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Solria, Shopping District, The Ironclad Forge (Kyle POV)

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The sound of scraping metal filled the room as I accurately carved out the circle for a barrier spell on a throwing knife before placing a monster core into the slot on the bottom of the handle. I held the throwing knife in my hands and inspected it a bit before inserting it into the holster attached at my left waist. After making sure everything was in place, I pulled on the diagonal belts lining my long coat to make sure they were strapped tightly before placing the engraving tools on the counter and turning to Lucas with a grin.

“Alright! Finally finished. Thanks for lending me your engraving tools, Lucas.” (Kyle)

“Sure, no problem, Ky. By the way, everything fits fine, right?” (Lucas)

“Yep, perfectly!” (Kyle)

I ran my hand through my hair and struck a pose as I stood there in the middle of the empty shop. I was wearing the red long coat that Lucas made, and a pair of black pants covered my legs while on my hands were a pair of thin black gloves. On the back of each glove was an alchemy circle with a small metal bezel in the center holding a monster core, and the different circle design and color of the monster core on the back of each glove indicated that they were two distinct spells.

I let out a confident chuckle as I let my hands drop to my sides before turning to Lucas again.

“But, man. Good thing you finished preparing everything so soon. Today’s the first time I’m gonna be doing practical training with my students, so it would’ve been really awkward to show up in my normal clothes after telling them all to gear up for a fight. I honestly only expected the coat to be adjusted, but you even finished my order of throwing knives in time.” (Kyle)

Lucas turned to me with a beaming smile and a sparkle in his eyes before replying with a proud tone in his voice.

“Of course, Ky. You’re a paying customer right now, and it’s our duty to make sure we complete our customers’ requests to the best of our ability. Anyway, even if you weren’t a paying customer right now, how could I not put my best efforts into the first test run of my masterpiece! I made sure the coat would fit as perfectly as possible according to your measurements, and the throwing knives were all individually forged by me yesterday. Uncle Grayhill should be done with your sword any second now too, so if you have any additional requests, just let me know.” (Lucas)

“Nope, this is more than enough! Thanks, Lucas!” (Kyle)

“Like I said before, no problem! Just make sure to tell me how your practical training session goes later. Some results from actual fights would help me a ton for my next masterpiece. Oh, and if any of your students can actually understand the magnificence of my masterpiece, then do me a favor and let them know that it was me that made it!” (Lucas)

Lucas let out a prideful laugh and I smiled back at him for a moment before the door to the forge in the back opened up. Uncle Grayhill walked out carrying a longsword in a sheath, and after placing it on the counter, he looked towards me with a grin.

“Alright, laddie. Here’s your sword. It ain’t exactly made out of orichalcum like the lassie’s, but I tried to make it as close to your specifications as possible, and I guarantee that it’s a quality blade.” (Uncle Grayhill)

I picked up the sword on the counter before unsheathing it. It was just a simple unengraved longsword made out of regular steel, and the blade shone with a silverish gleam while the edge seemed razor sharp.

Man, I guess I really underestimated Uncle Grayhill’s skill, huh? Even with the needlessly detailed requests I made for the sword, he still managed to follow them down to the letter. The weight and length are perfect, and although I don’t know the first thing about blacksmithing, even I can tell that forging something to exact specifications is insanely difficult.

I held the longsword in my hand and tested out the balance of the sword by taking a few slow practice swings. At first, it was slow enough that it looked more like I was waving a metal stick around than it did a sword swing, but after making sure that the center of gravity was in the right place, I decided I should test out how the sword would hold up once I moved a little faster.

Wait, how fast should I go? I mean the best test would be to swing as fast as I can, but thinking about what happened last time with the ice sword… well, perhaps holding back a bit this time wouldn’t hurt. After all, if I swung hard enough, the wind pressure would probably make a mess of the shop. And anyway, I’m only bringing a sword in case we run into any dangerous monsters, so hopefully, I won’t need to use it to fight at all. If we stick around the designated beginner areas, we should be fine.

