Since my products were already sold out that day, I decided to go home early to start working on my next batch of clothes, but not before stopping by the village's tannery to buy some leather. I learned my lesson after last time, though, so I made sure to buy a smell-eliminating potion from Kath for a low price of five silvers first, although I ended up leaving the shop with a profit of five silvers instead since Kath had me fill up her mana battery for ten silvers.

The visit to the tannery was fairly quick. Luth seemed suspicious of me when I knocked, but when I told him I intended to buy leather from him, he was all too happy to entertain me.

After a relatively long time of haggling, I was able to buy three entire hides for two gold and twenty silvers. The old bastard tried to scam me by charging an entire gold piece for every hide, but I managed to bring it down to forty silvers. Greedy bastard…

The leather hides I bought were actually the cheapest ones, made only from the skins of E-rank monsters and barely distinguishable from the hides of normal animals. I would have bought the more expensive ones made of D-rank monsters, but Luth used those for himself to make high-quality armors. It turns out the greedy bastard also sold things in Halros through Kane.

But the hides I bought were enough for my purpose, anyway. They had a thickness of ten millimeters, which should provide enough protection against the weak monsters that the hunters of Wildpost usually hunted.

I stored the hides in my wagon and began my trip home with Taloress sitting beside me in the driver's seat. But when we arrived at the gate, we saw a large crowd of villagers gathered as they watched something outside the walls. I wonder what's happening over there?

Maybe there's another monster attack! Taloress said beside me in a disturbingly excited voice.

Why do you sound so happy about it? Tedd asked incredulously, who was being held in Taloress' arms.

Last time was so fun! I got to fight and kill so many monsters! I was so awesome! Taloress cheered.

Yes, it was fun to fight alongside Master, Mr. Marion piped in.

“I did not have fun at all,” I grumbled, remembering the looming giant of a troll as it tried to whack me with a tree.

When we arrived at the gate, the villagers made way for my wagon as they greeted me, and that's when we finally saw what everyone was looking at.

In the clearing beyond the village's walls stood the two Night Wardens, their black cloaks billowing in the wind as they faced Belka in all her muscly glory. Samantia looked angry, but Kazimir had an eerily serious expression as he clenched and unclenched his fists by his sides. Belka, on the other hand, had a large grin on her face as she waited with her arms crossed. What the hell was going on?

“Mr. Marion! Taloress!” a voice suddenly called out to my side, and I saw Selise running up to my wagon before climbing up the driver's seat and hugging Taloress, which my puppet returned gladly. I wondered how Selise could tolerate Taloress' rough body. “Both of you are just in time! The Head Hunter and the Night Freaks are going to have a duel!”

“Don't call them that, Selise, it's rude,” I chided, even though I agreed. “And why are they dueling? Did they have a squabble or something?”

“Aunt Belka said that it's only a practice duel, but obviously there's a deeper reason than that,” Selise explained. “Some of the guys told me that they saw Aunt Belka and the Night Fr— Wardens have an argument near the guest house, and minutes later, word spread that they're gonna have a duel.”

“What did they argue about?” I asked with a bit of concern. Even though I had nothing to do with them anymore, I can't help but feel a bit of responsibility for the Night Wardens' actions while they were still in the village.

“Some say the Night Wardens insulted Aunt Belka, although nobody really knows for sure.”

Knowing how Belka runs her mouth, I bet my nine hundred gold that she was the one who insulted the Night Wardens first. “Is that duel even fair? That's two versus one. Heck, that's not even a ‘duel’ anymore.”

“It was supposed to be Aunt Belka versus the man, but she challenged them and claimed she could handle both of them at once. The Night Wardens accepted her challenge,” Selise said in exasperation. Yup, that sounded like Belka indeed.

Some of the villagers started climbing on top of my wagon to get a better view of the fight, but I didn't bother shooing them away. I did consider charging them for the premium seats, but I'm not that greedy. Although the extra income wouldn't hurt…

My business-oriented musings were interrupted when the crowd suddenly oohed in wonder. Both augmenters had activated their auras: Belka was wrapped in tongues of flame like a demon from hell while Kazimir was surrounded by swirling winds that made him look like a living tornado. Samantia didn't have any notable transformations, but her hands were now full of small pieces of paper with little symbols, although I couldn't tell what they were from this distance.

