The sun starts rising in the horizon and Honō has already made breakfast, eaten something and leave some food for Ross, after that he leaves the house armed to the teeth and heads to the adventurer’s guild. There he meets with Uketsuke, and she explains what are the requirements to join the guild.

Uketsuke: “Alright, to join the guild you will take a mission from the board, normally the time limit is 3 days, but I’m confident that you will complete it before dawn.”

Honō: “You guessed right.”

Honō approaches the board and takes a low level mission, then goes back to the reception.

Uketsuke: “The mission you chose is to kill 5 goblins, do you know where the goblins appear right?”

Honō: “Nope.”

Uketsuke: “*sigh* you can find a lot of goblins in the dark forest that’s north-west of here.”

Honō: “North-West, dark forest, Okay, thanks.”

Uketsuke: “Be careful alright?”

Honō: “Don’t worry, I won’t get myself killed so easily.”

Uketsuke: “Actually, I’m more worried that you get lost than getting yourself killed…”

Honō: “Do you really think that I’m that bad at orientation?”

Uketsuke: “Yes.”

Honō: “How cruel!”

Honō then heads towards the gates of the capital.

Guard #1: “Sir Honō! What brings you here?”

Honō: “I am heading towards the dark forest.”

Guard #2: “The dark forest? Then you should be careful, reports say that people have gone missing in that forest, but I’m sure that you won’t have any problem!”

Honō: “I will keep that in mind.”

Guard #1: “By the way, what are you charging in that bag?”

Honō: “That is confidential. Let’s just say this will prevent me from getting killed easily.”

After heading out of the capital and into the dark forest, it didn’t take him much time to start finding monsters, he didn’t have a lot of problems thanks to his shield and his knife, in worst-case scenario he is charging an assault rifle and a hunting rifle. But something was bothering him, that high level monster, Honō knew that he wasn’t too experienced killing monsters, and fighting an unknown monster, even with his equipment, he knew that he would get hurt.

In that moment, he heard a series of screams that echoed all around the forest, screams that had given Honō chills, not much later, he heard a roar that perturbed all the forest, his heart was pounding in terror after hearing that, but he also knew that the roar and the scream had a relation, and if he was scared by just hearing the result of only-god-knows-what, the people that screamed would surely be dying of terror, Honō sprinted to the location of the scream, and saw a scene worth of a horror movie, a wrecked carriage, the top of the carriage was totally destroyed, and the dead bodies from the passengers were dismembered and scattered all over the place, the place stank to fresh blood, and where the rests accumulated and the smell of blood intensified drastically he saw the silhouette he saw was exact definition of monster, the thing that he is seeing is tall and skinny, covered in a thin layer of fur, his head was as the one of a wolf, but covered in black hair, his eyes emanated the sense of death and rampage, strangely enough, Honō perceived a sad aura coming from him, as if the monster was suffering by committing this atrocity, Honō approached him while drawing his assault rifle, the monster quickly comprehended what Honō intended, but still didn’t move, it was like he had achieved his mission, he was just standing there, waiting for the moment someone killed him and freed him from his misery.

Honō: “Holy Moly! you, the beast over there, did you did this?”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

The monster looked at him and confirmed it.

Honō asked him why he did this, the monster didn’t answer. While they were talking, two girls were trying to get out of the wrecked carriage, Honō knew that the monster was not responsible of such atrocity, but he didn’t trust that the beast was totally innocent, so he proceeds to shoot the beast, this one without opposing resistance, and dying seconds later, after that, Honō heads towards the girls and helps them get out of the car. Then he notices what every person transported to another world expects (and dreams) to see, demi-humans, more specifically, cat girls, the older one’s name is Catherine Raven, ambassador from the Raven house, which the kingdom of Prodocla had commercial deals between. The younger one’s name was Cindy Raven, which assisted her sister with the paperwork and the meetings.

Honō: “Hey, are you girls alright?”

Catherine: “Yes, thank you. But who are you?”

Honō: “I don’t think that is relevant, I am just an adventurer that was passing by.”

Catherine: “Anyway, thank you for saving us from that beast.”

Cindy: “I also have to thank you for saving us, if you need anything, let us know.”

Honō: “By the way, where are you heading to?”

Catherine and Cindy: “To the capital.”

Honō: “*sigh* guess I have to take you there myself, just in case something happens on the way”

After escorting the two sisters to the city, Honō heads towards the guild and tells Uketsuke what happened.

Uketsuke: “So you encountered a wolf-looking beast, which presumably killed and ate all the people except for those two girls, am I correct?

Honō: “You forgot the part where I saved those two girls.”

Uketsuke: “Do I look like I care about that?”

Honō: “anyway, I’m not planning on giving these reports every time I encounter a weird beast, only the ones I see interesting.”

Uketsuke: “Fair enough, by the way, congratulations on finishing your first quest, your current rank is copper III.”

Honō: “Alright, so how much do I get for this quest?”

Uketsuke: “twenty”

Honō: “And I suppose I don’t get anything for killing that beast?”

Uketsuke: “I need to verify if that’s true”

Honō: “So you won’t give me anything?”

Uketsuke: “I will give you fifteen silver coins to fuck off.”

Honō: “That’s a deal then!”

After collecting his reward on the guild, Honō heads towards his house, but is suddenly interrupted by a bunch of guards.

Guard 3: “Komura Honō, the king wants to talk to you”

Honō: “Can I refuse?”

Guard 4: “No.”

Honō: “*sarcastic tone* Then with great pleasure I will head there! just give me a minute”

Guard 3: “The king wants to see you immediately”

Honō's sarcastic attitude faded away while being dragged to the castle, while going to the throne room, he heard the nobles gossip and talk about him, just what he hated the most, yet he could not do anything against it, the guards drag him to the throne room, the king was looking at him with a very serious face, like if Honō was a criminal, but what he heard after that surprised him even more.

King Oswald: “Komura Honō, I, King Oswald the Fifth, give you the title of Baron”

Honō's brain shut down for a second, and then restarted itself, the first words he said were filled with confusion.

Honō: “I’m a what now?”

King Oswald: “A Baron, It is said that you saved the Raven sisters, so this is the least I can do to compensate you, as a Baron, I will give you part of the terrain in the north, to get there it will only take five days.”

Honō: “And what will happen to Rose”

King Oswald: “She will come with you, of course, now that you’re a noble there won’t be any inconveniences.”

Honō: “*sigh* ok. So when do we part?”

King Oswald: “In a week.”

Honō: “And how much money do I have available?”

King Oswald: “About 50,000 gold coins.”

Honō: “Didn’t the economy was going down?”

King Oswald: “Why do you think the Raven sisters were coming here in the first place?”

Honō: “And from where did those 50,000 gold coins came from?”

King Oswald: “The Raven house, of course.”

Honō: “Alright, I accept everything!”

King Oswald: “I’m glad you did”

And with that, Honō returned home and told Ross about his current state, she was surprised about the amount of luck that he had to save two members from one of the most important and the richest noble family in the entire kingdom.

Ross: “So, when are we going to move?”

Honō: “In a week, or at least that’s what your father said.”

Ross: “We should start packing all our projects and tools so we don’t have any problems later.”

Honō: “I agree with that!”

Ross: “But before that, please make dinner, I feel hungry.”

Honō: “Alright, I will make some curry.”

And after eating, Honō and Ross go to sleep.