Andric heard the conversation between his mother and the townspeople, but he never left the second of the house. He stayed in his room, listening intently to whatever Alda said. In the end, only her opinion really mattered, but it was unfortunate that she was so easily swayed. In his heart, Andric wondered if Alda actually wanted him to leave before the townspeople said anything about it, but she hadn't ever brought up the topic before.

The townspeople departed, and Alda returned to the sitting room with her parents to discuss a few things. Once they finished their talking, Alda headed upstairs, to Andric’s room. Andric heard her movement, and he sat on his bed, removing all expressions from his face.

“Did you hear what we were talking about?” Alda leaned through the doorway to Andric’s room and asked. She felt ready to speak to Andric when she was at the bottom of the stairs, but, standing in the doorway, she suddenly felt apprehensive. She gave birth to Andric and raised him for fifteen years, and now she was going to ask him to leave his home; it wasn’t something she had ever done before, and it made her uncomfortable.

“Yes,” Andric replied, not looking at his mother. His voice was solemn, precisely because he knew the topic was something that needed to be treated carefully. Although being kicked out of the town wasn’t the end of the world, it was the end of a peaceful stretch of time. Once he left the safety of Einburg, Andric would need to fend for himself in the age of martialists.

“We think it would be good for you to go to Mahtzig. The capital is large and prosperous, and you’ll be able to quickly find a job and provide for yourself. It’s better than staying in this tiny town, right?” Alda said, ending with a half-hearted smile. When she was younger, she had been eager to leave Einburg and explore the world, but there was no doubt that her short journey had ended in a terrible way.

The more Alda spoke, the more uneasy she appeared. When talking to Andric, the notion of him leaving the town seemed much more real than when she had talked to the townspeople or her parents. She gradually understood that Andric leaving the town would mean him leaving her protecting, and that frightened her. Even after fifteen years, she still viewed Andric as a delicate child.

Andric looked up at his mother, then down at his hands. His progress in the Standing Tortoise Manual filled him with the strength of a Human realm second stage martialist, but it wasn’t anywhere near enough to survive in the world. If he wanted to completely alleviate Alda’s concerns, he would need to show her his magic. Alas, Andric vowed to not use his magic lightly, and easing Alda’s heart was not something he wanted to risk being exposed as a magician over.

Alda sat next to Andric on his bed, and he said to her, “If it’s what you want, I won’t mind it.” After Andric’s words, Alda reached over and hugged him, and they remained silent for a few minutes. They were both thinking about seperate things, and neither seemed like something they wanted to tell the other person.

The most important thing to Alda was stability. She needed Andric to be safe, but she also needed to relieve the tension between Andric and the townspeople. Keeping Andric in Einburg would keep him safe from some external factions, but internal factions were growing more hostile by the year. Very few people in Einburg treated Andric with the respect that every human deserved, and that made his future in Einburg uncertain. If he left, he would have a clean slate wherever he went to. Alda knew she was sending Andric away for his own good, but she didn’t know how to say it without sounding like a harsh mother.

Andric, meanwhile, was thinking of how he would deal with opponents who crossed him. In kingdoms like Hochland, there were typically three dangerous areas: borders, untamed wilderness, and cities. If he was in the wilderness, it would probably be fine to use magic, but, if he was in a place with people living there, it would be unsafe to use magic. In the end, Andric’s restricting factors were which methods he could use to defeat his enemies. It would never occur to Alda that her son was thinking of ways to kill people.

A journey of a thousand miles started with one step. Without saying anything else, Alda stood up and left the room, and Andric’s fate was sealed.

For the rest of the week, Alda talked with Andric about the world outside Einburg, and Alda’s parents coordinated with the other townspeople to get enough silver coins to pay for Andric’s trip. Joining a merchant caravan from Einburg to Mahtzig could cost between ten and thirty silver: a sum which could easily be assembled by the number of families who were supportive of Andric leaving the town.

While Alda’s parents and the townspeople were busy preparing for Andric to leave, the man himself was in his bedroom, practicing and memorizing the Standing Tortoise Manual, which he did not plan to bring with him. The meditation technique had been given to him for free, and its non-consumable nature made it an object he should give back once he was finished with.

The information inside the Standing Tortoise Manual was needlessly wordy and obfuscated. Andric spent a great deal of time simplifying the manual, especially the second and third ranks, which would become useful if he reached the Novice and Apprentice realms of the martial way.

With the Standing Tortoise Manual memorized, Andric went to Instructor Hubert and asked him questions about things he didn’t understand. Unfortunately, although Instructor Hubert possessed the rare ability called Spirit Sight, he wasn’t very accomplished in the martial way. Most of Andric’s question had no answer, and the rest only had guesses or estimations.

