Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix

Repairing everything would take more than a day, so Rain stopped when he got rid of most of the debris since Lorene and Julie finished talking with some guards of the city again. Around the same time, Orcis showed up.

"Are you all right? Are you truly all right?" Orcis asked when he grabbed Lorene by the shoulders.

"Yes, I am. Still, we didn\'t have time to find the culprit," Lorene replied.

"Why not?" Orcis asked while glaring at Rain.

"We were busy trying not to be buried alive," Rain replied. "The explosion also sent the guards flying away. It gave more than enough time for the enemy to escape. They are good at that since they have been living in your city for a while, after all."

Orcis didn\'t take those words well; he clenched his teeth and fists and had a hard time containing his anger. Still, he pulled that off since, once again, no casualties happened, thanks to Rain.

"... I wanted to avoid power struggles since I am concerned for my people\'s safety… however, I can\'t tolerate this any longer," Orcis said. "I will offer my total support to the Corsalis family from now on. We aren\'t only waging war against the magic people; we are waging war against the scum of our country as well."

Rain wondered if he could get a bonus for making Branden gain a new ally like that… maybe he shouldn\'t ask for it since everything he did was within the requirements of the job.

In any case, Lorene returned to the shop every day until the day of their departure. She also asked Rain to fix the atelier of the dressmaker since there was no better Earth mage user. While Rain didn\'t want to show more of his skills, Lorene promised him to pay more for the mission, so he didn\'t have that many reasons to refuse.

"I guess I am too much into making money," Rain thought.

Rain recently thought of buying a house, so perhaps that was the reason. Perhaps he should use the extra coins to buy better gear as well, even though he didn\'t need to until now.

In any case, on the day of the departure, Orcis decided to follow them until the gate of his mansion. He was a bit surprised when he heard that Lorene didn\'t want to travel incognito anymore… She had total trust in Rain\'s skills now. While that was fine, he wished that such respect made her more mindful to help him work less instead of more.

"I will visit the capital in the next few weeks, and then we will finish the final details," Orcis said. "Until then, my beloved."

"Not even bears like this much sweetness," Rain thought. "I guess women in this world are into that kind of thing."

"I will trust her safety to you, Rain," Orcis said. "Once again, I am thankful for your work, and I hope that someday I can repay the favor."

"You can repay with some gold coins," Rain thought and then just nodded.

The guards saluted Rain as well. While they didn\'t like him at first, they recognized his skills eventually and confirmed that he wasn\'t an ordinary kid. They also knew that there was no point in feeling jealous of someone else\'s talent and power. The best option was just to show some respect.

In any case, Rain didn\'t feel much toward it… having the respect of others was fine and all, but he wasn\'t planning to use it in any shape or form. Maybe that will open some doors for him in the future, but he decided not to pay any mind to it.

Before long, both of them left the port city in broad daylight. While it was risky, Lorene decided that it would be a better idea to let the enemies know that she only had a single guard and it was their golden chance to attack her… naturally, she couldn\'t see any other result aside from their deaths.

"My apologies for making you deal with this," Lorene said. "But since you feel confident and you aren\'t against the idea, I thought that it would be fine."

"Just doing my job of following orders. As long as I am being paid, it is fine," Rain shrugged.

While it was a bit troublesome, Rain was fine with luring the enemies like that. It was a lot more troublesome to stay hidden, after all. Besides, Rain wanted more battle experience, and he also wanted to make the enemies show all of their cards against him; that way, they could only surprise him for so long.

Still, something troublesome happened along the way… nothing happened. The trip back to the capital had been as calm as it could be… to the point that it felt boring.

"I guess you scared the enemies for good," Lorene said. "Trying a third time would be hard for them to pull as well… they wouldn\'t be able to hide in the open."

"I suppose so," Rain said.

"At first, I thought that this trip would be pretty bothersome since I was being escorted by a kid, then I regretted a little when we were attacked for the first time, but I am grateful for it now," Lorene suddenly said.

"It opened my eyes and made me realize that the kingdom is in a much worse shape than I had imagined… It also made me realize that people like you can also appear, even though you aren\'t one hundred percent highborn. You are invited to my wedding, and I will introduce you to some nice girls."