It felt like I was in a dream. I was floating around as though I was in some third-person view or something, but I couldn't see my body or my hands. My physical body was nowhere to be found.
However, there was someone in front of me, a young boy, that had not come of age. He was constantly getting beaten by a man. The boy tried fighting back, but his strength could never match that of a man. The man laughed at him and told the boy that he would need to become stronger than him if he were to survive in this world.
I blinked, and the scene changed instantly. The boy was a bit older now, and the man was teaching him how to shoot a bow. Every time the boy missed, he would get beaten for it.
The man brought the boy to hunt. At first, it was to hunt small games, but eventually, it grew larger to hunting boarette and eventually even daarette. The boy came close to dying multiple times as the man just stood by and watched the boy hunt. He refused to save the boy despite him coming close to death so many times.
The scene changed once more. This time, the boy was a teenager. He had to hunt a human that the man forced him to accomplish. He succeeded, but in doing so, he was hunted for it as the human he assassinated was an extremely important person in some city. The man congratulated the teenager and told him that this is the life he'll have to take, in order for him to succeed in his own.
Jump forth to when the teenager finally became a young adult. The man congratulated him and passed his bow to him as a graduation gift. However, he was told that he needed to kill the man in order to take over his position. The young adult hesitated, but the man started insulting him and ordered him to finish the job. The man knew that by making the young adult hate him, it would push him over the edge to murder him. This would allow him to take over as he knew that he only had a few years left to live due to some poison he was forced to drink when he was captured some time ago. The young adult eventually caved and released the arrow, hitting a vital mark on the man. He was now an official member of the Four Great Powers.
The young adult grew up to be a fully fledged adult. He was always on the hunt or being hunted himself. He only trusted money as anything else would betray him eventually. The number of times he almost got himself killed was numerous, whether it was by women sent to seduce him but secretly plotting to kill him or lords that called him over, offering huge amounts of rewards but were actually plotting to capture him. The man knew that he would never be able to live a normal life ever since he killed his first human on that fateful day.
The scene changed to the man talking to an old man tied up in a cell. The old man was missing a right hand. He interrogated the old man, but the old man wouldn't budge. The old man offered to give him money in exchange for letting the information go, but the man thought it was a trick and refused to believe his lies. Why would the old man offer money in exchange for not giving information when he should be bargaining for his own release instead?
At first, the man stood firm, refusing to give food or water to the old man. Another reason was that he was badly hurt as well, causing sleepless nights or was on the verge of death due to his own self-treatment rather than looking for an actual doctor for medical treatment. But he eventually caved and began giving food and water to the old man after he had recovered better. He took up the offer of the old man as a test, but it actually turned out to be true. There was a lot of money stashed at the location that the old man had mentioned.
He confronted the old man, asking him why he was willing to give this much money in exchange for some unimportant information that he wasn't willing to give? The man was not broke; he had a lot of money as there were very limited things he could have spent on in the first place. He was not some greedy bastard that would just follow money blindly. He just did his job because it was the only thing he knew what to do in life.
The old man was surprised. He commended the man and told him that his perspective had changed about him. This caused anger in the man, and he was furious that the old man thought so little of him. He kicked the stack of gold aside and started shouting at the old man. But the old man just apologised to him. The man slumped to the ground and appeared to be in a confused state.
The man decided to release the old man, but he refused to leave. He said that he wanted to listen to his story about how and why he became like this. The man refused at first but eventually gave in. He told the old man his entire life's story, which somehow calmed him. He had never spoken to anyone about it since there was no one he could trust, not to mention willing to listen to him.
The old man gave the man a hug and told him to rethink his ways while he still could. He was still young and could stillmake good of himself. He was lost, but now someone was willing to guide him on a better path. The man pondered the forest alone. He was torn in deciding what he was supposed to do. It had been years since he took up any job and had been hanging around the forest for the past few years. He was contemplating what else he could do in this world besides being an assassin. That was when another man showed up in front of him, demanding his death.
***
I opened my eyes, and the first thing that came into view was Rose and Lily, who were within my vision.
"He's awake," said Lily. Who else is she talking to?
"Onii-chan, are you okay? We did a quick check on you, and there were no physical wounds on you," asked Rose.
I pushed myself up and sat up to see what was going on. There were elves surrounding me. Oh boy, am I going to be tried for destroying a part of their forest?
"We saw your battle from afar. I have to say, we were all certainly impressed by it, Mister Zen. We were having trouble getting rid of Tom in the first place. To think you actually managed to kill a member of the Great Powers on your own. The world will know of your victory today and will welcome you as the newest member of the Fourth Great Powers. Congratulations," said a male elf as he bowed to me.
"Uh— T… thank you? You can just call me Zen, by the way. Is— Tom really dead?" I asked him.