I grabbed the handle of the sword and precisely controlled the amount of strength in my arm as it shot diagonally outward. The blade cleanly sliced through the air and while the speed of my swing wasn’t very fast, I could tell that the sword had a solid core to it, at least enough that it could survive a few full power swings. After turning back to Lucas and Uncle Grayhill, I sheathed the sword again.

“How is it, laddie?” (Uncle Grayhill)

“I don’t know how you did it, but it’s perfect. Thanks, Uncle Grayhill.” (Kyle)

“Don’t mention it, laddie. Just do me a favor and say hello to the lassie for me when you see her.” (Uncle Grayhill)

“Yeah, tell Miss Aria I said hi too!” (Lucas)

Uncle Grayhill gave me a hearty chuckle as I waved goodbye to him and Lucas before grabbing my small bag of supplies off the floor and walking out of the shop. After leaving the shop, I reoriented myself before turning towards the direction of the adventurer’s guild.

As I took a step forward, my left hand holding my new longsword in its sheath naturally fell to my left side and tried to hang it at my waist, but it seemed that I forgot my throwing knives were already there.

Ah, crap. Looks like I’m still not used to carrying around an actual sword with me, huh? Hell, even just having a sheath for it in the first place feels weird when you’ve been used to making everything out of thin air for the past thousand years… Well, at least Uncle Grayhill thought ahead and gave me a sheath with a strap on it. I guess another leather belt to add to my growing collection it is.

I stood there awkwardly in the middle of the street as I fiddled around with the leather strap on the sheath of my new longsword before figuring out how to sling it over my shoulder. After attaching it to my back, I double checked that I had everything I needed on me before making my way over to the adventurer’s guild where I told everyone to meet me today.

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Solria, Southern District, Solria Adventurer’s Guild (Kyle POV)

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The adventurer’s guild in the capital city was massive. It was a huge building that looked more like a mansion than an adventurer’s guild. It was three stories tall, nothing like the small wooden building in Delhurst, and the ornate main entrance was carved out of what seemed to be marble, while the arched windows lining the light gray brick walls gave the whole building a kind of noble feel to it, despite that fact that most of its inhabitants were anything but.

Today seemed to be a slow day though, probably due to the last dredges of the summer heat, as there were barely any people. There were maybe a few dozen adventurers coming in and out at most, not nearly as many as when I saw the guild for the first time last fall, so, while the guild was huge, it barely took more than a few seconds to spot out where the class was.

I saw them gathered together standing by the entrance as they talked to each other and looked around the crowd, presumably to find me.

Halbert was wearing light armor with pieces of metal strapped here and there, and a huge greatsword almost as tall as him was strapped to his back. The way he had it strapped to his back kind of reminded me of the way Aria did it, but maybe it was just the fact that I was at the adventurer’s guild again that was filling my head with memories of our time in Delhurst.

Standing next to Halbert was Regnis, who was also donning similar looking light armor. However, attached to his back was a slim, silver colored spear with a simple, unadorned spearhead instead of a large greatsword like Halbert had.

Moving on to Zane, he had full leather armor on and a small cloak covered his shoulders. There was a metal staff in his hands, and he stood there hunched over while using his staff like a cane.

Reina was dressed in a brown hooded robe that went down to a little past her knees, and underneath her robe, it seemed like she was wearing some loose clothes which let her move around easier. She also had a staff like Zane, however, hers was wooden and it was also just slightly taller than her as she held it to her side.

Finally, standing next to Reina was Sophie, who had some pieces of leather armor on to cover her vital points. Her abdomen and limbs were basically unprotected, and a small pouch was attached to the right side of her belt while a pole-shaped object about the length of her arm and wrapped in cloth was being worn horizontally at the back of her waist.

