The words from a certain princess echo through Rowan’s head,

“Increase the pet’s training, plans have escalated. If she cannot keep up, then simply leave her to their fate.”

At first Rowan was confused, but after a rushed explanation and the princess transferring over partial ownership of the slave he was overjoyed. Sure, some restrictions were made but he had been allowed to be harsher towards the beast and if he played his cards right he could be rid of the burden.

After the princess left, he quickly went to an underground monster trader and purchased a goblin that specialized in strength under the guise of level boosting the beast, then returned to the castle training grounds.

Now sitting on top of the covered cage he looked towards the unconscious beastman on the ground and frowned. According to the teachings of the church of this country, beastman were lesser beings to that of humans. The proof of this was that humans could use magic easier, which was considered a gift from god. The same god who had forsaken beastmen by not blessing them with magic.

Rowan, however, knew this was a load of bullshit but he didn’t care. He even personally participated in the churches crusade which even greater emphasized what a load of bull it was. If humans were supposedly superior to beastman, then how did the beastmen push their army back before they even managed to get halfway through their territory?

Rowan laughed to himself, remembering the sight of distant beastman casting heavy artillery onto their encampment. Pushing the church back before they had time to cast their ritual spell… he even remembered the seething expression from the church’s priests as they were forced to retreat.

No, he hated beastmen for a different reason. Different from the church that believed in human supremacy.

“Nnn…”

Rowan noticed the beast was finally starting to wake up and sighed, one last day and he will be done with this. He just had to make it look good…

“The knight… had training, experience. Other, got instantly. Doesn’t understand. “

“…”

Rowan had found himself shocked, at a loss for words. During his explanations he had assumed the beast was going to fall under the same trap a lot of newbies did and decided to tease her. To his surprise she had answered correctly, and even understood the reasoning behind it. He was sure she would be like the others and insist that the knight would lose.

A fluke, it had to be. Maybe the hero had explained something to her before hand and she just repeated it? A beast who values strength would never… He didn’t like it, looking at her dull expression made him agitated, but her ears came into his view. That is right Rowan, she is just a beast… she will reveal her true nature with the goblin… just like the rest.

After reminding himself of that fact, he turned towards the cage and released the creature inside…

The battle had proceeded differently then what Rowan had imagined, while Mia did panic at first it was due to what Rowan had assumed to be her first battle. That was to be expected, especially after being told how unlikely it was for her to win. But what he expected to see never happened, even If he put emphasis on it… she never rushed in.

She was being careful, looking for a chance to strike while barely dodging the goblin’s attacks. It annoyed him, he fully expected for her to rush in, overconfident in her new skill and promptly killed. He would have been done with her already if that was the case. Instead here he was, watching the fight he had assumed would of ended by now.

It wouldn’t last much longer, however, as she fell into another rookie trap. While it was good to focus on your enemy, to ignore your surroundings was also a fatal mistake. One that Mia had just learned as she was hit on the shoulder. “Tats it ten…” Rowan shook his head. He was almost sad to see her die, he hated to admit it but she showed promise.

He was about to get up and finish off the goblin when he noticed Mia moving, she was still alive? He sat back down and inspected her. Even from this distance he could tell her shoulder was useless, broken by the goblin’s pure strength. He then noticed that despite taking a blow that should have killed her she had held onto her weapon.

Again, she had impressed him. But even so, when she glanced towards him he found himself thinking. Finish what you started. He then watched as the goblin cockily walk up, not seeing the dagger, it lifted her up to finish her and instead was critically strike in the neck.

He sat there, seeing the goblin’s corpse soak in it’s own blood. The beastman, Mia, on the ground staring at the corpse. It was a fluke, she had only won because the goblin got cocky… but even so, she had won. He thought he’d be angrier at her victory, he would have been done with her but instead he felt something different…

He shook his head, not wanting to dwell on it. If her winning was a fluke, then he figured he would have to make sure not all her victories were the same. He stood up, taking out a glass bottle filled with a potion and started approaching the girl staring off into space. He figured she had just leveled up, but was sure she couldn’t read? He shrugged it off, maybe she just couldn’t believe in her victory as much as he did.

He'd have to fix that.