Chapter 25
"W-what? What happened?"
From what he heard, after confirming that the promised time had passed, Kain had intended to take a shortcut, which was the fastest way to return to the clan, rather than the cave.
However, before crossing the hill using the shortcut, he had seen Edward, Fohn, and Bolio going the way he had come, so he had turned back and found them.
Kain said with a cold gaze,
"What would have happened if I hadn't seen you? If you had encountered the remaining Snow Bears, your lives would have been in danger."
In fact, the Snow Bears were also regaining their senses at the point when the Snow Blossom Ice Crystal disappeared and were returning to their original habitat deep in the snowy mountains.
As a warning, Kain sternly scolded them.
"Sorry..."
"W-we were just trying to save you..."
For some reason, Edward and Fohn had tears welling up in their eyes little by little.
"It's because you didn't come for so long that we thought you were dead or in danger and went looking for you! You should have just come earlier in the first place!"
Bolio was angry instead.
However, even while being angry, his voice had softened slightly.
"But what really happened? Did you catch the Snow Bear?"
Edward, deeply relieved that Kain was alive, quickly wiped his eyes and asked with sparkling eyes.
"I did catch the Snow Bear too."
"S-Snow Bear too?"
Fohn tilted his head, sensing there was more to the story.
Kain took the Ice Troll's head out of his bag.
"Aaaah!"
"Whoa, you scared me!"
"S-scary!"
When the gruesome head of an Ice Troll came out of the bag, which they had expected to contain a bear's paw, the three of them screamed.
"W-what, what is that?"
"It's the head of an Ice Troll. Contrary to expectations, the Snow Bears weren't acting collectively, which means there must be a stronger monster. That was this guy. Now that I've caught him, the Snow Rabbits will slowly return to their original territory."
Bolio, who had been gaping with disbelief, said incredulously,
"Wait, isn't an Ice Troll a monster that requires at least a 4th Circle mage to catch...? No matter how strong you are, Kain, it's impossible for a 2nd Circle mage to..."
As he was saying that, Bolio suddenly seemed to remember something and said,
"Could it be...? Did you reach the 3rd Circle?"
At those words, Kain nodded.
"Yeah. I had a bit of an epiphany."
Since he was already at the advanced stage of the 2nd Circle, it wasn't strange for him to reach the 3rd Circle after gaining enlightenment.
'If you're not building up the lower circles perfectly to the extreme like I am, there are often cases where people gain enlightenment even on the battlefield and immediately advance to a higher circle.'
Before leaving the cave.
Kain, who had collapsed as if fainting due to extreme mana consumption and overloaded mana circuits from receiving the Snow Blossom Ice Crystal's mana, had reached the 3rd Circle of fire magic as soon as he woke up by using the pure mana stored in his dantian.
'To say I caught an Ice Troll, I need to at least reach the 3rd Circle of fire magic to be convincing.'
This was also a reason why Kain had come out of the cave late.
"Wow, crazy... already the 3rd Circle. Isn't that the fastest anyone's ever reached that level?"
"Y-yeah, it is."
"Come to think of it, didn't Hayden take three years to go from the 1st to the 3rd Circle? And that was after getting all sorts of expensive elixirs from his father. But when Hayden was at the 1st Circle, Kain didn't even have a circle."
Kain decided not to mention that he had reached the 2nd Circle not long ago.
Right now, Bolio, Edward, Fohn, and most other people thought that Kain had been holed up in his room for three years and had 'actually been diligently training and had come out having reached the 2nd Circle'.
"Wow... even if we assume Kain created his circle when he started holding himself up, reaching the 3rd Circle now without any elixirs is really amazing."
"I-I'm honestly so amazed that you caught an Ice Troll that reaching the 3rd Circle doesn't even seem that surprising anymore..."
"Ha, see? Didn't I tell you? If it's Kain, he could definitely catch one!"
"Just a moment ago, you were acting tough and saying you knew it all along."
"W-when did I ever!"
Before they knew it, Edward and Fohn were completely excited, and even Bolio, though he pretended not to be, had a happy expression.
Now, if they just returned with the Ice Troll's head, the support funds the clan would receive would increase significantly.
'It's a bit of a shame that I couldn't bring back the Snow Blossom Ice Crystal...'
