“…What did you do to that lizard monster?”(Ren)

“Did you use Taming Magic on it?”(Dolan)

“No, that wasn’t Taming Magic. What I did was closer to Enchantment Magic than anything if I had to classify”(Soma)

“Enchantment?! But that thing is a monster, right?”(Dolan)

“Dolan, what do you think Enchantment Magic is?”(Soma)

“…The art of adding a magical effect to a weapon, armor, or tool, right?”(Dolan)

“Well, you are right but wrong at the same time. Originally, Enchantment Magic was the art of adding a magical effect to a ‘thing’, living or not, and the only weak point of this magic was the ‘thing’ you are enchanting, for example, steel is worse than Mithril at conducting mana, right?”(Soma)

“That’s right, it’s very difficult to channel mana through a staff made out of steel compared to the high-grade ones made out of Mithril”(Dolan)

“And so, Enchantment Magic depends heavily on the conductivity of the ‘thing’ you are enchanting, Mithril is easier to enchant than steal, and steal is easier to enchant than normal wood, and normal wood is easier to enchant than water, but the hardest thing to enchant is living things, and the reason for that is the mana that is already coursing throughout their body, and so to enchant such a thing you’ll need to overturn that mana inside their body, and the solution to all of this is to use more mana the less conductive the ‘thing’ you are enchanting, but enchanting a living ‘thing’ would nearly always lead to bad side effects appearing on that ‘living’ thing, for example, enchanting your hand with Fire Magic will make you able to use that magic even if you have no aptitude for Fire Magic, but that causes your hand to burn every time you use it, and so as time went on enchanting a living ‘thing’ came to be known as a separate type of magic that needs huge amounts of mana to apply, Curse Magic and that’s what I used on the Two-Headed Salamander here”(Soma)

“I see… that’s a new thing I learned from you this time, but man you sure know a lot!”(Dolan)

“I have a question, you said that Curse Magic leaves the living ‘thing’ you use it on with bad side effects, right? What is the effect that befell the Salamander?”(Ren)

“That would be death upon disobeying my orders”(Soma)

“Well, for now, let’s return to the town and report what we found to the Lord”(Dolan)

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“…and that concludes my report, sir!”(Attendant)

“I see, so those at that lowly orphanage gained some money from doing this and that during the Flood”(Marik)

“Yes, sir! All of it is charity money given to them by the mercenaries and knights they helped at the rest center”(Attendant)

“I see…”(Marik)

“What should we do about it, sir?”(Attendant)

“Emm? Take it for ourselves, of course!”(Marik)

“That money is much better to be spent by us than on those filthy brats, after all, Fufufu!”(Wind)

“…Certainly, I’ll send for it to be collected right away!”(Attendant)

====================================================================================

After arriving at the town, Ren went to report back to the Lord of Elk while Soma and Marina went to Dolan’s office to receive a certain thing from him.

“How did it go? The request I asked of you”(Soma)

“Perfectly! It turned out that the Lord himself was aware of the problem but couldn’t do anything about it because the victims themselves were keeping quiet about the matter, but after hearing your idea, he agreed right away and even granted you full freedom and ownership over that building they are using right now! Here are the papers that prove it!”(Dolan)

“Thank you!”(Soma)

“No, thank you for solving a problem that weighed a lot on my mind for some time now!”(Dolan)

After taking the papers from Dolan, Soma and Marina headed directly towards the orphanage to inform them of the Lord’s decision, but upon arriving they were faced with the perfect trouble at the perfect time.

“…Leave the kids alone!”(Maria)

“Tsk Tsk Tsk, we told you to hand over all the money you gained from doing chores at the rest center the past days, but you wouldn’t listen!”(Thug No.1)

“But I gave you all that we have! I don’t have anything more to give you!”(Maria)

“Gehehehe! There is more you could give to us!.... the girl over there! We are going to take you for a round back at our base! Don’t worry! We will be sure to return you back by tomorrow! But if you refuse to comply… don’t blame me what’s gonna happen to these kids here! Hehehe!”(Thug No.2)

In front of the orphanage, a group of four thugs was harassing Maria, Mai, and the kids, two of the thugs were holding a kid captive each and standing on the back, while the two on the front do the talking, and it seems that the money was not enough for them and right now they are demanding to take Mai to their base.

Soma simply walked towards one of the guys holding the kids hostages and Marina did the same towards the other one, they both moved quickly from behind the thugs and took hold of their right arms and broke them with a snap causing them to let go of the kids they were holding.

“Ghaaa!!...W-Who?!”(Thug No.3)

“My AARRRRRMMM!! What the hell are you doing?!”(Thug No.4)

“Nothing much, I just saw a group of thugs causing harm to my friends and then simply dealt with them”(Soma)

“I’ll make you pay for that!!”(Thug No.1)

“Get him!!”(Thug No.2)

The two who were in front of Maria and Mai came charging at Soma knives in their hands, Soma simply caught them by the wrist crushing both of their wrists, they both dropped down screaming while holding their crushed wrists.

“You bastard! D-Don’t you know who we are?!”(Thug No.1)

“We were sent here by the one responsible for this orphanage! The head of the noble household of the Drold family! You dare stand on our way and he will not remain silent!”(Thug No.2)

“If you understand, leave that beastman woman behind and leave this place right now!!”(Thug No.4)

“Do that and we might forgive you!!”(Thug No.3)

“It seems that the punishment earlier was not enough, Marina handle those two over there, just break their legs!”(Soma)

After giving the order to Marina, Soma walked towards the thug nearest to him and stamped his leg, breaking it, and right after that he did the same to the other guy, next to them Marina did the same to the two thugs on her side.

“GYAAAAA!... you are still doing this even after telling you who sent us here?! Are revolting against Drold-sama or what?!”(Thug No.1)

“Let me introduce myself to you and then tell you my business here, my name is Soma, I am the head of the Alchemy department of the Craftsmen Guild, and as of right now, this orphanage will be put under the management of the Alchemy department and here is the official statement signed by the Lord of this town, and as an extension to that, this building and the land around it belongs to me now and here are the ownership papers signed by the Lord as well, so nor you nor your stupid head of the Drold family have any business here! Leave before I resort to killing you! Ah….. before you leave cough out all the money you took from Maria here!”(Soma)

“ “ “W-We will remember this!” ” ”

“Soma-san! is what you said right now really the truth?”(Mai)

“Yeah! And starting today, you’ll all move to live with us in the mansion!”(Soma)