Chapter 22

The young man had long amber hair tied up, revealing a stern face with a hint of edge. He was dressed in black, with a long sword on his back and leather boots wrapped around his calves, making him look tall, with long legs, and neat and upright.

He had a dagger of the type that could be found everywhere on the street on his waist, and around his neck hung a gold coin with a hole in it, tied with a thin black rope - that was the only bright color on the boy's body.

Hansen noticed the gold coin when he first met him. It was totally inconsistent with the boy's style. He would be filled with murderous intent if he stared at it for too long. He was extremely curious, but he never dared to ask.

"Dear Winster, my little benefactor, I heard that you accepted the commission from the purple-striped bee. How is it going? Did you get the honey?"

The young man's cold black eyes swept over, and the hand that was about to rest on his shoulder consciously retracted.

This young boy with a childish face, who looks only twelve or thirteen years old, is the youngest bounty hunter in the branch, and he has won the respect of the hunters with his skills.

When he first entered this place to choose a mission, the hunters who laughed at the children for going home to drink milk now wanted to recruit people into their own group, but they were repeatedly rejected.

Hansen first met Winster half a year ago when he was working on a commission at Hanhai Gusen.

The magic plant their group was looking for attracted a magic beast with the same attributes. Hansen was a high-level swordsman, so he was able to deal with the magic beast and lead it away so that his brothers could go pick flowers. There was no pressure at first, but unfortunately, the beast roared and summoned its even more ferocious parents!

Hansen: Fuck!

The group was chased and separated, and Hansen, who injured the monster cub, was targeted the worst. The strongest one followed closely behind, and did not use the earth magic that was inherent in this species to deal with him. It was more like chasing the prey for fun before killing it.

Hansen was hesitating whether to take a gamble and lure the beast to the territory of another known monster. If he was lucky, the two beasts would fight directly and he would have a chance to escape!

Hmm? There seems to be someone in front?

Hansen ran very fast, and after a few blinks, he could see the face getting closer and closer...

Fuck! Why is it a little devil? Another young nobleman who came to play!

Hansen quickly scanned the area and didn't see any guards. This idiot was actually coming towards him!!!

"Get away from me!"

The man roared, and turned in a direction to lead the monster away. He ran a few steps before he realized something was wrong. Hansen looked back.

Eh? Where's the beast? A beast that's so big that it's taller than him when it stands up?

Hansen didn't think that the monster was trying to play hide-and-seek with him. The main reason was that the creepy sense of crisis suddenly disappeared...

After walking back a few steps and bypassing branches and bushes, Hansen finally found the monster - it was lying in front of the young man, holding its head and trembling.

Hansen touched the hideous claw marks on his back and pulled his tattered clothes to make sure he was not dreaming.

He looked at the giant beast over there that was still holding its head, as if unwilling to face the reality. Hmm... so can a magical beast with the strength of a nine-star high-level wizard lose its wildness and pride so quickly?

Winster looked at the thick-skinned beast that had been running away for a while and suddenly brought him in front of him. He was calm and just walked around it.

It had seen Samuel many times, and now when it saw this face, it had lost its will to resist and was not even qualified to practice with him.

Not long after Winster left his brother, when he was still very weak, he walked into its territory. The thick-skinned beast wanted to catch him and use him as a toy for its cubs, but Samuel took a fancy to his thick fur and cast a spell to make the beast unable to move. Then he let Winster out and instructed him to peel off a complete skin and use it in the shabby cave.

Winster refused, not because he thought it was too cruel, but mainly because he didn't like being told what to do.

But he was not stupid enough to let the monster go and go against the others. Instead, he used the beast as a mount. It was more convenient than walking slowly on foot, and he could explore the area faster.

Two months later, the thick-skinned beast took advantage of the time when he was practicing with low-level monsters and showed signs of weakness, and ran away. It was so cowardly that it didn't even dare to launch a sneak attack. It can be seen how much psychological trauma Samuel's repeated appearances left on it.

