Chapter 2: Chapter 2
Chapter 2 - Inheritance
A few days later. Outside Hanz's house, Hanz was hanging his newly washed clothes on the clothesline. There were different colored t-shirts hanging there. Blue, red, brown, green, and other colors of clothes were hanging there.
However, out of those clothes, they all belonged to him. None of the clothes belonged to Juin. Hanz's face while hanging the clothes were a bit listless too. He was not smiling, he was not unhappy, he was not sad but there was no emotion on his face.
Even so, it could be seen that he was tired. The eye bags under his eyes, his unfocused eyes, his sluggish movement, and loss of weight all pertained to fatigue. He looked like a living zombie. Moving lifelessly around without a care of his surroundings.
After he finished hanging the clothes, Hanz's movement stopped. He stared listlessly in the air. Other than the last clothes he hung on the clothesline, there was nothing else in front of him. He stood there without moving for fifteen minutes before he walked back inside his home.
Once he got inside, there was no one else there. The house was empty and quiet. The house's atmosphere was gloomy and dark too. Hanz walked and sat in front of the dining table and stared at the place where grandpa Juin sat all the time while they were having their breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
"Grandpa…" Hanz murmured and his eyes started gleaming with water. When he realized that, he immediately wiped his tears away. He had been crying a lot for the past few days and he realized it himself that he could not keep crying like that.
A few days ago, Juin passed away peacefully in his sleep. Hanz was devastated but he could not control life and death and thus, accepted Juin's death calmly… only in front of other people. When he was alone, he could not control his feelings and wept like a child.
Everyone in the village knew that Hanz was acting strong because they knew how much Hanz loved Juin. No one said anything about him not crying during the burial because they understood Hanz's real feelings.
Juin's passing was not much of a surprise to some of the people in the village. All due to Juin's acting weirdly a few days ago asking the villager to look after and help Hanz when he was in trouble. Those that were around the same age as Juin had a feeling that his time was up in the world.
Juin's prediction of his life ending was not weird to the old people in the village because they had seen the same things happen before to other old people. Many people who will die soon had some idea in their minds when it was almost time for them to go.
The old people said that knowing their death was coming was some kind of gift from the higher being so that they could settle their matter in the world. Untying the knot that they made before they passed away.
"I need to stay strong!" Hanz clenched his fist trying to get himself back on the track again. He had been having a hard time sleeping for the past few days after Juin's passing and he could not do much work because of grief too.
That day, he finally decided to accept Juin's passing. He remembered that one of the advice Juin's left him before was to be strong physically and mentally when he was not around.
So, he was afraid that Juin would feel sad if he did not listen to his advice. Thus, Hanz tried his best to pull himself together.
He started the day by cleaning the house and packed Juin's belongings properly. He did not pack Juin's item because he wanted to forget Juin but he did not want to damage Juin's belongings. All of them were the last things left by Juin and he wanted them to be in good shape for as long as possible.
Hanz continued cleaning the house until the afternoon before he stopped for lunch. For the past few days, he had trouble eating food. Hanz did force himself to eat but he could not eat that much. As a result, he had been losing some weight for the past few days. Not to the point he was skinny but noticeable weight loss.
Hanz prepared his lunch. At the kitchen, there was a window facing his radish farm and Hanz looked at the farm. "It's been a few days since I've been in the field. Sigh~ I need to pull myself back. I cannot keep being sad," said Hanz while smiling bitterly.
While he was preparing his lunch, someone came visiting. Hanz went and saw the village chief come to visit. "Village chief? Why are you here?" Hanz asked.
"Hmm~" The village chief stared at Hanz up and down and then, he nodded. After that, he peeked inside the house and saw many boxes around and recognized things inside it belonged to Juin, and then, he nodded again.
"Seeing that you have started organizing Juin's things, it means you have pulled yourself back to before," said the village chief while smiling. Hanz made a dry laugh. "Well, Juin was right that it will take you at least a week to come to your sense."
"Village chief, please come in," said Hanz while gesturing to the village chief to come inside the house. The village chief went in and sat in front of the dining table without much reserve. The dining table was the only place in the house where a visitor could sit.
Once the village chief sat down, he started speaking, "You should know right that your grandpa asked us to look after you before he passed away? Though he also said to me to come see you a week after he left because he knew you have a soft heart and you love him too much."
"Urm… I am sorry to let you worry," said Hanz. He had nothing to say to what the village chief said. He knew himself that he was a bit too nice and soft-hearted.
"Nah~" The village chief waves his hand to tell him not to mind it too much and continued, "I am not worried about you because we know you will be fine. If you need our help, just say it and we will help you if we can… Well, if you ask the girls in the village, all of them will immediately come running to help you."
"Hahaha," Hanz dryly laughed. He knew what the village chief meant all too well. Even when Juin was still alive, they were like that. Sometimes they were helpful but most of the time they were not.
