With my adventurer silver plate in my pocket, I left the guild without tasting food from the tavern. I just have no interest in trying to make partners who could end up betraying me.

However, previously I had taken my time to review the quests and chose a one according to my current Goblin rank that I could perform solo.

As I walk down the street, I observe people traveling from one side to the other, and the carriages and carts that cross the cobbled streets.

"The lax kingdoms of the west..." —I murmur to myself.

The continent is divided into five zones, north, south, east, west, center, and there are also the cloudy islands.

West and south have been in the hands of humans since ancient times. The east is occupied by elves, dwarves, and fairies.

The north has been demon territory for as long as it is known.

As for the center of the continent, it was mostly occupied by beast-men and some human kingdoms.

Beyond the expected conflicts expected between the different races, a powerful demon arrived at the center of the continent along with his armies, Ipheria.

The first to be defeated were the beast-men, who were forced to flee, spreading across the continent and losing any identity of a union.

With the few flimsy human kingdoms resisting Ipheria's advance into the center of the continent, the southern human kingdoms intervened. If the center of the continent fell into Ipheria's hands, what would prevent the demon king from taking his eyes to the south?

In this way, with the Temple of the Light as the point of union, the southern kingdoms sent their armies to the center of the continent to fight against Ipheria.

For two centuries the center of the continent was in total chaos, many human kingdoms being destroyed by the demons of Ipheria, and new kingdoms were founded by the southern nobles arriving with their armies.

In this stalemate situation, the Temple of Light pressured the western kingdoms to send support.

The support sent by the west did not represent much help.

The western kingdoms sent armies made up of criminals and exiled nobles. The supplies they sent as aid comprised winter leftovers, which were not in the best condition and could only feed the pigs.

For these reasons, the western kingdoms earned the right to be called lax by the inhabitants of the center and south of the continent.

Honestly, considering the life I led in my previous life, I hold a grudge against these western kingdoms. How could it not be that way? While the people of the west lived their lives in peace, those of us who lived in the center of the continent had to fight day by day to survive.

As for the southern kingdoms, although technically they turned the center of the continent into an endless battlefield, if they had not intervened, what would Ipheria have done with the humans who lived in the center of the continent?

The Temple of Light said that humans who fell into the hands of demons were brutally sacrificed to demon gods. At the time I blindly believed in this and showed no mercy towards any demons, not even towards the demon children.

However, I can't help but wonder if the Temple was telling the truth, if it was just trying to manipulate us, or if the priests really believed in this premise based on their blind fanaticism.

Considering the current situation of the temple, it is difficult to know the answer.

After the war, because of the constant pressures of the Temple of Light to the western region of the continent, an important event is known as 'The Western Schism' occurred. The Western Temple of Light ignored the authority of the southern Temple of Light and declared itself the bearer of the genuine will of the God of Light.

In other circumstances that would have caused many wars between the southern kingdoms and the western kingdoms, but with the southern kingdoms worn down by centuries of war in the center of the continent, nothing happened and the West abandoned the last tie that tied it to the south.

Because I was walking lost in my thoughts, I ended up bumping into someone.

After returning to reality, I see a boy of about seven age on the ground, while another boy of about nine age tries to help him up.

The older boy looks up and when he sees me his face turns pale.

"Lord, please excuse my little brother"

I was the one who collided with the little one because of being lost in my thoughts, so I am slightly surprised that this older brother is trying vigorously to apologize.

I look in more detail at both children, their clothes are dirty and have been patched up countless times. The skin of their hands shows the wear and tear of someone who works constantly.

"There is no reason to apologize, it was my carelessness"

"I'm sorry, please don't accuse us to the administrator!" —the little boy who seems not to have heard my words he stands up and pleads with tears in his eyes.

"The administrator?... You are from the orphanage?"

After hearing my question, the older boy's face pales even more while he nods with visible nervousness.

"Please, if you accuse us, the administrator will punish us" —the younger boy insists on his pleas.

"I have no intention of doing something like that"

"Truly?"

"I don't even know where the orphanage is"

Both children let out a long sigh of relief as their expressions relax.

See these two children makes me remember the difficult childhood of my previous life. Before I was discovered by the temple as the bearer of a heroic skill, I lived on the streets with my true blood brother.

I was the older brother, and I could not protect my little brother. He died of fever. No doubt my regrets about it caused I easily develop affection for a traitorous bastard like Ketkar.

