“Number 25 Wins!”

“Father, who is number 25? He won, so he will be my bodyguard, right? He is my birthday gift? How old is he? Why did you have interest in him from before? What is his name? Is he a good person? Will you be training him into a knight?”

Zoey bombarded her father with a thousand questions at one excitedly as they were leaving their seats. Zack just shook his head before patiently answering everything one by one.

“He is a kid named Daron. He is an orphan living in the church currently. And no, he will not be your bodyguard.”

“Why not? He beat everyone?”

“Can he beat me? No right? Then no, he cannot be your bodyguard.”

“Hmph. Then why do this whole thing anyway?”

“Anyway. He is 6 years old, apparently born around the same week as you. Also, he is the one who came up with all the delicious food you have been eating up util now. His name is Daron, and I suppose he is a good person. Someone I trust with my life told me he is. And lastly, I might, or might not train him. That depends completely on him.”

“I’ll be letting him return home for the day, and will call him over tomorrow.”

On the other hand, Daron was already walking out of the castle gate, hiding within the crowd, swiftly moving in the direction of the church.

His mood had gotten a lot better after he removed most of his frustration on that poor Luke fellow. He had already come to terms with Anna’ passing. Or so he thought until he read his room in the church.

After telling everyone that he won, he went to his room to get changed for dinner.

However, his body collapsed onto the bed, and without eating anything, tears began rolling from his eyes uncontrollably. Maybe someone had told others not to come to his room, and so the hours rolled by as his tears began to dry up.

A resolution came into Daron’s heart slowly. He needed to find the reason why Anna would leave the city, why she would hide her name, why no one except him and Joanne remembered her very existence, why should would die a few years after leaving the city, what exactly happened to her.

He needed to figure all of these things out, however, most of the answers lay in the outside world. For that, he needed to get stronger. And he had only one way to do so.

‘I need to become a knight a soon as possible’

With that thought in mind, Daron’s mood took a turn for the better and his body calmed down enough for him to instantly doze off.

The next morning, he got up and had breakfast. However, everyone present had an odd expression on their face.

“What happened?”

“Nothing” Joanne was quick to respond, and Daron understood it was because of his actions the previous night.

“Alight. I think I am supposed to go to the castle by 11:00.”

“Hey, come up with something for us to do as well.” Lily spoke up before Daron could continue.

“Why don’t you all just go and chill in the restaurant? You can work there for some time and earn lots of money.”

“We already do that every day.”

“Hmm. Now that I think about it, what do all of you intend to do when you grow up?” Joanne intervened

“Is there something known as magic or mana?” Daron finally picked up the courage stuffed deep within his heart to say this after so many years. He had seen signs of unusual energy in this world since the day he came here, but no sign of actual magic. Some of it was divine energy while some was some bloodline related energy. He just wanted to know. Even if it didn’t exist, he would not despair over it. There were plenty of different forms of energy present in this world for him to play with.

Joanne hesitated for a while before finally sighing at the question and speaking softly, so that only the kids could hear.

“Yes. But before I tell you about that, you all should know about the world outside this isolated city.”

“The church has a long history recorded within, spanning hundreds of years. However, most of that is false information procured for the greed of certain individuals.”

“The true history of the world is unknown. What we do know is that this is not the only world that exists.”

“How do we know this? Simple. It is because of the ‘mages’. Not many people know of their existence since they live lives which are secluded from the rest of the world in completely isolated places. However, what we do know is that Mages are the strongest type of humans in existence. It is the only type of power that can suppress the other races.”

“However, to become a mage, you need to have a certain ‘talent’. I’m not sure what this ‘talent’ is, but only a bare handful of people from the entire human race possess this talent. And so, most people opt for some of the other professions. Other than mages on whom I do not have much information, there are knights; who consist of swordsman, spearmen, and archer knights, segregated into knights in training/a.k.a. Novice Knights, Beginner Knights/ a.k.a. Official Knights, Intermediate knights, Advanced Knights, Master Knights, as Saint Knights.”

“There are also blacksmiths, who are divided into Regular blacksmith and enchanters. However, no one other than those who possess the same talent that mages possess can become enchanters. This has caused all such blacksmiths to become mages, resulting in the entire human race having a grand total of 0 enchanters. Blacksmith are also divided into ranks; Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, Master, and Grandmaster Blacksmiths or enchanters.”

“There are also alchemists, who are basically in charge of producing most consumables. They also have ranks, but they are too varied and complicated for me to describe in one go.”

“Other than these, there are other professions, but none of them require official training like these ones do. For example, being a merchant only requires you to have some starting money, and some basic knowledge, and off you go. What is most important in these professions is experience.”

“Now, tell me what you all will become.”

Lily spoke up first, “Alchemist”

Hans and Greta thought for some time before saying. “Mercenary!”

They did not want to go through the training of a knight, and simply wanted to enjoy the life of a mercenary as they had seen at the bars whenever someone came in from the outside.

Make hesitated for a moment, but then remembered Daron’s words the day before, and said, “Merchant!” in a soft voice.

“Mage” Daron said blankly while staring into Joanne’s eyes. “However, I will need to become a knight in order to be able to even think about becoming a mage.”

Hearing the rest of Daron’s answer, Joanne nodded slightly. She understood that Daron had understood the importance of power.

“Alright then. Everything is decided. Everyone need to begin learning what they will be doing in the future. Lily, I will take you to the Alchemy Union later. Ans and Greta, I will take you to the Mercenary Guild later on. You should talk with the people inside before deciding. Mako, I can see that you have made your decision for a long time, so I will not try to persuade you. Once I settle everyone else’s things, you and I will leave the city for the Merchants Association in the outside world.”

At this moment, someone began knocking on the door.

Daron opened it and was shocked to see a knight. It was really easy to distinguish between a normal soldier, and knight in training, and a knight. A soldier would have only leather armour, with some cheap metal plates on them in certain areas. A knight in training would wear a full body metal armour, but it’s weight would be very light, and there would be no inscription on their chests. A true official knight, like the one standing in front of Daron would wear an extremely heavy armour and would have a star on their chest signifying a beginner knight.

An intermediate knight would have two stars and so on.

This was basic knowledge that everyone needed to know to prevent them from insulting the wrong person.

“Sir Knight!” Daron gave a sloppy salute which he had learnt from observing others saluting knights.