North, far north from the capital, there was a small, isolated village. Said village is near a river. A woman holding three buckets can be seen walking to the river with a cheerful little boy. The boy had been running too fast so the mother was having a hard time catching up to him.
"Mom~, you're so slow! The merchant will be coming to the village later. I don't want to miss them!" the boy shouted. He had always love to see the random things that the merchants picked up from their journey.
"No need to be impatient, Leon. They will come here 3 hours later, we have a lot of time before they come" replied the mother. "Leon, take this bucket and harvest the herbs around those trees." said mother while pointing to some trees nearby.
"Why do we need the herbs, mom?" Leon asked. As he was a young child, he was very ignorant on the ways of how the world works. Whenever the child asks, the mother would answer the child's question.
"We can use them to trade stuffs with the merchants. You do want some new things to play with, don't you?" replied the mother.
She knew how to exactly get her child to do the thing she wants.
"Oh! Then I'll get a whole lot of them so I can buy a lot of stuff." Leon said happily thinking about what the merchants will bring to the village. Whenever some thing grabs his interest, he would do all in his power to acquire it.
Leon ran towards the trees his mother pointed to get the herbs. Seeing this, his mother showed a gentle smile happy having raised Leon to be cheerful.
"Now, I need to finish taking the water and collect the fruits nearby" the mother said as she walk to the river..
An hour and half passed, Leon is running to his mother who is collecting fruits. He is holding a bucket full of herbs. He had practically been digging out herbs from the bushes. In fact, the herbs he got were fairly high quality as it was freshly picked.
"Mom! I've got a bucket full of them! Now we can trade for things right?" Leon asked happily. He was thinking of the stuff he might to be able to get with them.
"Good, Leon! Now let's go home so that we can rest while waiting the merchants to come." the mother said.
"Yes~" replied Leon
They pack up their things and went on their way to their house. In the middle of the walk, Leon's mother suddenly felt unease. However, seeing Leon's happy face, she immediately put the feeling back at a corner of her mind. Ten minutes passed, they finally reached their village and walk to the east side of the village. There can be seen a wooden house with a beautiful garden around it. Leon walk in the house as he open the door.
"Dad~, we're home~"
After he said that, a middle-aged man suddenly comes out of a room and with a smile, went to Leon and his mother.
"Welcome home, Leon." the father said.
Leon's father look at Leon and was a bit surprised after seeing that Leon is carrying bucket full of herbs. A normal 6-years old wouldn't be able to carry it without breaking a sweat yet Leon did it easily.
"Look at these, dad! Mom said we can use them to trade with the merchants!" Leon said. "I wonder what I should trade it for." Leon continued not noticing his father's slightly shocked face.
"No need to rush, Leon. There's a lot of time left before they come, go play in the village" Leon's father reminded him. The boy was too dangerous to be in the house with how energetic he is while waiting for something.
"True! I'm going to find Peter then!" said Leon as he put down the bucket and quickly goes out of the house. Not remembering about his sister.
After Leon goes out, his father and mother stared at each other with an awkward smile. The father broke the silence by saying-
"Did you feed him something weird, Arianna?" the father playfully accuses
"No, George." replied Arianna. She did not like the way he worded it out.
"Ah, he must be walking when he was carrying the bucket" George said. He found it hard to believe that such a young boy is able to carry that amount of load.
"Wrong again, he was running" Arianna denied. She even had a hard time to catch up to him.
"..Then how-" George asked
"Don't ask me" she replied
*sigh*
"I'm going to put these in the back" Arianna said while carrying the buckets towards the back of the house.
"Chief asked me to come to his house so I'm going out too." George said while reaching for the door. But then, he felt a sudden chill.
"Ah, don't forget to pick up Leila. And don't you forget, or I'll do something you wouldn't forget." Arianna said while smiling. It was not the same smile she had back near the forest.
"O-okay..Would you please don't go to--Never mind, I'm going now." George went out quickly after seeing his wife's 'gentle' smile. He would rather not anger the wolf in the sheep's clothing.
Giving up trying to find an answer, they return to do their work. Five minutes later, Leon can be seen running towards a weapon shop. Standing in front the door, he started knocking the door. Getting no reply, he decided to climb a tree nearby and get in from the windows.
As he opens the window, Leon immediately closed his ears after hearing sudden loud sounds of metal. He jumped inside from the window and start to find his way to the back of the shop. There he meets an old man holding a hammer on his right hand hammering an iron and a boy about 7-years old who is taking out burned steels from the furnace. Leon went beside the old man curious about what he is doing.
"Uncle Thomas, wha-" Leon couldn't finish what he want to ask.
"HOLY SH-! L-Leon? You brat, I told you to not sneak up on me like that!"
As Leon was about to say something, the old man, Thomas, got surprised and was about to run until he noticed that it was Leon. The boy at the furnace also got startled but not as bad as his father. The boy walked to the two while smiling and asked
"What are you doing here, Leon?...And I'm sure I locked the door."
"Oh, I came from the window. Peter, I'll be bored waiting the merchants so let's go outside and play!" Leon said cheerfully. He was completely oblivious to his wrong doings.
