Chapter 2: Azu Returned, or So It Was Told

“So, you bought a house, huh?” said Azu as he leaned back in the sofa and gazed around the guest room. “You didn’t hold back, did you?”

Now a teacher, he came draped in a black robe of considerably finer quality than the gray one Renya remembered. Silver accessories adorned the robe in a rather mage-like fashion, lending him a very convincing air.

His housewarming gift lay on the table in the form of a fruit basket filled primarily with citrus fruits. Unlike those of Renya’s original world whose peels were unsuited for consumption due to pesticides, these were as organic as they came. He told Frau to keep the fruits in the food storage bin in the kitchen, making a mental note to savor even their peels later.

It was worth noting that food storage bins under the care of a Silkie were a real marvel. Through magecraft, Frau maintained constant control over both the humidity and temperature of the bins. In other words, it was both fridge and freezer, and could even be used to age meat — dry or wet, his choice. When he first learned of this revelation from the fairy, he could barely suppress the urge to shamelessly shower himself with praises. It was a brilliant idea to buy this house, and he sure was glad he did.

“I still owe a ton of money, but oh well. Either way, we would have eventually needed a place to stay.”

“Indeed. You can travel far and wide all you’d like, but it’s important to have a home to come back to. With that said, though…”

Azu shifted his gaze from the sofa across the table where Renya sat, looking past him at the short figure of a maid currently busying herself with the task of preparing tea. With the aid of a stool, she stood just tall enough to reach over the back of the sofa and hand Renya his cup.

“Another one,” he said in a voice of mild awe. “And a fairy this time… How much longer until you complete your harem?” Relying perhaps on his magely expertise in such matters, Azu managed to discern Frau’s true identity with one look.

Originally, Renya had his reservations about allowing Frau to be seen by others, but upon consulting Rona, he learned that fairies were not as rare as he’d thought. In an ironic discovery, he was also told that in terms of walking freak shows, between a fairy and a Wanderer, the latter would by far draw the bigger crowd. Rona further mentioned that while the presence of a Silkie in a home might have bumped up its price before sale, now that he had officially signed the contract, there was no way for anyone to make the Silkie case anymore.

“Watch the slander, buddy,” said Renya, furrowing his brows. “Besides, look at her. It’d be a criminal offence if I tried to get my hands on her, right?”

Azu’s reply, however, caused his brows to furrow further.

“You know it’s pretty common for nobles to marry once they’re past ten, right? Sometimes, they’re born engaged. Not to mention there are plenty of thirty-year-old men in the nobility who wed twelve-year-old girls from lower houses to make them thirteen-year-old mothers.”

“How do they even get… Honestly, I think I’m a little impressed.”

“It’s half-compulsory at times. Almost like an obligation. In fact, there’s some good money to be made with drugs of that sort.”

Azu chuckled, explaining that drugs for enhancing stimulation and improving endurance were very popular. They enjoyed great demand and fetched a high price on the market.

“Are those legal?”

“Of course? You do realize the guild puts out missions for gathering raw materials, right?”

Faced with Azu’s recommendation to give it a try if he was short on money, Renya remained wordless, silently swearing to never go on such a mission — at least not with Shion and Rona present. Behind them, Frau did not so much as bat an eye at the nature of their conversation. Fairies were not to be taken lightly; they had composure in spades.

“Speaking of money, I assume you’re going to need some more stuff now that you’ve bought a house like this.”

“Yeah. There are the costs of keeping it maintained, and I still have to pay back the loan. I’m going to have a constant need for money.”

“Your contract sounds pretty damn generous, though. To be paid back at your leisure with no pressure from the lender?”

It was, according to Azu, a pointless contract that was practically saying they didn’t care even if he defaulted on the payment. This was not an overstatement; since the lender could not pressure him, as long as he kept claiming he couldn’t pay, he’d never have to. That was, however, not the option he wanted to take. Despite there being no requirement of immediate repayment, he still decided that he’d try to his best to pay it back sooner rather than later. From the perspective of a merchant, the longer it took to collect a payment, the less the profit. He didn’t want to make life hard for merchants.

“On a different note, there’s actually two reasons I came here today. One is of course your housewarming, but I also have a favor to ask you. There’s a job I want you to do for me. You’ll be paid for it.”

“Huh. You’re bringing me work now? I certainly appreciate it, but what kind of work is it?”

There was a vast difference between a request from a stranger and a request from Azu; he felt far safer with the latter. If it earned him good money, then all the better. Even if it wasn’t lucrative, so long as it didn’t involve anything too crazy, he was willing to do it for a friend.

“I think you’re aware that I took up a teaching position in a school that fosters adventurers?”

“Yeah, you told me that before you left last time.”

“Right. About that. You see, I was put in charge of a class with a lot of kid nobles and, well… I now have a problem on my hands.”

“Problems dealing with nobility, huh…”

Renya grimaced. First of all, the term “nobility” evoked nothing but negative impressions in him. He was well aware that it was a prejudice of his, but he simply couldn’t help having the following phrases pop up in his mind: insufferable, looks down on commoners, dirty with money and influence, and a bunch of spineless cowards. Of course, there were probably nobles who weren’t described by those terms, but he figured those were outliers.

“So, each class in the school is taught by a different teacher. The problem happened in the class for combat training. The teacher there lost against the students…”

There were two enormous hurdles to finding teachers to teach actual fighting. The first was that very few people were willing to do it. The second was that out of the people who were, few of them were sufficiently competent. Active-duty knights and adventurers could hardly be bothered to consider the poorer-paid position of schoolteacher. For knights, the prospect of nurturing the younger generation was simply unattractive; for adventurers, they’d actually increase their own competition by creating more rivals for their jobs. It was a foolish task that only a fool would undertake, and such fools were in short supply. Naturally then, only certain kinds of people found their way to teaching position. Some were like Azu, whose party had broken up. Others were knights or adventurers who saw little future for themselves in their respective career paths and decided to quit early — second and third-rates, essentially. Even so, they rarely found themselves bested in skill by mere pupils at a school.

Rarely, but not never.

On rare occasions, young nobles tutored beforehand by parents who serve in the military would enroll in the school having already achieved a certain level of mastery. In addition, they often hailed from lineages that had long-standing military careers or produce many court mages. As a result, there were disproportionately great odds of these fast-tracked students turning out to be prodigies, who display a proficiency of skill unbecoming of their age. Against such students, experience alone was an insufficient advantage, and third-rate adventurers would find themselves suffering humiliating defeats in combat.