After running away, he took his wife and children with him to another place. Unexpectedly, after running so far and after such a long time, he was unlucky enough to run into this human's hands again!

Seeing that this terrifying dark wizard ignored it, the thick-skinned beast hesitated for a moment, then immediately stood up and ran away, running so fast that it became a shadow!

He almost died at the claws of such a cowardly monster!

Hansen's face twisted for a moment, and he caught up with the boy to say thank you. Only then did he notice that the other party's clothes were as ordinary as theirs, and he did not have the delicate feeling of an aristocratic child. Could he be just an ordinary child?

That's not right. How could an ordinary child dare to walk to such a deep place alone? Hansen and his group took two days to get here.

The pachyderms were very afraid of him. Hansen didn't think that the child was that strong. He must have some treasure on him that allowed the little guy to walk freely in such a dangerous place!

The man thought he had discovered the truth, and sighed that fortunately he was a good man who had no intention of repaying kindness with enmity and killing people for treasures. However, others might not be the same. Children just have no guard. After thanking him for saving his life, Hansen kindly reminded Wins that he had exposed the treasure on his body.

Hansen was full of curiosity about the child. He asked questions without fear of the child's cold response and also talked a lot about himself.

Winster frowned. So noisy...

The encounter ended when Hansen reunited with his brothers, took Winster out of the vast sea of Gusen, and followed the child's wishes to bring him to the Bounty Guild in Hippi City, and introduced the place to him.

Before Hansen could find out the origin of the child's name, Winster used him up and threw him away, leaving only a cold back...

What Hansen didn't expect was that the child soon became a bounty hunter.

Initially, the guild ignored the kid, but after he was rejected, he glanced at the commission hanging on the wall and memorized the sketch attached to the text. When he came back two days later, he took out two kinds of magic plants and a pair of giant tooth beasts...

Receptionist: The entrusted items are all in front of us. It would be inappropriate to keep the employer waiting any longer!

Later, the guild sent someone to spar with the child and confirmed that his strength was at the level of an eight-star intermediate swordsman. Only then did they make an exception and allow a twelve-year-old child to register as a hunter.

If Winster didn't want to find a reliable place to get information in the future, he wouldn't bother wasting time here. If he wanted to make money, he could go to the material store to sell the magic materials.

When the news came out, the hunters were all shocked! How old was he? What level was he at? Do you think this makes sense? ! !

This is of course unreasonable for a normal human being, but Winster was born with a great talent for "learning". His photographic memory is not only reflected in words, but also in the fighting moves in his dreams.

There was no way to learn those powerful divine powers that could cover the sky and change the sun, so Winter focused on fighting techniques and sword skills that did not require magical elements. He seized this only opportunity to become stronger and practiced day after day.

Of course Samuel would be happy to see his current body become stronger, so when he unlocked his memories, he deliberately picked the previous battle scenes where he didn't use divine power.

This was all thanks to the fact that he once disliked the powerful divine power, which made every battle seem extremely boring and not even a way to kill time, so he spent some time practicing close combat moves.

Not to mention, it is much more challenging than simply using divine power to deal with those you don't like, and it makes Samuel's long and boring life as a god a little more interesting.

If he had not had this idea of having fun, there would be no physical combat experience for him, a useless person, to learn.

He has "unique secret manuals", a good brain, a fit body, and hard work. More importantly, he is very adept at using those tricks. Coupled with the fact that he has to deal with crises in the ancient forest of the vast sea, Winter's progress is extremely fast.

Hansen had no idea of the reasons. They had seen the child several times since Winster became a hunter. They only found out that the child had no father or mother, no fixed residence, and had lived in the forest all year round.

As to why he was so powerful... Hansen imagined that Winster had a mysterious teacher who taught him secretly in the dark. In a sense... that was not wrong.

Now all the hunters in Hippi City want to recruit the child into their team. The strength that Winster has shown so far is still secondary, and everyone values his potential more.

