Chapter 37: Behold the shadow

It has been about a month since Ahri and I parted ways in Weh’le and I returned home.

The time Ahri and I spent together wasn’t short, so for the first few days, a sense of longing welled up in me too.

However, I couldn’t force her, who was wandering here and there for her own future, to stay here.

The best I could do was simply wish Ahri well on the path she would walk ahead.

It wasn’t as if we could never meet again, so if the opportunity arose later, we could talk about what we had been doing.

I hoped that when she came to meet me again, Ahri would have found clues about her origins, the reason she was wandering Ionia.

Zoe had been visiting me almost once a week lately.

Even so, making a cake every single week was quite a burden for me, so I declared I would only make one once a month, but she kept visiting anyway.

Whenever Zoe visited, she would chat about various trivial things, play pranks, or sometimes talk about future events using cryptic metaphors, but she seemed to enjoy the actions themselves.

Thanks to her, I think I’ve developed some immunity to Zoe’s mental attacks now.

I’ve reached a level where I can calmly brush off all of Zoe’s actions without reacting to every single one.

I even felt confident that at this rate, I could endure anyone spouting nonsense at me all day long.

Zoe had been helpful in an unexpected way.

Lost in these miscellaneous thoughts after finishing my work for the day and heading home, one familiar face and one unfamiliar face next to it caught my eye.

The familiar face had two large shurikens slung on his back, and the unfamiliar face carried something wrapped tightly in cloth slung over his shoulder.

Judging by its shape, it looked like a scythe (A long handle with a big curved blade at the end), but I wasn’t sure why it was wrapped in cloth.

‘No, more importantly, why is that nameless kid (who looked about the age of a second-year middle schooler) wearing his shirt tied around his waist?

‘Is this one of the ways to wear clothes in Ionia that I’m unaware of?’

‘Still, seeing those abs on someone so young, he must have trained hard.’

They spotted me too and approached me first.

Unlike with Ahri, I hadn’t expected to meet this one again, so I was slightly flustered by the sudden reunion.

Unlike when he had hidden his identity to seek me out, he was now flaunting his presence, revealing who he was.

He greeted me as I stood there doing nothing.

“It has been a truly long time.”

“This is the disciple I mentioned before.”

“Zed, it’s been a while.”

“A year has already passed since then.”

“Seeing you with your disciple, it seems things worked out well.”

Since he had greeted me, I couldn’t just keep standing there blankly, so I greeted Zed as well.

When we first met, he worried about betrayal, but seeing him doing well like this now, it seemed he had fortunately overcome that without incident.

‘But that kid next to him, looking like a delinquent boy, is his disciple?’

‘They don’t seem like a well-matched pair.’

Zed nudged the back of the kid he called his disciple, signaling him to introduce himself to me.

Kayn understood the meaning and made a face that said, ‘Why should I have to do that for a complete stranger I know nothing about?’ but when Zed continued to stare silently, he reluctantly opened his mouth.

“Kayn.”

Having simply spat out his name, Kayn didn’t even make proper eye contact with me and just tapped the ground with the tip of his foot.

Kayn’s behavior didn’t bother me at all, but I decided to say a word, thinking it might reflect poorly on Zed if I left it as is.

“Kayn, it’s not that I’m hurt by your actions, but I hope you understand that every single one of those actions affects the reputation of your master, Zed.”

“…Tch.”

“Kayn… it is…”

‘I feel like I unintentionally pulled off some kind of checkmate move, but it’s just a feeling.’

Seeing Kayn making a reluctant introduction with a deeply scrunched face filled me with satisf… no, pity.

I didn’t mean for him to go that far; he seemed to have misunderstood my words.

Zed placed a hand on Kayn’s head and asked for my understanding.

“Actually, this boy is a child I took in during the conflict with Noxus.”

“At the time, I couldn’t just leave Kayn alone, brought here as a Noxian child soldier without purpose or meaning in life.”

“His actions and speech might be a bit grating, but he’s a good kid at heart, so I would appreciate it if you could look upon him generously.”

“Ugh…”

“Master Zed, saying unnecessary things…”

Kayn’s face flushed bright red at Zed’s words as he waved his hands dismissively.

‘I think my friends back in the day had a name for people who act like that… I can’t quite remember.’

‘Something-dere?’

‘Tsu… Tsundere? (Someone who pretends to hate you but actually cares a lot)’

‘Something like that, anyway.’

‘It’s not really important right now, so I’ll let it go.’

Since we couldn’t stay on the roadside forever, I invited them to my home.

If they were passing through here, they would definitely need a place to stay, and conveniently, my house wasn’t far, so I could host guests for a night.

Kayn vehemently opposed, but when Zed accepted, he had no choice but to follow.

Upon arriving home, I gave each of them an empty room to unpack and then prepared dinner.

Since Kayn was here today, I decided to make Bibimbap (Korean mixed rice with veggies, meat, and spicy sauce), a safe choice that balanced both health and taste.

With various greens grown in the Ionian mountains, finely shredded vegetables, meat, and a fried egg on top, it makes for a perfectly fine meal.

It seemed Gochujang didn’t exist here yet, so I prepared a similar sauce separately without mixing it in beforehand.

Serving the Bibimbap, I explained that the sauce was optional, adding it or not was fine, but warned that it would be quite spicy if added.

It’s a matter of preference, so it doesn’t make a huge difference how one eats it.

Zed added only about half of the sauce I prepared.

Kayn sat still for a moment, then seeing me add all the sauce to my Bibimbap, he dumped all the sauce into his bowl as if he couldn’t lose.

I had warned him beforehand that adding it all would be considerably spicy, but seeing him act like this, it seemed his puberty phase was hitting hard.

I worried if he could even finish it all.

As I feared, the moment Kayn took a bite of the Bibimbap, sweat started pouring down like a waterfall.

Still, perhaps out of stubborn pride, he kept gulping down water and painstakingly emptied the bowl.

It would be fortunate if his stomach didn’t hurt later.

Nevertheless, his attitude of not wanting to waste food was commendable.

After dinner, we extinguished all the lights to sleep.

Zed and Kayn both went into their respective rooms to prepare for bed, and I also decided to sleep to prepare for tomorrow’s tasks.

I kissed Set on the forehead, wishing him good night, then lay down on my bed and tried to sleep.

Rustle.

I woke up to the sound of a presence that shouldn’t be there.

Only a limited number of people would enter this room at this hour.

Yes, for instance, the one currently staying at our house…

“Hey, wake up, old timer.”

“I’ll make you pay the price for looking down on me.”

…like this ill-mannered brat.

It seems this boy suffering from middle-school syndrome needs some dialogue (physical).

‘You bastard, I’ll kill you last.’