Bucket List (5)

The bandit leader couldn't comprehend it.

He was only fighting a little kid. He was the first to make a move. How did it end up like this?

His first strike had failed. The kid had dodged to the side right at the last moment. At the same time, the kid had swung his sword as well, pushing the blade into the leader's armpit.

What followed next was a tremendous amount of pain as he felt his flesh ripped apart and his bone broken into pieces.

The kid had somehow managed to cut his right arm off his shoulder. Not mentioning the sharpness of the blade, the wielder must also exert enough force in order to cut through human bones, as well as possessing the ruthlessness to actually follow through the notion until the end.

As he fell to the ground, blood spurting out like mad, he could only curse his bad luck.

The pain had slowly receded, replaced by a tingling numbness. His body was getting weaker from blood loss. His eyes wandered about dazedly before stopping at the youth.

"Your name... tell me..." the leader squeaked.

Seeing the bandit who was playing the act of an honorable warrior, Lenard snorted inwardly.

"You don't have the right."

He spat out those words with such apparent disdain. The bandit leader shook in anger, but even that feeling was quickly washed away.

In death, nothing else mattered.

"Where is the children? Answer!"

At the side, the two burly men had been quickly subdued by the soldiers, and were experiencing how savage the military could torture someone if they so desired. They could only answer truthfully that they had stuffed the kidnapped children into their carriage, but now the children had escaped somehow.

"You dare lying to us? Hey, get me the nails!" A soldier angrily shouted, making the two bandits trembled in fear.

It was the truth, ah, what else could they say?!

"Escaped...?"

Unlike the soldiers, Lenard merely frowned, seemingly lost in his own thoughts.

At that moment, the bushes at the other side of the camp ground began to shook. The soldiers dropped their nail torture schedule, instead focusing on this new threat. Their spears were pointed at the mysterious sound.

What came out of the bushes was a boy with a blazing red hair. On his hand was a saber that was almost as tall as himself. When the boy's gaze met with Lenard's, the two widened their eyes in disbelief.

"...Big brother?"

"...So it's you... Sasha."

---

The bandits were rounded up and sent to the prison in the Granberg estate. A couple of village guards were also captured for taking bribes from these bandits. There would be a rotation in the future in order to prevent another case like this.

The children would be taken care of by the village until they could be sent back to their respective home. It might take a while to trace back their origins, but it was enough for the children.

As long as they could return home, even if it would take years, they would be willing to wait.

Thus, with the help of the soldiers from Granberg estate, the kidnapping case was neatly solved.

"Will you take the horse, young master?"

"No, I'll walk my brother home. You can go first."

The soldier saluted Lenard before going off with his comrades. They were to escort the children to the village head's manor in order to give them a good night's rest.

During the entire cleanup, Sasha was floating dazedly. He didn't remember Lenard coming with the soldiers in the first rebirth. If it had happened previously, then he wouldn't had experienced such a life-threatening fight.

Everything had went exactly as the previous timeline, why was it only different when it involved his big brother?

Then again, when he think about it, it was already different from the start.

The result of his sparring with Lenard in this life was a loss. In the first rebirth, however, he had barely won using a technique he'd learned in the military, catching Lenard by surprise. That was the spark that had started their bitter rivalry.

He suddenly remembered about the butterfly effect.

Perhaps, after that little difference, the course of fate would change as well?

Suddenly, a fist had landed on his head, causing him a stinging pain.

"What are you thinking?"

When Sasha looked up, he saw Lenard glaring at him, his fist still hovering in the air.

"Come, let's go home."

"...Hmm..."

He followed Lenard from behind like a little tail, slowly drowning back into a contemplative state.

At first, Lenard had wanted to ignore this little idiot, but the silence was starting to grate on him. When he stopped to turn around, Sasha still walked on as if he didn't notice. As a result, he inevitably crashed on Lenard's back.

"..."

Lenard launched another fist onto Sasha's head.

"Oww! Big brother, what are you doing?!"

This second impact was even more hurtful than the first. He was tearing up from the pain.

"What's with you? What are you mumbling about?"

"Ah, it's noth..."

Sasha was about to say that nothing was wrong, but Lenard's icy glare froze his tongue. Somehow, he felt his heart squeezed tight.

It was as if Lenard could see through his lie.

"Big brother... what if... you already know the outcome of everything that you're going to do?"

Lenard raised an eyebrow, his mind blanking out for a second. His wavering gaze seemed to silently conveyed, "the hell was he saying?"

"You mean about training?" Lenard smirked, his tone turned condescending. "Are you saying that you know that you will never be able to win against me?"

Sasha shook his head.

"No, not about that... how to say it... it's like your life has no meaning anymore, because you already know everything. What else is there to do, then?"

The same world. The same place. The same time.

Repeating it again, and again, and again...

He had done it once. And now, he was forced to do it again.

And then, what? Would it stop by then? Or not?

This thoughts scared him silly, more than those vile monsters in the Dark Lord's army or the innumerable life-or-death struggles in the past. At least those amounted to something. He was working toward a goal that he could fight for.

But now, all those goals had been achieved. What else was there to reach out to?

