TBAGM Vol. 3 Chapter 2 Part 1

Chapter 2 – The Past

—That wrapped things up for now, at least.

I finished the day’s work and thought that to myself with a relieved sigh.

The sun had already set, and the curtain of night had fallen outside.

A lot had happened lately, but most of the cleanup afterward had finally been taken care of.

At this point, about all I still could do was welcome back the members who returned, offer them a few words of appreciation, and give them advice.

“Maybe I should stop by the slums for the first time in a while today.”

Muttering that to myself, I left the guild behind.

Lately, I had been busy managing the guild and training Mint and the others, so I had not had a proper break in quite some time.

Because of that, I had not been able to visit the slums, the place where I was born.

—

“Nothing ever changes here…”

By the time I reached the slums several dozen minutes later, I felt nostalgic at the sight of the same old scenery, but I could not hide my disappointment.

While running the guild, I had done everything I could to help rebuild the slums.

I had offered free appraisals to help people find their aptitudes, introduced them to possible employers, and held soup kitchens from time to time.

But all of that had only ever helped in the moment. It had never solved the problem at its root. The scene before me seemed to prove exactly that.

Going forward, what was the right way for me to stay involved with the slums?

It was where I had been born. Abandoning it was not an option. Right now, my hands were full with the guild, but someday, I wanted the people of the slums to smile in happiness too.

Besides, someone as kind as her surely would have done the same. I believed that carrying on her will was important to me, and to Kyros as well.

As I was thinking that, a man I had passed suddenly called out to me.

“Hey. Long time no see.”

“Huh?”

“I finally found you.”

“!?”

An ominous presence struck me without warning. That alone was more than enough reason to go on guard.

I pulled out the dagger I carried for self-defense and tried to leap backward while turning to look behind me.

But before I could move, the man activated his magic.

“It’s useless. Composite Magic 【Long-Distance Teleport】.”

At that instant, my vision was swallowed by darkness.

My consciousness sank deep… deeper still.

Down into the deepest depths of the memories I had unknowingly sealed away… deeper… deeper still……………

†

“…Id………… Lloyd. It’s morning already~”

A bright woman’s voice rang out, as though pulling my sunken consciousness back up.

And yet, my instincts rejected that voice.

“Mm… I still wanted to sleep…………”

“Nope~ We’ve got all sorts of plans today, remember~”

There was a reason sleep was counted among the three great human desires.

Even though I had been too excited to sleep until yesterday, now I was putting sleep above everything else.

I should have just gone to bed early yesterday. Though regretting it now was not going to satisfy this desire.

“Just a little… longer…”

I tried to sink back into sleep.

But she decided to physically beat me awake instead.

“Of course not!”

“Urk!”

She leapt onto me, practically draping herself over my body.

Even if she was light for a woman, I was only 12 years old. If a girl 3 years older than me jumped on top of me, it hurt quite a bit. That pain was more than enough to drive away my sleepiness.

“Oh my? A beautiful young girl is generously pouncing on you in your sleep, so why are you making such an unhappy face?”

The girl sitting on top of my stomach asked that with a smug grin.

To be fair, she really was pretty, and I would be lying if I said my heart did not skip a beat.

But calling her a young girl was another matter entirely.

“Sis, aren’t you already at an age where calling you a girl is a little questiona—”

“For saying something like that, my cute little brother deserves a punishment, don’t you think?”

“Gah!”

Still wearing a beaming smile, she drove an iron fist straight into my stomach.

Now then, what kind of beautiful young girl threw iron punches like that? I certainly did not know any. Besides, in this country, 15 was the age of adulthood, so Sis was already an adult.

When I reluctantly sat up, a familiar sight entered my eyes. It was a stone room just large enough for three people to live in. There was no window fitted in place, and both the walls and pillars were shabby. Even the sofa I had been sleeping on was riddled with wormholes and could hardly be called comfortable.

“Ahem. I would appreciate it if you two refrained from flirting first thing in the morning.”

Wearing a wry smile at our exchange, a man poked his head out from the adjoining room.

“Oh, Brother. Are you already ready?”

“Lloyd, the truth is, the one looking forward to today more than anyone is Big Brother Kyros, you know? He’s just too embarrassed to let it show on his face.”

“Wha!? Lishia! What are you saying in front of Lloyd!?”

