The depressed Vibrio was sitting in the corner of her room when Hillis forced her out of the temple. Hillis’s paladin escorts wore casual clothes so they wouldn’t stand out and could guard her in secret.

  "Unni! It’s a nice day, isn’t it?”


  Hillis smiled brightly, but Vibrio lifelessly smiled and nodded. "That’s right."

  Vibrio’s lifeless smile bothered her, but Hillis tried to ignore it and held Vibrio’s hand. "I heard there’s a market over there? It’s my first time in the capital, so can you show me around?”


  Vibrio tried to reason with Hillis, who was dragging her in the direction of the market. "Go slow. If you fall, Albatoss will come running in panic.”


  "Hehe, really?" Hillis stuck out her tongue and smiled, and Vibrio stroked her head.

  * * *

  "Huha! This is hard!" Flam sat next to me with an exhausted sigh.

  "Did something happen over there?”


  Flam was located at training hall seven of the low-rank knight school. Our duties were to distribute the number tickets and some items to the preliminary round participants, as well as crowd control. So, he and I should have had very similar work.

  "It was because a general named Bloody visited, and people got too excited and went a little wild. I tried to stop a few of the preliminary round participants, but they were aggressive about getting autographs, so I had a hard time."

  Wow, I’m glad I didn’t go there. If I got unlucky, I would have been filming another escape scene once more.

  “You went through a lot of trouble," I said as I gave a cold bottled drink to Flam.

  He received it with thanks and poured it down his throat. "Keu-ah, how refreshing. Thanks for the drink. Anyways, the wild crowd was kind of scary."

  "It is." I received the empty bottle from Flam and nodded.

  Certainly, for those who knew how to handle the sword, my uncle was an existence like an idol. Whenever Uncle Bloody was mentioned, even Lisbon would get excited and chatter about Uncle’s achievements. As his nephew, it was kind of ridiculous.

  Uncle’s great achievements that they often talked about were merely him killing a large-scale demon in one blow or blocking 1,000 knights alone on the battlefield. When I heard the stories, I cursed at myself for even questioning whether it was worthy of making a fuss. In all honesty, it would be stranger if a Crow couldn’t even do that much as an adult.

  Although I was called talented by the people in my hometown, it wouldn’t make sense for Uncle not to be able to accomplish what I could at only 16 years old. It made even less sense when considering that Uncle was stronger than me if we fought with just our bodies and swordsmanship, no magic.

  "Come to think of it, I think I heard that Alphonso was being taught by General Bloody, so maybe that’s why he went over there."

  If Alphonso’s skills were still only at that level despite receiving guidance from Uncle, he must not have a good talent for it. Uncle Bloody was a simple person, but he was surprisingly good at teaching. This was expected, of course, considering he was the first disciple of Elder Weger, the best master swordsman of the Crows.

  Yet, I couldn’t say that Alphonso was devoid of talent. In terms of talent, he would probably be between common and brilliant? If he didn’t give up, I could probably see Alphonso pulling off an aura blade in his mid to late 30s.

  "I see. No wonder." Flam nodded with an understanding expression.

  "Oh, now that I’m remembering, Alphonso looked like he was going to cry because you didn’t come to cheer him on."

  "No, but how could I go over there when I’m working?"

  Actually, I had no plans to go in the first place. How could I go cheer him on when I might run into Uncle Bloody?

  "Haha, that’s what I told him too. He seemed to accept it immediately when I told him that if your grades fell, you’d be sent to the countryside and be separated from him."

  "Hahaha. I see.”


  While I was resting and chatting with Flam, a civil servant from the ceremony department rushed over to us.

  "I have some urgent documents that need to be delivered to the temple. Who wants to go?"

  The civil servant seemed to have come over while busy with something else, as his hair was scattered and he was short of breath.

  "I-"

  "No, I will go." I cut off Flam and got up from my seat.

  "Get some more rest. You just went through a lot of hardship."

  Even I wouldn’t be so heartless as to send someone who had just gone through a lot of trouble.

  The civil servant handed me the documents with a relieved look and spoke, "Thanks! You look like a trainee for the martial arts competition. I’ll give you extra points later!”


  "No! That’s all right!"

  I was already close, so I didn’t need any more points.

  When I fiercely refused, the civil servant took a step back and nodded. "Uh, okay."

  "Then, I’ll be right back. I will just say it again, but I don’t want any extra points." After making the request again to the confused civil servant, I lightly ran off in the direction of the temple.

  * * *

  The New Year’s Festival had not even begun yet, but the market was packed with an energetic and bustling crowd.

  "Kka-aht!" Hillis looked like she was about to fall from being swept by the crowd. However, one of the paladins escorting her from a distance quickly rushed over and caught her.

  "Thank you."

  The paladin smiled brightly at Hillis’s thanks. "No, I just did what I’m supposed to do."

