Chapter 30: The Hunt

Rainer glanced at the man in front of him, Baron Lodran, with a slightly surprised look. Based on Kara’s words he expected a pigheaded fat noble but instead, such expectations were false.

[Human, Male, Knight lvl 3]

He was a thin youth that looked just slightly older than Rainer. He had long blond hair and brown eyes that didn’t give off a hint of arrogance. He was moderately good looking with a small nose and clean jawline.

“Are the accommodations to your liking Lord Magus?”

“They’ll do. When will we be meeting for the hunt?”

“I will send a messenger when my father is prepared. Please feel free to relax, would you like some servants from my household sent over?”

“No, leave,” Rainer responded frankly, and there was not even a twitch on the Baron’s face at such an answer.

“I beg your pardon Lord Magus, but the water pumps are quite far from here…”

Rainer whispered to Luna hiding in his coat.

“Luna cast a water spell over his head.”

Rainer just stared at him and waited. Baron Lodran was confused for a moment before he looked up just as the spell collapsed, leaving him completely soaked in the winter weather.

Once more he didn’t even budge, too perfect in his acting.

“To think I had underestimated your talents. I hope you would pardon me, Lord Magus,” He said amidst chattering teeth, “If you require no more than I shall take my leave. The money for the Yeti you hunted will be brought shortly along with a token of my noble house. It will grant you easy access to any finer establishments here and ability to enjoy them at my payment.”

Upon seeing no disagreement Baron Lodran, hurried away.

His deference meant Rainer might not have to trade anything for Kara’s bounty removal. A simple word of her being his guard and he believed no further conversation was necessary. He decided that was a subject best brought up in the presence of the former baron.

But now, having a good guess at the true character of the snake in front of him, all plans of working together with the nobles of this city vanished, regardless of what kind of man his father was. Not acting on your anger and being able to hide it so perfectly were two different matters entirely.

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His bad opinion of nobles, how he had bothered Kara, and seeing such a high ability to hide his emotions led him only to think Baron Lodran was completely rotten underneath. There was the chance he simply was talented at such a thing, but Rainer had no interest in taking an ally he could never even be partially sure of.

He would eventually need the support of nobility for his plan, but there was no need to force himself with such minor nobles, and in a country, he’ll likely not stay in.

Heading inside with Kara and Gunthar he immediately turned to Kara to make sure she was alright with him only removing the bounty, and that she hadn’t talked down how bad the situation was.

“No, this is more than enough. Had he truly done anything worthy of death I’d have given it to him myself. It was a thrown drink that escalated from the damage it did.” Kara spoke entirely at ease.

“Good. After we get your bounty removed we can go and enjoy the town between training.”

With his limited resources outside of [Sleep Learning], there wasn’t much to be done after he expended them. He doubted he could get anymore from Yalin's Journal until he leveled his [Faaran Runic Language].

--

When Rainer had been meeting with Guard Captain Mayer, a certain individual had been walking towards his location.

The former Baron, Charles Lodran, had been heading to the barracks when he felt two massive surges of Aura. He rushed over to the barracks only to find Guard Captain Mayer hurrying out of the building.

Hearing the story directly from Mayer, Charles personally took care of these accommodations and went to go to his son to tell him that if he treated the mage with even the slightest bit of disrespect that he would be disowned. Thanks for reading on ManaNovel!

Aura users were uncommon, powerful ones, if you discounted Demons, were as rare as mages.

For a mage to have not only one but two such individuals guarding him and for that same mage to be screwing around on a Yeti hunt; What kind of status would such an individual have? In these lands becoming a powerful mage without being attached to a guild simply wasn't possible in all, but the most unlikely cases.

The sons of some of the highest ranked mages within prominent guilds were equivalent to princes, and this one may be such a figure. Charles grew quite stressed at having to placate such a person. Even more so given the mage’s guards were now the two strongest people in the whole town.

Nobles, in general, wouldn’t necessarily be able to defend against high leveled people killing them, but with the authority of a Country and King, any such assailant would be viciously hunted down. But if the one who killed the noble were of higher status, a gift would be more than enough to stop any retaliation.

--

Entering the yard surrounding the guest house, that had two guards posted outside; Rainer was quite content with the accommodations. A spacious two story mansion made of wood and stone. The lawn was decently sized though like all the town was covered in snow. Upon entering, they found a well-decorated foyer and with Gunthar in the lead they began to check each room with their detection skills carefully.

Finding nothing of note they all returned to the Foyer before Rainer spoke out.

“I’ll head to bed early. It’ll be nice for the first time since I’ve come here to sleep as long as I like and not have something waiting to kill me in the morning.”

Kara and Rainer fed the egg as usual before he headed up the stairs and toward the master bedroom he had picked out earlier.

He truly desired just to sleep, without waking up only to be thrust into the next stage of a dungeon or beset upon by undead.

But, he had his 2nd class advancement coming up within the next few months. Not only that, but he wished to revisit the mine and see if he can go and collect those fire spells he left behind. So in the end, until he needed to mentally rest he’d stay aware in his [Sleep Learning].

Luna stayed downstairs with Gunthar and Kara who were about to train. Gunthar’s current goal was to teach Kara the blade skill he had developed.

