Vol.1 Ch.2 - The Grimheart household

This is basically how my days in Whitehood play out – I read my copy ofSchnell’s Handbook over and over again, my parents start making friendlyjeers at my expense, I get mad and step out of line, and they snap afterhearing me spout too much nonsense. Well, when I put it like that, I make itsound like my parents are some kind of abusive monsters, but that really isn’tthe case.I know better than to make such kind and amazing people look bad, so I’ll behonest when I say that they really are the best parents I could’ve ever askedfor. They’re both hardworking adults who run a flourishing business, mydad’s a butcher and my mom’s a lovely housewife. Both of them are alwaysso lively and talkative, and I’ve never once felt like they weren’t giving meeverything I could’ve ever asked for.They shower me with love and affection, put food on my plate and a roofover my head. Truly, they are the spitting image of what a good family shouldstrive to be. That being the case, what you saw just now wasn’t really theirfault, they only snapped like that because I was stepping out of line for the nthtime this month. I mean, if I was a parent and my child wanted to do theirown thing, I’d probably let them, but my situation and their situation wasn’tentirely the same. Dad took up butchering from his dad, and he took it upfrom his dad, and so forth… Breaking this long-lived chain for a selfishreason as my own would probably leave my entire family tree with a souraftertaste.Even still, I don’t wanna cut up animals for their meat and sell it to thelocals. I wanna travel! See the world, just like Schnell Douglas! He’s myhero, it’s thanks to his Handbook that I learned how to read before the otherkids, and even though I was bullied for being a know-it-all bookworm, Icouldn’t care in the slightest! Even then I could see the beauty of Schnell’shard work and aspirations shine through, leading to me becoming who I amtoday! The thing is, most of the information about the world he talks about inhis Volumes are quite outdated, but no one really cared and chalked it up as‘historical documentation’.That’s when I asked myself Why don’t I be the one to take up the mantle?And so I decided that I will one day leave this little village of mine andtravel the entire world, documenting my time in each and every country untilI’ve updated all of the contents of Schnell’s Handbook! I can already pictureit – Lune’s Handbook!But that’s still a long way’s away. First and foremost, I’m still just a punyeleven year old, living with my parents. Oh right, I do believe that Schnelltalked about his parents at the start of his first volume, so I should probablydo the same.My father, Lock Grimheart, is a 40 year old man who is currently worriedabout his no-good lazy son who doesn’t wanna take up the family business.He’s this stoic beast of a man who’s built like a brick wall and has the facialstructure of a God. No, seriously, he’s that well-built! I can only hope that I’llgrow to a fraction of his handsomeness one day…In any case, his hair color differs from mine in the sense that it’s black (asopposed to brown), and his Eye Color is Brown. This is very important,because it just goes to show you just how much he wants to live a quiet andpeaceful life away from any and all risks. He’s that type of person, the typewho lived the textbook definition of a life. He got a basic education at around16, inherited my grandpa’s family business of butchering, found himself awife and had me. That’s basically all that happened in his life, and that’sbasically all you’re gonna get from him.Another thing to note is his scary-looking face. As I mentioned previously,the guy’s a stoic through and through. He doesn’t care what others think ofhim and usually has this very cold and menacing glare he gives to people,leading to some pretty nasty rumors spreading about his ‘dark past’. I’veheard a lot of things about him that I know for a fact aren’t true, but the onethat hit me the most is the rumor that he’s an ex-convict from The Island ofExuul. That’s a horrible thing to call someone! This guy wouldn’t hurt akitten! Then again, he is a butcher… B-But he only chops up dead animals,okay!? And the Prison on the Island of Exuul closed down almost a thousandyears ago! He’s not that old!Even still, this little rumor about him grew to such a reputable size thatpeople gave him the harsh sounding nickname “Grim”. This was because heonly ever showed his happy emotions to his family, and only ever glared atanybody else. I don’t really know why that is, but since I’m the benefittingparty, I’ll withhold my judgement.Oh, but my mother on