Lazy Salvation

Two more years passed by, and Ashen’s routine had gained a few more activities beyond mental exercises and mana breathing.

First was the obvious: his new role as a caretaker for those precious plants. That became his most time-consuming activity, so he did his exercises there at the same time.

He also incorporated a bit of physical exercise. Nothing too outlandish. Just running and climbing around using the rocks and corridors, as well as some regular stretches.

He figured doing this much would be alright, considering his still-developing body.

What he did not expect was that the young siblings would find his strange poses and activities interesting enough to start mimicking him.

He couldn’t bear to see the little ones get hurt by accident doing so, so he took it upon himself to coach them.

From the adults’ perspective, though, everything about them looked unbearably cute.

Like a big duck with its own little ducks following it around.

After that, Ashen had unknowingly become the little leader of the kids, with Lapis being his most staunch supporter.

It wasn’t like there wasn’t any opposition, though. Said opposition consisted of the lone and valiant Cain, Lapis’s twin brother.

The little guy did not like how Lapis was giving all her attention to Ashen, despite being his own twin, and took it personally.

Ashen did not think much of it. Children would be children. They’d get mad at their toys being snatched, and then forget about it the next moment.

And from Ashen’s perspective, Cain was treating Lapis as his own personal toy.

Even so, he paid little attention to the childishness of his younger brother. He had a routine to keep and training to do.

Just like now.

Standing in the training grounds, Lapis and four more children, younger and older than him by one or two years, stood by his side.

He was crossing his arms and watching his older brothers and father. Some were sparring, while others trained on their own on the sides.

The other children were also crossing their arms and looking intently around the room, mimicking him, which made the older men, glancing at them, twitch their lips at the ridiculous scene.

Ashen did not mind. His concentration was spent assessing the skills of the grown-ups of the family.

This story has been stolen from NovelPhoenix. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

‘Hmm… they are good. None are more skilled than me, but they are not far off in pure power alone.’

He did not know if it was due to the dreadful times they lived in or something else, but warriors of this calibre would be counted on one hand back in Seravelle.

‘And father…’

Ashen turned to the man who took up the deepest space on the grounds.

‘Huh. I think he’s actually better than me? I wouldn’t be sure unless I fought him seriously. But that’s wishful thinking with this body…’

His father wasn’t sparring with anyone. He was merely holding his sword in a stance, and from time to time, he raised it slowly and slashed downwards.

To the untrained eye, it only looked like a neat slash, but to Ashen, who had already reached Zenith in the Way Of The Spear, that simple slash looked like a masterpiece.

‘...a masterpiece reached after countless life-and-death battles, most probably.’

The moment he closed his eyes and envisioned himself facing that single slash… he could only see his head rolling.

But that only made him smile.

‘Good… the stronger this lecherous father of mine is, the better it is for all of us.’

“Alright. We are done. Kids, you can play now.”

With the call of the biggest older brother around, Ashen snapped out of his thoughts and finally noticed that the training grounds had emptied, with only his father still standing there, eyes closed.

He turned around and was met with eyes almost begging him to give the okay. The way they grimaced to keep a straight face was a bit funny to him, though.

So, under the amused eyes of the adults, he raised his chin and ordered in a cold voice, “Let’s move.”

…what came out was only a cute squeak.

Ashen’s ears reddened as he heard the chuckles behind him, but he pretended not to notice and continued onwards.

Finally, they reached a tall wall full of protruding stones.

“Alright, as always, we will start with climbing. The one who climbs the farthest in the shortest amount of time is the winner.”

“Bro bro, is the winner’s reward still the same?”

Ashen looked at his sister from two mothers and nodded helplessly. “Yes… for the winner, I would grant one wish within my power.”

“Hehe… this time for sure… I will win…!”

“No! This time it’s going to be me!”

“No, me~”

With a roll of his eyes, Ashen moved. “Less talking, more climbing. C’mon, make a line.”

““Aye aye~””

◉

As always, the winner was obvious.

“It is none other than yours truly, the king of the underground jungle. Kekeke…!”

Ashen laughed arrogantly atop the wall, looking down on his little followers like a king regarding his subjects.

“Guh… As expected of the leader…”

“Another day… another loss… waah…”

“Aih, my hands hurt…”

The only one beside this self-proclaimed king was Lapis. She had succeeded in reaching the summit too, but only minutes before him.

So it was not strange that she was looking at him with a pouting face. He had his fill of throwing her smug smiles and gloating laughs while she was doing her best to climb.

“Damn it, bro. Can’t you go easier on us? We’re just kids.”

“Language, sister. You can’t curse and ask to be treated as a kid in the same sentence. That’s too shameless.”

“Not as shameless as your bullying, tsk.”

“Little sore loser.”

“Bully.”

“Loser.”

“Bully.”

And right here, the heroes of modern Seravelle could be seen in a rare scene where they childishly called each other names while sticking their tongues out with mocking faces…

In recent times, though, it could hardly be called rare anymore.

“Alright, soldiers. Now let’s move on to stretching!”

Ashen finally decided to call off the impromptu staring competition and jumped down, using the rocks as stairs.

“Yay! It’s yoga time~”

Lapis followed hurriedly after her brother, eager to start her favorite activity of the day.

“What yoga? It’s stretching…”

“Same, same… let’s go!”

“Haah… brat.”

“Old man.”