“But Rick, isn’t the man the one who has done wrong? The Knights simply just punished him for his crimes.”
After listening to Rick the whole time, Pat then raised a question to Rick. From what he heard, he felt that the man was the one at fault.
“The man fabricated the documents and smuggled things from demons. He even lied about the relationship between the farm lord and his wife too. Don’t you think you are just sympathizing with him?”
He put forward reasonable arguments as one will put if listening to this story. The man clearly felt to be the wrong one here no matter how you look at it, but Rick had seen something that day that made him doubt the entire story.
“That’s where my suspicion started, Pat. The moment the man got his hands cut off, I saw a look on the woman’s face that... I can best describe it as devastating. I saw her turning her head away... secretly shedding tears.”
“Maybe she was feeling guilty about her husband.”
Pat refuted Rick straightforwardly, without even thinking at once. Rick then presented another thing he noticed there in the man’s defense.
“But that’s not all. There was a faint grin on that farm lord’s face that I saw. Just because of that expression on his face, I had doubts. How can he just grin at the man he thought well of is being tortured in front of him?”
“That...”
This time, Pat couldn’t speak to refute Rick. From his words, it felt to him that something was really wrong. He couldn’t find any reason to put in defense of the farm lord. Looking at the speechless Pat trying to come up with something, Rick then continued.
“After that, they dragged him away to the cell, but for me, it looked like the truth was brutally murdered there. From that point, my trust and respect for the knights slowly diminished. I couldn’t forget about the dead face that the man made as he was dragged to the cell.”
For a child, an event like that remains deep within their consciousness. Rick, who was somewhat mature at that time, tried to hold these same questions within him that day as he looked at the face of his father, which was the same as anyone there, cheering blindly for the knights.
He felt the urge to shout there and ask his father if what really happened there was even justice. But before he could even speak, his father looked at him.
“See, that’s what a knight is. A promising position where you execute the wrongdoers and give justice to the truth and protect everyone. That is the position of a knight. I want you to be like them, Rick.”
His words stabbed little Rick’s heart. The thing he saw in front of him was clearly wrong, but he couldn’t do anything as he was just a child.
“The back of that betrayed man led me to slowly investigate the cases that the knights have solved. Just leaving 1 behind, all the other majors punished people or solved cases that felt genuinely abnormal.”
“The reports published by the knight legion felt fabricated and exaggerated too. There are even cases that felt like a fanatic wrote it. The cases also felt awfully similar to the case of the man.”
During his brief time in the capital, he visited several booths selling newspapers and places where they distribute magazines related to the knights. Scrambling everything and reading and studying about the cases, Rick concluded the knights hide something deeper than they show.
“Can’t they just do that? You know, after the heroes appeared, they influenced most of the things in this world. They might have told them about the things of their world and how they do things.”
The heroes who appeared by the will of the Goddess slowly spread their influence in this world. Many spread it in the form of information, technology, culinary, farming, and various other ways, and slowly, their ways somehow diluted into the society of this world.
But even with this reasoning, Rick couldn’t forget what he felt when he saw the devastated look of the man after hearing his wife.
“I don’t know Pat. The look he gave that time still sends shivers down my spine. I can’t forget it even now. It appears in my dreams.... that look of his. It horrifies and makes me feel guilty till now.”
“...”
Suddenly, the atmosphere became heavy as silence then descended between them, but to lift it up, Pat then tried to change the topic.
“But again, what does that have to do with you learning magic? Don’t run away by telling this story to me.”
Somehow, with Pat’s funny words, the atmosphere somehow again brightened up. Rick, who understood that Pat is trying to cheer him up, then played along with him.
“Don’t concern yourself with that. You tiny muscle brain, you cannot understand much.”
“Want to beat you to a pulp, then?”
“Want to try me, you brain-in-knee bastard!!”
“With what, a new technique or something?”
“This little... Take this, Magic missile!”
Rick then shot a magic missile toward Pat, but this time, Pat carefully predicted the trajectory of the attack and swiftly dodged it. The magic missile just somehow slid past Pat
Looking at it, Rick, who looked confident, was left stunned as Pat then hurriedly reduced the distance between him and Rick.
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“!!”
Pat then came face to face with Rick. Rick, flabbergasted by Pat’s speed, then tried to use Magic Missile again but-
“Take this, Pat’s Majestic Uppercut!!”
“Guhh!!”
Pat, in an instant, instant, launched an uppercut, hitting Rick’s chin. Pat deliberately reduced the force behind his punch, but because of Rick’s weak build, it sent Rick flying.
“Oops! Did that hurt, Mr. Magician?”
Pat mockingly called to Rick, wanting to tease Rick a little, but Rick, who then fell to the ground, didn’t respond.
“Hey, you alright Rick?”
Afraid that he might have injured Rick, Pat hurriedly ran and reached where Rick was. There, he saw Rick, lying with his dislocated jaw and blood dripping from his lips.
“Noo!! Rick! Hey, you are not dead, right? Hey, wake up!!”
Slapping and shaking Rick continuously, Pat tried to wake Rick up, but Rick never opened his eyes.
“Wake up pleaseee!! Your and my father will kill me if they found I killed you. Hey, wake up!!”
“...”
Soon, Pat cried while embracing the ‘dead’ Rick. Slowly, Rick opened his eyes, stealing a glance at him.
‘Let me make you taste the power of my magic, you little shit.’
Woonng...
Opening his palm near Pat’s face, Rick, who was pretending to be dead, then shouted.
“Surprise. Magic Missile!”
“??”
Pat, who heard Rick, opened his eyes and found an orb of white energy just in front of his face. Realizing that the orb was the magic missile of Rick, Pat tried to back away, but it was already too late as Rick then launched the missile at his face.
