—I started as a special mercenary.
Now I lead some mercenaries and directly participate in missions.
—So...
it's some kind of guild?
Cyril had a strong and healthy physique.
But it was not the body of a warrior in his prime.
You could judge it to some extent by the calluses on his hands and the look in his eyes.
Sure, there are many types of mercenaries.
Even special magicians like spiritualists do mercenary activities.
—I am a barrier dissipator.
I am also known as a barrerista.
—Ah.
The mana stone mines, or the ancient ruins where treasures are hidden.
All those places were full of barriers and curses placed by demons.
A barrierist is the profession of being sent to those places to dispel barriers for the client.
Barriers are a profession as rare as spiritualists.
He really made himself.
The more I know him, the more respect I have for my uncle.
Violet was amazed.
—Why are you looking at me like that?
It's creepy.
Cyril was horrified.
—You look incredible to me, man.
You are very different from my father, who is basically a scammer.
When Violet said things like that, Ash always laughed in disbelief.
But Cyril was only blushing up to his ears.
He gestured for Olive to pour more wine.
—Just eat.
-Yeah.
Violet nodded.
—…After you leave school, do whatever you want for a while.
If being happy means doing what you want with chores or teaching your family a lesson, so be it.
I have enough money to help you find yourself for at least a few years.
It's money I earned honestly, so don't worry.
Violet felt her throat suddenly choke.
The gesture had moved him in a way he hadn't expected.
—…Thank you, uncle.
"I'll get a suitable teacher, no, someone to teach you." At this stage, it will be of some use to you.
—Yes, could I know who he is and what he does?
Cyril's head turned slowly.
He looked at Olive with a disappointed expression.
Olive ate without expression.
—…Olive?!
This time, Violet was genuinely horrified.
──── ∗ ⋅◈⋅ ∗ ────
—Concentrate and reinforce your circle.
Olive whispered to Violet, pressing her shoulder.
Violet did as she was told.
—Now I'm going to move the mana to help you.
Feel the flow of mana that I move and expand your circle.
You have already completed a circle and it is about to overflow.
If you don't reach the second circle, your body will be injured.
-Yeah.
Violet said.
He did what he was told.
-Good.
Afterwards, we will do basic skills training and then hand-to-hand combat with me.
You already learned the basics in the academy, so we'll focus on practice.
Olive said.
The result of the fight was that Olive was a monster.
It was like hitting steel.
I didn't know.
Until now, Olive had always dressed in a maid's outfit that covered her body from head to toe.
It turns out that that seemingly thin body was full of well-defined muscles.
Violet was almost exhausted when Olive said 'end of training'.
—Olive, I think I'm going to die...
—Don't be dramatic.
This is just the beginning.
—I'm serious.
I have undergone all the difficult training at the academy.
—Training is not about quantity, but quality.
A single fight in which you risk your life strains your entire body more than swinging a sword hundreds of times alone.
-That's true.
Violet nodded.
Olive had barely broken a sweat.
He brought Violet the water he had prepared.
The water was sweet.
Violet drank it in large gulps.
And after sitting down and resting, his body felt better.
—Olive, where did you learn to use the sword?
—It's complicated.
—So, in the past...
you were a mercenary?
You seem more familiar with hand-to-hand combat than fencing.
I've heard that mercenaries are usually like this.
—You are interested in my past.
—Honestly, yes.
—When I was the young lady's age, I was immersed in a sect.
Violet almost dropped the water bottle.
-…That?
—I had joined a sect and lived a life of confinement and stripping of my free will.
I spent most of my twenties that way.
Olive continued with her same calm.
—I'm not interested in that, but how did you get into something like that?
—To put it simply, I was the victim of an employment scam.
—I don't think Olive is someone who easily falls for a scam.
—You are absolutely right.
The scam did not affect me, but my parents, who were poor.
Olive continued to speak calmly.
—I come from a poor family with many children.
In a family like this, they want to reduce the number of mouths to feed.
So they sent me anywhere.
To be exact, it was a place where they promised to teach people how to be gentlemen without paying anything.
—I think I've heard of that kind of scam.
Anyway...
was that place a sect?
The talent to be a good knight is simple: the bone structure and constitution of a knight, as well as the ability to handle mana.
The profession of knight can bring fame and wealth.
Therefore, many parents would fall into the trap if they were told that their child was talented.
It was a form of human trafficking and a common scam used by knight academies.
—Besides, it was a place from which there was no escape.
—Did you learn to use the sword there?
—Yes, I received hellish assassin training.
And I was lucky.
Because I didn't have to kill many people despite receiving assassin training.
—Ah… Is that good?
Olive spoke so calmly that Violet began to lose her sense of reality as well.
A respectable butler might actually come from an evil cult.
Well, as long as it's not now, who cares?
He could have become a killing machine, but at least he repented.
—The cult chose me to become some kind of elite.
That's why they wanted him to be part of the sect head's personal guard, something like that.
Therefore, I was not sent on missions.
Instead, I trained a lot.
According to Olive, the people of that place learned to refine and use the aura with special methods.
Thanks to that, she could handle mana skillfully enough to teach Violet.
That was Olive's explanation.
—...But Olive, how did you meet my uncle Cyril?
By the way, is this strange way of speaking your original personality?
—When I was in my twenties, I tried to stab the cult leader to escape.
They caught me, tied me hand and foot, seriously injured me, and abandoned me in some ancient ruins.
—My uncle Cyril saved your life!
-That's how it is.
Mr.
Cyril, who came to work as a sweeper, saved me.
—So, since that day, you have been working for my uncle, right?
What a good person Cyril is, having saved and taken in Olive who was in trouble!
Violet's eyes sparkled.
—He is a businessman and a mercenary who moves for money.
Therefore, it is only natural that I return the favor with my workforce, since I have no money.
Although he doesn't agree with that.
—Wait, my uncle...
he said he was okay with you working here?
The sparkle in Violet's eyes disappeared.
—No, he flatly refused at that moment and sometimes, as if he were having an attack, he begs me to leave the house.
Since he is a weak human, he sometimes gets angry and asks me to accept the salary please.
—…
Violet suddenly felt sorry for Cyril.
At first I thought my uncle Cyril was an eccentric.
But it turns out that an even stranger person lived as his butler...
It's true that you can't judge people by appearances.
Normality is also a relative concept.
If you include Ash and Marin, Cyril seemed to be the sanest person he had met lately.
—At least Olive does the work of ten people.
It is surely a blessing for my uncle Cyril.
Violet said this so as not to disturb the peace of the house.
—This is a good environment for me too.
If he had continued living there, he would have died a terrible death, whether caught by the inquisitors or another army.
The cult was illegal.
Olive said.
Wait a minute, have I heard this story before…?
Violet suddenly had an unsettling feeling.
One evil cult, one person at the level of the cult leader, and the result is hanging.
It was exactly Violet's story, the one about the vision of the future.
Ah… what?
…To be continued