12 Chapter 11

"I forfeit," the boy who climbed on stage before me calls out before I had even finished climbing up on stage. Like my last opponent, this boy was older than me and a few inches taller, but he seemed to have a clear memory of the fight from twenty minutes ago. As well as a clear memory of my announcement after the fight.

Looking to the judge curiously, I see the somewhat elderly man simply shrug his shoulders at me before announcing the fight in my favor. Nodding my head toward the other boy who was looking at me with a mixture of regret and fear, I simply turn around from the stage and walk back to where Johan was waiting. "If I wasn't older and bigger than you, I wouldn't fight you either," Johan remarks as I sit down, shaking his head with a rueful smile.

"If you want to fight later, we can," I taunt with a smirk. "We'll even set up rules, no blows to the face or groin and when one of us hits the ground we let them get back up."

"I hit too hard to fight with you, so even if you won it'd be bad for you," he says while shaking his head with a quiet laugh, speaking with nothing but honesty.

"Maybe next year," I sigh to feign disappointment, making my older companion laugh more. "I'll be a few pounds heavier and maybe an inch taller, so you better train and grow as much as you can as well. I don't want an easy win like this tournament."

Watching the second to last fight before his finish with a pair youths constantly 'clashing' sword-to-sword to display their strengths., Johan kept his thoughts to himself. The two were older than Johan, probably only just young enough to participate in their age group, and were also probably friends from the lack of facial blows during their constant clashing. Sixteen was the age of adulthood hood and, being not far from it, they were probably hoping to impress somebody in the audience to be looking into for training and hiring for certain mercenary companies.

While the Guild covered such things as merchant caravan escorts and clearing out banditry, these operations were usually done on a small scale because they were jobs by request. There were many larger mercenary groups that worked in the same fields, but on a larger scale, and they often hired on youths like those two. Depending on the skill and potential of the youth, their positions could either be as fodder or future leaders.

The guild, though, was less dangerous in those fields but more dangerous in dealing with magical or mundane beasts and other such issues.

My personal preference was in hunting down small bandit groups and highwaymen, because they usually had the best loot, but I was also a pretty good hunter when it came to large magical beasts.

The fight ended with a particularly solid blow to one youth's ribs, forcing him to wheeze and drop to one knee before his friend placed the tip of his sword on his shoulder next to his neck. The loser could only smile ruefully for having been bested, but once thee winner was announced the winner held out his hand and helped his friend to his feet. They both even left the stage together.

"They were not bad, but a fight like that only shows physical prowess," I remark to Johan as the next two fighters in his tournament took to the stage. One was a smaller boy who looked to be around Johan's age while the other was announced as last year's second place winner. "They never really got to display their actual skill, but I'm sure they got some attention."

"What do you mean?" Johan asks curiously, probably not understanding the attention they were seeking.

Considering how to explain something like this as simply as possible to keep the facade of being a child, I say, "Well, they weren't actually fighting one another. They're friends who took it easy on each other but allowed each other to show their actual bodily strength and reflexes. More than likely, they just wanted to impress somebody in the audience, like a mercenary company leader or someone of wealth or nobility who might hire them as retainers."

My explanation was a little too complete, especially for a six-year-old, but Johan did not seem to notice as he took on a thoughtful expression. After a few moments, I ask, "Have you ever thought about working as a rich man's guard or joining something like the Guild?"

"Who hasn't?" He asks in reply after only a second or two. "What about you, little buddy, do you have dreams and aspirations that are bigger than your family farm?"

I already knew how my future could turn out and how to reach certain of the same points in this new line, but this question still caught me off guard. Not because I had to think of a good answer, but because I had never in either this or the last life thought about what I actually wanted to do with my life. In my last life, the academy was just a useful option and then the Guild offered a certain amount of freedom the military did not.

I could have probably joined an actual mercenary company, but then loot regulations would have enforced everything was shared among the unit and the greater portion went to the leaders. In this life, there was a chance that I could inherit the family farm because there was a chance it would still be here. However, after my last life, living like a farmer just seemed so… boring.

There were times when I actually enjoyed the excited, enjoyed getting to show off the trophies of a hunt and the bounties from outlaws. I had few friends and fewer enemies, but everywhere I went people would eventually come to know me. Whether for the fact that I was an accomplished warrior or flippant with my money, people would learn about me.

Right now, though, I had a more immediate future to worry about instead of my adulthood.

"I have options," I replied at last, simply watching my stage were two older boys were duking it out like actual brawlers. They were not fast, but it was mostly repetitive jabbing and blocking. From the stern looks of concentration on their young faces, it did not seem like they were holding back but it did seem like they only knew a few moves. "I'm already training and being educated, my reading and basic arithmetic are good. I feel like I could go anywhere and do anything, but… don't know what that is yet."

"I know the feeling," he replies with a laugh like earlier. "When I reach adulthood, I already told my father that I'm going to join the Guild as a hunter and Travel to the coast first thing. I've never seen the sea and I want one of my first steps as an adult to get a glimpse at how big this world really is."

Damn. That was beautiful. I could not even come up with a response, only able to watch the tired fighters on my stage finally resort to wrestling.

Still, I could not help but say, "Maybe we'll both be able to make a trip like that," before we both fell into silence while waiting for Johan's fight.

I honestly felt guilty as I considered the entire reason I was befriending this kid, a possibility that could strip away his entire future as well as my own. A few moments later, I decided I would talk to my parents about my plans tonight or after we finally leave. If I could not acquire enough help or money for it, we would simply leave the farm with whatever we all had.

The current monetary prize for first place in my tournament was ten gold coins. The average single-person apartment or room in decent inns and boarding houses usually went for one gold a month, so ten gold was A LOT to give a kid. Ten gold was also possibly enough to entice a single silver ranked mage to answer a vague Guild request. Maybe iron ranked, if not silver, but one battle oriented magic user could make a large difference in a siege against what I knew would be minimal magical enemies.

If I could find a way to participate next year, I could probably hire a team of iron ranked hunters who focused on archery to supplement the defenses.

My parents, hopefully, would be able to cover the costs of them staying in the town while waiting for the town to be attacked. If I could find a way to make my own money, such as through some hunting trips to gain more combat experience, then I could probably afford a second mage or just request a team of magical archers. Though i doubted I would be able to make much money from hunting in the area of my home, but I could at least save up enough to afford a cheap sword.