10 Precious to you.

Mary Kleine's POV

(A/N: This is Mary's past POV.)

"Let's go."

Mom held my hand, and we then walked into the room, where everyone in the room was wearing black-colored clothes. The moment we entered, everyone's eyes turned towards my mother, and then they looked at me with pitiful eyes.

An older lady in her late thirties came forward and walked up to us and hugged my mom tightly, and suddenly my mom started sobbing while that lady rubbed my mother's back, saying something like

"Everything's going to be all right."

And then this lady looked at me and said,

"Dear, please take care of your mother."

Nod.

I nodded my head, then my mom left the lady's embrace and held my hand again, and we walked towards the centre of the room, where a black wooden box was placed covered by all types of beautiful flowers, and in that box there was a man sleeping peacefully, like he was resting after a long time, but the only thing that pained my heart was that he wasn't breathing anymore.

When I saw him in his face, my vision blurred, and tears started to run down my cheeks.

I remembered the last thing he said to me when he left the house.

(Don't worry, Mary, dad will be back in a few days.)

He left me and mom at home and went to kill a monster, and guess what? He never came back, but what came was his body with no soul left in it.

I wiped my tears off my face and looked at the box, and some letters were carved on the coffin.

|| Robert Kleine||

It was the name of this man.

The man who was my hero

The man whom I admired so much

"F-father aaahhhah"

When I read that name, I just couldn't control myself anymore and started crying.

My mother, who was also crying, then hugged me, and we cried like that for hours.

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After the funeral, we came home, and I ran towards my father's study, leaving my mother behind in the corridor.

I entered my father's study and looked around. The room was filled with different kinds of things that he had gathered through all his life and the adventures he had, but what I was looking for were not these things but something that my father loved the most.

"Where is it?"

Then I walked towards the end of the room and saw a large metal locker with a password on it.

"What's the password?" Since I never asked, my father never told me about the password, but the only thing I know is about the thing that is inside that locker.

So as a password, I tried his name, birthday date, and all the other stuff, but the locker was still locked.

Step step.

I heard some faint footsteps entering the room, then I saw my mother passing by me and standing in front of the locker. She then placed her finger on the surface of the locker and drew something that can be spelled as

M. A. R. Y.

Click click.

Then, with a clicking sound, the door of the locker opened.

Then mom turned to me and said,

"Even if this thing was special for Robert, his most treasured one will always be you."

"I-I know."

I stuttered there because my tears just won't stop whenever I think about my father and remember the fact that he is no longer with us.

I then took a step towards the locker and looked at the item that was inside.

There was the item my father treasured for his whole life and gave up on because of his family.

Inside the locker was a katana placed on an

Katanakake [A/N: a specific type of stand for Katana]. It has a platinum blade about 25 inches long. The blade is so sharp that it looks like it can slice through anything.

The Katana has a gold pommel and guard, while it has a black wooden hilt. Besides the Katana, there was a scabbard resting on another Katanakake with an envelope placed beside it.

This was the treasure of my father; this sword was given to him by an elf as a reward for saving his life from an horde of demons. While this sword was given to him by an elf, the one who forged it was a renowned dwarven blacksmith, and the blacksmith named this sword Tizona.

My father was an eight-star swordsman, but it was hard even for him to pull out the full strength of this sword.

Shut

The only thing I picked up from the whole locker was a letter, and then I closed the door of the locker.

I sat on a chair in the corner of the study and carefully tore the seal on the envelope. Inside the envelope were some written notes. I placed the envelope on the table and started reading the notes.

.

.

.

.

.

.

After a while, I finished reading those notes.

"Haa, so this was the reason my father gave up."

These notes were mostly about his journey as an adventurer and his only dream of becoming the strongest swordsman in the whole Grav kingdom.

Father always dreamed about becoming a better swordsman and worked hard to achieve this dream, but one day he met my mother, and he immediately fell in love with her, and the same can be said for my mom.

Then they dated and eventually married each other, and after a year, I was born. My father, who was still aiming to become a great swordsman with his sword Tizona, gave up on his dream the moment he looked at my face when I was born.

"He chose his family over his dream."

(Sometimes you have to choose what's more precious, and for me, it's my daughter, "Mary.")

This was the last line of the note. After that, he remained an adventurer but gave up on his dream of becoming a great swordsman and continued to work on small missions to make a living, like escorting jobs, killing goblins, and gathering herbs, until he died while fighting a behemoth and saving the villagers of the neighbouring village.

"He was a great man till his end."

I got up from my chair and went to my mother in the living room. When I entered the room, my mother was sitting on the sofa, looking dearly at a picture in her hand. When she noticed me, she slowly placed the picture back on the side table.

It was a family picture of me, my mom, and my dad. My mom said nothing and looked at me with vacant eyes, like she was expecting something from me. She lost all her hope in this world.

Fuu.

I took a deep breath and

"Mom, I am going to become the greatest swordsman in the whole Kingdom of Grav and accomplish my father's dream."

When I said that, my mother's eyes shook. She got up and came to me, then just wrapped her arms around me. I can feel my vision blurring and my mother crying while holding me.

"This is the last time I am going to cry, Father."

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(A/N: if you have any thoughts about this chapter, you can comment them below.)