(Walson)

The branch office of my guild is a place with a warming atmosphere, and it was directly rebuilt from a hotel. On the door hangs a totem of a black cat, with the sign for the [Eye of the Night Cat] hanging on the door.

I’m currently sitting in a rocking chair inside the branch office, reading the brochure of the Academy that Grace left behind.

…I must say, can something this thick be called a brochure?

While rocking on the chair, I’m holding a cute girl that I just met before.

Her name is Nita, aged 7, and a dog-human( a kind of demi-human that takes on features of dogs or canines). Sleeping deeply, her brown ears swayed in sync with her breathing.

So cute….

Moving on, other than being the branch office to the [Eyes of the Night Cat], this place also serves as a hotel, the owner of the shop is Paul who also happened to be a member, so the members of the guild receive a 50% discount! Although the full cost is still pretty inexpensive even before the discount.

Paul is a 40 years old middle-aged man, and he used to be an adventurer until he took an arrow in the knee (Literally). And even though he has retreated from the front lines and settled down on the capital, he still trains his body every day up until now.

“Why are there so many old dudes in the guild?”… I asked this question on the [Message Board] before, and was scolded immediately.

Nita is Paul’s foster daughter, she lost a leg in an monster ambush, got left behind by her parents in a rush, and was rescued by Paul. A dog-human who can’t jump around freely… is like a bird unable to fly, a star unable to return to the sky.

I found out about her on the [Message Board], so I already knew of her existence, and this was also one of the reasons I decided to come to the branch office.

My potion can definitely heal her, but let me take advantage of this opportunity for a bit, as I’ve already arranged a meeting with one of the merchants from [Mart Chamber of Commerce], a merchant guild to be precise.

To be honest, I wanted to meet with the chairman, but a kid like me can only hope…

“Just wait a little longer, I’ll give you a surprise later!” I looked at the form of Nita who is still sleeping in my lap, although she’s missing a leg, she’s still a very energetic child.

You’ll be able to jump around freely later, sweet child.

Ok, back to the… inexplicably thick brochure in my hands, a training course for battling caught my attention as I was reading through it.

It was [Arte], a highly difficult battle technique. Normally, a [Fighter] with at least a bit of talent for magic can master this technique, but there have been cases in which it’s the reverse.

Combining magic with physical moves, such as, a melee move with a ranged attack effect. For example, having a beam or shockwave fly out after a sword slash, punching someone from afar with the whirlwind caused by fists, and etc.

On the defensive side, there are things like damage-negating barriers, these are all examples of [Arte], the fighting techniques mixed with magic.

To put it easily, it’s similar to the melee class skills in games, like a certain 16-hit Starburst Stream, or the famous Shoryuken, the physical moves with super cool effects, basically.

SURE U KEN.

I’m getting off topic. Anyway, Melon, in my knowledge, has some talent with magic, but although her combatting skills are already powerful, she has never implemented magic into it.

By the way, Melon has never used elemental magic, and other than the Bands of the Bold which grants her additional forces behind her punch through the use of gunpowder I specifically made for her, she only puts mana into enhancing her body, if she learns any [Arte], she would probably become a lot stronger.

“Melon, you should go to school too.”

“Ehh? Master?”

“Yes, go learn.”

“Hmm, but… that means I need a tuition fee…”

“It’s ok, I’ll pay.” Whatever, I have 500 gold coins, Wahahaha!

Learning at the Academy costs 15 gold coins every term, which is very expensive for a normal peasant in this world, but I’m an exception.

“Master, wasting money on me like this…”

“Well, don’t think like that, consider this an investment in you, when you learn, it also helps me out.”

Speaking of which, there’re also language arts and math classes in the Academy, and those are compulsory subjects.

But different from my past life, the ratio of academic to physical subjects is 1:4. As expected, battling skills stand above everything else in this world.

“I hope that you can learn some [Arte], for a [Fighter], it should be an important milestone, right?”

“But… Master, I want to stay by your side to serve you…”

“Ahh, that’s not a problem, you can just apply for the non-dorm student status.”

