Reconciliation

Later when 3 p.m. rolled around, he played knight with Krena as usual.

However, that was not all that happened that day.

Around dusk, Allen's parents said they had business to take care of and left the house.

Theresia came back not long after, but Rodin did not return until an hour later.

"Huh? Wait, what happened, Rodin?!" Theresia exclaimed in shock when she saw the bruises all over her husband's body. His face was swollen where it looked like he had taken several punches.

However, he said nothing and simply kept his head down.

***

Three days passed with Theresia repeatedly questioning Rodin after the bruises and him continuing to stay mum with a sullen face.

On the fourth day, the answer came through Krena.

As it turned out, he had gotten into a fight with Gerda. She did not fully understand the reason for the fight, but considering how it had happened on the same day after the Appraisal Ceremony, Allen suspected that it had something to do with himself being Talentless and all his stats being "E."

Allen had been sending telepathic messages to the gods requesting clarification and rectification in regards to his appraisal results every single day since the Ceremony. He did so clutching his grimoire, but had yet to receive an answer, glowing page or otherwise.

However, back in his previous life, he had once lost a piece of equipment he had spent a whole year crafting due to a server crash, something that was inarguably the game company's fault. After that, he spammed the management staff on a daily basis until they finally used backup data to restore his item.

In the same vein, Allen intended on praying to the gods every single day until they responded.

"Allen, are you ready?"

"Yes, mama."

There was not really all that much to do in preparation, so Allen just grabbed his wooden sword. In a flash of self-awareness, he realized that he had picked up a weird habit from Krena.

"Come on, honey, you're coming too. I know you've been awake for quite a while already. Stop pretending to be asleep!" Theresia barked, holding Mash with one hand and tugging at Rodin with the other.

Apparently her husband was still feeling sullen.

Currently, their family was just about to head over to Krena's house. They were going to have dinner together, so Theresia grabbed a basket filled with ingredients before they set off.

'It's been so long since I last visited Krena's place.'

It was now five and a half years since Allen had been born into this world.

He had started playing frequently with Krena after turning three, but she was the one who came over almost every single time. As such, he had had very few opportunities visiting her house.

Around fifteen minutes later, Allen's family reached their destination.

They found a woman with short, curly pink hair and blue eyes waiting for them. When she spotted them, she said in an energetic voice, "There you are!"

"Mathilda, I'm so sorry for all the trouble that Rodin caused you the other day."

"Oh, hey, don't worry about it! Gerda's also old enough to have known better."

This woman who spoke in the tone of a reliable older sister was Mathilda, Krena's mother. She led Allen's family inside her house. They were going to be staying over for the night.

As soon as they stepped inside, Krena bounced out and said, "Welcome, Allen!" This was the first time Allen's entire family had come over, so she was even more excited than usual.

There was an area with an earthen floor, an inner space with a sunken fireplace, and two rooms. The layout of the place was practically identical to Allen's house.

"Seriously, how much longer do you plan on sulking for?! And you've been awake for the past while, haven't you?!" Mathilda exclaimed as she used one hand to drag Gerda's bear-like body out from their bedroom.

His face was also covered with bruises, just like Rodin's.

After that, Theresia and Mathilda worked together to prepare dinner.

During that time, Krena brought her younger sister out. "Allen, Allen! Look! Lily is so big!", she cried.

Just like Krena, Lily had also ended up inheriting Mathilda's pink hair— instead of Gerda's brown hair—and blue eyes. The baby babbled happily and reached out with both hands, making grabbing motions.

'Oh damn, I feel so at peace just watching her!'

Lily was still only a year and a half old.

Although Allen had not had that many opportunities to see her in person so far, he had already heard plenty of stories from Krena.

Soon enough, dinner was done and everyone gathered around the sunken fireplace. The fare was nothing fancy—it was the usual beans, potatoes, unleavened wheat bread, and vegetable soup with a few chunks of meat.

'It feels like the birthday party that my classmate in kindergarten invited me to.'

The house was not large, and so the two families had to sit close together in order to fit around the fireplace. However, none of them was bothered by it. In fact, there was a certain warmth to it.

"Want a cup?" Gerda asked while casually bringing out what looked like an earthenware jar.

"Huh?!" Rodin replied in a slightly belligerent tone, but still held out his empty wooden cup.

