*Interlude*

A female goblin wearing ragged brown clothing is standing in the forest. That female goblin is no other than Ean.

"Fine. We'll tell you if we find anything."

Shion said that not too long ago before going back to Liasr Town together with Miika.

Ean then remembers Shion's words towards her few days ago.

"You guys are strong huh..."

Shion said that because she was amazed by how the goblin kids can strive to survive despite the death of our parents.

However...

"That's not it..."

Ean says that involuntarily.

The goblin kids can only struggle to barely survive each day.

Shion, on the other hand, chooses to help us despite her own difficulties.

She's the strong one.

(If only... I was strong just like her...)

Ean says that within her mind.

If only she was stronger, things might have gotten a little bit better for her family and friends.

In an instant, she remembers the silhoutte of a man in black hood.

"! ..."

The slight guilt on her face is an expression that no one else knows about.

*End of Interlude*

_________________________________________

Miika and I go out from the forest. We are walking together on the road with me on the front.

Miika still looks like he's in deep thought.

Monsters can still attack us in this area so I need to make him focused. I stop walking and then turn around to look at him.

"Are you still bothered by what those goblins said?"

"!"

Miika stops walking and looks at me with shocked expression after hearing my question. Bullseye huh...

I continue talking without waiting for his answer.

"Don't let it bother you. You know that it's not your fault. It's nonsense to blame yourself over the fault that is not yours."

"... I know. But..."

I'm not in the mood of hearing his whiny comment. So before he says more, I just tell him what I think.

"Honestly, you should at least get angry sometimes y'know?"

"Get... angry?"

Miika looks at me with confused expression.

I start talking again while being wary about my surroundings.

"It's not like you're okay with being treated like that, right?"

"Well... yeah..."

Miika says that with tone showing that he still does not get my point.

"If you don't tell anyone your problem, they won't know. It's good that you are calm enough to not antagonise other people, but there are times where you should be angry."

I put my right hand on my waist before continue talking.

"For example, when that goblin accused you earlier. Do you think that all of his statements are true? The fact that you are living nonchalantly inside the town and other stuff he said."

"That's... no..."

"Yeah, of course not. Even I who started living there not too long ago can tell. That goblin just said that without knowing your situation. If I were you, I wouldn't let that slide."

"You would... be angry?"

I immediately reply to Miika's stupid question.

"Obviously. Otherwise, the unpleasant thoughts won't stop haunting you."

"..."

Miika thinks for few seconds before replying.

"... I'll try."

"Good. Now let's go."

But before I can finally go to Liasr Town, Miika talks again.

"Come to think of it, Mas-, I meant.. Panthos usually always got angry whenever I said something that displeased him."

I sigh but he continues talking.

"He always held my tongue and threatened to rip my tongue out if I didn't stop talking. I wonder if I should do that when I get ang-"

"Uhh... Miika?"

I cut his sentence by calling his name. Miika replies with confused expression.

"Yes?"

I take 3 seconds to assemble the things I want to say to him in my mind. It's a very important matter that needs to be addressed.

"Look, I understand that he is your former master and probably the first person to ever teach the amnesiac you about things... like through some bad examples..."

I start walking towards him and stop right in front of the confused him before I talk more.

"But can you... like... care more about the people in front of you instead of a dead man who had done nothing but bad things to you?"

I know saying 'had done nothing but bad things' sounds really assumptive. But I don't care at this point.

Miika is a bit startled with me suddenly going towards him. He stutters while replying to me.

"Um... you mean..."

"Me. Me. I'm talking about myself in front of you. Well, you see..."

Before talking more, I bring up both of my hands to touch both sides of his cheeks.

"!"

He is surprised by my sudden action and about to back away.

But my firm hold on his head prevents him from moving away. So I continue talking.

"You should have known it by now. But let me tell you again, I LOATHE HIM. No amount of words will be enough for me to tell you just how much I detest men like him."

Fear starts appearing in Miika's eyes as I continue speaking.