Non-dorm students, an unique policy in the Royal Academy.

In this school, some students are poor, so they have to work while studying.

So a solution is this compromise: non-dorm students don’t need to live in school dormitories, and their schedule wouldn’t be as full, so they have extra time to work or rest.

But these kinds of students have a credits threshold, plus they graduate slower because they take less classes, which gives them less credits.

Other than that, this school has a feature very different from my past life, which is that they don’t sort classes by age, but credits.

Credits are earned through tests, mock exams, and academic behavior, advancements occur after an amount of credits are earned. Sixth grade is the highest, and you graduate after that.

So graduation is faster for people with better abilities, and the people who slack off and lack ability stay in the school longer, and it’s common for those people with lacking ability to drop out because of financial problems.

Also, there’ll be the credits for the compulsory classes every term, so even if you are very rich, you’ll graduate after seven years, which eliminates the possibility of staying forever.

From an educational point of view, this system is very worthy of imitation.

“Hmm, Master, I will try my best to not disappoint you.”

So I’ve decided, before Melon graduates, I’ll stay in the Capital. So, I asked Paul to find me a shopfront near the Academy to serve as my residence for the time being, I’ll check it out in the future.

Ahh, right, Melon asked me for a favor, which is rare.

“Master, starting from the day after tomorrow, I want to experience what it’s like to be an adventurer, can I?”

This is the first time Melon has asked for a leave of absence, so I approved. Hmm, I should prepare potions and supplies for her later.

Today’s schedule is very full, I’ll leave out the small details, so I’ll talk about the potions I intend to sell.

I brought Nita to the [Mart Chamber of Commerce], Runi, a member of [Eyes of the Night Cat] works closely with the group, so he was the one to set up the meeting for me. The person I’m seeing is a merchant called Maron.

“If not for Runi working with us, the chairman wouldn’t care about you at all, you say that you want to sell potions? Take them to a general store, why come to us?

He seems to have been appointed by the chairman to see me, and he has an impatient “Its a waste of time to be here” look on his face.

Well, my appearance is that of a child’s, so I can’t blame him.

After I found a private room and used the MPOH(β) on Nita, which made her right leg fully grow back, his expression changed.

While patting Nita’s head, I continued conversing with Maron, he immediately asked me a bunch of questions about the contents, ingredients, and such.

“The ingredient is Malbor, and even though it’s a rare material, I have a stable source.”

“What!? To have a stable source for such rare ingredients… but where…”

MELON POV:

The royal academy continued to host various tests today. But unlike with Miss Grace, today the test I entered is not for mages, but for Fighter students.

People around me all have armor of all kinds on them. Also, on their waists are melee weapons such as knives, swords or maces. The sounds of these arms and armor clink-clank filled the hair as they moved about.

I came to the Academy because of my master’s order. He gave me the tuition fees to let me attend the testing before I go with Miss Mirabella as an adventurer.

The me in the past would never think about these things. Becoming a student and get into the Academy with Miss Grace… something very unfathomable for my past self.

It’s been six years since I became Master’s slave. In these years, I’ve grown, with gentle care and happiness surrounding me. I don’t know when, but I feel far away from those unpleasant childhood memories, which have already faded.

Because of this, I want to reach my Master’s expectations. But my master wants me to learn [Artes] to strengthen myself. And he said I can help him more if I get stronger.

What’s the proper way to do this? How do I learn Artes?

According to Mr. Marbon, to those robbers who attacked the Village, I could see they had some special magical effects on their weapons during their battles. But I have no clue how to do that.

Right now, I’m sitting on the bench in the corner of the testing field. Waiting for them to call my name.

The rule is easy. On the field, the proctor will call the students one by one, to show their strength. He will grade them over their power and give them admission to the school or… wash them out of the list.

I’m on the chair, filled with a bit of panic. The people who went before me had all used [Artes]! Am I the only one who cannot use [Artes]?

“OOO-OOO-OO-OOO- [Slash of Blazing Flash] ! !”