Speaking of which, this is probably as good of a time as any to explain why we’re all out here in adventuring gear today. After all, today is a Wednesday, so you’re probably wondering why we’re not in class right about now. You see, after Mari came back from her important meeting two days ago and found me crying by myself in a hole outside... well, first of all, she yelled at me for ruining the academy’s lawn… but after that, she mentioned that her presence was requested for another important meeting involving the Empire’s Grand Mages and that she would probably be busy for the whole day today. So, of course, I had to take this opportunity to finally get some practical training in. After all, Sophie might be perfectly ok with how things have been going so far, but I doubt anyone else, including me, could stand just sitting in a classroom and studying circles every day.

Anyway, Mari told me that she didn’t care what I did in class today as long as I stayed out of trouble, so technically this isn’t breaking the rules at all if we’re just out here in the safe zone for beginners to test out some alchemy circles on slimes and whatnot. We’re in the heart of the Empire, so everywhere nearby is basically a safe zone since almost all the strong monsters have been cleared out already, and because of that, there’s basically only beginners in the guild. Occasionally, there’s the rare uproar over a few A-rank or S-rank adventurers reporting back to the guild after specially assigned quests, but most of the time, the guild here’s packed full of newbies, so they’ve put a lot of work into making sure everything around here is safe and accounted for. I heard they even make your guild cards for you on the spot when you register here, so there shouldn’t be any long wait for everyone to get their guild cards like there was for me in Delhurst.

But anyway, now you might be asking me, why are we out here then if we just want practical training, wouldn’t just going out and setting up some training dummies in the academy’s field be safer? Well, you would be correct… but I know that Regnis is always thirsty for ways to use ancient alchemy in a real fight, so I think that getting some first-hand experience fighting monsters is much more valuable than just blasting some stationary target dummies. Coincidentally, there just also happens to be a problem with the slime population around here right now since most of the newbies don’t want to work in the summer heat so no one has been keeping the slime population under control, but I assure you that the high rewards on slime subjugation missions right now have absolutely nothing to do with why we’re all out here today. It’s just happenstance that I’ll be taking a slime subjugation quest today. After all, I live in this beautiful city and walk through its streets every day, don’t I? So I have to do my part and keep it safe from the upcoming slimy crisis. Any monetary gain from my actions is purely accidental.

Ahem. Anyway, getting back on track, I’m sure that we’ll all be fine. We’re just doing some practical training out in the woods nearby, and we even have with us a seasoned adventurer, me. It isn’t like before when I had to be cautious of everything because I didn’t know how strong the monsters had gotten. I know about all of the common monsters nearby, and none of them are a problem for anyone even remotely competent. So theoretically, anyone from the abnormally talented student population this year, or the ‘golden generation’ as Mari puts it, should be able to easily defeat dozens of monsters. And in case we’re really unlucky and somehow do run into something dangerous, I might take a bit of a beating, but I can at least distract it while everyone else runs away, right?

I started walking towards everyone, and it looked like Reina spotted me as I saw her hug her staff and get everyone else’s attention before pointing at me. The rest of them looked over and Halbert waved at me as I made my way over to them.

“Professor Kyle! Over here!” (Halbert)

I looked up in the sky to check the position of the sun, and it looked like it was approximately 10 AM, a little earlier than our intended meeting time, but since everyone was already here, starting early wouldn’t be bad.

“Hey, everyone.” (Kyle)

I waved to everyone before Zane cried out in disbelief while beads of sweat dripped down his forehead.

“Wait! Ky, how the hell are you even alive in that tacky long coat!? I only came out here in the sweltering heat with full battle gear on because you said we were gonna be fighting some monsters today, but we haven’t even done anything yet, and I’m already dying!” (Zane)

“Eh? Well, I’ve gotten used to working in the heat after spending so much time running around in the southern part of the Empire, but... is my coat really that tacky?...” (Kyle)

I looked down at the red coat Lucas gave me and patted it a bit before looking to everyone else for their opinions.

