4 The house of the Grinder

|Back at the house...|

...

-Sip-

Drinking tea calmly while sitting calmly beside the table, the woman from before could be seen calmly looking at the air in silence. Seemingly lost in thought about something.

Eventually, though, she turned to look towards the door of the house and muttered something in a low voice.

"Huh... It seems like Jack is taking longer than usual today"

Upon saying that, the woman narrowed her eyes dangerously, before then after a few seconds that look in her eyes disappeared as if it had never been there before, and she continued sipping her tea normally.

"..."

Hearing her, the man, who was sitting in front of her while munching on a piece of bread, soon put the food down, before he then began pondering over her words with a contemplative look in his eyes as he scratched his chin. Seemingly trying to reminisce something.

"Hmm..."

And, it wasn't until he passed a few seconds like that, that he took another bite from the bread resting in his hand and began speaking to her.

"Hmm... -Munch, munch-... Well, I've asked some of our neighbors about his early runnings, and it seems like that little kid runs across most of the city... -Munch, munch-... So, it shouldn't be surprising if his run got interrupted by something while he moved through the city. A lot of things can happen if he goes around the entire city..." Saying so, the man suddenly paused for a moment, before he then looked down and began hitting his chest repeatedly with his fist.

-Thud, thud, thud!-

-Gulp-

Then, after swallowing the remaining bread in his mouth, the man squinted his eyes as he drank a bit of tea before he continued: "Especially when considering the existence of a certain guild of mages in this place..." Muttering that last part with an apparent dislike for whatever guild he was referencing.

In response to his words, the woman frowned slightly before she glanced towards the entrance and raised an eyebrow. She stays silent as if lost in her own world.

"..."

Then after a long pause, she turned to look back towards the man and asked him with a doubtful tone.

"Do you really think that's the case?"

"What...?!"

Hearing her dubious tone, the man frowned as if offended, before he then spread his arms and began retelling something he had heard the other day with an upset tone.

"Of course, honey! Didn't you hear? Those guys destroyed an entire house the other day while in one of their usual quarrels..." He said while shaking his head in disappointment.

After that, he took another bite of the bread on his plate, before he continued. "Tsk, tsk, tsk... That's why I don't like mages... -Munch, munch...- Just because they can do a little magic they think of themselves so high that they disregard the weaker people... Hmm?"

However, his talk came to a halt when he noticed the woman looking at him with squinted eyes.

"W-what's wrong honey?" Seeing her like that, the man panicked briefly before he asked her that question. Not knowing what he had done wrong this time.

Fortunately for him, the answer arrived soon as the woman let out a sigh and pointed at the man while speaking.

"... You say you don't like mages... But, what would you do if Jack had a talent for magic? We still haven't hired a mage to look at his potential, so there's the possibility of him being actually able to become a mage like those guys"

Upon hearing her words, the man looked stunned for a second, before he then cleared his throat and crossed his arms while replying.

"W-well. If he really has a talent for magic. Then I guess I'll have to teach him to not become some haughty asshole, as well as to make sure he doesn't become a weakling that only studies and doesn't take care of his own body as some mages do..." The man said while looking away. Making the woman let out a sigh as she shrugged her shoulders.

"-Sigh...- You and your mercenary-like mentality... Well, it's okay I guess. With how much that kid runs, I don't think he will have a problem with training at all..." She said while grinning a little.

"...?"

Hearing her, the man raised an eyebrow, before he widened his eyes as he nodded his head with a surprised expression. Soon muttering something in a low voice as if in realization.

"Hmm... Well, now that you mention it...—"

-Creeeaaaak...-

"I'm... Home..."

However, his speech was cut short when suddenly the door of the entrance opened, and the voice of our protagonist echoed across the house. Making both adults turn to look over with a curious expression.

"...?"

"...?"

However, they couldn't help but shoot confused looks at the door when they noticed that there was no one there.

... Or well, no one that was standing.

"Jack?!"

Eventually, they noticed a small figure lying on the ground, crawling through the floor like a zombie.

Naturally, it was our protagonist, whose legs had stopped working midway while he was going back home.

Apparently, running non-stop, and resting very little in between so that he could complete the 30 minutes quickly... wasn't a good idea.

Who would have thought?

...

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|Jack's POV:|

...

Huff...

I made it.

After crawling for who knows how long...

After dragging my heavy body through the dirty ground, across most of the town...

After enduring the shame of being gazed at pitifully by anyone who saw me crawling through the ground...

