Sam

The man looked at me with a confused expression before laughing and saying, "So a toddler wants to learn the sword, huh?"

I looked at him sternly,

"Anything, simple swinging and defending techniques are fine. Just teach me how to use it!" I said desperately.

The man took another swig of his drink before slamming it down on the wooden table while saying, "No way."

He then headed towards the entrance way of the place to leave.

I quickly followed him as he was leaving and made sure not to lose sight of him.

If I was going to get stronger in any way before I could awaken, then this man was my only chance on this entire island. Perhaps he is a traveler, tourist, or maybe he washed up on the shore, I don't care. He must know how to use a sword. Otherwise, he wouldn't have one strapped to his waist.

I grabbed the mans sword and held my grip. while shouting at him

"Wait..stop!"

The man finally stopped and turned around to look at me with annoyance.

"What What What?!"

"I already told you what! Teach me how to use the sword, please! You're the only person on this island that has one, unless you're just carrying it around for show and tell, and if that's the case then just tell me and I'll leave you alone." I said, trying to make my childlike voice as stern as possible.

The man stared at me with a conflicted look before turning and continuing to walk across the wooden bridge,

"Follow me."

I did as he said, and he led me through two of the bridges' paths before stopping in the middle and turning to point somewhere off in the distance.

"You see that small wooden hut up there?" He asked while pointing.

I looked to see where he was pointing, and it was towards the Gilyas mountains. To the top right of the mountain was a cliff that seemed to be flat on top because there I saw what appeared to be a small wooden shed. And behind, was smoke being released into the air like a chimney.

"I see it."

"Good, there is where I live. Tomorrow morning, if you knock on my door, then I will teach you the sword, little boy." The man said, seemingly sobering up out of nowhere.

"How the hell am I supposed to get up there?"

The man chuckled to himself

"That is for you to figure out."

**𝑺𝒂𝒎**

"Dammit, does it have to be the morning? That means I have to sleep." The strange boy named Cain mumbled to himself.

Telling stories and having a laugh with the tribes people every once in a while gets me more familiar with them so that they will not tell anyone that I'm here, should someone come looking for me. But today, I did not expect one of the children to be so.. well whatever it is you call this, even less ask me to teach him how to use a sword.

Either way, the kid won't be able to get to my hut, I use a mana technique to get up there anyways.

"And you promise you'll teach me if I get up there?" He asked.

"Yes, yes, course, of course, now leave me alone." I said while shooing him away.

**𝑪𝒂𝒊𝒏**

After the man gave me his promise, he began shooing for me to leave.

"Wait," I said to him as he was about to leave.

He turned around in a huff

"What now??"

"At least tell me your name so I know who to look for in the future."

"You don't need my name to climb a cliff." He responded.

"I might forget where your shack is and have to ask the villagers for help." I explained as if I was truly the almost helpless six year old boy I appeared to be.

The man looked at me inspectively before finally speaking.

"Hmm, just call me Sam, how about that, I'm sure the villagers will know who you're talking about."

This time, I didn't stop Sam.

I watched as he walked off into the crowd. On the bridge, I continued to inspect the cliff. From here, it looked impossible to climb, so I decided to spend some time eyeing it to devise ways to get up there.

Sam.. Just how the hell did he even get up there?

After a while of staring at it, I decided to leave. I walked towards the nearest ladder hanging off the side of one of the trees and began climbing down.

I began making my way back to where Cale and Milura live along the sanded path that leads outside of the village to the beach. While walking along this path, I saw children playing with sticks and rocks.

"Cain, can you play with us? We need one more person." One of the kids asked me.

"No," I said as I kept on walking.

"You never play with us! And you always act like you're older than everyone else!"

"Don't care, leave me alone."

At this current point in time, I am a six year old. But when I died, I was fifteen, so that makes me twenty-one? Just thinking about that gives me goosebumps. I will never experience finishing high school, going to college, traveling the world, having a career...

That world, my world, doesn't even exist anymore. Right now, it's probably a dark planet of ash like New York was when I died.

"And it's all because of them."