Chapter 7

Kast Mori, the guild master of Lesser Village, was overestimating his own abilities and was dissatisfied with his position as the guild master in this small village.

Still, things went well yesterday.

When the villagers asked Hage to kill that child, I was worried. They won’t come to the village anymore, and I can get the herbs for free. Even after deducting the money paid to Hage, it will still be a substantial profit. That child is my cash cow! I can’t let him be killed. Now, he will be grateful to me and bring the herbs without a word.

Kast mistakenly believed that Yu was grateful to him for saving him. The reward for the herbs Yu brought every day was originally nine copper coins, but Kast was skimming six of them, which was two-thirds of the total. Moreover, the quantity and quality of the herbs Yu brought were excellent, so the original reward should have been much higher. Combined with the fees the guild received from clients, it was a significant amount of money. As Kast was counting the money with a greedy look, the guild door opened. Someone had entered. Kast hurriedly hid the money, but when he saw who had entered, he shouted.

"Y-You! What are you doing here?! You haven’t forgotten about yesterday, have you?! This time, even I can’t protect you!"

Kast spoke condescendingly and patronizingly, but Yu’s expression was blank.

"I came to collect the reward I should have received."

"Are you crazy!! Do you understand your position?!"

The child was usually cheeky, but Kast felt something was off today.

(The atmosphere is different... Why is he so calm? If he meets Hage now, he could really be killed...)

Kast’s eyes fell on the object wrapped in cloth that Yu was holding. As Yu slowly unwrapped it, a longsword was revealed.

"Where did you get that longsword?"

(That’s strange, no one in this village would sell anything to this child. And there’s blood on that longsword...)

Yu placed his guild card in front of Kast.

"I know this guild card is fake. What do you think would happen if I went to the capital with this guild card?"

"How would a child like you get to the capital..."

Kast tried to act tough, but he was in trouble if Yu went to the guild headquarters. In the worst case, he could cover it up, but his dream of transferring to the capital guild would be shattered.

"Do you know whose longsword this is?"

Only then did Kast realize it was Hage’s.

"You... killed Hage...!?"

"You don’t need to know. If you quietly give me the reward I should have received, nothing will happen to you."

Kast was drenched in sweat. The child he had been exploiting had suddenly turned the tables on him. Moreover, it was likely that Hage was dead. Kast thought the only way to deal with this child was to have Hage’s lackeys kill him, but if Hage’s death was a result of Kast’s request to save Yu, Kast’s own life would be in danger. Kast silently placed the skimmed rewards on the table.

"If you had been honest from the beginning, this wouldn’t have happened."

As Yu collected his rightful reward, he used the skill 'Plunder' to take Kast’s skills 'Blacksmith LV1' and 'Alchemist LV1'.

It was risky to use the 'Plunder' skill in this way, but he couldn’t tolerate the mistreatment anymore.

"Get out quickly! Don’t ever come back!!"

"Heh, I won’t come back even if you don’t tell me. I’ll leave through the back door to avoid being seen by the villagers."

Now, I have no more business in this village. Next, I’ll train the skills I’ve taken. It seems the more you use a skill, the higher its level becomes. I need to check if using 'Blacksmith' and 'Alchemist' to create items will increase their levels...

As he walked along the narrow path from the village to his house, he felt a gaze and turned to see the red-haired woman from before. She approached him with a look that suggested she wanted to say something. She didn’t seem to be one of Hage’s lackeys, but he checked her status just in case.

Name: Nina Reba

Race: Human

Job: Thief

Level: 12

HP: 76

MP: 21

Strength: 21

Agility: 52

Stamina: 21

Intelligence: 16

Magic: 11

Luck: 22

Passive Skills:

Detection LV1

Trap Detection LV1

Dagger Mastery LV1

Active Skills:

Steal LV1

Stealth LV1

Trap Disarming LV1

Unique Skills:

None

This woman... her level is higher than Hage’s... Her combat skills are limited to dagger mastery, but her stats are completely inferior. No, if I add the abilities of her skills, I might be able to win?

"Hey... do you want to join me?"

"No."

This was the first conversation between Nina Reba and Yu, which would become a long-term relationship.