If it weren’t for that war that made millions of people step into a long exile, Emel would only do a job of cutting trees until he died.

According to the church’s father, Emel was sent to a church that adopted orphans in a town called Lalem with his only one-year-old brother Emelo when he was four years old. The father only felt that the foster father was a very strange person at the time. He wore a black robe at midnight, half of his face was masked, and he held a wand of equal length in his hand. A purple stone was suspended at the top of the wand. He could only be described as mysterious.

The father wanted to call him into the church and ask for details, but the man refused on the grounds of “I am not their biological father”. After obtaining the father’s permission, the man left without looking back and never came here again. No one knew who he was. This is also the reason why the father looked helpless when Emelo asked “Where is my dad” when he grew up a little bit.

Unlike his brother Emelo, Emel never asked about him. The father thought it might be because he had reached the age of memory at that time and knew that the man was not his biological father. Even so, the father would still care about his mental health from time to time and tactfully ask him “What do you think of your father?” At that time Emel would only thank him with a few polite words and nothing more.

The father thought this would be an insurmountable hurdle for Emel, but fortunately it had no effect on him at all. When he was very young, he won everyone’s favor and recognition with his outstanding performance in everyone’s eyes. Whether it was ability, physical strength or intelligence, Emel had talents beyond his peers. And because of his kind and gentle, down-to-earth and capable personality, he was also very popular among women of similar age.

Lumberjack was a very profitable job at that time. And because Lalem Town is located in the southwest corner of the empire, only 100 kilometers away from the sea, the trees grow very lushly. So after adulthood, Emel became a lumberjack as the only adult who could work in the church to subsidize the church. He refused to be a believer in the church. He repeated his daily routine of going out early and returning late without any complaints.

The real reason why Emel became a lumberjack was only known by him and his brother. He wanted to escape from the daily prayers of the church in the morning and before going to bed. Although it was nothing for other orphans, it was unbearable for him. Perhaps because of his precocity, he had doubts about his faith from a long time ago. Looking at one orphan after another being sent to the church, he always wondered why there would be orphans if there were gods. Everyone should live happily with their parents in their own families, just like he had always hoped when he was very young.

He hated being a church worker but loved being a lumberjack. For him, going out early and returning late was nothing. He often didn’t have time to eat because of being busy and it didn’t matter either. And every day through selling wood for money and giving 95% of it to the church after earning money from selling wood every day, looking at the improvement of orphans’ meals and each child growing up healthily made him feel that everything he did was meaningful. He enjoyed this sense of pride and satisfaction.

So after getting this sense of pride he worked harder every day. Lazy lumberjacks can earn ten copper coins a day but he can earn one silver coin even on rainy and snowy days he is still busy as usual with accumulated experience and physical growth he increased from one silver coin to one silver coin and five copper coins. So the representative of the town who was sent out to care for the orphans Lala reminded him more than once to pay attention to his body and not to work too hard but Emel didn’t listen at all.

In a blink of an eye, Emelo also grew up. After finishing the church’s work, the most frequent thing he did was to go with Lala, the representative of Lalem Town, to deliver food to Emel. They often talked about something. Emelo also knew that Lala was interested in his brother, so he always emphasized that his brother snored loudly and always bought some sweets with the money he saved. These things were repeated over and over again. In addition to this, it was some daily trivial matters.

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Lala always asked about Emel’s physical condition recently, whether he had any problems due to overwork or something like that. Because she only loved Emel in her heart and had no confidence to put herself among all his pursuers. Born in an ordinary family, she met Emel and worked hard to have a certain position in the local area in order to be a woman who can match him. But what can this count? There are nobles among Emel’s pursuers. If they find out that they are close, the nobles can easily empty her power. So Lala had a wait-and-see mentality for this love affair that might not have much possibility.

When she saw Emel wiping his sweat in the distance, she blushed immediately, covering her face with both hands and peeking through the gaps between her fingers.

Emelo saw Lala like this and understood immediately because this was not the first time. He immediately waved and shouted: “Brother, I’m here with Lala!”

Hearing the sound, Emel stopped his hand that was about to hold the axe and looked at Emelo and Lala in the distance and greeted them over.

Emel went out every day before dawn and arrived at the work site when it was just dawn. In order to rest, Emel wanted to use the leftover food from last night but after having diarrhea a few times he didn’t think so anymore. So I don’t know when it started sending food has become Emelo’s thing although there was a long time when Emel didn’t eat lunch.

Logging is a physical activity even with experience and skills Emel would be extremely exhausted after completing a tree’s work in such a tiring environment he developed a habit of fast food and he didn’t pay attention to his surroundings when eating.

When he noticed Lala after finishing his meal he only smiled embarrassedly. Lala’s reaction was like being scared and hid behind Emelo. Emel only said to her “It’s better to work hard to improve being shy” and then continued to be busy.

Emelo realized that if he didn’t help them out there would be no good result for these two people so when Emel asked him why he didn’t go back he answered: “There is nothing to do in the church this afternoon. The father said it’s okay for us to go back later so I’m here to play with you for a while.”

“There is nothing fun here and it is very dangerous. If you get scratched by a fallen branch it will be bad. Go back early.”

“Let me play here for a while anyway the church’s work is very boring” Emelo knew that as long as he said this his brother would definitely not say anything else so he did it on purpose so while his brother was busy next to him he chatted: “Brother when are you going to get married do you have someone you like?”

Emel’s answer was all negative he just answered Emelo’s question truthfully.

If there was no such impulse it must not be true Emel was also a man who had experienced puberty agitation when everyone around him began to talk about sex topics without scruples he was also agitated but those agitations were suppressed by him so when facing all the pursuers he just smiled and chatted for a while never directly approached anyone he thought maybe everything was just because his eyes were too high so far there has been no woman who can make him pay special attention.

Hearing this Emelo gave Lala a look behind him suggesting that she should work hard to show herself but Lala was too shy she just kept patting Emelo’s back as if blaming him for why he did this she had thought about expressing her feelings but she was too shy so she didn’t express them.

In the chat a big tree fell down Emel stopped his hand again and wiped the sweat from his head when he came back to his senses he didn’t know when Emelo and Lala were no longer behind him.

He had a chance to think about what he had just chatted with them when he thought of getting married this topic his expression instantly became serious.

Emel thought of his experience of becoming an orphan with his brother when they were young in this extremely turbulent era, human beings, dwarves, elves would start wars from time to time, how many children born in endless wars would become orphans, and not grow up in warm families like him.

This kind of thing has become normal but it still cannot be improved.

Emel understood why he didn’t get married. He didn’t want his children to experience such pain. Maybe after everything improved, he would start a family of his own.

But what if this situation continues?

“Then I will change the situation.” Emel said to himself.

Then he clenched the axe again and cut down one towering tree after another.

After finishing work in the evening, Emel returned to the church. Before he pushed the door open, he heard the father’s roar. The voice was full of dissatisfaction with the situation, but also helpless to do anything.

“Taxes have increased again! What’s wrong with this country? Taxes have increased three times this year! The common people can’t live anymore!”