Time rushed forward like a madman. After the retail sales of marionettes began, Tot spent his days and nights in the workshops. However, as he had promised, he reliably sent the seventh-class marionettes engraved with my techniques. So I placed ten of them to guard my estate and Mia, while another ten protected Sui and her home.

  Over the next two weeks, I mastered fifth-circle water magic and earth magic of the same level. During this time, I also constantly trained the academy team, Mia, and myself with the rector. It was tough, time was catastrophically short, and I was already starting to consider what I could cut out.

  “Students! Attention, I have something to say!”

  The rector gathered us after the team’s training.

  “In two weeks, the qualifiers for the Empire’s tournament will begin. So tomorrow, we’re heading to the capital of the Lyghote Kingdom! Please gather at the academy gates in the morning, where transportation will be waiting for us. Also, I’ve been closely monitoring your training this past week, and I am confident that it is our team that will go to the Empire. Thank you all for your hard work!”

  Everyone slowly dispersed, each lost in their own thoughts. A heavy, tense atmosphere hung over the arena. Well, let me add to it. I soared into the air and bellowed:

  “Anyone who slacks off in battle will spend a month sparring with me one-on-one every single day! I haven’t trained you lazy lot for six weeks for nothing. And if it turns out I have, I’ll personally smear you across the arena!”

  Ten auras scattered into the bushes. I didn’t feel like going to the library today, so I headed to the main building to wait for Sui. I had to tell her I was leaving tomorrow.

  “Already tomorrow?” she asked again.

  Even without sharp eyesight, I could tell she was upset.

  “Yeah.”

  “Aney, why… Why do you always leave?”

  “Hey, kiddo, it’s not forever. Besides, participating in the tournament was a condition for my studying here. So you could say it’s time for me to repay my debts.”

  I picked her up and jumped into the air. The girl’s heart thumped unevenly.

  “Mia!” I called to the cat-girl from the doorstep. “Come here.”

  “I’m here, sir! What do you need, sir?”

  “I’m leaving for the tournament tomorrow.”

  “Understood, sir! I’ll pack our things, sir!”

  The redhead dashed off.

  “Stop right there! With ears like those, are you deaf? I didn’t say we were leaving. You’re staying home.”

  “What? Sir, are you abandoning this Mia alone at home?”

  It was painful to look into those eyes.

  “I’m not abandoning you; I’m appointing you as the head of the Matana estate in my absence! You’ll also be watching over Tot and Sui while I’m gone.”

  “Watching over Suichka, huh…”

  Her eyes narrowed slyly. She sauntered up to me, swaying her hips, and wrapped an arm around my neck.

  “Sir,” she whispered breathily into my ear, “have you and she already… you know…”

  “Know what?”

  “You know… mated?”

  “What the hell are you talking about?!” I flicked her forehead. “We’re not in that kind of relationship!”

  “Aaaah, so you’re not in that kind of… Mia understands, sir! Don’t worry, sir, Mia will make sure that no mutt gets near your Sui while you’re gone. I guarantee she’ll be ready for your return!”

  Mia vanished through the door, leaving me standing there with my mouth open. What the hell was she thinking?!

  The next morning, I was one of the first at the academy gates. Irgen had beaten me there.

  “Captain!”

  “Morning, Vice-Captain.”

  I glanced at the enormous bag she was sitting on. Didn’t she have a storage pouch? And how, in the abyss, had she even dragged it here? It looked heavy just at a glance. I pulled out the storage sack that Hek had once given me.

  “Here, take this.”

  “Captain, I can’t…”

  Her long elven ears immediately turned red.

  “Take it, I said. Someone once gave it to me, too. Seems like that’s its fate.”

  “Thank you!” She took it with both hands and bowed.

  Quickly activating it, she stored her bag inside and fastened the little pouch to her belt. Then she just stood there, kicking at the gravel path with her heel.

  “Irgen.”

  “Yes, Captain?”

  “There’s something I’ve wanted to ask you for six weeks. It’s personal—do you mind?”

