IWAL Ch 20 – Good Kids Get Rewarded

 

“Okay Pochi, you’re all done. Who’s next? Pyonkichi?”

I sometimes brushed down my animals. All the animals loved to be brushed, looking blissful whenever I did so. Plus, their fur got nice and shiny. Brian looked especially cool after he was groomed.

Brian was named after a racehorse that my grandpa had favored. I never saw that horse myself, but apparently he’d been an awesome horse.

I might be biased, but in my opinion Brian, with his glossy fur and magnificent bearing, was just as impressive as that racehorse.

 

“Alright, next! It’s your turn, sheep-chan~”

The fur that covered the sheep’s whole body was already fluffy enough. But once it was brushed, its fur grew in volume and became even fluffier.

After I finish meticulously brushing the sheep, I would always press my face to its fur. My head would get completely engulfed in it. That was my favorite part of brushing the sheep; I loved nuzzling into that softness.

All three of the sheep were resting side by side in the shade today as well. It was the middle of the day, after all. They probably felt hot. They usually roamed around in the early morning and in the evening though, when the temperature dropped.

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“Huh? Huuuuh?”

I’d tried to brush the sheep on the right. Usually, my arm sank into the fur up to my elbow before I reached skin, but today, my arm sank further and further until my hand finally landed on the ground.

I was so shocked I unconsciously yelled out, “Ehh, what, sheep-chan, what happened to your body?!”

Panicked, I checked on the other two and got the same result. All of their bodies had disappeared from under the fur.

“Wh-what the heck?”

Dumbfounded, I blankly sat down in front of the cast-off fur of my family members.

 

Suddenly, the grass rustled. Three black-faced animals poked their heads out.

“…………”

“““Baa.”””

I gasped loudly.

I knew this sound.

The black animals kept their eyes on me as their mouths moved, chewing on something. I looked at the cast-off wool, then looked back at the animals.

Hesitantly, I called out, “You guys… Are you my sheep?”

“““Baa.”””

Now that I thought about it, Norn did say that when the time came, the sheep’s fur would fall off by itself without needing to be sheared.

But rather than the fur falling off by itself, wasn’t this more like the sheep had slipped out from its fur?

 

“Were you sheep this small this whole time?”

The sheep that had fully appeared out of the grass looked so, how do I say this, thin and frail. Maybe because I was used to them being so fluffy.

Just like how a wet cat would look pitifully thin and small. And this image gap was even more impactful than that.

“You guys aren’t cold? Are you alright?”

“Baa.”

I tried to pet the sheep that had gotten closer. Its skin was soft to the touch; it was an entirely novel sensation.

This felt pretty good in and of itself too.

 

“I wonder what I should do with these wool. I can’t think of anything.”

For now, I moved the wool into the barn one by one so that they wouldn’t get dirty and wet. As I hefted up the last mass of wool, I realized that Pyonkichi had snuck inside it sometime ago.

“You like this wool, Pyonkichi?”

The sheep’s wool was soft and felt good, after all.

Since I couldn’t leave it outside for him, I decided to make it Pyonkichi’s sleeping bed and left that wool in the breeding hut.

 

After I finished my morning chores, I had a bit of free time.

There hadn’t been any weeds that had grown overnight, so after harvesting my crops, sowing new seeds and watering the plants, I had nothing else to do.

Thanks to that, I could now spend some time hulling the rice.

As I pounded on the rice, my eyes couldn’t help but get stuck on the sheep. The once white and fluffy sheep were now all black and smooth. It was so strange, I really couldn’t get used to it.

Were they really my family’s sheep?

The sounds they made and the way they walked were all the same, though.

 

As I stared at them like they were entirely new creatures, Pochi, who had been laying on the ground beside me, suddenly twitched his ears and raised his head.

He gave a little whine, then barked.

With his tail furiously wagging, he got up, all the while making happy sounds. He turned towards the town’s direction and took a step forward.

