Chapter 29:

The Weight of History

Changing Jobs in Another World, But Everything's Too Specific, Vol. 1


Daddy walked through the courtyard, hailing each person he saw. Hands in the pockets of his blue jeans, he referred to each guard by name, only ever asking them about their lives. The walk to the front gate was full of 'How's your mother?' and 'I'll swing by to help with that.'

Haruto stayed a step behind Daddy, partly because of the man’s long stride, partly because he wasn’t sure where they were going. The road down from the castle was long and sunlit, cobbled with uneven stones that seemed cleaner and newer than one would expect. Beyond the walls, fields spread wide with lavender grains and fluffy white balls grown on vines.

“Where are we going?” Haruto asked.

“I told you. We're going home,” Daddy said, pointing past a waiting, topless carriage. “That village right down yonder, that there is Aldam, the first city of the humans.”

A familiar face sat at the helm of the carriage. Haruto hadn't been introduced properly but recognized him as the man driving when they exploded like a firework in the sky. The man shot him a smile as they hopped inside of the cabin.

"Haruto, right? The name is Bolto." He said in a friendly tone. "We met briefly."

"Yeah, I remember. Thanks for before. I owe you one." Haruto said as he sat, admiring the leather and carved handiwork.

"You like it?" Bolto chuckled.

"I've never seen a carriage in person..." Haruto's dark expression lightened a little. "It's really cool. Like a dream."

"A dream, huh..." Bolto beamed, rubbing his neck as a large smile spread across his face.

"Bolto here is the best Carriage Engineer in the world." Daddy said proudly as the carriage took off slowly.

"It's not hard to be the best when you're the only one." He replied quietly.

"Now what have I told you about diminishing your accomplishments?" Daddy said warmly. Bolto gave an embarrassed chuckle, and Daddy moved his attention elsewhere. "Alright, Haruto. How are you holding up? The king can get a bit out of hand with people he likes."

"That's him liking me?" Haruto frowned. “I'd hate to see what he does to people he doesn't like."

Daddy chuckled, a warm, unbothered sound. “Well, you've got a point, but the king of humans has to be a bit wacky and unpredictable.”

"Don't you think I might know too much after he showed me all of that?" Haruto asked, a sly smirk crossing his face.

"Now don't you be going on about that." Daddy returned the sly smirk, letting his glasses fall to the tip of his nose as he looked at Haruto. "Aki's already spilled the beans. You don't know a Kalazar from an Ellw."

"I know what those are." Haruto said, poking at the System. "I'm just not in a sharing mood, so if you want to talk about them..."

"I guess I could talk to myself a bit, since you know everything anyway." Daddy reclined, looking toward the town, watching it grow closer. "You see, there are multiple different races in this world, and they all have a pecking order. Humans... let's just say if there's a bottom, humans are below that."

Haruto leaned back and closed his eyes. He remembered all of the powerful humans he had seen just in the past day. Daddy was saying that humans are in the lowest category?

“That doesn't make any sense.” Haruto muttered.

“Not with what you know.” Daddy corrected softly. “The top is a three-way tie. The Ellw are immortal and the origin of all magic. If you ever meet a High Ellw, you run. Then there are the Warmongers of the plains, magic resistant, with immense physical power, basically the complete opposite of the Ellw. Then we have the Kalazar. Blood-draining, everlasting creatures of the night. These three races vie for supremacy in a never-ending deadlock.”

Bolto joined in on the conversation. "Then you've got gun-toting Devbin, Gob-uh-lin's, whom you've met, regular animals, and then us."

"Other than the Devbin and animals, humans are slaves to all other races." Daddy said, wrapping it up.

“Except for here?” Haruto asked, glancing back at the distant silhouette of the castle.

“Yes,” Daddy said, almost smiling. “Here, we are free. Much to the other nations' anger. And we owe that freedom to a simple miner.”

Haruto blinked. “…What?”

“The first king,” Daddy said. “Born a slave in the mines. He loved his only possession, a pickaxe. The way the metal rang against stone, the physical act of carving through the stone. He mined for his master, but he found a joy that no slave had ever felt within it. Then, when he came of age, boom! Pick Hero. He didn't think anything of it. Until he split the mountain, letting all of the slaves within go free.”

Daddy pointed to the mountain in the distance. Haruto hadn't noticed clearly before, but the shape was definitely off. Daddy nodded serenely as Haruto looked back at him.

Haruto rubbed the back of his neck. “…So, what, our entire kingdom exists because some guy just really liked digging holes?”

“History often turns on such obsessions.” Daddy said. “That was the birth of the first specific job. We don't know why they have so much more power, but humans finally had a way to even the playing field.”

Haruto pondered in silence. He had gotten really lucky to land in this country when he fell from the sky. He would probably be enslaved on sight right now.

“And the old king? He didn’t stop with the mountain. Fought with that same pick in hand, too. Split armies, split chains, split the world’s idea of what a human could be.” Bolto turned hard to avoid a pothole in the cobblestones.

Daddy chuckled. “And when he passed, the people had become so unpredictable, the other races begrudgingly granted us sovereignty.”

Haruto leaned his cheek against the back of his hand. The farmland stretched endlessly, dotted with strange livestock with vague similarities to the animals of Haruto's old world. “So… the other races must hate us, right? I mean, one guy rewrote the rules.”

Daddy’s smile didn’t fade, but his voice lost some warmth. “For the most part. A few hundred years have passed, so there are a few exceptions to the rule. The Kalazar laugh at the idea of ‘free cattle.’ The Warmongers probably care the least out of the top three. The Ellw harbor the greatest grudge.”

"Why do the Ellw hate humans the most?" Haruto asked.

"People have to be born with magic. Ellw's are the origin of it. Humans had to do some... horrible things to introduce Ellw blood into our race." Daddy's face sank, as if in shame. "I think you can put it together... Being immortal, they still remember it like it was yesterday."

They rode in silence as the carriage dipped into a shallow valley. The rooftops of Aldam were closing in. Homes and shops clustered around a wide square, smoke curling from brick chimneys. Laughter drifted faintly on the wind, carried from children running through the dusty streets.

Haruto’s heart tightened. It looked normal and slightly modern. Progress is made quickly in a world with empowered specialization.

Bolto tried to push away the heavy turn of conversation. “Haruto, if you like, maybe I can show you some of my other carriages. I've got all kinds of styes.”

"Yeah. I'd like that." Haruto smiled faintly.

The carriage rolled over the wooden bridge toward and into the village proper. Guards stood watch: a scruffy man with a toothpick in his mouth and a handsome and cool swordsman. They gave Haruto a friendly wave and a smile.

He gripped the handle of Yggdrasil at his side and squeezed the System to his chest. He felt anxiety akin to when he was in school. He felt like he did when he forgot his contacts, worried about others' perceptions and fitting in.

Thoughts kept swirling around his head. He worried that there might not be a place for him here. A high voice rang out from down the street. Then he saw her, standing in front of a building decorated with potion bottles. Aki stood in the middle of the road, waving at him with a smile.

Mysticalmess333
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WheatTon
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