"You have nothing to live for, you say? Well then. Try this. There is a barrel in the town of Tenba which has this property. Reach in it, once only, and you can pull out any object you want. That's right, it grants your wish, if you wish for something tangible."
Believing in those words, for he could believe in nothing else, the despondent swordsman traveled across the lands, and though he did not remember a deed he did, the people were everywhere grateful for his intervention.
He reached Tenba and found the barrel. Every man in the town knew the legend and knew it to be true, and directed him straight to it. "But you will not put your hand in," they told him.
He learned the reason when he saw the guardian. Before the barrel, radiant and unquestionable no common item, stood on its hind legs a bear wearing big, bulky red gloves. It stared into nothing until he approached, whereupon it gave him its attention and raised its gloves. Unsure, he took a step back, and the guardian bear resumed its idle attitude.
"The story is this." It was the white-haired man who told him of the barrel to begin who said that, and how he arrived there in time for an explanation would have bewildered someone not already confused by the bear. "A god placed that barrel there and set over it the guardian, saying this: 'Fulfill your desires if you can, but remember that whatever happens, good or bad, there is something behind it, and your desires can change easily enough.' Now you may kill yourself with the guardian as your excuse. I think first you should consider my advice from back then."
With that, the man disappeared, and the swordsman reflected.
Finis
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