Chapter 6
Rodan came home.
"Hey, Telesia, I'm back!"
"Oh, you're early—wait, are you all right?!"
Telesia headed for the dirt-floored entryway. She was startled by the sight of her husband, Rodan. He was covered in dirt, as though he'd taken a tumble somewhere.
"Yeah, I'm not hurt. The Great Boar went wild, and I fell a little. Is Allen awake?"
It was mid-October, with autumn in full swing. The harvest was almost finished. All that remained were the potatoes, which wouldn't be ready for a little while yet. Rodan had apparently gone hunting in the nearby woods again today with the other men of the village. Of course, they were all serfs.
Serfs were, by definition, supposed to work in agriculture, but for some reason they went hunting from autumn through winter. Allen still didn't know why.
"Well, as long as you're safe. Are you really taking Allen with you?"
"Yeah. I promised I'd let him see the butchering. They've already started, so I need to take him there soon."
Rodan lumbered into the nursery.
"Allen, wake up! We caught a Great Boar! It's huge!"
"R-really, Papa? I wanna see the Great Boar!"
Though he looked one year old, he was thirty-five inside, and he did his best to act as though he'd just woken up.
"I'll take you now! You promised to be a good boy, after all!"
"Yay! Woo-hoo!"
The last time Allen heard they'd caught a Great Boar on a hunt, he begged Rodan to show him the next one they caught. Rodan had said he would if Allen was good. Allen rarely cried or threw tantrums, so he was basically a good boy.
It seemed Rodan had wanted to tell his child, "If you're a good boy," at least once.
Rodan carried Allen in his arms and took him outside. Telesia wasn't coming.
She didn't want to see the butchering.
Rodan had left early that morning and spent the time since racing through the woods, tumbling around as he took down his prey. His clothes were a mess of sweat and who knew what else, but strangely, Allen wasn't disgusted.
He knew how hard Rodan worked for his family.
This was actually the first time Allen had seen the pioneer village. Usually, he only saw it through the wooden window or from the dirt-floored entryway, or from the yard while Telesia held him.
(What a rural landscape, nothing but fields. There are houses over there.)
It was a village with fields stretching in every direction. The fields were different colors, probably because different crops were being grown in each. Since it was already October, most had been harvested, though some crops, like potatoes, weren't ready yet. Houses stood here and there, scattered between the fields.
Rodan spoke to Allen, who was taking in the village scenery with all his curiosity from the height of Rodan's chest.
"Look, Allen! An Albaheron!"
Far off in the direction Rodan pointed toward the sky, a single bird was flying. It looked quite large. It was too far away to make out clearly, but a gigantic bird was soaring high overhead. How many meters across was it? It seemed larger than anything that existed in the real world.
"Albaheron?"
"That's right. They migrate north around this time of year. That's just one, but they often fly by in flocks, so remember it. They say that when they start flying, autumn has begun."
"A monster?"
"That's right, a monster. Though it's one that rarely comes down to the ground. Papa's eaten one once, and it was really delicious."
"Ooh!"
"If you see a monster bigger than that flying in the sky, you have to hide inside the house!"
"Okay! A dragon might eat me!"
"..."
"Papa, what's wrong?"
Rodan simply stared at the Albaheron. Allen found the silence strange and spoke to him.
"Hm? No, it's nothing. We're almost at the butchering site. It's really huge!"
"Okay!"
Allen wasn't told at the time, but a few months later, he would learn that the Albaheron had inspired his name. His father had named him with the hope that, like the Albaheron, which could fly anywhere in the sky, his son would be free.
Allen couldn't understand those feelings just yet, of course, so he looked around the village with unbridled curiosity.
(This area looks like a residential district. Was my home on the outskirts of the pioneer village? A boar! A Great Boar! My first monster!)
After walking for about an hour from home, they left the fields behind and came to a street lined with houses. Beyond it seemed to be the village entrance. He could see a gate beyond a huge carcass.
