The Author's POV

Saturday, 12:00 P.M.

Standing in front of a large wooden door, with a smile on my face I rang the doorbell.

'”Ding! '”Dong!

"Coming!"

Instantly a crip voice rang from the other side of the door. Not long after, a beautiful woman came to greet me at the door.

'”Clank!

"Ren!"

Just as the door opened, without skipping a second, my mother instantly pounced me.

"Kh...It's nice to see you, mom"

This time I was prepared. Tensing my quads, I withstood the impact that came from my mother's embrace. Patting my body all over, I was instantly bombarded with questions.

"Oh Ren, thank god you're okay. Is everything okay in the academy? Have any more demons come to harm you? Did they treat you well at the academy? How dare that vile demon..."

Suddenly my mother's face turned dark. Noticing this, I placed my hand on her shoulder and comforted her.

"Mom it's okay. I'm okay"

It was only after the incident was spread on the news that my mother actually found out what had happened. Once she did, total chaos ensued.

Every day she would continuously text me asking me if I was okay or not. At first, it was okay, but after she started texting every hour, I became a little firmer on my stance.

After a long struggle, we managed to settle to one text a day.

Aside from that, she, like my dad, was extremely surprised about my rank assessment.

Ever since my rank and talent were revealed to the world, the situation in Galaxicus stabilized considerably.

My parents no longer faced as much pressure as before. In addition, as a result of this, everyone within the guild now tried to get on their good graces...

Life was now good for my parents. I was happy.

"Why don't you come in Ren?"

"Sure"

Snapping me out of my thoughts was my mother's warm voice. Nodding my head I stepped into the house. Instantly I was brought left speechless by what I saw.

'Although they did mention that they were going to give my parents a house, I didn't expect for it to be this big...'

Right after I made the deal with Amanda's father, the first thing he did was move my parents to a secure house. The reasoning behind this was so that he could keep better watch of them.

I naturally agreed. As long as my parents were safe I was fine with anything. My parents were shocked at first but after I explained the situation to them, they naturally agreed.

Thus, bringing me into this situation...

"What do you think?"

With a satisfied look on her face, my mother proudly showed off the house.

Decorated with pictures and brand new furniture, the house looked fantastic. Large enormous windows appeared on the other side of the room, and beneath them, one could see the whole of Ashton city.

White walls covered the place and sleek and modern furniture that had a mix of wood and white appeared all over the house. Staring at the place, I couldn't help but nod in approval.

"It's quite nice, not going to lie"

"Awww, we are very proud of you. If not for you we would've never have been able to live in such a place"

In response to my compliment, my mother once again tried to hug me.

"Bwuddar!"

However, just as my mother was about to hug me again, out of nowhere Nola came running in my direction.

Squatting down I opened my arms.

"Nola!

"Bwuaddar!"

"Hup!"

Jumping up, Nola fell into my arms and hugged me. Taking her into my arms, I lifted her in the air.

"hehehe"

With a smile on my face, I looked at Nola who was giggling in my arms and softly said.

"Nola, big brother has a gift for you"

"Gift?"

Hearing the word 'gift' Nola's interest piqued.

"Yes..."

'”Fwua!

"Tada!"

Smiling, five teddy bears appeared in my hand. Nola's eyes instantly shot wide open. After a couple of seconds, throwing her hands in the air she instantly dashed towards the bears and hugged them.

"Waaaa! Teddy bears! So cute!"

Putting Nola down and watching her play with the bears, a faint smile appeared on my lips.

This was nice...

'Human you're back'

Suddenly, I heard a crisp voice inside of my head.

Walking in her cat form, Angelica calmly stood a few meters away from me. Surprised, I greeted her back.

'Hey, been a while since I last saw you. How have you been doing?'

'Better before than now'

'That's a bit harsh no?'

Talk about sassy. That was the first thing she said once she saw me. Ignoring me, Angelica snorted and turned her head around.

'Hmph, I've broken through'

'Oh? You've reached the viscount rank?'

'That's right'

'Wow, congrats...'

Though I expected this, I was still pleasantly surprised. That was one <B> ranked bodygua...keuhm, I meant partner for me.

"Come, Ren, Lunch is ready"

Whilst I Was conversing with Angelica, I suddenly heard my mother's voice calling me from all the way down to the kitchen.

"Coming!"

With a smile on my face, I headed to the kitchen.

Arriving at the kitchen, sitting at the kitchen table was my father reading the newspaper. Smiling at him, I greeted him who greeted me back with a warm smile. Following this, I sat down and ate lunch with my parents.

For the next few hours or so, we just talked and caught up.

...

Manticore building, Lock.

8:00 P.M.

"So you're saying that he contacted you?"

