Rain continued to fall with an intensity that was worthy of a tropical monsoon, and the strong winds bent the surrounding wheat fields under their unstoppable might. The paved road in front of us luckily did not turn into muddy puddle as one would usually expect from a desolate field road, instead the water drained down the canals and into the fields. The infrastructural development of the Haelia kingdom was really on another level, even when compared to the one of the modern world. I wondered whether they had used magic enchantments on the stones used in the pavement…

Amongst this epic rainstorm that even felled a few of the trees that lined the fields as erosion barrier, we were the only ones that were not completely soaked by the falling rain. Instead our small group happily walked over the wet and damp street, minding our own business beneath the translucent magical bell that protected us from the storm.

“That tier is this spell?”, I asked Maira after some time. My skills in magic had been stagnating for a while now and the only mid-tier magic spell I knew was the fire tornado which I used in multiple variations. But aside from that my entire register of spells consisted of weak low level magic, most of which I hadn’t even tried out yet.

“It’s mid-tier”, the princess replied while eyeing me from the corners of her eyes. She was still behaving awkwardly around me and even though I knew what the problem was, I really didn’t know how to solve it in a way that wouldn’t potentially get me killed by a bunch of angry girls.

“Hm…”, this confirmed my suspicion, but I still couldn’t get to the main topic I wanted to talk about.

“Can you….”, I began, but was interrupted soon after.

“You want to ask me whether I can teach you the basics of magic, right?”, Maira suddenly began to grin and turned around to face me directly, her arms stretched behind her back. It was a cute posture, very unlike the sulky and pesky usual princess.

“So, our dear Sir Hero does need some help to master the abstruse and mystical art of magic, hm?”, she seemed really happy that I asked her to teach me real magic.

I rolled my eyes and suppressed my amusement over her immature conduct.

“I’ve been relying on my divine skill and some basic knowledge to use magic up till now. But if I want to use real mid-tier magic or even high-tier magic I will have to learn the proper systematic approach that is commonly used to learn it.”, compared to most, my ability to wield magic and combine a bunch of low-level spells into a mid-tier one seemed impressive, but I knew that true mid-tier magic went beyond the petty tricks that I used.

“For example, how does this sphere work?”, I asked her while pointing at the magic that kept us save from the roaring storm around us.

“…. it’s just a magic that surrounds us and protects us from the weather…”, Maira replied with a confused expression. As I thought the question: Why or How does it work, did not really make any sense to her.

To the magicians of this world, magic was just a phenomenon they used without needing to know the concept behind it. The only difficulty laid in knowing the spell and being able to control the magic into the complicated patterns that were required for it to activate. I on the other hand, used my knowledge of physics and chemistry to achieve the effects I wanted.

But there were limits. For example, I had no idea how to make a magical sphere like this or to create matter out of nowhere as some water mages did on regular basis. This were phenomena that exceeded my knowledge and that could be called ‘true magic’; things that couldn’t be explained through science just by using mana as an manipulatable energy source with certain properties.

In order to reach this level and broaden my knowledge I had to learn the proper way of using magic and build up a new scientific understanding from there. Learning real mid-tier spells was the key to learning how to apply magic on a grander scale and how to use the natural rules that affected the use of mana in this world.

Basically, I wanted to create a new science of magic. A science that would at some point allow me to use mana freely without the confines of spells or incantations. And to do that I would require our pretty princess’ help.

Before we could delve into the topic any further, we suddenly encountered something, or rather someone, on the road. A small carriage driven by a pair of ordinary horses drove some distance away from us. There was nothing too eye-catching about this carriage, other than the fact that it had a huge advertisement sign on its backside, saying:

“Kacper’s travelling slave shop

Whatever you want, where ever you want it!”

The name wasn’t even the most usual about this so-called travelling slave shop. Even worse, was the line beneath the slogan.

“The only slave stop owned by a hero!”

I couldn’t help but chuckle in surprise.