And right in front of it lay a Great Boar that had already been mostly butchered. It had been cut up quite a bit, but its overall shape was still intact, and it was clearly a boar. Nearly fifty people had gathered around the butchering site. Several people were dividing the carcass into cuts of meat.
(It's huge. More than three meters long. That's not boar-sized!)
The Great Boar's overwhelming presence left him awestruck. In the real world, it would be about the size of a hippopotamus. He couldn't tear his eyes from its tusked face.
Rodan had told him there were monsters in this world, but this was the first time Allen had seen one.
Rodan carried Allen closer and closer. He could feel everyone's eyes on them.
(I see. I guess we do stand out.)
Allen had a good idea why everyone was looking at him.
"Oh! There you are, Rodan. Hey, everyone, the hero's here!"
One of the people butchering the beast shouted to announce Rodan's arrival.
"Hey, don't shout so loud. You're embarrassing me."
"You're late! The meat's gonna be gone, hero!"
A man just as muscular as Rodan approached him. With his beard and chest hair, and a rugged, gorilla-like face and build, he looked intimidating.
He was holding a little girl in his arms. She looked about the same age as Allen.
"I told you to stop that. I just happened to hit it in the throat, its weak spot."
Apparently, Rodan had dealt the Great Boar its finishing blow. The people gathered around were praising him, and he looked very embarrassed.
"Oh? You brought Allen today? Haven't seen him in a while. His eyes and hair really are black, huh?"
Both Telesia and Rodan had brown hair. Allen's eyes and hair, however, were black, just as they had been before his reincarnation. Apparently, that was quite rare, and he could feel a lot of eyes on him even now.
Allen's face also resembled his mother Telesia more than his rugged-looking father, Rodan.
"That's right, Gerda. He's a good boy. Allen, say hello. This is our neighbor, Gerda."
"Nice to meet you. I'm Allen."
(Ugh, I just greeted him normally. What is a one-year-old supposed to say? What's the right thing to do?)
"Hey, is he really one? Mine's one too, but there's a world of difference. I wish mine would learn from him."
"Yeah. He's smart, unlike me."
Neither Rodan nor Gerda seemed particularly surprised that one-year-old Allen could talk.
They were serfs who were first-time parents and hadn't even received what would be elementary education in his previous life.
So, well, it was understandable.
"So you really weren't exaggerating about being a doting dad. Come on, Krena, you say hello too."
"Krena..."
(I see. So that's the right thing to say.)
Krena had pink hair and blue eyes.
Perhaps embarrassed by everyone's attention, Krena hid her face against her father Gerda's chest.
This was the day Allen first met Krena.
"Hey, what's wrong with our usual tomboy Krena?"
Gerda laughed heartily, but Krena kept her face lowered, occasionally peeking at Allen. Every time she did, their eyes met.
After talking with their neighbor for a while, Rodan approached the butchering site. It seemed he was going to show Allen the promised Great Boar up close.
(Wow, a monster. I bet I'll level up if I defeat one. I can't wait until I'm strong enough to take one down.)
"How strong is this monster?"
"Let's see. This one's a C-rank monster. If you find one stronger than this, you have to run away."
(Hmm, hmm. I think about twenty people go to hunt them, right? So it takes twenty people to defeat a C-rank monster?)
As Allen stared intently at the Great Boar being butchered in Rodan's arms, someone came over to speak to Rodan. They said it was ready, so Rodan went to where the butchered meat was being kept. He was handed a bundle of meat tied with cord.
(That's a huge piece of meat. It must weigh ten kilos. The reward for taking down the Great Boar is meat? Is this the stuff we sometimes eat dried?)
"That's right," Rodan said, accepting the meat with one hand while holding Allen in the other. Several other people who had taken part in the hunt had already received their pieces of meat.
"You've seen enough, right? Telesia's waiting, so let's take the meat home."
"Yeah."
With that, Rodan and Allen carried their gift of meat back along the same path they had come.