After chopping firewood all morning, Yongen panted and returned home with a basket of firewood on his back, stacked the firewood one by one, and began to cook on the fire, his mother Wenlu would not come back with dry food to eat, he needed to make rice paste for himself and his brother Yasuo who were hungry.

What the old man said was still vivid, and Yong'en, who was fanning the flames under the earthen stove, couldn't help but feel a little moved,

The empire is not as important as the gurgling belly, if it can really be favored by the elder named Su Ma, then the food and clothing may be able to be done by himself, and a lot of burden will be relieved of the burden on my mother.

The most important thing is that if the people in the village are as hostile to the empire as usual, that swordsman will definitely not be popular, and there will not be too many children who want to worship in the dojo.

Wanting to take in apprentices but not having many options, this is an opportunity for Yon.

"Do you want to call Yasuo and let Yasuo try it too?? Maybe Yasuo will be a little more sensible when he enters the dojo. ”

Just as Yon was staring at the roaring stove, the kitchen door was pushed open, and Yon turned his head to see his brother sitting on a stool with his legs crossed on top of a swollen right face, a ragged robe, like a little beggar.

"Brother, is the meal ready? I'm dying of hunger. ”

Seeing that Yon's face was stained with soot and frowned, Yasuo hurriedly put down his cocked legs, put his two small hands on his thighs, and sat upright.

The elder brother still has to give face, otherwise there will be no food.

"Who are you fighting again?"

"Gus, that turtle son scolded me for being a mongrel, and said that you are the son of a short-lived ghost, and you pretend to please adults all day long, and I was so angry that I stabbed that grandson in the eyes with a stick."

Staring at the bruise on his brother's face, Yon's brow deepened.

"Haven't you ever hit?"

Yasuo, who was wronged, gritted his teeth and said.

"After the fight, he couldn't get up, and the grandson shouted, and the bastards of Belloc and Werner came...... I didn't them if I had a stick, and if I had a harder stick, I would have beaten them down! ”

Hearing this, Yongen was distressed and angry, and fetched a small basin of cold water and came to Yasuo's side.

"Talk less and do more practical things, wash your face, give you some herbs in a while, and eat first."

"Thank you, brother."

After the two brothers had lunch and cleaned up the dishes and chopsticks together, Yong Eun applied some herbal juice to Yasuo, which was not very effective, but the swelling finally disappeared and did not rise into small watermelon eggs.

Seeing that Yasuo was about to slip away again, Yongen grabbed Yasuo, who was windy at his feet, for fear that the bear child would disappear again in the blink of an eye.

Especially in the crowd, he didn't catch Yasuo.

"Don't run around in the afternoon, go out with me."

Hearing this, Yasuo looked bitter and shook his head and played tricks.

"Brother, aren't you going up the mountain to chop wood? Wait, you're not going to pull me along and make me apologize to those Gus bastards, are you? Oops I have a stomachache and need to go to the bathroom, if you don't let me go, I'll pull here? ”

"If you want to apologize, I will apologize, what do you apologize for?"

Instead of eating Yasuo's jokes, Yon shook his head and grabbed Yasuo's small hand and explained.

"In the afternoon, follow me to see the swordsman from the village, I heard that he is looking for a child of our age to be accepted as a disciple, let's try our luck."

"Sword master? Forget it. ”

Yasuo's head shook like a rattle.

"I'm not a material for martial arts training......."

Yong'en's face sank, and he finally exerted the majesty of his eldest brother like a father.

"Obedient."

Yasuo finally stopped struggling and nodded obediently, and Yon's face recovered.

"Sleep, sleep, let's go together."

"Brother, what if that swordsmanship master doesn't accept us?"

"Then I'll go and apologize to Gus's."

"Shall I go too?"

"Sleep."

"Hehe, you know that Gus likes you the most, and you deserve to be my brother~"

"If you don't sleep again, you go and apologize."

"Sleep, sleep, purr~"

After about an hour of lunch break, Yongen woke up Yasuo, who was lying in bed, and changed Yasuo into a spare cloth coat of his own, which was one size larger, but he didn't have to go to meet others in rags.

The two brothers left the house and walked towards the north of the village, only to find that every family was carrying their children out of the house, as if they were rushing to the market, and the purpose was surprisingly the same, even the bald boy Gus who was covering his buttocks was also in the crowd.

"You can't all go to that sword master, right?"

Yasuo lowered his voice, but Yon frowned.

