Chapter 44
"It's nothing serious, just superficial wounds. We're still haggling over liability with the other party."
Yu Huai's face was full of worry. He grabbed Tomomu Kanzaki's shoulders and spoke urgently.
"You have a good relationship with the head of Qingyun School. Can you vouch for me and sign off on this batch of equipment first?"
"The head isn't here?" Tomomu Kanzaki asked.
"The star skiff was delayed. They won't be back for another half hour."
"Alright, give me the documents."
Yu Huai quickly handed over the handover papers.
Tomomu Kanzaki signed his name and received a spatial jade abacus from Yu Huai.
"Thanks, brother!" Worried about his wife and daughter, Yu Huai rushed back into the rain.
In principle, as an academy teacher, Tomomu Kanzaki did not have the authority to sign for teaching equipment on behalf of the head.
However, he had once saved the head's life, so in an emergency the head would not object.
More than half an hour later, the head finally returned to Qingyun.
Upon learning that Tomomu Kanzaki had signed in their place, the head expressed sincere gratitude.
After handing over the spatial jade abacus, Tomomu Kanzaki walked into the rain with an umbrella and headed to the star skiff parking area, taking his private star skiff home.
"Tomomu Kanzaki, you're back."
"Yeah. I'll make dinner." Tomomu Kanzaki took off his shoes and placed the wet umbrella in the stand by the door.
"No need. General Teng Xiao came by earlier and brought some signature dishes from Zhiwei Shengyuan," Qiu Zhiyan waved her hand.
Tomomu Kanzaki paused and looked at his mother with a strange expression.
"The general didn't say anything," Qiu Zhiyan knew what he was thinking.
"Understood."
At the dining table, mother and son ate in silence, as usual.
It was just that… just as no mother fails to understand her child, no child fails to understand their mother.
"Mother, just say what you want to say."
Ever since he came home, his mother's hesitant gaze had not disappeared.
Tomomu Kanzaki knew what she wanted to say.
Qiu Zhiyan gradually stopped chewing, put down her bowl and chopsticks, and remained silent.
After a long while, she finally raised her gaze to meet her son's eyes.
"…Child, have you resented me all these years?"
Xianzhou people are long-lived and do not age.
Tomomu Kanzaki looked at his mother's face, which had remained unchanged for hundreds of years, and shook his head without hesitation.
"Never."
"…"
Reading the respect and sincerity in Tomomu Kanzaki's eyes, Qiu Zhiyan felt even more bitter, with a myriad of words stuck in her throat.
The more sensible her child was, the more guilty she felt.
"Mother is doing this for your own good. I deeply understand that, so there's no need to overthink it."
"But Mother broke your wings. You could have achieved greater things—"
"It's alright, Mother."
Tomomu Kanzaki got up, went to his mother, and gently embraced her.
"I wasn't without a rebellious phase. If I had insisted on my path back then, I wouldn't have listened to you."
Feeling the warmth from her son's embrace, Qiu Zhiyan closed her eyes and let out a silent sigh.
"The Tomomu family has been like this for generations, but my selfish desires led you down another path. I have failed the Tomomu family ancestors."
"You're overthinking again. The meaning and future of the living should never be defined by the dead."
Tomomu Kanzaki hugged his mother tighter and said gently,
"Let the past remain in the past. We never lived for past glory. My sister taught me this more than once when she was alive."
"Your sister also cared for you…" Qiu Zhiyan's eyes were slightly red.
Back then, Tomomu Kanzaki had worked himself so hard that not only his mother, but even his sister worried about him.
Recently, Qiu Zhiyan frequently recalled past events.
Those deeply etched memories replayed in her mind like a phantom show.
All of it was the true past.
The generational blood war between the Xianzhou people and the brutal abominations of the Abundance had always been one-sided.
To kill a borisin often required the combined efforts of two or even three people.
Only the Cloud Knight Vanguard, and even Swordmasters and Generals, possessed the ability to fight a hundred alone, to be an army of one.
But even so, facing an endless tide of abominations more exaggerated than a tsunami, no one could keep going indefinitely.
Humans are human because they have limits.
She saw all her comrades die tragically, with no one returning home.
She saw her loved ones and family die in a bloody hell, with mountains of corpses piled at their feet.
On that day, she also saw the future.
Her last child would also follow the path of their predecessors, dying in a foreign land.
"Tomomu Kanzaki, do you remember what you grabbed during the 'trial of the child' custom when you were little?"
"…A sword." Tomomu Kanzaki pursed his lips.
"Yes. Among a dozen different objects and toys, you precisely grabbed the only sword."
Qiu Zhiyan's face showed nostalgia.
"Your father was overjoyed then, throwing a three-day banquet to celebrate."
"Both sons and daughters of the Tomomu family have served in the military for generations. No matter what they grasp in the 'trial of the child' custom, they will rise to the Cloud Knight Vanguard in the future, living up to the glory of their ancestors."
"But since the Tomomu family's first ancestor, no one has been elected Xianzhou General again."
"You showed extraordinary martial talent from a young age. Your father, and I too, once placed great hopes on you…"
"But wars in this era are no longer like those of thousands of years ago. Their cruelty and devastation far exceed the past."
"I have already lost—"
"Don't say it, Mother…"
Tomomu Kanzaki interrupted his mother's words, which were about to turn into a sob, with a gentle tone.
"You never broke my wings. I chose to leave the sky, that's all."
"If I wanted to fly back to the sky, I could at any time, but…"
"Parents shouldn't watch their children leave. I understand. I understand everything."
After many years, Qiu Zhiyan's eyes became moist.
From childhood, her Tomomu Kanzaki had never angered his parents. He was well-behaved, sensible, and extraordinarily talented, a typical good role model from next door.
Children always owed their parents, but she felt that she owed Tomomu Kanzaki too much.
One must know that back then, Tomomu Kanzaki, barely ten years old, wielding a wooden sword, defeated dozens of Cloud Knight Vanguard of the Azure City Xianzhou under special conditions.
His future was truly limitless.
It is just a pity that 451 years ago, during the Second Abundance Plague War…
"Tomorrow is Father and Sister's death anniversary. I've adjusted tomorrow's lessons to accompany you in the morning. Please rest early."
Tomomu Kanzaki patted his mother's shoulder and said softly.
Qiu Zhiyan nodded. "Hmm. By your tone, are you going out tonight?"
"To see the general."
"…Be careful on the way."
"Of course. Love you, Mother."
"You rascal, you're hundreds of years old and still so mushy…"