Recuperating in the Village

Looking at the words written in charcoal, a scene formed within the elderly man's mind. 

*******

It started as a scene where a family of three was accompanying a fairly large caravan as they traveled through a dense forest during winter. White covered the forest as far as the eyes could see, but the caravan trod steadfastly on their path toward their next destination.

After traveling a fair distance, the caravan eventually came across a group of bandits in the white forest and a brawl eventually ensued between both groups. While the two groups were locked in combat, some monsters appeared due to the smell of blood wafting around and attacked both groups.

In the process of defending themselves, one of the merchants saw that things were looking bad so they decided to use someone else as bait while they made their getaway, the bait ended up being the child belonging to that family of three, who was being protected from a large wolf by his parents.

While the parents were distracted by the wolf, the merchant drew closer to the child. Just as he was confident that they wouldn't be able to respond in time, the merchant took a knife and slashed the child's throat before throwing him past the defensive line formed by the guards of the caravan.

This action prompted the wolves to turn in the direction of the bleeding child that landed behind them while his parents turned pale in fright at seeing their child in danger. The father immediately cut down the wolf before him at the cost of an injury to his arm while the mother dashed forward at her quickest speed to defend the child from the three wolves that currently surrounded him.

As the duo did their best to get to their child, said child lay between the encirclement of the three wolves cowering in fear. Though his neck was slashed, maybe due to the merchant's haste, his inability to properly handle a blade, or the blade itself being slightly dull, the cut itself wasn't deep enough to kill the child.

That said, blood still flowed from the wound and the child did his best to hold his hands tightly over the wound, preventing as much blood as possible from flowing out. Even then, the fear of death while being stared down by three menacing wolves ready to pounce made his grip weak, prompting a decent amount to flow out.

In the end, the mother managed to breach the encirclement of the three wolves and grab her child before making a run for it while the father brought up the rear after trading injuries with the three wolves to slow them down.

Eventually, the trio managed to make a getaway from the wolves and the caravan. Unfortunately, both parents were in tears at the end as their child lay cold in their arms. Neither could accept that their family had a tragedy like this, thus they never noticed that their escape route brought them to a cliff.

When the duo finally noticed, the three wolves had them cornered on said cliff. Though covered in wounds, none of the three hesitated in approaching the family of three.

Seeing this, the parents glanced at each other briefly before steeling their hearts. The mother held the child in her arms and closed her eyes for a moment as the father stood before them with his sword drawn. 

The wolves instinctively felt that something was wrong with the actions of the two, but their anger drove them to continue pressing the grieving parents. The moment the wolves took their next step forward, the mother opened her eyes and rushed forward, brandishing her knife. As for the father, he sprung into action half a second after her, pouncing on the nearest wolf.

Their rash actions startled the wolves who didn't expect the sudden attack. Due to this, one wolf was immediately cut down by the father.

Seeing the death of their companion, the other two wolves woke up from their surprise and retaliated against the couple. The fight barely lasted three minutes but ended in the couple's victory.

Though victorious, the couple's expression was hollow. Amidst the remains of this small battlefield, the couple held their child close as tears fell down their cheeks. This victory brought them no joy as their child was still dead in their arms.

While the couple grieved for their loss, more sounds appeared, signifying the approach of more wolves. Hearing this, the couple stood up and walked closer to the edge of the cliff with their child. The duo took one final look at each other and their child, a small smile gracing their lips before they jumped off.

By the time more wolves showed up at the scene, all that they found were the mutilated corpses of their brethren. The couple and their child were nowhere to be seen.

To make matters worse, heavy snow started to fall at this moment, signifying that a blizzard was about to begin. Realizing the dangers they would have to face should they stay, the remaining wolves left the area to seek shelter from the tumultuous weather, taking with them the bodies of their kin.

As for the bodies of the couple and their child over the cliff, this blizzard ensured that they would remain lost to all predators of the region, at least until the youth had regained life in the coming days.

*******

Through a series of yes and no questions and piecing the responses he received together, along with the youth writing out a few words to explain certain parts, the elderly man mostly pieced together a similar enough story for what had transpired.

