Chapter 1: Prologue: One Worth Twenty
"I don't know how else to say this, so instead I'll allow you to see it through my eyes. I suck at noticing the small details- that's what my older brother says at least- so maybe you'll see something I didn't."
"It starts with Mr K-1. After successfully obtaining his 100th sword, Ode Lodlak was promoted to the K-1 unit. Papa says that he was the best swordsman our village ever produced. I don't know why Papa would say something like that though."
"Surely he knows my brothers always practice the sword? They even told me he made them keep it a secret. I don't know if Papa wants me to keep it a secret too, so I just don't say anything. He just treats me like I don't know anything about it."
"Gran did tell me that my dad was good at hiding things from her."
"So, Mr K-1, Ode Lodlak, decided to come to my Papa's place for a sword. I was out by the river filling buckets. When I got back, Papa told Mr K-1 the same thing he always tells everyone."
"Either you get a good sword of mine for free, or I make one sword worth twenty swords."
"Mr K-1 wasn't too happy with the swords he saw, so he decided to pay twenty swords. I just went crazy. I mean, twenty swords! Do you know how many dumplings I could get from Granny Fufu with that kinda money?"
"Huh? Who's Granny Fufu? You must be a stinking foreigner! Ow! Sorry, my other brother always calls foreigners stinkers. Granny Fufu is the nice lady who makes these beautiful dumplings. She lives closer to the bamboo forest. I even heard she has some Panda cubs!"
"Oh, right. Back to that. So, when my Dad heard the request, he looked real tired for some reason. Mr K-1 left and then my Dad got to work."
"But here's where it gets crazy! My Dad told me he didn't want me in the forge with him. I was so mad that I knocked over a bucket of water and ran away! Hmph!"
"Owie! No-no! I knocked it over accidentally when I was running away! Yowza!"
"Well, I didn't go back to the forge. I just went and sat by the river. Some of the locals were there, but when they saw me they started to whisper and then they left. They always do that. Papa says it's cause they think they're better than me, but I think it's cause they think I'm weird-looking. After all, I look nothing like them."
"I asked Mama back when she could still talk, but all she said was that we weren't born here. That must mean we're foreigners too-- me and my brothers. It's only us that look different. Mama and Papa look just like the locals."
"I asked my eldest brother, and he said they were racists! Oh, right! He didn't say it exactly like that. He said they were damn filthy, privileged racists!"
"It took three days for my Dad to finish the sword. I thought that was a long time, but Papa told me that he didn't want to finish it too fast. People might have doubts about the quality."
"Well, Papa didn't even let me see the sword. He gave it to Mr K-1 and then took the twenty swords. I have no idea what he did with them. I never saw those swords again."
"I didn't see Mr K-1 again either. It was only months after that I heard he left the village to go to the big city. He wanted to work toward becoming a registered mercenary, which is another way of saying K-2."
"When we got the news, my Dad was worried. He stopped working and hid in his room. Mama stopped coming out to drink tea with us too. My brothers and I ended up getting really worried, but my biggest brother said that we shouldn't be too worried. He told us that Dad was just tired after forging for three straight days."
"I guess Papa didn't tell him that he could have finished it a lot faster."
"Days after, another stinky foreigner came and told us that Ode Lodlak had been killed by a band of rebels. He brought eighty swords back with him, but said that the sword Ode had on him was taken."
"I wonder why they only took the sword Papa made."
__________________
I have decided to try again.
I don't know if any of you were bummed out over the cancellation of "The Origin Realm" but, well, I just couldn't anymore.
Hopefully I feel better about this book.
It isn't going to be a super serious book. I'm going to try to make it light-hearted but also have a lot of meaningful moments.
Just think of this as a teaser trailer, and yes this chapter is all dialogue that's actually happening, but we only "hear" it from one party.
As for future updates, I'll try to put out 10 chapters all at once sometime next week.
Hope you all enjoy what's to come!
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