Dwarf Kingdom. Evening.
In a small town near the southern borders.
A young dwarven kid walked through the empty streets of his small town and made his way toward the woods in the distance.
While passing through the final street, the old shopkeeper noticed the young kid jumping and trotting toward his destination with an excited look on his face.
"Oh, is our little Kifrid going to practice his sword today as well? Which big foe are you going to defeat today?"
Hearing the shopkeeper, Kifrid pouted and tried to shout in an intimidating tone, but his voice sounded just as adorable as he looked.
"Don’t tease me, old man! I will become the strongest one day! I am Kifrid, the ’Invincible Warrior’!"
While saying those words, Kifrid raised his wooden toy sword towards the sky, and a proud smirk appeared on his face.
Hearing the young kid’s words, the old shopkeeper could not help but find it amusing.
"Haha, By the way, is our little ’invincible warrior’ here to buy candy today or not?"
The moment Kifrid heard the word ’candy,’ his eyes shone brightly, and he almost forgot about his code of conduct as a stern warrior.
"Eh... b-but mom said that eating too much sweets will make me short and I will not be able to become a strong warrior..."
The old man smiled at Kifrid’s words and teased,
"You are already so short; you won’t get any shorter than this pfffftt..."
Hearing the old man tease him, Kifrid puffed out his cheeks and stomped the ground in annoyance.
"Hmph! I will show you one day! I will be the tallest in the town one day! Hmph!"
With that declaration, Kifrid placed his wooden sword on his shoulders as he marched towards his usual practice spot near the woods.
There was still a lot of time before the sun would set, and it was his usual routine to practice until late.
Kifrid walked towards the practice site, where several half-chopped trees were arranged as a practice target for young children to practice their skills, with an angry look on his face.
"Hmph! One day I will show everyone that I am not just a little helpless kid!"
As Kifrid made his way towards his usual training spot, he noticed that someone was already sitting on a chopped tree stump nearby.
The person was unfamiliar to Kifrid; he was very tall and much thinner than all the adults Kifrid had seen.
He was wearing odd clothes, and he had a flute in his hand.
Kifrid had seen an adult play a flute before, so he knew what it was, but the weirdest thing about the person was that his hair and pupils were pitch black.
His dark black hair was waving along with the evening breeze, and he was playing a melody with his flute.
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
The tune wasn’t anything special, but Kifrid just could not avert his gaze from that strange person.
He had never seen a human, so he had no idea what this bizarre-looking being was.
He walked over to the person without hesitation due to sheer curiosity, as the melody of the flute attracted him fatally.
For some reason, he could feel a peculiar kind of energy spread around every time the bizarre person played his flute.
As if noticing Kifrid’s presence, the strange person finally stopped playing his flute and opened his eyes to look at the young child who had appeared near him at some point.
"You? Who are you? I have never seen you before... and what are you doing in our training grounds?"
Kifrid was a courageous child; as long as he had his sword in his hand, he had nothing to fear in the world. He could even go and fight dragons as long as he had his sword.
"I wasn’t expecting anyone to be wandering around near the woods in the evening... To meet a random kid when passing by a town... I guess this is what they call fate?"
The strange person muttered something to himself before replying to Kifrid’s question.
"Hmm, I am Rio a humble ’travelling bard.’ I play music for fun and like to travel around the world..."
"I was passing by and saw this nice resting spot, so I couldn’t help but stop to take a brief rest... Who are you little one? Why are you wandering so close to the woods?"
"The sun will set in an hour or so; you should be hurrying home by now. your mother will be worried about your safety..."
Hearing Rio’s words, Kifrid raised his sword towards the sky and declared with an unbreakable resolve,
"My name is Kifrid Gale!"
"I am here to train! I will one day become the strongest person in the Dwarf nation! I want to be the strongest swordsman in the world!"
The power of the little kid’s words and declaration was so amazing that Rio’s pupils trembled for a bit and his intuition flared up crazily.
’This kid... he’s insanely talented...’
Just when Rio was a bit taken aback, Kifrid, looked at Rio and tilted his head in confusion as he asked,
"I have been wanting to ask but... why does it feel like that some weird energy... Hmm... what is this thing... it’s as if something’s covering your entire body..."
"When you were using that flute... it was spreading everywhere... how weird... It’s hard to describe this..."
A confused look appeared on Kifrid’s cute little face as he poked his forehead cutely with his small finger as if he was trying hard to express his thoughts in words but couldn’t find the appropriate words in his little head.
"You!? You can sense the presence of my ’Sword Intent’!?"
Rio almost jumped up from his seat in sheer shock, and his jaw almost fell on the floor after hearing the little kid’s words.
Even powerful S-rankers find it difficult noticing Rio’s sword intent unless he’s deliberately showing it.
For an unawakened kid to notice Rio’s sword intent covering his entire body means that the kid is definitely abnormal.
"It’s called ’sword intent’? What was its sword instant?"
Kifrid found the word hard to speak, and he was quite surprised by Rio’s sudden shout, as he didn’t expect Rio to react in such a shocked manner.
He only reminded Rio about it because he thought that Rio was being covered by some weird energy.
"Uh... I just thought that having so much of that weird energy around you might be burdening you so I just said it out loud. don’t be upset, though; I will not tell anyone that you are being pestered by it..."
"Uh... pinky promise!"
Just when Rio was about to recover from his shock, Kifrid gave him another reason to be shocked!
"What do you mean by ’burden’? Why do you think it’s burdening me?"
Rio was genuinely confused why Kifrid made such an analogy after seeing Rio’s sword intent.
Hearing Rio’s words, Kifrid poked his forehead cutely a few times before he found appropriate words to describe the sensation.
"Hmm, it’s something like... uh, when you wrap your toy golem in clay to protect it from damage... but that clay ends up jamming the golem from inside..."
At Kifrid’s words, Rio felt as if he was struck by a sudden bolt of enlightenment out of nowhere, and it was hard to describe that feeling in words!
’This!? Why did I never think of something like that!?’