Still, he had been able to quickly and perfectly build his ice magic circles up to the 5th Circle, and he would be able to focus on his fire magic circles and build them up faster, so from Kain's personal perspective, it was a gain.
'It was dangerous though.'
Raising his magic level was a path he had walked before, so he could walk it again anytime, but Kain only had one life.
'It was too big of a gamble.'
Even for Kain, it would have been impossible to face that horde of Ice Trolls in his previous state, so it was an unavoidable choice.
'I'm glad the result was good.'
Kain shook his head.
Anyway, Kain and the others safely began to retrace their steps.
"Phew. Can't we go a little slower, Kain?"
"Are you tired already?"
"A little...?"
At those words, Kain spoke to Edward and Fohn as if he had just remembered something.
"Edward, you asked me last time to teach you some of my training methods, right?"
"Oh! Are you going to teach me?"
"Alright. Tell you what, come out to the training grounds in the east wing early tomorrow morning."
"K-Kain. Can I come too?"
"Hey! Me too!"
"All three of you come together. That'll be good."
As Kain readily agreed, the three of them excitedly quickened their pace.
"Yahoo!"
"Nice!"
Unaware of what kind of training awaited them in the future.
***
When Kain returned with the Ice Troll's head, the clan was practically turned upside down.
"D-did you really bring back an Ice Troll?"
"You reached the 3rd Circle...?"
"Are you hurt anywhere?"
Blake Siers fired off questions without taking a breath, and Kain calmly replied,
"Yes, clan Head. I'm fine, and I caught the Ice Troll after reaching the 3rd Circle."
"Well done! Truly well done. Honestly, I still can't believe it, but you really did well, Kain!"
And.
"Oh dear... Edward! Fohn! You've returned safely! Really... you have no idea how worried I was about you!"
Wayne Siers, the father of Edward and Fohn, rushed out and hugged them both tightly in his arms, shedding tears.
"Oh, honey. The children are old enough to take care of themselves. Honestly, kids. You have no idea how little your father ate while you were on the snowy mountain. His cheeks have just sunken in..."
Bolio, who had no clan to congratulate him, just stood there awkwardly scratching his head. Seeing this, Blake Siers approached Bolio and patted him on the shoulder.
"Good job, Bolio. You bravely stepped forward to accompany Kain at the end. The results were good, and I'll mention your contributions to Rowen as well. There will be an increase in your evaluation score."
"T-thank you very much, clan Head!"
Bolio, finally receiving the praise he had so desired from the clan head, bowed deeply in gratitude with a face that had brightened considerably.
"W-what? He's back?"
Meanwhile, upon hearing that Kain and the others had returned, Richter Bederman's eyes widened, and he came out to the north gate with his retainers.
The moment Richter Bederman saw Kain looking perfectly fine, when he had expected Kain's head to be crushed by an Ice Troll's club, his face twisted.
Hayden, who had also naturally expected Kain to die, stood stiffly behind the clan head with a sour look on his face.
"That guy..."
Amidst the festive atmosphere, the appearance of Richter Bederman, Hayden, Ray, and their retainers slightly dampened the mood.
"Ahem."
As Richter appeared on his own accord, Blake Siers cleared his throat, as if it was a good opportunity.
"Clan Head Bederman."
Blake Siers stood before Richter Bederman.
"Yes. Please speak."
Richter Bederman's voice trembled slightly.
"As you said, Kain identified the cause of the Snow Rabbits acting outside their territory and brought back the evidence."
He had brought not only the Ice Troll's head but also a sufficient number of Snow Rabbit ears to prove that he had reduced their population.
"The promised conditions will be carried out as they are, correct?"
Richter Bederman's eyebrows twitched at Blake Siers' expression, which held a faint smile.
He slightly closed his lips. Then, as if calming himself, he opened his mouth.
"Of course, promises must be kept. As the head of the Bederman clan, one of the four great magic lineages, how could I not keep my word in a place where all the members of both our families can hear?"
He continued, looking at Kain,
"As promised, the incident where Kain hit Hayden three years ago will be considered as never having happened."
Richter ended his words there.
A sound of joy rippled through the clan members.
But Blake Siers' eyebrows slightly rose.
He had naturally expected a detailed mention of additional measures, so he was questioning the overly brief conclusion.
"Then, naturally, the support funds that were reduced at that time will also be restored, correct?"