The moment he heard her words, my brother’s face turned bright red.

“Brother, maybe it’s about time you stopped trying to act cool in front of Lloyd? At this rate, Lloyd might actually start respecting you for real.”

“D-Don’t make it sound like I’m not someone worth respecting. I’m the breadwinner of this family, you know.”

My brother was the oldest among us at 22. He worked hard to protect my sister and me.

It would not have been an exaggeration to say that the reason I did not fear tomorrow was because Brother Kyros was there.

“Don’t worry, Brother. If anyone ever asked me who I respected most, I’d absolutely say you!”

“Lloyd… you truly are my little brother I’m proudest of!”

“Ahaha, cut it out, Brother.”

Brother pulled me out from under where Sister had pinned me and lifted me up high, like he was tossing a baby into the air.

It was embarrassing, being treated like a child, but it still made me happy to be praised by the brother I admired so much.

“That’s my Lloyd, though. Would you mind giving him back?”

Maybe she felt like her prey had been stolen, because Sister puffed out her cheeks in annoyance and tried to snatch me away from Brother.

But as if refusing to lose, Brother lifted me even higher.

“No. As the eldest son, he belongs to me. I’m not handing him over to Lishia.”

“Why not?! I still haven’t had my fill of Lloyd yet~”

Did I seriously have “Lloyd content” in me or something? And if she had been “replenishing” herself with it without my permission, that was just terrifying.

Why was God so unfair?

Why did someone this much of a pervert have to be beautiful too? At the very least, if she were making an effort to stop being a pervert, that would have been one thing, but in Sister’s case, it felt like she was only getting worse.

I timidly spoke up to the two of them.

“You two… if we don’t get ready soon, won’t we be late…?”

““Oh, right!””

The two of them answered in perfect unison.

Today was the long-awaited day of our skill appraisal. There was no way we could afford to be late.

The two of them hurriedly began getting ready.

That said, this was still the slums. All three of us were orphans, so we owned almost nothing and had no way to dress ourselves up.

Even so, not a single one of us had ever resented or grieved over our circumstances.

Even if we were not bound by blood, the three of us were family. As long as I had the two of them, I felt like we could overcome any obstacle.

“I wished days like this could go on forever…”

I murmured it in a voice too soft for the two of them to hear.

But such peaceful days would never last forever.

That was what I was made to realize on that day.

—

Skills, also known as the blessings of the gods, were said to change a person’s life, and for those in the slums, they were their only hope.

The only kind of work where someone from the slums could avoid being treated unfairly was becoming an adventurer. Every child in this city secretly hoped they would be granted a skill suited for adventuring.

“What kind of skill was I going to have~!”

As I walked along the road to the church, my anticipation swelled.

Ordinarily, having one’s skills appraised cost a decent amount of money. It was far more than anyone from the slums could afford. Unless they struck it big through gambling or caught the fancy of some wealthy patron, people from the slums were never even given the chance to turn their lives around.

Recently, however, someone had appeared who would perform those appraisals for free. That person was the priest at the church we were heading to now. Today was the long-awaited day when our turn had finally come.

Sister said to me,

“Lloyd… I felt like you’d be given a gentle sort of skill.”

“A gentle sort? Did that mean one not suited for adventurers? But I wanted to become an adventurer…”

Ever since I had read a heroic tale written in a certain book, I had longed deeply for the profession of adventurer.

No matter how dire the situation, they rose to protect everyone and swung their swords. I had wanted to take up a profession that seemed heroic in every sense of the word.

But Brother and Sister never agreed with me.

“I really didn’t want Lloyd to become an adventurer. Dangerous work like that could be left to Brother.”

“Hm? Weren’t you treating me a little too casually there? Still, well, I did want Lloyd to always keep smiling. Maybe some kind of housekeeping skill, or…”

“I’d absolutely hate that!”

I cut Brother off and puffed out my cheeks in a sulk.

I was already twelve. I understood that the two of them worried about me, but I was also at that age where I wanted to take care of my own affairs.

Maybe it would have been simpler to say I wanted to grow up already.

More than that, though, I think I had wanted to repay them.

I had wanted to repay the two people who had loved the lonely me, the family who gave me hope for tomorrow.

When I thought of it that way, maybe it was something similar to filial devotion.

“Phew… We finally made it.”

After walking for about twenty minutes, we arrived at a building painted entirely white. This was the church.