"I am not a level-headed person by nature. It takes quite a lot of effort to prevent my emotion from taking over my decisions. Me killing that guy is the perfect example when my emotion takes over my body."

Miika's body finally loses all force in his attempt to get away from me while I'm still talking.

"I grew up learning many moral lessons from my parents with both good and bad examples. And I really cherish them. I'm living my life with those lessons acting as the foundation of my mindset."

I apply slight more force to my hands that is holding Miika's cheeks before saying more.

"And there is nothing more vexing than having to see people act without even adhering to minimum morales."

Cold sweat runs down on Miika's left cheek as I say that.

"And of course, I don't even want to think about them if I can. So... I'm not going to ask the unreasonable like... forget everything about him and stuff..."

I pause 3 seconds before talking again.

"BUT..."

I pull his face a little bit closer to my face so that he can see my eyes behind my bangs. Then I say my piece in that position.

"CAN YOU... NOT TALK ABOUT HIM FOR EVERY SINGLE GODDAMN TIME?"

Miika helplessly can only look at my eyes within close range while I'm still talking.

"I'M CURRENTLY HAVING SO MANY TROUBLES TO KEEP UP WITH. SO THE LEAST THING I NEED RIGHT NOW IS TO BE REMINDED ABOUT MEN THAT I ABSOLUTELY LOATHE."

I slightly tilt my head to the right before talking again.

"SO... CAN WE HAVE A COMPROMISE OF NOT TALKING ABOUT THAT PSYCHOPATH AT LEAST IN FRONT OF ME?"

He flinches while replying me.

"Y- ye-!"

"Look at my eyes when you say that."

"Yes...!"

His voice becomes really shaky after seeing my eyes from close distance. This is probably the first time I ever see him being that scared.

"Good."

After I say that, I let go both of my hands from his cheeks.

*thud!*

Miika falls backwards and ends up sitting on the ground. His face shows that he's still scared.

I start talking again while looking at him.

"I know I'm being obnoxious just now. But if I never say anything, you'll keep talking about him which is not good for my mental health."

I turn around before talking again.

"And that's the example of how you say what's on your mind while not being too angry. You can try it if you don't want to sound too angry."

I start walking away as we need to go back to Liasr Town soon.

But Miika just stays on the ground mumbling.

"Not too angry...?"

I quickly shout at Miika asking him to hurry up.

"What are you dawdling for? We still have many things to do. Hurry up!"

"Y- yes!"

Miika quickly gets up and follows me.

.....

....

...

"Rimikia? She just left for few days break not too long ago. Do you need something from her?"

Erkimi the dyrad says that while doing paperwork at guild receptionist desk.

"Well, I just want to ask if there are rumours regarding Griselda..."

"Rumours?"

Erkimi tilts her head to the left a bit before replying.

"I don't really hear any rumours about her... Linda~!"

Erkimi calls the Lamia girl receptionist who is moping dirty floor with both her hands and tail holding the mops.

"? What is it~?"

The Lamia girl receptionist called Linda stops her work and look at Erkimi, Miika and me.

Lamia is a race of people with human upper body and snake tail lower body.

"Have you heard any rumours regarding Griselda?"

Erkimi immediately asks my question to Linda.

"The Magic Shop's Granny? No, I don't recall such rumours. Why ask?"

Linda looks at Rimikia with questioning expression.

"Someone asked about whether there are rumours about her or not."

I reply to show Linda that I'm the one who ask the question.

"Rumours huh... why don't you ask the person herself?"

"The rumours might be insensitive matters. So I thought it's probably better to ask others first..."

I answer Linda's question. It's not the whole truth but at least I don't lie about it.

"Hm... if it's old rumours, maybe you can ask Pepprica and Thesiemi about that."

"Thesiemi...?"

I say that name while looking at Linda who gives me that suggestion.

I know Pepprica Phalanx who is a halfling working at Phalanx Item Store. But this is the first time I hear the name 'Thesiemi'.

