“I’ll get going now, Agnes!”

“Wait for a moment, my child,” the mother wolf said, striding out of her cave. She approached Raoul and used mana to check the quality of the weapons on his person. His daggers and shortswords, his bow and arrows. It took a moment, but she nodded in the end. “Everything is in order, though remember to be careful, child.”

“I will, Agnes,” Raoul said, smiling. “Then I’ll—“

“Hold on, my child,” Agnes said, her mana whirling around her, and a sigil made of ice slowly appeared before Raoul’s eyes. She put in the effort of applying a thick layer of mana onto the sigil to make sure it wouldn’t melt.

The sigil was an intricate emblem picturing a wolf in front of a big moon, and Raoul watched in awe, thinking how much skills were needed in order to create such an elaborate piece of art.

“Take it with you,” she said as the sigil landed on the boy’s hand.

“What is this?” Raoul looked at it from every angle with curiosity.

“A good luck charm,” the wolf said with a smile. “Who knows? Perhaps if the king sees it, he will like it so much that he will be eager to marry you with his daughter.”

“What kind of king is that?” Raoul laughed, pocketing the sigil in his pouch. “Anyway, thank you for that, Ag—“

The wolf gave him a stern look.

“Mother…” Raoul said while looking away and scratching his cheek.

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She brightened up in an instant. “Farewell, my child.”

He sauntered away while waving toward Agnes, the mother wolf watching him go silently. Raoul made his way down the hill and continued down the road. When he was halfway through the forest, he took a detour to a small clearing with three tombstones.

He got down to his knees and brought out the flowers in his pack. He laid one for each of them. “I won’t be able to visit you guys for a while, and I probably can’t stay long this time. I’m sorry for that.” He looked at the first tombstone. “Dad, I just realized how incredible you are recently since I tried growing my own crops. At first, nothing survived, and Agnes started calling me the Bane of Wheats. It was so embarrassing. I still wonder to this day how you are able to grow all those crops.”

The wind rustled the leaves, and he felt calmed by the sound.

Then, he looked at the second one. “Mom, I know you would probably get angry by this, but I have been hunting more… um… challenging beasts lately. It’s nothing dangerous, I assure you. I barely ever get a scratch on my body, really.” He laughed dryly, the wind howling, though somehow, he felt that it had turned into a gust instead of a breeze. “And I just want to tell you that… I miss the time spent with you two. Very much.”

Birds were chirping, flowers were blooming, and on days like this, Raoul wanted to simply lay down and admire nature.

Then, he moved to the third tombstone and sat comfortably instead of kneeling. “Brother,” Raoul said with a smile, “Guess what? I can already break your records in hunting! And no, I did not use mana. Are you proud of me?” He puffed up his chest and continued, “I have to admit though. Hunting all those bigger animals was totally different from hunting rabbits. It took me a while to get used to it but look at me. There’s simply nothing I can’t do.”

The wind came in waves as if laughing with him.

Raoul looked up at the bright sky and sat there for a long time. He hadn’t realized how much time he had spent there until he noticed the sun reaching its apex.

“I really need to go now,” he said, getting up.

He headed toward the clearing’s exit, though he looked back once at the three, and he thought he could see them waving him off. He smiled and looked forward, waving back.

“I’ll see you later.”