  “Go ahead, Captain.”

  “Your ears… Are you an elf?”

  “Not exactly,” Irgen hesitated. “I’m a half-elf. Does that bother you?”

  “Of course not! Quite the opposite!” I was caught off guard by the question. “I like your ears! My friend has ears too—fluffy ones! And a fluffy tail!”

  Holy hedgehogs, what the hell am I saying? Irgen laughed.

  “I know, Captain, that you treat other races well, even if they’re half-bloods. That hasn’t been a secret in the academy or in Matana for a long time.”

  Oh, wow… Am I that well-known?

  “My mother was an elf, and my father was human,” she continued without me even asking. “She was a slave. Though she loved my father. But after my parents died, there was no place left for me in the family—the other heirs forced me out, practically naked…”

  Well, I was born into this world naked too, so…

  “Does slavery exist in the Empire?”

  “Not exactly. It’s called a lifetime service contract under the Judge’s Eye. Supposedly, it can only be entered voluntarily, but I don’t know why my mother agreed to it.”

  Right, that nine-tailed Louie had tried to offer me something like that to bargain for his life.

  “What happened to them?”

  “They died in a dungeon breach three years ago.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  Yeah, dungeon breaches happened sometimes. I had already heard of cases where tens or even hundreds of thousands of monsters broke out and devastated entire regions.

  Stolen story; please report.

  We both fell silent as other team members approached.

  I heard a strange rustling from the direction of the academy, so I glanced toward the gates.

  Something… odd was coming toward us, with the rector sitting at the front, driving it. It looked like a train of three covered wagons, but it moved on its own, without any animals pulling it. Instead of wheels, it had dozens of spider-like legs. What the hell was that?

  “It’s a fifth-class magical vehicle owned by the academy. It’s called a Gah,” Irgen was the first to respond to my puzzled expression.

  “Thanks.”

  I, like a fool, kept staring at the Gah. When the rector stopped it, I was the first to peek inside. It was surprisingly spacious, especially for our team. Plush benches lined the sides with foldable tables in the aisle. At the back of the last section was something resembling a field kitchen.

  Well, my cart with Livzi was no worse, even if it was just a simple wagon. If only I could get myself a ship like the one I saw at the auction… Sigh, Aney, roll up that wishful thinking…

  “Hop in!” Raman commanded.

  We quickly climbed aboard, and the Gah set off. Now I understood how it differed from my wagon. I didn’t feel any bumps on the road at all. The ride was so smooth it felt like we weren’t moving at all.

  I pulled out the enchanted leather map Hek had given me and found the capital, Lyghote. Quite far. Vangan was much closer, for example. Irgen and the guys sitting nearby peeked at the map.

  “That’s a nice map you’ve got…”

  “Yeah, thanks. It’s a gift from an old friend. Why are you looking at me like that? He really is old. That’s a fact, not just a figure of speech.”

  Everyone burst into laughter.

  After a while, the chatter died down, and people split into smaller groups. Mara sat down next to me.

  “Captain, if you don’t mind me asking, how do you use magic as a Battle Ancestor?”

  I could almost hear Raman and Irgen pricking up their ears.

  “Well, it’s not a secret. But the truth is, I don’t really know myself.”

  I could practically hear the unspoken “Liar!” hanging in the air, so after a brief pause, I continued:

  “This has been my dream ever since I learned about the existence of magic. But everyone, even in the Mage Guild, said it was impossible for me. Yet I didn’t give up, and thanks to my friend Sui, whom you also know, I figured out the theory of magic and adapted it for myself. I don’t know if my method will work for other warriors, to be honest. Most likely not, since people are all very different. Take Sui, for example. She’s definitely not the best at elemental magic, but would any of you dare face her in battle? Exactly. She has her own unique magic, which is why she’s called the Butterfly Queen. Or take my friend Mia—she’s a catfolk. Right now, her strength is equal to that of a mid-tier Battle Master, but two weeks ago, she took first place in the royal tournament, defeating a very strong high-tier Battle Master. Impossible, you say? Yes, under normal circumstances, it would be. But as a catfolk, she has an innate ability for bodily transformation, which makes her almost exponentially faster and stronger. So, I believe that every person has something… special. But not everyone can discover it within themselves, even in a lifetime.”

