She pointed at the oil-stained "Missing Cat" poster in disbelief, her voice cracking.
"You’ve got to be kidding me! This kind of grunt work... this is for low-level servants! I... I am a great sorceress! I am the future... that thing!"
"Stop with the 'I' already, Miss Lucifer."
Leo snapped his manual shut with a click, a mocking smirk playing on his lips as if he had seen through the world.
He turned around, leaning his back against the quest board, his gaze sweeping over the young, restless faces in the hall.
"This isn't some holy land of passion and dreams."
Leo spoke in a low voice, his tone carrying the cynical chill of a veteran who had seen too much of the world.
"It’s just a cleverly designed social pressure release valve."
"Pressure release valve?" Lucrezia blinked.
"Look at these people." Leo tilted his chin. "Most of them are idle young men who’ve been brainwashed by the stories of bards. they don't produce anything, and they're overflowing with hormones. If they gathered together with nothing to do, they’d be a massive source of social instability."
"The creation of the adventurer's guild was a stroke of genius for those noble lords."
"It gives this displaced labor force a place to go that seems 'free,' along with a ridiculously cheap pie-in-the-sky promise of promotion."
Leo pointed at the tasks like "Find the Cat" or "Clear the Sewers."
"The vast majority of people will waste years being squeezed as cheap labor. They'll eventually face reality, have their edges smoothed out, and then go home to farm and get married."
"As for those 'trust-me-bro' types who can't see reality and insist on challenging magical beasts..." Leo shrugged. "Most of them end up... well, you know."
"Meanwhile, the guild and the nobles can easily filter out the one-in-ten-thousand talents who actually have ability and ambition. At the same time, the spread of adventurer status perfectly solves the problem of registering and controlling the floating population."
"They're winning all around."
"Tsk."
Having figured out the logic behind it, Leo couldn't help but sigh.
It seemed he had been too idealistic.
"Saving up money for a promotion through this garbage? It would take months. By then, the ship would have sailed while we’re still looking for cats for some bakery owner."
Dejected, the two squeezed out of the guild hall.
The setting sun was already sinking, stretching their shadows long across the potholed cobblestone road.
"Sigh, seriously..." Lucrezia kicked a small stone on the roadside. Her excitement had completely vanished, replaced by a face full of gloom.
Just as they turned a street corner, Lucrezia’s footsteps came to a sudden halt, her small head snapping around alertly.
"Hey... small fry..."
She lowered her voice, her body instinctively pressing closer to Leo, her small hand unconsciously gripping his sleeve.
"I... I feel like... like someone is watching us. Right behind us."
"Sharp instincts."
Leo’s gaze instantly sharpened, but his pace didn't falter.
He calmly led Lucrezia to a street vendor's copper mirror, pretending to examine the small trinkets while using the reflection to observe what was behind them.
In the blurry reflection of the copper mirror...
Two beastmen thugs with brutish faces were hanging back at the corner, pretending to chat, but their eyes drifted toward them from time to time.
"Two tails."
Leo’s voice was icy as he set down the trinket. "As expected, that old geezer is greedy as hell."
The internal strife in the Akhtar Duchy had caused a large number of nobles to flee, and Kent Town was one of the mandatory waypoints.
With so many fat sheep passing through, if that old fox running the pawnshop didn't take a bite, how could he have kept his position until today?
After all, if it were me, I wouldn't let these two pieces of meat delivered to my doorstep go either...
Leo sneered inwardly. To some extent, he and that old fox were the same kind of person.
Without pawning the items, the two of them wouldn't be able to move an inch; it was a risk they had to take.
Besides...
Leo sensed the shattered and parched mana source within him, with a repair progress of only 1.2%. A cold glint, like a hunter spotting prey, flashed deep in his eyes.
He was just worrying about where to get some high-purity 'goods' to speed up the process.
And now, isn't the delivery arriving right at his door?
In a border town of a mere small country, there would be at most a couple of small fry.