"Yes, we are certain. We found his body at the bottom of the cliff where he had fallen. It was in pieces due to the explosions from his bombs, but there were several parts we could identify to be certain it was him. We managed to find your dagger, by the way," the male elf handed it to me.
"Wow, the dagger actually survived the explosion intact? Colour me amazed," I wowed as I retrieved the dagger handed to me.
"It was made from genuine elven smithing. What did you expect?" said Lily as she placed her hand on her hip.
"Zen, Rose, I might be away for some time and I don't know when I'll be able to meet with both of you. But I promise you, I'll find both of you when I can. Please trust me on that," she said while holding both of our hands.
"Are you going somewhere? Where are you going?" asked Rose in a panic.
Lily dragged Rose somewhere away from prying ears and spoke for a time. I couldn't really see much of Rose's expression as she was facing opposite my direction while her head blocked Lily's expression. However, I was certain that Rose wiped her eyes a couple of times. They eventually hugged, and Rose came back to our side.
Lily gestured for me to come over with a smile. Something's wrong. Had she done something wrong, or is she being punished for my trespassing and partial destruction of the elven forest? I went up to her with a concerned look.
"What's going on, Lily? Is it something wrong that I did which caused you to be punished?" I asked her with genuine concern.
"No, it's nothing like that. As a matter of fact, the elves are actually happy that you eliminated Tom. They are willing to pardon you for the things you did to defeat him. Don't worry about it," she smiled at me.
"Then why are you leaving us? It sounded as though you're being punished or something. Please, let me know what I can help with," I said to her.
She shook her head and just smiled at me. She told me there was nothing I could do. There were things that she needed to sort out with the Moonshine family and the death of a great power. It is something only an elf can do.
It felt that she was hiding the truth when she gave me one of the saddest smiles. I gave her a hug and told her that I would be waiting for her in the City Of Pines, and she would be welcomed to my future house whenever she wanted to come over.
I whispered something to her, which gave her a genuine surprise. She smiled and gave me a hug. I know it was probably not the right time to inform her about it, but I had no idea when I'll be seeing her again. It's best that she knows of my decision rather than who knows when, and I did promise both of them that I'll give them my decision when it's all over, and I intend to do so.
We walked back to where the others were. A part of me wanted to reach out to Lily and drag her back to the city. But she was determined to stay and sort out whatever she needed to do.
"We'll be waiting for you, Lily. Don't worry about it. Do come and find us once you get back to the city," said Rose. It felt more like a pleading than an offer.
Lily bowed to both of us and left with a few of the other elves. Do I regret not stopping her from leaving? Perhaps a little bit.
I stood up and did a quick body check of my own. There were indeed no wounds at all. What happened during my fight with Tom? I remembered very clearly that I had some serious wounds all over my body when I fought with Tom. Something must have happened when I blacked out and had no recollection of it.
"There's somewhere we need to show you. Let us guide you, Master Zen," said another female elf.
"I know. It's where my grandfather was being held captive, right? Lead the way. And please, just call me Zen," I told the elf, and she made a genuinely surprised look.
I asked Rose to tag along as we headed deeper into the elven forest. She was hesitating to meet him as she was in a bad condition, with her clothes and hair being a mess. I informed her that this might be the only time she can meet him. If my grandfather is still alive, he should at least be about 100 years old now.
I have so many questions to ask this female elf who was guiding us. Why did Tom decide to hide in the elven forest? And why did the elves even allow him to roam in their forest unrestricted?
"You probably have a lot of questions, and I will try to answer them pertaining to Tom. But before that, how did you know that your grandfather was still alive?" asked the female elf as though she had read my mind.
"I had a hunch, and also a dream showed me that he was still alive," I told her.
"A dream? You sure are full of surprises, Mister Zen. Allow me to explain to you as to why Tom was out here in the elven forest in the first place," she said.
She started her story by telling us that Tom had an existing pact with the elves. The pact was carried over from his father, which is to allow him to seek shelter in the elven forest. How his father established this pact in the first place was because he had helped the elves with a very important task some time ago. This was when his father was still a respectable man. Things changed after he obtained the title of being the Fourth Great Powers. He became an assassin after his wife was murdered, leaving him a child to care for. The female elf warned me of the potential dangers awaiting me when the world knows that Zen Hawthorn will be the new Fourth member of the Great Powers.
Tom's father went on a killing spree ever since that day, and the elves were obviously troubled by his sudden drastic changes. If the world knew that the elves were giving a free pass to an assassin to seek shelter in their forest, then it would lead them to having a horrible reputation.