“Wow, Aunt Belka's aura looks so cool!” Selise exclaimed with stars in her eyes.

“I think the Night Warden's aura looks cool as well,” I said honestly, which elicited a glare from Selise. “What? I'm just being honest.”

“It looks ugly,” Selise said with a snort. “All it does is throw up dust everywhere.”

“It may look useless, but it does give him a tremendous boost in speed,” I said, remembering it from my experience fighting the man.

Right after I finished my sentence, Kazimir shot forward like an arrow, throwing up dust and snow as he made a beeline straight towards Belka. Instead of dodging, Belka spread her arms wide before slamming her hands together with a loud clap.

The moment her hands made contact with each other, a huge blast of flame flew forward to meet the charging Kazimir, who didn't show any signs of stopping.

Right before the flames reached Kazimir, Samantia raised one of her little pieces of paper and chanted something, making the symbols on it glow with white light. It must be her way of casting magic. I remember Kazimir saying that she can do Occultic magic, whatever that is.

When Samantia activated what I assumed was a spell, the paper in her hand burned in a flash of light before dozens of large blades made of air shot towards Belka.

Belka looked like she intended to dodge the flurry of wind blades coming at her, but Kazimir, who should have been burnt to a crisp already, waved his arm in a slicing motion, sending out a huge vertical blade of air that split the flames coming for him, leaving him with only a few burns and a singed cloak. With Kazimir still gunning for her, Belka couldn't dodge the blades of air lest she'd leave herself vulnerable to Kazimir's charge. Likewise, she couldn't just stand still and take on the blades of air directly.

Right when I thought that Belka bit off more than she could chew, she laughed loudly before dodging toward Kazimir, who looked shocked as he tried to adjust his trajectory to avoid a head-on collision with hundreds of pounds of pure muscle. Unfortunately for him, his speed became his undoing.

Right as Belka and Kazimir met, the Head Hunter forced her hands through his aura of air, grabbed his shirt, then spun in place like a top using Kazimir's momentum. When Belka let go of him, Kazimir was sent hurtling straight into the flurry of wind blades that was supposed to be targeting Belka.

Samantia, along with the crowd of villagers, gasped in horror when Kazimir collided with the dozens of wind blades. When his aura of air mixed with the blades, a loud boom echoed throughout the clearing as the winds moving in different directions collided in a chaotic mess before expanding rapidly. Poor Kazimir, who was in the middle of it all, was sent flying dozens of meters away, his body flopping in the air like a ragdoll.

He looks more like a ragdoll than me, Taloress giggled.

But despite looking like he was out of the fight, I knew something like that was far from bringing Kazimir down permanently. Belka must've known it too, because before Kazimir could even land and recover, she charged straight for Samantia, who no longer had any frontliner to cover for her.

Samantia panicked and immediately activated several of her pieces of paper at once. Shards of rock and spikes of ice flew through the air, dozens of them all headed straight for Belka, but with no enemy augmenter to restrain her movements, she easily dodged the projectiles with grace that belied her size.

Samantia tried to activate another piece of paper, but Belka reached her first, although before the Head Hunter could even get a single punch in, Samantia quickly raised her hands in surrender.

The crowd roared and cheered as Belka laughed, her aura of flames slowly dying down. Even Taloress was rejoicing after seeing the people that she fought a week ago lose in a one-sided battle. I'll admit, it was pretty impressive on Belka's part, especially when I considered the fact the battle didn't even last one minute.

But what interested me more was Samantia's way of casting magic. It was somehow similar to how I cast magic using threads, although in her case, she used little pieces of paper. But more importantly, she had been casting three different affinities of magic during the battle. I didn't know if there was a limit to the number of affinities a person could have, but three seemed like a lot, and that wasn't considering the fact that back when we fought, she was casting some kind of magic that empowered Kazimir. I was confident that it was a whole different affinity than the three she showed today. Can a person have four affinities at once?

As I pondered, the villagers around me made way as Kazimir and Samantia retreated into the village with defeated frowns. When they passed by me, I considered greeting them or something, but what was I supposed to say? ‘That's two losses in a week’? That's probably the worst thing I could say right now.