Sigh, I really wanted to be a law-abiding citizen...
Leo gently twirled the dagger in his hand, looking at the deepening night outside the window, his lips curling into a cruel arc.
But if someone is rushing to their death, my blade might as well be sharp!
"Then... then what do we do?" Lucrezia’s small face instantly grew tense. "They shouldn't dare to make a move in the city, right?"
"In theory, yes."
Leo pulled her along toward the inn, even stopping to buy a roasted sweet potato to stuff into her hand.
"But it’s better to be safe than sorry."
He recalled the conversation between the two guards at the gate about the "Second Young Master" and a "big commotion."
"This Kent Town is a powder keg. I've seen the 'authorities and bandits are one family' act plenty of times."
Leo made a snap decision. "If nothing happens, we leave tomorrow morning. But... before that, we need to make some preparations."
They didn't return to the inn immediately. Instead, before it got completely dark, they ducked into the town's commercial district.
Leo led Lucrezia through several general stores in quick succession, purchasing a batch of essential supplies: dried rations, water skins, rope, flint, and most importantly, a map of the Solaris Duchy.
After the shopping spree, they had spent a total of 1 gold and 13 silver, all of which came out of the public fund.
Seeing the coin pouch deflate so rapidly, Lucrezia felt a sharp twinge of pain in her heart.
Back at The Sleeping Dwarf tavern, Leo paid for another night's stay at the front desk.
"I want to eat something good!"
As they passed through the hall, smelling the rich aroma of food, Lucrezia couldn't move her feet.
She grabbed Leo’s sleeve and pointed at the glistening honey-glazed roasted chicken on the neighboring table, tears practically leaking from the corners of her mouth.
"I want to eat this! Or else I’m not moving!!"
"...Fine."
Leo looked at her greedy expression and, after a thought, nodded.
After all, there might be a tough fight tonight. How could they work without a full stomach?
In the downstairs hall, they ordered a fairly lavish dinner and devoured it like a whirlwind.
"Then... what about a bath?"
Having eaten and drunk her fill, Lucrezia pushed her luck, thinking about that 1 silver coin hot bath again.
"Forget the bath," Leo rejected her flatly, his expression solemn. "Next time. Tonight might be restless. Don't take off your clothes; be ready to run at any moment."
"Tch... stingy."
Back in the dilapidated room, Leo immediately locked the door and jammed a chair firmly under the handle.
"Come here."
"Oh..."
Lucrezia obediently approached.
Leo didn't stand on ceremony.
"Mm..."
The girl let out a soft groan, her face turning slightly pale.
In one go, Leo drew 20% of her mana reserves, causing her mana pool—which had only just begun to recover—to plummet to 74%.
He could feel that after two days of rest and plenty of food, the girl’s mana recovery speed was indeed much faster than it had been in the swamp.
"Hey, aren't you making too big a deal out of this..."
Lucrezia looked at Leo’s state of high alert, still somewhat unconvinced.
"We're in a town, and there are guards patrolling. Would they really dare to do anything?"
"Guards?"
Leo scoffed, his fingers moving rapidly through the air as he began to lay out a formation.
"There’s only that one pawnshop in this town. Do you think he could stay in business without the permission of the mayor... or rather, that Baron Gareth Hawthorne? Or that it's really the only one?"
While he placed 【Alarm Runes】 and 【Arcane Traps】—far more complex than before—on the doors, windows, floor, and even the ceiling, he gave the naive princess a lesson without looking back.
"He's just the mayor's white glove. Collusion between officials and bandits, crooks robbing crooks—that's standard procedure."
"In this place, that Lord Baron is the law."
Lucrezia opened her mouth to argue, but after thinking it over, she felt it made too much sense.
"Pack everything up and put it back in the bags. Keep your clothes on, keep your shoes on, and be ready to leave at a moment's notice," Leo ordered, clapping his hands after finishing the last rune.
"Oh..."
Rate on N.U.