After being ridiculed by some snotty brats who had nothing better to do...

After fighting with my life so that a stray dog wouldn't pee on me...

... Huff...

I was finally here.

I finally reached my home

It was a hard and excruciating journey. I faced many adversities and many opponents of great and terrifying strength... But, in the end, I overcame them all.

Because that's my greatest strength. The thing that made me an unstoppable force, what drove me to strive to become better, the thing that would make me the strongest in this world...

... Never giving u— Oh shit. My mom is here.

Snapping out of my epic narrative, I quickly noticed my mom standing up from the table where she and my father were having breakfast, and then walking towards where I was with heavy steps.

-Stomp, stomp, stomp!-

Seeing that, I couldn't help but have a bad feeling all of a sudden.

Why, you ask?

Well, normally, one would think that she would be like: "Oh, dear! What happened to you?!"

But my new mom was rather... Well, how do I put this...?

More on the violent side...

... Or well, on the brute side.

So, she coming here probably didn't mean anything good for me.

"Ahem. Well... Jack. Would you mind explaining what is this?"

And, just like I had predicted, when she arrived in front of me she began tapping her foot earnestly on the floor as she glared at me with a gaze that resembled greatly as if I was being poked over by thousands of needles.

-Stare...-

All the while she glared at my current pitiful state with a frown that didn't convey any mercy at all...

No, rather, she looked like she wanted to beat me up more than I already was beaten.

"...-Gulp-..."

Feeling nervous about my current predicament, I turned to look at my father, who was still eating calmly at the table while glaring at my situation with a face full of pity, before I shot him a pleading look.

-Shrug-

However, unfortunately, he didn't even try and just shrugged his shoulders at me, as if telling me "Deal with it yourself".

So, turning my gaze back to my mom, who was still impatiently tapping her foot on the ground, I smiled foolishly, before I cleared my throat and prepared to use my advanced techniques of persuasion.

And what better persuasion for an angry person, than a little joke?

"Hehehe... What do you mean what this is, dear and beautiful mother? This is the floor!" I said while pointing at the floor below me.

Surely, this was going to ease her ange—

...

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|A few minutes later...|

...

Hmm... Scrambled eggs with bacon for breakfast. It seems like today lady luck is on my side— Ouch!

Oh, goddamnit... Why did she have to hit me so harshly in the head?

At this rate, it wouldn't surprise me if it swells up...

Ugh...

Was my joke not good enough to calm her down? And here I thought that had been a good one.

Hmph.

Well, I guess not everyone can understand true comedy. Some people just aren't cultured enough.

"Ahem" Suddenly, while I was still in the middle of devouring the plate of eggs with bacon in front of me, I heard my mother clear up her throat and then turned to look at her with a curious gaze. Wondering what she wanted to say now.

Upon seeing that she had managed to catch my attention, my mother squinted her eyes at me, before she began saying: "Make sure to eat everything, Jack. Today you are going to help me at the store, so you better replenish your energy and heal those legs of yours before we open up".

Hearing that my day was suddenly filled with more work to do, I felt the necessity to let out an annoyed sigh but held myself back when I noticed the sharp look that my mother shot me when she saw me take a long breath.

Eventually, I suppressed the sigh from coming out and simply nodded my head with a blank expression as I said "Yeah, yeah".

To which, fortunately, she nodded her head with a satisfied expression.

'Phew... That was close'

Sighing in relief inside my mind, I turned to look at my breakfast, which was still covering more than half of my plate, and rapidly began devouring it with even more momentum than before. Knowing that I was going to need the energy hidden within it for later.

And yes. You might have already discovered by now— Or maybe not, who knows? Maybe you aren't the type of person to pay attention to details— But, my new name in this world was Jack.

... Jack Darnell, to be more exact.

Surprisingly, my name was also Jack in my previous life. Though, my surname wasn't Darnell.

I wondered if the name was a fixed thing or not in reincarnation, but I knew that I wouldn't be getting any answers anyway, so eventually I just decided to treat it as a simple coincidence. My name wasn't really something important anyway.

The only part that was significant about it was the fact that I wasn't going to need to get accustomed to responding when being called by another name.

As for who in this life ended up being my parents...

-Stare...-

"What? Do you have anything to say, Jack?"

"Nothing, dear mother"

Well, they were certainly quite a peculiar couple.

I didn't manage to get very detailed information to form something like a dossier, but from the conversations that I've managed to overhear, I still got to have somewhat of an idea of what their past was, and what kind of people my parents were in this life.