This situation seems to be different from what he imagined, even Jorman, who shouts every day that he wants to join the militia and kill the barbarians of the empire, comes with his youngest son, his face is brighter than the chrysanthemum smile, doesn't he say that he will fight the empire to the death?

In this case, doesn't it mean that the chances of him and Yasuo are much smaller?

"Gus is here too?"

Yasuo saw his rival in the crowd in an instant, rubbed his hands together through gritted teeth, and looked privately, as if he wanted to find a guy to take advantage of.

"Don't mess around."

Grabbing his brother's commotion by the hand, Yon followed the crowd and moved forward, quickly reaching his destination.

Just when Yon was a little worried that he couldn't see anything, Yasuo pulled his brother through the gap in the crowd, and squeezed to the front of the crowd in the commotion without being beaten.

At some point in a clearing in the north of the village, a shed was erected, a wooden stake and a chair,

In the shed, a round-faced middle-aged man with a long knife at his waist was sitting upright on a chair with a disappointed expression.

Next to the middle-aged man stood three teenage young men wearing kendo robes, all of them with real swords, all of them looked majestic and yearning.

There was also a young warrior in the ashram in the clearing, and the young warrior was taking the wooden knife from the boy's hand, and the boy was none other than Werner, a boy from the same village who had just beaten Yasuo in the morning.

At this moment, Werner was panting and sitting on the ground breathing heavily, as if he had exerted too much force just now, and now he was a little out of strength.

"Master Soma, how is my son? Do you have the talent to learn kendo? ”

"With all due respect, your son is not suitable for the kendo path,

Who wants to give it a try? Go grab a wooden knife and attack the stake in any way you want to use your knowledge of kendo. ”

Simply rejecting the villagers who came to him, Suma, who was a little bored, casually said to the other villagers, and immediately a man beckoned his son to play.

Yasuo stared intently, lowered his voice, and gritted his teeth.

"It's Gus, bastard! He can still stand up, and it looks like I'm still stabbed lightly in the morning! ”

"Shh

Covering Yasuo's mouth, Yon watched without blinking as Gus took the wooden knife from the young swordsman's hand, and since he couldn't be opportunistic, he could only find and seize the opportunity himself.

In front of the stake, Gus's buttocks were burning with sharp pain, which made the boy's face distort somewhat, so that the swordsman who handed the knife was a little suspicious of whether he had a personal vendetta against the little boy.

The wooden knife was heavier than expected, and Gus took a deep breath, shouted, and took the stake as his sworn enemy, Yasuo, and slammed it down.

"Yasuo!!"

The wooden knife slammed against the stake with its blade crooked, distracted from the pain in his buttocks, Gus failed to hold the knife in the reaction force, and watched as the wooden knife came out of his hand and flew towards the side of the Wind Swordsman.

Volley grabbed the wooden knife that almost smashed into his face, the face of the Wind Swordsman was not very good-looking, and Gus's father's face was also as black as the bottom of a pot, secretly cursing the dead child Yasuo for affecting his son's normal performance.

"I can't even grasp the sword in my hand, I have such a fierce anger at a young age, even if I have an enmity with Yasuo, I shouldn't affect myself on such an important occasion...... Alas, the next one. ”

After all, it was just a group of farmers, and Soma even wondered if he shouldn't come to such a small village to recruit apprentices, it was a waste of time.

Having said that, if it weren't for the fact that the number of places given by the empire to join the army was a fixed number, he wouldn't need to go back and forth like this.

On the other side, Yasuo, who saw Gus's defeat, just wanted to cheer, but was covered by Yon's mouth.

"There's nothing to say about his defeat, Yasuo, it's the real skill that you can be selected, keep the cheers to yourself."

Nodding, Yasuo regained his composure.

"Brother, are you going to go up and try it?"

Yon shook his head.

"Look again, there are still a lot of people anyway, don't worry."

There were fewer and fewer people trying, and only three of the dozens of children were recognized, and the screening process was far stricter than expected, at least Yongen couldn't see that those behaviors were considered to be gifted in kendo in the eyes of Elder Soma.

It was soon the middle of the afternoon, and the sun was coming to an end, Yasuo, who had lost his excitement, dozed off on his brother's shoulder, and said to Yon, who was a little hesitant.

"You see that elder is already very tired, otherwise brother, you will come back tomorrow, so as not to be ignored by the spiritless elders."

"You also see how the situation is, tomorrow he may leave, don't delay this matter, I'll go first, you follow, be polite and obedient."

Seeing that Yon's tone could not be refused, Yasuo had no choice but to nod.