“What is it, Pochi? Is someone coming?”

Maybe Norn came to visit? But Pochi didn’t sound like it.

Pochi fully favored children, but when it came to adults, he acted cool and aloof.

With Nott and Marco, he was all ‘Pet me!!’, but towards Norn or Genett-san, he gave off an arrogant, ‘I’ll allow you to pet me’ feeling.

 

As if he couldn’t wait any longer, Pochi dashed towards the road. Well, he wasn’t being aggressive right now, so it was probably fine.

I would hear the sound of the wagon arriving, so before then, I guess I could continue hulling the rice.

 

In the end, I didn’t hear the sound of a wagon. His family didn’t have a horse so he probably ran all the way here.

“Shinobu!!”

I looked up. Standing just before my property with his chest heaving was Nott.

He was red-faced and dripping in sweat. And he was crying.

Back when their farm field was in poor condition, though he’d been biting his lip in frustration, he never cried. He’d probably been holding back because Marco was there.

But right now, there were tears streaming down his cheeks.

 

Maybe his mother had finally told him about his father.

It’d been four days since I’d been invited to their home.

His mother did ask for my help when the time came, but I never expected for that time to come so fast. I couldn’t gather my thoughts enough to figure out what to say.

I tossed the rice bin in my hand and ran to Nott. That was the only thing I could do.

The bin toppled down and the rice inside it scattered. The chickens immediately swarmed the grains, but I couldn’t pay them any attention right now. Nott was more important.

 

Nott ran towards me too. He rushed forward as if he was trying to ram into me.

Due to our difference in body size, I couldn’t stop him with just my strength. Nott bowled into me and we tumbled onto the field full of tall, overgrown grass.

Though I hit the ground with my back, thanks to the grass it didn’t hurt that much. Various insects were startled into flying, and I saw them buzzing off beyond Nott’s shoulder and into the wide, blue sky.

The tall grass were like walls that hid us from sight. It was like we were in a small and roofless private room.

 

“Hic, sniff…”

I could hear Nott sobbing into my shoulder. I hugged him back hard. My arms weren’t long enough to wrap around his back so I could only grip tightly onto his shirt.

I didn’t know what to say.

Back when grandpa and grandma died, my childhood friends who lived close by said things like, ‘Please accept my sympathies’ and ‘My condolences’, but I didn’t want to say such rote words. I wanted to say something personal, something that could help cheer him up.

Wasn’t there anything? Anything at all? Ugh, why was I so dumb? At such an important time, no words came to mind.

If I were a little smarter, maybe I could find the right words to say. Something meaningful and comforting.

 

Nott mumbled something. I couldn’t really hear what he was saying, but I imagined it was something like, ‘I hate this’ or ‘I can’t take it anymore’. Words that expressed how defeated he felt.

My grip on him tightened, and in my heart I screamed to him, ‘you can do it, you can do it!’

Nott might feel like he couldn’t go on anymore, but he had his mother and brother. And he had me.

I couldn’t really do anything, but I could at least listen to him and empathize with him. That’s why, please.

 

“Dad………ome.”

This time, I could hear some of what he was saying.

He was crying so hard, the poor boy.

I let go of his shirt and slowly patted his back to try and calm him down.

Nott placed his hands on the ground beside my head and pushed, levering his body up.

His tears dripped down onto my face.

The blue sky served as his backdrop, and on his shadowed face…

 

“Dad came home!!”

A smile. His eyes were wet and full of tears, and his nose was red, but he was grinning from ear to ear.

I probably had a stupid look on my face as I gaped at him, open-mouthed.

“……Eh, huh? But your dad……”

Didn’t he fall down a ravine…?

His mom even said that she was sure he wasn’t alive anymore. Huh?

 

“He came limping home just now and said, ‘I’m home. I made you all worry.’ Mom was so shocked she had to sit down.