Maybe because he was nervous, Brother’s hands seemed to be trembling.

“So this is the church…”

The moment we stepped inside, we were left breathless by the lavish decorations.

For us, who had only ever seen buildings that could barely be called homes, the church was dazzling enough to be mistaken for a royal palace.

“Good morning. Would you happen to be Sir Kyros?”

“Y-Yes…”

“Understood. Father is waiting for you. This way, please.”

We followed the clergyman in silence.

In truth, I had wanted to talk to the two of them to calm my nerves. But this place had an atmosphere that seemed to say that speaking was forbidden.

When we reached the appraisal room, a man who appeared to be the priest was there.

When I thought of a priest, I had imagined an old man with a long white beard, but he looked younger than I had expected. Perhaps he was in his early twenties.

“Good afternoon. You are here for the skill appraisal of the three of you, Sir Kyros, Lady Lishia, and Sir Lloyd, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Then please, have a seat.”

After comparing our names with the reservation details, the priest had us sit in chairs.

“Then I will begin the appraisal at once. It will be over quickly, so please relax while you wait.”

The priest began staring us up and down.

He probably possessed some kind of appraisal skill. I had assumed he would measure us with a magitool, so that came as a slight surprise.

“Hm…”

“Huh? W-Was something wrong?”

“No, no. Please wait. It will be over in just a moment.”

When he appraised me, it looked as though the priest had smiled to himself.

But it seemed that had only been my imagination.

The priest moved his pen and recorded the results of the appraisal.

“First, Sir Kyros. Your skill is 【Growth Amplification】.”

“Was that a strong skill?”

For Brother, what mattered was whether it was a skill that would let him protect us. He wanted it to be something suited for adventurers, or at least something practical. He swallowed hard and waited for the priest’s answer.

But the priest’s expression clouded, and he replied apologetically.

“To be frank, this skill is a dud. It is a skill that makes you grow a little faster than other people.”

“What!? No way…”

Brother stood there in a daze when he heard those words.

Leaving Brother in that state, the priest went on to explain the skills one after another.

My skill was 【All-Rounder】.

It was a strong skill in the sense that it raised all abilities. However, its limit was apparently D-class. That limit was, so to speak, one’s growth ceiling, meaning that no matter how much I trained the 【All-Rounder】 skill, it would never rise beyond D-class.

Like Brother’s, it too was apparently considered a dud.

But I did not think this skill was a dud. As long as it was meant for combat, that was enough for me.

“Lady Lishia’s is wonderful. You manifested two skills.”

Sister’s skills were 【Appraisal】 and 【Advanced Swordsmanship】.

According to the priest, it was rare for someone to possess two skills from the very beginning.

As for 【Appraisal】, it was apparently considered a dud skill, but 【Advanced Swordsmanship】 was quite a rare one. It was an ability that provided assistance in sword techniques and made it easier for the body to move exactly as one imagined.

If she continued to work hard from here on, it seemed even becoming an A-rank adventurer as a swordswoman was within reach.

““Thank you very much.””

Sister and I bowed deeply to the priest.

Now we could decide our path going forward and begin working. Brother would no longer have to bear the burden alone.

“…Th-Thank you very much.”

Perhaps Brother had still been in a daze, because he bowed a moment later.

“Hehe… There is something I would like to discuss, so would you mind staying behind, Lady Lishia?”

“Understood. You two go on home first, okay?”

Brother and I followed Sister’s words and left the room behind.

—

Perhaps it was around half a year later.

“Haaah… How did it come to this…”

Brother let those words out like a groan.

“Damn it all!”

Lately, Brother had often been coming home very late at night and drinking himself senseless.

His old job had ended at seven in the evening. There was no way he should have been coming back at ten or eleven at night. No matter how many times I asked if he had changed jobs, Brother never told me anything.

“It’s okay, Lloyd.”

“O-Okay…”

Sister and I were lying under the blankets in the bedroom next door.

As always, Sister gently stroked my head as though trying to reassure me.

Brother’s smile had disappeared lately. Even when he talked to me, it was only a forced smile.

I did not know what his goal was, but even I could tell that Brother was trying to earn more money than before.

But this was the slums. Grueling physical labor was still one of the better options. There were also jobs where people were used as pawns for criminals, and filthy work no one else wanted to do. And to make matters worse, those kinds of jobs tended to pay better.

