In the peaceful village of Kadatsu, there lives a 15-year-old boy named Zeoris.

He is lounging in the
grass and basking in the beauty of nature, as if the world revolves around the serene landscape.
Zeoris yearns for a life of perpetual relaxation, but fate has other plans in store for him. Out of
nowhere, a fireball hurtles toward him, forcing Zeoris into action. He skillfully dodges the fireball,
only to discover that the culprit is none other than his childhood friend, Rise, who wants him to stop
lazing around all the time. Zeoris admonishes Rise, cautioning her against flinging spells recklessly, as
someone could get seriously hurt or even die. But before he can catch his breath, another childhood
friend mentions Zeoris won't die from such things, as she took herself a try throwing a knife at him.
He barely dodged it, and the person responsible was Fam. She threw the knife because she wanted
his laziness to go away. That was a really close one for him, so he was surely awake now after that
much. He asks the girls what they are doing here, but they ask him instead what he is doing sleeping
around when he promised them to give them magic and sword training today. He thinks he could
sleep, guessing that the girls might have forgotten about the training. Then Fam threatens him with
another knife, and so he agrees to train them right away. After that, they train for a while and Fam
ends up sweating all over, tired, and having it hard to breathe. She has a big melon, and Zeoris can't
help but notice, thinking how unfair it is for a 13-year-old girl to have a huge chest like that. He thinks
that after some years, just her melons would be enough to drive enemies insane and make them
surrender even before fighting her. He calls Fam smart for having a huge advantage like that.
Meanwhile, Rise is also extremely tired from the training as she complains that his training is really
hard for them. They call him weird to think this training is not hard and claim their bodies might
break at this rate if he goes any harder. He is doing so to make these girls stop asking for training so
that he can just sleep more freely. Fam tells him he is out of thoughts again and he has no idea what
she is talking about. Fam gets mad at him for not listening to her at all, and then he says they should
take a break for now. After that, Rise asks if he will go to the vocational school in Velciel, to which he
answers that he is going there in around 10 days. The vocational school is a school that only accepts
people between 15 to 25 years old, and students graduate from there in 6 months to 1 year. She says
there is also a rule in the village to send everyone to that school once they turn 15. Rise is worried to
hear they have only 10 more days with him, and he adds that he will be able to come home
sometime. Fam states that by the time he graduates, her age of enrolling there will come. She is
curious about what title he will get, and all they can guess now is things related to his skills of being
good with a sword and magic, which are extremely rare to have both in one person. Or he might just
end up making a new job of his own. He makes it clear to them that he doesn't want any job where
he will need to work much. He wants a job in which he can chill and laze around all day. He reasons it
would be okay since there is no law saying one can't take a job outside his title, and mentions there
are also some cases where these people take jobs outside their title although not being that skilled in
them. The girls consider him a genius for being able to use magic and a sword without ever having
taken a lesson from anyone. He replies that it is not that much of a big deal, since his goal in life is to
live a lazy life without getting any talent and getting involved with anyone else. He claims that one
just needs to move their swords following their reflexes, while to get magic they just need to use
their imagination for chanting spells. Rise shouts at him to make him understand that these things
are not normal at all, but he has been able to use magic since he was little, just by reading an
introductory book. He doesn't feel the need to even chant the words, so he never actually
remembers them either. And when he realized there were only a few who could use magic, he kept it
as a secret so that he wouldn't become an object of people's envy and jealousy. He is thankful to
them for the same reason to keep his ability to use magic a secret, because of which he could live
peacefully. Rise says they know he wouldn't like attention as a lazy person. He tells her that today's
training will be their last since he has to do preparations for the school, by sleeping, of course. But
even when he is gone, he suggests Fam and Rise keep training until the day of their school.
Rise is annoyed to see that he is just pulling cheap tricks on them to avoid training and sleep in the
name of preparation. Then Fam thinks of something and whispers it in Rise's ear. Rise gets nervous in
front of him to say what Fam just asked her to, and after collecting some courage, she winks and asks
Zeoris to send some letters once he gets settled in his new school, and they will celebrate that for
him. Zeoris just keeps looking normally at her while she puts a lot of effort into giving her cheerful
expression for him. So she gets mad and exclaims at him to at least say something. With this, their
farewell ends. 10 days later, he goes on a journey to Jilis and arrives there 20 days after that. He is
amazed to see many people around there, and seeing how filled the capital is, he feels a little
unsettled as he comes from a place with mountains. Then he notices some people being ordered
around to work faster, and they have a slave mark on them. He realizes there are many slaves around
this area, and for sure, this capital is completely different compared to his Kadatsu village. He feels
bad for those slaves, but knowing he isn't in a place to do anything for them, Zeoris keeps hold of
himself and looks like a person who is here looking for an inn to stay. After that, the innkeeper at the
inn where he goes, guesses Zeoris could be a slave merchant if he is going to study in Velciel. He isn't
aware of the common things around here, and the innkeeper laughs it off that he isn't aware of
merchant courses. Zeoris thinks the innkeeper is just joking, and the guy confirms that he is indeed
serious about what he just said. He explains that even slave merchants have a job here that tricks
and plunges people into slavery in exchange for money. Zeoris used to believe it was a job for scums,
as he walks to his room seeing some slaves with hopelessness in their eyes. He hardly ignores them
and manages to reach his room to just sleep for today. And the next day, people are gathered at a
place, and there are some other races among them as well. Zeoris thinks that he is the only one
normal here and others are just demi-humans. Then he hears a human laugh coming from two boys
talking about what they could potentially get. They joke about how bad it would be to get the slave
merchant, and one of them claims they would rather die than get a slave merchant for themselves.
He learns that everyone here actually hates slave merchants which was expected given their deeds.
