Cecillia was looking through the papers with visible concern. She was already having a headache, and she had yet another. She looked at the source of her headache this time, a young boy who she had been teaching earlier this year.

"Ciel".

"Mhm".

"This class plan is reckless".

"Good training method".

"No no, I can only see this ending with you being unsatisifed and possibly crushing the dreams of young adventurers".

"Mhm?"

"You...listen okay, having all of the E, F, G, and H Rank adventurers in the school teaming up and fighting against you is not a viable option. You will crush them too quickly and cause lots of issues".

"Will be fine. Will limit myself. No higher tier spells, no multi-casting, no area of effects".

"No, I still see this only ending with lots of headaches and troubles".

"Even then, you will still probably crush their spirits".

"No. They are adventurers, they will be fine. Said id hold back".

"You say that, but I have seen your attempts to hold back. You are terrible at it, truly awful. And your standards are warped due to your own strength, not to mention the fact your best friend is Felix, and most of your others are B-Rankers, A-Rankers, S-Rankers, and myself".

"Mhm. Good people make good friends".

"Yes, and as your friend, I know how easy it is for you to go all out. Having them all team up against you even with such limitations you proposed will only end in their crushing defeat".

"Will understand strength of truly dangerous monsters. Wont rush in recklessly even as group".

"...I also have worries about your ability to explain their weaknesses to them properly with how you speak. Seriously, are you just allergic to contractions and other words like them?"

"Mhm. Unnecessary".

"You...listen okay, you do realize most of these kids are going to be ones that struggle dealing with Goblins right?"

"Mhm. Went here too. Understand".

"You went here for four or five months, you graduated insanely fast".

"...was technically adventurer longer".

"Yes, but that is in the past...and we cant bring it up so freely anymore, now can we?"

Ciel looked down, a rare glint of sadness in his eyes.

"...mhm".

"Sorry, its still a painful memory isn't it?"

"Mhm".

"In any case, I think you need more experience working in a party. Felix is an adventurer now, and he has a ton of connections. Why not form a party with him?"

"G-Rank still".

"Yes, but when you form a party with people, the average rank of those adventurers forms a party. And you still need more credit with working in groups to take the C-Rank Promotion Exam right?"

"Mhm....mhm?"

"...what is it that you just thought of".

"Teaching class help with that, but now second proposal. Class expedition into nearby woods, led by me. Felix too will come, use for achievements to justify rank up".

"Certainly, that is a decent idea. We can get Felix up to where he should actually be, and we get you experience leading a group. But you would also need to teach them plenty of group combat, which means letting them fight themselves, not jumping in yourself every time".

Ciel clicked his tongue, and looked conflicted. But then he nodded.

"Wait, you will seriously hang back and not interfere?"

"Mhm. Only for monsters students can handle. Anything strong, I turn back. Weak enemies not as fun".

"...well, if you are going by that logic, I guess that means I can count on you to follow through with it".

"Mhm. Requests accepted".

"Requests...wait hold on, you distracted me!"

"Too late now. Class approved".

"Ciel you clever boy...you have to use less then 20% of your power, okay! Thats another restriction! And come up with another one before you start the class!"

"Mhm. Got it".

Ciel headed out, with a trace bit of happiness. Once he was gone, Cecillia sighed, and looked over at the closet.

"You can come out now, scum".

The door opened, and revealed Cedric. He looked like he was in a cold sweat.

"Cecilia..."

"I knew you were cautious and quick to flee, but to leave Ciel there! To use him as bait!"

"Well, those women said we should have a caster, and that he would be a perfect shield for us...I didn't know what they really intended!"

"You absolute moron! How did you not think three women just deciding to party up with one man, and making that stranger rather then one of themselves the leader, was not a trap! And then you abandoned Ciel!? You good for nothing piece of shit!"

Cedric paled even more.

"Maybe I should cut it off, so that you might actually use your brain instead" Cecilia threatened, making Cedric shield it while getting even more pale. "The only reason I didn't let Ciel know you were here and crush you is only because I understand they were manipulating you as well".

"Exac..."

"But, that does not change the fact you abandoned Ciel and left him for dead yourself".

Her words were so cold, it sent chills up his spine.

