I am the Monarch

Chapter 260: Hometown (3)

A feast started.
No, this was instead more close to a party.
The village people all gathered in the small clearing in the Lare Village’s center and raised their cups.
Everyone brought out foods and drinks from their own homes.
They rowdily chattered and celebrated Roan’s safe return.
The village people became greatly relieved and rejoiced at Roan having returned without anywhere hurt or sick, and with a healthy look.
Of course, there also were those among them who were curious about the news of the world outside, or found Roan to be a sore in their eyes.

“Roan. Then have you been to the capital, Miller?”
“That place is the biggest and most bustling place in our kingdom.”
“Have you seen the palace too? What about Lisa Street?”

The village girls around Roan’s age sparklingly twinkled their eyes.
Roan looked at that sight and inwardly formed a smile.

‘Magaret, Lindsey, Mami, Misa……’

All nostalgic faces.
Counting from his first life, it was a meeting in twenty years.

“I’ve been to the capital, Miller, too. That place was……”

Roan tilted his cup and calmly spun out the stories of the world he had seen, heard, and experienced.
At first only a few girls of his age showed interest, but soon kids as well as even the adults gathered in twos and threes.
Beyond young and old and men and women, the outside world was a place full of new and interesting stories.

“The Poskein Lake was so wide that its ends couldn’t be……”

The moment his story continued.

“Chatter chatter lot’s of words there.”

Together with a sarcastic sound, Bekeil approached.
Behind him the hunter gang that always wandered together with him were lined up.

“How’s the capital, Miller, how’s the Pedian Plain, how’s the Poskein Lake…… we can hear that kind of stories even from the leather merchants so shut up about that and……”

Bekeil drew up a seat in front of Roan and sat down.

“Let’s hear about your stories. How you’ve lived ‘till now, what you do now.”

At those words, the lights in people’s eyes glittered and twinkled once more.
Roan faintly smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

“There’s nothing much. After entering the Peton Training camp, I participated in multiple wars as a soldier of the Kingdom-Army.”

The instant his words finished, the Bekeil gang snorted.

“Peton Training Camp?”
“Kingdom-Army soldier?”
“Joined the war? You? Kuk.”

They shook their heads with disbelieving expressions.
That was also the same for Bekeil.

“You who’s perfect for an herbalist became a soldier in the Kingdom-Army?”

He sneered with his lips and stood up from his seat.

“Looks like you’re lying just because it’s your homecoming in so so long a time.”
“Yeah, what he said. Just say it honestly. We’ll still understand even if you were some poor handyman or a beggar.”

The gang sneered once more.
Roan faintly smiled and shook his head.

“I do not lie.”

A bold expression and voice.

“That so?”

Bekeil slightly twisted the tip of his lips and asked again.
He waved towards his gang.
Soon, two young men brought out bows.

“Then should we have a shooting wager?”

Roan, in place of answer, looked at Bekeil with a calm light in his eyes.

‘Immature, so immature.’

It was childish.
His thoughts were plainly visible.
Bekeil, when Roan remained quiet, made a hasty misunderstanding.

‘He’s afraid.’

He thought that his guess was right.

‘This bastard really is lying.’

Thanks to that, his confidence soared.

‘Kuk. Why don’t you taste some humiliation?’

Bekeil formed a crooked smile.
He didn’t like Roan monopolizing the people’s attention with the stories of the outside world.
Even the girls about his age all seemed to show interest in Roan that his mood turned sour.
Just until yesterday, the village’s most popular man was himself.

“I won’t say to pay up money just because you lose, so don’t get so scared about it.”

Bekeil passed a bow as if to show goodwill.
Roan quietly stared at the bow.
The people’s gazes poured down.

“Huu.”

Roan exhaled a long sigh and stood up from his seat.
He slowly shook his head.

“Don’t want to.”

A refusal.
The sneer hanging on Bekeil’s mouth turned even thicker.

