Only with Your Heart

Lukrov kept gazing at the campfire while Chizuru continued talking.

My parents died in an accident when I was still young.

The flames flickered.

Lukrov did not move a muscle.

But I had a grandmother on my fathers side. She raised me and was very, very kind to me. She may not have been financially well off, but I think she felt happy when she worked hard and was satisfied with her life.

Chizuru felt a pain in her throat when she spoke about her grandmother as if something was stuck there.

Grandmother.

I wonder whats going on in the original world now that Ive been summoned here. Did they count me as a missing person? Maybe they treated me as dead?

Until now, Chizuru had never left the house without her grandmothers permission or without letting her know where she went, not even for a single night.

Just thinking about what her grandmother, Kazuyo must be going through or what she thought about her sudden disappearance for so long, was enough to make her heart tighten.

Feeling the silence, she wanted to change the topic. She stared at Lukrov and asked.

What about you, Lukrov? Do you have parents waiting for you in your hometown?

A wife or lover?

She was about to add that but stopped. For some reason, she didnt want to know his answer. When she imagined his kindness directed towards another woman, somewhere deep inside her, felt painful.

My parents are dead.

Lukrov answered shortly.

His tone was so flat that it had quite an impact. Chizuru gulped and waited for the continuation of the sentence.

It was just before I turned nine years old. There was a local invasion, and they were both killed easily. My father hid me under the straw at the back of the barn, and I survived. The house where I grew up was burned to the ground and fell into ruins, nothing but rocks.

Lukrovs father was a baron of a small estate in the countryside, with, in his words,a bit of land and a few dozen peasants,and was something of a local lord. Lukrov himself was the only child, and his parents had him in their relatively late years. He was naturally the legitimate son.

I lived like a beggar for a couple of years after that. It was just a matter of staying alive, and then when I turned twelve years old, my physique had improved greatly, and I was able to become a knight.

Luklov spoke casually, but even Chizuru, who had little knowledge of this world, could imagine how much effort it took for a boy who had lived like a beggar to become a knight.

No, it was beyond her imagination.

Lukrovs eyes were staring at the flames, but his mind seemed to be wandering somewhere into the distant past.

He, who was now twenty-two years old, and the twelve-year-old boy from his past seemed to overlap.

Hard-working, huh.

Chizuru murmured unconsciously. Lukrov lifted the edge of his mouth sarcastically.

Im just greedy.

You say that now, but Im sure you had a tough time. You could have just given up.

She wanted to say something more comforting, but her heart was too overwhelmed with feelings to do so. And she knew for sure words would not be enough.

There was no way she could express the harshness of life.

There was no way she could express her feelings too.

Lukrov.

When my father hid me in the straw

Before she knew it, Lukrov was staring at her.

It was hard to tell if he was staring at her, or if he was glaring at her because his gaze was so serious. Chizuru couldnt look away and they kept staring at each other.

When my father hid me in the straw, he said,Live. Just live.

..

And just before he took his sword and went back to the house where the invaders were about to attack, he said,Well be gone soon. But dont give up. One day you will find someone you love, and you will be happy. Live!

Chizuru didnt know why, but at that moment, Lukrov had a strangely calm and peaceful expression on his face.