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Published at 17th of March 2023 06:11:58 AM


Chapter 57

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Chapter 57 – Circumstances on the other side – Second part

(Part one was in chapter forty-eight)

[Horse’s Point of View]

I, Horse, who am in charge of the Assassin’s Village, resolved the problem of the glasses kid by temporarily banishing him.

Life in the village has just begun. I decided that this correction would be effective now.

If half a year had already passed, the students may have decided to devote themselves fully to training, as opposed to focus on supporting themselves first.

That’s quite some time away, but I realized it was a real possibility if I took too long to act, so I decided to intervene now.

The plan worked, and the remaining three tried procuring food today.

The children of the village have been escorting those three, teaching them how to take care of themselves, while also helping these new recruits discover what they’re good at.

The children of this village have not been trained in practical skills yet, but they still received a special education since they’re born. They are not just children.

And with this…

“Today, Chace captured a prey for the first time.” Buffalo told me. *

It was the night of the day that the glasses kid left the village. Buffalo came to visit my house.

In this village, the villagers naturally act as instructors for the students according to the relationship that each student builds with us.

The blue-haired boy has been under Buffalo’s jurisdiction. And until he takes the next step forward, he will be taught by Buffalo.

“It’s early.” I commented.

Edible herbs, fruits, river fish, wild vegetables that grow on the ground… Learning how to pick them, which can be eaten, how to eat them. It should take them at least three days to learn all that.

As for the meat of animals that can only be obtained from hunting, that should have been quite the challenge for them. It’s much more difficult than harvesting herbs.

Unlike harvesting, the target runs away, hides, and may even bare its fangs.

“Well, it took him a whole day to get one bird. He said he honestly wasn’t happy with it.” Buffalo told me.

It’s still admirable though.

The blue-haired boy must be comparing himself to the glasses kid. When using that kind of standard, it’s natural for him to think the results of his hunt are small.

However, he is an amateur that is quite unfamiliar with hunting. Getting results this quickly is admirable.

“It seems like he had been doing odd jobs as a trainee adventurer before, that’s why he decided to already attempt hunting.” Buffalo told me.

I see.

“How did he hunt though? I heard you made him a practice spear.” I asked Buffalo.

“He used the practice spear, and found a bird that was within the spear’s reach, so he simply stabbed it as hard as he could.” Buffalo replied.

And then, the blue-haired boy fulfilled the promise that he made in exchange for receiving the practice spear. If he showed good results from his training, he’d be allowed to keep it.

With him hunting the bird and showing it to Buffalo, the blue-haired boy fully met the conditions of the deal.

To be able to accurately attack a small moving target is certainly an important growth that came from his training.

Weapons become a part of your body as you get more used to them. As your movements become more precise, you’ll be able to start attacking in ways that you previously thought that weren’t physically possible.

Well, that boy will surely grow even more from now on.

And well, it would certainly be a problem if he wasn’t growing. We’re still in the early days of training.

“What about the two women?” I decided to ask.

They don’t seem to have done anything particularly noticeable, as I received no report from anyone, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.

It’s only been one day since the glasses kid left. I don’t think there should be any drastic changes at the performance of the other children.

Or rather, the results of the blue-haired boy are the outlier here.

“I heard nothing noteworthy. They seem to just be busying themselves collecting herbs for now.” Buffalo replied.

Then, it’s business as usual from now on.

But then, while we were talking, a one-armed man entered my house, “Please excuse me.” he said.

The man who entered without even bothering with knocking was an old friend. He sat down on a chair, right next to Buffalo.

He was Scorpion. A middle-aged man that came from the desert, and that has dark skin. He has a bit of an exotic feeling, and can easily be considered handsome, even by other men.

It’s been almost ten years since he lost his left arm, which is why he retired as an assassin.

“My Asan is not coming home…” He muttered.

How many times have I heard those words…?

Both me and Buffalo sighed.

“Are you fighting again?” Buffalo asked.

“How many times are you going to fight with your contracted beast?” I asked.

Truly, this discussion was held over a hundred times already.

“Good women are capricious. Asan especially so.” Scorpion replied.

So the cause of the fight was the same as always. The way that Scorpion stroked her.

She got offended, and hasn’t been back home for days, leaving Scorpion alone.

“That Asan, she’s been hanging out with the new kids…” Scorpion muttered.

“We know.” Buffalo bluntly replied.

“Asan is a sweet woman. She is taking care of the children while playing hard to get for me.” Scorpion said.

“She wants meat.” I stated.

“Wrong.” Scorpion rejected the truth.

“Your woman is a glutton.” Buffalo said.

“Don’t say a single more word, you bald man.” Scorpion warned.