After that, a stunning teacher comes to announce herself as Nereus, and she would be the exam
officer for their today's enrollment exam. She claims it is nice to meet everyone and tells them one
thing very clearly, that all the students here are equal despite their social standing. Not only that, but
even if they get titles like nobles or kings on their identity cards, they still won't receive any special
treatment from the teachers. So with this piece of information, she commences the exam. Nereus
asks them to get in line first before she explains that they will need to line up in front of the divine
crystals first. The process will start when the identity cards are distributed to everyone, and if they
hold their card in front of their chest with both hands, and wait for a few seconds then the card will
become hot and turn from black to white. From then, this card will become their personal identity
card. After which, they need to put this card into the divine crystal and touch it with their hand. And
once the process is finished, the crystal will turn bright, and that will be the time when students will
learn about the titles they have. She informs them there will be multiple titles for each student,
among which they are required to pick only one of them as their main title to report it to her. She
tells them that they can hide their titles except the main one or just show all of them. It is their
choice. Now that the explanations are done, the student's exam is started, and those who do their
turns receive titles like knight and other casual ones. Zeoris is listening in on them being envious of
each other just for titles. He thinks that knight must be a lucky title which makes them happy, so he
wishes he wouldn't get a title like that in any way. His turn is about to come and he notices the boy in
front of him keenly. He is thinking of many things, including the fact that they have many kinds of
species gathered here, and this is the moment his eyes fall upon a gorgeous elf. Soon his turn comes,
and the teacher asks him for his name, age, and where he comes from. He answers all of them, and
then he is asked to insert his card and put his hand on the divine crystal.
He is nervous about what titles he will have, and he puts the card as he is asked to, followed by
putting his hand on the crystal while closing his eyes. His titles start appearing in his imagination,
among which the first one is the hero title, which is believed to be the highest title in mankind. It has
been 400 years since this title has come up since the great battle between humans and demons. He
is shocked to receive a title like this, and it is instantly a big no for him. He knows this will prove to be
dangerous for his purpose of living a normal and lazy life, whereas this title claims to have appeared
after 400 years since the last one, which if leaked will become not just school but the talk of the
whole nation. It could lead to him not having any freedom. So, he moves on to see his next title
which turns out to be the demon emperor. It is believed to be the strongest title amongst demons
and it also appeared last time 400 years ago on the demon king. He is damned after watching this
one since this is not any better than the hero according to his needs. Also, this title is supposed to be
for demons only, and him receiving it is something that shouldn't even happen, so not having given
up on his humanity. He moves on to the next title which obviously has to be another unique title, the
great sage, which is made for elves and coincidentally, also appeared 400 years ago last time. He
doesn't want to accept this title either, but now that he has it, he can only hope for the next title to
be something normal. But to his surprise, the next title also has to be a troublemaker for him. The
title of slave merchant, which is obviously, as the name suggests, used to make people into slaves. He
knows even if this one is not great like the others, he still can't accept this as his main title since this
title is extremely hated by others. He doesn't want to choose this title for the sake of his pride, and
even if this is a rare job, he doesn't want it at any cost. So he moves on to the next title only to find
out there are no more titles. He is left to choose among these titles of the hero, demon emperor,
greatest mage, and slave merchant. Then the examiner calls out to him and asks if he isn't done yet
since others are waiting behind him. He wishes there could have just one more title which would be
really an ordinary one. She says he could pick plebeian even if he has titles he isn't proud of, and
there is nothing to be embarrassed about. But the main point of concern for him here is exactly that
he doesn't even have plebeian to pick. He starts sweating, feeling the pressure to choose one since
no matter which one he picks, he is sure to have a messed up life ahead. He is confused about what
to do now. Then the elf girl from before proudly claims to take the title of slave merchant for her
main title. He sees her taking pride in being a slave merchant, and the next thing he thinks is that he
will get to spend time with her if he also picks a slave merchant. But it is still a tough choice to make
as he can't just make the decision on a whim. He doesn't want to take the other titles no matter
what, and after thinking hard about it, he finally ends up choosing the title of slave merchant as his
main title. Later, he goes to his classroom, the Velciel Golden class, which is meant for students with
rare titles. So naturally, most of the students here are high social classes while our protagonist Zeoris
is just a commoner with some legendary titles sitting among them. But others only know the
commoner part of him, so they start criticizing him by saying he is in the wrong classroom right now
since this class is meant for only chosen people. He has been used to being bullied like this and
eventually being made fun of for his clothes. The girl student asks him if he is also one of those vile
slave merchants who picked this title just to be treated in a rare class. But either way, she calls it
fitting for a commoner like him. He knows he hadn't chosen slave merchant because he wanted to in
the first place, and then the student sitting on the right seat of Zeoris, the elf Patty, makes a sound of
pressing her hands on the bench. She tells those bullies to stop saying mean things to him even if
everyone is supposed to be equal here. She stands tall with her claim. Then the bullies ask what is
wrong with her to stand up against them like that. They try to tell Patty that Zeoris deserves to be
treated like this since he is just a lowly commoner who doesn't belong to the same place as them.
Patty doesn't like them considering slave merchant is a lowly title and everything else is above it
according to them. The girl asks if Patty has a problem with that, and so Patty takes out her own card.
She makes sure to tell her that they are both among high class. They look at it for a while and the
other titles Patty has surprised her with. He wonders what happened. And then the girl asks Patty
just why she chose slave merchant as her main title despite having other rare titles like noble, knight,
and mage, which is very impressive for any one person to have. Then the teacher arrives and tells
everyone to get back to their seats. Marius informs everyone that she will be their homeroom
teacher and she is responsible for teaching the slave merchant class. She starts distributing the
timetables and other brochures to the students. Zeoris sees that he will only attend classes in the
morning. Afternoons will be free, and there will be a holiday every five days. He will also get a
dormitory to live in. He is glad to have a dormitory, but the problem of having to acquire his own
food is there, for which he needs to earn money. Marius also adds that their gathering will be the
next day, and the dormitory is the white building that they can see from their class windows.
Whoever wants to live in it needs to fill out an application. Zeoris thinks that the dormitory is way
too big. Once the explanations are done, Marius dismisses the class. Zeoris is tired after so many
things that day, and he is just glad to have titles and a place to stay for now. But he remembers one
thing of concern that he should write in a letter to Rise and Fam since they will surely not like him
getting the title of slave merchant. Now after that, he goes to the dormitory, and just like before, his
reaction is surprising for its size. He notices that the elf girl Patty is standing at the gates of the dorm,
which means she will be going to stay in the same dorm. He goes ahead and thanks her for the help
back in class, then introduces himself to her. She recognizes him and introduces herself back to him
as Palastis Murti, which he can't pronounce properly. So, she just asks him to call her Patty for ease.
