Jin’s POV
   Today is finally the day when Jin moves out of his apartment to his new one. This new apartment is located slightly further away from his school, and he estimated that it would take him at least twenty minutes for him to reach school. Also, the supermarket that he always goes to is much further away from his new apartment. Even so, almost everything about this apartment is better than the one Jin is living at right now.

   For one thing, the place is still new. It was only built finished three months ago, which means that the facilities are still in tip top condition. There is a swimming pool, a gym, and even a barbecue pit. Jin can’t swim, he has done enough workout at Ifezan to last him five lifetimes, and he certainly has no friends to call over and have a barbecue party. Even so, it’s nice to see that these places are available to him.

   Most importantly, they have elevators. In his old apartment that has none of those, he had to walk up and down the stairs and get tired out since his apartment room is all the way at the seventh floor. His new room is at the twelve floor, but it matters little to him with elevators around.

   This apartment unit has three rooms, one living room, two toilets/bathroom and a balcony which offers a gorgeous view of the city. Needless to say, it’s much larger than the unit Jin was stuck with for so long. One of the bathrooms even has a bathtub in it. How luxurious, considering that his old bathroom was so small the shower head is right opposite the toilet bowl.

   A few days before he could move in here, he has already moved most of the things from his old room to here, which isn’t a lot to begin with. They’re mostly food, and he stored them inside a brand new refrigerator that he bought with his salary money. He’s also keeping his old kitchen tools since they’re still usable. The old refrigerator and washing machine that he has in his old room came with the room when he rented it, and the television he owns is actually the landlord’s. Jin figures that he’ll just buy everything he needs, and he did. Not just a new refrigerator, but also a new television, a new washing machine, a dining table with eight chairs, and a long sofa.

   Today is a Saturday, which means that Jin could take it slow after he’s done packing up and got everything to his new apartment. He doesn’t even need a moving company to move his boxes since he can just put them all inside the Vault and brings them out again when he’s there. Man, he loves this convenient spell so much.

   The moment he’s done taking out all his stuffs from the boxes, Nyri appears out of nowhere in her little girl form and starts exploring the place. Every single thing she sees fascinates her, and her footsteps can be heard throughout the apartment.

   “Oh, there are three rooms in this place! Can I get a room of my own, Jin?”

   “Sure. Pick any room that you like.”

   She picked the largest room inside the unit. Of course she did. Jin was planning to use it, but he guess that he has to move everything in there to one of the smaller rooms.

   “Can I get some things inside my new room?” she asks next.

   Jin made sure to check his bank account for his remaining money before he answers that.

   “That depends. What are you thinking of getting?”

   “Let’s see, a huge fluffy bed, a large television, some game consoles, a gaming computer, a refrigerator with lots of food in it, and-”

   “I’ll only approve the huge fluffy bed.” Jin interrupts.

   Nyri looks at him with absolute shock.

   “...But why?” she demands.

   “Because there’s already a large television and refrigerator here. No point in getting new ones and waste money. As for the gaming consoles, we’ll be sharing them among the two of us after I bought them.”

   “And the computer?”

   “Don’t even get me started with that. There are too many things you can do with it. More like, where did you even learn about all these?”

   “The police woman who dragon-sit me told me about them.”

   “Ah, so Sergeant Wakaba was the culprit. I really wish she could kept her mouth shut about the wonders of technologies in this world.”

   “Can’t you reconsider? What’s a dragon without her lair full of treasures?” Nyri pleads.

   “First of all, this is my lair, not yours. Second, I don’t see the point of getting multiple treasures if they can be shared. Just because I have money it doesn’t mean that you can start spending it carelessly.”

   Nyri sits down on the ground and pouts.

   “You’re such a bully…” she grumbles.

   “You hungry? Want me to cook something for you?” he asks in an attempt to make her mood better.

   “...Yes.”

   Jin gets to cooking immediately. He just had his breakfast before he moved, so he’s only cooking for Nyri. While waiting, she sits at the sofa and watches some television. Jin is glad that today is Saturday, which means that there will be a lot of anime airing during the morning. If it’s nothing but boring news and drama shows, Nyri would definitely get bored quickly and starts to bother him.

   “I’m done!” he calls Nyri once he’s done.

   Nyri gets up from her seat at the sofa and walks over to the dining table. She then inspects the food Jin cooked.

   “...Isn’t the amount too little?” she asks.

   “Well my apologies for not having enough food, even though the amount can easily feed six humans.” he tells her sarcastically. “I seriously start to think that the idea of having another refrigerator isn’t so bad.”

   “Good. Get one inside my room.”

   “The answer was no just now, and it still is. Just give up.”

   She start to eat the food prepared for her. She didn’t even bother to chew. All the food was literally shoved down her throat and just disappeared. She lets out a loud burp after she’s done eating.

   “Remember to get me more food next time.” she reminds Jin.

   “You know, you can do something called stay inside the Vault in your armor form if you don’t want to starve.”

   “Don’t wanna. It’s boring in there. Besides, the grimoire you got the other day is getting on my nerves.”

   “Hold on, it’s bothering you? I thought I iced it and sealed away its ability to be annoying.”

