But Kumironi simply folded her pointed ears slightly and pretended not to hear anything.
Seira felt uncomfortable under Kanzaki Rei's gaze and said defensively,
"Why are you looking at me like that? I kill legally."
"Knorloya posts bounties for bandit groups outside the city. I kill them and collect the reward. That's not illegal."
Oh. So she hunts bandit groups.
Come to think of it, there were actually bounties for that? He vaguely remembered seeing something similar before at the Adventurers' Guild in the City of the Central Ring.
Back then he had been focused mainly on locating a dungeon filled with ant-type monsters and hadn't paid attention to that section.
So this world even had organized bandit groups.
It seemed things weren't nearly as peaceful as he had initially assumed.
Seira tilted her head slightly.
"Rei, can I come find you in the future?"
"What for?"
"To spar."
"You're already a Level 4 Assassin."
"What, are you scared?" she asked with a crooked grin.
Rei felt a flicker of irritation.
Calmly, he replied,
"As long as you don't suddenly ambush me, I can accompany you to the arena for a spar."
Seira puffed out her cheeks.
What kind of assassin sparred in an arena?
"How about we hunt bandit groups together? See who kills more?"
Rei refused immediately and firmly.
"I'm not planning to leave the city for the next two months."
After a short pause, he added,
"The Season of Death and Destruction is dangerous. You'd better not wander around either."
Now that they had gotten familiar with each other, Seira seemed far more lively than during their first meeting.
Rei could clearly feel the obsession she had with becoming stronger.
Suddenly Seira asked,
"Is there anyone you want to kill?"
Could we not talk about this in front of Kumironi?
Even if there was someone, Rei still wanted to act like a good kid.
At least in front of Kumironi.
"For now, no," Rei answered honestly. "But maybe someday."
Seira spoke with complete seriousness.
"If there's ever someone you want dead, tell me. I'll kill them for you."
Rei could see through it now…
It's not that I want to kill someone.
You're the one who wants to kill people, right?
You just need an excuse.
Kumironi… this assassin is extremely dangerous.
Rei turned to look at Kumironi.
She still had her eyes closed, calmly sipping her floral tea as if nothing unusual had been said.
Rei could only sigh.
"If you want to come find me for sparring, I'm not free every day."
"I have many things I need to do in order to become stronger."
"For example?"
"Studying magical theory and knowledge."
Seira responded,
"Oh…"
It was hard to tell whether she actually understood.
"Then are you free this afternoon?"
"No."
Seira's expression clearly dimmed.
"…Alright."
After finishing lunch with Kumironi, Rei said goodbye to the two of them.
For the next three days, life continued without much change.
Rei reduced the time he spent in the Forbidden Archive, leaving more time to visit the White Tower.
At the same time, he began assisting with several research projects conducted there.
Yuna had already become a Level 2 Erudite Scholar.
The learning speed of an Erudite Scholar was truly astonishing.
Now when she read a book, she only needed to flip through the pages casually.
She could finish it instantly.
There was no need to read page by page like an ordinary person.
Rei couldn't help feeling a little envious.
If he also switched to the Erudite Scholar profession, would he be able to learn just as quickly?
However, that thought was quickly dismissed.
There were simply too many useful professions.
Every profession in this world had its advantages.
Each one tempted Rei to change classes.
Still…
Yuna's learning speed was undeniably enviable.
After all, Rei still had countless libraries waiting for him:
The Royal Grand Library
The Great Library of Knorloya
The Library of Loinz Magic Academy
The Mage Association Archives
The Mage Tower Collections
So many books he wanted to read.
And beyond that—
Fields like Monsterology, Divination, Fate Studies, and countless other disciplines.
The sheer volume of knowledge made the road ahead feel endless.
Perhaps without switching to Erudite Scholar, it would truly be impossible to keep up.
Still…
For now, he decided to first raise his Cipher Scholar class to Level 3.
After that, he would consider switching to Erudite Scholar.
Over this period of time, the progress of his Cipher Scholar class had been steadily increasing every day.