He asks her if she will be living in the dorm, to which she agrees, and he understands that they will
be living in the same dorm. They enter together and get greeted by the dorm manager. She has
heard their names from Nereus and decides on which rooms to give them. She gives Zeoris the room
keys for 703 and Patty gets room keys for 704. Zeoris is shocked to know that he and Patty won't only
be sharing the same dorm but neighbor rooms as well. He thinks that the school would at least
separate the girls' and boys' dorms, but that isn't the case here, which could prove to be dangerous
since a boy and a girl are living so close. The dorm manager asks why he doesn't seem happy about
it, to which he says it's nothing. Then the dorm manager tells him that since Patty is a girl, he should
help her if anything happens. She feels shy hearing that, and as for him, he is concerned inside that
he might be the most likely one to do something to her. Patty is lost in thoughts after being made
aware she is a girl and he will be near her. Later on, they go to their dorm rooms, and he tells her
that he will be in her care as well. She responds back to him cutely, admitting that she will most likely
be the one to need his care. He wonders if it's really okay for him to be living so close to her. He
enters the room and sees it is spacious, but he wants to check one thing first. He puts his ears on the
wall behind which Patty's room is. He tries to hear sounds from there to confirm if the soundproofing
is good enough. Now making sure of it, he next thinks about what should be his next course of action
to gain some money as well. He tries to think of a job to earn money quickly, which leaves him with
no choice but to go to the Adventurer's Guild. He is eyed by everyone since he is just a boy for now.
Zeoris calls out to the Adventurer's Guild receptionist, and she asks in a plain voice what she can help
him with. He thinks she isn't that friendly and tells her that he came here to register. After that, the
guild employee Alina informs him about the rank system, which starts from F rank and goes all the
way up to S rank, among which he can take missions of the same rank as his or one lower than that
only. Alina continues to say that he will need to take a special quest as a promotion test, and if he
completes any quest which he didn't take originally, then he will still get half the rewards of it, which
won't be counted for promotions. He thinks that would be better for him since he doesn't want to
get promoted in the first place, as it would mean that he could be called anytime for emergency
quests. Alina asks him to show her his identity card and give a little drop of blood to register. He is
surprised to hear that and says his identity card and title should have nothing to do with being an
adventurer, to which she tells him they need it to make sure they don't accept children or criminals
by mistake. After seeing his identity card, which shows he is a slave merchant, the receptionist asks
him if he has an option to hide his title and adventurer identity, and he asks her to do just that. Alina
states she has been doing this job for a long time, but it is her first time meeting a slave merchant.
She shares that her family was very poor, and when she was 10, her little sister was sold to a slave
merchant when she was just 5. Alina expresses anger for the horrible fate her sister had to go
through because of those slave merchants. He is startled by the look of her being angry and takes out
a knife to cut his finger to collect a drop of blood. Then she apologizes to him for putting too much
pressure on the knife. Another adventurer named Melina comes and sees Zeo registering. She is
happy to see him joining and suggests she teach him the basics of being an adventurer herself. His
first impression is that she seems to be a suspicious person for sure. Melina can tell from his
expression that he just thinks of her as suspicious, and she admits it isn't odd for him to think that
way since she looks that way. Then Alina reminds Melina that she has recently been promoted to E-
rank, so she is regarded as a new adventurer herself. Melina states it would be alright for her to
handle a new adventurer who just registered since she knows about it more than him at least. Alina
asks Zeo what he thinks, but he just passes from it without any delay. Melina desperately tells him
it's free, and he wouldn't need to pay her anything, so it would be okay. And Alina tells him that she
wouldn't recommend adventurers to move alone, so she vouches for Melina to go along with him as
well. Zeo thinks he wouldn't be able to stay at ease that way. Then Melina states she would ask the
guild to make a new quest to tutor him and take it herself. He doesn't know something like that was
possible, and she immediately gets a quest for her. He tries to decline it, but Alina tells him it is a
quest from the guild, so he doesn't have any right to refuse it. He is now stuck with Melina against
his wish as she gives her word to provide him support. She says it is already late for the day, so they
should meet up again the next day. And the next day, he starts the day with his classes along with
Patty. He knows his life won't go the way he wishes, and they go to their teacher for the slave
merchant, Nereus, who comes yawning at the time of class. They wish each other good morning, and
Nereus is glad to see they are doing just fine. Patty asks her what they will be doing for today's class,
to which she responds that most of the slave merchant classes are just about ethics. But since they
have only six months to study in Velciel, they don't have that much time to study all that through
normal lectures, so she chooses to teach them in a more hands-on approach, which means that they
will be taught how to be a slave merchant by gaining real-life experiences. For which, she decides to
take both Patty and Zeoris to a slave auction right away. A slave auction is a place where slaves from
all around the world are gathered and auctioned. The location where it is held is kept hidden so that
no commoners will ever get to know about the place. Zeoris thinks it is still too sudden for them, but
Nereus reasons it is the only way. Also, she allows them to buy a slave for themselves if they have the
money and suggests they be sure not to leak the location of the auction, given that they will be
added to the wanted list throughout the country, which would ruin the rest of their lives. He feels it
is quite scary, given that he is going for educational purposes, and with this, they decide to leave for
the slave auction right away, which makes him worried since things are going at a very fast pace for a
lazy guy like him. After that, she takes them to a bunch of secluded houses while informing them that
the slave auction is a top-secret event, so its entrance is also hidden in a dense residential area.