This kind of dilemma, even for Sasha who had virtually lived for more than a hundred years, wasn't something that he could articulate properly.

As such, he didn't say anything else, but instead sunk into a depressed state.

At one point, even the thought of suicide had flashed through his mind.

Lenard couldn't read mind, so he understandably was oblivious to his little brother's inner struggle. He could only frown as he watched Sasha's face shifting through various emotions.

In the end, he let out a tired sigh.

"Come here."

"Eh?"

When he returned back to his sense, Lenard had tightly gripped his wrist, and then dragged him toward the other end of the village. Their family's manor, which was supposed to be their destination was now getting smaller and smaller as they went the totally opposite direction.

The place Lenard had brought him to had a slight incline upward. It was most likely leading toward a hill. Thankfully, it wasn't that hard to climb, although it was still rather exhausting for an untrained little kid like Sasha.

"Where... are we going?"

"Quiet."

Sasha shut his mouth immediately.

He had woken up in the carriage around midnight. A few hours had passed since then. The air was turning slightly warmer as the sun was preparing to take over the sky once again.

They had reached the peak of the hill right at that exact moment.

"Whoa..."

The hill was located at the east of the village, and from the peak, the mountain range where the Dwarves lived could be seen in the distance. It was from there that a glorious ray of light shone through, piercing the dark sky and bringing forth the triumph of dawn.

The darkness of the night slowly receded from the ground below, revealing expanse of green with sparkling light from the morning light reflected by ephemeral dew.

It was a sight to behold. Sasha had even forgotten to take a breath for a moment there.

"Big brother, this..."

"Whenever I'm down after a harsh training, I like to come here to watch the morning sun."

He had chanced upon this spot by accident. Since then, it had become one of his favorite place.

As for Sasha, while he was knowledgeable about the land during his two previous lives, he'd never discovered this place either. In his first life, he was only concerned with messing around in the village. During his first rebirth, his entire focus was training his body and fortifying the village and its surrounding area.

A scenic place like this wasn't even at the bottom of his priority list. It was practically nonexistent.

"Nothing in life is guaranteed."

Lenard suddenly spoke up, catching Sasha's attention.

"If you think that you already know everything, then that means you haven't searched enough. There is always something to discover. It's up to you to find them. As for the meaning of life..."

Lenard had a profound smile on his face. It felt as if he wasn't just talking to Sasha. He was also talking to himself, trying to convince himself that his opinion was correct.

"Life has no meaning. At all. And that's for the best."

Because life has no meaning, that means nobody was forced to be something that they didn't want to be. They were free to choose whatever they desire.

If life has no meaning, then it was extremely simple: just find your own meaning!

At that moment, something clicked within Sasha.

Before, he felt like he was stuck in a cage, unable to break free from the bonds called fate. Now, he felt that the cage was unable to hold him. He had broken free, his heart as light as a bird's feather.

That's right. It wasn't whether he have to do something or not. The only question is whether he 'want' to or not!

"I'm going home first!"

"Huh?"

Lenard was stunned as he watched the little idiot running down the hill as swift as the wind. When he could no longer see him, suddenly he heard his voice echoing once again.

"Thanks, big brother!"

Lenard blinked a few times, still visibly confused. However, it was quickly replaced with a helpless look.

---

The head butler, Rufus, was specifically instructed by the Baron to bring his sons to him whenever they finally decided to return home. In order to follow through with that order, he had been camping in the front gate the entire night.

When he squinted his eyes, he could see a trail of dust following a small figure in the distance. Actually, that small figure was growing bigger and bigger as he slowly realized that it was approaching near.

"Ah, young master!"

He was about to call out to Sasha when the kid casually side-stepped to avoid his grasp. Without losing his momentum, Sasha ran into the house, disappearing from sight in the blink of an eye.

Rufus fell to his knees, lamenting that life was hard.

'Young master, you were indeed formidable in the art of avoiding... but why do you have to exhibit it now of all time?!?'

Sasha was oblivious to the poor butler's difficulty. Upon reaching his room, he pulled out a sheet of paper, and then whipped out his pen. After dipping the tip into ink, he began to write out the things in his mind.

Just like what Lenard had said, the world was big. Extremely big. It was too big for a single Sasha to see through even with three lifetimes.

In his first life, he had wasted away his life, barely scraping the surface of the world.

In his rebirth, he was focusing his entire life to the survival of his loved ones. His youth was spent fighting the monster army, while his later years were a constant repetition of taking care of his always-growing family. From getting a wife to having children to having grandchildren and great-grandchildren, it was a truly busy, albeit fulfilling, life.

And now, he was here once again. What for?

For nothing. There was no immediate reason. That was the answer he had came to. And that was the best answer that he could have ever expected.

If the path that he was walking turned out to be boring, he could always find another.

As such, he had decided that in this second rebirth, he would simply do whatever he wanted!

And so, he had written a kind of declaration for himself and the world. On this small sheet was all the things that he had wanted to do, but couldn't, in the past life.

It was in the form of a list.

A bucket list!

Grinning to himself, Sasha Granberg declared his conviction wholeheartedly.

"This time, I will live my life to the fullest!"