“I can’t believe it…”, Riina said with a weird smile.

“Is this real?”

“A slave shop run by a hero?”, Ignatius spoke with a mocking glance towards me.

“Look at our hero, do you really think they are the saints from the stories?”

This somehow convinced everyone in our group, leaving me feeling a little hurt.

“You don’t have to be so mean to me…”, I mumbled while we hurried up a little to catch up with this amusing colleague of mine. Who knows, maybe he has something I would like to buy? To tell the truth, at this point owning slaves felt more than natural to me and I was very curious towards the different species that existed among the humans of this world.

As we came closer to the carriage, I caught sight of the driver who was sitting on a small bench-like structure at the front of the carriage. A part of the carriages top protruded to shelter him from the rain and most of the wind. Despite that he had wrapped himself into a long, black leather coat and wore an ugly, black hat that hid most of his face in its shadow.

This person was without any doubt the most dubious person I had ever encountered.

“Are you Kacper?”, I asked him with a somewhat forced friendly expression. Talking to someone who looked like he was selling organs or drugs in a dark alley wasn’t something I was used to.

The man seemed surprised by my sudden arrival and looked up, the shadow that covered most of his face disappearing and unveiling the rather handsome and clean face of a young, eastern European man.

“Yes, I am, how can I help you, Sir…”, he gave me a questioning look.

“Chris”, I replied with a smile.

“The hero of this tiny kingdom. I guess you are a polish person?”, being a little blunt shouldn’t be a problem when dealing with a hero who had the hobby of clothing himself like a third-tier criminal.

The other person, who was obviously only pretending to be a shabby merchant, seemed even more surprised to see a fellow hero and after a brief moment his expression lightened up.

“So, you are the insane hero that everyone is talking about!”

Oh… I guess that’s a way to describe me….

Riina and Enri began to frown though and Maira also seemed somewhat unhappy to have this unknown hero call me an insane person. Only Ignatius nodded as if it was the only correct way to refer to me. I will have to have a small talk with him later…

“I guess some call me that.”, since I didn’t feel like the moniker was incorrect, I also didn’t feel offended by being called as such.

The polish hero nodded with an enthusiastic expression as his gaze left me and ran over my girls and the tall, fully armored knight behind me.

“And that is the rest of the bunch, right? Maira, the beautiful princess who you made your sex slave, Riina, the cute cat girl who murders without blinking an eye; Enri, the mad dragon loli and Ignatius the rumored virgin…

It’s so exciting to meet all of you!”, somehow this guy seemed to be even less sane than me and this worried me more than it should. I wasn’t sure whether it had been a good idea to talk to this weird hero.

“So… you are the hero of which kingdom?”, Maira asked with a cautious expression while keeping her typical polite tone that she used when confronted with someone she didn’t know how to deal with. I could tell that being called a ‘sex slave’ had enraged her quite a lot, but she skillfully hid her anger behind a professional appearance.

The weird hero slave merchant stopped talking for a moment and seemed surprised by the question.

“You don’t know yet? I thought everyone heard about me already!

I’m the thieving hero who almost robbed the Kenis Empire!”, he was a little bit too proud over calling himself a thief…

“I don’t want to sound racist, but a polish person stealing…”, I couldn’t help but begin to grin in a foolish way.

His eyes twitched as he heard me.

“So, you are a German….”, seems like he is aware of polish stereotypes in other countries.

“At least I didn’t call you a plummer like the British do…”, I muttered under my breath.

“Wait…”, Maira suddenly exclaimed. She had been silent for a few moments now and her face was filled with a weird mixture of excitement and horror.

“You are the hero of the Kenis empire???”, she stared in shock.

I didn’t understand what was bothering her, until I remembered what I had been thought during my stay in the capital.

“Kenis… the most powerful empire of the human realm, situated at the very southern border to the elvea and beastie territories as well as the wildlands of the southeast. The hegemon who pays and supports the northern kingdoms for the wars against the demons.”, I recounted what I knew with a somewhat surprised voice.