“Well, it’s, uh, pretty unique, I guess.” (Halbert)

“U-Umm, yeah! It really makes you stand out!” (Reina)

“You don’t have to lie... Just tell me that you think it’s tacky. It’s alright, I won’t be mad.” (Kyle)

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Halbert and Reina had awkward smiles on their faces as they let out dry laughs and tears flowed out of my eyes before I turned to Sophie and Regnis. Regnis just stood there with a slightly embarrassed look on his face and crossed his arms while I could see that Sophie was covering her mouth with her hand and struggling not to laugh. However, after a moment, she finally couldn’t hold herself back anymore and burst out in hysterical laughter as she pointed at me.

“W-What the hell are you wearing, Professor Kyle!?” (Sophie)

“A coat, ok!? And I think it’s pretty cool… A-Anyway, let’s just get going. I think I’m starting to feel the heat too, so come on, follow me inside.” (Kyle)

“Huh? Inside? Inside where?” (Zane)

“The adventurer’s guild. Where else? Why do you think I had you all meet up with me in front of it? After all, you need to be a registered adventurer if you’re gonna be out there fighting monsters. It’s the law, right, Reina?” (Kyle)

“E-Eh? Y-Yeah, if I remember, the law states that self-defense against monsters is fine, but you do need to be registered as an official adventurer or have some sort of permit from a local authority if you’re going to be actively hunting monsters within the Empire’s territory.” (Reina)

“Wait, we’re registering as adventurers!? Why didn’t you just say so!? Lead the way then, Ky! Quick!” (Zane)

Zane immediately popped back to life as a passionate sparkle appeared in his eyes and I could see him jittering around in anticipation as he looked towards the guild hall.

“It’s just registering as an adventurer... Why are you so excited?” (Kyle)

“What do you mean? Don’t you get it, Ky? We’re registering as adventurers! Genuine adventurers! It’s every young boy’s dream to become an adventurer, roaming around the world fighting monsters and getting the ladies! Besides, haven’t you ever looked up to a famous S-rank adventurer when you were a kid? Like Blue Flame Seraphina, or Ryton, The Dragonslayer of Stone!” (Zane)

“Eh, well, when I was younger I was pretty… busy dealing with other things, so not really. And trust me, going out into the woods and fighting monsters for a living is a lot different than what you think it is. Same goes for dragon slaying.” (Kyle)

I scratched the back of my head with an unenthusiastic look on my face as I waved to everyone to follow me. My legs dragged me slowly towards the door, and we all entered into the large guild hall together.

However, the moment I stepped foot into the guild hall, my lethargy disappeared and I was overcome with a strange sense of nostalgia. The late summer sunlight shone in through the windows, illuminating the clean wooden lobby, and a myriad of adventurers stood in line at the large receptionist desk, crowded around the several large bulletin boards with quests of all kinds pinned to them, or just sat at the tables nearby chatting with each other. It was a picturesque scene straight out of a fantasy anime, and for a moment I was overwhelmed. It finally felt like I was walking into a real adventurer’s guild for the first time.

… I see. So this is what it feels like to be in a real adventurer's guild, huh?... Well, I guess I can understand you a bit more now, Zane. Looks like I’ve forgotten just what it means to be a true adventurer. To be someone who fights monsters for a living, someone who’s favorite pastime is bragging about their death-defying feats over a round of drinks with friends, and, most importantly, someone who isn’t immediately singled out and avoided like the plague when walking into a room full of his peers! This is what the genuine adventurer experience is! It’s nothing like what happened with Aria!

I took a deep breath while a smile inadvertently made its way onto my face. There was only one receptionist at the counter today since it seemed to be quite a slow day, but I didn’t mind at all as I led everyone over to wait in the short line before turning around to them. Zane had an enthusiastic smile on as he quickly glanced around, while Regnis and Halbert took in their surroundings with a sense of wonder. Reina wasn’t too moved since she was probably used to this kind of atmosphere after working as a receptionist at an adventurer’s guild herself, but it seemed that Sophie felt more like I did, as she inspected the inside of the guild hall with a faint smile.

