Chapter 32: A Lecture from Brother Royce

Short hair, sun-tanned skin, and sharp, slightly glaring eyes—this was his second older brother, Luis. A large shield rested at his side. Perhaps he had just finished training, as a bead of sweat ran down his forehead.

“Ren, huh? What are you doing?”

“Brother Royce… I was washing a burlap sack.”

“A burlap sack?”

Royce narrowed his eyes as if scrutinizing him. He glanced briefly at the sack floating in the basin, then looked back at Ren with disinterest.

“…You’ve got it easy.”

“…Uh…”

Not knowing how to respond, Ren waited for what Royce would say next.

“I hear you’ve been going out all day lately. Skipping training—what exactly are you doing?”

“I have been training…”

“When?”

“Early in the morning.”

At Ren’s answer, Royce lowered his gaze and let out a sigh.

“Only in the morning? What about during the day?”

“Well… I go outside… and run, I guess…”

“And what’s that supposed to accomplish?”

“Uh…”

Ren’s eyes darted nervously. His second brother seemed irritated, and he had no idea what the “right” answer was.

Thud.

Royce planted the shield he was holding firmly on the ground.

“…My skill is ‘Shield Arts.’”

“Yes…”

Of course Ren already knew that. He blinked up at Royce, wondering why he was stating the obvious.

“‘Shield Arts’ is considered a ‘decent skill,’ but it’s not like ‘Swordsmanship.’ A shield can attack, sure, but it’s fundamentally defensive. I disappointed Father and Mother. Same as you, right? …But I decided to focus on what I can do, and I’ve kept training like this. What about you? ‘Small Box,’ was it? It might not be an offensive skill, but are you making any effort to develop it?”

“Huh!?”

Ren’s eyes widened in surprise.

(Brother Royce… is he… worried about me?)

“Get it together!”

Before Ren could respond, Royce smacked his shoulder and turned away, walking off.

Watching his back, Ren took a deep breath.

(Maybe I should’ve told him I’m working as an apprentice adventurer…? …But I still can’t defeat a Horned Rabbit with just a bow. He’d probably just say ‘what are you doing?’ again…)

It made Ren a little happy to think that Royce might actually be concerned about him. But at the same time, he didn’t feel like he had achieved enough to confidently talk about his skill—or his life as an apprentice adventurer.

“‘Making an effort to develop my skill,’ huh…”

Ren summoned a small box onto his palm. He tried strengthening and weakening the light surrounding it.

At first, the “Small Box” only gave off a faint glow. But now, it could protect him from monsters—and even capture them. Still, if someone asked, “Can you actually fight using that skill?”… Ren wasn’t sure he could confidently say yes.

“I need to… try harder… My skill, my bow, my magic…”

After murmuring to himself, Ren clenched the small box tightly in his hand.