A month has passed since Karl got married. At the moment I’m running through a field in a portion of the territory that hasn’t yet been flagged for development.

I greet the farmers as I pass them by. They’re on their way to the fields for the day.

I’ve pretty much mastered most basic and intermediate magic already. I’m also fairly capable when attempting advanced magic.

Each morning I begin my day with sword practice. After practice, I eat some breakfast and then I pack up two small pieces of brown bread as a sack lunch and head out. 

The southern portion of our territory is covered by untamed forests and prairies and very little else. While this is the source of the aforementioned difficulties in the development of the territory, the upside is that there is an abundance of wild game to hunt on my way back home each evening.

「Well then, I will visit the deeper parts of the forest today.」

A《Support》type spell, called《Flight》, of《Raja》level and another《Support》type spell, called《Teleport》, of《Teo》level are the two spells that I’ve been practising intensively of late. I’m actually able to use both spells at once, which is pretty cool.

《Flight》is basically exactly how I had imagined it would look like. However, the first time I tried flying at high speed I found it hard to breathe as the air was forced back into my face. Since then I have learned to protect my body with a thin membrane of air, and that hasn’t happened again. Although I’m still practising, at this point I can travel at speeds similar to that of a horse.

《Teleport》, on the other hand, allows me to instantly travel to any point that I’ve previously visited, so long as I remember to log the location in what is essentially a detailed mental map.

Until recently, I hadn’t had a chance to log teleport locations in any region besides the one directly surrounding my home. However, I have dedicated a good amount of time over the past few weeks to create a log map of the Savage Lands, which allows me to move at will inside the Curzon Knight Territory.

At this point, I’ve logged much of the area occupied by the Savage Lands. The Demon Forest represents roughly 25 per cent of the Savage Lands, so the last few weeks have been dedicated to logging a thousand different potential teleportation destinations in the remaining 75 per cent.

Obviously, logging a point doesn’t mean that I set up a physical sign or anything. It’s more like I record rough coordinates for the location in a detailed mental map, flagging it as a safe location to potentially land if I need to teleport into the area.

To travel using《Teleport》, I only have to picture the coordinates and the rough location of where I want to end up in my head while casting. Sometimes I end up a little ways away from where I wanted to be, but it’s always easy enough to cover the remaining distance with《Flight》.

One fact that has become more and more apparent over the last three weeks is that the Savage Lands are a goldmine. There are myriad plots that could be cultivated. Requisite flood control could be managed with relative ease by repurposing the many rivers that crisscross the terrain. There are countless thickets, woods, and forests. There are also numerous deposits containing precious stones and gems, minerals, and ores that include iron, copper, gold, silver, mithril, and, in a few spots, orichalcum.

If it could be exploited, the Curzon Knight Territory would be promoted to at least a marquis peerage in a heartbeat. It wouldn’t be farfetched to say that the territory could be its own small, independent kingdom if fully developed. But that’s a pipe dream for now.

The kingdom is busy developing its central region and can’t be bothered with its southern frontier.

The bottom line is that, for now, it is impossible to gather the manpower and funds necessary to develop the Savage Lands. Most likely, this land will not be developed for hundreds of years.

But I digress, for now, I can easily locate two rabbits the second I arrive. I can also grill and eat fish that I catch in the rivers and use the vast, empty prairies to practice new magic.

More specifically, I can attempt advanced, powerful battle magic. I can’t imagine a better venue for such pursuits.

I might try practising specialized applications of《Earth》magic later. I recently found a gold mine and, using gold ore and gold dust I had collected, have been practising a《Support》type spell, called《Extract》, of《Raja》level that extracts the pure gold while leaving behind impurities and slag. I then use《Support》type spell, called《Recombine》, of《Raja》 that turns the purified gold into gold ingots. These spells are basically magic that any magician with aspirations in alchemy must master. 

It apparently takes a lot of mana to even create a small amount of gold, so the process isn’t terribly efficient. Still, it would be a good exercise for expanding a person’s mana capacity.

「I wonder what secrets are hiding in such a deep, dark forest…」

Today I finally caught my first glimpse of the Demon Forest. It radiates eeriness and gloominess even in broad daylight. Ominous sounding bird calls and the roars of unidentified monsters also leak out into the surrounding areas. I doubt it was a good place for a nine-year-old to explore solo.

「Well, I won’t go inside till I grow up.」

Even though I have become a strong magician and I can enhance my physical strength, there’s a real chance that I would die if I venture into the Demon Forest carelessly. It might turn out okay, but it’s not worth risking my life to find out.

I spent the next week exploring the Demon Forest from the sky by making high passes overhead with《Flight》and peering through the tree cover using《Detect》.

