The Skill Collector

There is a house on the shore of a lake behind a forest away from people.

It's simple enough to combine marutai, but big enough for a single family to live in.

They were originally mountain huts used by wood dust. This hut was destroyed when a large number of demons occurred and now houses a family completely unrelated to the dust.

They are the ones whose villages were attacked at the time of the mass outbreak of demons and who fled so far that no one is around here but them.

I get to know them from the moment I get to know them, and occasionally they show their faces like this.

Peek into the lake as you walk by the lake.

The water is clear, so I can see a large quantity of fish forming herds and swimming well. I wouldn't have trouble eating just catching the fish here.

The abundance of nature makes it a great place to be self-sufficient, with lots of mountain vegetables and animals.

The only thing that bothers me is the existence of demons, but as long as my parents are smart enough to stay alert, is it okay?

Relax half way around the lake and follow in front of the cabin. Exploring the signs, one small sign existed inside the cabin.

Apparently the kids are the only ones out there with their parents.

Knock gently on the wooden door and you will hear the sound of the door pulling through the other side.

When a heavy, thick door is opened, there is one boy inside.

White, small, thin red lips. She looks like a girl because she's short and her hair stretches to her shoulder, but she's just neutral and she's a boy.

"Hello, collector"

The boy's closed eyeballs loosen and his cheeks are dyed by hanging.

"Yes, hello. How have you been?

"Yeah, I'm very well. Go inside."

He knocks at the door as he is invited and follows the boy who leads by poking a white wand.

A chair provided for a wooden martial arts desk is pulled and prompted to sit there.

As I lowered my back to the chair, the boy lined me up with drinks and baked sweets.

"You're used to it."

"I remember the placement of things, so if it's just in the house, it's fine. Sometimes it hurts to not notice what's falling under my feet."

A boy who scratches his head in embarrassment.

Right, even if you remembered the placement, it doesn't mean everything's the same every day.

Bigger garbage and everyday items just fell off the shelf, which is a big problem for him.

"At times like this, I find it just a little inconvenient"

The boy puts his hand in his eyes and laughs lonely.

It was the closed eye lid (eyelid) that kept my fingers running.

The boy is - blind.

It's not born, it's a curse I received at an early age.

From that day on, the boy's eye lid never opened.

"I don't remember clarity, but the sky was blue, the grass was green, and the ground was soil colored. Even now, dreams are colored, so I like to sleep. Because it's so beautiful in my dreams."

The boy has been in the dark world since he was four years old.

The village where the boy lived survived devastation… only a few villagers, including him.

The village was attacked by a herd of demonic oaks with pig heads on their fat bodies. It was the former wizard Necromancer who was taking it with him - Rich.

Rich is a wizard with powerful magic that has transformed his own body into an immortal demon.

Undead, such as corpses and skeletons, are classic demons to take with you, but it's unusual to be able to follow an oak.

Later on I looked it up and found out that apparently, the wizard who became rich had developed skills such as' Tutoring 'and' Servant 'in his lifetime and was good at the art of cultivating and dominating demons.

Harnessing his abilities, he used a flock of oaks to attack the village.

Not tired of just destroying it, Rich cursed the surviving boy by calling it a magical experiment. Blind magic, blind magic.

"I have little memory of when the village was attacked. In the first place, the face of the villagers and the faces of their parents are all over the place..."

My vision was closed to darkness at the age of mindfulness, and I can't help remembering.

"But you're going to be blind! You'll see the faces of your father and mother, the blue, clear sky, the little bird that rings every morning... and the collector!

The sunken look instantly makes me smile dazzled, smiling flashly with my face to me.

You're right. Because that's why I'm on my feet.

I'm here because my parents raised the boy to cure my eyes.

Examination of his skills confirmed that 'blind' skills were embedded in the skill slots. Buy that one and the boy's eyes will be visible......

"I've just been saying this for a long time, but it's a little nasty magic, so this is how it's taking me a while without being able to buy it off at once. I'm so sorry."

