In Addition to the contract, Alric obtained a little loot from all the dead bodies left from the aftermath of the fight.

A few of them had dimensional items that stored some gold, food and magic crystals.

Due to the tattered state of most of the team he was unable to loot much body armor, most of them had already shattered or had been ripped right through.

By the end of the scavenging Alic had only salvaged four magic rings, three of which were just dimensional rings which were nowhere near the level of the one he already had.

On the bright side there were still three swords that were still intact that he managed to loot.

Now the only problem was that he had no idea what they did or how they worked. He would have to find an appraisal expert to evaluate each item individually. Despite this he still stored most of them within his dimensional ring.

It had to be noted that using magical items without knowing their effects was how most bandits committed suicide.

By the time Alric made it back to the cabin the sun was already setting and he could see Trisha outside practicing with her sword.

When Trisha saw her brother she stopped her practice and looked at him with a peculiar look.

“... You.. smell different. Did something happen while you were out today?”

Alric was a little flustered at how easily his sister could see through the changes in his mana.

The change in his mana was so minute that even he himself only felt it when he focused on his contract and yet Trisha could pick it up almost instantly.

“Yeah, you would never believe this but I ran into an actual kludde today. Well it was half dead though.”

Trisha was a little taken aback.

“hm.. is that so… well that explains the foul beast like mana on you.

You better learn to cleanse that or it may be a problem later on. I wouldn’t want you to get mana poisoning or something.”

Trisha as always was trying to protect her little brother. But then she remembered,

“By the way, uncle Sigfreed said he wants to have a family meeting tonight.

He says it's been long enough now.”

Alric gained a serious expression as he heard those words and then nodded and went inside the cabin to get ready.

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The atmosphere in the cabin felt tense. Up until now they had lived together happily, trying to mask the trauma with the distraction of survival. But now that they had gotten relatively used to the new life it was time to address the elephant in the room.

Uncle Sigfreed sat around the table with Trisha sitting across from him and Alric adjacent to her. The shadows in the cabin danced as the light from the fireplace illuminated the cabin.

“You both are getting old now, so you have the right to decide.”

Sigfreed leaned forward with a serious expression and continued to speak.

“I made a promise to keep you both safe and by the right of succession and inheritance you are the head of the household.” Sigfreed paused as he looked at Alric.

“But..” Sigfreed looked to the side as he bit his lip and continued,

“Before all of this I was a soldier! A husband …. and a father.” Sigfreed voice that started out loud and confident started to break.

“I wanted to protect you guys but there are people who I just can’t exist in this world alongside.”

Sigfreed from the moment Alric and Trisha met him had always had a blank and neutral expression to see him now like this left an uncomfortable lump in their throats.

“... Are you saying you are going to abandon us here?”

Trisha was the first to understand what Sigfreed wanted. He was a loyal soldier first and his last order was to protect these two. But his personal vendetta needed to be answered.

Trisha understood what Sigfreed wanted was freedom. He wanted to be free from protecting them.

“I would never! you two are the only family I have left in this world…” Sigfreed stopped his words “ It's just monsters that need to be taken care of.”

Alric looked at Trisha and nodded.

“We understand. We have our own goals as well… It's just, we are still too weak.”

Alric paused as he remembered how useless he was at the banquet, just the thought enough to rile up his anger.

“I beg you Uncle, finish training us and we will find every single one of them and make them pay together!”

Trisha as though reading his mind continued

“We just need to be a little stronger. Give us some more time…

No,.. give us just three more years and we will do it together.”

Alric finishing her sentence continued

“Three more years after that you are free to do whatever you want. We just need a little time to get strong enough to protect ourselves.”

Alric always thought he was average among mages but after seeing the emperor kludde, mages and paladins today he understood that the world is far larger than it appeared.

He understood that in the hierarchy of the kingdoms him and his sister were literally at the bottom of the food chain even worse now without a noble title to back up their names.

They needed strength and right now Sigfreed was the strongest person that was willing to teach them. Without Sigfreed they’d be reduced to just prey for any wild creature.

Sigfreed rocked back on the wooden seat and looked up. Sigfreed chuckled and ran his hand through his dark purple hair.

“Sigh.

You two really don’t understand the magnitude of heaven and earth.

I am just a knight ranked paladin. Sure I’m a little stronger than the average knight ranked paladin but I don’t have nearly enough strength to do what I need to do much less train you guys to do it.”

Sigfreed had a look of discontent as he looked at the ceiling. He stretched his arm at reach for the ceiling them made a firm fist before he continued,

“ But I will get stronger.

This isn’t my limit … nowhere near it. If they think this is the end of my fight then their day of reckoning is definitely coming.”

Sigfreed finally pulled his fist from the air spoke,

“But I will honor your request… as iron sharpens iron I will bring you two up as far as I can.”