Hansen believes that he has more hope than other groups. After all, Winster will still pay attention to him, right?

"Yeah." The young man responded lightly. After receiving the answer, the man looked around with a little pride.

Winster walked towards the woman who called him, handed the items to her and took the money. Vanessa lowered her voice and said, "Sister has left you a high-paying commission. Pick one?"

Hansen, who was following behind Winster: "..."

This is also one of the important reasons why they want to attract children to join the group!

——

"As expected of you, young master! You are indeed a man of top talent."

Due to the inconvenience of communication, Mo En did not know that the young master had tested his talent until now, when the two of them came to the royal city to find him. His reaction was certainly happy, but not at all surprised - isn't this as it should be, their young master is already outstanding beyond the imagination of ordinary people.

Seeing Moon's self-evident sigh, Elphis really wanted to know how thick the filter was when the other party was looking at him!

He took out a bunch of stuff from his space ring. "I brought some powders and dry goods from town. They should be enough for a while."

One square meter of space is packed full, and powder is something that is really durable.

Moon took the food to the kitchen and left the restaurant to be looked after by the hired helpers. He took Elphis and Mona to the hotel on the same street to rest.

"Master, do you need help buying a house for you to live in permanently?"

"No rush. Just stay in my own hotel like you do. We'll find a suitable house later."

Elphis was not very particular about the environment. Anyway, he designed the layout of the hotel, and he felt comfortable living there as long as he liked it.

"Business seems to be good. Are there any unresolved problems?"

In fact, it was more than good. Their store was simply the most crowded place they had seen since they came to the city.

Speaking of business, workaholic Moon mentioned with a smile the popularity and considerable profits of their store. Not to mention other dishes, the cakes are limited to ten servings a day, and a serving of cake that costs ten gold coins can offset a large amount of raw material purchase expenses.

The 20-year-old young man said proudly, "Even the royal family and nobles send people to pack up the food every day."

Elphis nodded, "How is the rented manor?"

"It has been taken care of, but the saplings have only been planted for a short time and the livestock have not yet reproduced in large numbers. Adding the rent and hired servants, it will not provide any value for at least two years, and I will even have to pay for it."

Moen sighed and thankfully said, "Fortunately, the manor is quite despised in the local area, so the rent is not that high."

Elphis: "When the funds are sufficient, buy it."

If Elphis was quite easygoing in making money many years ago, after meeting his teacher, he wanted to expand his business all over the world and make a lot of money! Otherwise, how could he compete for magic resources!

To achieve this goal, it is certainly not enough to have only the town of Lise as a raw material supply base. They can’t always buy everything they need at the market, such as the wild items that Elphis and his team took out from the forest. So it would be better to develop several more agricultural product bases. Losses are only temporary, and long-term benefits are what’s important.

Considering that there might not be any idle manors for rent in the royal city, and that even if there were, they might not be affordable, Elphis asked Moon to look for a place with a teleportation array that could lead directly to the royal city. Unexpectedly, he was so lucky that there was a suitable place in the city of Fron, which he passed by when he came here.

I heard that the previous owner of the manor was a hereditary earl, and there was a very talented magician in his family. Unfortunately, he offended a person of higher status, and several people died, and other relatives became civilians.

And that manor, after a fierce fight, was like a tornado. The houses were broken, the grass and trees were destroyed, and there was nothing of value left except a piece of land. Those who wanted it could not afford it, and those who could afford it thought it was dirty and unlucky.

The City Lord's Mansion lowered its expectations and decided not to buy the house but to rent it. Then they waited for Moon, who didn't mind the messy manor and the effort it took to clean it up.

——

In the next three days, Elphis taught Moon the new dishes he had come up with this year. After some consideration, he asked Moon to make some changes to the layout of the restaurant and the hotel. After that, he was taken on a tour of the royal city to familiarize himself with the new environment. Then he prepared a gift and went to visit someone at the address on the paper.