There she points out a normal-looking house and goes there to knock on the door. A scary-looking
guy comes out and stares at them. The guy keeps gazing at them for a while, which makes Zeoris
scared since the guy clearly gives off dangerous vibes. Then the guy Datsu finally speaks up, and
unexpectedly he welcomes Zeoris warmly, stating they are meeting after a long time. She greets him
back, and Datsu asks if she brought students along with her. She affirms his guess and states they will
be in his care for the event. He assures her to leave it to him and come inside. Zeoris is surprised to
see that Datsu turns out to be way more friendly than he thought. After that, they enter the secret
place behind a hidden door. Datsu tells them to help themselves and go in while he will be outside
since he is on watch right now. Nereus guides them inside and warns them if anything goes south in
places like these then in the worst-case scenario, the place will only blow up to bits, which scares
Zeoris even before entering. After that, they go into the auction hall. Nereus then shows her ID card
to the staff, and they hand her the catalog for today's merchandise, AK, a slave's. Zeoris goes through
the catalog and sees 40 slaves who will be out on auction today. He thinks there are too many, and
Nereus tells them to sit inside the auction and just see how it proceeds. She informs them that she
will be giving instructions during the event, and if they have any questions, then they are free to ask.
Zeoris and Patty take their seats, and the bell rings marking the start of the auction. The first slave on
the auction is a mid-aged guy, and the catalog says he had killed his previous master in the Salatina
province. Zeoris is surprised to see the slaves are criminals as well, and then the host of the auction
asks if there is anyone wanting to place a bid on this slave. But there are no bids placed on the guy.
So Zeoris asks Nereus what will happen to the slave if nobody but him. Patty tells him that those
slaves will be sent to mines where they will be forced to work until death in the very harsh
environments of the mines. Nereus states that is the case for sure, and even though the price of the
slave is cheap, no one would want a slave who killed their master before. The slave gets rejected, and
now they proceed to bring the next merchandise. Next is a beastkin girl of a young age, and her
bidding price starts from 500,000 gald. She clearly doesn't want to be sold, and Zeoris is shocked to
see that even a small girl is there for sale. The bidding on the girl quickly raises to a million in just a
few seconds, and he is shocked to see there is really some enthusiasm out there for people to buy
slaves.

Nereus tells him it is because the demand for a girl is high, so their prices easily go above a million
gald. And in this case, the girl is lucky since she is bought by Madame Marie who always treats her
slaves well and trains them to sell as maids and butlers, which kind of reassures that the girl won't be
sold as a slave again. It makes Zeoris feel a little bit relieved for the girl. And the next merchandise on
auction is an elf girl who is the main attraction for today's auction. An elf girl is valued a lot, so her
price starts straight from 1,200,000 gald. Zeoris notices that the elf girl is the same as Patti read in
the catalog that she seemed to have been caught for stealing numerous times. It is hard for him to
believe that an elf could do that since elves used to be upstanding people. The bid for the elf girl
quickly raises to 3,000,000, and the host asks if there is anyone willing to go beyond that for an elf.
Then someone bids 4,000,000 gald, and the bidder with 4,000,000 wins this auction, which
unexpectedly turns out to be Palastes Murti. Zeoris is shocked to see Patti just bought a slave of her
own kind, and not to mention the rate is an extremely huge sum of money. Patti notices he is feeling
odd about it. Then she reminds him that they can also buy slaves here, just like how Nereus told
them. Not only that, but she claims to have bought the elf girl because she wishes to save her from
being a slave. It turns out that Patti was given an important duty from the chief of her village to save
the fellow elves who were turned into slaves because of crimes they didn't commit in the first place.
She shows him the list of fellow elves that she is planning to save, and since the way to save them is
only through legally buying them, she is buying them on auction because of that while making sure
not to save those who actually committed crimes. Patti informs him that the sole reason behind her
joining the Velciel school was to be able to save elves who were going to be auctioned. He
understands her reasoning, and when they get out, the elf girl gets emotional while thanking Patti
from the bottom of her heart for saving her. Patti is glad she is alright now and gives her enough
money to be able to go back to her village. Zeoris sees how kind she is as this marks the ending for
their today's class. He learns from Patti that slave trading could also become a good thing that a slave
merchant does. And so, he decides to save some slaves as well by buying some slaves and sending
them off to help improve his Kadatsu village. Then set them free after five years of working with
freedom. He figures this would also help his father who wants to connect the village with the nearby
empire by making a road. So it would help him to have more hands to work. He is sure it will lead to
the biggest development his village will witness. So now that he has a purpose as a slave merchant,
he needs to make preparations to buy some slaves for which he needs to earn money. He thinks of
earning some from the adventurer guild but he can claim only half of the rewards. So, he plans on
doing the NB rank quests right away, and with that in mind, he sets out for the guild. But the
moment he reaches the guild, he is greeted by Melina who seems to be waiting there for him. While
he has completely forgotten about her promise to go on a quest together, Melina sees his expression
wanting to go on a quest. So she takes out all the quests she thinks would be best for them. There
are peaceful quests like gathering herbs to low-level monster extermination. But he isn't interested in
that at all. So he looks over the main board for the higher rank quests. He sees there is an emergency
quest on the board, and the place is Kiribito Forest. He notices that the reward for the quest is way
more than he wants right now. Then Melina asks him what is up with him. Then knowing her, he just
decides to remember the details for the high rank quests. After which, he picks a quest among those
quests Melina brought out for them. He picks the quest to gather 10 cannelli leaves which are placed
in Sunshine Hill. And he makes sure the place will be close to Kiribito Forest. Melina is glad he is
interested in the quest to collect some cannelli leaves, which are a basic ingredient for the high
potion. She mentions that they can sell 10 of those leaves for 5,000 gald. She is proud of him for
picking a high paying quest for an F rank. And he starts feeling unsettling as he is basically hiding his
intentions here. She mentions that he is not like other beginners who just want to start directly from
D rank quests instead. Zeoris feels even more guilty since he is basically trying to do something even
more stupid than those beginners. After that, she states they should get going already. And he is
pretty much excited for his very first quest. Which is surely dangerous enough while keeping Melina
unaware of it since he has no choice but to do this. After that, they go to the Sunshine Hill, which is
the area of the quest they originally took. And the view there is really wonderful. Zeoris had actually
gathered cannelli leaves when he used to be in Kadatsu Village. And he is sure that these leaves don't
grow out in the places with direct sunlight. So he asks Melina if they should try finding them in the
forest. Melina strictly declines to go there since it's a forest where D rank adventurers visit
frequently. And it's too soon for them to be going there since they are only F rank now. So the first
problem on his first quest is not actually the quest but Melina, who can't let him go. He needs some
other reason to go out there. And then he gets an idea. He shouts for her to look in a direction into
the forest from where the smoke is coming out. She finds it strange since people don't usually use
fire in the middle of the day. So Zeoris suggests it would be better for them to go and check it out.