Of course, I understood how important money was. I could never thank Brother enough for always working so hard for our sake.

But if the price of that was our family falling apart, then I would have been perfectly fine continuing to live in poverty as we always had.

“I… I had to do something…”

“Hm? Sister? Did you say something?”

“No. Let’s go to sleep early tonight, okay?”

Sister smiled softly and pulled the blanket back over me.

I closed my eyes as she told me to and let my consciousness sink into darkness.

“Good night… Lloyd.”

—

“Mm? Was it morning already…?”

I woke to the sunlight streaming in through the window.

How long had it been since I had gotten up on my own? Normally, Sister came to wake me, so it was rare for me to get up by myself.

“It’s unusual for Sister not to come wake me.”

I sat up and peeked into the space beside mine that served as Sister’s room. Though calling it a room was generous, since it was only divided off with cloth. In truth, it was all the same room.

“Hm? Sister? Where did she go?”

For the past half year, Sister and I had trained every day to become adventurers. We had no money to attend an academy, so we had no choice but to teach ourselves how to fight monsters.

Thanks to Sister’s skill 【Appraisal】, our training had been progressing well.

“For Sister to leave without saying anything…”

I might have been biased saying it myself, but Sister loved me dearly. Not once had she ever left me alone before.

“Well, maybe I was just overthinking it. I’ll train by myself today!”

At this rate, I was the one starting to look like I had a sister complex.

“I’m going to grow a whole lot stronger and surprise Sister!”

Though I still felt a little uneasy, I threw myself into training as if to shake it off.

I kept swinging my sword with a single thought in mind: I wanted to make things easier for Brother as soon as possible.

—If the three of us were ever going to smile and live together again, then I had to become stronger!

But that ordinary, simple wish of mine would never come true.

On that day, Sister didn’t come home.

—

The day after Sister did not come home.

Brother Kyros and I visited the church.

The priest had summoned us. Apparently, it had something to do with bestowing the gods’ blessing or something along those lines.

Just as Brother and I were about to go out and search for Sister, a clergyman came and dragged the two of us away almost by force.

“Thank you for taking the trouble to come today.”

“Please make this quick. We’ve got things to do afterward.”

Brother answered the priest’s greeting in an irritable tone.

Back then, Brother had been devout enough to come to church once a week, but over the past six months, he had not come even once. Ever since that day, Sister had looked worried all the time too.

We never should have had our skills appraised.

That was what I thought, but if I said it out loud, the atmosphere would only get even worse, so I kept it to myself.

The priest looked at us with a broad smile and said,

“Well then, today, I’ve decided to specially bestow a new skill upon the two of you.”

““What!?””

Brother and I could hardly believe our ears.

“It seems the two of you have received the gods’ blessing.”

Something about the priest’s meaningful smile made me instinctively distrust him.

However, Brother seemed completely captivated by the priest’s words.

“Really!? Then do it right now!”

From the day of the skill appraisal up until today, the one who had suffered the most was Brother Kyros. There was no way he could remain calm after hearing that he would be granted a new skill.

“Understood. Then please, both of you, close your eyes.”

Following the priest’s instructions, Brother and I closed our eyes.

Right after that, an unpleasant sensation wrapped around my body. It felt as though some foreign object was being forced into me.

But if I endured it, I would gain a new skill.

I held on and waited for the priest’s next words.

Had about a minute passed with our eyes closed?

“It’s all right now.”

At the priest’s signal, I slowly opened my eyes.

Brother had already opened his and eagerly leaned toward the priest as he asked,

“So what new skill did we receive?”

“Please calm down. I’ll explain starting with Kyros.”

The priest had Brother and me sit down in chairs.

“The skill bestowed upon you, Kyros, is 【Advanced Swordsmanship】. It is an ability that provides skill-based support in sword techniques, making it easier for your body to move according to the image in your mind.”

“I-I see! Then now I can become an adventurer too…!”

At once relieved, Brother clenched his fist tightly.

And understandably so. With this skill alone, his future as a swordsman was practically assured.

I never expected he would be granted the same skill as Sister, but with this, the futures of both of them should have been secure.

“And Lloyd, yours is 【Appraisal】.”

“Huh?”

The response slipped out of me before I could stop it.

Seeing me like that, Brother tried to encourage me.

