t limited to the Magic Tower, and we also talked about his family.

Like how his mother suddenly became nice?

From what I could see, his mother didn’t seem to have told Raven about what happened with me.

After chatting for a long time, it was time for Raven to go home.

“Then I’ll go. Oh, and I can’t come here anymore. I have to go live in the Magic Tower starting tomorrow.”

“I wouldn’t have been able to come from tomorrow either.”

“Why?”

“I have a schedule.”

Tomorrow, I have to go down to Noark with Amelia. I probably won’t come back here until I achieve my goal.

“…I see.”

Before we parted for the last time, I gave Raven one piece of advice.

“When you go to the Magic Tower, don’t talk so casually like you do now, be careful.”

“Huh?”

“No, it’s the same with other people. There’s no need to make enemies for no reason.”

“…I’m not scared of any of that.”

“Even if you’re not scared, do it if I tell you to. Not only will you make enemies, but even people who were trying to be your friends will run away if you do that. With that attitude, you’ll end up alone.”

“Did… did I make you feel bad too?”

Raven carefully asked one question, and after thinking for a moment, I answered that I was a little.

Did he feel something?

“Okay. I won’t do it anymore.”

“You won’t do it anymore?”

“…I won’t do it anymore, okay?”

Yeah, now you’re acting like a kid.

“But shouldn’t you be going soon?”

“Yeah…”

Soon, we finished our last conversation and left the library.

And we parted with words that had no promise.

“Then see you later!”

A promise with no set place or time.

Geez, where did you sell your honorifics?

I chuckled and replied.

“Yeah, see you later.”

Though you won’t even remember me then.

***

After sending Raven away, I moved to one place without hesitation.

Yeah, I was now somewhat accepting it.

‘Yeah, Dwalki… can’t be saved.’

The orphanage under the Leatlass Order.

I arrived in front of it and stood there for a long time without being able to open the door.

It was a simple reason.

I had the thought of going in and having one last conversation with Dwalki, but then I thought, what’s the point?

How long had it been?

“Enche-ssi…?”

Someone called me from the side.

“Emirn?”

It was a woman I had a connection with when I volunteered in the past.

We even had a strange conversation at the farewell dinner, hoping for courage.

“What brings you here?”

“Well, actually… my son is here.”

…What?

“Fortunately, things worked out, and I was able to bring him home. Thank you so much. If it weren’t for Enche-ssi, I would have hesitated forever.”

My body stiffened at the truth I instinctively felt.

But I had to confirm it.

“Is… is your son’s name Liol?”

Liol ‘Wob’ Dwalki.

And, ‘Wob’ Emirn.

“Oh, yes.”

Soon, Emirn was surprised and said yes.

Yeah, Dwalki’s middle name was taken from his mother’s name.

“Hey, but how did you know?”

“Just… he looked a little like him.”

“Hehe, is that so? Well, Enche-ssi, you two often talked together.”

Emirn smiled happily at my words.

However, was she more eager to go pick up Dwalki than to talk to me?

“Then I’ll be going now.”

“Ah, okay…”

Soon, Emirn quickly greeted me and went inside the orphanage. However, I couldn’t leave the front and stood there like a stone statue.

All sorts of thoughts swirled in my head.

That time continued for a few minutes.

Tap.

I climbed over the orphanage fence and went inside.

In the same spot where he always sat and read books, Dwalki was there again today.

“Oh! Hello.”

Dwalki greeted me when he saw me.

“Yeah… It’s been a while.”

“What brings you here?”

“I just… came by.”

“…?”

Dwalki tilted his head as if he found it strange, but he didn’t seem wary, perhaps because of the time we had spent together.

Swish.

I turned my head and looked inside the building through the window.

I saw Emirn handing a stack of documents to the staff sitting at the desk.

Only then did it hit me.

Dwalki will now live with his mother.

And he will hear stories about the sea.

He will become an administrative mage, but he will not give up on that dream and will enter the labyrinth.

And……

[Thank you all for being my companions.]

He will die.

‘Is that… all because of me?’

I felt a deep sense of responsibility.

At the same time, I felt like I had become a speck of dust in the universe.

A sense of powerlessness that penetrated my whole body.

As if rebelling against it, such a desire also arose.

Isn’t it not too late yet?

If I do something now, can’t I prevent that future? Yeah, if I kidnap him from this spot right now, something will change.

‘Damn it.’

Even while thinking that, my body didn’t move.

Scenes kept playing in my head.

Emirn’s face when she came to me asking for courage.

Dwalki’s voice when he reminisced about his mother during the Team Half-Pint days.

They kept appearing and being heard.

‘I……’

What should I do?

Is it really true that the future will change if I do that?

What if my actions have no impact on the outcome and only reduce the happy time he has with his mother?

Clench.

Without realizing it, I clenched my fist, and a small hand was placed on top of my clenched fist.

It was Dwalki’s.

“It’s big… Ah, I’m sorry. I touched you suddenly.”

“…You don’t have to apologize.”

“Will I be able to grow that big someday? Enough to protect someone precious to me later?”

To that question, I forced the words out.

“Don’t… worry too much.”

Even though your body is thin and your height is small.

“You will become a great person.”

More than someone like me.

No, more than anyone I’ve ever seen.

***

I climbed over the orphanage fence again as if running away.

And I hid in the alley and looked at the orphanage.

Squeak.

As time passed, the orphanage door opened, and Dwalki and Emirn came out.

“Auntie, why are you my mom?”

“That’s… there are many stories. Let’s go for now. You’ll know everything when we get there…”

“……”

The two held each other’s hands, too awkward to be a mother-child relationship, and left.

And……

“Goodbye, Dwalki.”

I just watched them from behind.