The white orb exploded on Pat’s face as black smoke covered his face.
“Aghh!!”
“Get off me, you heavy muscle head!!’
Getting free from Pat’s grip, Rick then stood up, fixed his dislocated jaw, and tidied his clothes.
“Ahhh my jaw... This damn brute...”
Looking at Pat, who was still writhing in pain and rolling around on the ground, Rick sighed and called Pat.
“Pat, I know you have recovered. Stop acting like a jerk now.”
“Arghh!! My face...how will I marry now? You scarred my maiden-like face. Now no girl will ever see the beautiful me and my face ever again. How can you do such a thing to me!!”
“This little...”
Looking at the fabulous acting of Pat writhing in pain and crying over his scarred face, veins popped on Mrit’s forehead. Having enough of Pat’s over-the-top acting, he then stretched his hand towards Pat.
“That’s it. Killing you for good now. Magic-”
“Wait Wait Wait!!”
Suddenly, Pat, who realized that Rick was in no mood to joke, stood up at once and stopped acting.
Rick, who looked at Pat now behaving nicely, then canceled his attack too.
“Hey, take the joke lightly, man. You know, no girl will ever marry you if you were to behave like this.”
“Yeah. Like a girl will ever MARRY you. Stop thinking about me and do something about that brute brain of yours.”
With that, both of them ended their little farce. Lying down on the ground, both of them took a rest to recover from the injuries both of them inflicted upon each other.
“Aghh...my jaw... Hey, damn brute!! Next time, try to use less force before you punch. Those gorilla hands of yours will kill someone someday.”
“Yeah, and you should stop blasting magic on someone’s maiden-like face.”
“...”
“...”
“... Fine, whatever.”
The first to surrender was Rick, as he got no mental strength left to even argue with Pat anymore. But Pat had other intentions as he again asked the question he asked before.
“But hey, how did you get that book? Your father probably wouldn’t have brought you any magic book as he is a knight maniac. Nor there is any magician around the village who would lend you the book.”
Another thing that he didn’t mention is that the village doesn’t have many resources to make people there more educated.
There is only a small school with basic books related to algebra and language. For higher education, they have to go to the capital and get enrolled in any institution there. So for Rick, having a book related to magic is like having a bar of gold among the poor.
“... No. Some gave me this.”
“Who?”
“...”
Rick hesitated. Not that he doesn’t trust Pat, but the fact that a careless person like Pat would reveal it unintentionally to anyone made him hesitate to trust him.
“Hey, I know you are thinking that I would reveal your secret to someone else.”
“... How?”
“Stop making such faces while thinking. You always make those doubtful faces when thinking.”
“...Damn!! Ha...Hahaha!!”
Rick laughed loudly as Pat thoroughly exposed him. Having no choice, Rick, after a bit of hesitation, finally spilled everything.
“Okay then, listen carefully and keep this in mind. Never reveal this to others.”
“Yeah, just say it already.”
“So-”
***
On a flat road leading to a mountain, both Pat and Rick walked as they strolled towards the mountain ahead.
“Are you sure he is there?”
“... Yes, I guess? I don’t know. I saw him some years ago. He was an ascetic, so I guess he would still be there.”
Before coming here, Rick told everything from how he got the book to practice magic techniques to how an ascetic predicted the future of Rick to Pat.
“You know, future prediction and all that isn’t that valid, right? Don’t you think some con artist or something mugged you off?”
Pat doubted that the ascetic that Rick was talking about fooled Rick and gave him some devilish book. Concerned about Rick, he then decided to meet the ascetic face to face.
And now, both of them are on their way to finally meet the ascetic.
“You think I would have believed him if he were to be a con artist? It’s just that... I don’t know... something was weird when I met him. The way he calmly talked and told everything... it was like meeting someone who doesn’t belong to this world at all.”
“Then doesn’t that mean he might be a hero or something?”
Pat put forward his assumption. It might be possible that the ascetic is a hero, but he refused to believe that a hero can predict someone’s future. He believed that only the Goddess had that power.
“A hero is not someone who would throw away his duty. They are Goddess’s champions, so I don’t think that the ascetic might be a hero. The heroes have too much in their hands to handle. They don’t have time to renounce everything and just meditate.”
A general opinion within the society of this world regarding heroes is that heroes cannot have a normal life like them. From their birth, they were taught that heroes are constantly fighting against the evils of this world so that they all can live peacefully.
So the opinion of Pat that the ascetic might be a hero got rejected by Rick.
“We will see about that after we meet him. If he is a fraud, I will smash him to pieces.”
“Let’s first reach the place, then talk.”
After a bit of walking and talking with each other, they both reached their destination, the front of a cave deep in the mountain.
“Is this the place where you met him?”
“... Yeah.”
Looking at the cave, both of them felt something ominous as the cave from inside was completely filled with darkness. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t get a look at what was inside.
Rick felt conflicted as he couldn’t think of any way by which they can safely enter the cave. Pat, who was beside him, then spoke.
“Hey, use that magic of yours to make a torch of wood.”
Pat suggested making a torch to light their way inside the cave. Rick, who got flabbergasted by Pat’s idea, then looked at him.
“How can a muscle-head like you give such an idea? Did your brain work in the right direction after getting blasted by magic?”
“Stop joking or do you want to me to make you like myself?”
With a fist directed at Rick, Pat tried to threaten Rick, which Rick ignored with a laugh. He then proceeds to make a torch using the wood from the surroundings and lit it using the magic missile.
“We have the torch now. Let’s go inside and see who that ascetic is.”
“Hmm...”
With that, both of them entered the cave, hoping to meet the mysterious ascetic.
***