"You are blood brothers?"

"Yes!" —the younger boy answers energetically.

Out of nostalgia, I reach into my pocket and take one of the ten remaining silver coins from the twenty that Klein gave me.

"Take this, maybe it will be of some help to you"

I continued on my way after handing over the silver coin to the pair of brothers.

After finding a bakery, I bought a piece of bread and ate it. For a nobleman it would be an insignificant meal, for a commoner today it would be very little, but for someone who had to hunt his own food many times while constantly being stalked by demons, a piece of bread is a delicacy.

With no more to do, I returned to the Ren'Lai mansion. After greeting Jin, I crossed the small garden and entered the mansion.

"Are my sister and Mr. Klein not back yet?" —I ask Rita when I find her at the bottom of the stairs.

"No, young lord Reiner, did you separate from them?"

"I didn't want to intrude on their world so I took my path" —I shrug and Rita nods. She understands what I am talking about, she must see that couple in love immerse themselves in their world daily.

Once in my room, I remove the sword from my waist and lie down on the bed.

"Tomorrow I should carry out the quest I took from the guild..."

In the same way that it happens with the adventurers, the missions have a rank that is assigned to them according to their level of difficulty. The rank of the quests from zero to seven stars.

With my Goblin rank, I can only perform zero and one-star missions, and sometimes if I meet the quest requirements I can take two-star missions.

The quest I took is two stars. It is simply to go to an old abandoned mine near Enaria to investigate some reports of unusual activity.  I was able to take this quest since it has no special requirements, such as a minimum number of adventurers.

As for why no one had taken this quest before me, this is because the payment is minimal and the round trip to the mine takes around just over half a day. The low reward and the time to complete the quest, discourage anyone.

In my case, I have not taken this quest thinking about the reward, but about the points that I will get by completing it.

To raise my adventurer rank and gain access to higher-ranked quests, I must accumulate points by successfully completing quests.

To upgrade from Goblin Rank to Orc Rank, I need thirty points.

As for the points assigned to the missions, these normally correspond to the rank of the quest, those with zero stars do not give points, those with two stars give two points. However, the number of points could increase or decrease based on various factors.

"I hope my equipment is ready today, otherwise my sister will not let me leave the city tomorrow..."

Time is also an important factor in terms of how many points you get when you complete a quest.

A few hours later, Klein and my sister finally returned, and I met them in the small study of the mansion.

"So since you don't have to worry about food and the roof, will you prioritize the points?"

As expected from Klein, he comes to a quick conclusion after hearing about what I did in the guild and the quest I chose.

I just nod quietly.

"Isn't it dangerous?" —in the same way, as expected of my sister, she quickly worries.

"I don't think so, the quest Reiner took is the missions that the city governor regularly assigns to the guild. Someone reports about something strange, and instead of sending soldiers, the government pays the guild to investigate. These things are just the result of some traveler's paranoia or the hallucination of some drunken”

Unlike the central kingdoms and southern kingdoms, cities in the west are not ruled by nobles based on their title. The crown designates a governor among the nobles for each city, and from time to time the governor is changed by another. This ensures that the nobles do not accumulate too much power.

From what I heard of the conversations between my parents, it is likely that Klein's father will be appointed Governor of Enaria soon.

"Still, you shouldn't let your guard down Reiner, even if you're close to the city, there could be kobolds or lone goblins hanging around the area"

After hearing Klein's warning, the rest of the conversation focused on unimportant topics until dinner time came.

To my relief, at the end of dinner, the weapon shop finally shipped my equipment.

At the insistence of my sister and Klein, I had to try on the complete equipment.

"You look fantastic, like a little hero or a prince who goes incognito towards an adventure" —exclaims my sister while looking at me from head to toe with a beaming smile.

"This looks very good" —Klein walks around me while keeping his right hand on his chin. "This will definitely work, even that tomboy will fall..." —Klein continues to walk around me while muttering and laughing to himself.

I and my sister exchanged looks full of doubts.

"It's nothing... I was just thinking about of all the Osteen siblings, you two are the most like your mother" —Klein exclaims this when he realizes that my sister and I are looking at him.

Even if she is a shallow person with little sense of motherhood, my mother is a woman of great beauty, and of all her children, my sister and I are the only ones to inherit her blonde hair and blue eyes.