“Yeah, I definitely wouldn’t be doing any teaching if that happened to me. I’d be looking for a rock to hide under.”

“I trust you agree that defeating someone in combat does not preclude them from being your teacher? Even a third-rate adventurer should have plenty of wisdom to impart by virtue of his or her experience in adventuring.”

Renya tried to imagine a scenario that would illustrate Azu’s point. He was unsuccessful. His friend’s confident tone, however, convinced him that there must be some truth to those words, so he didn’t dwell on it any further. Perhaps Azu had meant the kind of advice one might find in a bargain bin book: “Five best ways to improve your party dynamics” or “How to find a mission that’s right for you.”

“Instead, a couple of them started refusing to come to class, saying they had nothing to learn from a loser. Quite the headache, really.”

“It’s not like they’re skipping your class, right?”

Azu grimaced a little and scratched his head.

“True, true. It’s not exactly my problem, but…”

A period of silence befell them, during which the mage scratched his head ever more fervently. Clearly, there were things he didn’t want to say. Figuring that it’d be rude to pry, Renya decided to change the topic.

“Well, whatever. Moving on. Let’s talk details. What will I be doing and under what conditions?”

“Hm? Ah, about that. I want you to take those cocky upstarts and put a dent in their egos. We’ll do it in a mock battle as part of combat training.”

According to Azu, the school’s sparring grounds were covered by a special force field that made it so all injuries would stop just short of becoming fatal. In other words, his job entailed the following: go to the sparring grounds, pick out the young nobles who were misbehaving, and literally beat the spunk out of them. Specifically, he would smash their egos into smithereens and then continue to wipe the floor with their broken bodies until they swore to never mock their teacher again.

“You are a teacher, right? Are you sure this request is, like… you know, okay?”

“These are kids who just don’t listen. So, we’ll hammer it into their bodies. It’ll do them good to know where they stand in the food chain. It’s a form of teaching, right?”

“Why don’t you do it yourself?”

“I could, but I’m weak at close-quarters combat. That’s why I had to get people to protect me back when I was doing jobs. If I fought those kids, I’d have to flatten the whole lot of them with one big spell right off the bat. Even then, if any of them managed to survive and get close to me, I’d be done for.”

Unlike warrior-types who could more or less fight by simply swinging things really hard, mages were always slower to attack due to their casting time. Furthermore, many spellcasters did not train their physical strength, so even a weaker opponent who specialized in close combat could often gain the upper hand when given a chance to close the gap.

“To that end, you’re the perfect candidate; you’ve got a mean sword arm, and you also use magecraft. A bunch of school kids won’t stand a chance against you, right?”

“Ehh, yeah, probably.”

The way Renya saw it, against a couple of punk kids, they could hand him a mop and he still wouldn’t break a sweat. Technically, though, he had no business calling them punk kids, considering he currently wasn’t much older himself.

“I know you might have your reservations, but I’d really appreciate the help. How about it, Renya?” Azu leaned forward and lowered his head.

It was true that Renya wasn’t particularly keen on the idea — it sounded uncomfortably like child abuse. While he couldn’t just turn down a friend who lowered his head, he was having trouble convincing himself to do something as pointless as participating in a mock battle he knew he would win.

“There’s another perk. Do the job, and you also gain access to the school’s facilities.”

“Why would I want access to those? I’ll probably have nothing to do there…”

“Nothing to do there? Are you mad, man? It’s the school for adventurers we’re talking about. You know they have a transfer gate there, right?”

“The heck is that supposed to be?”

“What? You don’t know what a transfer gate is?” Azu asked in surprise, which reminded Renya that he hadn’t told his friend about being a Wanderer.

“Yeah. See, I’m actually what you’d call a Wanderer.”

“Oh? I see. That certainly explains why you haven’t heard of transfer gates.”

This time, Azu didn’t seem very surprised, which caught Renya off guard. Seeing a hint of disappointment on Renya’s face, the mage explained,

“True, Wanderers are indeed rare, but they’re not unheard of. We’ve seen enough of them to confirm they exist. They might be otherworldly, but they’re still basically human. No reason to make a fuss when they’re the same as us, right?”

“That’s such a you way of looking at it… Anyway, what’s the deal with this transfer gate in the school?”

“Transfer gates are mana crafts made in the shape of a gate. They come in pairs, and each gate is connected to the other, allowing you to travel between them regardless of how far they’re separated. They’re a marvel of a thing, but each gate can only send you to its designated pair, and on top of costing a fortune in manastones for each use, they can only handle transporting one person at a time. As a result, they’re not very prevalent. The Adventurers School, though, has set up a network of transfer gates with other schools to facilitate travel between them.”

“Hm?”

“Once you gain permission to use them, you can go almost anywhere in the human territories with transfer gates. In fact, there’s even a gate that sends you straight through the Miasmal Forest and the demon lands, popping you out on the western side of the continent where the elves live.”

“Wow. That’s pretty cool.”

Despite the one-person limit, the existence of such a transportation network meant he could not only traverse the human territories much more quickly but also jump all the way over to the elven territories. With a ticket to the transfer gate as a reward, what was once an unappealing job now seemed very much worthwhile.

“It’ll only take you half the day. Your compensation will consist of the transfer gate’s usage permit I just mentioned, as well as one gold that I’ll pay you out of pocket. I’ll try to ask them to give you a discount on the gate’s usage fee, but you’ll have to pay that yourself. Sorry.”

“You’re really trying to sweeten this deal, aren’t you?”

The extreme generosity of Azu’s offer told Renya two things. One, Azu really wanted him to say yes. Two, there was no room for failure, and the mage’s earlier silence suggested he wanted to avoid explaining why. Of course, that had nothing to do with him; those were Azu’s problems.

“What do you think? Will you do it for me?”

“It’s not a bad deal, and the work itself sounds like something I can do alone. All right, why not? Sign me up.”

Upon hearing his approval, a look of relief washed over Azu’s expression.

“You’re a lifesaver. This definitely makes my life easier. Give me a few days to work out the timing. Is that okay?”

“Sure. I’ll leave my schedule open, so try to let me know early.”

Now that Renya had taken this job, he couldn’t afford to accept any others. If the scheduling took a long time, he’d be forced to stay jobless for the whole duration. That would be inconvenient.

“I’ll head back to the school now and sort it out right away. I’ll let you know when things are decided.”