Dad apparently slipped down the slope of the mountain. He said that both his legs and his right arm got broken, so he had to stay in the village his rescuers lived in to recuperate.

He’d asked them to send a message, but as it got passed on from person to person, the content of the message changed. So what mom heard was that he fell off a ravine and died.”

“S-so it was a case of a telephone game.”

Apparently, his dad had sent a message that said: ‘I slipped down the slope of the mountain and got injured. I can’t move right now so it’ll take a while for me to get home.’

When that message passed through various porters, as it was getting repeated, the message changed and became ‘fell off a ravine’.

 

Nott continued, “To be honest, I didn’t think that my dad would ever come home. Though I said that he would definitely come back, I thought that it’d been so long. There was no way he was still alive.

I wanted to help my mom, but I couldn’t really do anything. If you hadn’t taught me how to farm, I’m sure that my heart wouldn’t have been able to take it.

So I’m glad I met you, Shinobu. I was able to keep doing my best because of you.”

 

No, that wasn’t true. I didn’t do anything. I just helped them water the field. It was Pochi who’d tilled the earth, and Nott and Marco who’d planted the seeds and did their best to take care of the plants.

The two of them were such good kids, so I was sure that this was this world’s god’s way of rewarding them.

 

I said, “I’m glad that your father came home.”

Holding Nott’s face in both hands, I gently knocked our foreheads together, sharing in his happiness. I was really, really glad.

“Thank you, Shinobu!!” Nott kissed my cheek.

“!!”

Then, he abruptly got up. He ran towards Pochi, who was sitting a little distance away from us, and ruffled his fur. “Thank you too, Pochi!!”

Next, he went running towards Brian, jumped on his back and hugged his neck. “And thank you too, Brian!!”

He was so happy that his dad had returned that he went around energetically thanking everything.

 

“Th-that surprised me…”

I hadn’t expected being kissed on the cheek.

I’d never had this kind of thing happen to me, so I was really surprised. It was true that I’d seen Norn being kissed on the cheek by Couge several times, but I never thought it would happen to me.

As a Japanese man who wasn’t used to western greetings, it was inevitable that receiving a kiss on the cheek myself would have me shocked like this.

 

“I’ll be heading back now, Shinobu!! Mom and Dad are waiting for me!!”

“Ah, wait! I’ll send you over! And take some vegetables and smoked meat with you. You’ll be celebrating tonight, right?”

I put tons of squash and cabbages into the wagon, and with Brian pulling, drove over to Nott’s house. On the way there, Nott was still all excited. He kept telling everyone we passed by that his dad came home with a huge grin on his face.

Everyone told him, “That’s great news! Here, take this!”

And so, the things in the wagon kept piling up until there was a veritable mountain of treasure.

Nott wouldn’t be able to carry all of it in, so I helped him move everything. We had to go back and forth several times. But Nott was so happy that I didn’t mind the trouble at all.

Nott’s dad, with Nott’s mom supporting him, limped out of the house to come greet me. They invited me to dinner, but I didn’t want to be a nuisance when this was the first time in so long that their family was all gathered together, so I refused.

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With a clear heart and an empty wagon, I held on to Brian’s reins and headed back home.

“I guess miracles do exist.”

This incident had been caused by a simple man-made error; a telephone game-like miscommunication. But when you compared how things seemed so bleak four days ago, it was like a miracle had really happened.

It was like Nott had proven to me that it was true that if you worked hard, good things would happen. So I resolved to do my best too.

 

“Hey, Brian. When we get home, let’s celebrate too. I’ll let you eat a lot of delicious vegetables.

Hmm, maybe I’ll sleepover at the barn tonight.”

I’d completely forgotten about the rice that I’d been in the middle of hulling. So when I arrived home and saw the empty rice bin, I was a little shocked and dejected. But, well, it was fine. We were going to celebrate tonight anyway, so I’ll just think of it as my present to the chickens.

 

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