Because he had previously advanced to Level 3 Warrior, the perfect advancement requirement for Cipher Scholar Level 3 had increased.
Now it required 150 points.
Before advancing Warrior to Level 3, it had only required 100 points.
The Cipher Scholar class made the influence of other professions extremely visible.
Rei couldn't help worrying.
If this continued…
Would there eventually come a day when he could no longer ascend to higher ranks?
Mage was fine.
His Root Magic had essentially opened a loophole that ignored the penalties of multi-classing.
But other professions might not be so forgiving.
Perhaps starting now, he should pay attention to methods that could reduce class advancement requirements.
Otherwise future promotions might become incredibly difficult.
The progress of a Cipher Scholar primarily came from solving mysteries.
Rei had already discovered plenty of puzzles.
Now the main problem was simply solving them all.
The Erudite Scholar profession wouldn't significantly increase his decryption progress anyway.
So it was better not to switch professions yet and make Cipher Scholar even harder to advance.
On the 25th, Iz and the others departed.
Even Luluvi went with them.
The entire city of Knorloya was left with only Rei remaining.
However, Iz had told him that the palace was protected by defensive magic arrays.
If Rei ever encountered danger, he could activate them.
"Hm… I don't feel as worried as before."
Rei stood on the second-floor balcony of the mansion, gazing at the pale white sky.
In November, it was almost impossible to see the movement of the stars.
Because the celestial phenomenon for the entire month was snowfall.
However, starting today, the snow had begun to lighten.
The influence of the Moon Star was gradually weakening.
But that wasn't necessarily a good sign.
Although the cold was fading, it was being replaced by an even denser aura of death.
Rei extended his teacup to the side.
The maid holding a tray politely took the empty red-tea cup away.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
Someone knocked on the mansion door.
Rei extended his perception outward.
Soon, one of the servants hurried over to report.
"Lord Rei, there is a little girl outside asking to see you. She says she's your friend. Her name is Yuna."
So she really came.
Yesterday he had invited her to visit his home.
But when Rei scanned the area with his perception, he didn't detect her parents.
She had actually come alone?
Her parents were surprisingly trusting.
A flash of light flickered.
Rei personally went downstairs to greet her.
The moment she saw him, Yuna's eyes lit up.
"Rei! Where's the monster corpse you said you'd show me?"
Rei led her directly to the basement.
She really was an incredibly curious little girl.
The two of them entered the basement.
Rei shut the door behind them and activated several sealing arrays, locking it tightly.
There were far too many secrets hidden down here.
They absolutely couldn't be discovered.
"Yuna, we agreed," Rei said seriously.
"The secrets here are known only to you and me."
"You can't tell a third person."
Yuna nodded solemnly.
Although he said that, Rei didn't actually plan to show her too much.
Everything he couldn't reveal had already been separated behind walls in another sealed section of the basement.
Rei raised one hand.
Whoosh!
A massive leaf-like structure appeared on the basement floor.
It was part of the corpse of the Land-Sinking Grade Flower Demon that Crimson Slash had slain.
Yuna's eyes widened.
She immediately rushed forward and began touching the patterns along the plant-like body.
"So beautiful… the vein structure is exactly like the books described!"
Rei crouched beside her curiously.
"Does this vein pattern have a special meaning?"
"This is a unique pattern found in Tier 6 plant-type monsters. They absorb life energy through these veins as nutrients. Look here—the cross-section is so clear. This tube is the fluid channel. The liquids inside their bodies flow through this pathway."
"This kind of monster is both plant and monster at the same time. They have extremely powerful regenerative abilities, and their weaknesses are often very hard to detect…"
Suddenly Yuna became incredibly talkative.
Holding the cross-section of the flower demon, she began explaining enthusiastically.
"Do you know the most direct way to identify a monster's weak point? It's by analyzing its classification. Every monster belongs to a category, and the essential life-sustaining weakness follows certain universal principles…"
"For example, with this flower demon, you don't necessarily have to split the whole body open. If you can cut open the crown at the top of its head and pull out a long tendon inside—it should be white—it would die instantly."