  I fell silent. It seemed they believed me. Even Raman. Phew, I don’t like these kinds of conversations—having to be honest while keeping my secrets.

  “Captain, what is your full strength right now?” Irgen couldn’t hold back.

  I was just about to crack a joke when the rector answered for me.

  “Your captain is very strong. If we compare only magic, he’s roughly at my level. But if we consider his full strength, he surpasses me. I believe he can fight a lower-tier God of War or an eighth-circle mage on equal footing.”

  “Whoa!” a collective exclamation swept through the unit.

  “Rector, you’re exaggerating. I recently got slapped by a God of War and went flying headfirst through walls…”

  “You took a hit from a God of War and are still here talking with us? And I’m the one exaggerating?”

  Laughter erupted around us again.

  “Captain,” Mara asked, “how can a mage defend themselves in close combat? We’re physically weak—can this be fixed somehow?”

  A difficult question. And yet a simple one. No matter what a mage does, they won’t have a warrior’s strength.

  “Yes, there is one way,” I said.

  “What is it?!”

  “Buy yourself a couple of battle puppets!”

  “Oh, come on, Captain! They cost a fortune!”

  “Gold can always be earned, as long as you’re alive!”

  My answer disappointed everyone. Well, oh well…

  “Alright, everyone! I promise, if we win the imperial tournament, each of you will get a sixth-class battle puppet as a gift! Except for the rector, of course—he doesn’t need such junk. Besides, he’s not personally competing.”

  “Why don’t I need one? I organize everything!”

  “Alright, alright, Mr. Rector. You’ll get a puppet too.”

  A satisfied Raman turned back to the road. Everyone was laughing.

  “Captain…”

  “Enough, Mara! A couple more of your questions, and I’ll go bankrupt!”

  “Ughhh…”

  What a cunning little fox!

  We rode forward, leaving Matan further behind. The next day, I started noticing an unpleasant smell in the air. With every passing hour, it became more distinct and stronger.

  “Do you smell that too?” I asked Raman.

  “Yeah, for about two hours now.”

  “Do you know what it is?”

  “No,” the rector shook his head from side to side. “But it’s something bad.”

  “Smells like poison…”

  I glanced at my team members, who were unusually sluggish that morning.

  “Guys, I see you’re feeling unwell. Describe your symptoms—what are you experiencing?”

  “Headache…” Mara was the first to speak.

  “Yeah,” Grass confirmed, “a headache above the eye sockets, an itch in the nose, and a bit of nausea…”

  “I have the same…”

  “Me too…”

  “My eyes are burning as well.”

  I exchanged glances with Raman.

  “This is definitely poison, but I don’t know which kind.”

  I took out restoration pills and handed them to everyone in the unit. I took one myself, just in case. The pills didn’t have detoxifying properties, but they could suppress symptoms and slow the poison’s spread for a while.

  After that, I pulled out my teacher’s alchemy works and found the volume titled Poisons, Symptoms, Countermeasures, Treatment, then started flipping through it quickly. I had read it before, but I wanted to be sure. In the end, I found that nearly a dozen poisons matched these symptoms. Damn, that meant I couldn’t choose the right antidote with certainty.

  “Who’s feeling the worst right now?” I asked the team.

  They all raised their hands at once. Of course…

  I checked their auras to determine the most unstable one.

  “Zimer,” I turned to the fifth-circle mage, probably the quietest in the team, “I need your blood.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Excuse me?”

  The boy was seriously frightened.

  “Don’t be afraid, I don’t need much.”

  I grabbed his hand and made a shallow prick on his finger with a dagger. Squeezing out a few drops of blood, I caught them with my aura and held them up to the sun. Nothing visible. I crushed the bloody droplet into a thin sheet and strained my vision to the maximum.