In the end, I simply stared at them as they passed by. Both of them glanced at me as they walked by, but no words were exchanged. Well, that was awkward.

After the losers— I mean, the ‘defeated’— passed by, Belka came next and walked up to my wagon to greet me. “Long time no see, Marion. Are you that happy living alone in your cave that you only visited us once this week?”

“I was quite busy, you know. Had to stock up on my products and all that,” I said as an excuse. “Unlike some people, I don't have time to bully those weaker than me, nor do I find any enjoyment from it.”

Belka laughed. “Hah, you overestimate me too much, Marion. I'm only a second-level augmenter, while that Night Freak was a third-level. I'm pretty impressive, eh?”

“What?” I asked incredulously. “How?”

“Don't let Aunt Belka fool you, Mr. Marion,” Selise said. “She's at the peak-stage of the second level, while that Night Freak was probably at the early-stage of the third level. Judging from his performance, he just rose to third-level fairly recently.”

“That still doesn't deny the fact that he has a higher augmentation level than me,” Belka grumbled.

“Wait, augmenters have different stages?” I asked confusedly. That was news to me. All I knew was that they were ranked according to ‘Levels of Augmentation.’

“Yeah, there are four stages per level of augmentation,” Selise replied, all too happy to explain it to me. “Each level begins with the early-stage, then the mid-stage, late-stage, and lastly, the peak-stage. If an augmenter wants to break through to the next level, they'd have to go through all four stages first.”

“Why did they have to divide each level into stages? Can't they just do it like how they measure the level of a mage?”

“That's because our power increases differently from mages,” Belka replied. “I don't know much about magic, but your ‘circles’ of magic increase in power ten times for every successive circle, right?”

“The proper explanation would be ‘increasing exponentially by a factor of ten,’” I interjected like a smartass. “But do carry on.”

Belka glared at me before continuing. “As I was saying, augmenters increase in strength differently. The difference between each stage in a particular level is the same, but the difference between each level is huge. Normally, a third-level augmenter in the early-stage can easily beat a second-level augmenter at the peak-stage.”

“Let me guess, you're just that good?” I deadpanned.

Belka grinned. “But I'm just that good.”

I chuckled. “I'll have to admit, though. That was pretty impressive. Raw strength can never beat experience, eh?”

“Don't feed Aunt Belka's ego, Mr. Marion. It's already big enough as it is,” Selise said.

“That's ‘Head Hunter’ to you,” Belka said before turning back to me. “So, you going home already? It's still pretty early in the day.”

“I've already sold everything I have, anyway, so I have nothing else to do here,” I replied. “I met the Head Alchemist's son, Mr. Kane, and he gladly bought all my products so he could sell them in the city.”

Belka frowned. “Your clothes were all made of D-rank monster materials, right? How much did you sell them for?”

“Ten gold apiece, although I gave him a ten percent discount when he decided to buy everything in bulk,” I said with a hint of concern. I didn't expect Belka to have a negative reaction to it.

“I guess it's good enough, although you didn't have to give him that discount,” Belka replied. “Even without any discount, I bet Kane could sell those clothes with a hefty profit in the end.”

“How much do clothes like mine fetch in the city, anyway?” I asked.

“Probably around fifteen to twenty gold.”

“That much?!” I asked incredulously.

“That's because people aren't buying it directly from the source,” Selise interjected. “Kane works for a trading company, so he has to put a fee on top of the original price that would go to the trading company, and put another one that will be his profit.”

I nodded in understanding. It was like how buying vegetables from a grocery store would always be more expensive when compared to buying directly from a farmer. “Then I guess I won't begrudge Mr. Kane too much. He's a merchant, so I understand his proclivity to make as much money as possible.”

“Just be careful around him,” Belka said. “There are many types of merchant. You're one of the honest types, but Kane is one of the dubious ones.”

“I'll keep that in mind,” I said and bid goodbye as Belka walked away, probably to rub her victory on the Night Wardens' faces. I turned to Selise. “So, Miss Selise. When do you intend to alight my wagon?”

“Can I come to your house?” Selise asked while giving me the puppy eyes. “I wanna spend some time with Loress!”

I was about to automatically say ‘no’ when I saw Taloress giving me a pleading look. Oh, come on.

