“I heard you were attacked just now.”

“Oh yeah, a crazy woman suddenly tried to stab me from behind. I easily beat her though.”

“Wow~ aren’t you strong.”

I asked Chris about the assassin that attacked him and teased him. We were conversing while Harry, Rebecca, and Frank were playing a board game.

It was just the five of us celebrating my birthday since my parents couldn’t come. I wouldn’t want them to come to another town just for a birthday anyway, and I even forgot about it until the surprise birthday party happened. But they did send me a letter wishing me a happy birthday through Frank.

“What about Harry?” I asked Chris about Harry’s situation.

“He just froze the guy. Couldn’t even put up a fight.”

“Crazy.”

“Tell me about it.”

We looked at Harry who was having fun playing a game with Rebecca and Frank. It was an unusual sight.

“So what’s the plan now? They finally made a move after making us wait for months.”

Chris asked me what our next move will be.

“This case is going to be investigated by the guards, it might even go to the Royal Investigators since it involved a Dark Guild. We just have to cooperate with their investigation for a while and find those Black Rose people after they let us go.”

“By ourselves?”

“You’re not going to let those Royal Investigators get our prey first, are you?”

“True. I want to beat those guys myself too.”

“They attacked us first. We will be the one to finish them.”

Chris and I reached an agreement to beat down those Black Rose bastards.

***

It was the next day and as I expected the case was handed to the Royal Investigators. Harry, Chris, and I were called in as witnesses and we had to give our statements regarding the incident to the assigned investigators. The investigator assigned to me listened to my recap on yesterday’s incident.

“Is that all?” he asked after I finished my statement.

“Yup.”

“Okay then, you can go now.”

“Will I get an update on the case?”

“No. Investigations involving the Dark Guilds are confidential. We will tell you if the case is solved, however.”

“So it’s like that.”

“But let me tell you this, don’t bother looking into it yourself. It’s dangerous.”

“I’ll remember that. Now then if you would excuse me.”

I politely excused myself and walked out of the interrogation room. I met up with Chris outside who had finished giving his statement.

“Did you ask them anything about the case?” Chris asked me.

“I did, but they said it’s confidential or something.”

“Same here.”

As we were conversing, a door opened and Harry walked out of it. Seemed that he’s done giving his statement too. I asked him right away.

“Any updates?”

“Confidential.”

“Figures.”

Looks like we have to do this ourselves. We couldn’t say it out loud though with the investigators nearby.

We returned to the inn before resuming our discussion while sitting in a circle.

“So how are we going to find these people?”

I asked the question since I have no idea how to start looking for information. In the novels, the characters usually go to an Information Guild or just find information through their extensive connection but I have no such thing. I don’t know about any Information Guild in this world either.

“We have to rely on connections.”

It was Harry who answered with something I thought about.

“What kind of connections do we have though?”

Chris asked Harry the same question I had.

“Leave this to me.”

“As you’d expect from Harry. We should learn from him.”

I couldn’t help but praise Harry for his reliability.

“So we’ll leave this to you then.”

Chris patted Harry’s shoulder and stood up before exiting the room. He must have gone to have fun. I quickly got up and headed outside.

“Well then, all the best Harry.”

I wished Harry good luck before going to the orphanage.

“Somehow I feel scammed.”

Harry said to himself after being left alone at the inn.

***

Swish

A few kids at the orphanage swung their wooden swords on my instructions. For the past week, I’ve been teaching the children that showed interest in swordsmanship. At first, a majority of them wanted to learn from me but after knowing how hard training was most of them quickly dropped out.

I didn’t push them that hard; they were just kids after all. But most of them still couldn’t handle the training required to become good with swords. Now, only 5 of them continued to train with me; Arthur and Darwyn being two of them. Alya also couldn’t handle the relatively harsh training.

“Stop.”

They stopped swinging and immediately dropped down from fatigue. I wonder if I was still too hard on them despite making the training easier than what I did when I first started. Back then, Henderson had to stop my training every time since I was pushing myself too far. My body always felt like it’s completely ruined after training but I kept pushing myself like that after a day’s rest. Maybe I was just too desperate to get stronger, but I have no intention of letting these guys go through that. Strong will is slowly built up, I don’t want to torture kids for that.