Once he gained Renya’s consent, Azu said a brief goodbye and made a beeline for the school.

“He was trying to help somebody else when he lowered his head, right? He seems like a very nice person,” remarked Frau as she cleaned away the guest’s leftover tea. “Mr. Azu must care a lot about the person who’s in trouble. That’s probably why he was in such a rush to head back.”

The fairy’s words tipped him off, and Renya nodded in newfound comprehension. That would also explain why Azu minced his words regarding his reasons.

That damn Azu. Oh well. We’ll probably see each other on the day of the job. I’ll take my sweet time grilling him for answers then.

Renya took a sip from his cup. The tea was a tad cold, but the grin spreading across his lips was anything but.

The National Adventurers School in Kukrika was located at the very edge of the residential district. It was one of the city’s largest establishments, laying claim to a massive tract of land second only to the military in the central district. Surrounded for some reason by tall fencing and a deep moat, the front gate represented the only viable method of entry. At first, the exteriors of the school reminded Renya of a prison. When Azu led him inside, though, his opinion changed; now, it felt like he had entered a fortress. Upon divulging his thoughts to Azu, the mage explained that the Adventurers School was built as a military facility that would function as a simple fortress for the city during emergencies.

“Using students as troops? I question the sanity of whoever thought of that,” muttered Renya in disgust.

Azu looked at him in shock. He raised an eyebrow, wondering what part of his statement drew so much surprise.

“Well, I just thought that you of all people would have nodded approvingly and said something like, ‘Yeah, you have to make use of whatever you can.’”

He had a point.

“Ah, hm. I guess that does apply to me most of the time… I wonder what makes this so different? Maybe it’s because even I have the common sense to recognize that students should be focused on learning.”

“You? Common sense? Man, what is this? Is the world coming to an end?”

“Okay, for the record, I’m pretty sure I’m the one with the most common sense in my party, worldly knowledge notwithstanding.”

“I think that says more about your party than you… and none of it’s good.”

The remark elicited a giggle from the little maid at his side.

Back when he first heard about the job from Azu, he had already discussed the matter with Shion and Rona. Upon hearing that he was going to the Adventurers School, though, both of them expressed their reluctance to accompany him. Neither of them were willing to explain why and stubbornly repelled his inquiries with a simple “We don’t want to go.” He was left baffled, wondering what the heck the deal was with the school, until Rona later divulged the reason to him in private. According to her, they didn’t want to go to the school because of the large number of young nobles enrolled; some of those students probably knew their true identity. Vague memories came drifting back to him, and he hazily recalled being told long ago that Shion was from some well-off family and Rona was her knight-in-waiting.

“Hey! Keep it in mind, okay? It’s important,” complained Rona, who clearly recognized the “now that you mention it” look on his face.

“It’s not like it matters to me,” he replied flatly. “Nobility or not, you’re my party members and my friends. That’s all I care about.”

Rona’s expression brightened before slowly settling back into a frown.

“I’m glad to hear that… but still, I must insist that you keep it in mind, okay?”

“We’ll see.”

The brain did not have an infinite capacity to store memories. It would, by design, forgot old ones to make room for new ones, and that process started with the most trivial memories. Upon stating this to Rona, he was given a wry smile as a response.

With his two friends confirmed to be no-shows, he figured this would end up being a one-man task. Frau, however, had heard their exchange and shocked everyone by proposing that she would go. Being bonded to the home, Renya had thought that the fairy couldn’t go outside, but Frau asserted that she could, so long as she stayed close to her master. He quickly agreed. It would be a good opportunity for him to take Frau out of the old house she looked after for so long and show her around outside.

He pulled himself out of his thoughts and looked at the young maid standing beside him. Having never taken a step beyond the perimeter of the house ever since being born, Frau seemed elated to be getting her first look at the city. Renya naturally broke into a smile, and a similar curve of his mage friend’s lips suggested that he shared in the sentiment.

It was a heartwarming sight, or rather, would have been if not for the fact that from the outside, it looked downright criminal — two grown men pulling around a young 10-year-old girl in a maid uniform. Bystanders distanced themselves, opting to watch with suspicion from afar. In fact, the city guards received no small amount of incident reports. In fact, the only reason they weren’t taken to a guard station for questioning was because Rona had the foresight to make the rounds and inform people in advance. It would be much later when Renya and Azu would learn of this fact, after which Renya would indignantly protest the deplorable nature of humans to make assumptions based on appearance and prejudice. What he would omit from his tirade, however, was the admission that, faced with a similar sight, he would have reported them too.

“I could show you around the school, but we’re a little pressed for time. How about we head straight to the sparring grounds?”

When they arrived, it was just about time for the class in question to do combat training with Azu. Renya took a look around the sparring grounds. It was a simple dome-shaped structure, housing nothing more than a waiting room, a warehouse, and the grounds themselves. Spanning about 25 meters in diameter, the circular area was surrounded by eight pillars. Tiny words had been carved into each pillar, and the pillars were notably socketed with manastones in a way that allowed for them to be removed and replaced. Those eight pillars maintained the force field over the sparring grounds that prevented any fatal damage from occurring inside. Should any damage prove fatal, the field would negate just enough to prevent death before ejecting the victim out of the grounds. Seeing that the class had yet to begin, Renya took some time to carefully scrutinize the pillars.

“Man, these sure would be handy in a war. Why not use them there? You could prevent every single casualty,” said Renya, his eyes fixed on the pillar before him.

“You think you can just plop these down anywhere? Do you have any idea how many years it took to make one of these pillars?” Azu replied, pounding the pillar a few times with his fist as he spoke. Then, he exhaled through his nose and put his hands at his hips. “Ten years. That’s how long. It costs ten years and five platinum coins.”

“For a single pillar?”

“Yeah. Don’t forget the force field requires eight of them. In other words, you’re staring at forty platinum coins right now. And that’s only the cost to make it.”

In addition to being expensive to build, the size of the sparring grounds was about as big as the force field could get. It was, therefore, a creation meant solely for training or demonstration and had no value in real combat.

In general, if something sounded too good to be true, it was. Renya slid his hand down the side of a pillar as he let out a silent sigh. Before he could philosophize any further, however, some commotion at the entrance to the grounds signaled the arrival of the students. There were twenty of them, and they all came fully armed.

Well, relatively armed. The edges of their swords had been dulled, and they wore simple armor — probably steel — consisting of chestpieces and armguards.