“Fine, but not today,” I said imperiously. “You can come tomorrow, and only if you ask permission from Mr. Bersk.”

“But I'm an adult already!” Selise exclaimed. “I don't need to go ask permission, I can do whatever I want!”

“You will ask permission from your father, young lady, or else I won't allow you to come,” I chided like a parent. Heh, do parents always feel this sense of superiority when they get to dictate their children? It feels good.

“You don't get to call me ‘young lady’ when you're a kid yourself,” Selise muttered with a low voice.

“What was that?”

“Nothing! Alright, alright, I'll ask permission from Dad,” Selise grumbled and hugged Taloress one last time before jumping off the wagon. “See you tomorrow, Loress!”

Taloress waved goodbye at Selise before turning to me. Thank you, Master.

“Bah, just make sure she doesn't find out about our secret,” I said as I urged Clip and Clop forward again. “Now, how are we going to hide Spider…”

●●●

When the next day rolled around, we went to Wildpost once again. I didn't really have any special appointments to do other than charging Kath's mana battery for a few pieces of silver, but money was money. The only reason we came today was to fetch Selise for her visit to our home.

After making my way through the village and greeting the usual people, I entered Kath's store after a brief knock.

“Good morning, welcome to the Bitter Philter,” Kath said as I entered. When she realized it was me, her eyes lit up as she hurried to fetch her mana battery. “You came at a perfect time, Mr. Marion! My mana battery just ran out of charge this morning.”

“Good morning to you too, Miss Kath,” I said as I walked up to the counter. I was a bit miffed at the strong scents of herbs and tinctures in the room, but at least it wasn't as bad as Luth's tannery. “I assume my magic aided you well?”

“Definitely, Mr. Marion. My potions had taken a great leap in their quality with your mana!” Kath replied excitedly as she returned and placed a rectangular device on the counter in front of me, shaped like a narrow brick. It was made entirely of metal with dozens of lines and symbols etched on its surface, all connected to the two magic circles drawn on both ends of the metal brick. “Whenever you're ready, Mr. Marion.”

I picked up the mana battery, which was pretty heavy for its size, and started channeling mana into the magic circle responsible for absorbing mana. I had to be careful to moderate the rate at which I channeled mana into it or else I'd end up breaking it.

As I charged the mana battery, I made small talk with Kath. “By the way, I met your son yesterday. I was glad I did since he bought all my clothes at a fair price.”

“Oh, so you met my Kane. I hope he didn't try to fleece you,” Kath said with an awkward smile.

“Oh don't worry, he failed in his attempt,” I said with a chuckle as I looked back at the mana battery, which should be almost full. “How much do these things cost anyway?”

“Mana batteries are extremely expensive. That 1000-mana battery cost me a whopping fifty gold!” Kath exclaimed.

“That is a pretty steep price for something that could only hold a thousand mana,” I muttered. “Although it shouldn't be too high a price for you, should it?”

Kath laughed at me. “What do you take me for, a noble? Fifty gold is up there in my list of highest expenses ever made.”

My brows creased in confusion after hearing Kath's words. “You are too humble, Miss Kath, but didn't you just lend your son yesterday hundreds of gold? I'm sure not all of the nine hundred gold Mr. Kane paid me yesterday belonged to you, but surely most of it came out of your pocket?”

At my words, Kath visibly froze like a mannequin, her smile stiff on her face. This went on for a few seconds, and when I was about to ask her if she was alright, Kath gave a nervous laugh. “Oh, that little rascal said some things he shouldn't have. Again. Yes, a large portion of what my son paid you yesterday came from me, but it came from our emergency savings. I always set aside a portion of my profits for rainy days, and Kane pleaded with me yesterday to borrow from it.”

“Oh, so that's where he got all that money,” I said with a chuckle, although I had a strong suspicion that she was lying. What do I even care about where she got her money, anyway?

A small gem on a corner of the mana battery lit up with a green light, the signal that it was at full capacity. Kath quickly took it from me as she placed ten silver coins on the counter. “Thank you for your wonderful service, Mr. Marion! Now if you'll excuse me, I'm eager to get back to making potions again with my mana battery at full capacity.”

