It had already been 5 years since that time and all I could say was that the past of mother changed my point of view of adventurer, I had always thought that be part of that organisation could give a certain amount of protection. I was already aware of the fact that I shouldn’t rely on other to protect myself and that the only power I really detain was constituted by my physical and magical power, and my knowledge. Money will not protect me in front of absolute power.

It was the reason why I trained these last 5 years. I didn’t really have much time alternating between training, Jorn’s forge and helping mother. I really put the wellbeing of my mother as one of my top priority. I didn’t think that I was able to help her forgot about my father absence but I had made all I could to pass more time with her, learning more about her, about her past, what were her motivation, her goal and what she thought about noble and adventurer. What I could say was at that time I didn’t know how she would have reacted when I would have announced that I wanted to become an adventurer, even now I remember how she has reacted.

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4 years ago

I was helping mother cleaning when we started talking about a topic which rose much more tension that I had expect

“So Arthur what will you do when you will achieve your apprenticeship? I know that it is early but if you want to open your own shop marc and me should already start saving because rent in this part of the kingdom are really expensive”

I thought for a moment before replying, “Please…mom, I just start to work with Mr. Jorn and he didn’t even let me touch the hammer for now. I am just starting to differentiate magic ore right now so I think that it will take some time before opening a store.”

Mother continued unfazed by my response, “I don’t want to press you Arthur but you should know that when you will be 15 you will be recognised as an adult, it is the same in all the human territories. All adult has the duty to pay a taxes to the kingdom they reside in. Not respecting this duty will result in be arrested and detained in prison or becoming a slave, which happened most of the time considering the limited number of cell available in each town.”

“Slave?” I muttered in shock

So there was also Slave in this world? The image this world depicted at first was a world where there was some discrimination but where all race could travel and live in any territory. So it was really a surprise that they still chose to establish this practice.

Mother went on calmly, “Ah yes it is true that we didn’t really see the necessity to talk to you about it but yeah, you can end as a slave just because you cannot afford some taxes. If we add the fact that taxes can increase from a year to another… you can really even have some saving this year and not save yourself the next year”

“And what is the cost of these taxes?” I asked warily.

“1 gold coin per person” she replied matter-of-factly.

“What I didn’t even remember ever seeing a gold coin how can the majority of people can afford it?” I exclaimed.

Mother explained patiently, “It is true that it is expensive mostly for farmer who depend exclusively on something they cannot control: nature. But there is something that you should not forget and that everybody is able to use magic”

“Ah! I see if everybody can use magic they can use it in to facilitate their labour and sometime increase their income” I realized.

“Exactly! “she said caressing my hair affectionately

“But you shouldn’t forget that learning to use magic is a long process even you who is in your 3 years can slightly use it your work” she added with a gentle giggle.

“I see that Jorn keep them informed about my progress” I thought feeling my cheeks reddened.

“If it is this difficult to learn magic so why there don’t exist a school where- “

“Oh but it exists! All kingdom had academy where young people can socialize, learn about magic, history, economy and others thing like that. But the focus is of course magic so every year some people are send across the kingdom to detect people with potential that they can bring back to their academy “

“I see, so it is a form of scholarship… I started to find this strange that in this world which seem advance in some point especially in their capability to create things like books there wasn’t a school” I thought nodding at myself

“If I may ask why didn’t you send me to the academy? Is the problem the fee?”

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“Oh why? Did you find that your mother isn’t a good teacher?” she said smiling at me but I knew that smile wasn’t really one

“No no , I just—“

“It is okay honey I know what you mean. Actually there is two principal reason why we did it, first all academies are mainly in the capital of the kingdom and secondly as you say it is the fee, actually the only person who are able to send their children to academy are noble or merchant. I actually don’t see a problem to send to academy but I know that if a noble do something to you I know that I won’t let it slide” She said it with a glint in her eyes which send shivers to my back.

It seemed that it was still fresh in her memory.