the other hand, she doesn’t have a single bad rumorabout her. In fact, I’d say I’ve only ever heard some of the local husbands ofthe village come up to me and ask me to help them get closer to her. Nastydrunkards…! A person can only have one lover at a time, and moreimportantly, a kid can only have two parents, tops!She’s actually quite slim and petite. Too slim, in my opinion, at time’s I eventhink I see a bone popping out of her elbow, only to realize that she’s justsuper skinny. I guess I can see why all the other housewives of the villageregularly ask her about dieting advice, but really she just doesn’t eat all thatmuch. Something to do with appetite, I’m not quite sure. All’s I know isevery time she tries to make me eat something I don’t wanna, I can alwaysshoot back How about you try eating some yourself! and she usually won’thave anything to reply with.Another thing to note about her appearance, her hair is blonde. I don’t knowhow blonde and black make brown, but I guess that’s just how color theoryworks. Eh, that’s unimportant. What is important is her Eye Color – Yellow!That’s right, my mom has Yellow Eyes! Bet you’ve never met someone likethat before!She could’ve been president of the world with those Eyes of hers, but shestill chose to lay back and enjoy a peaceful lifestyle with her family… Howkind of her! Choosing to teach me all about the world instead of chasing herown aspirations, she really is a powerhouse of a lady! Well, then again, theonly reason I’m exclusively praising her is because she gave birth to me. If Iwas in her position I’d already be a world-class leader, but if she chose tofollow that path then I wouldn’t even be here talking about her now, would I?If you’re wondering why I’m so fixated on their Eye Color, I’m a bit tiredright now so I’ll explain it later, but just know that it’s important! Right now Igotta clock out early, because tomorrow is my twelfth birthday!***Yaaawn! Good morning! Did you sleep well? Just kidding, I seriously doubtanyone would stop reading this to go to sleep at the same time as me. Well,who knows? Maybe you’re the type of person to really get immersed in yourliterature, in which case I applaud you! In any case, the house is unusuallyquiet today. Hmm, I wonder why that is…?“Oh, well!” I said as I got out of my bed with a loudly sarcastic tone,“Usually, dad could be heard chopping up the meat for an order he got rightaround this time, and from the kitchen my mom could usually be heard makingus breakfast, but since I can’t hear that, I guess I’ll just head outside to playwithout asking for their permission!”At this cheeky little remark, the doors to my room slammed open and my dadjumped right inside. Whoa, I didn’t think my little prank would actually workthis well! Did he really think I would ever do that? I’m not a delinquent,dammit.“S-Son!” He quickly shook me up, “Y-You can’t go outside because err… RRight, today is uhh, International Stay Inside Day!”“Geez, honey, you couldn’t have thought of a better lie on the spot?” My momfollowed right behind him with a cake in her hands, “Morning, Lune. Happybirthday!”“Heh, International Stay Inside Day…” I teased my father a bit, “I supposethat’s alright. I wouldn’t mind if they made such a holiday, especially for mybirthday.”“Hey! Since when did you get so cheeky?” He asked with a flushedexpression, “I swear, you’re just like your mother when you’re like this…”“And what’s that supposed to mean, dear?” Mom’s terrifying aura could beseen as she loomed over him.“N-Nothing!” He tried to save face, “It means the both of you have such uhh,colorful personalities! Right, colorful, that’s the word I was looking for!”Ah, this is a way more accurate image of the Grimheart household.Everyone’s laughing and smiling, and none of the teasing is meant to containany ill-will within it. We’re all just doing this in good fun. That being thecase, I’m still in my pajamas, so these two need to get the hell out so I can getproperly dressed for the occasion!After a few more minutes, I ran down the stairs, my eyes glimmering withexcitement. I already got a bit of a sneak peek as to what this birthday partyentails, and that’s my mother’s signature Chocolate Banana Cake! It’s myfavorite type of cake, so it’s to be expected that she’d serve it for mybirthday. There’s actually a pretty funny story about this cake’s conception.You see, when I was still just a baby and my teeth hadn’t grown in properly,my mom had to think of a way to get her picky eater of a son to eat withoutchewing. That’s when she came up with this recipe. As the story goes, with aproud expression she put the cake in front of me, and I