"And as a C-Rank, you should have access to certain information...you know about Ciel's past to some extent dont you? And yet you still let this happen?"

"...I don't know all of it. Just fragments. I know he is a former noble, an orphan, and extremely independent. Also, even though he enjoys food, he is very picky on what he eats".

"He isn't picky. He is just worried about poison".

"Poison..."

"Cedric, the reason he has difficulty expressing himself, can you honestly not tell? He is emotionally scarred. I wont divulge his past in detail, that would be wrong, but to simply put it, he endured hell that no child should ever have to endure. That is why he is obsessed with strength, and why he has trust issues. He is too scared to even reveal how he really feels and thinks, and its so bad its impacted his speech. He uses so little words...that is the boy that you abandoned".

Cedric gulped and looked away.

"...and it seems that you have yet to properly accept this, or make amends. I wonder if the latter is even possible...but you will have to work hard until you do".

"...I understand".

"I am not sure you do yet" Cecillia said, as she looked out the window. Ciel was gathering kids into the courtyard now. Some of them were older then him, but those that were older knew Ciel well enough to understand he was their senior. The younger ones looked more confused, especially those who had arrived recently.

"...I am honestly surprised you let him go through with this".

"Well, I have concerns, but it is good for them to understand how dangerous it can be. This will prevent them from making lethal mistakes, or being reckless. I just hope that Ciel can keep his power down below 50% of his full ability".

"Eh, didn't you make him promise to use less then 20%?"

"Yeah, but he is bad at holding back. I should have said 10%, but I was flustered after he tricked me....oh?"

"Hmmm?"

"It looks like he has Meliana helping out".

"...well, that's good at least. With Meliana there, it means there wont be any major injuries or accidents".

"Yes, but it also means when he was making the request, he knew he wouldn't be able to follow through with it as well! That cheeky brat, he knew he was making empty promises!"

"You going to give him a good round of spankings?"

"He will be lucky if its just his bare bottom that suffers after that".

"Hey, its a kid, so..."

"Relax, for physical, spankings are all it will be. However, I know his own personal hell that doesn't cross a line".

"Hmmm?"

Cecilia had a glint in her eyes.

"I will make him do all the accounting paperwork and all the paper filing for this week. For a battle maniac like him, he will regret his decisions in no time with something like that. That will be even more effective then the bare bottom spankings I will give him at the end of class".

Cecillia was a C-Rank Adventurer, and one of the regulars at the school. She was a fairly normal person, a woman of 25 years old, which made her one of the younger C-Rankers that are considered normal. She also had five younger siblings, and their mother had passed away ten years ago, so she was now raising them all by herself. As such, she tended to mainly take quests that would not have her be gone at night for quite some time.

That said, the youngest was ten now, and they all either went to the school, had apprenticeships, or were making money. As a C-Ranker, she made a good deal of money even when staying local, but she had the freedom to actually stay out a few nights now. The Guildmaster had decided to hire her as a teacher as well to help boost her income, which she was grateful for.

Because of this though, she was very protective and nurturing for children, but also was not afraid to punish them. In this world, corporal punishments were fairly normal, especially embarrassing ones. This was because grounding didn't really work out too well because many needed to go out and work or help out a bit, but also its not like they could take away things like TVs or video games, as neither existed in their world. Books were being made more plentiful in recent decades, but even then they could still be expensive for commoners. And it was considered cruel to deny a child a meal, especially a child that was young and still growing.

Additionally, guards used such methods to punish children who committed crimes, rather then throwing them in jail or fiining them as they knew they would be unable to pay possibly. It was normally illegal to make a child into a debt slave or criminal slave unless the crimes were far too serious to ignore. Because of that, there were not many alternatives that could be used. And again orphans, it was even more limited.

In any case, they decided to watch the glass from above through the window on the third floor. As expected, Ciel went up solo against the twenty so kids he had managed to gather for the class. Ciel, who was officially a D-Ranker but felt like it was fraud to consider him one, as he was closer to a B-Ranker in ability, went against twenty kids that were on average F and G Rankers.

There were some H and E rankers in there too.