“In addition I still think that 100 golds coin for a year is a little too much”

“100! with a price like that why there are not people creating their own school It is a lucrative business”

“We can effectively see it like that, but if we think some second we can see a problem in your reflexion. First there are 6 elements it imposes to have at least 6 people who had each one element to teach a class, second they need to master a majority of mana circuit because each person has a style that need some circuit active, even I who use the note of my parent, my research and the help of your father I don’t know all mana circuit, I can’t even imagine a person who didn’t have my chance”

I started to see the problem it was true that noble had much more resource than commoner and I could deduce that the royal family with academies so it was normal that they could have access to much more information than others.

It became evident that parent would teach their children themselves, But I still found it strange, I was not sure that every parent was able to read or write would they just condemn their children to live like that?

“There really isn’t a school were commoner can go?” I asked

“There is. And before you ask you weren’t send here because you were already able to read, write and even count before 5 years old.” She said with a proud smile

Yeah I should have expected this

“So you didn’t answer what do you want to do? I don’t think your father and I will be able to pay for taxes for 3 persons. Your apprenticeship had already take much of how saving”

Opening my eyes wide I was prepared to answer when she added

“You didn’t really think that Jorn teaches you free of charge, Hein? I already explain how much knowledge is important in this world Jorn is one of the few blacksmiths in this region who is able to create magic weapon, did you really think that he will pass his knowledge like that? It is true that he owes your father but he already pays it when he teaches you his skill, I think that you can realise the importance of this kind of skill”

“Y-Yes mother!” It is surprise upon surprise today. I didn’t Knew that Jorn had this standing. Maybe Mana eyes is what make him able to forge magic item. If it is true, I want to know what he teaches at the senior apprentice in the magic forge?

“So what is your decision?”

“Actually… sigh please don’t judge me mother but… I want to first learn a little more about the world myself, travel, meet new people, learn about new culture, eat dishes I cannot even imagine right now, gain power, find a place I can call home and start a family, maybe have a harem I don’t know, and sometime visit father and you with your grandchild...” I said all this with my head dropped looking at the floor, waiting for her answer.

She didn’t say anything but I felt someone raising my head and pinching my ear

“A harem Hein... I should expect this coming from his son. I don’t really care if you want one, ten or a hundred wives but the only thing I ask you is to make them happy, I think that I have made a good job raising you and I didn’t teach you to disrespect women. But I want to add something...”

“Yes mother”

“I have always taught you how and why you should respect women, I said women NOT BITCHES”

“mother?”

“Please don’t stop me Arthur, I didn’t raise you so that you let women dictate you what you should do, don’t let women control your thought or your money. Be aware of thot they are the worst”

“Please mother”

“Yes, I think that I was a little hot-blooded”

“But… you did realise the job I should do if I want to accomplish all this…”

“Yes you can be a merchant, a very good merchant but I don’t think that money is the type of power you want”

“Yes…”

“You know want I think about adventurer Arthur …You know that they have a role in the death of your grandparents…”

At this moment I really start to feel bad to bring this topic back but I knew that sooner or later we would have to talk about it

“…But now I don’t hold them responsible for what happen”

I raised my head I looked shocked at my mother

“It is true that it still hurt but now I know that the problem is not the adventurer. If you had told me this some years ago I would had brought the shit out of you right here right now. But your father changes my mind, as you now he was also an adventurer and the more I knew about him the more I realised that it is not the job the problem but the person who joined the rank of the organisation.”

Looking straight at my eyes she added “If you want to be an adventurer I will help you, I will support you because you are my child, my only child Arthur, I could stop you but I know what impact it can have on our relation so to be sure that I can see my grandchild I will make all I can to help me, to make you ready for all you can find in your path. And don’t think that It will be like before, at that time I only train you so you can live a normal life, but you want to be an adventurer so you need more…much more”

I was sure that the glare mother shot me wasn’t one a mother should give to her son

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At that time, I didn’t know in what I threw myself, but a week later I realised that she was serious, really serious. To start she changed my routine. She imposed that I should trained with weight, back at earth I have seen some reportage about this type of training it was said that running with weight could cause problem to joint and even injury if I ever felt with them.

Sensing my worries mother explained that as an adventurer I would always fight, travel or sleep with armour, weapon and my equipment. So preparing myself and increasing my stamina to be able to move with my equipment on my back was a prerequisite, I could not really refute that so it started and yes I injured myself more than how much I can count but mother always heal me and sometime I started to think that it was her means to force me to change my decision but no she was not like that… right?