Coming to the stake alone, Yongen was different from the other children who directly received the sword and cut the stake, first bowed to Elder Soma who was sitting on the main seat with squinting eyes, and then nodded to the other Wind Swordsmen without humility or arrogance, and finally took the wooden sword with both hands respectfully, and said thank you to the Wind Swordsman beside him.

This act alone made Yongen much more pleasing in the eyes of the Wind Swordsman, and no one hates polite children,

It is not uncommon for such children to be sent out by the gate, but to be so polite at this age in a small village, it must have been a good education, and a good education can make people establish excellent character, which is a very important sign of talent selection.

Soma lifted his spirit, and focused his distracted attention on Yon's body,

He noticed that Yon had been observing how other people were acting, and he had been able to play for so long, and he liked Yon's humility, steadiness, patience, and humility and non-arrogance, and in the next test, if Yon could show a little bit of excellence from ordinary people, he would accept this boy who looked extremely pleasing to the eye.

Yasuo, who was outside the court, also held his breath slightly, and watched his brother slowly raise the wooden knife with both hands without blinking.

"Child, don't be nervous, just use your own understanding and swing the sword in your hand."

In the surprised eyes of the others, Soma, who had never spoken a digression, spoke for the first time.

"Thank you, Elder Soma, for your advice."

Yong Eun turned his head again to thank him, and when he turned around, absolute calmness appeared on his little face.

[The Sword in My Heart...... What is it?

At this moment, Yong'en's gaze was fixed on the stake, the scarred stake was like his life, he could only stand there and face the storm from life in silence, he could not fight back, he could only endure in silence.

His younger brother Yasuo can be naughty, he can hit others when they don't like him, he can't, he has to go up and apologize and resolve other people's resentment, because he needs to use his identity as a 'good boy' to protect his brother and mother,

Orphans and widows, if there is no competitive man in the family, they are destined to be bullied at will, and they will not be able to raise their heads to live.

If both brothers are annoying, how will the mother, who is burdened with the burden of the family, deal with herself?

He just wants to watch his younger brother grow up, start a family, become a man who stands up to the sky, and prove to others that he is different from the man who abandoned his family.

He just wanted his mother to sit on the edge of the bed and be fed and clothed, smile proudly at him and Yasuo, and not have to cry about his future livelihood.

[I just want to use the sword in my hand to protect this family, for this, no matter how much grievances and sufferings I suffer, what is it]

The stake is himself, but he is the heaviest in his hands.

The blurred gaze gradually firmed, and thousands of thoughts followed the wooden knife in his hand, like a real steel knife, smoothly slashing towards the stake, the strength of the logging practice made the blunt bladed wooden knife cut through the air, the stiff Yongen twisted his body, the wooden sword and the wooden stake touched, making a dull sound,

Unlike the previous children who tried the sword, this time, there was no concept of 'touching' or 'smashing' in everyone's hearts.

This is a knife slash, it is an awe-inspiring killing power emitted by a bladed thing, no one doubts, if Yongen is a bladed steel knife in his hand, there will inevitably be a deep knife mark on the stake, if the stake is a person, then there is a chance that the person will be disemboweled.

And in the village, there seems to be no shortage of firewood knives......

For a while, the audience was silent, whether they liked Yongen or not, whether they were adults or children, they were all a little more dignified at this moment with Yongen holding the wooden knife.

The children in the same village who had always felt that Yongen was pretending to be a coward who didn't dare to fight and could only apologize finally understood that the reason why Yongen didn't do anything with them didn't seem to be because of cowardice.

In silence, Soma asked in a deep voice.

"What's your name, kid?"

Holding the wooden knife tightly, refusing to let go as if grasping his fate, Yong Eun turned to look at Soma.

"Yon."

"Didn't your family come here?"

"My mom is farming."

Yon didn't say anything about his father, and Soma didn't ask.

"You've passed, come over here."

Yongen, who was recognized, was still neither humble nor arrogant, not sad or happy, and first bowed to Soma again, and then returned the wooden knife to the smiling swordsman, and said thank you,

One last glance at his excited brother, Yong Eun swept everyone's eyes and expressions to heart, and then went to the hut and stood with the other three qualified ones that Soma had chosen.

Nodding in satisfaction, after getting Yon's grace, Soma was ready to disperse.

"Anyone else want to try?"

Under Yon's gaze, Yasuo stood proudly with his chest puffed out and walked to the stake, screaming.

"Yes!"

(End of chapter)