Head for the boy and bow your head. It may be pointless to do it to a blind person, but I couldn't help but apologize.

Because I've been postponing it, even though it's possible to open his eyes right now.

"Oh, no, don't apologize! I haven't seen it for nearly a decade, so I'm perfectly fine now that I've grown for another year or two!

He swings his arms left and right so quickly that he can hear the sound of a bump and wind, expressing in words and body that he doesn't need to apologize.

I grow up to be a gentle, honest boy who can think of people's hearts. Is this also the gift of their affection and their lovingkindness?

"Oh, I guess it's your father and your mother"

I heard the door open, as if to affirm the boy's whining.

"Oh, collector. You wanted it."

"Oh, excuse me. Without even picking you up."

There are voices of men and women from behind.

I don't even have to look back. I'm pretty sure my parents talked to me about how I could cure the boy's eyes.

"Welcome back, Father, Mother!

As the boy runs under his father, he jumps into his successful chest.

My parents stare at such a boy with tender eyes and say "I'm home" with all my voices together, stroking my head.

This kid is a lot in front of me, but don't soothe him when he sees his age as a child in front of his parents.

With that sentiment, I stared silently at the amicable family exchange.

The night the boy fell asleep.

I was checking the two of them out before.

"Tomorrow morning, I'll buy out his' blind ', are you sure?

"Yes.... please"

The two bow their heads deeply and ask for a buy.

It's a wish I've cut out of them in the first place, this result was visible.

"What are you going to do when you see him?

"I thought I'd take you to a nearby city. That kid is smart, carefree, and he's done it. You will soon be able to conquer the city. In about ten years, you can still live without finding a job."

"If you can listen to yourself, it would be helpful if you could also mediate where that child lives and his work. What about the reward for buying out our skills?"

The two offers were within our expectations, so I'll snort.

Depending on the outcome, I had no reason to say no because I was going to.

"If he chooses to leave here, I'll take care of what follows. Because the city I'm based in has good security and I know a lot of people."

"I was relieved to hear that. Now there's nothing more to... want. Thank you for tomorrow. Bring the light back to her eyes."

"Please"

I could only snort once more with a strange face in front of the two tears.

Light plunges in through the window, and the sky is clear with no clouds.

The sun hasn't risen yet because it is early in the morning, and the light is poisonous to the eyes, which are dim around but have spent ten years in the dark. It's safer to do it with as much brightness as this.

"Ladies and gentlemen, let's do the 'blind' buyout outside because of this"

At any rate, the sights that jump in at the beginning want to provide the best.

"That's a good idea. Hey, you."

"Yeah, right. I agree."

"Yeah, that's fine with me too!

I got my family's consent, so I open the door and take them outside.

When the sun is placed behind the boy's back and the lake is visible in the front, he attaches his hand to pinch his face.

My parents were staring at me behind the boy.

"Now I'm going to buy 'blind'. If you don't mind, try to be aware of giving me the skills in me. If your mind allows it, your skills will move on to me."

"Yes, please!

I can see that something fell out of the boy all the time and moved on to me.

Upon confirmation of his skills, the 'blind' purchase was successful.

"Please open your eyes slowly. Even though it's dim, I'm not used to the light, so take your time... close your eyes as soon as you think it's dazzling."

"Yes......"

The closed eye lid gradually opens.

There seemed to be no strain on the eyes because of the moderate brightness, and the eyes are wide open without closing again.

He stared seriously at my face and did so for a while, but when he looked up slowly, he was blinded by the beauty of the lake and woods ahead.

"The collector's face and lake are really nice. Oh, it's prettier and brighter than I dreamed. Yes, this is the landscape, this is nature. I forgot......"

Her parents, staring behind her back at the worn out and tearful boy, were hugging each other and flooding her with tears bigger than he did.

"Oh, my father and mother."

"I'm right behind you."

The boy who heard me speak shines his eyes - his parents, by contrast, have a sad shadow on their face.