Standing by the edge of my balcony, I held my phone in my ear. Smallsnake's voice rang out from the phone's speaker.

'”Yes he did

"...and, what did he say?"

'”He agreed

"Agreed to the terms we offered in the contract?"

'”Pretty much

"I see, I guess the fact that I was all over the news helped out in a way"

Almost half a year had passed since I had last come into contact with Ryan. Finally, after patiently waiting for that long, he contacted us.

With my face all over the news, and after having 'observed' us for a while, Ryan had finally decided to accept the offer that I had proposed to him.

Ah, when I said 'observe' us, I meant what Smallsnake allowed him to observe. Despite Ryan's genius, he was in no way capable of hacking our system.

The only reason he could hack into our system before was because I had told Smallsnake to go easy on him.

Plus, he didn't really have the best equipment to work with. It wasn't that hard for Smllsnake to stop him.

'”But we've got a problem...

Unfortunately, right before I could rejoice, Smallsnake poured cold water over me. As a result, my eyes narrowed. After a bit of thought, I instantly understood what problem Smallsnake was referring to.

"It's his age right?"

'”Yeah, he's a bit too young. Ashton city law says that he needs to be at least fourteen before he can work.

"Hmm, that indeed sounds like a problem"

I placed my hand on my chin and fell into thought.

His age was indeed going to be a problem since according to the law in Ashton city, kids below the age of 14 couldn't legally work. With Ryan being 12, I knew that this was going to be a problem.

'”I do have a solution though.

Fortunately, Smallsnake seems to have thought things through. My eyes lit up as a result.

"What do you suggest?"

'”Why don't we just take him in as a trainee.

"A trainee?"

'”Yes, we can use the excuse of teaching him how mercenary businesses work to bypass the law. At least until he turns fourteen.

My brows knit.

Indeed. If we took Ryan as a trainee instead of an official member, taking him under our wing wouldn't be a problem.

Furthermore, this worked in my favor since he still needed to learn a lot.

"I see, that makes sense"

'”Ah! Regarding his payment, we can just set up a separate account with the money already inside. We can just give it to his mom, or let him have access to it.

Since we couldn't directly give him the money, this was the most appropriate method. Super suspicious but with Smallsnake being the one who handled everything, there shouldn't really be any problems.

After all, I'm sure he had his ways. I trusted him.

'”Should I go ahead?

"Yes go ahead...ah, by the way, Smallsnake, how much money do we have left in our funds?"

Vaguely nodding my head, I suddenly recalled something and asked him about the money situation. In response, Smallsnake's voice became slightly troubled.

'”Right, I almost forgot. We're almost out of money. Everything else aside, we've only got 5 million U left.

"I figured..."

'”I presume you've got this problem solved no?

"Yeah, I in fact do have a solution to this problem..."

'”Great, whilst you figure the money thing out, I'll settle the things with Ryan.

"Sure"

'”Tak!

Pressing the red button on my screen, I hung up the call with Smallsnake. Staring at the blue sky, I exhaled.

"Haaa...I'm poor again"

After the trip to Immorra and after spending my money on a couple of other things, my bank account was almost empty.

Just when I thought I had enough money it quickly ran out...

Suddenly I looked at my bracelet and sighed.

'Right, I guess it's about time I sold the items I got from Immorra'

Walking back towards my room, I made my way towards my desk. Tapping onto my bracelet, multiple objects quickly appeared on the table.

'”Fwu!

"Let's see..."

Overall, the number of items on my desk was quite a lot. I needed to carefully check the uses of each one of them through the status window before me.

'”Clank! '”Clank!

"Useless...useless...hmm, this should be fine...useless"

Staring at the multiple items on the desk, I quickly separated the useful items from the useless items. Since some of the items could only be used by orcs, they were naturally useless for me.

"Pheww, this should be it"

After ten minutes of sorting, I wiped the sweat that had accumulated on my forehead. At the moment, there were three different piles before me.

The useful pile, the useless pile, and the 'I don't know pile'. With the 'I don't know pile' being the one that contained items which I wasn't sure whether they could be useful for me or not.

'”Clank!

Quickly putting the useless and I don't know pile back in my bracelet, I stared at the last

Surprisingly there were a lot more useful items than I had expected. However, despite this, they were still far less than the other two piles.

At the moment, there were twelve items, of which four especially stood out to me.

Name : Hand of Malice

Rank : D

Description : A glove that enables the user to increase strength stat by two minor sub-ranks.

Name : Mother's kiss

Rank : N/A

Description : Powerful venom that is capable of dissolving the internal organs of the target upon ingestion. Can work on <B> ranked creatures and below.