  There! Tiny green worms wriggled around the red blood cells, destroying the hemoglobin proteins. What even is this?! Is it alive?! I isolated one of the green abominations with my aura to examine it more closely. It didn’t resemble a living creature… but it also had its own faint aura—strangely familiar. Where have I seen something like this before?

  I burned the blood and that filth, then thought hard. Where, damn it, where?! The Misty Forest? The Dungeon? Matan? I rummaged through my memory like a madman. Of course! Matan! The stone slab at my teacher’s estate and the human hand inside it—that’s exactly it. Or rather, those green patterns on the bones…

  “I’ve seen this before. But I have no idea how to cure it,” I told the rector. “I can only brew medicine to slow its effects, and hopefully, for a long time.”

  I took out my alchemical cauldron and suspended it outside the gah with my aura. Activating first- and second-circle magic, I filled the cauldron with water and brought it to a boil with a fire wall spell. Consulting my teacher’s notes, I began adding ingredients to the cauldron.

  The medicine I was preparing was meant to quickly and sustainably boost hemoglobin levels—it’s the only thing I could do for now. An hour later, it was ready. I poured the medicine into bottles, distributed some to everyone present, and started preparing another batch.

  “Captain, why are you…?”

  “Think for yourself,”—why is Mara cunning yet still such a fool?—“this filth has spread over a large area. I’m sure we’ll encounter more victims along the way. What, should we just leave them to die?”

  “Oh… that’s what you meant…”

  By the time we reached a large village with several hundred households, I had prepared nearly a thousand bottles of medicine. I couldn’t sense a single aura. Was the village empty? I flew up into the sky to take a look from above.

  A horrifying sight. Men, women, the elderly, the young, children… All dead.

  These people suffocated, breathing in full lungs of—

  I flew even higher to try and locate the source of this filth. Now that I knew its aura, the place with the highest concentration should be… Found it! About thirty kilometers away, a green vortex seemed to be raging in the air.

  “Wait for me here!”

  I rushed forward, preparing a drop of my own blood on the way. A God’s mana should be able to burn this filth—at least, I hoped so. I reached the source and threw a drop of my blood into it. A fiery bloom ignited and spread, revealing a stone slab identical to the one at Kruk’s estate. But this one was cracked.

  Wasting no time, I stored the slab in my vault—for now, it was the only thing I could do. Time inside the vault would remain static for the slab. Who could have done this? I couldn’t sense even a trace of aura on this slab, unlike the one in Matan. Matan. I needed to remove that stone immediately—if it cracked, the whole city would perish. I couldn’t take that risk.

  With a loud clap, I appeared above the city and stored the slab in my vault, where the cracked one was already kept. From a house across the street, Suí peeked out, half-dressed and startled by the loud noise overhead. I waved at the surprised girl and vanished from her sight.

  About an hour later, I caught up with the rector and the team.

  “I think I’ve stopped the spread of the threat, but the consequences…”

  “The Kingdom’s Healer Guild exists for that, Aney. Don’t try to do everything yourself.”

  “I’m afraid this isn’t something they can handle.”

  I checked the surrounding area as far as I could for any survivors. Not a single aura. Considering that I could easily detect a first-class aura even fifty kilometers away, the scale of this tragedy was enormous. I was sure this wasn’t an accident. What kind of inhuman monster could have done such a thing? The God of War, whose aura I had detected on the Matan slab? But there was no trace of his aura on the cracked stone. Besides, it was unlikely to be him—everyone in the city saw him with a similar slab. Then who would do this?

  “Are you alright?” Raman interrupted my thoughts.

  “There’s not a single living soul for dozens of kilometers, Rector. What kind of monster did this?”

  “So this wasn’t a natural phenomenon?”

  “No. That poison was man-made, I’m sure of it,” I said, half-truthfully.

  Whether the poison itself was of human origin, I couldn’t say for sure. But the fact that the stone appeared and cracked—that was definitely done by someone’s hand.