A Casual Boy In Another World - Chapter 14 Crossing A River

“Oh, I thought you are going to stop me because It’s a stupid thing to do.”

“It’s not just your thought.”

“..”, Cass silently stared at Bran for a moment, “What are doing here in the middle of the night?”

There should be many monsters at night and this man chose to stay out of the campsite.

“I didn’t notice you.”

“.?”, Cass’ eyebrows furrowed, he was a bit baffled by Bran’s out of place answer.

“I didn’t notice you until you came out of the woods. You hid your presence well.”, Bran said calmly.

“So?”

“You know that I was a Holy Knight, right?”

Cass nodded, “Yeah, Steven just told me earlier.”

“Ahahah, you are truly a caveman. You just learned that earlier, huh.”, Bran laughed but then stared coldly at Cass’ half-closed eyes, “Do you know how strong a person should be before becoming a Holy Knight?”

Cass lightly shook his head.

“The dagger that I gave you wasn’t that sharp, no?”

“Yeah”

“Actually, even if it was sharper, you still can’t scratch the skin of the Red Spotted Snake.”

” So you’re saying that you are strong because you easily beheaded that snake in one swing?”, Cass casually said.

Bran smiled and nodded, “My longsword isn’t that sharp, by the way.”

“And what’s your point in proving your strength?”, Cass sat since this conversation may take a while.

“Didn’t I just say that I didn’t notice you? Well, I wanted to ask you how is that possible but now I feel like you wouldn’t tell me. The second reason is that I need to scare you a bit. I was a Holy Knight but I am sure that even I can’t survive into the deeper parts of this forest.”

Splash* a fish jumped and made a disturbance in the still water of the river.

Cass looked at Bran indifferently.

“..”, Bran too looked at Cass’ expression, “So that didn’t scare you.”

“I am confident to survive even there’s a dragon in the deeper part of the forest.”

When Cass said that, Bran’s expression turned sinister.

“Is that arrogance?? Or is that ignorance? Maybe it really is confidence?”, Bran said in a held anger manner, “Why are people like this??”, but that sentence was more of a sadness.

“Steven said to me, that you are just sad but he didn’t tell me anything and said that I should just ask you.”, Cass looked at the river water, his eyes reflected the moon’s reflection on the river water, “Why are you sad?”

“What am I expecting? Your knowledge is like a caveman.”

“Comparing me to a caveman really irritates me.”

“Okay, I guess I should tell you.”, Bran looked at the full moon reflected on the still water in front of him. Their voices were calm but were still heard and understood even though there is a waterfall behind Bran, “Seven years ago, I brought my 10-year old daughter here. I saw talent in her, I saw an insight of her as the strongest knight.”, Bran looked at Cass’ doubting eyes, “No, no, it’s not like I’m that kind of a father where just because his child is a bit great at something, he will already think ahead of the future.”

“..”

“She was really one of a kind. I just played with her when she was little with swords and like that but she unexpectedly became fond of it and began taking it seriously.”

Memories of a young girl happily playing with him flashed through his mind.

“At the age of 9, she began to learn techniques that should be hard to grasp at her age but she learned it through and through.”

And then a weakly woman hugged the young girl filled with love and warmth showed up in his vivid memories.

“My wife and I truly precious her. Even when my wife has a weak heart, she supported our daughter while I was away. I truly regretted leaving them alone so when I came back I took my daughter outside and let my wife rest.”, Bran’s tone saddened even more, “However!”, his tone was sharp and was of great anger. Tears came out of his eyes, his expression was filled with regret, “I’m so stupid to bring my daughter here! I thought that I should show her how to defeat monsters.”

The young girl looked up to him with admiration.

“I am a Holy Knight at that time. My head was filled with the mentality that I was strong. I thought I could protect my daughter even if a dragon showed up.”

His eyes widened as if he was shocked.

“But I didn’t think that a Snake Dragon would snatch her just like that! Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!!”, Bran shouted hoarsely in a low voice while punching his thigh and making the stone he was sitting tremble. He was silent for a few moments after that, “I searched for that damned Snake Dragon day and night until I collapsed. My hope of finding my daughter vanished after a week. I I. was filled with regret.. My confidence was just baseless after all. I thought the same just like you at that time and it leads to this. Then worse came to worst, my wife fell into a coma after hearing the news.”, Bran looked downwards with lifeless eyes.