As two E-Rankers attacked in unison, Ciel dodged them deftly using a variation on the shadow step movement technique. Even though Ciel was a mage, he had still practiced in close combat as well, making sure to learn how to dodge.

"Coordination needs work. Still some openings. Better though".

"Yes, sensei!"

Ciel used a telekinetic blast to knock them aside. It appeared another limitation he set up was that all of his magic would emerge from his body. He didn't do anything like the other day, where he levitated those thugs into the air and them smashed them back into the ground. If he did, they would have already all been defeated.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

An H-Ranker newbie tried to get him from behind, appearing from the shadows. Ciel dodged it, and quickly disarmed him using hand to hand combat techniques, tossing him aside in the process as he channeled mana through his body.

"Decent technique, but too exposed from the sides. Too easy to disarm. Still decent. Will promote to G-Rank".

The H-Ranker...no, the new G-Ranker, smiled a bit when he heard that.

A few F Rankers all teamed up together. They were all in the same age, and Cecilia recognized them. They were all roommates with each other, and formed a group of friends. They also attended the same classes together. One mage, one archer, one swordsman, and one shield user with a dagger. They attacked Ciel while he was busy being attacked by some G-Rankers who were far less organized, striking for weak spots.

"You four...coordination is better".

Ciel noted that, as he slipped around the shield user. Suddenly, he froze their feet to the ground, but the mage deployed a fire spell to free them almost instantly. That was not enough though, as Ciel reached the mage first, and used a telekinetic palm blast to knock him away.

The swordsman attacked with her sword, but Ciel dodged it to the side, while the shield user got behind him and attacked as well. The archer aimed an arrow but didn't fire, instead keeping track of Ciel's potential escape route.

"Coordination good. However..."

He jumped up into the air, using mana in his legs to enhance his jump. He created a shield at the same time, blocking the arrow with a telekinetic barrier. He then unleashed a stream of water from his hand and hit them with it. it was very strong, with perhaps too much force put into it, as they all got soaked head to toe and collapsed from the pressure of it. As he landed, a fireball nearly hit him, but he shielded against it. The mage started to cast a healing spell, but before he could, Ciel trapped him in ice and put an ice blade to his neck.

"Should have healed first in that situation".

"Muh..."

A few others then came at him, but they were deteriorating. At this point, Ciel continued to point out improvements while giving a one sided beatdown on the students.

"I count at least five points where he went too far. Some of the students even soiled themselves. I will factor those into his punishment" Cecilia said coldly, as she began to walk down towards the courtyard.

Once the class was over, Ciel was immediately captured by Cecilia, who proceeded to publicly lecture him while giving him a bare bottom spanking over her knee.

----------------------------------------

Cecilia actually had a nickname. She was called The Iron Maiden, known because of how cold and brutal she could be in her judgements. She was a C-Rank Adventurer, and in truth she had more empathy then her rumors gave credit for. However, without a doubt, she was also as strict as could be. This was especially true when it came to the protection and care of children, as well as their education.

That was why Cedric was genuinely afraid of what she might do to him.

Her nickname also came from the fact that she was incredibly skilled with Sword Arts, and was known for skewering her enemies to such a degree they were sometimes unrecognizable.

To those who actually knew her, she was extremely tough, but extremely fair as well.

As it became lunchtime, many of the kids gathered in the courtyard to eat, as it was a nice sunny day. They had all brought their own lunches, and those who were getting lunch from the cafeteria would likely eat it there. Ciel of course was standing, he didn't have the ability to sit at the moment because he made Cecilia mad. Felix had gone there to console him though at least.

"Ya had to know this was how she would react after what you said and what you actually did".

"Mhm...Cecilia is strong. Even though I'm stronger, she somehow stronger then me. Not sure last twenty or doing it in front of everyone was really necessary. Even took off shirt and cloak...even the socks..."

"I told ya this wouldn't end well for you. She really wants you to be able to socialize with people better, so when you do stuff like this and makes you more intimidating to those of our own age you actually know, not to mention at the same time going overboard with the other kids, she really wants to get it clear to you. If she just lectured ya, it would probably go in one ear and out the other".

"Mhm".

"Oi, that's your 'im not listening' mhm!"

"Tsk".

"Ciel..."

"...fine".

