Read Daily Updated Light Novel, Web Novel, Chinese Novel, Japanese And Korean Novel Online.
Tower of Karma (Web Novel) - Chapter 7 Karl
Chapter 7 Karl
This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml
The south region of the kingdom of Arcadia, Raconia. It was a contested region, that originally belonged to another one of the seven kingdoms, the kingdom of Ostoberg. And before belonging to Ostoberg, it used to be Arcadia’s territory, which then even before that it once again also used to be from Ostoberg and so on.
There wasn’t anyone working at the fields in a place such as that; it was a desolated region that had been continuing to change owners. There was anybody eccentric enough to want to settle in a place like this. There weren’t even any benefits for conquering this land anymore; the two kingdoms continued to fight for it just in order to keep their appearance.
Once again, another battle was taking place today, seeming as if it had actually been arranged to happen by both sides.
“…I am tired of this.”
A bit to the front of the fort, at the field the battle was unfolding, there was a white haired man.
“Ah, yes yes. It is really nice you are full of energy, yes.”
“Uryaaaaaaaaaaaah, hyeeeeeeei!”
“….Next time take a hoe or something instead of a sword and go work on the field. Well, in next world, that is.”
One more head was cut. The white haired man was dejected.
“This is only a little quarrel of small fries. I won’t get even a single copper coin no matter how much I fight here.”
Nimbly parrying the attacks of the enemy soldiers, the man casually continued to cut off the heads of the enemy soldiers. With that said, it didn’t mean you would make a good impression to the upper brass even if you more or less stood out in the battle. To begin with, you wouldn’t even get their attention by doing that. If William was to stood out, then the most he would get out of it would be some kind of dirty task to do by his small fry officers that had only been able to get to their position by slowly rising up.
“The superiors are also desperate about their own life anyway; they wouldn’t even have the spare time to be looking at me.”
The young man was spilling idle complaints. To him, there wasn’t anything to learn in this place, nor was there anything to gain from it either. This was exactly how the land they were fighting for could be described as.
““Let’s eat something and go to sleep after this war is over.””
The young man fought with lack of motivation as he thought that in his mind. Before he could notice, it was already becoming morning. The war was close to its end.
Today another one of the usual battles from every day has just finished. Just like always, it has ended in a draw.
☆
The fort of Raconia was replete with merchants. Even if there was no productivity in this land, the soldiers would still buy things. Besides, the money they gained from their trades wasn’t bad. As the result of that, the place was unexpectedly very prosperous. Most of the shops were stalls, but there were some merchants that would rent buildings for setting their shop.
“Rabbit stew! It’s filled with meat.”
In a shop that hadn’t prospered as much as the other of the many other shops, a white haired young man was having lunch.
“Here it is.”
The dish that was crudely served seemed to be more like a bunch of food piled up in the bowl in an unorganized manner. Even so, the amount of food served was considerable, and the price was cheap, but as for the taste…
“It is disgusting as usual.”
Despite the young man bluntly saying so, the owner of the eatery didn’t even bat a glance. As if the young man wasn’t feeling the horrible taste, he sipped the stew and ate the rabbit meat.
Ignoring the taste, the young man continued to eat. He noticed the presence of someone sitting next to him, but without caring about that, he continued to move his spoon.
“Uhh… Give me the same as that person.”
An order that lacked individual opinion. Neither the white haired young man nor the owner of the eatery paid any mind about these details as they continued to do their own business. The owner took a healthy amount of stew from the cooking pot and put it into a bowl that was of an appropriate size. Because of how much appropriate the amount was to the size of the bowl, the people that would order the food would always get surprised. There really weren’t many people that would ask for seconds in this eatery.
“Here it is.”
The person that ordered the food became lost for words after seeing the food that being was served to him. Once trying out the food, he once again became lost for words. And after that, after looking at the remaining amount, he felt like he was about to foam from his mouth. This was the pattern the people that would come to this eatery for the first time would have.
“Yo-you are really incredible. For you to be able to eat this…”
It seems the person next to the young man was talking to him. The young man raised his head.
“Ah, uhh, I am nobody suspicious. I am from the same squad as you. My name is Karl Teirah.”
After looking at the youth that named himself Karl, in an instant, memories that there had been a new recruit in their squad came to the young man’s mind. It was possible to feel the quality of his upbringing just by giving a glance at his curly golden hair.
“William Rivius. Nice to meet you.”
After saying that, William went back to eating his meal. William used to be the freed slave called Al, but now, he was called William Rivius. He was a third-class citizen that was born in Rushitania.
“I know it! Everyone has been talking about you. They said there was a strong guy with white hair. And also that… you had a numb tongue…”
Karl nervously said the last part in fear the owner of the eatery would hear it. In a sluggish manner, William once again raised his face.
“Your business?”
“Uhm… Well, I was wondering if we could be friends.”