The kids were followed by a woman who looked to be only a few years older than Renya. She wore the same armor as the students, lined on the inside by hemp clothing. Her brown hair was cut short, and her large auburn eyes carried just a hint of a reddish hue. Had she been smiling cheerfully, she would have been quite the charming lady. Sadly, she had no such air, and her expression was clouded and downcast.

Renya stood off to the side and observed from a distance to not interfere with the class. The woman raised her voice to speak to the class. As soon as she did, he found out why she seemed troubled.

“Okay, everyone, we’re starting class! Please make four rows!”

Her voice was fairly loud, but it elicited no reaction from the students. They idly hung about the field, walking and talking and chatting. Sometimes, they would take a few swings at each other with their weapons, but no one bothered to glance in the woman’s direction.

“Everyone! We’re in the middle of class right now! Please follow my instructions!” she said in an even louder voice, undeterred by the muted reaction. She seemed determined to create an atmosphere in which some teaching could actually happen.

“Teacher?” scoffed one of the male students. He walked in front of the woman. “Give me a break. Losers who can’t even beat their students don’t get to be teachers.”

Renya looked the male student over. Even in his opinion, the kid was well-built.

“The female teacher there is Lealis. The male student standing in front of her is Orran Schmeisser. He’s the eldest son of General Schmeisser of the Triden Army and also one of the students who beat her in battle.”

“One of…? You mean there are more?”

“Yeah. Over there…”

Azu pointed to a corner of the sparring grounds where a group of female students were gathered. At the center of them stood a girl who wore her blond hair in ringlets.

“See little miss ringlets there? That’s Natalia Fatale, eldest daughter of Marquess Fatale. She and Orran are the two who beat Lealis in battle.”

“Hm. By the way, how old are they?”

“They’re both fifteen.”

“Right when they’re all full of themselves, huh.”

Being nobles, they were insufferable enough, but these kids were exactly at the age when they feel an incessant urge to oppose adults. Their rebellious nature, combined with the fact that they actually managed to wrestle a win from their teacher, had probably set them on an irreversible course toward delinquency.

While Renya and Azu talked, Lealis was trying to restore some semblance of order to the class, but had her efforts thwarted by Orran and his flunkies who stood in her path. As they pressed closer and closer to her, she grew quieter and quieter, eventually losing her words entirely.

“Hey, about that teacher. Lealis, right? What rank is she at the guild?”

“I believe… she reached D before she became a teacher.”

“Cool. Right, then. Time for me to do my job. Frau, you stay here with Azu and wait for me, okay?”

“Mm-hm. But this is as far as Frau can be. Any further is a big no-no, so please be quick, OK?”

Frau had to affix her bond to her master to leave the house, so she couldn’t move too far away from Renya. He gave the fairy a nod and smile before turning to the mob of students around Lealis. With his right hand, he drew the practice sword he borrowed from Azu and gave it a good swing.

“Hey, big-and-uglies over there,” he called out. His voice wasn’t too loud, but Orran and his flunkies seemed to hear him. By the time they looked in his direction, he was already halfway through his throw. With one powerful swing of his arm, he whipped his sword at the group of students.

“Better watch out!”

“Wha—?”

They had enough time to see what he was doing and move out of the way. Most of them did. Unfortunately, one poor fool kept teasing Lealis, unaware of what just happened. The practice sword slammed into the side of his head, and he fell to the ground without so much as a peep.

Everyone stood in silent shock at Renya’s sudden entry. Unfazed by their wordless gawking, he casually walked over to Lealis, pointedly ignored the fallen student as he picked up his sword, and said hi to the still-stunned teacher.

“I’m Renya Kunugi. Adventurer. Guild rank F. I heard from Azu that a D-ranked senior of mine was in need of help, so here I am.”

“Huh? You heard from Azzy?”

Azzy?

Renya quickly spun around and stared at Azu, who matched his speed with a similar spin to avoid meeting his gaze. Even from where he stood, though, he could tell that Azu’s ears had turned red. His lips curled upwards. For some reason, Frau also gave Azu a thumbs up. Both master and fairy grinned gleefully at the mage.

“Um, how do you know Azzy? Are you an acquaintance of his?”

“We worked together before. I was with him when he did the job that ultimately sent him here,” he answered without looking away from Azu, who seemed determined to scrutinize a particularly distant corner of the grounds for the rest of the day. After a period of stalemate, he decided to release Azu from the fetters of his gaze, figuring he’d interrogate the mage about it later.

“Hey, you.”

With the air of someone who was waiting to hear that, Renya turned toward the speaker and grinned. It was a very different grin than the one he showed Azu. Gone was the wink of friendly teasing, replaced by the leer of a hunter whose trap had been sprung.

“What do you want, Jumbo?”

Still surrounded by his flunkies, Orran glared at Renya. Anger was written plain on the big student’s face. Renya rested his practice sword on his shoulder and met Orran’s stare head-on. His smile widened. Had Orran’s sense of danger been as sensitive as Lealis’s, he would have doubtlessly fled the grounds immediately, because that was exactly what Lealis did; sensing something disquieting about Renya, she saw Azu beckoning her and exited the grounds with him. Then, together with Frau, the three of them quickly evacuated to the audience seats outside the force field. The only people who remained in the sparring grounds were Renya, Orran’s group, and the rest of the students who watched from a distance.

“A boorish fellow, aren’t you? I see that you haven’t the slightest idea how to behave before a noble.”

Orran’s flunkies laughed along with him in a truly flunky-like manner. Their laughs, however, were soon drowned out by an even louder laugh. The laugher, of course, was Renya.

“A noble? Oh, man, you’re too good! Look, buddy, there are nobles, and then there are punk kids who got lucky in a fight and won. And you fall squarely in the second category.”

“You…”

Orran’s eyes began to gleam dangerously. His flunkies’ glares were similarly threatening. Even Natalia and the girls around her, apparently having heard Renya’s remark, shot menacing gazes at him.

“What, you got a problem? Prove me wrong then. You kids beat a D-ranked adventurer, right? I’m nothing compared to her.”

Somewhere in the distance, Renya thought he heard the sound of a sudden and unexpected ejection of liquid from Azu’s mouth. Still shouldering his sword, he didn’t let it bother him as he raised his left hand and gave the students a provocative curl of the fingers. He was telling the truth, after all.

Rank-wise, anyway.

The body of the student who took a flying sword to the head and fell unconscious was gone. The protective function of the force field had apparently ejected him outside. The implication was clear: with a single hit, Renya had done fatal damage to the student. In a way, this was not particularly surprising. Even though he had thrown a blunted sword, it was still a sword; a speeding hunk of metal making contact with an unguarded head led to fairly predictable results.

