Chapter 6: Future Direction
After that, Ren vaguely remembered his father saying more things, but he couldn’t recall them clearly.
He returned to his room with his shoulders slumped and summoned the small box, staring blankly at its faint light.
“What am I supposed to do… from now on…”
After silently gazing at the dim glow for a while, Ren muttered under his breath.
He hadn’t been told to “leave the house.” And yet, it felt as if the path in front of him had suddenly collapsed.
Beyond that broken path, he imagined his siblings walking forward with their backs turned to him.
“…Even if I can summon a glowing small box…”
His lips trembled. Fighting back tears, he tightened his mouth and, to distract himself, summoned several small boxes.
Pop. Pop.
The boxes appeared and softly illuminated his surroundings.
They lit up the book resting at the edge of his bed.
On its cover, he could read the words: “Royal Noble Academy.”
It was likely a textbook his father or grandfather had used as students.
“…So I really can’t go to the academy…”
He flipped the book open. A ribbon marked the page he had studied the night before.
After obtaining the “Small Box” skill and realizing it could produce light, his desire to study had only grown stronger.
Since then, he had been reading every night under its glow.
Perhaps, somewhere in his heart, he had already sensed this outcome. A faint sense of urgency had always been there.
“…I can’t go to the academy…? It’s because we don’t have enough money…”
He lined the glowing small boxes neatly across his bed and lay down.
“What happens if I don’t go to the academy… me…”
(Will I just stay in this house forever? Am I just a burden?)
He remembered the faces of his parents when they heard he had obtained the “Small Box” skill—those sighs of disappointment.
He didn’t think they wanted him to stay at home forever. Even today, when he had been summoned by his father, he had half expected to be told to leave.
“…Maybe… someday they’ll say it.”
He vaguely guessed it might be around the age when he would have gone to the academy. Or maybe even sooner.
“What should I do? Live on my own?”
(Rent… utilities…)
“…Rent?”
He tilted his head at the unfamiliar word that came to mind, but he somehow understood that living alone required money.
“Money, huh…”
Going to the academy required money. Living alone also required money.
“Money… what should I do…”
Then he suddenly remembered the time a knight who had once visited his father had given him the horn of a two-horned bird.
On his way to the mansion, the knight had brought back a hunted two-horned bird, offered the meat for dinner, and given away the feathers and horns.
“Take these to the adventurer’s guild, and you’ll get some pocket money.”
He had said that while handing over two horns. Lewis, who had been nearby, had received the feathers.
Pop.
Ren created a brighter small box, illuminating the entire room.
He sat up and walked toward the closet.
From deep inside, he pulled out a wooden box.
Wrapped inside cloth were the horns, claws, and other parts of monsters—things he had received as incidental gifts. Among them were the two-horned bird’s horns.
“If I sell these, I’ll get money… Wait! Maybe I could just hunt them myself?”
Not far from the mansion was the entrance to a forest. He had always been told not to go near it because monsters lived there, and he had never once entered.
“If I go into the forest and hunt magical beasts…”
(Couldn’t I earn money that way?)
As if to solidify his resolve, Ren tightly gripped the two-horned bird horn in his hand.