“That’s it for today. Good job, everyone.”

I picked up some water bottles and passed them to the tired kids. I stopped in front of a particular girl and gave her a bottle of water.

“Great work today Erin.”

I said with a smile. She was the only girl that stuck with the training, and I was surprised to see that she was even more talented than Arthur; she perfectly caught everything I taught her in the past week.

“Thanks. Are you going to teach magic again today?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Do you know why the magic classes were easier than sword training?”

“Because we just had to listen to your lectures?”

“Exactly, all I did was taught you the basics of magic theory. I didn’t even tell you how to become a mage yourself. Do you have any idea why?”

“Why?”

“Because in order to become a mage you have to be capable of feeling mana. It usually takes a talented person 6 months to start feeling and sensing mana, and a whole year after that to control mana. And then finally, a person becomes a mage after constructing their first circle with the help of another experienced mage.”

“...”

Erin turned speechless at my seemingly outrageous statement, but it was the truth nevertheless. That’s why only a few privileged ones could ever have the chance in becoming a mage. Of course, there are examples of commoners turning their life around to become a mage but lucky chances in itself is a form of privilege isn’t it? Everyone wants to become a mage, mages are a symbol of power after all in this world. But not everyone knows how much effort is needed to become one.

“Then aren’t you a mage too? How long did it take you to become a mage?”

Erin asked me a question that could turn into a counter statement towards me.

“Is that important?”

“Aren’t you around my age too? How did you become a mage then? You’re even strong enough to become an A-ranked adventurer.”

“My experiences are different, but what I said wasn’t wrong. I taught you guys magic on a whim anyway, but I have no intention in telling you kids how to become a mage yourself, it’s just too dangerous.”

“Hmm.”

“So why are you training so hard anyway?”

“Huh?”

“The swordsmanship training, everyone else dropped out, but why did you stick with the other four?”

I looked at four boys chatting together nearby, they are the ones that stuck with my training. It was impressive of them to do so but it’s unusual for children to have that kind of drive to them, so I asked Erin her reason.

“I was saved by an adventurer once.”

“Oh?”

“A year ago I snuck out of town to pick some herbs. The guards warned me to not go near the forest but I didn’t listen to them. Then, when I was finding the herbs a monster found me and chased after me. I almost died that day, but when I almost got eaten a pretty woman wearing armor saved me and instantly killed that monster with her sword. She looked like the knights in the story people told.”

“She told me that she was an adventurer and she was really nice to me. I’ve been admiring her strong figure as she saved me from that monster ever since. She also said I could be strong like her if I have the determination.”

Erin told her story about an adventurer but something made me curious.

“Why were you picking herbs in the first place?”

“I heard that you could sell them for money so I tried to make money to buy ice cream since Mrs. Dorothy doesn’t let me eat too much of it.”

“Pfft!”

“Don’t laugh! Wait, why is that the thing you ask about? I almost died you know.”

“Well, I could guess that the adventurer was your motivation to get stronger, right?”

“That’s.... right.”

“Then that’s good! People need motivation for a purpose, you’re lucky to find yours.”

“I see, thank you.”

That said, what is my motivation to get stronger? I said I wanted to protect the people around me but was I really that saccharine? And despite being calm about it I was irate when Harry almost got kidnapped and possibly killed. I don’t remember being this sentimental during my past life.

I don’t want to dwell on it too much so I changed the topic.

“You’re talented in swordsmanship, you should study at the academy.”

“Arcadia Academy? Could I even go there?”

“Of course you can, I’ll help you and the other boys get a scholarship.”

“How are you going to do that?”

“I’m an A-ranked adventurer, I have a few connections.”

“Could you really do that for us?”

Erin had an excited face when I told her she could study at the prestigious academy with my help. Of course, I didn’t want to help them just out of nowhere. They really were talented, and as I wanted to conquer the world I needed competent subordinates. What better way is there other than cultivating talented people by myself?

And also, the connection I was talking about was Mrs. Dorothy and my status as a Count’s heir. I wondered about where have I heard the name Dorothy, and I remembered a piece of information I learned when I researched Cale before my journey.

Viscount Vernice, the feudal lord of Cale; Mrs. Dorothy was his wife.