In this case, the person who did the throwing — Renya — was not particularly bothered. His reaction was more or less, “Huh, I guess I just insta-killed that dude.”

The students, however, were very bothered. In effect, some guy had just shown up and murdered one of their classmates — in a most casual manner, to boot.

“‘Prove me wrong,’ huh. Big words coming from a lowly adventurer, and a third-rate at that. Those words are going to get you in trouble, adventurer scum.” Orran drew his sword. For fifteen years of age, he was fairly tall, and his solid build left no doubts as to how he divided his time between mind and muscle. Standing face to face, he seemed every bit Renya’s equal, despite the fact that Renya was supposed to have been set to eighteen years old. “If you take back what you said and apologize, adventurer, I might consider letting you off the hook.”

Renya kept observing the young noble, paying absolutely no attention to what he was saying; he doubted there was anything worth hearing anyway. Noticing that Orran’s arms were quite thick, he snuck a glance at his own. He smiled bitterly; good thing this wasn’t a bodybuilding contest.

He also took a peek at Lealis. While she wasn’t exactly a delicate flower, her build was slender and lithe. As a fighter, she likely emphasized speed over power. That one observation was all Renya needed to figure out why she lost to Orran.

“What’s the point in beating someone if she had to match your fighting style the whole time?”

“What did you say?”

“Oh, nothing. Don’t mind me. Just rambling on my own here,” said Renya with a dismissive wave of his hand. He shifted his attention to delinquent number two, who had brought her flunkies over as well and was standing beside Orran with her hands at her hips. Apparently, she had heard Renya too.

“Did I just hear you imply that we won by luck? How terribly offensive. Fortunately for you, I’m a generous person. Prostrate yourself and beg for pardon, and I might forgive you. Go on, now. I’m waiting,” said Natalia in an overtly condescending tone.

He looked the ringleted blonde over. Her expression was filled with lofty disdain, but for all her swagger, a growling housecat would have proved more intimidating. She was also puffing out her chest. The effort was futile, though; one could not accentuate that which wasn’t there in the first place. Even Lealis, slender as she was, had enough volume to at least prove they’re there.

Well, won the battle and lost the war, eh?

Renya chuckled. It drew a bewildered look from Natalia, who had not the slightest idea why he was laughing.

One question, however, lingered in his mind. Unlike Orran, who probably approached problems with the “just hit it harder” philosophy, Natalia seemed like she employed the same speed-oriented style as Lealis. Her victory, then, seemed to imply that she was at least on par with her teacher in skill. But was she? His answer was answered by Frau, who was sitting rather far away.

“Master, can you hear this?”

“What?” blurted out Renya. In doing so, he quickly realized Frau’s voice was different; it seemed to be coming not through his ears but straight into his head.

“You don’t have to talk out loud. This is telepathy. Frau is bonded to Master right now, so we can think to each other.”

“Damn. You fairies are like the gift that just keeps giving, aren’t you?”

“Frau likes what she hears and won’t mind hearing more. Also, Mr. Azu said that Ms. Lealis fought the blonde with the ringlets right after fighting Mr. Macho. He wanted to tell Master because that would probably answer the question Master had.”

“Huh. Fair enough. Thanks.”

“Master is very welcome.”

In Renya’s opinion, there was a downside to the protective effect of the force field, and it lay in its mechanism of action. When lethal damage was taken, the field worked by reducing the damage just enough so that it was no longer lethal. Conversely, this also meant that all non-fatal damage would remain unaffected. Normally, some sort of restorative gracecraft would be used after combat training, but Lealis had fought Orran and Natalia back to back. In other words, any injuries she sustained during the fight with Orran were carried over to the fight with Natalia. It took little effort to imagine what had transpired: macho boy there went into braindead bruiser mode and smashed his way through the fight, leaving Lealis to take on her next opponent hurt and considerably less agile.

“Geez, she went easy on one of them and fought the other with a handicap. And now dumb and dumber have got it in their heads that they’re hot stuff.”

He pressed his palm into his forehead and shook his head, feeling rather stupid for thinking these arrogant kids might have deserved a little credit. The gesture probably seemed patronizing to Natalia, because she drew her sword as well.

“Scoundrel! If you have no intention of fixing that wretched attitude of yours, then I, Natalia Fatale, shall put you in your place!” she announced, glaring at him.

“Great. I can’t wait to find out where my place is,” he answered in an even tone with his sword still sitting on his shoulder. “Come on, then. Enough talk about how high and mighty you are. After all, by your logic, whoever wins is the highest and the mightiest, right? So, bring it on already.” With a look of boredom, he beckoned them with another wave of his hand. He could almost hear the grinding of their teeth. “Oh, and forget your silly little rules about single combat. Bring all your flunkies too. I’ll take every single one of you on, all at the same time.”

“You’ll regret that big mouth of yours.”

“They’ll have to carry you to the healing hall once I’m through with you!”

Once again, Renya found himself reminded of the peculiarities of this alternate world. Since they treated people with gracecraft, they didn’t send them to hospitals, but rather healing halls. It was another example of how he found the strangest quirks to appreciate sometimes.

Meanwhile, Orran, Natalia, and their flunkies were rushing at Renya with their swords brandished. Seeing that over half the class was setting upon Renya all at once, Lealis was about to shout at the students to stop, but she was held back by Azu and Frau, who motioned to her to calm down and watch.

Renya stood his ground, not moving an inch. The first to strike at him was, as expected, the speed-oriented Natalia. She aimed a dashing thrust at his chest, which he dodged by simply pivoting his body to the right. As she passed him by, he pushed on her shoulder with his left hand and sent her stumbling past him. Next came Orran, who raised his sword high up in the air before slashing downwards. This time, Renya dodged by twisting to the left. In the process, he pulled his own sword off his shoulder and used it to strike a light blow at Orran’s waist before hurling the burly student behind him as well. Then, he took his first step forward.

A flurry of attacks from the rest of the flunkies rained down on him. He continued to press forward, evading every single strike without even using his sword. In the blink of an eye, he slipped past dozens of limbs and blades to appear in front of the spellcasters in mid-chant. They stared at him with eyes wide and mouths agape, the rest of their incantations lost to surprise.

“Tactics 101. Kill the mages first.”