It suspiciously felt like Kath was shooing me away, but I just mentally shrugged and nodded at Kath. “Thank you as well, Miss Kath. I'll be going now.”

“Take care!” Kath called out behind me as I left the shop. I swear I heard the door lock click behind me.

●●●

“And then she all but kicked me out of her shop!” I exclaimed as the wagon rumbled along the quiet road.

“I think you're just exaggerating, Mr. Marion,” Selise said to my right as she combed Taloress' hair with a brush she brought along with her. “Kath didn't ‘kick you out.’ She probably just found your question about her money awkward and wanted to finish her interactions with you as fast as possible.”

“Yeah, by kicking me out,” I grumbled as I struggled to move my arms to control Clip and Clops' reins. “Selise, why are you even sitting here in the driver's seat when you can just ride in the back? I'm struggling to drive here!”

“Because Loress is here,” Selise said simply as she continued brushing my puppet's hair, much to Taloress' delight. “Loress, do you even comb in the morning? Your hair is so rough and stiff!”

Probably because it's made from literal bear fur, I thought. “Can't you just both move in the wagon so I can have some space in here?”

“What do you even need the space for? Clip and Clop don't look like they need any guidance. The road only leads to one path.”

“I'm not trying to guide them, I'm trying to stop them from eating anything that shouldn't be eaten!” I exclaimed. Just as I finished my sentence, Clip bent his neck down to take a nibble from a snail silently crawling on the ground. “Oi, don't eat that! It's disgusting! Why are there snails out in winter anyway?!”

“Spring is coming, Mr. Marion. Winter is about to end in a few weeks and the Wild Woods is about to get exciting again,” Selise replied as she struggled with a tangled knot on Taloress' hair. “How goes your preparations for the arrival of the sea monsters, by the way? Seeing as how your home is so close to the sea, I bet you'll receive the brunt of the attack.”

“Oh, I forgot all about it,” I said as I mentally smacked myself in the forehead. “Do you have any idea when they're coming?”

“We can't really predict the exact date they will surface, but when the snow fully melts, you'll only have a day or two before the first sea monsters start crawling onto land. I think we have a couple of weeks left before the snow starts melting.”

Dammit, this would set back my plans to establish my headquarters. I initially planned to use the money I had right now to build a headquarters-slash-factory for my company, but if a large wave of monsters was coming, then there's a large chance that they'd spot my building. And with my accursed luck, I bet they'd roam over my territory first in search of food.

As I tried to think up of a solution while absently tugging at my horses' reins to stop them from eating weird shit, Selise suddenly tensed beside me as she tugged on my sleeve. “Mr. Marion, there's a monster lurking over there!”

Selise immediately retrieved her bow and arrows from the wagon, but before she could nock an arrow, I placed my hand on her bow to lower it. “Relax, Selise. I know it looks terrifying, but that's just the scarecrow I use to scare off other monsters.”

“Seriously?! But why does it look so real?!” Selise exclaimed as we neared my ‘scarecrow.’

As we arrived at the edge of the clearing where my cave was located, we passed by a large black monster hanging from the trees with its dozens of tentacles and spider legs. A large maw that took up the entire space of the front of its body faced us with rows upon rows of needle-like teeth and a long sharp tongue that lolled from it limply. It was Spider. Heh, I'm such a genius! What better way to hide my cute big Spider other than to display him in plain sight as a scarecrow?

I felt joy radiate from Spider as I called him cute, his happiness so immense he involuntarily wiggled one of his tentacles. Oi, don't move!

“Eek! Did it just move?!” Selise shrieked as she drew her knife from her belt.

“Haha, what are you talking about? That's just a large doll, Selise, nothing to be afraid of!” I said as I mentally reprimanded Spider. Keep still!

“But I swear I saw one of its tentacles move!” Selise shouted nervously.

“It must have been the wind. Don't tell me you're afraid of a doll?” I asked teasingly.

“No I'm not!” Selise exclaimed before sheathing her knife and crossing her arms in a huff. “Let's just get going.”

I chuckled in amusement and relief, mostly relief, as we moved on. That was freaking close…

When we stopped in front of the cave, the first thing that escaped Selise's mouth was “Your home sucks.”

