Eve looked at me, smiling and said, "You are completely a different person, big brother...but to be honest, I want to become like you...how to kill laziness big bro?"
I laughed gently, "I am not a mentor or anything that you would just ask completely different questions like of laziness and motivation...everyone has their own ways, just find it on your own. You will get your answer one day how to not be lazy, and being lazy is an instinct of humans evolution to save energy, so it's kind of normal."
And Eve got me in just a second, she realized that I said the last sentence to encourage her to stay lazy but I have grown her on my own so she knows me very well. She looked at me and I had collected all the pieces of woods and looked at Eve and asked, "Wanna go out to sell the woods? Winter is already going to come soon."
Eve raised her arms again, she was surprised but she wouldn't hesitate if she gets a chance to go out. I picked her up on my shoulders and she sat on the wooden basket having the woods and she aimed towards ahead and I started walking to the nearest village.
"Ichiro? You mean the strongest student in the Academy?" The grandfather asked and Emi smiled with a sweat and nodded her head and said, "Yeah, he's like my big brother...he is way too strong, I really doubt that I would be able to ever defeat him, no one can."
And my grandparents remembered something I once said to them.
"It's all just a matter of your thoughts, if you have already accepted that you can't do anything in your mind, then you are already defeated. What's wrong in trying?"
The grandfather looked down, remembering and said, "Don't think that you can't defeat him, you have the strength to fight and what's bad in trying?"
Emi realized that her grandparents can't understand her, but they were actually right and the one wrong was Emi herself. The grandparents looked at her and said, "Just give your best to it, just give your everything to it, you can win, Emi."
Suddenly the gate opened and a servant was standing there and she bowed down and said, "Lord Emi, the Academy has call you, from your friend Lord Yuki."
Emi was surprised but she just smiled, stood and started walking away and waved her hand and said, "See you later, grandpa and grandma, I will be there to you whenever I will get time. Have a nice day."
"Have a nice day Emi." And Emi walked away and left the hall.
Eve and I were walking at the forests and Eve was looking up at the sky, watching the clouds moving and she finally asked, "It used to be grandpa and grandma to sell the woods and get something in exchange or anything, but not today, and I haven't heard their voices and didn't see them anywhere either...did they leave us?"
Eve was definitely gone on me, smart as much I am. I smiled, didn't have sad faces for that and I just nodded my head and replied, "Yeah...they have left the house and maybe also the village nearby. But I know how to make meals, we will be able to live and maybe we will also go out the city and shift there."
Eve was surprised, "At the city?! Really?! Do you know the location to it?!"
I smiled with a sweat..."I don't know the location, but we will just wander and explore the world, somewhere we will end and stop anyways which would be a city only. But we will."
Eve was speechless, her enjoyment and excitement had no boundaries, and exploring would be more fun for her! She started waving, moving herself left and right and I smiled, she would really enjoy going out I guess.
The forests ended and Eve and I were were finally on the track and the track was a weak road of mud and it was leading to a small village and the houses and huts there. Kids were playing around and a few people of there were on the roads, talking to each other and saw us and they were surprised that grandpa didn't come but instead they were there this time, but they just smiled and waved their hands, calling us for the woods.
Eve and I smiled, the villagers were a nice person-- but suddenly a kid threw a stone at my head and I stopped. The villagers were stunned, and the kids laughed.
My head started bleeding a little bit, and Eve looked at me with a sad face, I looked at the kids and just sighed, I didn't want to fight, and I was just happy that I still remain standing and didn't lose my posture which could harm Eve, but everything was fine, everything was in control and I just started walking again and moving towards the villagers with a smile. The villagers saw my smile and they smiled back.
It's actually normal, kids sometimes throw stones because they like to tease that I am doing a work when they are just enjoying, they like to compare the life which was good for them, at least they would believe that their life is more fun? And I never attacked them ever again, it's better to choose to peace than fighting, and that only Eve had learned. Until and unless you don't know the reason why they attacked, stay silent and don't take it, it also makes them view that I am weak but maybe one day I will break their beliefs if it went too far but that time hasn't came yet till now.
I stopped in front of the villagers, made Eve stood next to me holding her shoulders by one arm and by the another I started picking up the huge basket and opened it and the villagers started picking up and looking at the woods and started talking.