While this conversation was going on, another conversation was going on as well.

"And so, the Marquis will be cutting off a great deal of funding to this school, and will instead direct it to the noble district renovations".

The messenger told Cecilia such a thing, but she just glared at the messenger.

A short while ago, a young looking boy who was found by the messenger was told to bring him to the office of the one in charge here. This boy did exactly that, but perhaps annoyed due to the boy's short legs, it seemed he hit the boy several times. The boy was now quite annoyed, and this made Cecilia very nervous.

Of course, that "boy" was actually 102 years old, the Guildmaster of the Adventurers Guild, and also in charge of this school as well. He was Cecilia's superior on two different counts, but the messenger had hit such a person, who was famous for many things, including being petty and always exacting retribution.

And then, the messenger had delivered a message from the Marquis Seldor, who was the noble in charge of running this city. Several nobles lived in the city, but this was the one who actually owned the territory right now. At the moment, it had been inherited by a petty, irritating, very likely corrupt and basically a rude jerk. He was put in charge of the city after the last one got killed by a Wyvern attack while traveling between cities.

And it seemed he was insisting on diverting money going into the school to the Noble District.

"Considering that he hasn't even been providing money to the school at all, when his successor always manged to do so without fail, that is quite surprising. You couldn't possibly pay us any less when you pay us nothing".

"The money you get from the adventurers guild. He will be using that".

"That is not his to decide. He will have to talk to the Guildmaster about that one".

"No, as the one running the day to day operations, you will be in charge. Do you plan on disobeying a Marquis?"

"May I remind you that the school is within the city's charters and laws, and not even he can mess with that. Furthermore, as the Guildmaster is also the Director of this school, all finalizations with the budget go through him. So stop trying to use cheap tricks to try and bypass him".

The messenger clicked his tongue. It was obvious to Cecilia the real reason he came to her was to avoid going head to hand with the Guildmaster directly.

"You had best agree right now, woman. This isn't a question..."

Suddenly, a sword ran along the messenger's neck, a throwing knife wooshed by his head, a second sword was aimed at his heart, gravity brought him down to his knees, and a third sword was pointed right into his eye.

Those that were responsible respectively were Wynn, Cecilia, Felix, Ciel, and Cedric. The messenger suddenly dropped the knife he had taken out, as he felt an intense feeling of fear.

"Hello Clayson, messenger for Marquis Seldor. Lives in apartment 4A of the blue building on Maple Street. And I believe...on your birthday, you treat yourself to a cinnamon creamgel, right?"

Wynn said such things, making the man break out into a cold sweat.

How does he know all this?!

"It seems like I am going to have to pay Marquis Seldor a friendly visit!"

That cold sweat just got much worse. To say that the Marquis was bad at dealing with the Guildmaster was an understatement. Rumor has it, the Marquis had tried to have Wynn assassinated a dozen times, but they had all failed. Not only did they fail, but its said those attempts were reduced to comical tales in the form of plays that made fun of the one who hired them, the mysterious but inept 'Marquis Selbo', an entirely original character not based on anyone intention, but just so happens to visually resemble him near perfectly. By total coincidence of course.

Wynn was the one who made the plays and wrote all the character descriptions with startling detail.

Incidentally, the Marquis character was described and portrayed as completely inept, incompetent, petty, idiotic, a total buffoon, constantly doing outrageously stupid things and speaking in a very idiot noble like way that even other nobles enjoyed making fun of.

And of course, as the Guildmaster, Wynn dealt with him on a regular basis.

They definitely didn't get along, that was for sure.

"I would highly recommend you watch your tone when talking to my adventurers and threatening them like that. They may instinctively protect themselves after all, and that could be fatal".

"...you think me and Ciel didn't notice you and would really let you hurt Cecilia like that?"

"You really think she is undefended?"

"...weakling loser".

"Now now boys, I can handle this myself, that said...I suppose you did stop me from accidentally killing him the moment he made that threat".

The messenger seemed to understand now that he was already in a den of danger. However...

"You think the guards outside waiting for me would just accept this?!"

At those words, Felix whistled, and then the door opened up. The large group of E and F rank adventurers came in with some restrained men. Some Gs were among them as well, the best from the classes so far.

