Gus probably had no desire to enable anyone other than himself to understand the meaning of the Words he wrote. I had no doubt that if I brought a sorcerer of even considerable skill here, this mist of Gus’s would have them burying their head in their hands.
“Hmm… This Word is placed here, and this one over here, so…”
Of course, that obstacle meant nothing to me.
“Knowing Gus, he’ll have set up this here… and this will be this way… and of course the obvious answer means that right here is a trap…” I made my fingers dance and cast Words into the appropriate places within the mist. The mist smoothly receded, leaving a tunnel-shaped passage. “Okay. Let’s go.”
It was like unlocking the door to my house. It didn’t require any real effort.
Once we escaped the long tunnel of mist, scenery unfolded all at once before us. A refreshing wind blew past. Having come all the way up the river, we saw a city of stone spread out before us, built up to the edge of a vast lake. It felt medieval, or even older. I could see tall towers and an aqueduct built with a series of beautiful arches.
All of it was aged and in ruins. Many of the buildings’ roofs had collapsed, and the plaster on the walls had fallen off, leaving the buildings in a state of pitiful disrepair. Grass grew through gaps in the streets’ stone paving, and green vines and moss clung to the buildings. The city was wasting away among the greenery as though it was enjoying a quiet doze after all of the activity that must once have taken place here, and the light of the sun shone softly over it all.
A shiver ran up my spine. This sight brought back memories. It brought back so many memories. How many times had I dreamed of returning here?
The sleek boat glided soundlessly up the river and arrived at the lake, which was filled with clear water and glittering brightly in the sunlight. I saw a small hill. On the top of that hill stood the ancient remains of a temple, unchanged, just the way I had always known it. A quiet gasp escaped my lips, and tears came to my eyes. A flood of powerful emotions tore at my heart.
“Hey.” Someone clapped me on the back.
“Menel?”
“Get going. We’ll tie the boat and catch up.”
After that comment, I couldn’t resist any longer. “Thank you!” I shouted, and I leaped from the boat towards the shore in a single bound of several meters. I was in such a rush that I almost fell over as I landed, but I hastily regained my balance and ran through the nostalgic ruined city.
As I sprinted, the scenery flew by me on both sides at a terrific speed.
Jumping over anything that was in my way, I ran breathlessly like a child. The temple drew closer.
I ran up the hill. “Blood, Mary, I’m back! I’ll fill you in later!” I gave a hurried greeting to their graves and performed a short prayer, then flung open the door to the temple. “Gus, I’m back!”
What I had returned to was silence. Those nostalgic sculptures of the gods looked just as they always had, bathed in the sun’s rays streaming from the skylight. The temple was very quiet.
“Huh…?” I looked left and right. As I glanced around the temple, I called out several times. “Gus? Gus?”
Where was he? Gus…?
“Gus? Are you here? Gus?”
I was suddenly seized with anxiety. My chest tightened with panic.
Gus? Don’t tell me—
“BAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!” The loud shout from behind me caused me to nearly jump out of my skin. I turned around as the shout was replaced by gleeful cackling. “Unpreparedness is the greatest enemy of all!”
Pale and half-transparent, with unfriendly eyes and a hooked nose that made him look as crotchety as he was, wearing a robe and generally looking exactly as I’d been remembering him for years—
“Welcome home, Will.”
Old Grandpa Gus was there.
Something warm filled my heart. Once the fact that I had finally returned home hit me, I no longer knew what to say.
Gus pretended to place his hands slowly on my shoulders. Of course, Gus’s spectral body and mine could never touch, but even though it might have been my imagination, I thought I could feel warmth.
“Will.” Gus looked me in the eyes, and with the most serious of expressions, he said, “Have you made money?!”
“That’s the first thing out of your mouth?!” As usual, he came out with something that was all kinds of awful. “How about, you know, ‘You’re okay,’ or something like that?!”
“Oh, shut up! You were trained by Mary, Blood, and myself, lest you forget!
The idea that you could die that easily is preposterous! I wasn’t the least bit worried about your safety! Not the least bit, you hear me?!” He repeated it for emphasis.
I know that! You don’t need to say it!
“Ugh. Okay, fine! Yes, I’ve got the money changing hands and making itself useful.”
“Oh?! Specifically?!”
“I understand the strong interest, but why do you look a bit surprised?”
“Well, with you being such a kind soul, I’d been considering the possibility of you getting fleeced.”
That was mean. Though, okay, yeah, I guess it could have happened.
“Umm, off the top of my head: a trading company, a port, warehouses for rent, a lumber mill, a tannery, a smithy, ceramic kilns…” I also had arrangements with each of the settlements to lend them the money to buy farming tools and livestock, and I’d put money into public infrastructure as well. I wasn’t running everything perfectly in the black, but the money I spent was definitely ‘living’
like Gus said, so as I listed off everything on my fingers, I figured he’d be pleased enough. But his mouth was agape for some reason. “What is it?”
“What are you involved in right now?”
“Umm, I’m the feudal lord of the area down the river.”
“Feu—?!”
“Heheh. Surprised?”
Gus hummed. “I see.” His face turned sympathetic. “So some dowager’s sunk her claws into you. You poor child.”
“Why are you assuming I’ve had… claws sunk into me?!”
“If you haven’t, I suggest the second daughter of a declining aristocratic family who’s about one step away from missing the boat. Ripe and luscious.”
“Oh my god, stop, you’re disgusting!”
That was horrible! So horrible! I mean, sure, it wasn’t like I’d figured out how to approach women and stuff, but even so… horrible!
“I won my territory and my title on my own by skill! I’m a respected paladin now, so there!” I stuck my chest out. I’d done so much in the past two years. I thought I should be allowed to brag to Gus at least.
He grunted in approval. “Yes, you have done well for your age in such a short amount of time without any prior connections.”
“See?”
“And what about love?”
I looked away.
Well, you know, I thought. Yeah. It’s like, I’m devoting my life to God, and mydestiny is to fight and I might die at any moment, so, I mean, having a family andstuff like that, I’m not sure if it’s really…
“So if I understand correctly, you’re wussing out and you don’t know anyone in the first place.”
That cut deep.
“Ohhh, how I long to gaze upon the face of my great-grandchild before I move on to the next life…”
“Will you stop being so deliberately annoying?!”
“So my grandchild turns out to be a wuss who can’t score with a single woman.”
“I, I’m, I’m not a wuss!”