“Why thank you, I strive my best to maintain it,” I said flatly as I lifted Selise's luggage out of the wagon like the gentleman I was. And yes, Selise was carrying luggage because she intended to stay over at my place for several days. Dammit, why did Mr. Bersk even agree with this? Now my daily operations are all out of whack.

“Please tell me the inside is much nicer than it looks,” Selise said as she stared blankly at the dreary-looking cave.

“I assure you, it's much better than being out here in the cold.”

“That did not help,” Selise muttered.

Thankfully, Taloress pulled Selise by the hand and started leading her inside the cave to shut up her complaints. If you're going to complain, then you shouldn't have decided to stay here!

I swallowed my own complaints and brought Selise's bags into the cave, where she was assessing my room at the very end. “At least this part looks comfortable, I'll give you that. The air smells a bit stale, but it isn't so bad. This should be a decent place to sleep.”

“If I didn't own this place, I would have thought you were the owner, Mistress Selise,” I said as I dumped her bags in the corner. “Just pick a corner to sleep in, but that comfy mattress is mine.”

“But Loress and I are sleeping here,” Selise said with a frown.

“I know. And?” I asked with genuine confusion.

“A man just can't sleep in a room with two women!” Selise exclaimed. “To make it worse, we're unmarried. You are unmarried, right, Loress?”

I bet Taloress didn't know what marriage means, but she nodded anyway.

“Hold on for just a minute!” I exclaimed incredulously. “Are you saying I should sleep outside?!”

“Not necessarily, but just not in here with the two of us,” Selise said resolutely.

I was getting kicked out of my own home! What kind of injustice is this?!

“Why are you even worried about us sleeping together when we're not in a relationship?! It's not like we're gonna have sex!”

Selise reddened in embarrassment. “Why are you being so uncouth?!”

“What's wrong with that? I can say whatever I want, little Selise.”

“But you usually talk so nicely to other people,” Selise said incredulously. “Well, most people except for me and Aunt Belka.”

Now that she said it, I do speak more comfortably around her and Belka…

“Fine, then I'll speak more politely, then. What I meant to say is that we are in a platonic relationship with no intention of participating in the act of fornication. Therefore, I don't see any reason I should slumber out in the cold for the sole purpose of following obsolete cultural norms.”

There was a moment of silence before Selise spoke flatly. “That did not make you sound any less uncouth at all, Mr. Marion.”

“I tried.”

Selise sighed. “Fine, I guess I'm being too demanding when you're the homeowner. But before I came here, I was at least expecting that you had several rooms. Does this mean you and Loress had been sleeping in the same room all this time?

Taloress nodded so enthusiastically that Selise shot me a suspicious glance. Oi, don't act so happy about it!

“Hey, there's nothing between Taloress and me except for a highly professional relationship,” I said indignantly.

“I didn't even say anything,” Selise said. “Anyway, thanks for having me, Mr. Marion. I promise I won't be too much of a burden.”

I stared at her silently.

“Well, not anymore,” Selise added with a blush. “Anyway, let's go exploring, Loress! I haven't been to this part of the Wild Woods yet, so everything here is new to me.”

Taloress nodded enthusiastically and held Selise by the hand as she led her out.

“Oi, I'm coming with you guys. If anything happened to you, Mr. Bersk would pound me with his hammer,” I said as I picked Tedd up, who sitting on top of one of the bags. If we were going to explore, I might as well bring Tedd with me. Judging from the excitement radiating from him, Tedd agreed too.

“Which area have you explored already, Loress?” Selise asked as we arrived back outside.

Taloress pointed her finger to the east, in the direction of the sea, and then to the south. This made me realize that I haven't actually fully mapped out the area surrounding my territory yet. I should probably get on with it soon. I wouldn't want that panther skulking about my territory.

“Then let's try the north!” Selise said. There was really no other choice she could possibly choose from. The area directly south of my cave was directly east of Wildpost, so I was sure that the hunters have already explored that area well. That left the north, east, and west of my territory that Selise hadn't seen yet. Since Taloress had already explored the east and the west was a sheer cliff that we would have to climb, that left north as the only choice left. “I'll take the lead! I'll teach you guys a thing or two about being a hunter!”

And so, we ventured to the unknown that was the north with Selise in the lead.