So the elves had to take matters into their own hands. They tried denying passage to Tom's father at first, but he knew a few of the high-ranking elves that would support him in seeking shelter, so they had no choice but to obey. Then came the good news of Tom's father hitting the grave. Now, they can deny passage to Tom as the pact was only applicable to his father.
Sadly, that was not the case. Tom had leverage given by his father. As it turned out, that pact was applicable to any direct descendants belonging to Tom's father. Such was the strength of the pact given to him. The female elf mentioned that she had no idea what Tom's father had done for the elves to gain such a pact in the first place. Usually, it would have taken something extremely noble or some impossible task to warrant such a pact to be given by a high-ranking member of the elves.
And so, Tom had legitimate entry into their forest. There were some elves that took matters into their own hands and tried to eliminate Tom, but he was called one of the Great Powers for a reason. Truth be told, Tom had not used his full powers when fighting against me. She had seen what he was capable of doing in the past, but that was before he fought my grandfather. Perhaps grandfather had weakened him somehow in ways that helped me with his defeat.
Do I regret killing Tom? Absolutely not. The fact remained that he almost killed me, robbed me of my time that I could have spent with grandfather when I had promised to tell him of the tales and adventures that I had been through. It doesn't matter why the Gods decided to show me his story from his perspective. He was my revenge goal, and I had to finish it. Now—now I can finally move on.
We reached some ruins that were made of stones. There were a couple of pillars around, but there was nothing to indicate anything aside from—well, stones. The female elf crouched down to look for something. Rose and I decided to stare around the pillars as there had some form of art drawn on them. There was nothing fascinating about it, but one art stood out among the rest for me. It looked like a sword that was protruded slightly more than the others. I guess you can call it a—stonesword?
I stroked the sword and gave it a little push just for kicks. I didn't expect it to slot in and started making rumbling noises. I quickly turned around to see what other destruction I had wrecked in this forest, but as it turned out, part of the stone floor started moving aside, creating a sort of secret underground passage area.
"Oh, you found it. How did you know where the trigger is?" asked the female elf.
"I—guess I got lucky? Call it beginner's luck," I told her with an awkward smile.
She gestured us to head in. I asked her whether there was any possibility of traps inside, and she said it was up to us to discover as her duty was only to guide us to this location. She smiled and wished us luck as we headed in.
It was dark as we headed further in, but thankfully, there was an unlit torch close to the entrance, which I grabbed out of instinct. Rose took out some animal oil from her pouch, poured some over it, and lighted it with a flint. Her survival skills had improved significantly from the time I taught her when she was young. I'm still amazed at how much she had grown.
I passed the torch to Rose and took a good look at her face. She was taken aback by my sudden behaviour and turned her gaze away. I guided her face back by grabbing her chin. I took some water and wiped some of the dirt off her face and combed her hair as best as I could with my fingers. I tried my very best to make her look more presentable before meeting my grandfather.
I took the torch back from her and proceeded forward. Rose was confused by my sudden caring behaviour and stood confused while staring at me. I had to gesture for her to follow after me to snap her out of her confusion. The stairs going down were steep and small, so I instinctively held Rose's hand to ensure she didn't slip as she was wearing boots. This once again sent her into her confusion mode.
We came upon a simple room. There was a bed at a corner which was bloodied and ill-maintained, along with other wooden furniture that looked antiqued and rustic. It was minimalist at best, but at least the place was relatively clean with no rats in sight, aside from the bloodied bed. There were two doors, one straight ahead and another to the right. Based on the smell, I suspected the right to be the washroom. I decided to ignore that door and proceeded to the one up ahead.
Once again, it was a flight of stairs leading to another lower level. I braved myself and headed downwards, all the while keeping a lookout for traps. Surprisingly, there were none. Upon reaching the lower level, it was clear that this was some sort of jail to keep someone in as there was a door with bars at the top to peek in. Is my grandfather inside?
I assumed the door would be locked but surprisingly, it was not. Upon opening the door and pointing the torch in, there didn't seem to be anyone around as it was dead quiet. I guess my grandfather is not here? It took me a second later to see someone extremely frail sitting at the corner of the room.
I rushed as quickly as I could to that person in question. I quickly checked on his condition as I crouched down to check his pulse. His right hand was missing, and his head was lowered. Was I too late? I lifted his head to see whether it was really my grandfather, and indeed he was. I checked on his pulse again but felt nothing. I closed my eyes, looked upwards, and sighed. Fuck, I was too late.
Rose stood next to me and took the torch from my hands. She shook me rigorously while calling out to me. I opened my eyes, and my grandfather's eyes started opening. What's going on? I thought he had no pulse?!
"Ojii-san? Do you recognise me?" I shook him a little.
"B— boy? Is that really you? Look how much you've grown," he answered with a soft voice.
"Y— yes! It's me, Zen. Your nephew. Let me get you out of here!" I said while grabbing his arm, trying to lift him.
