Chapter 2. My Only Friend (1)

With 7 silver coins, he could eat for more or less a month, thus Gray felt that his steps were getting lighter. At night, he would sneak outside to the secret place where he would put his meats for Uncle Ten. When he walked to his house, he could see from a distance that somebody was already there. From the looked of it, that person might be bored from waiting as he’s resting leisurely on the wooden bench while counting flower petals.

“He’ll come, he’ll not come, he’ll come, he’ll not come-“

Gray could hear the words he said when he’s getting closer. Hence when the last flower petal should’ve been ‘he’ll not come,’ Gray said casually, “He’ll come~” Hearing the familiar voice, that young boy got up and told him, “Took you long enough. I almost went home, you know,”

“Ppfft, sorry, Leon. Let’s go inside,” Gray gave a small chuckle and walked first in order to welcome his one and only friend in this town. Both of them were of the same age and childhood friends. However, Leon was different with Gray. His father was a rich man who owned 60% of the land in this town, even the market was owned by him, so naturally the merchants there paid the Leon’s family with great respects. Many people would line up and praise him from the head to the toe. Even the clothes that they wore were totally different, from a glance, people could see Leon’s clothes was made from a high quality of silk. Gray’s clothes? Don’t bother to ask, one could see that even with a small wind, he could freeze in the summer. It was super thin and there’re also patches on some parts.

Seeing the rattan bag full of meats on Gray’s back, Leon couldn’t help, but sighed, “I guess it’s still hard to sell your hunts, huh? Next time, don’t try to sell by yourself, let me help you,” Gray put his bag carefully and gestured to Leon to just sit anywhere and answered, “Did you forget, the last time you helped me, your mother was freaking out and punished you, right? I can still remember her scary expressions, running out from the carriage like that,” Gray couldn’t help, but hugged himself tight and shivered. (ノдヽ)

The incident was totally a legendary moment in the town, the villagers would never imagine that one day, they could see the most elegant woman in this town, stumbling out from her carriage with messy hair and then continued to smack her only son in the public. Both of them were only 12 that year, being angered at like that, of course they could only wail until their throat sore. She also hit Gray a couple of times back then while giving him so many types of curses.

“Right, now that I think about it. It was fun to see her like that. She always acts so elegant and graceful,” Leon couldn’t help, but started to laugh when he also remembered it. After that, his mother was so embarrassed and wouldn’t go outside for months. Of course, his punishment was not light either, but at night, he would sneak out and hang out at Gray’s house. After he’s finally calmed down, he said with a sorry face, “Ugh, I hope you don’t remember too much about the stupid things she said, right?”

“How could I forget about it??” Gray raised his eyebrows in disbelief and continued, “Back then she definitely said that if you’re hanging out too much with me, your future wife would get snatched by me! Now that I think about it, it means she’s praising my handsome look, right?”

“Huh? You must already forget about it. She’s definitely said that if I hang out too much with you, no women would dare came too close because you’re only know how to swing the wooden sword! You’re going to drive them away by brute force, not your handsomeness!”

Both of them kept disagreeing and twisting the incident in order to compliment themselves. At last, they stopped their bluffing with a big laughter and then Gray stood up to pick up a wooden sword. With a gentle motion, he traced it and one could see how worn out the wooden sword was. The texture was uneven and the point was already too blunt. Leon looked from the sideways and thought to himself, only morons would call it a sword because right now, no matter how many times he saw it, it was definitely a bat!

Gray could feel his gaze and swing it a couple of times before he said, “I know why you’re here. Let’s spar!” Hearing those words, Leon couldn’t help, but smirk. As expected from his best friend, he could know it all, huh. He rummaged through a box in the living room and found a wooden dagger. Its state was also very poor, but it still way better than Gray’s. This wooden dagger had always been his favourite weapon inside the box. He’s still far from perfect, but one day, he really wanted to learn how to fully use this kind of weapon. This small yet deadly weapon if one could properly utilize it. “Let’s do a warm up, first,” he said while walking outside towards the yard.

If strangers were looking at them now, they might mistakenly think that both of them were apprentices under a martial school. Their moved were in unison and neatly performed, also the basic of martial arts were conducted flawlessly. One would certainly sure that these two people were already familiar with martial arts. After warming up for about 30 minutes, Gray and Leon stand face to face and held their weapons tightly. Gray was seriously staring at Leon, he didn’t have the usual easy-going smile on his face and totally focus to his opponent. On the other side, Leon was grinning and without hesitating, he launched forward in a second. Gray didn’t show any sign of surprises and defended the fast attack calmly. With a swift movement, he directed his kick at Leon’s side, however the other party could dodge it too.

They were already exchanging many moves, but there’s still no signs of surrendering from both parties. Still, Gray could see that Leon was already breathing heavily. At that moment, he felt proud because it meant that he had higher stamina than Leon, thus he couldn’t help, but to raise the corner of his lips. Seeing his opponent suddenly looked so happy, Leon gave a short snort and pledged that he would not give up! At that moment, he could see an opening and without hesitating, he gave Gray a sweet punch on the face. Shocked, Gray was knocked out to the ground and his wooden sword fell with a thud.