Roft Allen, the younger brother of the Lord of Raphael City, is a level 6 affinity fire magician, a three-star wizard, and currently works in the Palace Guard.

The city lord had previously enthusiastically told Elphis that he was worried that the young man would not be able to adapt to the unfamiliar place, so he had already used the communication crystal to contact his younger brother to help take care of him. If anyone needed help, they could go to this address to find someone.

Elphis came here not to ask for help or to develop interpersonal relationships in a strange place, but just to find out something...

Luckily, the person he was looking for was off today. He knocked on the door and got a response. After the door opened, he saw the face that looked 70% like the city lord. The boy smiled shyly and said, "Mr. Roft, good day. I am Elphis Owen. The city lord should have mentioned me to you."

The man was over 1.9 meters tall, but not very muscular. Magicians were like that; they didn't develop hard muscles like swordsmen.

Although Roft is of slim build, he is not lacking in the sharpness and sharpness that a member of the guard should have, so on the surface he seems to be quite difficult to deal with.

There was a hint of doubt in Roft's eyes. Of course he was happy to make friends with a light mage with healing powers, but he didn't think that the mage would come to him. Was it because the Vatican didn't have enough servants? Why would the mage need his help?

To his surprise, the little genius suddenly appeared at his door...

Roft relaxed his expression, exchanged a few words with the young man, and then invited him in as a guest.

Elphis brought cakes and fruit tea, and after Roft made the hot tea, a tea party began.

The two chatted for a while, mainly Roft was concerned about the boy's feelings when he first arrived. Elphis asked some small questions about the royal city and the academy, and pretended to be a newbie to ask about learning magic. Then he got the notes that the other party made and the books he bought when he was in the academy.

Elphis wanted to see how much the modern cultivation methods had improved compared to those in his teacher's time, so he accepted it without any refusal.

The atmosphere of the chat was very harmonious and friendly. Elphis naturally brought out what he really wanted to ask on this trip: "Your Excellency has lived in the royal city for a long time and has seen a lot. I want to ask you about someone. It's a kind lady I met five years ago. She helped me when she passed by Raphael City. I think she has a noble temperament. Maybe she is a noble. Can you please recall whether there is a woman with such appearance in the royal city..."

Elphis described to Roft the appearance of the woman who put him into the river. Of course, it was only a vague description, for fear that the description would be too accurate and would really reveal such a person.

He originally thought about asking Moon to slowly confirm whether there was such a person in the royal city, but Moon was young and inexperienced after all. What if that woman was really in the royal city and she was cruel and ruthless? Elphis was worried that he would be in danger, so he did not mention this matter.

The man frowned. She was beautiful, with blue-gray eyes and dark red hair... There really was such a woman in his memory.

Thinking of that person, Roft unconsciously glanced at the boy's smooth and beautiful silver hair...

"I do know a woman who looks similar, but unfortunately, she won't be the benefactor Al is looking for."

Elphis pretended to be curious and asked further.

This matter was quite a big deal back then, and it was no secret. It was okay to satisfy the little guy's curiosity. The man shook his head and sighed, "The woman I was talking about was really a vicious person. She was clearly the daughter of an earl and had a seventh-level wind talent. With such excellent conditions, she chose to provoke someone who was even more unbearable to offend. She died fifteen years ago. In my opinion, she deserved to die. It would be fine if she fought with others openly, but she deliberately killed an innocent baby in its cradle. It's really hateful!"

The boy's body stiffened, then quickly relaxed... Dead? It would be better if he died...

As for who the big shot she had offended was, Elphis did not ask any more questions. The original owner was dead, and he occupied someone else's body. If he wanted to enjoy the family affection, wealth and status that did not belong to him, it would be too shameless.

The boy echoed the storyteller, "You are right. It is better for such a cruel person to die. If he were alive, I am afraid he would bully others and harm innocent people."

Roft sighed, "Winnie Hill, this woman had many suitors back then, but she just fell for the one who didn't like her, tsk tsk..."