Fortunately, Richter nodded.
"Of course. Ramon, what measures did I take after the Hayden incident back then?"
"You took measures to reduce the existing support funds by 30%."
Even hearing it again, it was an enormous reduction rate.
"Very well. Then, as of today, we will restore those measures, and the Bederman clan will newly take measures to increase the support funds for the Siers clan by 30%."
"Yes. Understood."
Ramon immediately took out documents and adjusted the numbers with his pen.
Richter gave Blake Siers a faint smile.
"Now that Kain has caught the Snow Rabbits, we should be able to return without interference from monsters. clan head, thank you for your hospitality for the past few days. Then..."
"Wait a moment."
Blake stopped Richter, who was about to turn away.
"What is it?"
"There's an error in the measures you mentioned."
"What?"
Blake Siers glared sharply at Richter Bederman.
"Why has restoring the 30% cut from the support funds at that time turned into increasing the current support funds by 30%?"
It was a valid point.
If the original support fund was 100, the support fund received after a 30% cut would be 70.
However, the support fund that could be received when increasing 70 by 30% again was only 91.
Blake might have let it slide if it had only been a loss of about 10%.
'The support funds have been cut quite a bit since then too.'
The support funds, which had been cut and cut again since the 30% reduction, were already so low that restoring 30% of that wouldn't make a big difference.
But Richter Bederman, who had already regained his composure, called his butler as if he had been waiting.
"Ramon."
"Yes, clan Head."
"Before Kain left, what exactly did I say when I made the promise?"
"You clearly said that you would restore 'the support fund reduction measures that were in place at that time'."
"And that measure was a 30% reduction in support funds."
"That is correct."
"Then, if we restore that in reverse, a 30% increase would be the correct measure, wouldn't it?"
"That is correct."
Then, Blake Siers' voice rose for the first time.
"That's just wordplay, isn't it!"
"Ahem. clan head. Please lower your voice."
Blake Siers gritted his teeth.
He hadn't expected them to be this petty.
Richter looked back at Kain and said,
"Strictly speaking, we also have many doubts. Even if Kain gained enlightenment, he should only be at the very beginning of the 3rd Circle, yet he single-handedly caught an Ice Troll...? It's hard to accept logically."
"You still don't believe me even though I brought the head?"
"Isn't it possible that he just cut off the head from an Ice Troll that died fighting among themselves?"
He said 'might be', but his tone was full of conviction.
In other words, since we overlooked your underhanded tactics, you should also overlook our advantageous interpretation of the conditions.
"Of course that's not the case, but even if, just in case, he did cut it off from a corpse, wasn't the condition to identify the cause of this situation in the first place? So there's no problem, is there?"
"According to your words, the Ice Troll might not have been the real cause."
Blake Siers clenched his fist tightly.
The condition Richter had set was to identify the 'exact cause' of the Snow Rabbits leaving their territory.
'The cause is always complex.'
It was truly childish, but from the moment they decided to play with words, this fight was advantageous for the other side.
"I didn't want to bring this up..."
Reluctantly, Blake Siers gestured to a waiting servant.
The servant took out a piece of wood from the bag he was holding.
"We investigated the area around the path where you said you encountered the Snow Rabbits on your way."
"......!"
At those words, Richter was slightly shaken.
"There were traces of footprints that weren't Snow Rabbit's, and when we backtracked, we found fragments of an Ice Troll's club."
Richter glared at Ray, who was next to him.
On the day Kain had departed for the snowy mountains, he had secretly instructed Ray to burn the Ice Troll's corpse without a trace to destroy the evidence.
"Ah, these aren't fragments found at that exact location, so there's no need to blame anyone."
"......"
"If you knew about the existence of the Ice Troll, you could have guessed that the Snow Rabbits left their territory to escape from them... but you didn't mention anything when you sent Kain."
It was a question of whether he had deliberately sent Kain to his death knowing the danger.
Richter closed his mouth.
Having been caught trying to destroy the evidence, it was difficult to deny everything from beginning to end.
'He's trying to drag this into a mud fight.'
Now that things had come to this, it seemed better to acknowledge some of it and renegotiate the terms.
The moment Richter inhaled to answer.
"Then how about we do this, clan head?"
It was Hayden, who had been glaring at Kain from behind, who opened his mouth.