“Alright, everyone. Looks like there’s only one receptionist today, so it might take a bit longer than expected to register, but we started a little early so we should be fine. Anyway, I can just hold our place in line for now, so if you guys want to, you can go explore around while we wait.” (Kyle)

“Then, I’ll be heading over to the quest board if anyone wants to come check it out with me.” (Halbert)

“Well, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to see what quests are available, so I’ll tag along for now.” (Regnis)

“How about the rest of you?” (Halbert)

“Sure, I’ll join you.” (Sophie)

“E-Eh? Well, i-if you don’t mind, then I guess I’ll join you too.” (Reina)

“I’m good. You guys can go without me, I’m gonna go see if there are any famous adventurers here today instead.” (Zane)

“Alright, then we’ll be back in a few minutes.” (Halbert)

Everyone except Zane walked off to go check out the bulletin board full of quests as Zane started looking around to see if he could recognize anybody famous. Eventually, after a few moments, it seemed like spotted someone as he pointed over to a table in the back of the main lobby.

“Wait. H-Hey, is that Mountain Axe Lloyd!?” (Zane)

“Who?” (Kyle)

I looked towards the table that Zane was pointing at with a curious look, and the person who landed in my sights was a large middle-aged man with a large battle axe at his side, leaning against the table. He had short black hair and a rough beard, while his outfit consisted of metal armor, and he held a mug of what seemed to be ale in his hands as he laughed with a few other adventurers sitting with him.

“Mountain Axe Lloyd? Is he famous or something?” (Kyle)

“Wait, Ky, you don’t know about Mountain Axe Lloyd? He’s the B-rank adventurer who took down a giant stone python by himself! They say he chopped its head off clean in one swing with his axe!” (Zane)

“Nope, never heard of him. Actually, I don’t know about any of the adventurers around here. I was only active as an adventurer near the Zolran Mountains at the southern edge of the Empire before I retired, so this is the first time I’ve even set foot in the capital’s adventurer’s guild.” (Kyle)

“Hmm, I guess that kind of makes sense then. After all, Mountain Axe Lloyd is only active around the capital. But he’s still a veteran B-rank adventurer, so you must have really been in the boonies down south if you didn’t even hear his name once.” (Zane)

“Why? Is B-rank supposed to be really famous?” (Kyle)

“Well, most B-rank adventurers are only well-known locally, but most of the stronger ones have had their names spread somewhat. When you get to A-rank and S-rank is when you start to genuinely become famous.” (Zane)

“Eh? Really, now?” (Kyle)

Huh, looks like Aria’s a lot more famous than I thought. Well, I guess there’s the whole knight captain thing too, but she hasn’t actually made any public appearances yet, so she’s probably still a lot more well-known as the Crimson Rose, at least in the southern part of the Empire. I mean I’ve never really heard much about any other famous adventurers either, but I guess barely talking to anyone back in Delhurst kind of does that to you. Anyway, Aria hasn’t taken on any quests in a while, so her fame, err, well, perhaps more like infamy, has probably died down a little after becoming inactive.

“Anyway, I’m gonna go see if I can go get his autograph. I’ll be back in a bit, Ky.” (Zane)

“Alright then.” (Kyle)

Zane ran off to the table where Mountain Axe Lloyd was sitting with an excited glint in his eyes as I turned around to face the receptionist desk again. A few minutes passed by as I waited peacefully in line and the indistinct chatter in the background gave me a warm sensation inside before I finally came back to my senses. There was only a single person left ahead of us in line, and I was about to call out to the class, but when I turned towards the direction of the bulletin board, they were already coming back together.

