Heavy is the Head that Wears the Solemn Crown

Seventeen - the Elusive Path of a Warrior

Techno

Techno was born a long time ago. He cannot remember what his parents looked like, but he knew that they were farmers. His parents were simple people, he remembered. They would rise with the sun to take care of the animals and cultivate the fields that had been passed down to them by their ancestors. They would work all day long before settling into the house for dinner. They would pray to the gods before every meal like normal god-fearing people. Techno can hardly remember these meals or the prayers, but he knows that they happened. He knows that he used to play with hand-carved wooden toys in a small bedroom. He knows that his mother used to braid his pink hair when the moon was sinking below the horizon. He remembers how his father taught him how to use the farming tools.

Eventually, his parents died. He doesn't remember how old he was, and he doesn't remember who died first or if they died together. He just remembers inheriting his family's farmlands and the small, quiet wooden cabin that looked down upon the fields. Techno remembers putting all his toys away in a closet as he followed in his parents footsteps. He rose with the sun to cultivate the fields. He worked with the animals all day long. He would come back to his house to make himself a simple meal from the potatoes and other vegetables he had on hand. He did not pray like his parents did, but he didn't take down the religious memorabilia they put up, either. Every month, he would take his father's horse and the wagon to the nearby village. He would sell his crops to anyone who wanted them. He sold them for whatever people were willing to pay, and he managed to scrape together enough gold coins every month to pay his taxes.

Techno lived at the edge of the Antarctic Empire where the strength and might of the capital didn't reach. He didn't care about any of that. He was not concerned with the government. He allowed them to exist as long as he was allowed to exist, and he left it at that. The tax collectors would drop by every month for a sack of coins. Techno eventually started leaving the pouch at his mailbox to avoid speaking with anyone affiliated with the capital, even if that affiliation was a weak one at best.

In fact, Techno liked avoiding people altogether. The villagers he lived near would always spread rumors about him. Apparently, they did not know his parents. His parents had found some other way to get enough gold coins to pay their taxes, and they had not shared this way with Techno before they left him solitude. He only minded because this mysterious way could have prevented him from being around anyone.

He was in the village one day, contemplating how to get gold coins without having to talk to people when he heard rumors about the forest that grew along the empire's eastern border. The forest separated the people of the east from the ocean, and it was filled to the brim with wild animals. This was a problem because that meant only the people of the west could collect ocean delicacies, and the cost to transport fish and other seafood was becoming more expensive. The royal family wasn't doing anything to fix this issue. They did not lower the tax nor did they try to find a way to exterminate the hostile animals in the forest to create a suitable path. The villagers were growing extremely frustrated with it. This frustration escalated to the point where the local lords came together to make a solution. Any group of adventurers who would go into the forest to make a clean path would be exempt from paying taxes for the rest of their lives. Techno agreed to the terms, and he volunteered to do it even though he was a lone man without a party. People laughed and pitied him, but no one stopped him as he took a wooden bow, arrows, and a sickle into the forest. He rode on his father's horse.

The moment he entered the forest, he started exterminating any animal that dared cross paths with him. Although nothing could be as good as his potatoes, Techno became proficient at cooking the meat of a wide variety of animals. He even found himself reaching the eastern sea. He used his sickle to cut through the ice, and he was able to try some of the highly sought after seafood for himself. He didn't think it was good enough for the high taxes on it or the wide rebuttal people had towards it. Techno shrugged, though, because who was he to criticize people's weird tastes?