“Well, it’s not suited for a combat job. But from now on, I’ll protect both of you.”

Brother must have thought I was disappointed about getting the 【Appraisal】 skill.

But that was not it. If he thought about it calmly, Brother should have understood too.

“H-How could the skill I was given be exactly the same as Sister’s?”

Though bewildered, I asked the priest.

And it seemed Brother finally realized it too.

“Now that you mention it, you were right. Was it because our circumstances were similar or something like that?”

No, that wasn’t it. Skills were innate.

In other words, they dwelled within a person’s very nature.

Just because people had similar circumstances did not mean they would receive the same skill.

I had heard that there were, on rare occasions, people who possessed two or more skills, but that was only because they had worked themselves to death to obtain them. Brother and I were different.

Why hadn’t I noticed it sooner?

“There’s no way… someone could be granted a second skill afterward…”

“What?”

“No matter how you looked at it, this was strange. The timing, the circumstances… Please explain what this means, Father.”

A skill exactly the same as Sister’s. Sister’s sudden disappearance. The abrupt proposal to bestow us with new skills.

It was difficult to dismiss all of that as mere coincidence.

At that, the priest’s lips curled slightly upward.

“Yes, of course. That is Lishia’s skill.”

““!?””

“I transferred Lishia’s skill to the two of you. That was her wish, after all.”

At that point, even we understood.

This man was no ordinary priest.

“…Where is Lishia?”

Until just moments ago, Brother had been elated. Now he sent the priest a sharp glare.

The priest responded with a chilling smile.

“Lishia is no longer here.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Lishia died yesterday. The price for transferring her skills to the two of you.”

“…What?”

“――!!”

My whole body stiffened and trembled.

It was only then that I truly understood the meaning of the phrase “a chill of terror ran through me.”

“Haha, what kind of joke is this? Did Lishia ask you to help her pull some kind of prank?”

Brother seemed to think it was a joke.

But unlike Brother, I could not laugh.

“…”

How did I know the priest’s words were true?

The answer was right in front of my eyes.

.

[Name]	Kyros (23)
[Title]	E-rank Adventurer
[Stats]	Vitality B/B  Magic D/C  Ambition C/S Leadership E/D  Intelligence D/A
[Skill]	Advanced Swordsmanship E/B

.

“What is this…?”

The letters floating above Brother’s head did not disappear no matter how many times I rubbed my eyes.

“By the way, I also collected the skills you two originally possessed. They were rejecting each other, so if I had left them alone, your ego might have collapsed.”

After hearing the priest’s words, I looked at the text floating above Brother’s head once more.

In the skill section, 【Growth Amplification】, which Brother should have had, was no longer displayed.

“I’m glad your eyes are functioning properly as well, Lloyd.”

The priest looked me straight in the eye, a suggestive expression on his face.

It was a roundabout way of putting it, but what he clearly meant was this:

How fortunate that I had properly inherited Lishia’s 【Appraisal】.

“…Lloyd, what does this mean?”

“I can actually use 【Appraisal】.”

If I could appraise something, that meant the skill truly dwelled within me.

“Hey! Where is Lishia!?”

At last, Brother seemed to understand that this was no ordinary situation.

With a ferocious look in his eyes, he grabbed the priest by the collar.

“I told you already, she di—”

At that moment, Brother shoved the priest away.

Then he drew the longsword at his waist.

“Why did things always turn out like this? I should have been doing something praiseworthy, you know?”

The priest dropped his polite tone, frowned as though this were all terribly unfair, and spoke roughly.

He did not look like he was trying to provoke us. He genuinely could not understand how we felt.

“Lloyd! Go call the military police!”

“Huh?”

“I’ll hold this bastard here until then…!”

There was resolve in Brother Kyros’s eyes. No matter what I said, he would not have listened.

Still just a child, I did as Brother said and sprinted out of the church toward the military police station in the slums.

And when I returned to the church with the military police, Brother had the priest pinned down. Apparently he had activated 【Advanced Swordsmanship】. The priest was then taken away by the military police.

After that, their interrogation revealed that the priest was a murderer who had killed dozens of people before. And even after searching for a full month, they never found Sister.

The military police concluded that the priest had disposed of her. They had found the remains of dozens of people who had their skills stolen inside his residence.

My memories of my time in the slums ended there.

†