Published: July 3, 2025
It has been a month since Ryo and the Southern Army returned to the City of Run.
Ryo's life has been quite regular.
He wakes up at sunrise, stretches, and practices his sword techniques.
After breakfast, he spends the morning doing something related to alchemy and magic, and takes lunch at one of the shops near the East Gate, centered around the Feast Pavilion.
In the afternoon, he engages in mock battles with Sera at the knight order training ground, and occasionally stops by the library or the Gecko Merchant Association.
On his way home, he has dinner, and before it gets too late, he returns home, takes a bath, and goes to sleep.
There are two main forces disrupting Ryo’s orderly life.
One is his former roommates from Room 10.
The other is Abel, who has earned points from his expedition to the Duchy of Inberri and has finally been promoted to a-rank.
As a result, the party led by Abel, the Red Sword, has become an a-rank party.
By the way, until now, there had only been one a-rank party affiliated with the royal capital, so the Red Sword has become the second active a-rank party.
Ryo watched Abel’s promotion ceremony along with the members of Room 10.
Nils was deeply moved and in tears.
Eto comforted him from beside him.
Amon made a firm resolution to also achieve something someday.
Each had their own reactions.
As for Ryo?
He stood with his arms crossed, nodding repeatedly.
For some reason, he felt like a parent joyfully observing the growth of their child.
“I raised Abel…” he might have thought in his heart.
However, Abel likely didn’t think about such things at all.
A few days after the promotion ceremony, a swordsman visited Ryo's house in the morning.
“Was it too early…?”
When Abel took out his pocket watch to check, it was still eight in the morning.
He figured Ryo was awake, but hesitated outside his house, unsure of what to do.
At that moment, the right back door opened, and someone stepped out.
“Hm? Abel? You’re early.”
It was Sera, the elf swordsman instructor of the Run Knight Order.
“Oh… Sera, good morning…”
“Congratulations on your a-rank promotion. The lord was particularly pleased.”
“Oh… thank you.”
“Now, I must hurry.”
As Sera said this, she created a whirlwind and disappeared.
It took Abel a moment to realize that she had used wind attribute magic for high-speed movement.
As soon as Abel regained his senses, the back door that Sera had exited opened again, and this time Ryo came out.
“I thought I heard some voices; it was you, Abel. That’s unusual, being up this early.”
“Y-yeah… No, I wasn’t planning to be here…”
Abel answered, somewhat flustered for some reason.
“What is it? If you have something to say, you should say it clearly, right?”
“Well, I just met Sera who just came out…”
“You met her?”
“Did she stay overnight?”
Abel asked with a bright red face. He didn’t seem to have much immunity to such topics…
He was a good adult in his mid-twenties, after all.
“Ha…”
Ryo sighed and entered the house without answering.
“W-wait!”
Abel hurriedly followed Ryo inside through the back door.
Inside, a pleasant cooking smell wafted through the air.
On the table, there were no dishes, but a stack of papers.
On top of the stack was the seal of the Baron of Run.
“Sera brought that stack of papers for me. We also had a meal together. It seems there’s an impromptu monster combat training with the knight order today, and the swordsmanship instructors will be evaluated during the training. So, I came to tell you that we won't be able to have mock battles in the afternoon.”
As Ryo said this, he quickly ground coffee beans with a grinder.
The grinder was made by the Gecko Merchant Association and was much better than the mortar and pestle he had been using for alchemy tools, making it his recent favorite.
“Oh, I see…”
Knowing that Sera hadn’t stayed over made Abel’s flushed face return to normal.
“So, what’s this stack of papers? Can I look at it?”
“Ah, you probably won’t understand it. It’s something related to alchemy.”