My mother, Kaya Darnell, seemed to have been part of some kind of order of knights of the capital of this kingdom where I was living right now... She wasn't exactly a high-ranking one, but rather just a normal soldier.

That didn't mean she was cannon fodder, though. She may seem lady-like from the outside, but I've seen her true face... Whenever she gets angry and wants to beat up my dad for something he has done, she bulks up and acquires an appearance similar to She-Hulk... Albeit, more intimidating.

That, coupled with her rather overbearing and somewhat irascible nature, really made the hierarchy in this household pretty clear from the day I was born.

Fortunately, I've come to learn how to survive in this house without angering her... Most of the time.

I'm still bound to make small mistakes here and there. Like before.

But what more do want from me? I'm only human, after all.

Ahem.

As for my father, Nevan Darnell, he was seemingly a mercenary who used to work at a mercenary guild called Bloodhound. He was a B-class mercenary, and apparently, he used to do all sorts of illegal stuff during his youth.

And, to be honest, with the kind of face he carried... he certainly did seem like the type of guy to do that.

I mean, he had a mean look that would make even the bravest of men look away whenever there was eye contact, and he even had a big ass scar running across the entire left side of his face.

He had the complete "Thug-appearance" package... Which made me wonder if I would grow up to look like him at some point.

When I first arrived in this world, I thought I would grow up to look pretty good after I saw my mother's facial features, but honestly? Now I wasn't so sure anymore.

Maybe I would grow up to look like a thug instead...

... Or maybe I would become a handsome thug?

How the heck does that even look like?

Phew...

Damn, genes are pretty complicated.

But well, I guess I will discover it once I grow up. Anyway, I'm fine with either of those options.

Now, going back to the topic... As for how the two of them met, as far as I managed to understand from the very few mentions that those two did every now and then, they met during a certain mission where the kingdom decided to acquire some extra manpower by hiring mercenaries to help them destroy a Dark Guild that had been discovered at one time.

Apparently, during that time when my mom's squad of knights and the team of mercenaries which my dad was part of were together, my dad tried to flirt with my mom and almost got one of his testicles blown up in the process.

From the words of my mom, he tried to touch more than he should have at that time.

However, as the days passed, my dad persisted in his conquest, and— thanks to the fact that he had learned the hard way to behave better— eventually, she relented after the mission was over.

After that, both of them abandoned their previous jobs and acquired new more peaceful ones after they moved to this city.

Once established here, my mom became the owner of a small pastry restaurant, while my father, on the other hand, became a bodyguard who escorted merchant carriages to other towns.

And, after a few years, they had me.

That's pretty much the story.

I might have confused a few details, but honestly, that's as far as I know.

It was quite a crazy family, to be honest.

But well, it was certainly better than being either in some kind of nightmarish family where my father is a drunkard who likes to kick children in his spare time, or being some kind of orphan who gets kidnapped and forced to become a test subject for experimentation like in those dark fanfics.

My situation was just a little strange compared to those hellish options. And to be honest, it wasn't all that bad.

I guess I was kind of lucky in a way. I had a rather normal family, and I didn't have to starve or be forced into killing other people for the sake of survival or whatnot.

And hopefully, it would continue being like that for the years to come... Or well, hopefully, at least until I would save up enough status points.

That way, when a real problem actually appeared, I would just kick it out of existence in one blow.

"..."

Otherwise, my story would go from "adventure" to "tragedy" real quick.

This is why, at least until I feel like I'm capable of at least escaping from any dangerous situation, I plan to do my best to avoid any sort of problem, or typical plot device that usually ends up in tragedy.

Be it staying away from crowds where I can be snatched away real quick, not approaching dark alleyways where bad guys lurk, or avoiding people who always keep a smile on their faces (Those guys were always the most suspicious).

No matter what kind of vicious trap of fate this world planned to throw at me, I was going to make sure to dodge it all together!

I refused to get any character development!

The great Jack was going to be an asshole for the rest of his life... Hahahaha!

"Hey, Jack. Stop smiling creepily like that, and hurry up. I'm going to open the store now"

"Ah... Uh... Okay"

There's no respect for me in this place... -Sigh...-

Well, whatever.

For now, I will focus on becoming strong.

Strong enough to not be dragged into any kind of tragic situation!

And only once I'm sure that not even a dragon can withstand my power, is that I will take things slowly and begin my retirement plan.

Bring it on, world!

...

〖To be continued...〗