Melina clearly denies doing that, claiming it's impossible for them. So they should go to the guild to
report them about it. He states there could be some adventurers calling for help. So he suggests he
will go and look into the forest while Melina will go and report to the guild. She clearly says no as it's
too dangerous for him to be going alone into the forest. He knows at this point that she won't let him
go no matter what. So in that case, he decides to be a little forceful and tell her that there could be
some people there asking for help. And he won't let them die. He reveals to her that he can use a
special kind of magic. So they should be okay in the forest. But to his surprise, her reaction is totally
different, and she is amazed to know he can also use magic. She agrees to go along with him to help
when he needs to decide something. He agrees to count on her as well, thinking inside that she
turned out to be too easy to convince. After that, they go into the forest, and he walks to the place
where the fire seems to be coming out from. Melina has also found some cannelli leaves while
looking around the forest. And soon enough, he spots an unnatural open space. He is shocked when
he sees some goblins there. And Melina also comes to check what happened. She states it would be
dangerous if they get spotted. And since this goblin village has some high-class goblins and even a
goblin queen, which is supposed to be a very strong monster to fight against, the goblin queen could
become a serious threat since it could also produce more high-class goblins. Melina suggests they
should report it to the guild as soon as possible. But Zeoris stops her. He asks her to think again what
is the magic resistance of the goblins, which is none. So, for magic attacks, it doesn't matter if the
goblins are high-ranked or a queen goblin. Not only that, but the higher the goblin, the bigger magic
stone they could get from defeating them. So, he decides to defeat the goblin queen, which would
drop a magic stone large enough to value that much of an ArrancQuest reward alone. She asks him if
he's really serious about it, to which he confirms that he's confident enough to be able to take them
out and would require her help to pick up the magic stones afterward. She's hesitant to do that since
it's still too dangerous as F-ranks, and if they just jump into those goblins then they would be killed
instantly. He quiets her down or else the goblins would hear them. He tells Melina to stay back since
it's dangerous for her while he prepares to confront those goblins. He starts casting a magic attack
which instantly kills a bunch of goblins. Melina is surprised to see how strong he is, which is totally
not like an F-rank. He eventually manages to kill all the goblins in a few minutes, and Melina exclaims
to know which magic he used since it's not something she had seen anyone else using before. He
tells her that he just used dark magic, which is extremely rare for anyone to have. He claims it kind of
looks like simple magic at first sight, but it's strong enough. Then suddenly, the goblin queen comes
out in rage to avenge the goblins he just killed. Zeoris is already prepared to fight the goblin queen,
so he uses one more dark magic attack and forms a dark spear. This magic is none like others, and he
throws that dark spear at the queen goblin while aiming it at her heart. The dark spear goes through
its heart, and the goblin queen dies, leaving a huge magic stone behind. Now that all of them are
taken care of, he tells Melina to pick up all the magic stones. But she is trembling in fear at first, then
seeing how strong he is, she praises him and decides to follow him for the rest of her life. He tells her
it's not that great and decides to quickly pick up all the magic stones and return to the guild. He
checks his card which shows the number of monsters he killed and goes to the adventurer's guild.
They go straight to Elina, and she asks how she can assist them today. Elina happily tells her that they
just finished a quest, so they are here to report back. Melina sees that they really completed the
quest, but she feels like it was really fast for them to be able to find the cannelli leaves in a single day.
Melina tells her that they actually went to Curebito forest to gather the leaves, and Elina scolds her
for going to the forest which is dangerous for those below rank D. Melina knows Elina won't listen to
her when she gets like this, and shows her the magic stones of the goblins they killed. Elina is left
astounded when she hears that these magic stones were taken in loot after Zeo killed a goblin
village. Elina can't believe Zeo and Melina did it on their own, so she asks them to wait while she
goes to contact her superior about this. After some minutes, the guild master Blazer comes to greet
them after hearing everything from Elina. He's pretty excited to take a look at the magic stones they
obtained, and Melina takes them out in front of him. Blazer confirms that the stones are actually the
real deal. He notices that it was actually an emergency quest, and he never thought that the village
would have grown large enough to have a queen. But aside from that, he asks them if they were
really the ones who wiped the entire goblin village and collected all these magic stones by
themselves. Melina tells him that Zeo was the one who did the killing and she did nothing. Whereas,
Zeo just tells Blazer to take a look at his guild card if he doesn't believe them. Blazer confirms he
really killed the goblin queen, and the counting of his killing is really quite high for his rank. He asks
Elina about how much reward was set for the quest. Elina states that the quest was near rank A, and
since Zeo was still at F rank, he could only claim half of the reward. Also, after adding the money
from selling all those magic stones in the reward, the total reward for Zeo is 18 million gald. It's an
extremely high reward for him, which leaves him shocked. Blazer claims they would soon give him
their reward money, and after they receive the rewards, Zeo is about to excuse himself from there.
Blazer tells them to be careful on their way. Then Elina asks Blazer if it's really okay for them to let
Zeo leave like this. Blazer says it's obviously a proper reward for them, so it's fair for them. After that,
Melina asks him if it's really okay for him to give her 3 million gald, which is even more than an E-rank
adventurer could earn in a whole year. She doesn't feel like she did much back then, so she isn't sure
if it's okay for her to have this much. Zeo assures her she deserves it because she was the one to
provide him information about the places. So, it isn't like she did nothing. She feels emotional after
hearing that and tells him that she will follow him for the rest of her life. Zeo tells her to keep her
voice low, as it's not safe to be loud talking about having this much money. And not just that, there
seems to be someone listening to their conversation from behind the walls and this unknown girl
doesn't seem like a good one. After 10 days of the time since his Queen Goblin subjugation quest, he
hasn't got any large reward paying quests. He guesses it isn't that easy after all, so he decides to pay
a visit to the guild again. But when he arrives there, he notices there is commotion around the guild
with people talking about the news of a mutilated corpse of an adventurer being found the next day.
