06: Apprentice to the master of the hero

Just like that, the 10-year-old me is setting out for a training trip

In the previous life, it would be 『such an outrageous thing』, but it's rather normal here

Using the 『I will become a strong person for the empire』 reason, most people would approve

The only person who has strong opposition is my sister Selen

「Gyaa! Noo! Onii-cha don't go!!」

Screaming as if being on fire, she is clinging to me and doesn't release, even when I'm about to leave

I didn't think my sister would oppose this much

Thinking back, I acted like a weak boy in order not to catch the recruiting officer's attention

As I didn't mingle with the other kids of the same age, I spent lots of time with my sister

Therefore, my sister doesn't want to be separated.

Seeing Selen cry makes my chest hurts

But, I must not give up

「Selen...」

Before leaving, I face my sister.

「Onii-chan will surely return. At that time, let's play with each other again」

「That's a promise, liar will have to eat hundred thousand needles」

My sister's retort is nasty

In the end, Selen hugged me really strongly and reluctantly parted, and I finally left the imperial capital.

I left the place I was born in for a short time

The time I will return is 5 years later

◆

...Then

I was on a journey on the pretext of training

Within the time limit, I must become strong as much as possible

Or, as I finally left the capital and gained freedom, if I just disappear to somewhere and become unrelated to the empire, maybe I can avoid the ruined future?

...I also have that choice

It's not like I didn't think about that before, but I immediately rejected it

If I did that, I would betray the expectation of mother and father, who trusted and allowed me to leave, and would break my promise of 『will surely return』 with Selen

In the past, this world is just a game I enjoyed, but right now it's the world I live in

They are my family

I cannot cast them away

Therefore, to avoid the ruined future without abandoning them, I must become stronger

I left for that reason

Then, how can I become stronger?

Just go randomly and suddenly become stronger is not possible

But I'm not worry

I have a plan

I know everything about this world from the game play in previous life

How to efficiently and surely become stronger, the answer was already settled

I embarked on a journey to execute the most effective and efficient 『method to get stronger』

I head to a certain place

If I go there, at least I will be on the same level as the protagonist of 『Beast Fantasy 4』

How can I be that confident, you ask?

The place I head to is where the master of the protagonist of 『Beast Fantasy 4』 lives (master here = teacher)

The protagonist of 『Beast Fantasy 4』, the hero of wisdom Sero (セロ) was training under that person every day for a while

He was raising his power to oppose the empire there

Then

If I go to the same place and apprentice to the same person, I will gain the same power as the protagonist

That's the plan

Like that, at least I will be as strong as the hero I have to fight in the future!

I'm smart!

The plan is only possible because I played the game and knew the exact story!

...Praising myself this much is enough

In other words, I will visit the same place the hero trained and do the same training as the hero

There's nothing special about how to reach there so I will omit it....

◆

...I have arrived.

This is where the hero Sero trained

Its name is "the sage's hermitage"

After leaving the highway, if you follow the animal trail to a path nobody go through,  push through the brushes, cut of the branches and follow a trackless road, you will arrive there

It's a secret area

Within the mountains, there is a slightly open basin surrounded by mountains from 4 sides that even birds can't go through. It looks like a secret hiding place god prepared

Anyway.

A streamlet flows beside a flat land that could be called a marvelous valley, increasing the tranquility of the place

At the center of the area, a single hermitage is build. Although it's small, the atmosphere is mysterious

「This place has such an atmosphere, huh?」

Although I have visited this place before in the game, but 『Beast Fantasy 4』is a 16-bit console game

It's hard to feel the mysterious atmosphere through the pixels

Should I go?

Anyway, I knock the sliding door while being overwhelmed

「...I'm sorry, is there anyone here?」

Suddenly saying『I want to be trained! Make me your apprentice!』 is impolite, so I use a simple greeting

However, there is no returned word

I tried opening the door, but it was opened easily

It's not locked as expected. In this secluded place, you don't need to worry about thief entering the house

「Sorry for intruding...」

I tried looking around inside, but there's no presence of human

However, the feeling of life is overflowing, the floor was swept cleanly as there is not a single grain of dust remained

The pillars had a black luster, perhaps from the sticking soot of firewood being burned in many years

They were probably wiped frequently. Because the deep black color of soot looks glossy like lacquer

This heritage is surely cleaned and organized by human's hands every day

「Someone is surely living here」

To tell the truth, The protagonist of 『Beast Fantasy 4』, Sero shouldn't have gone to this place yet

Right now is year 92 of the empire

He will come here eventually

But calculating from the date and year, he should be having a happy childhood life with his parents in his birthplace.

Therefore, the one living here is....

『Who are you-tanu?』

Suddenly I was called out

I thought I was the only one here, so there is only one person I can think of when I was called out, it was the owner of this hermitage

When I turned back, there was a tanuki standing at the still-opened entrance of the hermitage

Not a civet (ハクビシン)

Not a raccoon　(アライグマ)

Not a weasel　(イタチ)

It's a tanuki

Among the animals in the countryside, even in such a secluded place, it's not strange to see a tanuki

But this tanuki....

『It's praiseworthy for a thief to enter this area-tanu. You must have gone through many hardships but regretfully, there is nothing valuable here-tanu. Trick ya』 (やーいばーか)

It talks

The tanuki surely talked

It's not some cheap trick like ventriloquism or hypnotism

I know

Because I have met it before in the game

This tanuki is an important character who take the protagonist of 『Beast Fantasy 4』 Sero as disciple and teach him Holy wisdom art (智聖術)

The sage Ponpoko

Being nick-named 『Tanu-sage』 by fan

——————–

Author note: This is it for the first day. From now on I would like to update at the pace of one chapter per day for a while

From here, to avoid the future of being killed by the hero, Jira will did his best using every means

In the process, he will befriend with the enemy hero, become colleagues with the enemy boss to whom he should be nervous, and have to carry extra burdens thanks to that

please enjoy the story of Jira, who will eventually become the 12th rank Jirat

Have a good year!

TL note: not really sure what the tanuki's "やーいばーか" means, but I would assume it's like "yay, baka". If you know what it is then please tell me