After Gerda finished filling it up, he brought it back close and sniffed it. "Wine?"

"Mm-hm."

"What's this out of the blue?"

Wine was a resource that serfs had extremely limited access to. The last time Rodin had some was when he got married to Theresia.

"The village chief came yesterday and left it."

Rodin frowned. Although he said nothing, it was clear that he had understood a lot from Gerda's short utterance.

Gerda proceeded to go into detail regarding what had happened during the past three days as he downed cup after cup.

The village chief had visited, with the wine in hand, to inform Gerda and Mathilda that he was setting off to inform their feudal lord about Krena and that consequently, she might have to stay in their feudal lord's city going forward.

The sight of Rodin's face gradually deepening into a scowl as he continued giving his account prompted Gerda to say, "Come on, man. The village chief brought some wine to show he cares and all that, now that Krena's a Sword Lord. You know how he is. No big deal, right? Don't sweat the small stuff, man."

"I'm not bothered about that. In fact, I'm glad for you, I really am. Never mind government service, she might even rise to become a noble. And by extension, so would your whole family."

As it turned out, Rodin was not jealous of Krena being a Sword Lord.

"Then why did you suggest breaking off our relationship?!" Gerda howled in an increasingly loud voice. "UP TILL NOW, WE—!"

He was cut short, however, by a perfectly placed punch that landed square on his face, courtesy of Mathilda. She did not want him shouting in front of the children.

After a heavy silence, Rodin replied, "If you keep associating with us, you might lose your chance at becoming nobility."

Rodin kept his voice quiet, likely out of fear for Mathilda's fist. More than half of the bruises on Rodin and Gerda's faces had actually been dealt by Mathilda when she stepped in to break up their fight.

By now, it was clear what had set off this fight between the two men.

In this world, only serfs could marry serfs. Commoners could only marry commoners. And of course, nobles could only marry nobles.

The reason for the fight was not, as Allen had guessed, because of him being Talentless and having low stats.

Forget Swordswoman; Krena had turned out to be a Sword Lord. This was a Talent that contained the potential for her to easily exceed the status of being a royal knight and even become a champion of the people.

This was such monumental news that the village chief was going to inform their feudal lord two days later in person.

In light of this, Rodin had suggested to Gerda that their two families stopped associating with each other. Gerda's response had been his fist, and the rest was not hard to imagine.

'I see, so it was both of them trying to be considerate of the other but being too boxed into their own points of view. Should I try to prod them?'

"Um, is it true that all four of you came to this village together?"

Everyone's attention turned toward Allen with his innocent smile as he broached a topic that he had heard from Rodin before.

"That's right, Allen," Mathilda answered. "We came here together from the neighboring village. We've been together ever since we were young, just like how you and Krena are."

She continued sharing how they had all been born as serfs and played together in their childhood. As serfs, they were naturally poor, but life was good. Gerda and Rodin listened in silence.

Ten years ago, a messenger from their feudal lord visited the village where they were living, proclaiming news of a new frontier village that was being founded. Anyone who came and properly contributed to the expansion efforts would be granted permission to continue using their assigned plot of land indefinitely.

"Back then, we got together to talk it over, just like we're doing now," Theresia murmured, ruminating over the memories of the past that surfaced in her mind.

It was true that serfs could not own land, but cases of the land they were working suddenly being seized were very rare. That said, it was usually only the eldest child that succeeded the land. Rodin, Gerda, Theresia, and Mathilda all had older siblings.

The tax for serfs was six-tenths of their harvest. How many people helped with the harvest did not matter. And because the size of the land itself remained the same, the amount of food that it could produce was fixed.

If the family working it had children and the children grew up, this single piece of land would become incapable of keeping everyone's bellies full. This was why these four decided to join the new village and secure their own land.

Gerda nodded with a wistful face. "When we first arrived here, there was nothing at all. So we worked together to build our two houses."

This was the reason why the interior layout of both houses looked the same. They started off building only the earthen area and the large room with the sunken fireplace for each other. Later on, when they decided to have children, both houses got two more additional rooms.

"We sure went through a lot..." Rodin trailed off and closed his eyes, falling silent.

He was reliving the memories of his childhood and of all the difficulties he had overcome when he first came to this frontier village.

The topic of their past and their shared troubles seemed to have succeeded in restoring the relationship between the two men. The fire flickered as the adults talked late into the night.