At the end of the week, the town receives news of when the next caravan would arrive: twenty-seven days. After being informed of the number of days, Andric felt like his hasty preparation was for nothing. With twenty-seven days remaining until he needed to leave, Andric had plenty of time to continue his cultivation. At the same time, twenty-seven days was enough time for the town youths to give their last efforts in aggravating Andric.

“If Andric doesn’t know how to fight, how is he going to protect himself?” a town youth said to the group of youths who stood outside Instructor Hubert’s classroom after the lesson ended. He was a part of Audovacar’s group, and he was among the few that understood what Andric had insinuated during their last encounter.

“Hagano is right. We should all try to help him,” Audovacar agreed, responding as if he knew what Hagano was going to say before he spoke it.

Twenty-or-so youths stood around where Audovacar and his gang intercepted Andric outside the classroom. The onlookers were students of varying ages, but all were younger than sixteen. The older youths persuaded the younger youths to stick around and watch. As the youths became younger, they had less strong opinions about Andric, but the influence from fellow townspeople had still affected them. Although none of the youths in the crowd were obscenely hostile toward him, none of them were friendly with him.

Andric was surrounded, and he needed to respond. “If you want to exchange pointers, do it with your little brothers,” he said and walked to the side of Audovacar’s group, but Audovacar’s group moved to block him.

“But, our little brothers aren’t leaving the town in twenty-seven days!” Audovacar refuted.

Out of the five youths from every age who survived to adulthood, one or two would leave the town. There were opportunities happening all across Hochland, and one only needed to go out and seize them. Of course, one needed the proper background and preparations, but even a farmer from Einburg could seek a fortune in Mahtzig. Alda’s oldest brother had left Einburg with one of his friends, and the rest of her brothers left by following their oldest brother. Of the several of them, they had all been at least eighteen.

“Who says they need to be leaving the town? If you want to spar, it should with someone at your own level, like Alfbern,” Andric said and pointed to a seven-year-old child in the crowd. This made Alfbern step back as Audovacar and his group looked in his direction. Needless to say, Audovacar did not appreciate being compared to a seven-year-old who hadn’t even reached the second stage of the Human realm.

Out of all the townspeople in Einburg, Andric knew about two hundred names. Those included people he was friendly with, people he was hostile with, and the people he interacted with every day. The seven-year-old child Andric named was actually the son of one of the town guards, and his father had taught him many fighting techniques. Because of Alfbern’s young age, opening meridians in his body would be dangerous, so he couldn’t start practicing a meditation technique or learning martial techniques.

“Andric, if you can take five moves from me, I’ll concede that you don’t need any exchange of pointers,” Audovacar offered, turning back to Andric.

Five moves sounded short, but it was actually very long! In battles between martialists, a single well-executed martial technique could mean victory. Andric hadn’t been able to learn any martial techniques, but Audovacar knew the Ground Plowing Stomp. Between a Human realm second stage martialist without any martial techniques and a Human realm second stage martialist with a single martial technique, one of them held an obvious advantage.

“What’s the point of your concession if we’ve already fought?” Andric raised his hands to chest-height and asked. He sensed Audovacar getting angry, and he prepared to receive an attack at any moment.

The townspeople of Einburg were easy to read, especially the youths. If it was Andric from his previous life, he would’ve never allowed someone to talk to him or about him the way the townspeople did. In his new life, he had more important things to worry about than his pride and dignity. Even though he would be leaving Einburg in less than a month, he still couldn’t do whatever he wanted. If possible, Andric wanted to resolve all conflicts peacefully.

“Hey, what are you all doing here?” a female voice asked from outside the crowd, and Andric looked over to see Miss Erminhilt looking angrily over the youths who had gathered around Andric and Audovacar.

“Ah, Miss Erminhilt, we weren’t doing anything,” a youth quickly replied. In the whole of Einburg, none of the boys wanted to be on Miss Erminhilt’s bad side. Not only was Miss Erminhilt a rare beauty, but she was also unspoken for.

“We were just having fun!” a boy from Audovacar’s group said. Even between Audovacar and his followers, if Miss Erminhilt came between them, the majority would go to Miss Erminhilt’s side.

In Einburg, there wasn’t a single adolescent male who didn’t have infatuated feelings for Miss Erminhilt! In their small town, there weren’t nearly enough ladies for the boys to ogle, but Miss Erminhilt was one of them! In another life, Miss Erminhilt could’ve been a prominent consort, but she happened to be born in Einburg. She had no husband at nineteen-years-old, which was rare for the women in rural towns.

To the dismay of many youths who yearned for Miss Erminhilt, she had an eye for Andric! Even if the children of Andric’s generation could get over the circumstances of his origin, they could never forgive the way he had stolen Miss Erminhilt from them! More than being born a bastard son, Andric greatest sin in Einburg was befriending Miss Erminhilt!