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After that, Cortina and the rest took Donovan and returned to his mansion in Raum. After confirming that his father was, in fact, not inside, they planned to set out towards the Stolla domain.

That said, Maxwell was involved in this so they would return here when the night came, as they have been doing until now.

“Good grief! What the hell is wrong with the Stolla domain! The lord had a nasty personality but his subordinates aren’t any better!”

Cortina ranted in anger while slamming her wine cup down on the table. It appeared that Donovan’s father’s influence was too big in the mansion of the Stolla domain, preventing their investigation from going smoothly.

“There’s a limit to how noncooperative someone can be. They just keep showing us these harmless locations. I’m fed up already.”
“Look, Cortina. Didn’t you only start investigating it today?”
“But come on…”

She was acting far too listless now, showing how much she was drained from it. Since Donovan was cooperating with them, they couldn’t act too high-handedly. Having said that, giving in could lead to missing their target.

Holding back in that regard would only make their work harder.

“A violent struggle with monsters is way easier. This is why human opponents are so…”
“You say that, but you were the one who has the most experience in dealing with humans.”

Maria noted in exasperation. Cortina tended to be away from home lately, so Maria took her place and stayed here. In that regard, the village’s situation was a bit worrying, but they seem to have left someone in their stead there so it was fine for the time being.

Having said that, this house didn’t have enough room for Lyell and Maria, so Maria was currently sharing the room with Cortina. At first, she apparently planned to stay in Finia’s room, but Cortina realized that Finia would not be able to relax in that situation and dragged her to her room.

Incidentally, Lyell was sleeping on the sofa in the living room. It was a woman’s household, so he had to suck it up and deal with it.

In the first place, he could’ve just stayed with Maxwell, but insisted on sleeping under the same roof as me. Moreover, as Kabby also occupied my room, I denied him. Besides, I had the equipment there that I’d rather he did not see.

“That’s something else. Is there a need to hold back when you know the other party is your enemy?”
“Also, honestly, what is the point of me accompanying you? There’s no enemy to be found.”
“We have you just in case. I’m not much of a fighter, you know?”
“Can’t you deal with some random Adventurers yourself, Cortina? Besides, Maxwell’s with you too.”
“Well, I guess you have a point… But what’s your real intention?”
“I wanna stay and play around with my daughter for once.”
“I’m definitely bringing you with us.”

Cortina delivered a merciless reply to Lyell who was throwing a tantrum. Following that, she downed the wine in her cup and turned towards Maria. Finia immediately went to fill the cup as the perfect attendant she was.

“Reminds me, how is Cloud doing?”
“It seems there is some discomfort left in the right arm, still. It would probably stay that way for some time.”
“You healed it, didn’t you?”
“The wound has been completely healed. This is more of a mental problem. Something only time can heal.”
“Cloud, huh…”

Hearing Maria and Cortina’s talk, Lyell muttered with an unfocused gaze. Lyell had been informed that he was the root of the current incident. As a result, I also ended up suffering a serious injury, so he probably had something to say about it.

“I can’t admire that he dragged Nicole into danger… But I praise him for protecting Michelle with his life.”
“Indeed. And it was due to his good observation that we managed to discover this incident, so I don’t think we should be putting all the blame on him, don’t you think?”
“Ah, no, I’m not particularly angry at him. It is a problem that Nicole got involved, but, ugh, how should I put it?”

It seemed that Cloud’s standing hadn’t really fallen in his eyes. I was a little relieved to learn that. I’d rather not see my former comrades blaming my current ones, if I can help it.

“Right… He still lacks the power required to become Nicole’s comrade.”
“But he’s trying his best, you know?”

Lyell declared that after making up his mind, but I answered with a bit of an objection. Because I thought he was taking the conversation in a direction where he’d try to pull him away from my side with that reasoning.

Lyell, however, answered with something completely different from my fears.

“There are times when trying your best is not enough. Like this time, if you hadn’t made it in time, he would be dead.”
“But if he didn’t do that, he wouldn’t have been able to save Michelle, either.”
“That’s right. And that’s the problem.”
“That?”

Lyell pointed at me with a smug face. That honestly pissed me off a bit. He overlooked my displeasure and continued his speech.

“His judgment was not wrong. He thoughtlessly headed into danger, but the way he dealt with it wasn’t bad. The problem was his lack of power to accomplish what he planned to do.”
“Well… He’s still a kid.”
“If he plans to be an Adventurer, being a child or not is irrelevant. If you throw yourself into danger while lacking power, what awaits you is only death.”
“Well, yeah.”
“So, everything would work out if he had that power.”
“Come again?”
“If Cloud is weak, we just have to make him stronger. I’m saying that I’ll train him.”
“Come again!?”

Actually, Lyell and Maria were visiting Cortina’s home thrice a week. They have dinner with us together, chatted some, and then went back to the village at nighttime. Putting it differently, they had some spare time until the nighttime.

“I’ll use my spare time and… No, I’ll get Gadius in on this as well. We will train him together. If we do that, his lack of ability should get resolved.”
“W-Well…”

Honestly speaking, this was more than Cloud could ever ask for. I wasn’t that good at using a sword. As for a tank, I’ve never even attempted it. Having masters of those two fields teach him was an opportunity that’d probably never come again in his life.

Moreover, being a Half-Demon, he was limited in the choice of teachers. This was a much better option compared to training under me who specialized in threads.

I acknowledged Lyell’s decision. But it was not for me alone to decide.

“I’ll ask the person himself for now.”
“Please do. It is better to teach him before he develops bad habits.”
“That’s a good idea! If Cloud becomes reliable, I can safely leave Nicole in his hands.”

Maria joined in on Lyell’s conversation. Despite knowing that Cloud was a Half-Demon, she did not hold a bad impression of him.

The World Tree Religion wasn’t very fond of Half-Demons, but Maria herself seemed to view them as victims of the disaster that happened in the myths. Not to mention, she knew me in my previous life, so her outlook on Half-Demons changed multiple times.

When it came to Cloud’s ability, it seems that she wanted to help somehow but couldn’t for some time now.

Following that, Lyell headed to Maxwell to talk about involving Gadius. And like that, the plan to give gifted education to Cloud had started.