"You don't know? She's the head nun of this town's church."

Erkimi's statement reminds me of the nun that used Rejuvenate spell on me. Though I'm not really that sure whether she is the Thesiemi that both of them talk about.

I never really talk to the nuns in the past few weeks because the church's location is a quite far from where I usually go during my daily routine.

"Understood, I'll go ask them. Thank you for your help."

"You're welcome."

Erkimi is the first one who replies to my thanks.

"Good luck on your quest~."

Linda says that as she goes back mopping the floor.

I walk towards the guild's door with Miika following me from behind.

For now, I'll go to Phalanx Item shop since it's nearer than the church.

.....

....

...

"I know nothing about that naggy old hag."

In a dark room, Pepprica the halfling says that as he sits on a tall chair while holding a long wooden stick to stir liquid inside a big black gourd. He is currently making something through alchemy. I don't know what he's currently making though. He's already in the middle of it by the time we arrive.

We're currently at the back of the Phalanx Item Store. And that is his answer when I ask whether he knows any rumour about Griselda.

"You don't really need to sound that annoyed..."

I say that because his mood suddenly turned worse the moment I talked about Griselda.

"Anyone who is afraid of taking a risk in pursuing the path of magic is not worth my time. If you're not here to help me, then leave."

"... Understood."

I shrug my shoulder as I say that.

"...?"

Miika looks confused but he still follows me as I leave the store.

"So Pepprica and Griselda do not get along...?"

Miika asks that question while we're walking outside of the store.

"... you're supposed to know more since you live here longer than me."

"I- I don't really know..."

That's all he can reply to my statement. Well, it does not hurt to explain him a bit.

I start explaining while walking towards the Liasr Town's church.

"Pepprica is famous for creating explosions at his store's backyard whenever he experiments new alchemy formula. And when that happens, Griselda will always go there and scold him to stop doing dangerous experiments."

"... so Pepprica is at fault?"

Miika says that when we arrive at the main road.

Well, let's see how much he can understand what I'm talking about. At least I can kill time before we arrive at the church.

I answer him right after I think that.

"If we only care about safety, then yes. But when it comes to the path of pursuing magic, it's not that simple."

"Path of pursuing magic...?"

I continue my explanation to answer his question.

"It means that you need to continue striving on being better at using magic. There are usually two ways for people to improve their magic technique."

I bring up my point finger to indicate the first way that I'm about to explain.

"The first way is to learn as many magic techniques as possible. Usually from either magic scrolls or someone else. It's the safest way since you just need to learn magic that other people already invented and tested. However, there are limits to how much you can learn from other people."

We pass few kids of different races playing with ball while one beastman boy with dog ears use wind-based magic to keep the ball floating. Nevertheless, I continue my explanation.

"I told you before that aptitude is needed to use magic right? That means people can't just learn any magic that they want to learn. For example, a person cannot teach fire magic to a person that does not has fire aptitude. And with very limited access to magic scrolls around the world. Learning existent magic technique is usually not enough to improve someone's life to a satisfying level."

Especially when this world does not have any means to spread information around the world like my previous. Sure, there is magic items like tele-stones, but it cannot spread knowledge around as fast and easy as internet.

I continue explaining.

"Which is why some people also do the second way. That is to create your own magic technique."

We pass the guild right after I say that because it's the way towards the church.

"Create your own magic...?"

"After learning enough basics, people usually use their existing knowledge to do trial and error method for creating new magic technique that they can use. It does not have to be a completely different spell. It can be just a modified or different application on how to use the magic that they already learn."

We pass the town's library after I say that. I'm still explaining while walking. Miika is still listening to me.

"And when it comes to trial and error method. No one can teach you so failures are pretty much unavoidable. The problem is... some failures can result in injuries. If you're trying to develop a new magic, the magic circle might go haywire and give negative effects to your body. If you're trying to create a new alchemy formula, there is a risk of your materials reacting to each other and cause explosions just like what Pepprica always does."