◆◇◆◇◆

「Hey, Claude! What do you wanna be when you grow up?」

「Huh?」

I looked at Aiden. This afternoon me and Aiden were playing once again. I had also brought some food and we were eating them together when he suddenly asked me this question.

「What do I want to be, huh?」

To be honest I have never thought about this seriously until now. When I was little I wanted to become a Royal magician(a magician who is hired by the country). But now I don't feel like it because then I will have to leave my home. I don't want to do that.

「Hmmm......I haven't really given it a thought, what about you?」

「Me? I wanna be an Adventurer!」

Adventurers.

Fighting monsters and receiving rewards, challenging labyrinths and bringing back treasures──that was the figure of an adventurer that I had in my mind. I could understand why many people would admire them.

But I don't. No, on the contrary, I hate them. I mean no matter what name they call themselves by, in the end, they were nothing more than a gathering of ruffians.

If an adventurer introduced themselves as a mercenary, then they were a mercenary. Those same mercenaries would also do something like attacking and plundering villages without remorse. If adventurers that normally fought against powerful monsters became bandits, that was surely an absurd threat from the viewpoint of the general populace.

There were a lot of adventurers who turned criminal. If that happened, they would receive banishment measures from the adventurer guild, and some became wanted men with bounties on their head. In towns or cities that were equipped with a large adventurer guild, some people dealt with such criminals or even bounty hunters who hunt such people.

It was the image of adventurers that there were a lot of ruffians among them. Could I make a living in such a place? Like that, I became slightly timid. I didn’t even think about something like where I would become an adventurer. Besides, thinking carefully, being an adventurer was a dangerous occupation.

However, it also didn’t mean that all adventurers were bad people.

For adventurers with real strength, it would be possible for them to receive favourable treatment and be hired as officials. Adventurers with fame and who led a powerful mercenary group would be hired with a large sum of money by their employer and would even be welcomed warmly. It was also a fact that among them were adventurers that could be respected as human beings.

「Claude, what happened? You look displeased somehow.」

「Umm.......Yeah, it like, I don't really like adventures you know. So I was a bit shocked that's all.」

「Huh!? Why?」

「I mean the job is dangerous and all you know! I get it that it might be a thrilling job but I don't like the idea of risking my life to make a living. Moreover, it just the gathering of a group of ruffians and mercenaries.」

He looked at bit confused.

「Well, I agree that the people working there aren't the best but.......Claude,  are you thinking that an adventurer’s work is always about fighting?」

「Is that wrong?」

When I replied with a serious face, Aiden shook his head sideways.

「Certainly, monster extermination and dungeon subjugation are included in the work of adventurers. But, to reach that point adventurers have to earn the money to buy their arms. There must also be people who cannot obtain loans. Even if they can, whether they can obtain a loan in the amount that can purchase arms or not is unclear……for those kinds of people, the guild will act as a mediator to give them work. Well, it will be work like manual labour.」

Hearing that, the image I had of adventurers until now was crumbling. I thought that an adventurer’s job was to carry weapons and fight monsters, but it seemed that reality was different.

「There are various other types of jobs including manual labour. Like that, adventurers save their money to buy weapons in preparation to fight monsters. When they defeat a monster, they will strip off the monster’s parts that can be used practically, in other words, the monster material. By registering in the guild, adventurers can receive requests, and they can have the guild buy the useful monster material from them.」

「Only the useful monster material?」

「Yes, regarding the other material, they will have to bargain with the merchants. Right now, the adventurer guild is managing the adventurers, but originally it was a guild that managed the monster material.」

Monster Material──It would become material for craftsmen to create items, and at present, there were even magic tools that worked using them. Since these magic tools were beginning to spread, the material also became a precious energy source that affected people’s livelihoods. The one holding the right for those was the adventurer guild, not just the adventurer guild in Zariya, but also the adventurer guilds existing in other countries.

「……Somehow, the guild is even scarier than the country huh. They are holding the rights, and also, they have connections that are unrelated to the country.」

Aiden laughed hearing that.

「No no, certainly the adventurer guild also exists in other countries, but fundamentally they are only adopting the same system. They have to set the standard and decide things like the rate for magic stone and the like, so a connection to each other will be created no matter what. I heard the guild will also be varied, depending on the city.」

Monster Material was something indispensable for everyday life. The guild that was holding that rights must be complicated in various aspects.

「That’s as far as I know. I’m unsure whether it will be useful for you or not.」

「There is no such thing. I learned many things from just now.」

「Is that so? I am glad.」

「So Aiden will become an adventurer, huh? I see. Then good luck, Sir Adventurer! 」

「S-sir adventurer? Don't tease me like that....」

He became all embarrassed and shy.

「I got it, Sir Adventurer!」

「Y-you did it again.」

I had some more fun teasing him.

Still.........What do I want to be when I grow up huh? I should probably think about that, shouldn't I?