On the stage, a boy with orange hair and silver armor gathered his strength for a few seconds and moved his sword with a comet-like traces.

“Fire and Light, double attributes sword slashing, not bad!” The proctor in front of the boy is a tall male human.

He is at least six-five (2m) tall, have red and short hair with very defined features, the light clothes on him could not hide his muscular body.

The boy had already used up all of his power for doing that slash, but the proctor only laughed out loud, raised his little round shield, and that attack did nothing to him.

“You put too much of your balance to the front. Though this is just a test, you shouldn’t make mistakes like that. Now, Go get your Student ID and start learning.” Mr. Proctor smiled at him, wrote some words on the parchment and gave it to him.

“I, I will try my best, Sir Akberv!” The boy looked very excited and ran down the stage.

Mr. Proctor drinks some water from his bottle. At the same time, his assistant brings him a list. He took a peek, and yelled,

“Oi, whoever this ‘Melon’ is, get up here! It’s your turn!”

After a few seconds, when people started murmuring, I finally realized that the name he called was mine.

I don’t have time to think. In the next moment, I already came up to the stage. In front of him, he is at least two heads taller than me.

I can feel his strength just by standing in front of him. I know he is strong. Well, probably ten times stronger than the person who leads the robbers in the village…. And that’s only what I feel when he’s standing over there, completely casual and with zero seriousness.

Just like this, ten times stronger than the robber leader already.

“You’re Melon?”

“Yes, Mr. Proctor.” I gave him a simple salute.

“Alright, Melon. Where is your weapon? You forgot it?” He looked interested to me.

As he said that, a “Pfff” from the audience.

“My weapon shouldn’t be used in this situation.” I looked in his eye, said very seriously.

Master told me, [The Band of Bold] shouldn’t be used if the target is a human. I can only use it in front of people when it’s an emergency.

“Oh? So you mean that, this situation does not deserve you to use your weapon?” He raised his eyebrows, and his tone.

“…That’s right.” I pondered for a moment; that’s kind of like what it means.

He laughed, and there was suddenly an uproar below the stage. I started to feel uncomfortable from the audience as they gave me menacing looks.

“Hey, that lizardkin! Don’t you know who is in front of you?!”

“Where does she come from? She’s so arrogant!”

“That dude was a grade S adventurer, now a military chief leader of the Capital, Sir Akberv!”

What? Is he a very famous guy?

“Hey, you all, shut your mouths up!” He yelled to the audience, and they turned silent immediately, “Melon, what’s your specialty?”

“I don’t know.” Even I was unable to tell what kind of specialty I am.

Master said it seems that there is no one who battles the same way I do. I can’t be something as obvious or easily identifiable as Miss Grace, an Elementalist.

The audience who were previously silenced soon started laughing again, people in this field started to focus on me.

“She didn’t even know her specialty? What kind of bumpkin is she!”

“How are we getting these weirdos for our underclassmen?”

Thanks to my skill [Improved Hearing] I also heard some talking from above. I looked up, and found that there’s a small crowd leaning on the wall on the second floor, and looked interested while checking here.

Hmm… Why do I feel hostility everywhere around me? Did I say something wrong?

“Well then, Melon. Just attack me by using your full power,” Mr. Akberv said, “If you still remember how to attack.”

…

“What!? That kind of rare herb has a stable source, but where…”

“I’m sorry, the production and the source are both confidential, even though the source is stable, the production isn’t too much.” Well, I can manage 140 bottles a day at most.

It’s produced by me, otherwise I wouldn’t say that. Don’t think others would be able to produce this much.

“So, do you want to work together? I happen to still have two bottles left here that you can take back to report. As a meeting gift, I’ll take 15 gold coins for a bottle, wanna buy?”

For something that can recover stumps and regrow limbs, it’s a very cheap price to pay, I don’t know the market price, so I’ll throw out a low one. In business, the important thing is to let people get benefits once in a while.

“Good girl.” I looked at Nita in my lap, who was licking my face.

My face is already wet and sticky, but I don’t mind