A month has passed since I became Ria’s private tutor. Today was supposed to be the day for me to decide whether to continue or not, but Ria’s grades have clearly improved over the last month. I guess it’ll be okay to continue tutoring her. I am currently in Ars’ office, to show him the results of Ria’s one-month review test that I assigned her.

Ars looked serious as he read through the answer sheet, but eventually lifted his head slowly and smiled.

“Well, her score has definitely improved. I want you to continue as her tutor, what do you think?”

“Of course, I’d like to continue too.”

“Good. This way, Ria won’t be sad,” Ars breathed a sigh of relief.

Next, he handed me a leather bag with one month’s salary. As I checked inside, I couldn’t help but shout out loud, “Five gold coins!? Can I really accept this much!?”

‘In this world, gold coins hold the highest value among the circulating currencies. In silver coins, it is worth about a hundred pieces. Considering that one silver coin can pay for a reasonable inn, you can understand how enormous even one gold coin is. But this time, I received five coins. If I use it for lodging, I can stay for five hundred nights.’

Ars nodded as if it were natural in response to my surprise. “Well, I’ve talked with the ministers, so it’s a fair compensation. Some suggested it should be ten coins, but this time it’s just a trial.” He then added, “And Lark, you might not realize it, but you are the 1st princess’ private tutor and a valuable friend of the 2nd prince. You deserve some credit.”

“I understand. Thank you very much.” I gratefully accepted the bag of gold coins and put it away.

As I bowed my head and was about to leave the room, Ars remembered something and raised his voice, “Oh, by the way, there seems to be someone around Lark who has been thinking of doing something bad recently.”

“Really? That sounds scary.”

“Well, don’t worry. I’ll take care of it. Besides, I have assigned some of my spies to protect you just in case, so you’ll be fine if anything goes wrong.”

“Ah. So those people are Ars-san’s subordinates after all.”

“What? Lark-kun, you knew?” Ars’s eyes widened in surprise.

I then explained, “Well, you know how one of your subordinates left a letter in my room before, right? I recently sensed a faint magical power left in that letter. So, by being conscious of it, I noticed there were a few others in the vicinity as well.”

“…Lark-kun, are you perhaps receiving training in detecting presence from Guldo?”

“I did it just once. Ah, at that time, Guldo-san surprisingly praised me.”

‘That’s right’, actually the other day I had a training where I was blindfolded and had to guess Guldo’s location. At first, I tried to judge the location from the sound of his footsteps, but Guldo could walk in silence, so it was useless. So, I tried to sense Guldo’s presence and I immediately knew where he was. After that, when I kept succeeding in the training, Guldo told me, “Lark, you don’t need this training,” and I haven’t done it since. I didn’t have this ability in my past life, so I think it’s a talent that sprouted in this world.

“Well, if that’s the case, Lark-kun, please don’t let your guard down… Oh, could you give this letter to that spy for me?”

“Yes, of course.” I received the letter from Ars, who gave me a wry smile and left the office.

Returning to the inn, I searched for a presence. The spy was on the roof of another building visible from the inn’s window. I opened the window and waved my hand toward the spy. After about ten seconds of waving, the spy quickly approached me and entered the room through the window. I handed the letter that Ars had entrusted to me to the black-clad spy.

“Thank you for always keeping an eye on me. Erm, this comes from Ars-san.”

“…,” the spy received the letter in silence and started reading it. “… Keep up the good work. He could have said it directly to me… But, in any case, when did you notice?” Surprisingly, the voice belonged to a woman.

I was surprised, but I responded to the question, “I believe it was about a week ago. The letter seemed to have a faint magical power attached to it.”

“This isn’t the first time I’ve been guarding… I wiped off any magical power attached to the letter though…”

“Even so, it was only a little. Probably not something anyone would notice.”

“But, you noticed it, didn’t you? I’ve been working quite hard on this job, though…”

The woman seemed clearly dejected, so I hurriedly tried to follow up, feeling somewhat sorry for her, “Um, not just you, I also noticed the others’ hard work as well, so it’s okay.”

