Before I knew it, two or three weeks had already passed since I left the castle town Mierra. I was at the capital of Angolia, inside the palace. The palace itself was beautiful, but not as magnificent as the dwarven queen’s palace. Well, to be fair, Ellysa has been alive for over 500 years, so she had plenty to time to beautify her place as she saw fit.

The palace guards guided us into the throne room, and within, I saw many nobles standing on the sides of the room. In the middle of the room was a man sitting on a throne that would make my throne back in the stronghold looked like a toilet. When he saw Duke Lancel, he got up, excited to see his old friend.

“Lancel! It’s been some time, my old friend!” He walked down from his throne, light was shining down from the windows, showering King Argo in light. For some reason, his hair was waving majestically to the side, fluttering beautifully. Where was that wind coming from?

As King Argo hugged Duke Lancel, most of the nobles in the room snorted, some of them were angrily chewing on their handkerchief. Weird. Was that a tradition among Angolians?

“So. This was the man that saved my friend’s son? A friend of my friend, is also my friend!” He walked up and hugged me too. The nobles at this rate was staring daggers at me. The hostility in the room just skyrocketed.

“Ah ha ha. No way. I just did what I thought was...er...right at that time,” I excused myself. I just wanted to get my reward. Give me a fat sack of coin so I could leave.

“So, I’m aware that you’ve come here to join the heroes’ party.” The King patted my shoulders.

“Eh? No, no. The duke said that you’ll give me a reward.” I pointed at Duke Lancel.

“Ah. Reward. Hmm. I shall give you a reward of 50 gold coins, how does that sound, friend?” He smiled. Yes! Finally, now time to hit the road and find the nearest gambling house!

“But before I could give you your reward, why not join the heroes’ party?” The king asked.

“Well, I mean, why me? I’m sure your heroes’ party have all the member it needs to defeat whatever it is the heroes need to kill.” I shrugged.

“The heroes are all young and inexperienced. Duke Lancel had written to me that you had slain the lich of the Black Mountain. You seemed to have a lot of experience in dealing with such strong undead,” He explained.

‘Oh, pfft. That’s because I’m an undead myself, silly!’ Yeah, right! Like I could say that!

“The heroes need a teacher. You seemed like someone who is fit for this job!” The king told me. Does it ever occured to this guy that I looked like I wanted to babysit some children?

“I don’t think I want to, besides, where will the heroes go anyway? I’m a free man, I can go where I please!” I told the king clearly.

“Well, the heroes will get their divination and after that go to a dungeon to train…”

“A dungeon, you say?” He piqued my interest.

“Yes. A dungeon, one of the only few left in the continent. It is an ancient dungeon that’s sealed off and only accessible through my permission,” He replied. Oh damn! A dungeon! Now I’m so tempted! I might miss out a chance to see a dungeon and it would be my loss!

“Well...I wouldn’t mind doing a trial run. You know, temporary. Until you find another person for the job,” I shrugged and tried to negotiate.

“That’s fine! I’m so glad that you accepted! As thanks, take this amulet. This amulet is said to be spiritually blessed and will protect you from all harm. It was given to me by Archduke Francois a long time ago, but I am sure the Archduke wouldn’t mind if someone else who needs it more than I do gets it, right?” He smiled towards Archduke Francois.

“Yes. Your majesty. That. Is. Wise.” He was grinding his teeth as he said that while breathing heavily. Maybe he had speech impediment? No, wait! Perhaps he wanted to go to the toilet! Well, that could explain why he was gripping his scepter so hard that it might snap into half.

The king handed me the amulet and I accepted it. Not like I’m losing anything from taking it. Neat, I wonder how much would this thing fetch for at the auction house? I placed the amulet over my neck.

“So. If I’m going to babysit...I mean...train some heroes, where are they?” I asked.

“The heroes are doing a task but will return soon for the divination that would happen in a few days,” King Argo replied.

“What’s a divination anyway?” I asked.

“A divination is when the heroes would receive a prophecy from an angel within the first shrine of Angolia which is a big room within the castle,” Duke Lancel answered. Wait what? I had to go talk to an angel? I’m not sure about this whole ordeal. Well, whatever. I’ll deal with it once the time comes. Besides, I had a cool looking amulet as a reward.

Two days later, the heroes arrived. King Argo along with Duke Lancel guided me to the courtyard where the heroes were at. There, I saw the kids who tried to help me when I was being chased by some thugs at Mierra for being in debt.

“Have we met before?” The black-haired boy of the group asked.

“Um. No. I don’t think so. A lot of people look like me,” I whistled.

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“Heroes. This priest shall be your tutor for a while and he shall be guiding your training. You should get to know each other,” The king suggested. He and the duke left to attend some business. I studied the party of misfits.

The leader of the group seemed to be this black-haired guy. No matter how I looked at it, he seemed like any other passerby. You could probably lose him in a crowd within seconds because of how boring he looked. He wore a breastplate, a short cape and a sword was tied around his waist. Where did he get his fashion tips from? The Generic Mob Papers?

Lucia handed me a checklist. Right. I studied him. Boring hair. Check. Boring face. Check. Standard build. Check. Justice frenzied…

“Hey, kid. What would you do if a thief stole from a store who was ran by an old lady who was sickly?” I asked him.

“Why, of course, I’ll beat the thief and give back what was stolen!” He answered.

“But what if the thief was a kid who was stealing for his orphanage that was about to close down?” I continued.

