A pair of maids were carefully finalizing Faro’s wardrobe before his coming of age ceremony. He wore a white sleeveless shirt with a blue short cloak around his left shoulder that hid the stump of his missing left arm. He also had a matching blue forearm guard on his right arm. Finally, he had a pair of the same blue harem pants with dark blue long boots. His wardrobe was clearly on a fancier side.
Faro himself had a short, ear-length, bright blond hairdo. With ocean blue eyes, the boy was indeed androgynous. With a dress, he could easily be mistaken as an outgoing tomboyish girl. It was truly a shame that his left arm was missing.
“We are almost done, young master,” one of the maids spoke to him.
He was actually a lord, but the maids in his household continued to address him as a young master. Truthfully, he didn’t care either way.
Beaming a grin, he replied, “Take your time. There is no rush.”
He was at complete peace. Ever since returning back from the gruesome journey that took over half of his adventuring team, everything had been working just right for him. The most important benefit for him was that his body had become stronger and more agile. In short, he was no longer just a talentless kid who was trying to be a jack of all trades. He wasn’t a superhuman but, having attained superior abilities, he realized how feeble he had been. When he was younger, he thought that he could achieve and become anyone as long as he tried hard. He had learned the hard way that effort wasn’t everything. Foundation had to be there to begin with, and he didn’t have the foundation, thus everything he had done crumbled eventually.
“All done now, young master,” a maid said, sounding satisfied. Faro looked at himself in front of a tall mirror which was a highly polished piece of an iron plate.
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“What’s the point of these pants?” He wondered aloud. “Never seen these before.”
Pants as he knew were just straight trousers.
“It’s a new trend, fresh from our king’s court,” a maid answered while wiping her forehead with her sleeve.
It originally started with Flora who wore pants instead of a dress most of the time. Hers were wide bottom pants. It eventually made out for commoners to wear and was evolved to what Faro ended up wearing for this day. She didn’t mean to spread this fashion trend. At the same time, their queen wearing something unique intrigued lots of people. Given how much easier it was to move around in pants than a sophisticated dress that took half an hour just to put on, women really dug in and embraced the trend very easily without much resistance, leaving men little time to file their complaints as more and more women started wearing pants. This revolutionary fashion trend had another unforeseen side effect. Before the introduction of pants for females, women had rarely exposed their ankles. Faro’s harem pants were actually a result of a daring female cloth designer who wanted more skin exposure. Yes, his pants were actually meant for girls and women.
“Oh, look! Hey, a water elemental!” The maid raised her voice cutely, pointing at a window where an ocean-blue translucent eel was floating around. It had been observing the three in the room. No one knew exactly when it started, but elementals began to show up randomly in front of people one day. They didn’t speak and didn’t seem to interact with people but they were often there, simply observing. People noticed that lots of elementals showed up at the Fenchel manor as well, which made people jokingly call the place “the haunted manor”.
“I heard a rumor that our new king is an elemental king? What does that even mean?” A maid asked the other. Their job of dressing him up was done, thus they became more casual.
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“Beats me. It’s just a rumor after all. I wouldn’t trust it,” replied the other maid.
Duman told him that it was the Duke, now the king, who healed him with powers of the water elementals. It was known that the king was a wind mage. Therefore, him being able to call powers of water elementals was puzzling. However, if him being “the elemental king” was true, it made sense. Of course, there was a big question mark on how, but he would never find out anyway, thus he didn’t even bother pondering.
“Shall we go? The others must be waiting,” he told the maids who snapped out of their chit chat mode.
“Ah, yes, of course, pardon us, young master.”
“No worries.”
Taking a deep breath, he adjusted his clothes for the last time before leaving his room. He had just turned 15 years old a few days ago, thus he was an adult. He would not stay in this room any longer. Once the coming of age ceremony is done, he wouldn’t stay at his parents’ house, either. His new home was going to be the guild and the fat lady which Duman was currently repairing. Since he was a carpenter himself some years ago, he was going to give him a hand. He chuckled at this point.
“A carpenter, huh…,” he whispered.
When he was just seven years old, he opted to become a carpenter. Thinking back, it puzzled him why he chose such a career path because he wasn’t particularly interested in woodworks. Almost all kids of his age were going to become farmers since their fathers were such. For him, his father was a tea farmer, and he didn’t like the idea of picking leaves all the time although he was somewhat mistaken on the kind of job Grent had. Macomaco tea farming had two parts. The labor intensive part was the tea picking. The other part was the leaf fermentation. The latter required rudimentary knowledge of chemistry. If Kamil stayed on and became a tea farmer, he might have developed better methods. Regardless, Faro opted not to inherit the farm, meaning he had to find his career outside. Having little choice in the small community of Laufeld at that time, he became a carpenter, the only option he had other than becoming a farmer. Unfortunately, he wasn’t cut out for the job and never graduated from a journeyman.
“... Esther.”
He recalled a girl with flaming hair. She was Esther and she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen, an opinion he retained still even at this moment. But she turned out to be his direct cousin, thus their short-lived relationship came to an end. The girl he was seeing at the guild was named Jane who was a brunette. She was nothing compared to Esther in terms of appearance. But he got along with her really well, and she made him comfortable. He met her while working at the guild as a guild receptionist. She worked mostly as an errand girl who performed small chores as well as relaying messages, which seemed like a mundane job at first but had its importance because, when she was absent due to cold, there was a minor havoc in communication. She clearly had her roles. She was two years senior, which may have turned him away but Esther was older than him as well, thus the age difference didn’t bother him too much. Other boys would have shied away from such, however, because it wasn’t normal for their female partner to be older. At this point, he glanced at his left shoulder where it was covered with his short blue cloak. He became an adventurer shortly after quitting being a carpenter. For the first few years, all he did was chores and tagging along as a looter. He learned how to wield a sword and other survival know-hows from observing others. Sadly, that was as far as he went because his skills weren’t improving. Fortunately or unfortunately, there was always a demand for loot carriers. He wasn’t certainly pleased to be relegated to such a role and did whatever he could to improve any combat skills. Seeking danger and pushing himself to the limit became a repeated pattern for him until his luck ran out during the exploration of the labyrinth where he experienced near-death and crippled his knee.
“Let’s go,” he said as he snapped out of his long train of thoughts. It didn’t matter now although he did feel it had been a very eventful seven years of his life. Looking back, every single day was an ordeal itself as he struggled to make a name for himself. In the end, he proved nothing. He was a failure and he came to accept that as the fact. At the same time, his past could easily be overshadowed by what he would do in the future. He gained new abilities and was fully aware that he was nothing like his younger self. He had confidence which had been lacking. It was time to step into his new life. The maids opened the door for him at least, and he walked toward it, reminding himself that he was now an adult. Grent and Vilma, his parents, were waiting for him. Both were dressed up for the occasion and had smiles on their faces.
The end of Lawful Misdeeds. I thank you for reading.