  When Hillis regained her balance, the paladin disappeared into the crowd to not make her feel uncomfortable. The scene of the paladin disappearing was so natural that you could have believed he was an assassin. It was all because of Hillis’s personality, as she hated her surroundings being controlled just for her sake.

  Hillis looked around for Vibrio but could not find her. Vibrio seemed to have been swept away by the crowd when Hillis had almost fallen over.

  Unlike Hillis’s escorts mastering the skill of moving freely through the crowd, Fernando’s escort, Vibrio, was used to regulating the surroundings thoroughly and was not used to such a skill.

  "Albatoss."

  "Did you call for me?" Albatoss, dressed in everyday clothes, immediately went to Hillis’s side as if he had been walking next to her the whole time.

  Hillis spoke naturally to Albatoss, "I’ve been separated from my sister. Find her."

  "I understand. We’ll start the search right away and leave behind only the minimum needed for the escort." Albatoss immediately disappeared into the crowd.

  Hillis looked around and decided to get out of the crowd. "Excuse, I’m passing through.”


  Even when she struggled to pass through the crowd, the paladins did not come forward. This was partially because most of the guards went to search for the missing Vibrio and also because they knew she didn’t want the help.

  Hillis had just passed through the crowd and was heading toward a quiet alley when at the same time, her foot got caught on a stone, and she almost fell again.

  "Are you all right?" When Hillis was about to fall over, the person who grabbed her this time was not one of her paladin escorts.

  "Ah! Thank you." Hillis smiled kindly as if it was habit and greeted the boy who caught her.

  "So…… Mr. Den?"

  When she read the name on the civil servant ID card on his neck and made eye contact, the boy gave a mischievous smile with his eyes and spoke, "No, it was nothing."

  When she saw him smile with his eyes, she discovered that he was a mischievous person like herself.

  * * *

  I arrived at the temple and delivered the urgent document. The temple skillfully handled the documents as if they were used to this kind of situation and gave me wheat bread used for offerings, a temple specialty, as a gift. While eating the offering bread that tasted like rice crackers, I slowly walked to where I was originally located.

  The New Year’s Festival was busy not only for civil servants but also for those in the temple who worked for the imperial family’s temple events. Although there were temple events, it was no exaggeration to say that most of the New Year’s Festival events were held in conjunction with the temple.

  In the old days, the imperial family had nothing to do with the New Year’s Festival. However, a former Emperor changed the supervision of the New Year’s Festival from the temple to the imperial family, saying it was necessary to keep the temple in check.

  Of course, as it was difficult to suddenly start something with no experience, cooperation with the temple was absolutely necessary in order to hold the New Year’s Festival.

  The temple was displeased with losing the event they used to supervise, but the New Year’s Festival was an important rite where they gave offerings to the Goddess of the temple. Therefore, the temple had no choice but to accept it.

  By the way, this was pretty tasty. Is it okay to have such delicious offering bread?

  According to the temple’s doctrines, the bread was designed so that anyone could find it delicious. The temple said that everyone was a child of the Goddess regardless if they were a believer, so long as they weren’t a black magician.

  Well, I do know some ancient black magic spells, but I don’t have any black mana, so I’m sure I won’t get anything like divine punishment. Now that I thought about this, if I were to receive divine punishment, I should have received it when I stole the goddess statue.

  I threw the rest of the offering bread in my mouth and headed for the shortcut to the market.

  Even if I went back quickly, I would just have to work more. But also, because the New Year’s Festival was nearing, the streets were so crowded that it was hard to find a corner to rest secretly. Even if I had to work, working in a sparsely populated place would be more comfortable.

  "Wow, that’s no joke."

  The market was filled with people even though the New Year’s Festival had not begun. Well, it was understandable for merchants to snag a stall spot a day before the New Year’s Festival. They needed space to sell their local specialties that were rare in the capital. Still, this crowd was too much.

  I had to make a little detour, so I slipped into the back alley of the market and went through the complicated road. This path would allow me to reach the destination more quickly than other ways through the market. I was passing through an alley when a girl suddenly popped out of the market street and rushed towards me.

  I started to subconsciously quickly dodge, but then thought she might end up falling onto the ground and caught her. "Are you all right?"

  The girl who barely managed to keep her balance raised her head and answered, "Ah! Thank you. So…… Mr. Den?"

  The girl looked at my civil servant ID card and said my name. I gave a friendly smile and spoke, "No, it was nothing."

  The girl had a benevolent smile, but it somehow felt like a disguise to hide her dark inner self. It seems this girl is the same kind of person as me.

  The girl fixed her disheveled appearance from having waded through the crowd and introduced herself. "Since it’s not polite to know the other’s name and not introduce yourself, my name is Hillis."

  "Ah, yes, I’m Den." The girl in front of me already knew my name, but I still introduced myself.