It had been a few days since Ravi and Elfin briefly returned to their home country.
From the moment she woke up until she fell asleep, Lenis relentlessly practiced basic magic every single day.
“Huff… Huff… Uweeegh!”
Late into the night, Lenis trained in an empty field, exhausting all her mana.
Completely drained, she collapsed, vomiting from sheer exhaustion.
Instead of the grand, flashy spells she had once favored, she now focused on fundamental magic—true basics of a magician.
In the past, she wouldn’t have given these simple spells a second thought, brushing them aside in favor of attention-grabbing, powerful magic.
But now, Lenis was different.
She recalled the day, just a few days prior, when Alvis returned to the mercenary shelter, dragging the corpse of the escaped experiment.
“Hey, the request is done. This thing is the escaped specimen, right?”
Alvis dropped the fused creature’s corpse onto the street outside the shelter and called out to the mercenaries.
The townspeople gasped in horror as the enormous monster’s body was dumped in the street, yet they couldn’t look away.
The mercenaries inside the shelter stepped out and immediately held their breath.
“G-Gah! W-What the hell is that?!”
“A-An escaped specimen…? But the Magic Tower’s request said there were three of them…”
“They must have fused together. It was already like this when I found it. Three heads—seems to match up, but since the situation is different from the request, call someone from the Magic Tower to verify.”
The mercenaries wasted no time contacting the Magic Tower, and before long, several mages teleported in upon hearing the news.
Examining the corpse with specialized tools and lenses, the mages gaped in astonishment.
“This is unbelievable… It’s confirmed. These are definitely the escaped specimens from our Magic Tower. But we never expected them to fuse together like this… No wonder previous attempts to eliminate them failed. Still, the condition of this chimera fusion corpse is shockingly pristine. Did you take it down, young mercenary?”
“I’m not a mercenary, just a wanderer. But yeah, I did.”
“Amazing. With a corpse in such good condition, we can conduct valuable research on fusion creatures… Hehehe… We never expected such an opportunity.”
“Next time, handle your specimens properly.”
“Of course! We’ll take this incident as a lesson and make sure future specimens are more securely—ah, I almost forgot! The payment. Here’s the promised 5,000 gold. Honestly, we thought we’d never recover from this disaster, but thanks to the Steel Wolf Mercenary Corps, the issue is resolved. We’re truly grateful!”
Handing over the bag of gold to Alvis, the mages teleported away with the fused creature’s corpse.
Alvis lifted the money pouch, showing it to the mercenaries, and spoke to the man who had been polishing a mug when they first accepted the request.
“You said if I came back alive, the split would be 10:0, right?”
The mercenaries remained silent, simply staring at Alvis.
Lenis, wary of any sudden attacks over the gold pouch, discreetly readied herself for battle…
“UOOOOHHHHH!!!”
“Hey, this guy actually pulled off a request that failed seven times!”
“He looks like some pampered noble brat, but damn, he’s got skills!”
“Hey, you must be really good, huh?!”
“We still have a ton of unfinished requests in our mercenary corps! Interested in any of them? You can keep the full reward! If you help us out, our reputation will skyrocket! If you need a position, we’ll make one for you!”
“Come on, don’t just stand around in the street! Join us inside for a drink! Let’s eat, drink, and talk about some of these requests! I’m sure there’s something you’ll find interesting!”
The mercenaries cheered for Alvis, throwing their arms around his shoulders and enthusiastically pulling him and Lenis into the shelter, treating them like honored guests.
Some of the more competitive mercenaries challenged him to spar, but Alvis declined, only skimming through the available requests instead.
“Hey, have you thought about joining our mercenary corps? After handling that nightmare of a request, no one here would object to having you.”
“I appreciate it, but I’ll pass. I’m a wanderer, and I’ve got things to do. I’m not in a position to settle down anywhere.”
“Man, that’s a shame. I really wanted to see more of your skills firsthand. In that case, at least let us register you as an honorary member of our mercenary corps. What’s your name?”
“Alvis. Do whatever you want about the honorary membership. Doesn’t matter to me.”
