When we finally arrived back at the village we were met with happiness. All of the villagers were visibly joyful. They were happy to see me for obvious reasons and were happy to see James because he would always help everyone, whenever possible.

So we began walking around the village looking for Rose. While we were looking we were given respectful nods and admiring stares, from adults and children alike, it was great.

Eventually, we spotted Rose and began making our way over to her. However before we got over to her she saw us and her face immediately lit up. She, then began running towards us with her arms stretched out as far as possible.

When we were within her reach, she grabbed us and embraced us in a huge hug while smiling. While James was slightly embarrassed and scratching the back of his head, I happily welcomed the hug and hugged her back.

After about a minute Rose finally spoke up.

“So how did training go?” Rose asked inquisitively. I was about to answer her, but before a sound could even come out of my mouth James very ecstatically, and excited yelled

“It went great, I’m a lot stronger than I was before and I can expertly dispose of goblins now!” He was puffing out his chest while showing off his new abilities to his elder sister.

“Wow! How did you manage to train him so well Xen?” Rose asked, interested in how I made his brother so much stronger in a short amount of time.

Yet again, just as I was going to say something James spoke first “It’s simple he left me in the forest with an axe to fend for myself.” As soon as James said this both me and Rose went wide-eyed.

While I was going wide-eyed out surprise for James’ stupidity Rose’s was from anger and a lot of it. Rose’s hands immediately balled up into fists and if I didn’t know any better I would’ve thought that smoke was coming out of her ears.

“WHAAAATTT!” Rose yelled

She was extremely angry, and getting angrier by the second, so much so that I thought she was going to overflow with rage.

Rose immediately went to hit me but everytime she did I dodged and she was so frustrated and wanted to hit me so hard that I couldn’t get back up again.

Nevertheless, I kept dodging and tried to reason with her

“Rose, listen to me, it was the most effective method of training a-”

Before I could finish Rose yelled at me

“Most effective method! He could have died.”

“No he couldn’t have. I was watching him the whole time and if his life was in danger I would’ve helped him.”

“All the time really?” Rose asked while wondering if I was sincere and finally stopped trying to hit me.

“Yes, I never let out of my sight.”

“Ok that’s a bit better. It was still an extreme method though!”

“Ok, ok, it was extreme but it was the best way to get results. He’s almost three times as strong as he was before.” I said in my defense

“Three times!? Well that is impressive, but I still think it wasn’t worth going to that length.” Rose said not budging from her previous stance.

“Fine, whatever.” I said defeatedly

“Ok let’s go home.” She said, still a bit angry, while turning her back to us and walking in the direction of her and James’ house.

“Ok, coming.” I said walking behind Rose.

Then I noticed James staring at me with his eyes twinkling.

“What?” I grunted angrily

“Wow master, I knew you were great but you even managed to calm big sis down. Master you must be a god.”

“I’m not too far off.” I said while puffing my chest out and bragging.

“Woooowwwwww.” The boy said while his eyes twinkled even more.

I just chuckled to myself and carried on following after Rose. While James followed after me, full of admiration.

When we got Rose’s house we were able to relax for a little while (a couple of hours or so). However our relaxation was interrupted when a villager came to the house, opened the door and said

“Rose, the merchant’s here and he wants to meet Xen”

“Oh really? Let’s go then, come on Xen”

All I could think was ‘rude he just opened the door without even knocking’.

“Ok I’m coming.” I said while getting up but I was uninterested.

So me and Rose got up and began walking to the entrance of the village together and I had my hands behind my head not trying to hide my un-interestedness at all. James stayed behind because he was still tired and didn’t care about the merchant.

When we got to the entrance of the village I saw a tall skinny man with robes on and a fancy carriage behind him. This showed that he was rich but not royalty-level.

I was still just stood there unimpressed by all this.

“Your Xen, the one they call the wandering martial artist I presume.”

“Your presumption is correct, so what do you want.” I said while intensely staring him down

“Xen don’t be so rude.”

“Why?”I asked while genuinely wondering why I should watch my manners in front of this posh twat in front of me,who was acting like he owned the place.

“This is the merchant that sold our village furniture and blankets for a very cheap price so that we could start our village he basically helped build the place.” Rose said, explaining the merchant’s cocky air.

“So? Why should I care, I’m not a villager and I don’t owe him anything.”

“I guess.” Rose said, putting her head down defeatedly.

Seeing this I patted her head and then turned to look at the merchant expectantly, waiting for him to answer my previous question.

“Well I was hoping for you to accompany on my journey to E-rantel and provide me and my carriage protection on our journey.”

“How much?”

“Wow! I’m impressed not only strong but business savvy also eh? You have a bright future ahead of you young man.”

In reaction to this, I just rolled my eyes and said “Answer my question old man.”

“Haha. Since the journey isn’t extremely dangerous but it is dangerous enough for me to require protection so 30 silvers.”

When he said this Rose’s eyes went wide. I already knew about this world’s currency and wasn’t surprised when Rose’s eyes went wide since it would be quite a bit of money to her.

“Ok. But I want something more.”

“Oh?” The merchant replied inquisitively

“How are your connections with the adventurer’s guild?”

Instead of responding to me the merchant looked at me blankly and confused for a few minutes before responding to me.

At this moment all the villagers were dumbfounded since the man that they had idolized for years was surprised, even though this man was supposed to be extremely proper, smart and unable to be shown up.

However he eventually regained his composure, put on a sly smile and said

“Quite good and now that I realise you are not just business savvy but genuinely smart I apologise for my previous behaviour and I will do all that is in my power to help you in the guild if you can help me.”

“Yeah that’s fine.Hey you.” I said while turning my head and pointing at the villager that came to get me and Rose.

I know I was kind of rude to the villager but it was what he deserved for just walking into my future-wife’s home unannounced and without knocking.

“Go tell James we’re leaving and he needs to protect the village in my absence he got a lot stronger during training so you’ll all be fine. Also take this it is really strong.” The villager nodded and went to inform James of our departion.

“I guess this is it then.” Rose said to me with sad eyes while looking at the ground

“What? No. Get in already silly wife.” I said nonchalantly while already sitting in the taxi relaxedly.

Hearing this Rose’s face lit up as she ran to the carriage while holding her dress as to not stand and/or trip on it.

While on the way to the capital all that really happened was me and the merchant talking about what he could do for me in the adventurer's guild and he told me that the best he could manage was iron rank with a recommendation letter. Which I was fine with.

The only other notable thing that happened was that a goblin got in the way, scared the driver and tried to get in the carriage but I was already prepared and blew it’s head off with a single Ki blast and told the driver to carry on before closing the door.

Then, finally we reached the place where the legendary Mommon started his adventure and where I will start mine.

E-Rantel.