Childhood Friend – Starting Funds
His vision fell from the vast sky. It was the intro video he had seen before. It must have finally come full circle.
The video panned across the peaceful village and closed up on Lena in the forest. She was slinging an old leather sack over her shoulder and looking back at him.
As soon as he entered Leo's body, Leo's new consciousness immediately kicked Minseo's consciousness into a corner. And Leo was particularly sensitive to 'his own story' among Minseo's memories.
“Leo! Are you listening to me?”
“Lena!”
He was back.
He met Lena of Demos Village again. The Lena who had greeted him when he first entered this game. They had parted ways after getting married.
Leo shouted with joy at seeing her again, but she gave him a puzzled look.
“What’s gotten into you all of a sudden?”
Lena had no idea what had happened.
Leo was at a loss for words and felt a pang of sadness. He had memories of marrying her, but to her, he was still her childhood friend.
He swallowed hard, pushing down the sadness he wanted to pour out. It hurt, but he told himself it was for the best.
He couldn’t live like this, repeating endlessly. It would be mentally unbearable, and he felt it would be doing Lena a disservice.
So, in the end, he had to make Lena the princess and finish this, but if she remembered the past, she would never be able to escape this place.
It was fortunate that Lena didn’t remember the past. Leo gritted his teeth.
“Leo?”
As Lena approached, puzzled, he forced a smile and made an excuse, saying he was just kidding.
‘What should I do...’
Leo fell into deep thought.
Lena teased him, saying his joke wasn't funny. To make her a princess, he had to get out of this village and take her to the capital somehow. But just like every other time he had pondered this, it wouldn’t be easy.
He remembered the event where they would leave for the Holy Cross Church. He could use that event to easily send Lena to the capital of the Jerom Holy Kingdom, but priests couldn’t get married.
Now he realized he was at a dead end.
If he sent Lena away through the event, she would become a priest who couldn’t become a princess, and if he didn’t send her away, he would end up marrying her.
Either way, he couldn’t clear the game.
As he was scratching his head in frustration, he felt something heavy in his pocket.
When he pulled it out, it was eight silver coins and five copper coins. He remembered receiving something called {Starting Funds} as a scenario reward at the end.
Along with that, the ending of his younger sister Lena flashed through his mind, but he quickly pushed it aside and hid the money in his pocket. Fortunately, Lena was busy picking berries and didn’t see.
‘With this money!’
Leo excitedly fiddled with the money in his pocket.
This was a considerable sum.
It was nowhere near enough to go all the way to the Jerom Holy Kingdom, but if he was frugal, he could at least make it to Nebis, the capital of the Ohrun Kingdom, or Lutina, the capital of the Conrad Kingdom.
‘Yes! Let's leave the village with this. That will solve all the problems.’
The priest who was leaving for the Holy Cross Church would arrive around autumn, so if they left for Nebis before then, everything would be fine. And he figured he could find the prince of the Ohrun Kingdom while they were staying in the capital.
Feeling relieved at having come up with a plausible plan, Leo even started whistling as he began picking berries, and Lena, who had a sullen look on her face, gave him a strange look as he quickly returned to his cheerful self.
* * *
As soon as his father returned from hunting, Leo pestered him to go hunting again. His father moved up the schedule at his son's urging.
He had always wanted to teach his son the sacred art of hunting. Pleased with his son's enthusiasm, he smiled faintly, repacked his gear, and they set off the next day.
The place where Leo and his father hunted was a bit far. They had to cross two mountains, so it took a whole day just to get to the hunting lodge.
The hunter's lodge was a small fortress in the mountains.
Traps were densely laid out around the lodge, and warning signs were posted everywhere. It was a warning to prevent bandits from raiding the lodge while the hunters were away.
To a hunter, bandits weren't that much of a threat. They just had to be careful about their lodge being raided while they were away, and bandits actually avoided hunters.
It was too risky for bandits to go after hunters who had traps set everywhere. They were afraid that if they angered the hunters, they might report them, so if a hunter spotted them and gave them a warning, the bandits would just back off or try to make a deal.
The next day, Leo and his father went out hunting, checking the traps and setting new ones.
Leo was proactive.
Using his {Hunting} skill, he searched for traces of prey, estimated their range of activity, and set up traps suitable for each animal.
He even succeeded in a drive hunt, setting traps in secret for a herd of Migas (small omnivorous animals that resemble a cross between a duck and a pig, found in forests, with no distinction between male and female) and startling them from the opposite direction.
His father quietly followed Leo, who was showing great enthusiasm.
As evening fell, they finished hunting and returned to the lodge. His father, as always, offered a sacrifice to Barbatos and began to cook after removing the entrails.
The small lungs of the Migas sizzled over the fire.
“Leo, you've improved a lot.”
His father, who was cooking, suddenly spoke up. He must have been impressed by Leo's skills, as he opened his usually tight-lipped mouth.
Leo didn’t miss the opportunity.
“Father, there's something I want to tell you...”
He said he was going to take Lena and leave the village, and showed him the {Starting Funds}. He lied, saying it was money he had saved up from secretly hunting for a long time.
“I was lucky enough to catch a bear in a trap a while back...”
It was true that hunting brought in money, but it was a bit much for a teenager to have, so he had to embellish the truth.
As he spun a tale about tracking down a wounded bear caught in a trap and luring it into another trap to catch it, his father, who had been impressed by his hunting today, listened silently and nodded in understanding.
Leo continued.
“Lena wants to go to the Holy Cross Church, and I want to help her get there somehow. Her family can’t even afford to think about sending her, even if they wanted to. With this money, we can get to Nebis, and then all we need is enough for travel expenses from there to Lutetia. I can’t send Lena alone... Would it be alright if I went with her?”
At his son's words, which were a mixture of truth and lies, his father stroked his rough beard. After staring into the fire for a while with a stiff posture, he got up and went into the lodge.
Leo stayed put and finished cooking the lungs.
His father came out of the lodge shortly after and abruptly held out a small pouch. The pouch, which jingled with the sound of coins, was placed in Leo's hand. When he opened it, it was full of silver coins.
And that was it. His father poured some blood over the almost-cooked lungs.
“Father, thank you.”
He didn’t say another word, but it was a sign of permission. Leo wasn't as uncomfortable with the silence as he used to be.
The father and son silently chewed on the lungs.