Renya swept his sword in a horizontal arc. It caught a girl in the waist. She vanished from view. His sword snapped back and lodged itself in the shoulder of a boy, smacking him down onto the ground.

Thud.

The sound of a body impacting hard earth signaled the reappearance of the girl as she rolled wildly along the ground. When she came to a stop, she vanished again, this time for good. The boy, one hand clutching his shoulder, tried to stand back up. He looked up. His face twisted in shock at the sight of an incoming boot.

“Ah… Sto—”

The boy’s plea went unheard. Renya stamped his foot. A gratifying sensation came from the bottom of his boot. An arm moved to shield its body. He stomped on it. A body crawled away to escape. He stomped on it. The back of a head was exposed. He kicked it. Then, he stomped on it, too.

It writhed. He stomped. It writhed again. He stomped again.

He stomped and stomped until it ceased to move. He looked down. It was gone. Slowly, he turned around.

His gaze lingered for a moment on the remainder of the flunkies, petrified by the atrocity they just witnessed. Then, it shifted to Orran and Natalia, who were staring at him blankly in shock.

“Frau, let Azu deal with our good teacher Lealis for now. Could you go block off the exit of the sparring grounds for me?”

“Okie dokie~”

For some reason, Renya could feel a chirpy enthusiasm in her thought-words. He momentarily considered if he was maybe rubbing off a little too quickly on her as a couple of girls slashed at him with swords, their cries sounding more like screams of fear than roars of battle. He effortlessly swiped their blades away. One girl stumbled past him, off-balance. He drove a knee into the pit of her stomach. Gut juices spilled out of her mouth. She curled in agony, exposing the back of her head. He slammed his elbow down on it and stomped on the fallen body. Then, he drove his foot into her side. She retched again, throwing up fluids both yellow and red, but did not disappear. Apparently, it wasn’t enough to be lethal. He shrugged and smiled before he dropped his heel firmly onto her head once more. This time, her body faded.

“Azzy?! What is going on?! That person clearly came here to kill people!”

“It’s okay, Ms. Lealis. He knows they won’t die.”

Somewhere in the distance, Renya heard one voice cry out in distress and another trying to placate it. He ignored them and looked around at the students. Seeing three of their classmates wiped out in an instant seemed to have given all of them cold feet. He grunted. That was no fun. At this rate, the goblins at the settlers’ village would have put up more of a fight.

He grabbed one of the male students by the collar, pulled him close, and looked into a pair of fear-filled eyes. Before the boy could utter a word, Renya drove his forehead into the bridge of the student’s nose. He repeated this a few more times before letting go. The boy crumpled from the knees and fell to the ground, but not before he sent a kick into his victim’s groin, leaving the boy frothing at the mouth as he squirmed and twisted in pain. It occurred to Renya that having this kid vanish would be less interesting, so he left him on the ground. Then, he turned back to Orran and Natalia, who still stood unmoving, and smiled.

“Hey, the two boss apes standing there. You’d better do something before all your monkey mates are gone,” he said tauntingly at the motionless pair.

Natalia continued to stare at him with a blanched face. Her sword shook along with her trembling hands. She was in no state to fight. Orran, meanwhile, tsked as he gripped his sword with both hands. With a roar, he charged at Renya. Like a true one-trick pony, he swung his longsword down in the exact same way as before. In response, Renya lifted the sword in his right hand to meet it. The downward swing of two hands clashed with the upward swing of only one. The outcome should have been obvious.

Renya finished his swing. The impact of the clash sent his opponent’s sword flying into the air. He glared at the weaponless Orran menacingly before bringing his hilt down on the burly student’s forehead.

“Gwah!”

Holding his forehead, Orran contorted backward in pain, only to have Renya forcefully reverse his curvature with a straight kick to the stomach. A rough landing on his rear was followed by a furious assault of words.

“You messing me with, kid?! What kind of swordsman lets go of his sword in battle, huh? Make like a dog and go fetch your damn sword!” he yelled angrily.

Orran had barely managed to get his legs under him before Renya mercilessly sent him flying with another kick.

“I said make like a dog! Do dogs walk on two legs, huh?! Crawl on all fours, you mutt!”

Seeing that Orran was still trying to stand up, he kicked him again. Then, he pressed his foot on Orran’s body and ruthlessly stomped until his victim gaspingly slithered away on all fours to retrieve his sword. Finally, he glanced over his shoulder at a boy who was creeping up behind him. That one look caused the student to freeze. It irked him all the more.

“Don’t stop,” he roared as he threw all his irritation into a full-body swing, “just because somebody looked at you!”

His sword smashed through arm and body alike. The boy fell to the ground before he could utter even a cry. A second later, the boy grabbed one arm with the other, screaming as he squirmed. Had Renya scored a direct hit on the body, it would surely have been lethal. Fortunately for the boy, his arm got in the way, allowing him to get away with nothing more than a complete shattering of the bones in his cushioning limb.

Renya slowly lowered his sword and looked around. The students all cast their eyes downward. None ventured to meet his gaze.

“Th-This isn’t over!”

It was Natalia who spoke. Her hands remained trembling, but she glared at Renya from within her circle of flunkies and yelled her encouragement at her classmates.

“The opponent is only one person! We can do this! Victory is still within our grasp!”

The fact that Natalia had not lost her will to fight combined with their advantage in numbers was enough to hold together the students’ crumbling morale. In addition, though the process of retrieving his weapon was unseemly, Orran was still conscious as well.

“You want to keep going? Hm… I see.” Renya watched as the students brandished their weapons. This time, they moved to surround him. He smiled with glee. “Well, sure. You can’t die here, and there’s no harm in gaining some more battlefield experience… After all, it’s not every day you get to experience the thrill of a massacre from the victims’ side.”

The grounds protected their bodies, but nothing guarded their minds. He took a step forward and scanned the students for his next victim, hoping he wouldn’t have to deal with any mental casualties at the end of it all.

Step after deliberate step, Renya approached the students. Hidden behind his confident gait, however, was a shadow of doubt. He had not expected them to put up so much resistance. Originally, he had hoped the students would cave after seeing two or three of their classmates cut down in an instant. Instead, though his gruesome pummeling had left them shaken to the core, they were still managing to keep themselves together.

He didn’t want anyone to end up dead, so he had been holding back to some degree. Unfortunately, leaving Orran and Natalia mostly healthy proved to be a mistake; the presence of their leaders was doubtlessly a major factor in maintaining the students’ morale. With a tinge of regret, he realized that he should have taken one of them out in the beginning.