It's found near the Kaizente Inn, which is a cheap inn in the first place, but to find a mutilated corpse
there is really serious. There are rumors that the victim was just a young adventurer girl, and
nonetheless, she was killed mercilessly. Zeo feels that the news is really disturbing so he thinks he
should be more careful from now on. He thinks of giving this news to Melina when he finds her, and
the moment he enters the guild, Melina calls him out and asks if he has a moment to come with her
inside for a bit. He asks her if there is a problem, and when he goes inside he sees that the guild
master and one more person are sitting there already. The new person greets him and claims that he
is the vice master of this guild, Ubenta. He offers to shake hands to greet and then Blazer apologizes
for the sudden invite. He states that they have a serious situation here and need to ask him some
things. Ubenta asks him where she was last night, to which Zeo answers he went back straight to his
dormitory after finishing his quest yesterday. Then Ubenta asks him if he went anywhere after going
back to the dormitory. Zeo says he just had a long conversation with the dorm head after that, and
hearing this much, Blazer affirms to Ubenta about saying it already that Zeo is innocent. Ubenta
claims there is still a possibility of him lying, to which Blazer says he has been watching over Zeo from
the past few days, so he is sure Zeo isn't that kind of guy. Zeo tells them that he isn't sure what is
going on here but he has a promise to meet Melina, so he has to leave. Blazer is surprised to hear
that, and asks Zeo shockingly if he hasn't heard about Melina being brutally murdered the previous
night. Zeo is extremely shaken by the news and the fact that all those rumors he had been hearing
were all about Melina. He asks Blazer what he is even saying and starts panicking. Blazer tries to calm
him down and tells Zeo to just sit down and listen to him. Zeo then hears from them that Melina was
killed around midnight, and they found her corpse in a small alley near the Kaizente inn north of
here. Ubenta informs him that Melina's remains were found in a horrible state. Blazer confirms that
Zeo really hasn't heard anything about this after all, and states that Zeo is one of the suspects since
they heard about him giving Melina a large sum of money a few days back. Zeo is feeling guilty after
hearing this, and he gets up quickly. Ubenta stops and asks him where he is going, while also warning
him that the culprit might be aiming for him as well so it is dangerous for him to be going out alone
like that. Zeo then turns around and declares if he confronts the culprit, then he will beat the hell out
of them. After saying that, he leaves the room with the door strongly closed on them. He starts
running towards Melina's inn, and thinks if she was killed yesterday at midnight then he should be
able to use a kind of magic to help the situation. He goes to find the Kaizente inn, and after looking
around he finally sees the spot where Melina was killed. He remembers how cheerful she was the
last time he met her and can't believe a person like her is really gone just like that. He damns all this
situation, and raises his hand out to use the magic called Soul Crystal. The magic starts taking effect
and soon a soul starts to form at the spot where she died. The soul forms completely into a human
body, and it is actually the soul of Melina. He sees her soul and asks if she can talk. Melina asks Zeo
why he is here which makes her think she might be still alive, or this could be her afterlife. She tells
her to take a look at her for better understanding, and she sees that her hands are seen through. She
understands that she is not alive after all, but the magic he just used surprises her. He tells her that
this is a special spell, which is a type of spirit magic under dark magic. This spell lets a certain soul
stay temporarily in this world, and only he can see her right now. Melina states he is really a genius
to be able to use magic like this. She asks him what his goal is for using this magic because even if
she can stay here in this world for a short time, it's still impossible to resurrect a dead person. He is
aware of it, but he wants to find the ones who killed her and make them pay for what they've done
to her. She feels emotional after hearing how much he cares for her and wants to take revenge for
her. He asks her if the one who killed her was a guy or a girl, to which Melina speaks up that the ones
who killed her were total foreigners, and they were led by a beautiful girl. She can tell that she must
have been a high-ranking adventurer from her equipment. Melina describes further that she had
brown skin, almond eyes, and crimson hair. She was clad in half-plate armor, and since Melina hadn't
seen her face before, that would mean she wasn't someone who came often to the adventurer guild.
So, he figures he should go around asking for information. But Zeoris doesn't have much time since
Melina's soul will stay in this world only for a few days at most. Melina suggests he get the
information from an information broker, but it would take some amount of money. Zeoris doesn't
have much time to think about things, so he decides to go with the information broker. After that, he
goes to a place where some girl asks him if he's here to have some fun. Zeoris doesn't expect that the
information broker would be in the Red Light District of all places. He goes to the bar, and Melina
tells him that the guy drinking alone at the table is the information broker. Zeoris tells her to leave
the rest to him, and he goes ahead to the information broker. He puts the money on the table, and
the broker asks him what he's doing here since this place is not for small kids like him. Zeoris tells
him that there is one million gald in this pouch, and he's looking for some information, and asks if the
guy is an information broker or not. The broker tells him he is surely brave enough to approach him
like this and asks what information he's looking for. Zeoris then gives him all the descriptions he
heard from Melina, and the guy recognizes from this much that the woman he's looking for must be
Nasha without any mistake.

He tells Zeoris that Nasha is a B-rank adventurer who is known as the Bloody Wicked Girl. She is a
dangerous adventurer who likes spilling a lot of blood and making trouble wherever she goes. He
asks an informant how he can meet this Nasha, to which the broker states he will be able to find
Nasha usually in the Quobar Arena west from here. Since, other than seeing blood, Nasha likes
betting equally, and there is going to be a big tournament the next day, so the broker is sure she will
be there. Zeoris says this much information will be enough for him. Then the broker tells him that
one million is too much for just this much information. Then Zeoris tells him to keep the rest as a fee
for never calling him a small kid again and thanks him for the information as he leaves the place. The
broker warns him in case that Nasha is a powerful fire mage, so he shouldn't forget that before
confronting her. Now that he's got the information he needs, he decides to leave for the dormitory
for today since the tournament is to be held tomorrow. He tells Melina's soul to come with him as
well, and later on the next day, he goes to the arena. It is surely huge as he expected, and putting
that aside, Melina asks him why he didn't let her sleep in his room last night. He did so because even
if she is a soul now, he still feels as if she is real and sleeping with her would be too much. He tells
her that he just couldn't let her inside his room for personal reasons, then says they should go to the
bookmaker quickly after the tournament ends. Melina asks him why they are going to the
bookmaker when they could simply recognize her just by looking around the arena. He tells her
that's because they can't waste time looking around, and at the bookmaker, everyone eventually
goes to check-in. She understands he got a point behind it, and they both go to the bookmaker.