“Hey, guys, we’re next in line.” (Kyle)

“Yeah, glad we made it back in time.” (Halbert)

“Hey, Ky, I think the guy in front is done already.” (Zane)

“Huh?” (Kyle)

I turned around to see the man previously standing in front of the receptionist desk start to leave.

“Oh, you’re right. Well, looks like we’re up then.” (Kyle)

Standing behind the counter was a young lady with long brown hair and blue eyes who looked like she was around her mid-twenties.

Alright, Ky. She doesn’t seem to be scared of you like Reina was. Your starting point is already miles ahead of where it was last time, so just act normal and don’t mess this up.

I walked up to the receptionist desk with a smile as she greeted me.

“Hello, sir. How can I help you?” (Receptionist)

“Hi, I’m actually here today to reactivate my guild card since I’ve been inactive for the past year or so.” (Kyle)

“No problem, sir. I’ll just need your guild card for a few moments.” (Receptionist)

“Sure.” (Kyle)

I rummaged through my pockets and pulled out my guild card before handing it over to the receptionist.

“Here you go. Oh, by the way, there aren’t any rules against partying up with newly registered adventurers, right? The kids behind me are actually going to be registering as adventurers today, and I would like to form a party with them.” (Kyle)

“Eh? There shouldn’t be any problem. It’s just recommended that you do lower level quests when in a party with beginners.” (Receptionist)

“Really? That’s great then. I was a little scared that I wouldn’t be able to form a party with them since my rank is a bit on the higher side.” (Kyle)

I let out a relieved sigh as the receptionist lady giggled a bit and took my guild card before walking into the office behind the counter. A few moments passed by as I waited peacefully before I suddenly heard the door burst open. The receptionist lady came out of the office and walked up to the counter again, but this time there was a bit of a scared look on her face before she bowed deeply towards me.

… Eh?... Why do I have a bad feeling about this?...

“E-Excuse me, sir!” (Receptionist)

A brief moment of panic ensued before I immediately held my finger up to my mouth and gestured to her to be quiet. Her hand shot up and covered her mouth the moment she saw me gesture to her, but it seemed that her initial outburst still caught the class’ attention as they all stared at me with confused faces.

“Is everything ok there?” (Halbert)

I turned around slowly with a nervous smile on my face before responding to Halbert’s question.

“Don’t worry, everything’s fine. The receptionist was just a little surprised.” (Kyle)

I let out a dry laugh before facing the receptionist again. The class stared at me for a second, but after that, they seemed to let it go as they started chatting amongst themselves again.

“Please, quiet down a little, miss. I don’t want to make a big scene. I won’t hurt you or anything, I just want to reactivate my guild card and take a slime subjugation quest with my students, so just treat me like you would any other normal adventurer.” (Kyle)

I whispered to her while pleading to her to be quiet, and after a moment, it looked like she calmed down a bit. There was still a bit of fear in her eyes, but it seemed that she got the message as she took her hand away from her mouth before beginning to speak softly to me.

“I a-apologize for the inconvenience, sir. I didn’t realize before that you were so h-high ranked. I promise, it won’t happen again, so p-please, have your guild card back.” (Receptionist)

The receptionist held my guild card shakily with both hands before handing it over to me respectfully, and it was then that I realized my mistake. On my guild card was a glowing letter ‘A’ where my guild rank was supposed to be.

Ah, I guess I did get promoted after all, huh? Well, I was already a B-rank after completing so many high-level quests with Aria back in Delhurst, and we did report slaying the dragon on the mountain range to the guild, so looking back, it really was only a matter of time before I was promoted. I mean, I never really bothered checking my rank because I retired and moved to the capital with Aria right after we killed the dragon, and it’s not like I even had the mana to activate the spell on my guild card and check my rank, so I just kind of forgot about it. Well, since I was promoted, chances are Aria was probably promoted to S-rank too. Eh, at least she deserves it unlike me. She’s a genuinely strong swordswoman, while I always just tagged along on her quests and barely ever did anything, so I always kind of felt that my rank was undeserved, but looks like the guild doesn’t care about my feelings much. Anyway, I hope no one else saw my rank. I don’t want this to be a repeat of what happened in Delhurst and I’m perfectly content with just being treated as an average adventurer.

