Chapter 1 - Prologue: Retiring as an Adventurer
I was an orphan. One of many children left at a church, knowing neither the faces nor the names of my parents.
I was a poor orphan, the kind you could find anywhere.
Because the church was operated on meager funds like donations from the people, it was difficult to feed all the orphans entrusted to them.
Every day, no matter how much I worked, I couldn't get decent food. Hard bread and soup without ingredients were considered a luxurious meal, and at the worst of times, there were days when I couldn't eat at all.
Hating those days, I decided to risk my life to earn money.
At first, I used weapons that couldn't even be called swords—sharpened wooden sticks or stones—and faced the monsters outside the city.
The monsters a child could defeat were insignificant, but I thought it was much better than working at the poor church. If I defeated monsters, I could obtain materials and meat; selling them brought in money, and roasting the meat provided food. I thought this was the way for me to survive.
Learning that registering with the Adventurer's Guild would provide access to various monster-slaying quests and even more money, I registered at the Adventurer's Guild that very day.
I stole techniques from skilled adventurers, sometimes begged for instruction, and improved my skills by subjugating monsters one after another, starting with goblins.
Companions who learned of my actions began to do the same, and we came to hunt monsters together, risking our lives.
Even monsters with great power could be defeated more efficiently if I had companions.
Sometimes deaths occurred, but it couldn't be helped. In this harsh world, it was only natural that those without strength or luck could not survive.
Repeating such things as I grew into an adult, I had finally become an A-rank adventurer, called the best in the kingdom.
To survive, strength was everything.
If you had strength, you could earn money, eat delicious food, and sleep in a soft futon.
Seeking my own strength, I polished my skills and completed quests with my companions; at twenty-seven years old, I even defeated a dragon, known as the strongest species, and obtained vast wealth and honor.
And then, I suddenly realized.
That I was no longer hungry. That I had already obtained enough strength and wealth, and I would no longer struggle to survive.
There was no longer a need to defeat monsters.
There was no longer a need to fight while risking my life.
When I thought that, strength drained from my body all at once, and I lost sight of my goal.
Even though the meaning of defeating monsters had vanished within me, danger still roamed rampant in this world.
I was asked many times to subjugate vicious monsters, but in this state, I didn't feel I could fight, so I stopped accepting quests.
I was already twenty-seven. I had long passed the peak of my physical prime, and my skill and reactions were only declining. Having lost the goal that was my mental support on top of that, I didn't think I could continue the harsh life of an adventurer.
It was the perfect time to retire as an adventurer.
Then, just how was I going to live from now on?
Stay in the royal capital like this, build a luxurious house, and live as I pleased? No.
Become an instructor at the Adventurer's Guild and train juniors? Even if I possessed a certain level of skill and technique, it would be strange for someone with no intention of fighting monsters to teach the exchange of lives. It would be pitiful for those being taught.
A frontier territory with many monsters and a title, a knight order, or a noble's guard. There were many other choices, but all of them involved fighting.
I wasn't troubled for money, and lately, strange groups had started following me around, so I was growing tired of living in the royal capital.
I just wanted to distance myself from life-threatening combat and live a slow, normal life.
The moment I thought that, a vision of a certain place came to mind.
A small village where vivid flower fields that changed colors with the seasons spread out. There were rice paddies, fields, a beautiful river, and it was surrounded by large mountains. It was rich in nature's blessings, and the food was very delicious. The population was small, a quiet place where everyone lived a peaceful, self-sufficient life.
If I recall, the name was Nordende. Yes, it was a village in another country that I headed to for a quest before I met my current companions.
It was a village I had visited only once, but perhaps because the colorful flower fields were so beautiful, it remained vividly in my memory.
At that time, I had finished the quest quickly and spent the whole day gazing at the flower fields.
...It might be good to live slowly in Nordende.
I might not be able to get married since I was well past the marriageable age, but living in a small house, tilling the fields while hunting, and having a peaceful life wasn't bad. Besides, I could see those beautiful flower fields every day.
When I visited last time, it was spring, just like now. Various flowers in vivid pink, red, orange, yellow, and white would surely be blooming in profusion.
My heart throbbed at the thought of seeing that sight once more. I, who had felt no motivation to do anything since subjugating the dragon, felt vitality ignite in my body.
I wanted to go right now.
Thinking that, I summoned the members of Black Silver, my party companions, to the inn.
Lately, being at the guild meant being exposed to various stares, so I couldn't even relax there.