"Eh, but...they are just..."

"Certainly, your soldiers are probably stronger individually, but up against over a dozen E and F Rank adventurers, do you honestly think they could win against such a number discrepancy?"

The regulars who came to this school included "Celestial Breaker" Ciel, Felix who is the adopted son and was personally trained under the guildmaster of the Rozzell Adventurer's Guild who was also in the Hero's party 90 years ago, "Iron Maiden" Cecilia, Wynn AKA Yuma Ruzzo, who was the guildmaster of the Adventurer's Guild in this city and was a part of that Hero's party, and "Swiftknight" Cedric, who was known for his speed. And that was just counting those in the room.

There was also the B-Rank Meliana, AKA "Lightbringer", who was just downstairs as well, among others. Had the kids been unable to handle this task themselves, they would have stepped in.

Faced with all of this, not only did the messenger soil himself, but he fainted as well.

"Oh great. Now what do we do? I am not carrying him" Felix stated.

"I have some paperwork to do, so I cant carry him".

"I also have some paperwork to do back at the guild, so I cant carry him either".

"...tired from combat training. Can't carry him".

Everyone looked at Cedric, especially Felix who was glaring daggers at him. Even if it had been orchestrated by those women, Cedric was not blameless either, so Felix was still quite angry with him.

"...alright, I will do it".

Cedric seemed to understand from everyone else's glares that this was clearly part of his punishment as well, and obeyed without issue.

Cecilia looked over the paperwork again.

"Well, I guess we wont have to worry about filing yet another budget request from the Marquis".

"No, do it anyways. I will be paying him a visit anyways, and this feels like a great way to lash out at him".

"Understood, Guildmaster".

Felix then looked at Ciel.

"Speaking of work, we still need to do that investigation this afternoon".

"Mhm".

"Investigation?"

"Someone posted a G-Rank request to help them harvest some medical grass outside the city. Thing is though, the request's location is in a pretty isolated location, and considering what dad uncovered in his trip..."

"Mhm. Smells like trap. Going to crush them. If legitimate, will complete quest properly".

"...I see, maybe I should go as well to be safe..."

Wynn said such a thing, but then suddenly got picked up by his collar, an angry Elven woman standing behind him.

"S-Serafyna!"

"You have work to do. Several caravan deliveries want escorts, and we need to go through their paperwork and seals and make sure its legitimate, as well as fielding the records of various adventurers for the upcoming C-Rank exam".

"B-but, you know, just in case they have A-Rank or even S-Rank talent there, I should go just to be safe!"

"They wouldn't waste such talent if they posted a G-Rank notice as a trap. Felix will be fine. If you skip work however, you wont be".

"Serafyna!!!"

"Bye daddy!"

"Bye guildmaster!"

"...bye bye".

"Traaaitors!!!" Wynn shouted as Serafyna carried him away towards the exit and to the Guild.

"Mhm. Now go ourselves" Ciel said, when suddenly Cecilia picked him up in a similar fashion.

"Oh no, don't think I forgot about your own punishment. Sit down and get to work".

"...can I stand for now instead?"

"And whose fault is that?"

Ciel looked away.

"Now, get to work Ciel. Now".

"See you later Ciel! I will handle the requests!"

"No fair. Felix gets to have all the fun" Ciel pouted, as he was made to do deskwork. Even though he was good at it, one could clearly see the life draining from his eyes rapidly.

----------------------------------------

Back at the Guild, Wynn could clearly see some pretty big issues.

"Yeah, no, this is quite clearly a problem. Or rather, what is that idiot planning this time?"

Wynn looked at the latest request from the Marquis, and felt as if his very sanity or eyesight was in question.

The "request" used a lot of very weird and unorthodox interpretation of the laws, all in order to try and extort money from the Adventurer's Guild. It was clearly not meant to be used in this manner, and frankly, there was no way such logic was legitimate or would be found legitimate by the rest of the nobility. But the Marquis really had only one good talent, and that was his ability to somehow keep his own job.

That said, it wasn't like Wynn had seriously tried to remove him rom his position either. Just some impulsive acts and complaints.

