“Wha-! Wait! Wait! Wait! At least let me tell you about the other rewards!”(Leona)

“…Sorry, go ahead”(Soma)

“Haah!....that surprised me! Your reaction was as if you were one of those old researchers we have in Akud….Well, other than the full access, you’ll be given a weakly salary of 10 gold coins and full access to all the hunting grounds in Akud and the authority to mobilize my soldiers, and finally, your authority will be higher than mine in cases that concern the laws and the wellbeing of the Academy”(Leona)

“Wait… full access to all hunting grounds? You mean the ones that are not under the control of those nobles, right?”(Soma)

“full access to all hunting grounds including the ones that are under the control of the nobles!”(Leona)

“How?”(Soma)

“Originally, those hunting grounds ware given to them by the late Lord of Akud, or more like they were given full control over those hunting grounds, but he left himself some control over them by making it so that his control “as the Lord” over the hunting grounds is higher than the nobles’ as long as he is not taking that control away from them, and they agreed to it, and since I am the Lord now, that rule is applied to me too. But for the longest time, I couldn’t find anyone strong enough to take on their harassment head-on and come out on top! But according to Alf-chan, you are way stronger than Ren-kun, and that’s why I can trust you to break their limbs for me, right?”(Leona)

“Looking at the rewards, aren’t they too much?”(Soma)

“No, I don’t think they are too much! but in exchange, I want you to absolutely protect all the proper students and staff members of the academy!”(Leona)

“Proper, huh!..... when are we departing?”(Soma)

“Tomorrow morning! The new semester starts in one weak time, and we need at least three days to reach Akud, that’s why we need to be as fast as possible!”(Leona)

“I got it! I accept your request! And will accompany you tomorrow morning!”(Soma)

“Thank you very much!!”(Leona and Milin)

After signing the request contract, Soma went back to his mansion to tell Marina, Maria, and Mai about the request he received, he didn’t need to tell Ono about it since she already knows about it.

“…I see, you can leave everything here to us! All of us have Alchemy Magic leveled up to the point of being able to make healing potions without any problems”(Maria)

“Yes, and as for the combat training, we can have Ono-san do that for us! And the materials we have inside {Inventory} are enough to last us for years! Don’t worry about anything and leave the Alchemy Department to us!”(Mai)

“I’ll go! No matter what you say, I’ll go with you!!”(Marina)

“…Yeah, that’s the plan”(Soma)

“Fufufufu! Marina-chan is as intense as ever! It’s going to be a lot of fun once those two come and join us!”(Ono)

“…Those two! I almost forgot about them! and here I’m still not making any progress! I’ll have to be more aggressive!”(Marina)

“…It seems that I’ll need to erect a barrier around myself before going to sleep…”(Soma)

“I’ll break it!”(Marina)

“…”(Soma)

“I’ll break it!”(Marina)

“You didn’t have to say it twice!”(Soma)

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

In the morning of the next day, Soma and Marina are standing in front of the town’s gate waiting for Leona and Milin to come, and it didn’t take much time for them to show up, a carriage pulled by two Horned Warhorses, a type of monster that is easy to tame but expensive to keep due to their need for huge amounts of food.

“Good morning! We seem to have made you wait for us!”(Leona)

“Don’t mind it! But are sure you are the Lord of a town? No soldiers or guards! Are you that poor?”(Soma)

“Don’t be rude! As I told you before, originally we didn’t have nobles! And of course, I’m no different, and having soldiers and guards escort us will only slow us down!”(Leona)

“Ara! You are not alone?”(Milin)

“Yeah, this my maid, Marina! She insisted on coming with me no matter what”(Soma)

“…You are quite loved aren’t you?”(Leona)

“Of course! Soma-kun is my Master(Husband) after all”(Marina)

“I’m not!”(Soma)

2.12.0.0