   “The thing about grimoire: you can seal them up with the strongest sealing magic or tools that you have, and they’ll still find a way to be annoying so that they can be released from their seal.”

   “And did it promise you something in exchange for defrosting it?”

   “Sure did. All the food I can eat.”

   “...And you didn’t take the bait?”

   “Why do you look so surprised? I’m not that much of a glutton.”

   “Says the one who ate food for six people within two minutes.”

   “My point is, I’m not interested. I’m also not going to help a grimoire, of all things.”

   “Well, that’s reassuring.”

   Another thing that Jin learned about grimoires while he was still at Ifezan is that you can burn them, cut them to shreds, trick a troll to gobble them up, toss them in a pool of acid, and they’ll somehow return while looking completely fine. Jin definitely did not try any of the methods he just mentioned.

   “All right. Fine. You can stay here so long as you’re not causing any problems.”

   “Deal. Just feed me and I’ll be a good little dragon. And you still owe me lots of things.”

   “Yes yes, give me some time, okay? I’m not exactly rich right now.”

   After Nyri has finished eating, Jin does the cleaning up while she watches some television. It’s already time for lunch by the time he’s done, and he has zero food inside his refrigerator. Looks like he’ll be having his lunch outside.

   “I’m going shopping right now. Do you want to follow me?” he asks Nyri.

   “No.”

   Jin thought he heard it wrong the first time.

   “I beg you pardon?”

   “You heard me. I don’t know what this is, but it looks interesting. I’m not in the mood to take a look around the city while I’m watching this.”

   Her eyes are glued to the television which shows an anime. Jin has never seen this one before, but if Nyri is interested, he’s not going to stop her from watching it.

   “Well, just don’t open the door to any strangers, okay? And if a robber or something breaks in, don’t eat them.”

   “Got it. Just go already. You’re distracting me.”

   “One last thing. I’ll teach you on how to change the channel.”

   After teaching the dragon to use the remote control, he leaves her to her own accord and leaves the apartment unit.

   “Now what should I eat- wait, I guess that can wait for a bit.” Jin mumbles to himself.

   He takes out his phone and look for a supermarket on the G**gle Maps. The one he always go to is too far away, so he wants to look for another one which is nearer to his new place. Turns out there really is one, and it’s just a minutes walk from where he is. Good. He’ll visit it once he’s done filling his stomach.

   He wanders around aimlessly until he sees a restaurant called Yamamoto Canteen. That place will do. He heads inside and sees the place half-full of customers.

   “Welcome~.”

   A young woman with silver hair and blue eyes greets Jin with a laid-back voice. She looks a few years older than him. A college student, maybe? At first, he thought it was Nyri in her adult form, but he couldn’t sense any mana from her. In other words, she’s just another random stranger.

   “One person please.” he tells her.

   “Okay, sit down wherever~. As you can see, there are quite a lot of empty seats around~.”

   Jin chose an empty seat as told. The woman hands him a menu.

   “Just order whatever you see on the menu~. Just so you know, we don’t have any chef’s special~.” she explains.

   “You didn’t have to tell him that, Suzu.” a young man who’s wearing the same uniform as her tells her.

   “Why not~? What if he misunderstands~?”

   “I’m pretty sure you’re the only one who thinks that every single eatery has chef’s special as part of their menu. Not everyone is a former ojou-sama like you, you know?”

   The young woman puffs up her cheeks.

   “Are you saying that I’m ignorant, Takkun?”

   “Well you totally are.”

   “You’re so mean, Takkun~! How could you make fun of your girlfriend like that~?”

   “Our relationship means nothing when we’re working, remember? Now get back to work.”

   “Fine fine~.”

   “Please take your time here.” the young man tells Jin.

   “Um, sure.”

   After the two of them left, Jin hears the customers sitting two tables away from him snickering.

   “They’ve been going out with each other for a few years now, but they’re still being lovey-dovey, huh?”

   “Totally. They should just get married at this point!”

   Jin secretly rolls his eyes. This is part of the reason he chose to cook for himself even though he could actually afford to eat out now. He just hates seeing couple flirting with each other. He ordered his food, ate it, then left the place while vowing never to return. A shame, really. The food there was quite good. Even so, it’s not worth it if he has to see the two employees flirting with each other every time he goes there. Now then, it’s time to get his groceries-

   Jin suddenly hears the howl of a beast. Some other pedestrians are also reacting to it, so he’s sure that he didn’t mishear it. Oh boy, that can’t be good.

   “What was that?”

   “Beats me, but I don’t want to find out!”

   “Let’s run for it!”

   All the pedestrians around him start to run away in fear. While pretending to do the same (but without looking scared), Jin sends out his clone once again. He makes it appear some distance away from him while fully equipped with Felfarthen and his armor.

   “Look, it’s Silver Wolf!”

   As Jin has half-expected, none of the pedestrians look happy that he’s here. Their expressions are mostly similar to someone who got caught between a rock and a hard place: they don’t want neither him nor the creature that made the howl survive, but has to support one of them.

   Well, whatever. Jin is doing this for money, not getting fame or recognition. He makes the clone dashes towards whatever that made the howl.