Name : Seduction Ichor

Rank : N/A

Description : Very powerful aphrodisiac. Can work on <C> ranked creatures and below.

Name : Ring of gravity

Rank : C

Description : A ring with ten settings. Upon wearing the ring, body mass will double. Whenever the setting is changed, the mass will double with respect to setting chosen.

"Tss..."

Staring at the items, I drew a cold breath. If I had to be honest, I wanted them all.

But, I knew that I couldn't do that. Especially since the next major event was happening soon.

'Ashton city grand-annual auction'

Just ten minutes ago, everyone in the academy received a message with an invitation to the auction. Being a part of the academy, I got one too.

The Ashton city grand-annual auction was a massive event where all sorts of artifacts, skills, and arts were sold. Despite how tempting most of the items in front of me were, the auction that would be held in two weeks' time had far better items.

'Plus, that item is being auctioned there isn't it?'

There was one specific item that I really desired from the auction. The value of the item I wanted was quite expensive, but it would be all worth it.

That one item alone could propel me to new levels...

'Well, if only it was that easy'

There was just one slight problem with my plan. I did not have enough money to buy it. Hence why I had to resort to auctioning the items before me.

'Actually, could I maybe take one?'

According to my approximation, the item I wanted to buy was worth around 100 million U. The net worth of the items before me was around 150 million U.

'Perhaps I can take something?'

I quickly shook my head. Now was not the time to think of this. I still had two weeks to sort things out, if I was lucky enough I could perhaps keep two items.

Who knows.

'”Ding!

Suddenly my watch vibrated. It was Kevin.

[Hey are you going to the auction?]

"Well, that was fast..."

Taking my phone, I quickly typed back.

[Yes I'm going]

[Great, I'm going with Emma and the others too. Wanna join us?]

[No]

I quickly refused. Rather go with Leo and Ram.

[Cool, I've just added you to the group chat]

"..."

Does this guy not know that no means no?

'”Ding!

[Auction chat]

[You've just been added to a group chat - Time 8:32 P.M.]

Kevin : Hey guys, Ren agreed to come with us.

Melissa : What's this guy doing here?

Emma : What?! Kevin, I thought you said you weren't going to invite any more people?

Kevin : Sorry! [Praying emoji]

Emma : What's the use of being sorry when you're not even sorry? [Angry emoji]

Amanda : [Wave emoji]

-Tack!

Blankly staring at their conversation for a good minute, I threw my phone on the bed. I couldn't read any more of their chats spammed with emojis.

"Haa...well, if I look at this on a positive note, at least this saves me a bit of trouble"

With Emma and Melissa being VVIP's, I could naturally get a better seat and skip annoying lines and processes. In a way, this worked out in my favor.

Closing my eyes, I massaged my forehead. A thought struck me, 'Hopefully, nothing goes wrong...'

I said hopefully, but I knew that something was definitely bound to happen.

Regarding the auction, in the novel, it was supposed to be the next event prior to the tournament arc.

'Well, at least should've...'

Leaning back on my chair, I crossed my legs.

In theory, there should've been two more incidents before the tournament arc, but given that I had pretty much foiled the Monoloth's plans, I couldn't see how they were going to carry on with their original plans.

The primary reason I was sure about this was because I had killed Professor Thibaut.

The main initiator for all three events.

With his death, the chances of the other events happening were almost slim to none.

But still...

Just because I expected the events to not happen didn't mean I wouldn't make preparations for it.

If there was one thing I learned from the Everblood incident, it was to always think that something will go wrong.

Therefore, I quickly reminded myself to be on alert for the following weeks.

'”Creaaak!

Just as I was in the middle of my thoughts, suddenly the window of my room opened up revealing a black cat. My eyes instantly lit up.

"Hm, oh, Angelica. Welcome back, you're already done?"

"Yes"

Leisurely walking into the room, Angelica nodded her head. Jumping on top of the bed, Angelica curled up and closed her eyes. Completely disregarding my presence.

Seeing this, the edges of my lips curled upwards.

'She's sad that she can't see Nola again'

Ever since returning from my parent's house, Angelica had been a bit moody. Though it could be from the fact that she was now seeing me again, I knew that it was because of Nola.

Unfortunately for her, I needed her. And thanks to her, everything was now set.

Placing my elbow on the armrest of my chair, I supported my chin. Staring at Angelica who sat on the bed in her cat form, I lightly tapped on the other armrest of the chair. The edges of my lips curled even more.

Tap!Tap!Tap!

I could now finally finish what I had set to finish a long time ago.

'Hmm, if this works out well, perhaps I don't really need to sell any of my artifacts...'

Thinking along those lines, I knew that I couldn't make any mistakes.

It was clean-up time.