apparently enjoyed thecake so much that I had my first baby tooth fall out that day.I personally don’t remember this event, but my parents like to talk about it atevery family gathering we’ve had ever since. My dad would always talkabout just proud his wife was that she came up with such a smart solution forthe issue, only for it to immediately fall apart due to my appetite. Shortlyfollowing his jeers would be my mother’s pleas for him to stop talking aboutsuch an embarrassing moment whilst daintily punching him in the shoulder.Back to the present, we had our filling and after that came, well, presents!My parents gifted me a school backpack, which is very thoughtful of them.You see, we kind of live in the sticks of Secundis, and the only schools thatactually exist are on the other side of the world, in the continent ofSimpleton. Now that’s obviously too far out for me to go to at my age, butthey meant for the present to be a more symbolic thing than anything. It wassort of like saying “You like reading, so here’s to hoping you’ll one dayattend a good University!”“How do you like your present?”“It’s amazing! Thanks so much!” I gave them both a hug as I continued, “Idon’t have to carry around the Handbook under my arm anymore! I couldeven fit some snacks while I’m at it!”“Haha! Just make sure not to get that damned book dirty! It costed a prettypenny, y’know?”And just like that, the day passed in the blink of an eye. Some of theneighbors stopped by our house to tell me happy birthday, but apart from thatwe mostly just had fun at home for today. Both of them took a break fromtheir usual busy schedule to enjoy some time with their son, which I’m verythankful for. Y’know, I was planning on leaving home to start my journeytomorrow, but seeing them like this… Yeah, I’ll wait a bit longer before Ileave.***Well, maybe ‘a bit longer’ was kind of an understatement, cause it’s been awhole year since then. I wanted to postpone the journey for tomorrow, then aweek later, then a month, and so on… But it’s not my fault! It’s because dadwanted to teach me proper sword training, and that’s a very important skill tohave if you wanna travel the world!Actually, the reason he did that was because he really wanted me to becomea knight for some noble. The reason for this was because he knew of thebenefits of working there. He had many friends who enlisted in the army andwould tell him about all the riches and fame they get just from being directlyunder an important person such as a duke or prince. The other benefit to thisis the fact that I’d get to travel to another country, although then I’d have tostay there for basically the rest of my life, which doesn’t really align with myideals (but he doesn’t need to know that).The actual training was very detailed. Some would even argue that it was toodetailed. To begin, my father didn’t even allow me to grab hold of a woodentraining sword until I had trained my body to be able to easily wield it.Coming from someone who much rather prefers reading books than lugging asword around, this is actually the part that took the most time, 8 months to beexact.After that, he taught me the basic stances that he knew of and we practicedtogether for the remaining duration of the year. Now, on my thirteenthbirthday, my father was particularly excited. My mom was happy as well,yes, but not nearly as he was. As you can probably guess, he gifted me a realsword made of iron he custom ordered from the blacksmith. I can onlyimagine how much that cost, but I’ve been taught not to think about the priceof a present and just accept it wholeheartedly, which is exactly what I’mgonna do!“T-This is incredible!” I said as I took hold of the scabbard, “You’re sayingthis is mine now?”“Yep. Although it might be a bit too big for you right now, but when you growup and become a knight, it’ll surely come in handy!”Eh? So can I carry it around or not?“Wait, the way you’re phrasing it, it kind of sounds like you’re not letting meuse it now, but rather when I grow up.”“That’s exactly right. Come on, Lune, when have you ever seen a thirteenyear old carry around a real sword before? Think of this as something like anheirloom of yours until you get to finally use it. An heirloom, but like,backwards? What was the word for that again?”“A prototype?” I answered back with a raised eyebrow, indicating I toodidn’t know for sure.“Yeah! Prototype! That’s the word! Think of it like a prototype!”After that, the day passed just like the previous year. The only difference isthat this time I knew what had to be done, so I packed all my essentials intomy backpack and snuck out of the house in the middle of the night.