“Hahaha! Alvis, got it! You said you’d be staying for about two weeks, right? We’ve got plenty of well-paying requests, so make sure you take them from us instead of anywhere else!”
The mercenaries cheered for Alvis, urging him to take requests exclusively from their corps.
Watching this, Lenis felt a mix of admiration, envy, and jealousy all at once.
A man who had no background, no connections—only raw skill to earn respect and recognition.
In just a few hours, Alvis had gained everything Lenis had always longed for: genuine acknowledgment from others.
Even though she was merely introduced as Alvis’s servant, the mercenaries still treated her well, offering her delicious food and drinks. But Lenis couldn’t bring herself to eat.
A deep, gnawing jealousy twisted inside her.
The very thing she lacked, the thing she desired more than anything, had been effortlessly obtained by Alvis—the very person she used to look down on.
Overwhelmed by shame, she recalled how useless she had been against the fused creature. Her face burned red as humiliation overtook her.
From that day forward, Lenis pushed herself to the limit, squeezing every last drop of mana from her body, training relentlessly until she collapsed from exhaustion.
“Hah… Hah… Ugh…! It’s too much… I can’t anymore…”
Leaning against a tree, vomiting, Lenis was in unbearable pain.
For a moment, she considered stopping for the day.
Then, in her mind, she heard Alvis’s voice echoing like a hallucination.
- Hey, Lenis! You’re giving up already? Even I, the laughingstock of the academy, managed to pull this off, and this is all you’ve got? Come on! You can do better! Get up and focus!
- Lenis, you stupid! What do you think you’re going to accomplish by collapsing like this?! Are you really going to let yourself be worse than the academy’s biggest screw-up?!
- The world isn’t going to wait for you! If you want recognition, stop whining like a coward and stand up! Overcome it! You think people won’t see through your shallow, show-off magic? If you want respect, earn it with real effort!
Her limbs trembling, Lenis forced herself away from the tree and staggered back to the open field.
Even with her vision blurred and her body drained, she moved, driven by the voice in her head.
“Damn it… Who… Who said I was gonna stay down…?”
Fueled by the imaginary Alvis in her mind, Lenis gritted her teeth, squeezed out every ounce of mana she had left, and resumed her training.
Alvis had never actually said anything like that.
But in Lenis’s heart, her inner vision of him had become a solid, unshakable force.
Meanwhile, back in the Carat Dutchy, Ravi finally enjoyed the comforts of home, resting in a cozy environment and eating proper meals to recover her energy.
As she recounted her journey to her father, Duke Rieve, he clutched his head in distress.
“Ugh… This is turning into something bigger than I expected. I had already heard the news that Baron Vector’s territory in the Pratea Kingdom completely vanished overnight. I wondered what kind of sorcery could have caused such a thing, but now…”
“Dad, you must keep this secret. I have a bad feeling about this. We don’t know who belongs to that faction, and if they find out we know, they might try to eliminate us.”
“I understand. I won’t even tell your mother—this stays between us. But Ravi, if the outside world is becoming this dangerous, wouldn’t it be wiser to inform that Alvis fellow and withdraw from the investigation team?”
“No way!”
Ravi instinctively raised her voice, surprising even herself.
She quickly covered her mouth.
“I… There are three others besides me. If I leave just because it’s dangerous, what would people think of me? What would they think of the Bunny Tribe and the Carat Dutchy? Besides, Alvis is actually leading the team really well. I’m sure we’ll be fine. Instead of hiding and trembling in fear, wouldn’t it be better to seek them out and eliminate them first?”
“…Is that what you really think?”
“If that’s how you feel, I won’t stop you. But Ravi, promise me—always be careful.”
“…Yeah!”
At that moment, a voice called from outside the room.
“Your Grace, the guests you were expecting have arrived at the castle gates.”
“Oh, is it that time already? Understood, I’ll be there shortly.”
“Guests? Who’s coming today?”
Hearing Ravi’s question, Duke Rieve nodded.
“Yes. Today, the Holy Knight is visiting our country. You’re just in time—why don’t you come and greet them with me?”