I took my guild card back from the receptionist with a helpless smile on my face before slipping it back into my pocket as it looked like the receptionist finally regained control of herself.

“Is there anything else I can help you with today, sir?” (Receptionist)

“Umm, well, my students still need to register as adventurers, so if you could help us with that too, that would be great.” (Kyle)

The receptionist stiffened up a bit as she gave me a salute before replying in a determined voice.

“Don’t worry, sir. I’ll make sure that their registration goes as smoothly as possible.” (Receptionist)

“Really? Thank you, miss.” (Kyle)

I gently smiled at her and she stopped saluting me before lowering her head and staring at the countertop. For a moment there, it seemed like her face turned a little red, but I didn’t even bother thinking about it as I breathed an internal sigh of relief for finally navigating through that minefield of a conversation.

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Solria, Southern District, Solria Adventurer’s Guild (Halbert POV)

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I saw it.

It was a simple metal card, thin and seemingly made of a silverish metal. The adventurer’s guild symbol was inscribed into the metal of the card itself, signifying that it was a genuine guild card issued by the guild itself, and next to that inscribed symbol was some text. The first line of text read ‘Name: Kyle’ and there was nothing unexpected about that, it was just Professor Kyle’s name, but what was written underneath that was something unbelievable. There was another line of text that simply read ‘Rank:’ and to the right of that line of text was a softly glowing letter ‘A.’

It was only for the briefest of moments that I caught a glimpse of that small metal card before Professor Kyle put it back into his pocket, and I probably wouldn’t have even noticed it if the receptionist’s yell before didn’t make me alert, but none of that changed the undeniable truth.

Professor Kyle is an A-rank adventurer.

I don’t really know much about adventurers, and I never really cared enough to learn about them in detail. However, one thing I do know is that an A-rank adventurer was definitely someone who was strong. Much, much stronger than me...

I stared at Professor Kyle’s back. There was a simple sheathed longsword strapped diagonally to his back, and the tacky red coat he was wearing hid the shape of his body, but despite all this, I could still make out the outline of his shoulders. His shoulders weren’t very broad. In fact, I always considered him to be more on the slender side, and the image of him in my mind was always someone who was lighthearted and goofy. He was always just someone who you could laugh with, and, even with his usual aloofness, he looked like he would help you out if you ever needed it.

I mean, I always realized in the back of my head that he had probably been in his fair share of fights if he was skilled enough to be teaching what was essentially battle alchemy, and I still remember that time he ended up swinging so hard with a Frost Blade that it shattered, but perhaps it was the mere fact that he was manaless that made me see him the way I did.

I never saw him as someone strong.

I took a deep breath and tried my best to hide my shock as I glanced around at the rest of the class. Reina, Sophie, and Zane seemed to be preoccupied with talking to each other about something, so they probably didn’t see it, but when I locked eyes with Regnis, I could tell. He saw it too. In his eyes was the same disbelief that was in mine, and we stared at each other for a moment before Professor Kyle turned around to face us.

“Alright. I’m done, so you guys can register now. Luckily we’re in the capital, so it shouldn’t take more than a few minutes to get your guild cards.” (Kyle)

He called out to us with the same carefree smile on his face that he always had and it seemed like the receptionist was already prepared as there were five registration forms placed on the counter neatly. I walked up to one of the registration forms and started to fill it out as I reformed my mental image of Professor Kyle before I heard Regnis whisper to me from my side.

“... A-rank, huh?...” (Regnis)

“... Yeah…” (Halbert)

After that small exchange, neither of us said a word to each other until we got our guild cards.