   Turns out the creature is part of a pack. Once again, they’re not something Jin saw in Ifezan nor the Bestiary he read at the Royal Library. They have the faint appearance of a common timber wolf with the usual claws, snout and teeth. The thing that made them really stand out is the huge sac on their back. Each and every one of them are bulging and pulsing like they’re alive. Usually, they don’t concern Jin. What concerns him is that the all the sacs contain some sort of purple gas.

   Multiple possibilities flash inside Jin’s mind in an instant. Poison mist, volatile gas, fumes that causes hallucinations, and fog that spreads diseases. Or a combination of two or more of them. There’s also one other possibility that Jin took into factor. Even though the true identity of the gas being this one is extremely low, he couldn’t help but worry. Oh, well. Let’s just spring the trap and see what happens.

   Jin makes the clone toss Felfarthen towards one of the sac. The sac explodes and releases the gas trapped within. The gas spreads out at an alarming rate. In the span of three seconds, everything within two hundred meters radius of the wolf was engulfed with the gas. Everything it touches melt away immediately, even the wolf itself. All the other wolves also got turned into messy goo without so much as making a sound, and the sac on their respective body also explode with their host dead. Jin makes his sword return to the hand of the clone immediately, he doubts that the gas can even put a dent on it, but he’s still not going to risk it.

   Jin counted a total of twenty wolves. If he doesn’t do something quick, it’s probably not an exaggeration to say that the gas will spread throughout the entire city and melts everything away. He wills the clone to contain the gas with Barrier. As soon as the gas touch the transparent sphere of magic, however, the Barrier disappeared.

   As he had feared, the gas contains some kind of anti-magic property. He first encountered that at Ifezan when a Vampire Lord breathed out some kind of colorless gas and neutralized his Holy Barrage, a Level 6 spell. He can’t see the connections between the two separate creatures, and he doesn’t have the time for it. He starts to channel 30 percent of his mana into his clone so that it could be prepared to cast multiple spells.

   Jin starts thing off with Stormriser, a simple Level 2 spell. The clouds starts to pour down heavy rain, and winds and gusts are blowing all over the place. The entire sky has gone dark too. That’s the one and only function of this spell: to create a huge rainstorm. The gas can neutralize spells, but as Jin had hoped it’s powerless against real rain and gust.

   Next, Jin makes the clone cast Direction, a Level 1 spell that allows its caster to control the flow of anything that’s difficult to be controlled otherwise such as water current and the direction of the wind. The clone managed to gather every single rain drops and all the gas into a single ball that’s as big as a house.

   Finally, the clones is direction to cast Wind God’s Zephyr, a Level 8 spell that makes a gargantuan hurricane appear. This is where most of the mana Jin gave the clone went to. He needed them for this high-level spell, and it needed to be cast without the need for incantation to save time. He wastes no time in making the hurricane launch the ball of rain and gas into the atmosphere. Hopefully, the four layers of air that surround this planet can do something about the gas.

   With the gas gone, Jin could finally breath easy. He makes the clone looks around so that he could look at its surrounding through its eyes. There are zero casualties. The damages done by the gas mostly happened to the ground and a random car or two. And oh, everyone who happened to be in this area is drenched from the sudden downpour. Not Jin, though. He went inside a bookstore to hide from the rain that he knows is coming before he cast Stormriser.

   Now that the job’s done, it’s time for the clone to-

   “I knew it! He’s plain dangerous!”

   “He’s the Devil Incarnate!”

   The crowd around the clone start to boo and jeer at it. Even though all of them are drenched from head to toe, they’re sure fired up at ganging up on Jin right away he saved their sorry behind.

   “Leave! We don’t need you here!”

   “I wish you were dead!”

   Ah, whatever. Jin couldn’t care less about their opinions on him. He makes his clone disappear and thereby severing their connection to each other. He then leaves the bookstore and head to the supermarket that he has never set foot before.

   When he got back, he’s being featured all over the news. And none of the channels they browsed through so far are talking about him in a good light.

   “What’s our Prime Minister thinking? The Silver Wolf is an absolute menace!”

   Click!

   “He can even control the weather! In a way, he’s more dangerous than a nuclear missile!”

   Click!

   “You sure are popular.” Nyri mumbles.

   Jin only shrugs at that.

   “I guess it’s natural when you can do something that others can’t.”

   He then remembers something. He takes the remote control and switches the channel. As he remembered, this channel has Watanabe’s mother Chieko-san as one of its many news anchor.

   “...I said it more than once and I’ll keep on saying it! He is our ally!” she’s saying in front of the camera.

   “How could you say that, Watanabe-san? He’s clearly too dangerous to be left alone!” her co-host demands from her.

   “Whether he’s safe or dangerous to be around has nothing to do with his motive, is there? Even if he’s as dangerous as you said, what are you going to do about it? Tell him to leave straight at his face?” she fires back.

   “Well, um…”

   On one hand, Jin is glad that at least someone appreciates him. On another, he’s worried about things from now on. First a minotaur-centaur hybrid, then wolves with sacs that contains anti-magic acidic gas? One of these days, something really ridiculous will come out, like a huge group of giant insects that could turn invisible.