The reason why was because his incompetence made him very unthreatening. Wynn might actually be troubled if a competent enemy was put in his place. He allowed criminal organizations to fester, and he clearly had connections with them and knew how to use them, but he never seemed capable of developing any decent plan or making good use of his resources.

Wynn had a lot of things he had to get done, and while this guy slowed him down considerably and made him do a lot of extra work, he had far more pressing issues to deal with. His visit to the city was connected to that as well.

In the past five years, the number of adventurers and children who had disappeared had increased. Mainly males. The average had jumped up by about 500% currently. He thought maybe that had to do with the Hero, and all the times he ended up destroying the organizations that mainly trafficked females, but the spike and the timing was just far too weird.

After all, that was 90+ years ago, no reason to start up now of all times if that was all it was.

And the followup to that investigation at the other city's guild turned up that they had sold a lot of Adventurers, mainly boys, to a single person, who only used a symbol as a signature. It might also just be an organization. They had yet to find or recover any of them that already got shipped out, although the ones that were still in holding cells they located were saved at least.

There was no common connections between the ones bought. And while most of the disappearances and purchases had been male, there were a number of females among them, so it might just be a coincidence, not an actual part of their goals. However, Wynn could not help but think something was up.

Wynn could see them, faint hints and traces. There was something moving in the shadows, something new. A new player that was expanding fast. But, he could not see the details of who it was, or what their plans were.

Whatever it was that they were planning, it was something that had far reaching goals. That was Wynn's impression.

"...and so, Felix. Do you understand now why I didn't want you going alone?"

"...dad, none of them were even all that strong..."

Felix complained as Wynn looked up at the boy. He stood there, naked and holding two mythryl buckets full of dragonblood, which was significantly heavier then water. One bucket per hand. Serafyna just sighed.

"Master, you are being overprotective again".

"Listen, the scale of this operation...at least one enemy is going to be A-Rank level threat per region they are operating in! Without a doubt!"

"Master...you think such people would be sent here, and not the place their organization was most under threat right now?"

"...probably not, but if they knew we were responsible".

"That would require a serious lapse in your curse".

"Its a curse. It often lapses when its inconvenient for me".

"Master..."

"Fine fine, Felix you can put the blood down and get dressed. But, tonight, you are eating all of your vegtables, okay?"

"A-all of them?"

"Yeah. And Ciel will be there too tonight. Id rather not have him sleep in such an isolated location right after provoking the Marquis, so make sure you pick him up from the school okay?"

"Got it. We can use this as an excuse to spoil Ciel a whole bunch, right?"

"Well yeah, obviously. That kid wont let us spoil him without one after all".

"Yeah. Ciel isn't good at being honest with his feelings".

Felix quickly ducked into the side room, as Wynn looked over at Serafyna.

"How is Juno settling in by the way?"

"Good. Why?"

Wynn handed her a document. Or rather, a copy of a document.

"...one of the sale forms from the organization? Some sort of magic contract right?"

"Yeah. Look at the description of the person...or as they put it, merchandise".

"...Juno was sold to them?"

"Yeah. I didn't want to say this with Felix around, because I know being the hothead he is he might rush to get involved, but...the people they recovered, a force attacked the guards there. They were repelled, since I had made sure knights from the Royal Capital were mixed in there, but they still managed to take away several captives. Juno is very likely going to be a target, so we will need to look out for him".

"I see. Understood Master. And? Are you including yourself in that list?"

Wynn let out a wry smile.

"So you noticed huh? Yeah, I am there too. But if Royal Knights could repel them, I should be able to as well. Might even capture them instead".

"They had numbers though. Remember, just because you are S-Rank..."

"Doesn't mean someone weaker cant beat me. Poisons, tricks, traps, all could be used even in a one on one fight to gain the advantage of a stronger opponent. I am the one who taught you that".

"Good. Just wanted to be sure. Perhaps I should have Yuyan come by as well to help".

"It would be nice to see him again. But for now, I think we will be fine. Course, if they so much as touch a hair on Felix's tail, I will gladly reduce them to ashes in a moment".

"...please make sure to leave at least one of them alive to interrogate".

"Fiiine, but I cant promise he will have all his limbs".

And while having such a dangerous conversation, the two continued to work into the night.