At that instant, William was assaulted by a feeling of deja vu. Karl’s face was being overlapped with the face of the red haired boy. Even though the red and golden were different colors, their character were similar.
“…Sorry, but I will refuse. I don’t want to make any friends here.”
It was because of that attitude that William wasn’t considered a very likeable person. William simply hated rich and well-off guy in general
“Ah, I-I see. I guess it can’t be helped in that case. Ahaha.”
Karl disappointment was clearly seen. His face looked very alike to [himself]. The face of the [himself] that he has taken the place of, and that should have already been dead…
“How about you go eat your food? Your stew will end up getting cold.”
By saying that, William forcefully put an end to the conversation and went back to eating his food. Hesitantly complying to William, Karl looked at his stew. The instant he brought the spoon carrying stew to his mouth, he fell down.
“He-hey!? What happened!? Was the taste that bad!?”
As to be expected, even William became surprised at what happened. The owner of the eatery still didn’t care at all. This eatery should just be demolished already.
“Dear customer, the bill.”
The owner of the eatery was demanding the payment of both the serves from William. He wasn’t even looking at Karl, who had fallen down. It was weird how this eatery could still keep functioning up to this day. This eatery was the shop William wished the most to be destroyed in Raconia.
“I will pay it. It’s fine as long as I pay it, right?”
Once he was done giving Karl aid, William reluctantly paid for both the servings and ate the two bowls of food.
“Disgusting!”
Whether it was because William was able to eat the food despite the bad taste or because he was able to eat two servings of food, as to be expected, even the owner became surprised.
“I will come again!”
After saying that, the moody William left the eatery in a dignified manner. Whatever points may there be for being against eating in that place, for William, who was still in his growth period, it was important that he had somewhere where he could get that much of an amount of food in a cheap price. Even if it tasted bad, it should be very nutritious.
“Damn it, today is my unlucky day.”
William ended up having to carry Karl on his back. He couldn’t just leave Karl lying somewhere after all. William would have ignored Karl if he was still at Arkas. However, right now he was in the frontlines, and both him and Karl were in the same squad. It would be troublesome if bad rumours about him were to spread around.
“I should at least carry him to my room.”
And thus, William carried his “baggage” to the room he had rented.
☆
“Hm, mmmm?”
Karl woke up. Once he opened his eyes, he noticed he was in a very simple room. Inside the room was a simple bed, one window and table which both didn’t get much exposure to the sun. Besides that, there was something hanging by the window. It was a person; there was someone holding onto the window frame.
“U-uwah!?”
It was William. Hearing Karl’s surprised voice, he released his hands from the window and went down.
“It looks like you woke up. In that case, go back to your own room. If you don’t have any room to stay, then to your sleeping bag.”
“Ah, uhm, William-san… What happened?”
Perhaps it was because he was still startled by William having suddenly gone down the window, but Karl still had a surprised face. William scratched his head.
“I was training. Pull-ups exercises the whole body. I can add weights to it as much as I want, and besides, it’s the only training I can do while being inside my room after all.”
“Pull-ups? Weights?”
For someone that came from Arcadia, Karl’s confusion wasn’t a weird reaction. To begin with, Arcadia’s training consisted of only swinging the sword, the spear and having mock battles. Trainings methods like pull-ups and others of the sort weren’t really done, and it would be seen as some kind of a child’s game. There wasn’t the concept of adding weights to improve one’s training either.
“There are training methods like that as well. If you want to know about it in more details, then go read a book named “Spartyi”. Since it is the libraries of Arcadia we are talking about, there definitely should be copies of this book and also translated versions.”
In the past, there was a time William used to be Al. That book was one Al had read many times. There were training methods in that book that the other training methods used in Arcadia wouldn’t even suffice as a comparison.
“So Willam-san can read books. You are really knowledgeable.”
The nonchalant words that came from Karl made William startled.
“We-well, I just have a general idea about it, it’s nothing special.”
“Besides, you came from Arkas, right? I am also from Arkas. Ah, my brother also likes to read books. I think William-san would be able to have a good conversation with him!”
Before he could notice, William was already digging his own tomb. It looks like he became careless and slipped his tongue, ending up talking about useless things. Giving a long breath, he was able to calm himself down.
“I am a third-class citizen from Arkas, so you could say that I came from there even though I am a foreigner. Isn’t it fine already? I have things to do tomorrow too, so I want to have a rest.”
“So William-san is a foreigner! I’ve heard many things about…. Ah, I can’t, I can’t. I have many things I want to ask you, but I need to let you rest. Thank you for taking care of me! Then, see you tomorrow!”
Karl dashed out the room full of energy. He didn’t forget to bow to William before closing the door.
After seeing the door being closed, William put his hand in his head.
“This is really… a pain in the ass.”
William’s sigh resounded in the small room.