“My head is shaved.” Buffalo told him.

“Then I’ll pluck off your beard, baldie.” Scorpion said.

“I shave my head, but if you touch my beard, I’ll kill you.” Buffalo replied.

Turns out he isn’t actually bald? Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter.

“I’ve been meaning to tell you this for a while, but isn’t your overbearing attitude what makes Asan keep running away from home?” I intervened in their quarrel.

“Why would she? I love her so much.” Scorpion replied.

His love is too heavy. It annoys her…

Even without love, Scorpion is already quite troublesome. I don’t think it’s possible for anyone to stay with him all the time without getting annoyed.

And with Asan, he is especially obsessed and has an overbearing attitude. There’s no way she doesn’t find it to be too much.

I sighed, “Alright. I’ll tell Asan to go home.”

“Thank you, Horse! I knew you’d listen to reason. With your words, I can even forgive this bastard.” Scorpion stared at Buffalo as he said that.

I don’t think there is anything that requires forgiveness here in the first place, but if we comment on this kind of small thing there will be no end to the conversation, so it’s better to just leave it be.

In any case, Asan is whimsical, difficult, kind and innocent. She is currently being referred to as a cat by the new children, but she is much more than that.

“By the way, since you’re here, I figured I’d ask you. How is the Taboo Child doing?” I asked Scorpion.

We’ll find out about her eventually, but since Scorpion is the one who is interacting with her the most, it might be good to hear what he has to say.

As he heard my words, Scorpion changed from being a lamenting adult that is sorrowful about his ‘lover’, to someone that was actually thinking about things seriously.

Scorpion has the Demon Beast Tamer gift. He can tame both animals and demon beasts.

He might be the person best suited to analyzing if the Taboo Child has any similar talents.

Although it is not known to the public, for some reason, many of the so-called Taboo Children, who are only born once for every tens of thousands of children, tend to have extremely rare gifts.

Something like a gift to rule over others is a real possibility for Taboo Children, which is somewhat similar to the power to tame Demon Beasts that Scorpion has.

The reason why the public doesn’t know it, is because Taboo Children are often killed immediately after birth due to customs and prejudice.

In Nastiara, where peace has continued for a long time now, the country has been strongly encouraging Taboo Children to be raised as normal human beings.

This effort is finally giving results, but the Taboo Children still struggle a lot with prejudice and discrimination due to their unique appearance.

Due to that, many don’t live long enough to reach the Determination Ceremony.

Since it’s rare for Taboo Children to be born in the first place, and many die before reaching adulthood, there aren’t many precedents regarding their Gifts.

However, it is known that they’re special. Especially because humans are not limited to having only one Gift.

Most people have only one, but there are cases where one in tens of thousands of people have two.

And it has already been found out that the majority of the Taboo Children do have more than one Gift.

According to the records, ten out of thirteen Taboo Children have two Gifts.

With so many of them having two Gifts, it is reasonable to assume that the last three do have two Gifts too, but they haven’t been able to identify their second Gift.

In other words, it might be possible to say that all Taboo Children have two Gifts.

However, normally speaking, the only way to figure out your gift, is to touch the Determination Stone, and that only shows a single Gift.

Therefore, we have to figure out the second Gift of Taboo Children by observing them carefully. And I’d like that to be done as soon as possible.

Gifts are certainly quite mysterious, and they can naturally appear once a child reaches a certain age.

Some researches hypothesize that instead of heredity, the things that influence the Gift that a child may have, are actually the education that the child received, the way that they grew up, their environment, the child’s own thoughts, and other similar things. All of that may help shape the child’s Gift once they come of age.

I think we’ll figure out her other Gift eventually, but I would still like to know it as soon as possible.

“From what I have seen, she looks promising, but she doesn’t seem to be affecting Asan in any unusual way.” Scorpion replied.

In other words, the Taboo Child probably doesn’t have something that is similar to Demon Beast Tamer gift, but perhaps she still has something related to ruling over others.

The Gift to rule is something that was once possessed by the heroes who founded the country. It’s an enormous power that anyone would want.

It’s certainly one of the best possible Gifts one might have.

“Understood. Please continue watching over her.” I told Scorpion.

It’s the first day since the glasses kid disappeared.

The village finally began to move in its natural pace.

————————————-

* Translator’s Note: I’m changing “Iron Bull” to “Buffalo”. The author provided specific readings for the codenames of the assassins. While the codename means “Iron Bull”, the reading is “Buffalo”, so that’s what I’m going with. Similarly, the meaning of “Horse” is “Mist Horse”, but the reading is “Horse”. I decided I wanted to be consistent and translate all codenames based on reading and not on meaning, hence the change.




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