Walking outside of the gates, I heard a voice from behind.

“Leaving already?”

It was Instructor Reinsfield.

“Yea”

It’s been two weeks after the day the city fell to ruin.

A request to help rebuild the city was commissioned by the new Guild Hall that was quickly constructed near the Magicians Association.

Compared to the Guild Hall in Canute, it was much smaller. It was being used temporarily for adventures to turn in and receive commissions.

The large chasm that was created inside the city was sectioned off. The Magicians Society was gradually filling the bottomless pits with earth magic, in an attempt to repair it.

Overall, the disaster that stuck the City didn’t quite do as much damage as what was thought. This was due to the efforts of Cray, who had anticipated a large scale disaster, and prepared beforehand.

It seems that only a few thousand people had died along with a couple hundred adventurers. With that said however, the amount of injured people still easily exceeded almost one third of the City’s population.

“Does she know you’re leaving already?”

Putting emphasis on the word ’she’, the scene from two weeks ago came to mind.

“I don’t want anyone else! I love you!”

Who Reinsfield referred to, was Misha.

At that time, she confessed her feelings to me. However pleasant that might sound, let me remind you. I’m not a Lolicon you know! I’m not interested in young little girls!

Hopefully she’ll be able to find someone within five years……

“Hey, you’re face is turning red. Are you thinking about that passionate kiss from that beautiful young girl?”

Reinsfield spoke in a mocking tone, as if to shower me with embarrassment.

“You’re wrong! It’s not like that at all! In the first place, she’s too young for me you know!”

In a loud voice, I unintentionally blurted out my thoughts.

“Ha ha ha! But even if that’s the case, in a few weeks she’ll be of age. At that time, when you decide push down on her, be sure to go easy on her alright? Although she’ll have become a mature woman, she’ll still be inexperienced down there”

“As if I’d push her down!”

“Ha ha ha ha ha!”

“You’re not listening to me at all aren’t you…”

Reinsfield continued to laugh heartily in joyous laughter.

Shit! His strategy of embarrassment worked too well! Damn you Reinsfield, I’ll get you back one of these days!

During the last two weeks of reconstruction, she was able to establish herself as a temporary ruler.

Why temporary you ask?

If you ask me, if I were in her shoes, I sure as hell wouldn’t want to be part of a kingdom that shunned your very existence.

Funnily enough though, the Nobles who treated Misha harshly, had their wealth and status as nobility taken away from them.

The ones who tried to stir up a revolt were also quickly taken care of the backing of the Guild, and Magicians Society. I heard that most were thrown into prison cells, and the others were either executed or sold into slavery.

Karma really has a way of making itself back around.

Since then, I haven’t seen her once.

“I haven’t spoken to her yet”

“Then, where’re you headed to?”

“I don’t know”

Turning around, I answered him while lost in thought.

I wasn’t sure where to go. For the two weeks after the city was destroyed, I’ve been searching for Liu Shien. After thoroughly looking at the katana, I noticed there were some slight differences. This one had been newly forged. If that was the case, he was definitely watching my fight when he threw the sword.

Although I’ve come out empty handed, I did find some information. More recently, a band of famous A-rank adventurers hired a wandering magic blacksmith. The blacksmith was reported to be young with long black hair.

Although I had also asked around for information about the party of A-rankers, there was no one who could give me decent information on where to find them. Without much information, I planned to just travel to different towns and ask around.

In any case, it was in my best interest to find and meet with him as soon as I could. Since coming here, a question had popped into my head from time to time. Is there a way back to my world? Right now, Shien was probably the only person I could ask.

“Here I come, prepare yourself!”

“Huh?”

With a stern expression, instructor Reinsfield immediately rushed forward without an explanation.

Bang!

Instinctively, I quickly took out the katana, and blocked a palm thrust directed at me. The force of his attack pushed me back several inches from where I stood.

“Hey! What the hell are you doing?!! I’m not interested in fighting a monster like you, you know!”

With a shocked expression, I shouted out in complaint.

“Ho~, so you were able to block that. Then I’ll get a little more serious”

In an excited voice, he approached me again even faster.

Tink!

“Don’t hold back on me now! Show me your sword skills!”

With a look of ecstasy, Instructor Reinsfield threw out a few more punches as I struggled to block them.

“Damn! Since you’ve asked for it, don’t blame me for going all out!”

Quickly taking a step back, I sheathed the katana while taking a quick draw stance.

“Naïve!”

Vanishing in front of me, Instructor Reinsfield reappeared instantly from behind.

“It seems that you’re still wet behind the ears!”

“You’re mistaken Instructor Reinsfield!”

When it comes to PVP, I’ve done enough of it to understand where you’ll attack from!