“Well, even so, the other kids will be sad…”

“T-That’s true…” As soon as these words came out of my mouth, it dawned on me that my tongue had slipped.

Several people dressed in black suits entered the room through the window at that moment, as if they had been listening to us. They all appeared to be feeling down, just like the woman who had arrived first.

Eventually, the woman lifted her head. “There’s no point in being disappointed, let’s get back to work… Thanks for the letter…” People in black suits exited through the window one by one as she spoke those words.

The atmosphere didn’t lend itself for someone to make a sarcastic remark like, “Can’t you leave through the door?”

◈◈◈

The next morning, while lying in the bed of the inn, I suddenly had an idea. “Come to think of it, I haven’t checked my status lately. Let’s take a look.” I applied the appraisal skill to myself.

[Name] Lark

[Age] 10

[Race] Human

[Gender] Male

[Status] Healthy

[Level] 1

[SP] 0

[Strength] 298 (+156)

[Mana] 293 (+184)

[Agility] 218 (+94)

[Dexterity] 124 (+24)

[Luck] 51

[Skills] Cooking: 3, Useful Box: 1, Daily Life Magic: 1, Appraising Eye: 1, Short Sword Technique: 2, Mana Control: 1, Sewing: 1 (NEW), Concentration: 3 (NEW), Wordless Incantation: 2 (NEW), Synthesis Magic: 2 (NEW), Presence Detection: 3 (NEW), Martial Arts: 2 (NEW), Poison Resistance: 1, Mental Resistance: 3, Hunger Resistance: 1, Fire Magic: 2, Wind Magic: 1, Water Magic: 1, Earth Magic: 1, Light Magic: 1, Dark Magic: 1, Thunder Magic: 1, Ice Magic: 1, Holy Magic: 1, Null Magic: 1

[Special Abilities] Enhanced Memory Capacity, World Language, EXP Amplification: 10x, God’s Veil

[Blessings] Samadyla’s Protection, Magilt’s Protection

[Title] The Reincarnated, The God’s Host, The Blessed, The Abandoned Child

“Oh, I did remember learning Presence Detection skill… the level is quite high too.”

‘Did it appear on my status because I understood it? My magic-related skill levels are also rising as planned. Currently, I am training with Ars to master the most basic fire, water, and wind attribute magic. Ars has also been teaching me skills that are used by magicians.

Among them, the skill “Wordless Incantation,” which I was taught first, has been proven to be quite useful. Until now, I had been using magic based on a vague image, but after acquiring this skill, I can amplify the effects and firepower of magic just by imagining the incantations in my head. In addition, I’ve gained enough confidence from learning various skills, and want to try fighting monsters in actual combat, not just through simulated battles and training.

“…But even if I tell Guldo, he won’t let me go outside. That’s why my level is still 1.”

‘Even if daily training can raise my status, it is possible to improve your stats, but defeating monsters and leveling up will cause your ability values to skyrocket. So I’ve been asking Guldo-san many times to let me go outside the capital, but I’ve been turned down every time. Well, I don’t intend to go against Guldo-san, but I feel like he’s worrying too much. Oh well. Let’s take a bath in the backyard and clear our heads.’

While washing myself, Datz also came, and we took a hot water bath together. As we moved to the dining hall and had breakfast, a sturdy middle-aged man approached us. He was Doldos, the leader of the adventurers who had recently become friendly with me.

“By the way, lately, many adventurers from outside the capital are staying at the guild, so be careful. The adventurers from the capital mostly know about Lark, so they won’t bother us, but you never know what those outsiders will do.”

“I understand. But there are many other adventurers in the guild, so I don’t think we need to worry too much, do we?”

“If they’re somewhat reasonable people, then it should be okay. But there are some really stupid ones among them, so it’s better to be safe than sorry,” Doldos paused for a moment and drank his water in one gulp. Then he put his hand on my head and continued speaking, “Well, no matter what happens, we’re on Lark’s side. You can always count on us.”

“Yes, thank you very much.”

After that, I went to the guild with Doldos and the other adventurers.