Strongest Nova: Path of Vengeance

Chapter 90: Farm Life

After talking in front of their mother’s grave, saying everything they wanted to say to her, the two brothers returned from the cemetery.

By the time they were done, it was already evening, so Bradley left as soon as he walked his brother back to the farm.

"I’ll come tomorrow if I can. If not, I’ll come 2 days later when I have the Veil duty," Bradley said before leaving.

Once his brother was gone, Stanely walked into the farmhouse, walking outside from the back door. He looked at the pig and chicken cage, made sure they were all tightly locked and went over to the small stream that was brought to each individual farmhouse to water the farm.

The streams were separated around the forest so each house got a single small stream. The streams were also separated way up in the upper quadrants already so that if a single source was ever contaminated, it wouldn’t contaminate the rest of the water that came down the waterfall.

After quickly bathing in that river, Stanley returned to the house and entered. He hadn’t eaten anything all day so he went over to the kitchen and cooked himself some food.

He just made some plain rice, along with a simple cabbage soup to go along with it. He was going to make a chicken soup with the leftover chicken he found in the kitchen, submerged in water, but he remembered his mother telling him how the meat left out was bad.

It had to be cooked quickly once the chicken was killed. Otherwise, he would get an upset stomach.

After eating his simple dinner that was still not properly seasoned, he returned to his room and sat on the bed.

There was a small drawer next to the bed where he kept his clothes. On top of the drawer was his Defenders armor, ready to be worn whenever necessary. Next to the drawer was his sword, ready for battle as well.

Once making sure they were both there, Stanley lay on his bed, looking at what he could see through the window next to him.

The sky didn’t look that bright this time around, almost as if clouds were covering it all. Was it going to rain tomorrow?

Looking outside, the events of the day went through Stanley’s mind once more. His quitting the Defenders, him spending time on the farm with his brother, and him visiting his mother’s grave, were all things that he felt were something crucial in his life that he had desperately needed.

A small smile appeared on his face as he remembered it all again. The freedom he felt in his heart after all of these things was something he had been looking forward to for a long time.

He wasn’t sure if this was peace or not yet, but even if it wasn’t he was sure he would get it soon.

Especially, one he killed a crawler or two.

He looked at his blade on the right and determination filled his eyes.

While he had stopped thinking that he was no longer at fault for his mother’s death, he was still certain he wanted revenge against the ones that killed his mother, so he had no plans of leaving the farm just yet.

He was going to stay here until the Crawlers showed up and then, he would fight them, and get his vengeance.

He made a small mental note of what he had to do tomorrow and let himself fall asleep.

By the time he woke up, the sky was already bright and the roosters were chirping. Stanley opened his eyes and looked at where he was, disoriented for a second.

His room never got this bright in the morning when he was in the Defender’s headquarters, so this was certainly a surprise. Once he finally remembered where he was, he looked outside of the window and saw the cloudy sky.

It really was starting to get rainy. Very soon, it would start to snow as well as the temperature quickly dropped around here.

He went outside, stretching as he did, and took his dishes from yesterday to the stream where he washed them and returned to the farm.

First thing, he had to feed the chicken and pigs again. He went into the chickens’ cage and added additional feed and water, while also gathering the egg they laid in there.

There were about 40 eggs in the massive cage, of which he brought out 30 and placed them in the extra egg crate that was there for this exact purpose. There was a small section in the chicken’s cage where they laid eggs that Stanley wasn’t allowed to touch as they were the eggs that would hatch.

So, he knew which ones to take and which ones do not.

Then, he went to the pig’s enclosure and walked through the mud to pour bucket after bucket of the disgusting trash that was collected throughout the town.

The pigs ate pretty much anything, so there wasn’t much need to choose what ate what in this case. After feeding them, Stanley tied a noose around a pig and also tied the feet and wings of a few chickens.

Then he cleaned himself and went to make some food for himself. It was hard to tell what time it was as the sky was cloudy, so when a man arrived in front of his house, he was caught off guard.

He brought out a pig, 3 chickens, and the crate full of eggs he had gathered and handed it to the man.

Stanley could see the Defender that was working as this man’s guard from close by and was surprised to see that it was Freddy.

"Hey Freddy," he simply called out to his friend.

"Stanley," Freddy came toward him when he saw him. "So you really did come here?"

Stanley shrugged. "Yes," he said. "I’m sorry I couldn’t say anything before I left. It was an impulse decision so I was gone before I could talk to anyone."