"...Hill?" Wait, this last name sounds familiar!

Wasn't the manor that Moon rented called Hill Manor? Then he thought about why Moon had told him the price was cheaper than expected...

So, he used his enemy's house to plant trees and raise livestock?

So cool!

Roft: "Yes, that woman's last name is this, what's wrong?"

Elphis smiled sheepishly: "Nothing."

The man continued to chat with him about other things. "By the way, are you used to living in the Vatican? Is it too stressful?"

"???"

"Why do you think I live in the Vatican?"

Roft stared at him. The air was quiet for a moment, and the man finally spoke again: "The candidates for the Holy Son usually live in the Vatican to facilitate study and prayer."

Elphis frowned and sternly corrected him, "You misunderstood. In two months, I will enter Aurelian College. I am just an ordinary student, not a candidate for the Son of God."

Thinking about the boy's talent, Roft couldn't even look at the word "ordinary"...

He asked doubtfully, "The moment your talent was revealed to the world, you were already qualified to run for the Son of Light. I guess someone in Raphael City has already contacted the Bishop's Court to inform them of your situation. Didn't anyone tell you that you should go to the Church after you arrived in the Royal City..."

Yes, but he ignored it... The boy moved his mouth and held back the curse words, "Knock! This can't be mandatory!"

Elphis looked nervous and confused, looking at his trusted senior with a slightly pitiful expression: "Do I... do I have to go? If I don't want to run for the Holy Son, can I not go to the Vatican?"

Roft shook his head regretfully. "My dear, you must go to the Church. Without the protection and teaching of the bishops, with your talent, you will easily become the target of assassination by the dark race. And you are a light wizard. Since the establishment of the Church, there has never been an independent light wizard. Everyone is happy to join the Church. There is no shortage of resources, and they can do good things for the world by curing diseases and healing injuries."

"If you're wondering about school, don't worry, you can go to Aurelion if you become a candidate."

Elphis: “…”

Knock! He would rather delay it than take the initiative to find him.

"Okay, thank you for your reminder. I was just worried before. The Church is a very sacred place. I grew up in the countryside and don't know the etiquette. I'm afraid I'll act rashly and do something wrong...I wonder if there are any behaviors I need to pay attention to? Are there any priests who are particularly picky?"

It is normal for a half-grown child to have such worries and doubts. Roft comforted him: "Don't be afraid, little Al. You are a very cute child and you are very polite. The Church does have many priest codes to follow. I, an outsider, can't explain them clearly. You have a rare talent, and there will definitely be a powerful magician who will teach you carefully."

Then, Roft took a closer look at the handsome face of the young man and sighed with regret: "Among those numerous rules, only one rule impressed me the most, which is that His Holiness the Pope, the seven archbishops, and the Holy Son must be grateful to the God of Light with all their hearts and offer the purest faith to God. They must not be deceived by others or external things, so... they cannot fall in love with anyone, let alone get married."

"Al is so handsome, he will definitely attract a lot of admiration in the future, what a pity..."

Elphis: “…” Although I have no interest in this kind of thing, being forced to live as a eunuch for the rest of my life is too much!

The young man forced a smile and said, "I may not become the Holy Son."

Roft waved his hand: "With your talent, even if you can't become the Son of God, you will be an archbishop." If neither of the two results is true, it is most likely that the genius died young.

“……”Is it all the fate of eunuchs?

Unable to continue laughing, Elphis chatted for a few more words and then found an excuse to leave.

Even more unfortunate was that just as he walked out of the gate of the Roft family's house, he saw a middle-aged man wearing a white robe with a red collar, holding a staff as tall as a person, and with his hair combed meticulously walking towards him. Behind him followed two subordinates with equally solemn and dignified expressions.

Cardinal?

Seeing the other person's expression become slightly surprised when he saw him, at this moment, Elphis had only one thought in his mind - he was going to be forced into the palace to be a eunuch.