There are many people, so he asks Melina if she can see Nasha or her subordinates around. Nasha
then spots one of the guys who mutilated her and is cashing out at the bookmaker. They decide to
follow the guy since his wound eventually led to Nasha, and soon they see him entering an alley. He
follows him right afterward, then the moment he turns in the street, he gets surrounded by none
other than Nasha and others. He is startled from an ambush like this, and Nasha mentions she found
him following around one of her boys. So, Nasha asks him what business he has with them, to which
Zeo feels all the anger for what they did to Melina. He clearly confronts her, saying that he is aware
that Nasha was the one behind the killing of an adventurer near Kaizentei two days ago. Nasha
flinches from her point of view. Nobody was supposed to be able to find that out, but somehow this
boy did. She remembers the murder she committed and asks if he's her friend or something. He sees
that she is not denying the murder. Then she instructs one of the guys behind them that they should
just butcher this kid. The guys say they wouldn't mind doing it if it was a girl before chopping her to
pieces. Then the other guy mentions that he didn't do this to the last girl, and cut her arms and legs
off right away. It increases Zeo's anger even more as he listens to them saying the girl covered in
bandages was a real weirdo. Zeo asks them just why did they kill Melina and demands an answer
from them. Nasha smiles back and says that the reason should be obvious to him, it was money.
Nasha claims to have seen Melina depositing a huge sum of gold in the warehouse guild. So she just
killed her as a stress reliever and got a lot of money as well. He snaps after hearing that Nasha killed
Melina just for that reason. And as he looks at her pathetic lame-ass face, he decides to kill these
guys and use the blind puppet dark magic on them. Nasha instructs the guys to attack him, and they
charge at Zeo with their weapons pointed at him. The first guy charges to cut off his legs, but as he
gets closer, he realizes that he cut the legs of his own comrade. It takes some time for everyone to
notice that the guy cut the legs of his subordinate, and they are left in panic. They ask what the hell
he was doing, and then the guy replies that he couldn't control his body anymore. It was moving on
its own and so he ends up killing the next comrade. He can't figure out what the hell he was doing,
and then he points his blade under his neck. The guy kills himself begging for it to stop till his last
breath. Nasha is watching all of her subordinates die in front of her eyes, and she understands that
this must be the doing of the boy in front of them. She asks him what he did to those people, to
which he replies to her that he had actually casted a control magic in the start. It was a high-level
dark magic technique. And hearing that, Nasha doesn't even think something like this was real and
points her dagger at him. She tells him that she will make him regret it. While Zeoris is standing in
anger but not even moving a finger, then the look on Nasha's face turns from anger to fear. When he
catches her hand with a grip she is unable to even move an inch away. He then grabs her head and
starts casting a magic spell on her. He keeps spelling the incantations while Nasha can see something
extremely bad is about to happen to her. She thinks it would be the same magic he used before, but
when the incantation ends, he finishes using the soul pair displacement magic on her. Nasha starts
feeling that she is losing her strength, and she gives up. She begs him for forgiveness for killing
Melina and says she will do anything he says in return. The look on Zeoris's face is extremely cold at
this point as he says that he will never ever forgive her. He removes the soul of Nasha from her body,
and when Nasha opens her eyes, she thinks nothing happened to her until she sees her own body
lying in front of her. Zeoris tells her that he has separated her soul from her body, and she is left
despaired from it. Nasha can't understand how he could do that. Then Zeoris grabs the empty body
with one hand and Melina's soul from the other as he puts her soul into Melina's body. Nasha's soul
keeps begging him not to do this to her, but he wants to bring Melina back to life.
Nasha asks him why he did this to her, to which he doesn't even feel like responding. He tells her that
he can't return her soul anymore now. Nasha falls in despair as she will now stay in this world
roaming around as nothing but a soul for a few days until her soul vanishes into thin air. He is
relieved to have finished correcting things, but suddenly he feels an extreme headache and dizziness.
He wonders why he is feeling like this and his vision starts going blurry as he collapses. After that,
when he opens his eyes, he finds himself in his room and sees Melina sleeping by his side. He is
shocked by this sight and screams loudly. Melina wakes up in the process and wishes him good
morning. He asks her if she is Melina and she asserts she indeed is, despite how she looks like Nasha
now. She feels a bit terrible when he does this to her without alerting her beforehand, and by the
time she wakes up, she sees him lying unconscious in front of her, which causes her to panic, and she
brings him here. He understands what happened to him, but it doesn't make sense for Melina to
have ears and a tail. Melina tells him that she turned like this when she took off the ring on her
finger, which means that her finger is supposed to hide that Nasha is actually a beastkin. Melina
states that she will be living as Nasha from now on, even if she is still herself inside, which is why she
wants him to call her Nasha from now on. He understands why she asks that of him. Then Melina
tells him that she wishes to become his slave. He is shocked to hear that since it's really ridiculous.