Currently, a total of eight students remained: three boys and five girls. Out of those eight, three of the boys and one of the girls had moved in to surround him. Each of the remaining four girls were preparing to use magecraft.

“Hit him from all sides! You don’t need to knock him out for good! Slowing him down is enough!”

The front line would buy time while the back line prepared their spells. By employing hard-to-dodge spells to chip away at their target’s stamina, they would eventually slow him down enough for the front line to go in for the kill. It was a tried-and-true method of fighting group battles. Even if their opponent proved to be far superior in skill, it would take a good deal of time to defeat swordsmen who were focused entirely on defending. All the while, support fire would be raining down from all sides, making it even harder for the target to break through their formation.

“Don’t blame us. You’re the one who wanted to fight a group battle.” Taking Renya’s inaction for hesitation, Orran grinned as he spoke.

In actuality, Renya’s thoughts were elsewhere. If he wanted to, he could have smacked down Orran and silenced the girls behind him. However, faced with a mighty foe, the students had made a sincere attempt to come up with a plan of attack. Crude as it might be, it seemed a tad too heartless to simply walk all over their efforts. Were this a true battle, he certainly wouldn’t have entertained such thoughts. In battles, when given the chance to crush the opponent, it was common sense to take it. In this case, though, Renya found that he had lost interest in the whole affair. Sure, they beat their teacher and their egos were too bloated for their own good, but they were just a bunch of kids with far more bark than bite. Had they been trained soldiers, he would not have hesitated, but they were students. And some truly sub-par ones at that. Faced with nothing more than a gang of spunky kids, he couldn’t muster the resolve to crush them in cold blood.

“Front line, down! Mages, fire!”

Natalia’s orders rang out in the sparring grounds. The defenders at the front retreated, clearing the way for the simultaneous shooting of three firebolts. Those would cause some good damage if they hit, so Renya stepped forward and cut one down with his sword. Unlike when he did so with his own katana, the impact of blade with flame produced yet more flame that blanketed his view. The drastically different result took him by surprise, slowing him by a beat. He barely avoided a direct hit by the next firebolt, but it grazed his left shoulder, leaving a light burn. The sting of pain slowed him yet again, allowing Orran to rush up to him. With the momentum of his charge, Orran made a powerful swing at Renya’s left side.

In the heat of the moment, Renya managed to flip his sword from his right hand to his left, reversing the grip in the process. He pressed the flat of the blade against his side, blocking the incoming sword. The impact of Orran’s swing, however, shot straight through the blades and into his body, causing him to grimace. Normally, he would have leapt in the direction of the strike to soften the blow, but he instead did the opposite, opting to press forward and push back Orran’s sword. In analyzing the situation, he decided that he needed to force the issue or risk being whittled down by a flurry of attacks. This decision of his produced an unexpected result.

“Mage, hit him with a second wave of spells! Don’t worry about Orran! Just fire!”

“What? You!”

With Orran so close to Renya, aiming for one of them with spells would risk hitting the other. Renya was counting on that to cause some hesitation in their ranks, but Natalia — the damn girl was more ruthless than he thought — gave the order to just blow them all to smithereens. He had to give her credit; her decision wasn’t wrong. Even if they had to shoot through Orran, hitting Renya would weaken him even further. With three people still standing in their front line and their back line unscathed, they would be far closer to victory. All of this, of course, was based on the assumption that the people involved — both those to shoot and be shot — immediately obeyed her command.

The four in the front all spun around to stare at Natalia as a realization dawned upon them. If Orran was first, any one of them could be next; none of them were safe from sacrifice. The three in the back hesitated. Perhaps it was due to the very act of attacking a friend, or perhaps it was the fact that they risked harming General Schmeisser’s son and heir. Either way, they delayed firing off their spells. Next, Natalia was shocked to realize that she had become the focus her classmates’ scornful gazes. The final realization came to Renya, who discovered that everyone’s attention had shifted away from him.

Renya let out a soft sigh. Looking away from an opponent in battle was to risk certain death, but there was little to gain from lecturing the students right now. Instead, he placed his right hand on Orran’s body and pushed. The burly student lost his balance and fell away. The remaining boys had just begun to look back toward Renya when he dashed up to one of them, grabbed the boy’s belt with his right hand, and lifted. Employing the technique of hammer throwing, he spun in circles, making about two full rotations. Then, with plenty of centrifugal force built up, he let the boy fly, sending him shooting into the line of girls in the back.

The boy screamed. The girls screamed louder.

The three remaining front liners proceeded to repeat their prior mistake and shift their attention to the new source of commotion. Renya shook his head, finding the effect almost comical. He couldn’t tell if these kids even understood what it meant to be in battle. If they had been listening in class, this would certainly be the teacher’s fault for doing a terrible job of teaching. Considering their haughty attitude toward Lealis, though, they probably weren’t the most attentive bunch. He couldn’t blame Lealis if she never had a chance to teach. As he picked up another victim and hurled the boy-hammer at the girls, a corner of his lip twisted upward.

Heh. Dodged a bullet this time, didn’t you?

“A-Azzy?! Is it just me or did a terrible chill just run down my spine?!”

“Relax, Ms. Lealis. I’m sure it’s just you.”

The conversation that drifted into Renya’s ears made him grin even more. It seemed that out of all the things these kids stood to learn from their teacher, the first thing should have been her sense of danger.

Only one girl and Orran remained in their front line. The girls in their back line were buried under the bodies of the two boys who flew into them. They were in the process of crawling out, but none of them were in any condition to lend support fire.

“I’m starting to get bored, my dear boys and girls! Aren’t you supposed to be nobles? And you can’t even beat an F-rank adventurer? After all that big talk, too. Man, in a way, I’m almost impressed.”

“Scum… You think you’ll get away with this?”

“Ah, of course. Step two of ‘How to be a stuck-up brat.’ Threaten people with your social standing. Honestly, this is starting to get stupid.”

“Y-You damned—”

“Look, buddy. I’m rank F and you can’t even beat me. You realize Ms. Lealis is rank D, right? What makes you think you can make fun of her? Do you even know why I’m F and she’s D? You clearly have no idea, and yet you still have the nerve to get all cocky about beating her once? What a bunch of clowns you are.”

“Shut that dirty mouth of yours!” Orran roared in rage and swung his sword at Renya. It was a predictable strike. Disappointingly predictable.

