Theo's decision

(Clark’s PoV):

The first time I met Theo and Elena was during the harvest celebration of the village, on October 20th.

That day, each group of children were playing together as usual. Excepted for one boy, staying at the side of his parents. This boy was none other than me, looking at the other group of children playing together with envy.

I was shy, and due to that, I have no friends.

In the small village of Araan, there were only a few groups of children who played together, and I didn't integrate one because of my timidity. I didn't try to approach them because I couldn't face rejection. Therefore, I could only watch them from afar with envy.

With the intention of making friends, I conflicted with my timidity and tried to gather my courage to approach them. While I was still in hesitation, I suddenly heard a commotion.

"As I previously said, stop following me!"

"No, I won't! Mother requested me to play with you."

Out of curiosity, I turned my head towards the voices, and not far away from me, I saw a boy who tried to get away from a girl who followed her. Seeing that I was looking at him, the boy walked towards me closely followed by the girl.

“Hey, you are free, right? Wanna hang out together?” The boy asked.

Listening to the boy, the girl took one of the boy's arm and showed a displeased expression.

"Come on, are you kidding me? Our mother told us to play together. Why are you even asking someone else to play with you right after you refused to play with me?” the girl complained.

Seizing one of my hand, the boy then ran away from the girl and my parents.

“Because I don’t want to play with you. That’s all. See ya!” The boy responded as he turned his head behind him and grinned at the girl.

I didn't understand why he tried to run away from her back then, and I still didn't found the answer to it now. But one thing is sure; he freed me from the solitude I had and became my first friend.

Even now, I can't thank him enough.

Waking up from the dream I've made which was my first meeting with Theo and Elena, I realised that it was already the morning. The sun bathed my room from the window, revealing the arrival of a sunny day.

Standing up from my bed, I went out of my room. In front of my room, my mother has already prepared the breakfast and was about to wake me. I sometimes sleep too much during the morning, and she presumed that it was the case today as well.

In my half-asleep state, I greeted my mother.

"Morning, mom."

"Ara, you woke up early today, Clark. Good morning, the breakfast is ready." With a surprised expression, she greeted me back.

A potato stew with bread, the meal was the same as usual. It was a standard meal and what my mother always prepared every morning, but that never bothered me.

After that I finished my breakfast, I washed my bowl before going out.

Since my mother knew I'd stop by my neighbourhood's house, to play with Theo, she didn't go with me. Once I arrived in front of Theo's house, I knocked on the door twice and waited.

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A few moments afterwards, the door opened, and a good-looking woman with long black hair appeared. She was Theo's mother, Solene Girault. She was taller than my mother and as gentle as her.

Recognising that I was her neighbour's son, she smiled at me with a gentle expression.

"Good morning, Clark. Are you here to play with Theo?" Solene asked.

"Good morning, Mrs Girault. Yes, but I came to greet you since I already know where he is." I said with a smile as I directed behind the house.

As I expected, Theo was having his morning training behind the house. It was the daily training that we did every morning after we ate breakfast. Because the both of us yearn to become stronger.

Theo told me that he wished to become a full-fledged adventurer who was the reason why he wanted to get stronger. He desired to travel around the world when the opportunity arises. He already knows what he aspired to become and is trying hard to realise his goal.

I have to say I'm a bit jealous of this side of him.

I told him that my dream was to become an adventurer too, but in all honesty, I still don't know what I want. I just said that lie to him because I want to stay on his side. But I know that I won't be able to hide him the truth, and one day, I'll eventually be going to slow him down due to my lack of motivation.

If that happens, I won't be able to forgive myself. And for this reason, I needed to find my path by staying at Theo's side. I believed that with him, I'd discover what I truly wanted one day or another.

When I arrived behind the house, Theo was doing his morning training as I expected. Fortunately, it was only the first exercise, and I wasn't that late.

"Theo, sorry, I'm late. Can I still join you?" I said while showing an apologetic expression.

Noticing that I arrived, he stopped his exercise and stood up from the ground. And with a dumbfounded expression on his face, he looked at me.

"No, no, don't worry, why are you even apologising? I'm used to it now. It's just that I'm amazed that you didn't come after I finished my training." Theo answered as he walked toward me.

Isn't that rude? I'm not always late. It's just that I'm bad regarding waking up and sometimes come late. Yup, that's all.

"You are most of the time late."

"How did you read my thought?" I asked, dumbfounded.

Frowning his eyebrows, he looked at me as if he was looking at an idiot.

"Didn't anyone ever told you that you were easy to read?" Theo asked while showing a mocking smile.

"Ugh..."

I couldn't argue, because my mother constantly mocked me, saying that I was easy to read as well.

Seeing my gloomy face, Theo scratched the back of his head.

"Well, anyway. Let's start the morning training, shall we?"

"Yes!"

*****

After finishing our morning training, Theo and I went to the blacksmith shop.

There, he trained his blacksmithing while I was watching him from the side. It was always amazing to see him reducing dozens of broken swords into fragments.

I could see that he improved a lot since yesterday. I couldn't believe the fact that he only learned blacksmithing a day ago, and I wasn't the only one to think so.

"It's only the second time you're hammering, but you've become better at it. You learn fast." The shop owner said to Theo.

Crossing his arms, the shop owner closed his eyes for a brief moment before opening them once again.

"All right, I've decided. I'll take you as my disciple."

Hearing, Theo stopped hammering and tilted his head while looking at the shop owner.

"I never said once I wanted to become your disciple though?"

"Buhahaha! Don't you want to forge your weapon? I'll help you realise that."

Pondering for a while, Theo then smiled at the shop owner.

"Fine, I'll become your disciple. But don't forget your promise." Theo said before continuing, "Oh yeah. By the way, I need to forge three weapons and not only one."

"Are you serious?" The shop owner asked with an ugly expression.

"More than serious. Don't forget your promise, okay?" Theo said as he grinned

*****

Three hours later, we left the blacksmith shop and headed towards Elena's house.

Once we arrived in front of the door, we knocked on the door and waited for someone to open it. Unexpectedly, it was Elena who opened the door and not her mother.

"Today's swordsmanship lesson's cancelled. Mother and father left for Rockberry city due to work. They won't come back before this evening." Elena reported.

"Is that so... Then what are we going to do this afternoon?" I asked them as I exchanged my glance with Theo and Elena.

"I have an idea but..." Theo muttered after a pause.

"I have a bad feeling about that..." Elena complained as she looked at Theo in the eyes.

Well, I understand what she meant. When Theo's hesitating for an idea, it's always an absurd one after all.

"Elena, can you take our wooden swords?" Resolved, Theo finally asked.

"Yeah, sure. Just wait a sec." Elena answered as she returned to the house.

Several seconds later, she came back with three wooden swords.

"Do you still want to practice swordsmanship?" I asked.

"No, I want to go to the forest. What about you guys? Want to come along?" Theo replied with a smirk on his face.

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