“Well...that...er….I’ll find money to keep the orphanage from closing down!” He threw his fist to the air, proud of his answer.

“What if you don’t have any money?” I continued my relentless attack.

“I’ll...I...I will find a job to make money for the orphanage!”

“What if you didn’t have time to make the money because there’s a demon army by the gates?”

“I’ll destroy the demon army!”

“But what if that demon army was trying to save the orphanage by destroying everything but the orphanage and it was actually lead by the sickly old lady?”

“...” I figured that his brain had a meltdown because he was silent for some time. Well, that’s done with. I gave the checklist back to Lucia. I walked to the next candidate. He was an elf with grey hair. He seemed as tall as an average man.

“So...you’re an elf, huh? What’s your name?” I started chatting with him.

“Yes, I am a Sayitsin Elf. My name is Arrowsky,” He replied.

“What’s a Sayitsin?”

“From Sayitsi, the Great Forests.” He didn’t talk much it seemed. He had the standard gear of most hunters. Leather boots, shirt and a quiver at his back. But after what happened to the dwarves, I just had to ask.

“Do the elves still love to share and be one with the nature?” I asked.

“Yes. We share what is ours. For we are one, and one, we are,” He replied quickly. He had a really cool looking sickle-bow on his back. It’s like a bow that looked like a sickle or something. Probably to symbolize the moon or whatever the elves loved.

The next person was a girl with long blonde hair. She had her hair fixed with ribbons and she wore a short dress. On her waist was a rapier.

“So? Who are you supposed to be?” I asked her.

“Hmpf. Ignorant fool. You know my father but not me? I am daughter of Duke Lancel, Lady Aera, also known in Angolia as the ‘Sword Princess of the-..’”

“Yeah yeah. Heard that, seen that. Get on with it already.” I brushed her off.

“Grr...you uncouth fool! And why do you even have our sword?! I had heard from my father that you have our sword! You should hand that sword to me! I don’t even think you’re worthy to be my teacher!” She unsheathed her rapier and pointed it at me.

“So, you must be the hot headed one in the group, then.” I pointed out.

“Ha! Run your mouth more! All bark, no bite! Duel me, commoner! Duel me for your honor and mine!” She took a stance. She bent her body slightly and had her free arm behind her back to balance herself.

“Eh. No,” I flat-out refused.

“What?! Duel me! Don’t you care about your honor?!” She shouted at me.

“Yeah, yeah. Honor. Woo.” I did a play-cheer and was about to move to the next girl when she lunged at me.

“Thrusting Star Strike!” She shouted. I grabbed the tip of her sword as she was about to stab me. She tried to pull back but I was holding the tip with just my pinky and index finger.

“Who the hell shouts out their move at their opponent? I don’t have time for this.” I brushed her sword off to the side.

“Kuh! To be defeated with one strike!” She sank onto the floor, dejected.

Moving on was a small priestess girl. She wore white robes like me and had long sky-blue hair. Was that a normal hair color?

“U..um...You’re a priest, sir?” She was the one that started the conversation, it seemed. Well, since I was roleplaying as one, I might as well go along with it.

“Yes, indeed,” I replied happily back at her.

“You’re also from Aon?”

“Yes. Not only that, I’m actually from a really secret part of Aon,” I lied to her.

“Secret?! Are you an inquisitor?!” She asked.

“Look, if you know what an inquisitor is, it’s not secret. It’s more secret than that. In fact, it’s so secret only the High Cardinal knows of its existence!” I continued to whisper to her. She gasped and looked at me silently.

“Or in fact…” I leaned in closer to her ear, “I might as well be the High Cardinal himself.”

“Ah, that was a joke. Don’t take it too seriou…” Apparently she had fainted already before I knew it. Well, that was fun. The heroes’ party was startled by her fainting but they calmed down and just had the elf get her towards the nearest bench to rest.

The last one of the party was a short girl with brown hair. She had a white-and-blue robes on with a staff. She looked over to me and had a sour face, then told me her name was Kendra.

“So, you’re a priest, huh? Guess what? I don’t believe in miracles,” She proclaimed.

“Yeah, same here,” I shrugged.

“Eh? Well...I believe in science!” She continued.

“I guess we’re in an agreement. Science is easier to analyze anyway,” I told her.

“Er…” The mage Kendra was at a lost for words.

“How old are you?” I asked her. She refused to answer so I placed my finger on her forehead.

“You’re in your mid-20s, and yet you still look like a little child? For someone that studies science, you should realize that drinking milk would help you grow bigger.” I took out a bottle of milk from my pouch and placed it in front of her face.

“Hah?! What kind of stupidity is that? How would milk help?! W..well. As a follower of science, I’ll drink milk and show you it won’t make a change! Hmpf!” She swiped the bottle of milk off my bag and stuffed it into her bag.

“Well. We’re a kindred spirit, it seems. I hope we get along better.” By the time I was done meeting the heroes, the king and the duke had returned. I walked over to them away from the heroes.

“If you pay me 100 more gold coins, I could teach these kids a thing or two. They will seriously need it,” I concluded. Since I’m wasting my vacation babysitting, I deserved better pay!

“I don’t have any problem with that. But before you go and train them, the divination room is finally prepared,” The king replied.

“Divination room? That means we’re going to get our divination, then?” I asked.

“Indeed. Heroes, please come with me. It is time to seek guidance from the Goddess herself,” King Argo called out to the heroes. As we followed him inside the castle, I pondered on how I was going to manage these misfits over the next few days while slacking off…