"If it's not white, it might be yellow… but this one shows characteristics of a soul-type monster, so it's probably white."
"That tendon is called the Line of Life. It's the soul convergence line for Soul / Flower / Plant / Vine-type organisms. If you pull it out, the creature loses all consciousness and can no longer regenerate."
Rei had rarely heard Yuna speak so much at once.
Normally he would ask a question, and she would answer briefly.
Or the two of them would discuss things one sentence at a time.
He had never seen her like this—talking nonstop.
"Yuna," Rei asked, "then what about a creature like this?"
With a thought—
The air tore open.
A Buzzing Void Hunter emerged.
Yuna's eyes sparkled.
She instantly dropped the flower vine she had been admiring.
"A Void creature!"
"You summoned this?! Why can you summon Void creatures?"
"Those crystalline Void wings are so beautiful…"
Yuna's curiosity about the world seemed even greater than Rei's.
For the first time, Rei had someone he could share the strange things he encountered on his journey with.
This felt completely different from talking with Iz.
Iz was passionate about magic itself.
But if something had nothing to do with magic, Iz quickly lost interest.
Unless it could somehow be used for magic research.
But Rei…
Rei was curious about the entire world.
A strange world.
A strange sky.
A strange land.
Yet most of the knowledge he acquired came simply from reading books.
At first it was fine.
Everything was basic and unknown.
But as his knowledge deepened, he gradually felt a strange sense of loneliness.
It wasn't that he couldn't talk to Iz and the others about these topics.
It just felt… odd.
Perhaps because they didn't find his discoveries particularly surprising.
But with Yuna—
He felt something different.
Energy. Excitement. Resonance.
Yuna was someone who shared the same curiosity.
"Yuna, you know about the Void?"
"Mm. My parents told me a little."
"Iz didn't even allow me to study Void knowledge at first. Your parents actually talk about it with you?"
"They only tell me fragments."
"The Void is a dimension higher than our current world," Yuna explained.
"My mother said it used to be an incredibly prosperous world. But after a catastrophic apocalypse, the Void fell… and now it's become a realm of fragmentation and emptiness."
Yuna had arrived during the day.
When she finally left, it was already late at night.
"Rei! I'm coming again tomorrow!"
"You have to show me your rituals!"
Rei smiled and waved goodbye.
He sighed softly.
Originally he had planned to spend the afternoon immersed in the Forbidden Archive.
Instead, he had talked with Yuna the entire day.
Still…
He had learned a great deal about monster knowledge.
The more they talked, the more Rei felt their minds connecting.
The Erudite Scholar profession seemed to possess a kind of knowledge resonance.
When communicating with Yuna, it felt as if her knowledge flowed directly into his mind.
Not just Monsterology—
But also Oceanography, Astronomy, Lunar Phase Studies, even Mathematics.
Rei had gained subtle insights into all of them.
"I wonder what talent Yuna awakened…"
"Could it be something like Knowledge Resonance?"
"If that's the case, we could accomplish twice the work with half the effort."
Thinking this, Rei casually pulled a book from his storage space.
On the Development Nodes of Fate and Their Relationship with the Course of Life.
He intended to flip to the page he hadn't finished reading earlier.
But the moment he held the book—
The knowledge written inside flowed into his mind like a gentle river.
…?
Was this an Erudite Scholar specialty?
It should be [Erudite Scholar Specialty — Knowledge Extraction].
Rei was already quite familiar with the early-level abilities and specialties of most common professions.
The ability to extract knowledge directly from a book likely belonged to Erudite Scholars.
"Tomorrow I should ask Yuna directly…"
"What talent did she awaken?"
"I wonder if, given our relationship now, she'd be willing to tell me."
If Rei could temporarily borrow the learning ability of an Erudite Scholar through Yuna, there would be no need to switch professions in the short term.
He could save that secondary class slot for something more useful.
For example…
Perhaps something like a Seer.