“Gunthar,” Kara asked,”What do you think about Rainer taking the 2nd Class advancement so soon?”

“Are you concerned Little Wolf?”

“Are you not?” Kara responded a bit angry.

“No. Whether it is having Luna or his abilities beyond his class I have little concern. Do not forget that the Lady of the Fae’s healing ability likely surpasses all, but the strongest healing magic I have seen. And my people were quite talented at such a thing. More importantly, there is no cast time nor delay for her healing.”

“Luna will keep Rainer safe, why is the She-Wolf so silly,” Luna spoke as well in her usual proud form.

Gunthar looked at Kara and saw none of her worries dissuaded.

“Little Wolf, if you had a place where for 8 hours each day you had unlimited Aura. How strong could you become?”

Kara looked at him in shock. They knew Rainer could learn in his sleep, but as he hadn’t mentioned anything specific, that was all they knew. Gunthar, however, had made this assumption. If this was the case, then his training speed cannot be described in any words.

“Good, you understand. Now come and focus on your own training. You can clarify if that is truly the case with the Sorcerer in the morning, but I have little doubt it is not.”

--

Walking to the Baron’s mansion Rainer had noticed Kara visibly relaxed. Compared to before it was as if she was floating on air. He wrongly assumed it was due to the bounty about to be lifted and had no idea his causal answer about [Sleep Learning] and confirming it was unrelated to his class had caused her to almost have no worries about his 2nd Class advancement.

Rainer sat across from both Baron Lodran and his father, Charles Lodran, within the dining room of the Baron’s Mansion. Similar to his son Charles too had blond hair though it was cut short and while looking like a proper warrior Charles’s age showed, and he seemed to be at the very least 70 years of age. His nose was considerably long compared to his son who likely inherited his smaller one from his mother.

[Human, Male, Knight lvl 25]

“So it's quite simple,” Rainer started speaking having been the one to call this meeting before the Yeti Hunt, “My guard had informed me that she was wanted in this town due to defending untoward advances by your son.” He said as he took out a copy of the bounty poster. Leaf hadn’t seemed to reveal anything in this town as well given the poster only mentioned she was a Wolfkin.

Charles’ face went through a range of emotions before finally settling on a seething rage as he looked at his son. Especially given now that Charles couldn’t help but wonder when he was asked for help, in tracking down his son’s assailant that he was being sent to his death.

“What! She was the one who cut up my face. I spent a considerable amount of silver paying to get that healed! I only spoke to her it isn’t as…” In front of his father and such an accusation Carver Lodran’s facade was gone, but before he could finish to everyone’s surprise Charles had slammed his son’s head into the table.

“I am truly sorry for my son Lord Magus. Not only shall I have the bounty removed I will retake my position as Baron. I can only hope you grant mercy to my worthless son.” Charles said while bowing his head.

Rainer hadn’t expected such a severe reaction. Rather it seemed a welcome one at first, but now he might have to deal with the revenge from Carver losing his position of Baron. Rainer had a role to play and couldn’t suggest lightening the punishment.

“I will accept such an apology, Charles, but I should warn you if your son pursues such matters he will not be the only one to experience the consequences. I only wish for her to be able to walk freely in town with me, without common rabble thinking to collect some extra coin.”

“Thank you, Lord Magus, for your kindness. “

“Lock him in his room; I’ll deal with him after the hunt,” Charles yelled toward one of the guards by the door.

Carver too had been affected by the reveal especially since his men informed him that the Wolfkin had entered a dungeon. Apparently, she had succeeded beyond what anyone thought possible. More importantly to Carver the mage in this room had likely gone to the Dungeon as well based on the description he received. Such actions disagreed with this Lord Magus’s status. He reorganized himself and accepted his punishment as he was led away. In the end, Carver didn’t know his father was showing them such respect because of their power rather than just status.

“I honestly once more apologize for the distress my son has caused. Even if you do not join the hunt you may stay at the guest house as long as you desire,” Is what Charles said, but in reality with all the stronger hunters they called leaving to the Dungeon they had little chance of dealing with the problem without the Lord Magus in front of him. Charles was strong, but fighting multiple Yeti on his own wasn’t possible for him.

“No, it would be entertaining to deal with some Yeti.” Rainer also needed the money, but he very well couldn’t say so.

This was hardly the strangest form of entertainment someone of high rank had participated in. Charles saw nothing wrong and was instead only glad the Mage in front of him had such interests.

“We will leave for the hunt tomorrow at dawn, though if you wish, we could push back the time.”

“Dawn will do,” Rainer said while leaving the room.

Charles gave a small bow after standing up while looking at the rings on Rainer’s fingers.

So many...do they all truly work together? And that one is…

If Rainer’s guards were enough to make one fearful of his status, then this ring produced a far greater effect. Charles only stared in awe at the ring he had only seen once in his whole life, on the hand of his King. It gave the same feeling if not stronger; Charles thought as he recalled his entrancement with the King’s spatial ring.

He had never seen another, even amongst some of the high-ranked mages he met with. This was beyond his expectations and only caused his anger at his son to rise. He believed his son was ready to take over as Lord, but his ignorant actions had clearly shown such a thing was false.