When the boy looked back in momentum, his father and mother looked at the boy's face from the front, desperately looking at his face, which was about to lean over in a strong embrace.

I don't see the boy's face from here. All you can see from me are two... no, just two orcs.

A couple of orcs who had raised the boy as their own child for ten years after picking him up on the battlefield.

A boy who assumed he was his own parent without knowing that.

The tragedy created by 'Blindness'. If they were blind, they might have stayed like this for the rest of their lives, but the Orcs' couple prioritized the boy's light.

Heavy enough silence to illuminate whether there is weight in the air is full of this occasion.

From here on out, I don't care what happens. My parents are begging me not to stop even if it has been the worst development.

After a long silence, I cut it out first...... it was an orc couple.

"I'm sorry. We were the ones who attacked your village and killed your real parents. It's an excuse, but we orcs were manipulated by Rich to attack the village. I killed my real parents while I was being manipulated, and even you tried to hang them, and then you stared at me as a boy... me and this guy returned to me."

"I think we overlapped your figure with our own child, who died a year ago. We regained our sanity. We held you and tried to escape the scene. That's when Rich found you, and the magic you unleashed struck you, and you were blind."

The boy is silently listening to the couple's words. Maybe I haven't received a word of surprise, but so far I haven't had any reaction.

"You were in shock at the time, confused with your memories, blind, and you assumed we were your real parents. That's not where we sin... We decided to raise you instead of the kids we lost."

I was told this story beforehand. I was really surprised when the Orcs showed up before me and told me what was going on.

Oak with barbaric images, but that depends on where you live. Some humans are savages, others rational.

Orcs were originally a smart species, intelligent as men, living no different lives than men, creating villages, and some of them live a great deal.

Rich, who manipulated and used them like that, is the culprit of everything, but that doesn't matter to the boy. The truth is that the person you thought was the parent who was raising you is an orc, the enemy of your real parents.

"I'm ready. Use this sword to take revenge."

When the oak pulls the sword he had on his hips out of his sheath, he throws it in front of the boy.

The boy who picked it up in silence shook his sword up loud... and threw it down to the lake.

"Hey, whats ⁉"

Without understanding the boy's behavior, a couple of orcs absurd their voices.

I let go of my sword. When I let go of my hand, I slowly head to the couple and walk on.

"I knew it. Father, mother. The fact that you two are orcs, or not your real parents. He said it was the enemy of his real parents... something like that. Instead of being blind, I learned my 'sign detection' skills. So we know, to some extent, who they are by the shape and feel of the signs."

When I visited this house, the boy found out it was me when he said he wasn't speaking out just knocking on the door. I noticed its presence before my parents opened the door.

That's because he possessed 'sign perception' skills. This skill feels like a slight light source is visible when the level is low, and you cannot perceive what it is from the signs.

But when the level rises, the signs become clearer and the contours emerge. Even more extreme, the colour of the signs changes so that they can be distinguished from people, demons or animals.

The boy was constantly activating the 'sign perception' he got instead of being blind, so that level is high. The contours and colors are as clear as you can see.

"Okay, so you were keeping my family going..."

"Yeah."

"You want to forgive us like this?

"Yeah."

"We don't hate each other, do we?

The boy is scratching his head pounding when a couple of orcs still haven't finished accepting the status quo ask.

"I've always been blind. That's why I've been seeing things I can't see. I've always seen the kindness of your father and mother, and the feeling of apology for me. You raised me blind, useless... my father and mother are... two of us."

When the boy standing in front of his parents assured him, the family held him tight.

"They tell us that we are... parents"

"Sorry, sorry"

I shouldn't be here any longer, being an outsider.

Turn off the signs and stay away from my family.

"We also had 'Transformation' skills just in case, but you didn't make any money."

I guess they will continue to live as a family.

If you look at it from someone else, it might look like a distorted family. I don't want such a person to rely on his eyes, I want him to try to close the eye lid.

Because then you should see the ideal family behind your eyelids.