Chapter 744: Price
From the clouds to the abyss, from light to darkness, from hope to despair... How unlucky must a person be to experience all of this in less than five days? My sword has already been chipped all over. Cracks have spread across it, just like my heart.
Five days ago, my master and I, disguised as ordinary people, left Silent Lake and Mount Hakutou and arrived in the bustling city of Sapora.
I was born in Hokkaido, but I had never left that small village before the age of ten. I remembered it was the day after my eleventh birthday. It had been cold, and the dark clouds had hung low in the sky. I had been dragging a net along the beach and was digging for crabs.
An old woman had been walking by the sea, her legs trapped in the black mud. The tide was rising in the distance... I had rushed over without hesitation and pulled her from the edge of the beach onto the rocks by the shore.
Having lived by the sea for years, I knew all too well how dangerous it was for an eighty-year-old woman to get stuck in the muddy shore just as the tide came in. The old woman had looked at me and gently stroked my hair.
"Why didn’t I meet you earlier..." she said. There had seemed to be flames burning in her eyes as she looked at me, her voice carrying a long sigh and a faint tremble.
On the third day, the old woman appeared at our doorstep. The morning air had still been cold. Sunlight had streamed over the horizon, dyeing the adonis flower at the doorstep red, like leaping, burning flames.
Dad, Mom, my sister, and my younger siblings were all very surprised. I was surprised too. Because the old woman was dressed in extremely luxurious clothing, just like one of those legendary nobles. She was adorned with glittering jewels that made it hard to keep one's eyes open.
Several police officers stood behind her, along with the village chief. I thought the old woman had come to thank me for saving her life. If she could take me to eat a meal at the McBonald’s in town, that would have been amazing.
“I want to take her as my disciple.”
“I am from the Sword Sect of Mount Hakutou.”
“They can vouch for me.”