"Well, if you are lonely, I can help you to hook up with some girls though I think that will be unnecessary. You know that yourself. Sigh~ Do you know that Juin was worried about you not getting married soon because you had no interest in girls?" The village chief said while staring at Hanz and then continued, "Are you perhaps swinging differently?"
"What? No! I am straight!" Hanz immediately denied that. He had no idea that his grandpa was worrying about his marriage and people thought that he was gay. When Hanz thought properly, he was indeed not interested in any girls in the village but he never once showed interest in man.
"Well~ I do have this thought but don't blame me because your grandpa mentioned this himself. He was worried that you were gay because you love him too much," said the village chief while laughing and Hanz was shocked. Hanz sighed and he shook his head lightly.
"My love for my grandpa is not that kind of love…" Hanz said. This was shocking to him because his grandpa thought like that.
"Hahaha, I am just joking. He never thought you are gay," the village chief laughed out loud. Hanz glared at the village chief for joking around like that. "Don't look at me like that, I am just trying to lighten the mood."
"Kekeke, well, I guess that is enough playing around. I can see that you are fine now," the village chief said and then he took out a smooth surface rectangular white box and put it on the table. He pushed the white box towards Hanz.
"??? This is?" Hanz took the white box and stared at it. He looked at the box but it was a weird box. The box was smooth on all its sides. The box was not heavy but Hanz could feel that there was something inside. However, there were no edges or some opening to open the box.
"Your grandpa left that with me. He said to give this to you after he left," said the village chief. "This is his inheritance and you can open it with a bit of your blood. This box is locked and your blood is the key," said the village chief.
"Inheritance?" Hanz was shocked that his grandpa left him with inheritance and it was put in a secure box like that. Only his blood could open the box, so no one else could see the content. From what Hanz could conclude, Juin must have left him something important for him.
"Also, this box can only be opened when you are alone, so, I am leaving," Hanz was more shocked than earlier. For that much security, the thing inside the white box must be really important and precious. The village chief stood up and left the house.
Before the village chief left, Hanz thanked him for taking good care of the inheritance. He tried asking the village chief if he knew the content of the box but he said he had no idea. Hanz dared to ask the village chief because he knew that Juin trusted the village chief a lot or else, he would not leave the box with him.
After the village chief left, Hanz took the white box to his room and sat on his bed. "Hmm… Let's open this. I wonder what grandpa left for me to seal it in this kind of box…" Hanz stared at the box and said, "I wonder when he made this? This box with the seal must cost him a lot. Where did he get all the money to pay for this?"
Hanz put his thumb on his mouth and bit it. "Ouch!" His thumb bled a bit and he pressed the bleeding thumb on the box leaving a red fingerprint. Hanz knew that it would not need that much blood and thus he bit his thumb. He was not that stupid to bleed himself too much to open the box because the village chief said that it only needed his blood, without mentioning how much he needed to use.
A few seconds later, the red fingerprint dissolved into the white box, and a green magic circle started appearing all over the box. Not only that, with the box as the center, another huge magic circle appeared and covered the whole room. The floor, the wall, everything in the room was covered by the magic circle including Hanz.
Hanz was shocked. He was not shocked because of the magic since he was not a caveman but he was shocked because he knew the magic circle was not normal. To cover the whole room, how much mana was needed to do that? Only humans at the advanced stage could use that many mana.
When Hanz was bathed with the magic circle, he could feel the warm mana on the magic circle. Somehow, he felt familiar with the mana in the magic circle. "Grandpa?" Hanz realized that the mana felt as warm as his grandpa.
Suddenly, a figure of an old man appeared floating on top of the white box, and Hanz instantly recognized the old man as Juin.
"Hanz, if you can see this message that means I have left. I will not say much here because I know you will do well by yourself. I leave everything in this box for you so that you can use them to continue your life. How you use them is up to you. You are not a kid anymore and you can decide everything by yourself."
Hanz looked at his grandpa figure and he wanted to cry. He missed Juin so much and he was happy to see the healthy Juin though it was just a projection.
"Also, other than the things I choose myself for you, I left something else in the box. It is about your real biological family," Hanz was shocked. He never thought that Juin knew about his real family.
"Other than their identity, I also left the location you should go if you want to meet them. Either you want to see them or not, it is up to you. You don't need to worry about my feelings. I am happy with whatever choice you made," said Juin.
"If you decide to meet your family, the things I left you with will be useful for your journey," Juin stopped for a few seconds, he smiled lovingly and said, "Hanz, take care and live a good life." The projection ended and the magic circle covering the whole room disappeared too.
The white box suddenly opened automatically and Hanz could see what was inside. However, Hanz did not look at the box at all because he was busy crying for the last time because of his grandpa.
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SourMango77
SourMango77 Here is the second chapter. Thank you for reading. If you like the story support me on patr3on :D
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