He then became silent

Cass couldn’t bear the silence that he stood up and crossed the shallow water. While crossing, he said, “I don’t care about your lost daughter or your sleeping wife.”, he stopped in the middle of the river water. He stood in the center of the moon reflected on the surface of the disturbed water because of him.

Bran looked at Cass but then anger rushed to him but before he flared up, Cass interrupted, “So, what’s your name of your daughter and what does she look like?”

“Huh?”, Bran just stood up and was confused by what Cass said.

“You said the Snake Dragon snatched her, right? And you searched for her, meaning that she may still be alive.”, Cass finished his sentence after: “What does she look like?”

Bran stood still and smile, “You know that I said that was seven years ago.”

“Yeah, I don’t care. If you don’t tell me, I’ll **** every girl I see in the deep forest.”, Cass casually said as if his words were nothing.

“Was that a threat?”

“I don’t know. I’m a healthy young boy, aren’t I? I may not stop my urges and **** every girl in this forest in the near future but since you became kind to me, I may take your daughter as an exception and tell her where you are?”

Bran looked at Cass stupefied but not long after, he loudly laughed, “Ahaha! Okay, okay, when she was ten years old, she was adorable as an angel. She took every an aspect of her from her mother. Her name is Brianna and she has long red hair and white skin. Truly unlike me. She’s cheerful”, at the middle of his sentence, he started to sob and cry without restraint, snot came down from his nose, “she sleeps baby, she always smiles, she is always kind to others, and she loves her mother and father very much and her father and mother love her too. After that I quitted as a Holy Knight to keep searching for her and because I feel like that position doesn’t fit me at all.”

“Brianna, huh?”, Cass turned and continued to cross the river water. Without waiting for Bran to stop crying, he entered the woods.

After Bran remembered everything about his beloved daughter and finally calmed down, he noticed that Cass was nowhere to be found.

He sat down and wiped his dirty face, “I hope that he will not die in there.”, he smiled and looked at where the deeper and more sinister parts of the forest.

..

At the same time, inside a room where a general was looking at some records. A knock was heard.

“Come in.”, the general hoarsely said.

The door opened and a man in robes came in, “General Yuyi, this is the information about the people who exited the northern gate after the Holy Queen demanded the search.”

“Yes, just put in the table.”

“Yes”

The thick stack of orders made the general sighed, “You may go now.”, he waved his hands.

“Yes, sir!”, the door closed.

The general looked at the stack of papers with bothersome, “Why am I chosen to be the one to looked at these things.”, he closed his eyes and breathed deeply, “No, this is an order for the Holy Queen.”

He then determinedly looked at the stack of papers one by one but he just glanced at the names above it and flipped to the next one.

“Wait, what that guy’s name again?”, he frowned. At the moment he was angry about this guard who caused trouble for the Holy Queen that made her call for the Giant Commander!

“Oh, Cass! That’s his name, Cass!”, he then looked again at the stack of papers one by one while murmuring Cass’ name, “Cass, Cass, Cass, where are you???”

He easily went through half of the stack of papers since the name of each person were largely different from the name; Cass.

“Maybe that person didn’t come out of the Holy City and was just hiding. If it is like that then this work is pointless”, however, he paused and looked at a strange paper, “Expedition?”

He pulled it and saw the name Bran, the general’s eyes showed pity, “Poor guy, he still hasn’t let go of his missing daughter. It’s already been seven years and he still goes on expeditions from time to time in the Sacred Forest, hoping to find his daughter. Heck, he even has the reason for chasing youngsters. Although it did put some results.”

His eyes slowly looked for every name until, “Huh?”

He only saw a panel and saw the name he was looking for, “Wow, he really did get out of the city and on top of that, he even wrote his real name. Although this may not be him the name is quite unique.”

After pondering for a while, he shouted, “Guards! Bring this to the Giant Commander!”