The Kenis empire was pretty much the most powerful entity among the humans, the powerhouse that dictated the power balance of an entire continent and harbored a wealth comparable to the one of the dragons far in the east. They were basically every kingdom’s sugar daddy and made sure that the demons never got beyond the northern kingdoms and onto their territory.

“Why would you rob them?”

Kacper just shrugged his shoulders.

“My divine ability is linked to the wealth I possess. The more I have, the more powerful I get. I thought I could steal the riches of the empire and use the power boost I would get from that to flee from there and help in the north.

Didn’t manage to get through to the vault though. So, in the end I was almost killed and fled the empire with the few slaves I had purchased in the meantime. You should be able to guess why I opened a slave shop…”

“Sure…”, I replied, a little shocked by the story of this weird person. Then again, mine wasn’t any more normal.

“Well then….”, Kacper suddenly said.

“Its been nice to have been talking to you, but I have to get going and sell my new merchandise. This should get me on the level to fight the demons once they come down from the north!”, he began to smile, but it was no happy but rather an apologetic smile.

“Sorry, Chris I hope you will like your compensation.”, then all of sudden the main door to his carriage was slammed open and a whole flock of heavily armored Beastii came roaring towards us. My reaction was immediate and extreme, mana exploded as I drew my sword and came towards the smiling bastard of hero, who was calmly sitting on his bench.

But to my surprise, I couldn’t even get close to him, as a whole flood of gold coins suddenly streamed out from opening in the carriage, forming a glittering shield of gold around the whole carriage. My sword cut straight through the metal, slicing into it, but being incapable of causing any real damage. It felt like I was slicing into water, futile and meaningless. No matter what I did, I could not pass through the barrier of gold coins in front of me.

Meanwhile I heard a shocked cry and saw how Maira was restrained and carried back to the carriage. The wall of gold made way and the whole flock of Beastii disappeared together with my mage. Enri tried to go after them but slammed against the gold wall and tumbled backwards. Neither Ignatius nor Riina could do any damage to the fluid like metal and grew frustrated and desperate as they tried their best to reach Maira.

Then the carriage suddenly went into motion, accelerating at a speed that was impossible to achieve even for me or the others. I heard that bastards voice echoed back to me as I tried to cast the low-tier long ranged magic I knew, against the golden sphere of coins.

“Sorry, dude. Here, your replacement!”, the golden shield disappeared, and the gold flew back into the carriage. Then the door opened again, and a body was thrown out of the still driving carriage. It did not fall to the ground however, but instead gently floated to the ground.

A moment later the carriage was out of reach and disappeared on the horizon. I was left with a blank stare, an angry expression and the overwhelming wish to kill every polish thief in this world. Which coincidentally amounted to a single person.

“Stealing a princess…”, I muttered with a cold, but somewhat amused expression.

“A stealing pole, a kidnapped princess and a hero who has to save her…. Any more tropes you wanna use Mr. Author?”, I was mumbling nonsense, but it made me calm down a little.

“We have to follow them!”, Riina shouted in distress unsure of what to do. Her expression was a mix of rage and fear as she felt worried about her friend. I walked over and hugged her to calm her down. The slim body shook for some time, before helplessly relaxing itself in my embrace. I shook my head.

“No, we will return to the town.”, my eyes turned sharp.

“I will show this bastard how to really use money.”, Throwing Ignatius a glance I began to organize my thought. He nodded, seemingly having understood what I meant.

“He won’t hurt Maira, since she is his precious merchandise.”, I muttered. Most likely he would try to sell her to that ugly prince that she was supposed to marry. But that would take some time, so I wasn’t too worried about her. That did not mean that I wasn’t anxious and truly, TRULY livid.

But panicking wouldn’t solve a thing right now, so I remained composed.

“Enri, pick up the package. Let’s see what that bastard left as compensation.”