Aleph left the inn and moved to the right side a few blocks, where he found the blacksmith shop with old equipment. He didn't have much money left, so he could only buy old things… Even with that, his stomach would suffer since he would be completely broken after he spent the last few coins.

In the corner of the shop, he found some iron balls that were big enough to fit his hands. They only weighed five kilograms, so they weren't that good for exercise, but they would have other uses. The box was filled with them, so Aleph couldn't have asked for more.

Aleph looked at the counter, but he didn't find anyone. He had to move the box and make a lot of noise to make a middle-aged man show up while rubbing the sleepiness out of his eyes. He didn't look like a blacksmith at all; he was quite lanky and pale.

“... What is it?”

“I want to buy these. How much.”

“... Five green coins for each, ten amethyst coins for all of them.”

“It should have more than fifty of them here… you don't look like a blacksmith, and you aren't good at math either.”

“My Dad was, but he passed away, and I am trying to get rid of the trash that he left behind. The real good stuff was sold already, and all the things here are just gathering dust.”

Aleph felt like sighing… even if it was trash, it was something his father worked on and put a lot of sweat into it. Some respect should be given… even if it is trash with no value. 

“I have eight purple coins here.”

“It is yours then.”

Aleph had twelve of them, but it was better not to give any money to that ungrateful son. He would make the work of the unknown blacksmith shine in his honor. In any case, taking all of them to the room had been a lot of effort. They weighed almost three hundred kilograms, after all.

“I can never understand the reason behind your actions…”

Irlan looked stupefied, and his confusion only got worse as Aleph began to juggle with the iron balls. That should be good strength and precision training as well… Aleph started moving them from one side to the other. Still, it soon began to juggle them in the opposite direction, and then he began to make them move erratically. Before long, his arms began to hurt, but he kept going.

“Is that part of the training that you came up with to spar with us again?”

“I guess it could be. This would be the final touch to increase my chances of winning.”

After not so long, the girls in the other room showed up to have lunch somewhere. After that, they decided to take a look around the town, but Aleph decided to return to the room while the others walked around. There wasn’t much to see, but it was a breath of fresh air for them. As for Aleph, he felt satisfied in watching the town from the window of the room while he trained.

Now that he was alone again, he couldn’t help but have those dark thoughts once again… he had to focus a lot on the training, but even so, it seemed that he had gotten used to them a bit too much. 

“Maybe just focusing on surviving on doing it here… I will have to strive for more as well… what is the more? I don’t know yet.”

Aleph didn’t like the state of the world… and he didn’t have to, but what could he possibly do as a ten-year-old boy aside from focusing on the things that he could actually change? For now, they were only small things very close to him. Still, he also had to prepare to exert his influence further… otherwise, it would be the same as facing the same problems over and over again and getting pissed… that wouldn’t do it.

Focusing on what he needed the most was the path to real progress, but it wouldn’t be enough. From now on, Aleph decided to use his head more. Perhaps, aside from training, he should try to learn other things. He would have enough time for that since even his body needed some rest to recover from all the strain.

While Aleph was thinking about that, he realized that night had already come, but the others had not returned yet… by that time, they could have seen the whole town and walked around it two times over.

After a long sigh, Aleph decided to check on them and soon found them drinking at a tavern on the corner of the block. He sighed again since they were supposed to be working, but they were already dead drunk. Even Edea… she was probably someone who had never had the chance to do that before, thanks to the nature of her job, and since she wasn’t wearing her uniform, she didn’t feel the need to contain herself that much, apparently.

“Guys… hiccup… I think we already had too much… hiccup… drinks… we should get back.”

After hearing Irlan’s words, the girls couldn’t help but laugh… 

Aleph thought that it must be nice to live such an unconcerned life… he was considering the condition of the world and his future actions with caution while his coworkers were drinking almost to death. No one was batting an eye on them either, so it looked like the drinking age was fifteen in that world.

“You guys… you are my first real friends… thank you.”

Aleph face palmed… Heirina said that and then sniffed a few times. It looked like she was the type who gets emotional when she is drunk. Much to Aleph’s surprise, Kaitrine didn’t react to those words; usually, they would have moved her more than a little bit, but she just kept sipping her beer with a serious expression on her face. She was the grumpy type, apparently.

“Took you long enough to say that… even though I always admired you, you always tried to keep others at a distance. That was so annoying…”

In the next moment, Edea’s head was slammed on the table. She was completely out, thanks to the alcohol already. She will probably feel the impact of that one the next morning or for the next few days. Regardless, Aleph wanted to resume his training and let those fools keep fooling around. Still, since their awareness was below zero at the moment, he had to watch over them just to be safe.

Fortunately, they only kept going for a while longer since they could no longer say coherent things and because they barfed a few times as well… while stumbling along the way, they returned to the inn, and Aleph followed them from behind without being noticed. Irlan only realized that when he opened the door of their room and found no one there, but soon found Aleph behind him.

“Oh, hey, Aleph… ugghhhh…”

“Don’t barf in the room. I will kick you out. Seriously…”

After sighing, Aleph entered the room and then resumed his training. He decided to stay awake the whole night just to be safe… it was hard to imagine that anything dangerous would happen so close to the heart of the country, but he had to be cautious.

As it turned out, nothing happened, and the group was able to wake up the next day and start their journey back home. They were going to take Edea back home first, but half of the job was already done, and it was also the hardest part. Kaitrine looked like the worst part of the job had just started, though.

“Can we take a break… all this shaking is killing me.”

“We can’t… These are the consequences of our actions; we will just have to endure them.”

While Heirina said that, her face was pale as a ghost. She was also suffering from a terrible hangover. All four barfed a lot in the morning as they woke up, so things would be quite difficult for them along the way. At least they would stay meek and not cause any further problems.

While they were suffering, Aleph was juggling with the iron balls at the top of the carriage. He did some tests in the morning and confirmed that he could do that with no problems, which was good. That way, he could keep his distance from the smell of barf. Heirina looked at Aleph for a moment and saw that his frown was a bit more obvious now.

“You seem to be in a bad mood. I guess we caused you a lot of trouble.”

“It is a bit annoying, the smell of barf. Still, I realize that people like you need to unwind after a job like this.”

“And what do you mean by that?”

“Nothing, really. I guess it would be better to say that most people would need to unwind after not relaxing for over a week and guarding a guy like that. This should be your first experience with alcohol, so I guess it won’t happen again, and if it happens, it doesn’t matter since I won’t be around.”

The author here, everyone. Thanks for reading the book. I hope that you have fun reading the book as much as I have writing it. If you want to join our discord, this is the link: https://discord.gg/AQsYm99A

I also have a Patreon for those who want to read ahead. Don't worry; I will post a new chapter every day here, but I will be posting two on the Patreon. There are currently thirty-five chapters ahead there. Thank you for your patience, and have a nice day!