"The winters are coming, Ichiro, you are going to make a lot of money, don't you think?" One of them asked and that wasn't my answer, "I don't know about it, but my plan is...the next month, Eve and I may leave the forest and move to a city, most probably towards north east."
The villagers were surprised, "North east? That would be a little bit far, and you will have to pass the mountain ranges, but ahead of that should be a beautiful city as much I know, it's not a bad idea. But why north east only, south side is also close and beautiful."
Eve answered instead, "Because there's cold weather, maybe the temperature and climate will be more beneficial we may sell woods there as well."
The villagers were surprised but I had taught Eve a lot of things including weather and the geography. I looked at Eve and replied, "Cold weather is pleasant so I am thinking, but I don't think I will sell woods there as well. I will sell some for settlement and then join something? I don't have made much plans, I will decide and discuss about it when we will be leaving, plans maybe changes a little bit according to it, but no other plans for now."
The villagers smiled and picked up some wood and started moving to their house to keep it and bring their returns and they all came back, some were having fruits, some were metals and tools, and some were grains. They all kept it in one different closed basket and handed to Eve.
"Now you both may go and sell others." A villager said and there were still a lot to sell, I picked up the basket on my shoulders and Eve just wanted to stand so I started walking, and giving support to her as well and she was also walking with a little bit of problem but we both managed it and moved ahead.
The villagers now felt a little bit pity about us which they shouldn't do actually we ourselves aren't sad about that. They knew that the grandparents had left us and they were worried how we both would survive but they have seen me from a decade, knowing nothing would hurt me and I would still somehow survive and if I did then Eve doesn't needs to worry either, they all know that Eve and I would still somehow make a survival.
The morning turned into evening, and what grandparents couldn't do, Eve and I did, they have always hesitated to take the woods and sell them at a city, because they were afraid if their identities would be exposed by all that. But I just got a exporter who always wanted that and Eve made a deal with the exporter and I was just watching and listening everything.
The world is not equal here, majority of the children never got school...well, I also didn't get any because I was more like a servant at the mansion, working with others, and it was only nobles allowed to get knowledge, but I was happy that whatever I knew about the world and everything, I was able to tell her and made her enough capable to do something.
Eve was having the apple, being hungry and looked at me and said, "But we will have to sell a thousand wood pieces this month, will you be able to do that big bro?"
750 of the exporter and 250 at the village, it was estimated and I really had no problem. "I can do that in four to five days, you don't need to worry about me. And we will sell one by one, let hundred everyday till eight days for the exporters so there's no problem, I will manage, but we both won't sign any other deal after that, that's my decision."
Eve smiled again, "Yes yes, we won't. We will just sell at the villages and no deals, but maybe straight selling to the exporter without a deal."
"I won't have a problem with it, that's fine from my side."
Eve and I came in front of the house, and I was surprised and same was Eve but she was more confused and didn't understand it. I smiled and waved a hand, "It's been ten years since I saw you ma'am, how are you?"
Eve couldn't recognize which was obvious, but the woman standing in front of the house was actually one of the servant with whom I had grown up at the mansion. The woman was surprised and asked, "You can remember me, Ichiro?"
"Of course I will, I used to wash clothes and worked at kitchen with you."
The woman was more surprised but she just smiled and said, "You can really remember me? That's surprising, I didn't think that you would be able to remember me after ten years. But I am just glad that you are fine."
Eve was completely confused, she knew that she won't recognize the woman in any chance because she had met me last time ten years ago, when Eve was just born but she was just trying to guess... but she couldn't guess either, in a servant costume, and after hearing the conversation, she could only expect, "Are you big brother's friend?"
The woman finally noticed Eve, sitting on my shoulders and she smiled and nodded her head. I also agreed and replied, "Yeah, she is like my friend, when I used to work as a servant I had many, one of them is she." And Eve was surprised, a woman being such an old friend of young me and she bowed down, and I introduced her, "And she's Eve, my little sister. "
The woman was surprised but she also smiled and she also bowed down, showing respect to each other and replied, "It's a great pleasure to see you ma'am."
Eve smiled with a sweat, she called the woman a ma'am was fine but...the woman also calling her ma'am didn't get digested for Eve. She looked at her strangely and I looked at the woman and said, "You don't need to call her by ma'am or anything, feel free to call her by her name. She's Eve."
The woman smiled with a sweat, looked at Eve and apologized, "Then I am sorry...Eve, right?"
And Eve nodded her head, that's her name.