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"Uhh.." Peter glanced at his father. Sighing, Thomas went back to his spot and showed a smirk, he said "Go on. If that brat is here, we might not be able to produce even a small dagger". The last time Leon was here, the old man almost had a blood vein burst because of the child's antics.
Having approved by his father, Peter quickly went upstairs to his room to clean himself since he got dirty from blacksmithing. A few minutes later, he went downstairs with a set of new clothes and went outside to play with Leon.
"So, what are we gonna do?" Leon asked. A normal person would of think of that before asking his friends to come out and play but unfortunately Leon was not 'normal'.
"Huh? Wait a minute, you didn't think of it before coming to grab me?" Peter asked. He rather enjoyed the presence of Leon since it was never dull being around him.
"I thought you would have a good idea." Leon said tilting his head trying to look cute.
"God, why am I even his friend?" Peter sighed. "Well, lets go to the river and compete who catches the biggest fish!" He had been practicing to catch fish since the last cycle. Every end of the week, he would come to the river to catch a fish for the family.
"All right, the one who is late need to do one demand from the winner!" Leon started running after saying that. Leaving behind his friend.
"Wait- you damn cheater!!" Peter said and started running towards the river.
"Hey, I think the merchants are almost here. Lets go back." Peter said. He was not enjoying the current situation.
"Don't avoid it Peter~. Just admit that I'm a better catcher than you." Leon said mockingly. He finally had the upper hand in this game.
"..Shut up, Leon. Its not my fault, the big ones weren't near me!" Peter replied a bit angry. Little did he know, it was because of him mending iron at the forge earlier.
"Yes, yes. Now lets go back." Leon replied with a sarcastic tone. This achievement of his would be bragged for days to come!
The duo went back to the village and went straight to the center of the village. At the center, there were other villagers wanting to trade their stuffs such as herbs, raw materials, woods and some other. Leon is pretty famous in the village because he always goes wandering around the village in his free time so he was greeted by the villagers.
[Ed: You don't put central in the place of center! That is a note for all of you guys!]
"Leon, I've got to help my dad carry some stuff so I need to get back to the shop now" Peter said.
"Alright, I'm going to find my mother then." Leon replied.
After Peter went back to his shop, Leon looked around searching for his mother. After a while, he spotted his father carrying two buckets full of fruits and herbs and his mother who is holding the hands of a little girl around 3-year old. Leon immediately run to his family. His father seeing him stop walking and put down the buckets he was carrying to the ground and began stretching to remove fatigue.
"Now that you're back, help me and do some work by carrying these." George said
Leon hearing this nodded and pick up both buckets and start walking to catch up with his mother leaving his surprised father behind. Seeing an empty bench nearby, they went to it to rest while waiting the merchants to appear. Leon put down the bucket next to the bench while his mother sit on the bench. George was playing hide and seek with the little girl.
"Leila~ where are you~" George said. Though it was evidently clear where our Leila was hiding.
"Leila not behind tree!" a cute voice was heard talking in a broken language that is vaguely familiar.
[Ed: Her position has been revealed! MOVE OUT MEN!]
Arianna smiled when she saw his family playing together. Not long after their rest, there can be heard a shout from one of the villagers.
[Ed: Again with the 'suddenly'. STOP it author-san]
"The merchant has come!"
Hearing this, the villagers quickly took their goods and walk to the main road. But unexpectedly, what they saw was a damaged carriage with arrows stuck in it and have signs of being cut. There were about 15 people in armor surrounding the carriage. Some of them had their armor stained with blood. A lot of them had injuries such as arrows stuck on their back. The carriage and the men reached the center. A door of the carriage is opened and a man walk out from the carriage. Seeing this, a villager with an appearance of 60-years old approached the man.
"Get the pharmacist." the old man ordered a nearby villager.
"I thank you for your concern, village chief." said the man
"What happened on your way to this village? Were you attacked?" Village chief asked. He had to confirm the situation before making assumptions.
[Ed:Previous line -"What happened on your way to this village? Were you attacked by beasts in the forest?" THE GUARDS HAVE ARROWS STICKING OUT OF THEIR BACKS IDIOT]
"We did, it was bandits" replied the man. He knew it was going to be grim for the villagers.
"Bandits!?" the village chief and the villagers was shocked to hear that there were bandits a few days away from them.
"Yes, bandits! It was luck that all the mercenaries I hired was capable. We managed to stay alive and avoid having goods stolen away. Though one of the mercenary wouldn't be able to do his job anymore after having an arrow to his knee" the man said. "The poor lad might have to quit his current life too. It be better if he just became a guard."
"Bandits are near, we will need to defend our village. There is no doubt that they will target our village since we are far from the capital."
While the village chief and the man discuss about the bandits, at the side of the crowds, Arianna felt worried after hearing that bandits might come to the village. She fears that her children will be hurt if they were to come. Behind her, George who is giving Leila a piggyback had a serious look on his face.
[Ed: The author commonly uses British spellings for his words. I changed them because some find that as their pet peves. Me not included
I had to edit this thing 4 times! The text won't update so I kept re-editing.]