Pivoting my body to the left and turning around, I held the katana parallel to the ground with a guard stance.

“[Forth Form, Raging Tempest]!”

While deflecting his fist, I redirected the force of his body weight slightly to the side of where I stood, forcefully creating an opening to attack.

TING!!!

The sound of two metal objects hitting each other rung out like a bell.

Right after I had redirected his attack, I quickly went back into my quick draw stance and drew the katana in a diagonal arc. However, just before it hit, he pulled out a long dagger with his other hand and completely blocked my attack.

“You were able to block in that state?!!”

I was genuinely surprised. His attack just now was one he fully committed to. He shouldn’t have had any room to block, and yet he maneuvered out of his opening, and received my attack with his dagger.

I know that he was still going easy on me, but the fact that he was still able to block my attack in that position is really amazing. But then again, for someone as strong as him, he had probably already anticipated my counter stance before he attacked. It seems that real life battles are much different from games when it comes to recovery time. I guess in that regard, I can still be considered ‘wet behind the ears’…

“Heh, that was pretty good kid. No, you’re no longer a kid. That was pretty good, Tetsu”

Putting away his dagger he took out, he began walking back towards the city gates as he spoke to me.

“The person you’re searching for, head towards Labyrinth City, Astall. And don’t call me instructor, call me Guild Master. Remember that the next time you visit Serafall”

“Thanks for everything until now”

Waving his hand nonchalantly with his back towards me, he walked away with big strides. I quietly thanked him and walked off in the opposite direction into the open fields.

“Labyrinth City, Astall… If I recall…”

The Labyrinth City was located towards the center of the continent. It was a city that bordered in-between the Kingdom of Minerva, and the Land of Somber Dusk, Delavian. Delavian was the side of the continent where demi-humans lived. Dark Elves and Beast-men were prevalent there.

My first stop was Port Town, Rune Belle. Although it was called a town, it was big enough to be called a city. It was located next to the ocean, and like the name implies, it had a harbor. Because Serafall had become nearly destroyed, traffic from places going to and from the Labyrinth City became nonexistent.

It would be easier to find a Traveling commission in Rune Belle. And if worse came to worse, I could take a ship in that direction and save myself almost a month’s worth of walking. Of course, taking a caravan was faster than walking, but still slower than taking a ship.

With this thought in mind, I headed for Port Town, Rune Belle.

Arriving inside of the city gates, Reinsfield was greeted by Cray.

“Are you fine letting him go, Reinsfield?”

“Yea it’s fine, Guild Master”

“It’s not Guild Master anymore, but Leader right? Although calling me just Cray is also fine”

“Cut me some slack here, I’m not used to this Guild Master thing yet, Guil—… AHEM… Leader”

Quickly correcting his speech, Reinsfield looked away in embarrassment as he walked faster.

“Ha ha ha! To think that even Reinsfield could become flustered over something so small!”

Cheerfully laughing, Cray increased his walking speed to catch up.

“I didn’t expect his skill with a katana to be on the brink of complete mastery. He almost got me for real”

“Oh? And here I thought you were able to control yourself for a slight moment out of excitement”

“No, at the very end, he forced me to block his attack with my full strength. Forcing me to get serious… it’s my complete loss”

“Has he been hiding his strength until now?”

“No, that’s not quite right. It makes more sense to say his abilities are being restricted”

Talking with Cray, Reinsfield rubs his chin, as if recalling something.

“What gives you that impression?”

Curious as to why Reinsfield had that idea, he further inquired about it.

“As you know, he was enrolled in my beginner’s course for becoming an Adventurer”

Looking into the distant sky above them, Reinsfield continued his explanation.

“During the times we sparred throughout the week, he used multiple weapons.

I originally thought he was trying to find the right weapon to use for himself, but that wasn’t the case at all. His fighting stances were already at a higher level than what I could instruct him on.

Although he stumbled around a lot in the mock battles with different weapons, they weren’t the movements of a rookie. Rather, he was trying to execute high level skills his body wasn’t capable of.

And in actuality, the battle with me just now confirmed that fact.

The only thing I could do, was teach him about the history of this world, and train his body for physical and mental endurance”

After walking past multiple buildings, Reinsfield finished the explanation of his analysis.

“Then, the question isn’t whether or not he’s hiding his strength, but rather what is restricting his ability”

“In any case, he no longer needs my guidance. No it’s more correct to say that he never needed it in the first place. If we were to fight at an even level, there’s no doubt in my mind that his sword skill alone would overwhelm me”

“That’s quite the high praise. But it doesn’t seem like you’re joking around either. I’ll send a few people to watch him for the time being. For now, I’ll have to find another successor”

The two having arrived in front of the temporary Guild Hall, quickly parted ways.