“Don’t be like that and show us your skills. I want to see the archery skill of the Kingdom-Army soldier.”

The girls his age looked at Roan with lights full of expectations in their eyes.
However, Roan shook his head instead of an answer.

‘I want to just freely talk like now……’

He didn’t wish to particularly show off his abilities and shatter this mood.

“Ah……”

The girls and the kids let out disappointed exclamations.
Looks of disenchantments floated up on few faces.
Bekeil soon let out a snort.

“Why? Was becoming a Kingdom-Army soldier actually a lie?”

He exhaled a long sigh and shook his head.
At that moment, the village head Bas stepped in.

“Bekeil. Knock it off.”

Bekeil twitched his eyebrow and raised up and showed his hands.

“Village head. I clearly told you before. Don’t tell me to do this or that.”

An edge sharply rose in his voice.
Bas awkwardly smiled and nodded his head.

“Y, yes. I get it so……”

The moment his words reached about that point.

“I was going to stop anyway.”

Bekeil curtly replied and then glared at Roan.
A sneering look overflowed in his eyes.

“Hmph. I can’t drink anymore with a liar like this.”

He soon snorted and moved his steps.

“Hmph.”
“For a man to so disgracefully lay out lies……”

The hunter gang followed his back.
Bas tried to stop them but soon exhaled a short sigh and shook his head.
Few among the village people took foods and drinks and left following the hunter gang.
The remaining people bitterly smiled and shook their heads.

“The village’s mood has changed a lot.”

Roan carefully asked in a small voice.
Bas once again exhaled a short sigh.

“The hunter brats with Bekeil are muddying the village’s mood.”
“You should have berated them sharply.”
“It’s no use. They don’t listen to us adults’ words anymore saying they too are all grown up now. Furthermore, Bekeil is the most capable hunter and the captain of the village militia..”

The captain of the village militia that guard the village from the monsters was a role just as regarded and respected in the village as the village head.

‘Meaning even the village head can’t simply handle him, I see.’

Due to that, the Lare Village was split into a group that followed Bas and the group that followed Bekeil.
Although it wasn’t that they had completely split sides like the outside world, it still was true that the mood had worsened unlike before.

“Just thinking of that brat is a headache. A headache.”

Bas shook his head side to side and filled his cup.

The expressions of the people remaining in the square also weren’t very good.
The heated party mood quickly cooled down.
The people left their seats in ones and twos and returned to their own homes.
Ultimately, the people that remained to the end were only Roan, Bas, and Melly.

“Huu. Should we also return around now?”

Bas held Roan’s shoulder with a heavily drunken face.
Roan supported Bas and moved his steps.
Melly followed their backs and looked at that sight with a proud and moved expression.

‘So this house is also the same.’

Roan looked at Bas’s house and drenched into the old memories.

‘How nice.’

A feeling almost like having refound his refuge.

“Roan. I’m glad you are okay. I’m really glad you’re okay. I’m really……”

Bas wavered drunken with drinks and repeated the same words.
Roan without simply opening his mouth bit his lower lip.
His last life abruptly floated up.
The life where he met his death without even returning to his hometown for twenty years.

‘Would village head and Mrs. Melly have awaited me until the end……?’

Just how much must had they grieved having learned of his death.
His heart tore.
He laid Bas onto his bed, and then for a long while couldn’t leave his side.
Melly who stood on the doorsill slowly walked up and rubbed Roan’s back.

“Roan. You don’t have to feel anything like guilt. Just showing your healthy body, that’s enough.”
“Mrs. Melly……”

Roan held Melly’s hands and lowered his head.
An endlessly sorry feeling rose up to his throat.
Melly laboriously smiled and patted Roan’s hand.

“You too go ahead and sleep now. I left your room clean.”

Roan nodded his head and stood up from his seat.

“Thank you, Mrs. Melly. And……”

His voice teared up.

“I’m sorry.”