She reasons that Nasha must have surely done some dangerous things that involve killing people, so
her safety is not guaranteed unless he makes her his slave and protects her. He understands what she
is trying to say but doesn't feel like he really needs to make her a slave for that. Melina tells him it
isn't sure when she will be attacked, and since she is a B-rank adventurer, she might be killed quickly
if she tries to work on quests, which is why she wants to be his slave and live with him rather than
getting killed again. She tells him it's also his responsibility to take care of her because he is the one
who brought her back to life in this body out of a selfish wish. And Melina is feeling quite good about
getting a beautiful body now, so she claims if he lets her become his slave then she will surely give
him a lot of service. His temperature is rising as he feels his mind blowing away hearing things like
this first thing in the morning. After thinking about it, Zeoris agrees to make her his slave, and she
quickly hugs him tightly as she promises to follow him for the rest of her life. He tells her that he
understands what she is trying to say, so she should quickly put her clothes back on. Meanwhile,
Patty wakes up in her room, and she is thinking about the time when the dorm manager asked Zeoris
to help her out if anything happened. It makes her shy, so she gets up and washes her face. She
remembers when he wished to buy some slaves and send them to help build his village and set them
free after working for five years. She feels that Zeoris is working hard on his wish, so she should work
hard on her purpose as well. Whereas, he is working really hard trying to figure out how he will deal
with Nasha from now on. She wants to be his slave from this day on and she asks them to go to a
slave merchant to make a contract as soon as possible. He reminds her that he can do that as well as
he used a magic spell on her. She asks him if he is serious, but then notices she started talking
differently than before. He tells her that he changed her speaking pattern with his magic, for which
she questions if he is some kind of pervert for catgirls. Zeoris asks Melina about where she wants him
to put the slave seal, and she shows her back to him, telling him to put it there. He then uses his
magic and instantly forms a slave contract with her. She is glad to become his slave, and now he
mentions they need to go to the firm to ask for permission to keep Melina here. And then go to
attend his class after that. He comes out of his room, and at the same time, Patty also gets out of her
room as well. He is left stone seeking her, as this is the worst possible timing for them to meet when
Melina is behind him. Melina wishes morning to Patty, who is standing there in silence. Zeoris tries to
explain it to her, but before then Patty exclaims at him, asking why this girl is here and coming out of
his room. Melina answers her question instead and tells her that her name is Nasha and she is
Zeoris's slave. Patty is awed by the news, and she says it's nice to meet her as well, while she is lost in
some thoughts about the matter. Patty then asks Zeoris if he is doing something shameless to Nasha
inside his room and if he is not buying slaves for his village anymore. She claims that he has tricked
her, and the situation escalates along with her anger. She is about to take out her sword, then he
tries to stop her, saying that she is misunderstanding it all. Moreover, he asks her why she has her
sword today, which is unusual for her to do so. Patty states that she heard there was an incident
where an adventurer was murdered around this area, so she is keeping her sword with her for safety.
Zeoris tries to tell her that's exactly the thing and Nasha is related to that incident. Patty can't take
his words that easily, then Nasha speaks up that she is an adventurer, but she was attacked later on
and lost her memory. But then Zeoris saved her. Patty asks her that she must have left this matter to
the guild in that case, but then Nasha tells her that she must have been a troublemaker before she
lost her memories, which is why she became Zeoris's slave to make sure he would keep her safe.
Patty asks her if she is that sure about Zeoris's protection being better than the guild's protection. It
doesn't make sense to Patty since she doesn't know if Zeoris is stronger than the people from the
guild or not. She states that she would need to see how strong he is by herself and decides to test
him right here and right now. He tries to tell her this is a misunderstanding, but Patty tells him that
he can't make excuses. He understands there isn't much space for negotiation, as Patty quickly
slashes her sword at him. But he manages to dodge her sword like a master swordsman, which
surprises her. He knows that the hit she just made was really intended to connect to his head. Patty
believes that her slash should have hit him head-on, but the fact he just avoided it by a hair's breadth
without even making an effort makes her accept him. She tells him that she used to be regarded as a
strong swordswoman back in her hometown, so she didn't expect him to be able to evade her hit. So
she accepts what Nasha told her before was the truth, and as for Zeoris, it's hard for him to let it be
because she really tried to cut him before. But moving on ahead, now that he's proved himself with
this test, he tells her he is innocent. She shouts that she knew it already, but the thing making her
worry was if he had done anything shameful with Nasha or not. He gets a little angry as well and
exclaims that he didn't do anything she is thinking. He tells her that he is telling the truth, then Nasha
says she won't mind doing anything shameful, by the way. He scolds her not to make things worse as
Patty takes out her sword again. He tells her to stop already, and decides to just go and meet the
dorm manager before heading to the gathering place. Patty goes ahead saying she will see him later
on, and after some time, they gather back. Nasha is happy that the dorm manager gave her
permission to stay, and Zeoris is relieved as well. Patty asks Zeoris what he will be doing from now,
and asks if he is planning to bring Nasha to the slave auction. Patty also adds what he will do if Nerius
doesn't give him permission to bring Nasha. Nasha claims she won't leave her master's side, but it
could mean Zeoris not being able to join the auction. Zeoris mentions that he really wants to join the
auction today, then Nerius arrives and wishes them morning. She is yawning as always, and asks who
the cat girl is with them. Zeoris informs her about everything, and then Nerius says she wouldn't
mind him bringing a slave along, but there is a condition if it's a permanent slave or not. He tells her
that Nasha is a temporary slave to him, to which Nerius declines since only permanent slaves can
enter the auction. She tells him that nowadays buying and selling of slaves is normal, so it's not
allowed to bring a temporary slave to the auction to keep things working smoothly. So, Nasha won't
be allowed to enter, and after understanding the matter, Nasha states that she would just need to be
Zeoris's permanent slave. Zeoris and Patty are shocked to see how easily Nasha decides that on a
whim, and ask her if she even heard what they said. Nasha assures him she knows what they said
and asks him if it would be trouble for him to take care of her or if he was planning to use and dump
her. He declines, saying that he wasn't doing anything like that. Then Nerius tells him to hurry up and
decide since they can't afford to be late for the auction. He understands that there is no other way
now, and so he marks Nasha as his permanent slave. Now she will be able to enter the auction as
well, and he can feel an intense stare on his back. After that, Nerius tells them to hurry up, and this is
the first time Zeoris has participated actively in an auction. Everything goes nicely in the auction, and
he ends up buying a 16-year-old human girl with chef and tailor titles and a 12-year-old beastkin boy
with builder and bakery titles. After the auction, he tells Nasha that the auction holders will keep
slaves with them until the next auction, and he feels like he did really well for his first auction. Nasha
compliments him for the good work out there, and she is curious about something, so she asks him
why he is working as a slave merchant in the first place. He answers her with the truth, which makes
her feel proud and happy to know he is buying slaves to support his hometown. She is moved to hear
that and promises to him again that she will follow him for the rest of her life. He feels reassured to
hear that, but now he used up most of his money. He decides to go to the guild to gather more funds
once they are done here, but with the mention of the guild, he is worried about what and how he
will inform Alina about Nasha, which is a tough quest in itself.