"N— no, you don't have to do that. A God had granted me my wish to speak with you one last time. Now, please, tell me all about your adventures. I wished to hear them," he smiled.
"What are you talking about?! We can get you to safety for treatment. You're still alive, and you can make it. P— please don't make this the last time that I'll be able to talk to you," I spoke hastily with my quivering voice.
"Onii-chan, his pulse is weak," spoke Rose as she tugged at my cloak while checking his pulse.
"Come, boy, I wish to hear your story. And who this lovely lady might be as she called you her brother," he continued, as though he had completely ignored me earlier.
I thought of dragging him out of this small dungeon, but something's telling me that in doing so, I will ruin my one last opportunity to speak to him. So I gave in and sat down to tell him my story. I introduced Rose to him as my little sister that I had saved. Then I told him all of my adventures that I've been through. From the guild I've chosen, to the discovery of my gauntlets, and the visit to the Demon Continent where I eventually found Tengu-kaze, my mother's weapon. I continued my story about how I met two of the Great Powers and actually got acquainted with them. Then I told him about the war that I waged on the City Of Pines and eventually killing Tom for revenge.
All the while, he just smiled at me without saying much. It was as though every word from me was a blessing that deserved no interruption from him.
"You've come really far, my boy. Who would have thought that you'd end up becoming a member of the Great Powers? I guess I had taught you well. A shame that Tom wasn't able to change for the better," he answered while coughing badly.
"Your teachings shaped me to who I am today, Ojii-san. And I am forever indebted to them," I bowed to him.
"Young lady, please take care of him for me. I understand if he's not ideal for you as he is shorter, but please indulge in my request," he smiled to Rose.
"I will. It is an honour to finally meet you," replied Rose as she bowed to him.
"I'm so sorry, grandfather. If only I knew you were still alive, I would have come for you. I really had no idea," I apologised to him in a dogeza position.
"Arise, my boy, do not be sorry. All I want for you is to be better. Come closer, let me take a look at how much you've grown," he answered with a smile.
I obliged and came closer to him as I sat in front of him. He placed his left hand on my cheek and smiled happily.
"I'm so happy that you're still a good person. You really are—a… miracle child," he dropped his hand.
"Ojii-san? Ojii-san?!" I shook his shoulder and checked his pulse. There was none.
I punched the floor, thinking how much I had failed him. I had not realised I was crying until Rose came over to hug me.
***
I kneeled in prayer near a cliff next to a tree. This location was not far from where I stayed in the Forbidden Forest when I was young. Grandfather loved coming here to meditate as there was a clear view of sunrise and sunset. Hence, I decided to bury him here as I'm sure he would be pleased that he was laid to rest here.
I placed his katana next to his tombstone that I found in Tom's hideout hanging on a wall. Was he keeping it as a trophy or something, I do not know nor do I care. He's dead and in return, so is my grandfather.
Q poked his head out of the ground holding a flower and placed it on grandfather's grave. I'm so glad that Q managed to survive. It would seem that they were not indestructible at all. As it turns out, they had a weak point at one specific location which either Tom happened to know about or just got lucky. Who knew that Q's belly was actually his weak point when he actually allowed us to rub and tickle so often.
I sensed my wife standing behind me. I stood up, walked towards her, and held both of her hands. It was here that I confessed to marrying her in front of my grandfather's grave. She hesitated at first, but I told her that she was the only one for me and that I had made my final decision. Unless she decided to reject me, then I'll end up all alone in this cold, hard world.
Giving some thought, she finally said yes. We hugged tightly, and I told her that I would never let her go. Rose started sobbing at my words. I chose Rose as my wife to be, and she will always be my waifu.
***
"And that's the end of the story of how I met your mother," I told Daisy.
"Yay! Mommy won! But—how come I don't remember it being this long the first time around?" she asked with a thinking face.
"I didn't finish it because you lost interest midway," I answered her with a speechless face.
"Then, how was I born? I want to hear that part of the story," asked Daisy with a curious face.
"Umm—now that, I'll leave it to your mother," I gestured to Rose.
"What? Hell no, I'm not going to be the one to tell her about that. Your dad is the one who's an expert at it. Let him do the honour," Rose pointed at me.
"I just told the entire plot of my backstory. I'm not about to start another," we continued bickering back and forth.
It has been a long journey, but I'm glad that things turned out this way. Speaking of time, I should get ready to meet the guildmasters tomorrow. They will throw a fit if I don't show up. Things will be rough moving forward, and my gut is telling me that there'll be many more things to accomplish moving forward. I guess the peaceful life that I had enjoyed for the past 15 years is about to come to an end. Am I looking forward to it? Who knows. It is the next part of my story after all.