"..."

Miika is just listening while walking. I'm not sure if he still can understand at this point. Nevertheless, I continue explaining as I still haven't tell why it matters to how Griselda and Pepprica interact with each other.

"To put it simply, taking risk is unavoidable if you want to quickly improve your own magic. Normally people would still take risk while still being cautious during their magic training. But Griselda and Pepprica are different."

"...?"

Miika looks at me with questioning expression.

The church is already near, so it's better to wrap this up soon. I continue explaining as I think that.

"I saw them bickering once before. Their beliefs are really on the extreme sides compared to how people usually develop their magic. To make matters worse, their beliefs are on the opposite sides of each other."

"Opposite?"

I immediately answer to wrap up the explanation.

"Griselda chooses to completely learn magic only through magic scrolls or other people to avoid any potential risk. While Pepprica completely ignore all the risks and always do experiments to get as many new alchemy formula as possible. They always bicker about their opposite beliefs and as a result, they never get along even until now."

"... hoo..."

Miika responds with that after hearing my explanation.

"... do you really understand what I just told you?"

I say that when we finally arrive at the outside of church building.

"... m- maybe?"

Miika looks away when he says that.

"Well, you'll eventually understand if you continue to learn magic from now on. Anyway, let's go."

After talking to few young nuns outside of the church, they said that Thesiemi is inside the church. So we go inside the church.

As I expected, Thesiemi is the middle-aged looking nun who casted the Rejuvenate spell on me.

Thesiemi notices me and Miika. Then she greets us with a smile.

I quickly ask her whether she knows Griselda. Apparently, she used to be in the same adventurer party as Griselda around 40 years ago. That is soooo long ago but some beastmen can live longer than human, so it's not that surprising.

Then I ask her about rumours involving Griselda.

I thought she will answer immediately. But she thinks for a bit. And then she asks me a question.

"... who asked you about that?"

"... a goblin kid named Ean."

Well, I have no reason to lie to Thesiemi.

"Goblin kid... I see..."

After saying that, she smiles and talks again.

"You can directly ask Griselda about that."

"Eh? But..."

Miika replies to Thesiemi's statement with concerned tone. Thesiemi then speaks while looking at Miika.

"Don't worry. I'm sure that Griselda will understand. Just tell her about the goblin kids."

Following Thesiemi's advice, we go to Griselda's magic shop and meet Griselda, a middle aged woman with witch outfit and hat.

Then Griselda looks shocked a bit the moment we explain the situation about Guild Master's plan and Ean's request to her.

But Griselda quickly gains her composure and starts talking.

"I see... well, that is something that the Guild Master will definitely do..."

Miika then speaks to Griselda with concerned tone.

"Then... about that rumour."

"It's true. But I don't intend to reject the goblin kids. So could you please tell them to not worry about it?"

Griselda replies to us as if she wants to assure us that she's fine with it.

However...

"Are you sure?"

"?"

Griselda looks at me with confused expression.

"The purpose of Guild Master's plan is so that the goblins can get along with the people here including you. It will defeat the purpose if you force yourself to live with them."

But Griselda smiles before she replies.

"I see. So that's what you think."

"If you have any kinds of problems with the goblins. We can listen... and probably help if there is anything we can do to help."

I say that just to make sure that she truly does not have any problem with the goblins.

Griselda thinks a bit before replying.

"Then... I'lll take your offer I guess. If you guys don't mind. Would you two like to listen to my story?"

"Story...?"

Miika says that with confused expression.

Griselda brings up her right hand to her hat as she reply.

"It's nothing special, really. It's just a story... of a hateful woman."

Griselda removes her big witch hat from her head.

I never see her removing her hat before so I'm pretty much surprised by what I see.

I see a bunny ear on top of her head indicating that she is a beastman race.

However, what I see is not a pair of bunny ears... but just one bunny ear to the top left side of her head.