Newly Written Extra Story: The Past of a Certain Girl”
“Let’s dig in!”
The girl sat at the dining table with her mother and younger brother, enjoying her mother’s homemade cooking. Her small mouth stuffed with happiness, she chewed away, looking like a squirrel.
“Listen, Mom. Today, I…”
Sitting next to her, her two-year-younger brother eagerly told their mother about his day’s events. Their mother, looking much younger than a mother of two, nodded along as she listened, watching her daughter eat with a gentle smile.
A family of three. They weren’t wealthy, but the girl was content with their daily lives.
However, the girl knew. There was something missing from this family.
It was the father, who had disappeared shortly after her brother was born. A soldier, he had gone to the continent inhabited by monsters for a mission and never returned.
They didn’t know why. With no body and no definitive evidence of his death from his comrades, he was treated as missing in action.
But since the day her mother received the news and cried, eight years had passed.
The girl, about to turn ten soon, had long suspected that her father would never return to this house.
But his empty chair at the dining table and his office remained untouched. She knew her mother was still waiting for his return.
“Sis, let’s train together tomorrow too!”
“Yeah, after studying.”
Answering her brother’s call, the girl responded as an older sister should.
Taking care of her younger brother in place of her working mother and absent father was her duty.
“Huh. I’d rather practice with a sword than study.”
“Why? Rido, you like studying, don’t you?”
She was taken aback by her younger brother’s words.
Rido was smart. Even though he was only seven, he could absorb the knowledge she imparted to him, understanding calculations that middle school students, no, thirteen-year-olds would find easy.
Since he seemed to enjoy learning something, she planned to send him to high school and teach him.
“I want to be an adventurer after all.”
“Huh!?”
However, when Rido suddenly changed his mind, the girl opened her eyes wide in surprise.
Completely stopping her meal, she exchanged glances with her mother.
“What’s wrong, Rido? Weren’t you supposed to go to school and become a scholar?”
Asked kindly by his mother, Rido looked away.
Although she thought he was a well-behaved brother, he was still a boy. It wasn’t strange for him to aspire to be an adventurer. However, even as someone who had watched over Rido, this reaction didn’t sit right with the girl.
“…But, sis, you’re working. Should I go to school with the money you earn?”
The girl swallowed hard at her brother’s troubled expression. She hadn’t thought he would worry about such things, and his kindness touched her heart.
“I’m okay. I don’t like studying, and I don’t want to be a scholar, so there’s no reason for me to go to school.”
Although they lived comfortably enough, their household didn’t have enough money to cover the tuition for both of them. The girl would leave her brother at the church only in the morning and save money by collecting medicinal herbs and doing chores as a part-time adventurer. It was not uncommon for children to register as adventurers to earn pocket money.
“If Rido becomes a scholar, he can take us out to dinner. Right, Mom?”
“Yes.”
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The girl and her mother smiled. They were both pleased that Rido was growing into a kind-hearted boy.
Surely, he would grow up to be a splendid man pursuing his dreams. The girl believed without a doubt that from now on, they would live relatively happily in this fatherless home.
–So, she couldn’t immediately accept that the scene before her was reality.
The anomaly had arrived suddenly with the ringing alarm and the sound of something exploding.
“Sis. Mom… We have to go help Mom…”
On that day, after completing her cleaning duties, the girl went to pick up her younger brother from the church, as usual, and the two of them were home alone. It was her turn to cook dinner that day, so she was preparing for it.
She heard three loud explosions in a row, shaking her eardrums.
Instinctively, she looked out the window to see where the noise was coming from and was stunned.
It was her mother’s workplace, the military base in this territory. It was engulfed in thick black smoke, burning.
“No way…”
This must be some kind of mistake. The facility where her mother worked wouldn’t be burning. There was no way her mother, after her father, would be gone too. –The girl desperately tried to convince herself.
“Sis!”
She couldn’t move from where she stood until her brother grabbed her arm. As she snapped back to reality, the ringing alarm and the voices of confused residents who had come outside all rushed back to her ears at once.
“Calm down. It’s okay… Mom must be okay.”
She said to herself and her agitated brother. Despite her heart pounding, she took a deep breath.
She didn’t know what was happening. She didn’t want to know.
But her rational mind understood that the vital facility guarding this territory had exploded. She was the only one who could protect her brother now. She needed to prepare to leave home at any moment, so she quickly got ready and grabbed the disaster kit by the entrance.
As she tried to reassure her brother and suppress her own anxious heart, she held her breath.
After a while, what adventurers and knights circulating in the town informed her was the fact that the Forras Territory of the Cyan Empire had been attacked by the Magenta Empire, and war had begun.
“What should we do, sis? Mom…”
With a voice that seemed about to burst into tears, Rido lamented next to the girl.
What they feared more than anything was their mother’s death.
“…We can’t leave the house. If the base is occupied, we’ll become prisoners…”
“Does that mean we can’t do anything?”
“Yeah.”
The girl nodded weakly.
Yes, there was nothing they could do.
Attacking civilians was prohibited by the laws of war, but if they moved clumsily and were deemed suspicious by enemy soldiers, their lives would be in danger. It was extremely difficult to confirm the safety of her mother, who was at the base amid the chaos.
“The walls have collapsed, and monsters are pouring in! Evacuate immediately!”
A man’s voice from outside made the girl shiver.
“That’s…”
The Forras Territory where she lived was near the border between the Cyan Empire and the Magenta Empire. Along the border was a dense forest called the “Buffer Forest,” where man-eating monsters lurked.
When conflicts arose at the border, soldiers were dispatched from this territory as a base, and adventurers also took on the monsters. Forras was a territory that prospered with warriors at its core.
“Rido-kun, are you there?!”
“That’s Aunt Helen’s voice.”
“Wait.”
Helen, their neighbor who always cared for them, knocked on the door of their house.
The girl quietly unlocked it, replacing her rushing brother.
“Thank goodness. You’re both here. I thought you might have gone to your mom’s place. You’re a smart girl, really.”
Helen ruffled her hair affectionately.
“Helen-san. Earlier, the walls collapsed…”
“That’s right. It’s dangerous here too. Run to where you can be protected. Your belongings… seem fine. Hurry!”
Guided by Helen, the girl and her brother went out into the town. Knights and adventurers stood at various points, directing residents to the shelter adjacent to the headquarters of the Knights’ Order.
With her brother holding her hand tightly, unwilling to let go, the girl ran.
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