A strike from Orran, augmented by his natural gift of size and power, should have been fairly risky to block. If one was skilled enough to not block but evade, however, the big student’s blade posed little more threat than those of a windmill. Having lost even the patience to wait for the heavy strike to fall, Renya dove forward and whacked Orran’s wrist with his sword. The pain caused Orran to drop his sword again. Renya couldn’t be bothered to warn him again, so he snapped his foot up into Orran’s groin, who bent forwards with a moan. He looked down. Then, with a hint of theatrics, he slowly raised his sword high above the crumpled student’s head.

“W-Wait… Stop! Don’t!”

“Are you going to beg for your life? Too bad, because I’m not listening.”

Renya’s arm came down hard, driving his weapon straight into Orran’s shoulder. Orran fell to his knees from the blow, clutching at his injury. However, Renya did not stop there. He slammed his sword down once more. Then, he did it again. And again. Faster and faster. Harder and harder. He rained blow after blow down onto the kneeling Orran. So long as the force field deemed the attacks unlethal, it would not eject the victim outside. Also, so long as hard metal met bare skin, even a dull blade could draw blood. There was no trickery, no technique behind his strikes. There was only the raw ferocity of brute force. He raised his arm, then he brought it down. With each cycle, he tore more flesh, splashing thick globs of gruesome red onto his sword, his arm, and all over himself. Stained with blood, he laughed, high-pitched and maniacal. But he did not stop.

The scene defied description. The onlooking students blanched. No one moved. For a few breathless moments, there was nothing but the sickening noise of cold iron hitting bone and flesh. Eventually, the noises faded. Orran’s body soon followed suit.

One girl remained in their front line. Renya turned his body toward her, allowing his sword to dangle loosely from his hand. A river of red flowed down the length of the blade. Then, slowly, he turned his bloodstained face toward her as well. She barely caught a glimpse of his eyes before her legs failed her and she plopped down on the ground.

“H-Help… Please…”

Her sword dropped onto the ground beside her. She held her hands together in front of her chest and made a desperate plea. Renya said nothing. He took a step toward her. Then, another.

“Please… I’m sorry… I’ll do anything… Please don’t…”

Renya did not answer. He stopped in front of the girl. Slowly, the same way as before, he raised his sword high above her head.

“Please… No… Not like that… Not like that, please.”

The crimson guillotine paused in mid-air. Its holder looked down at the girl. In a cold, flat voice, he said,

“Die.”

“Noooooooo—”

The blade came down swiftly, cutting short the girl’s scream. It flashed before her eyes before hitting the floor with a shrill clang. The cowering girl, eyes wide with disbelief, glanced down. A length of cold metal gleamed in the ground. She glanced back up at Renya. Her eyes rolled back in her head and she fell onto her back. A faint stain began to spread between her limp legs. Renya looked away.

Turning around, he found that the girls of the back line had finally managed to crawl out from under the boys.

“Four more, huh. You’re next, girls. How shall I make you scream?”

“N-No…”

Without so much as a glance at Renya, Natalia and the three girls spun around and ran toward the exit of the grounds. Their reasoning, presumably, was that Renya only did this because he knew they couldn’t die within the force field. Once they were outside, they would be safe. Of course, the door of the exit did not open. Unbeknownst to them, Frau had spent this whole time setting up a massive barricade outside to keep the door closed.

“Open up! Open this door! Let us out!”

“Please no! Please, don’t let him do that to me!”

“Ms. Lealis! Help! Please!”

Slowly, Renya walked toward them. He made a point of dragging the tip of his sword along the ground. The frightening sway to his steps along with the grating metallic noise struck even more terror into the students’ hearts. They banged on the door ever more hysterically.

“What’s the matter, girls? What’re you so scared of?” There was a chilling glee to Renya’s voice. “Don’t worry. You can’t be killed in the force field. You can hurt. You can scream. You can be in so much pain you’d rather die…” He grinned and held out his sword, making sure they could all see its cold luster before he raised it high above their heads. “But you won’t, so it’ll all be fine, right?”

“Stop!” Lealis’s voice rang out from the audience seats. “Enough. That’s… enough. Please, no more…”

“You’re not the one who hired me, so…” Renya looked at Azu, who was standing beside Lealis. “Well?”

“You’ve done enough. I think they learned their lesson.”

“All right. Well, if the boss says it’s fine, then I guess we’ll call it a day.”

He casually threw his sword on the ground in front of Natalia and the girls. Then, he turned to their deathly pale faces and fixed them with a glare.

“Now, remember this, girls. All of this has been child’s play, and if I ever have to do this again, then you’ll see why.”

The students vigorously nodded their heads up and down, their hands clutching desperately at the door. Renya had just begun to wonder whether he overdid the intimidation a bit when an explosion sent the door, the girls, and a whole lot of something else flying over his head. They all landed with heavy thuds behind him, and he stared astonishedly at the gaping hole in the wall that was once a door. Frau appeared in the opening with her hands in the air. She beamed at him.

“Yay! Master did a great job!”

“Frau… was that you just now?”

“Taking down the barricade was too much work, so Frau just blew it all away! Frau doesn’t waste time because she’s a good girl!”

“Uh, okay then. Sure, I guess?”

He glanced at the pile of door and barricade behind him but could find no trace of Natalia or the girls beneath the rubble. They were inside the force field, so they shouldn’t have died, but it did raise the question of which was a worse fate: being flattened by debris or beaten to a pulp by him. The answer, he supposed, would now forever elude him.

“All right, Frau, let’s go home.”

“Yay! Home time! Also, Master needs to change his clothes because he’s all yucky.”

“Hold on a minute, Renya. What are you going to do about this door you just broke?”

“Just add it to their medical costs. They’re going to demand a fortune anyway, right? I’ll let you handle that.”

“Azzy… we need to talk, okay?”

Azu’s expression stiffened when he felt Lealis pull on his robe. Renya shrugged and left. Whether Azu was about to be thanked or scolded, he did not know, and should not know.

“Good luck, Azu.”

“Make no mistake, Renya… after this, we’re going to have a good talk, too.”

“If I feel like it, sure. Oh, and make sure you pay me, okay? I get upset when I’m not paid. And things get broken when I’m upset.”

“Master, home time! Less talk, more walk!”

Renya and Azu parted ways, each dragged away by their companion. Before the mage even disappeared from view, Renya’s thoughts had already turned to more important matters.

Like, for example, how terribly unpleasant it was going to be to walk home with his clothes thoroughly soaked in blood.