As for how the youth regained his ability to move, managed to claw his way out of the snow he was buried under, and how he managed to make his way towards the village they were now in, the youth chose the best response one could give when the answers involved secrets that he didn't want to share; he feigned ignorance.

It didn't take much for the elderly man to realize that the youth was hiding some information, especially as it pertained to him making it toward the village in one piece, but he decided against confronting the youth about it now. 

For one, the youth was still injured and needed more time to properly rest and recuperate. As for the more practical reason, the elderly man decided that whatever secrets the youth chose to keep, it was probably best to let him decide when it was the right time to share them, if he felt the urge to do so.

With that thought in mind, the elderly man ended the Q&A session with the youth and helped him to bed before turning in for the night as well. He had just received a lot of information that he needs to both process and share with the village head tomorrow.

As for the youth, he was thankful for the elderly man's understanding in not asking any more questions about how he managed to survive and make his way to the village. While he didn't want to lie to the man who saved his life, explaining how he survived might have put him in a precarious position and since he was in another world without much information about it, he had to find out how things worked before he can start making any proper plans.

That was the last thought the youth had in his mind before falling asleep that night.

*******

It's been some months since the youth had made his way to the village and started living with the elderly man. Winter has passed and spring has already been around for half a month now. A few things have changed in this period.

"Young Su, I'm heading out. Take care of the house until I get back," said the elderly man as he walked out of the house.

"Okay, Grandpa Jin," said the youth as he sat by the dining room table, reading a book.

The first change is that both the youth and the elderly man have been properly introduced. This happened the morning after the youth shared with the elderly man his story of what happened to his family.

The youth's name is Yang Su. This was the name he had in his previous life and surprisingly enough, the name of the child whose body he had taken over. It had surprised him initially but he accepted that fate must have had some plan in store for him to keep that name. "Young Su" is what the elderly man decided to call him, a nickname of sorts he decided on.

As for the elderly man in question, his name is Mour Jin or "Grandpa Jin" as Yang Su and all the other children in this village call him. Yang Su found out that he's the village blacksmith and also acts as a problem solver for the other villagers.

Since Grandpa Jin was the one to find and help him heal during his first few weeks in the village, Yang Su decided to stay with him. While living with Granpa Jin, Yang Su took it upon himself to take care of the chores around the house, such as cleaning the house and the smithy. In response, Grandpa Jin was responsible for cooking and providing Yang Su with books to learn about the world.

Even with his limited knowledge of the current world, just based on the fact that they were currently in a remote mountain village and Grandpa Jin was able to provide him with at least one book per week for the last couple of months, Yang Su understood that Grandpa Jin wasn't a typical elderly blacksmith. That said, he chose not to question it as everyone has their secrets.

With that in mind, the duo lived quite comfortably together, taking care of their respective jobs and respecting each other's privacy. 

Another change happened concerning the people living in the remote village. Due to how remote the village is, the members aren't too keen on visitors, especially during the winter periods. After learning about Yang Su's story, while the adults were still skeptical of Yang Su and his origins, they still allowed their children to interact with him. Some hoped that Yang Su would open up more to the children while others wanted to ensure that he felt welcomed in the village. As for a select few, though they didn't show it in the open, they had no trust in Yang Su and wanted him gone from the village. That said, these few were the minority, so they could only keep those feelings to themselves.

As for Yang Su himself, due to his abilities and his careful nature, it didn't take long for him to discover his stance as it pertained to all the villagers. For the most part, he kept up his act as a good child, showing that it wasn't a bad idea for him to be in the village.

As for the select group that wanted him gone, he chose the civil route when dealing with them, or rather, when he had to deal with them. He would usually greet them politely in passing and scamper away before they got annoyed by his presence. Under normal circumstances, he avoided them as much as possible to not appear much on their radar.

It's not like Yang Su expected them to attack him or anything, but he didn't want to take the chance of them plotting behind his back due to his over-familiarity with their children. 

Let it be known that Yang Su has no reason to fear anyone in the village, but he firmly believes that if he must defend himself, he can do so without a problem. That being said, he would rather not be put in a situation where he needs to defend himself from an adult as a child and have to explain how he came out on top. 

With all that in mind, if one were to ask the villagers what they thought of Yang Su so far, the adults would unanimously agree that he is a sensible child.