A dull longsword and a heartbroken villager

"Finally, isn't it common knowledge who's cleaning up the safe zone?" Bray said irritably.

"Hurry up, I need this commission." Bray tapped the table.

"..." The girl pouted, impatiently took the order form, and then made a copy.

"Alright, hurry up and take this twenty-copper-coin commission and go." She shooed Bray away like a fly.

"Your personality is really unlikable," Bray said helplessly.

"Levy, let's go."

“Oh!” Levy readily agreed.

"Wait a minute!" The girl didn't know why, but she involuntarily called out to Bray.

After she called out, she realized she didn't know why she had called out to the other person.

"You...you're not always so lucky. It's really dangerous outside the safe zone." After a long pause, the girl finally managed to utter this sentence.

"Uncle, don't risk your life for such a small reward. It's a huge loss."

The Adventurers' Guild is always short-staffed because most of the quests are genuinely dangerous.

Once you step out of the safe zone, it becomes dangerous.

If the area outside the safe zone weren't so terrifying, the exploration progress of the capital city wouldn't be so slow, not even reaching the outer city.

"Don't worry, it's just about finding a bed. The commission is just a side job," Brey said nonchalantly, waving the commission form in his hand.

He wasn't afraid to travel outside, as long as he didn't attract a dozen or so silver-level creatures at once.

"Seriously...aren't you amazing? You've been out of the safe zone so many times and nothing's happened." The girl finally asked the question she'd wanted to ask for a long time.

"Not really," Bray replied honestly after a few seconds of thought.

He was indeed not afraid of most silver-level beings, but his swordsmanship had reached a bottleneck a long time ago, and he could not improve it no matter what he did.

As expected, to further improve swordsmanship at this level, one needs extraordinary talent.

He can no longer become stronger.

Therefore, the enemies he couldn't defeat in the past, he still can't defeat now.

Therefore, it is not accurate to say that he is powerful; if he were, Kapras's situation would not have turned out this way.

In fact, Bray had once thought that with his strength, he might be able to reduce the number of Silver-class creatures on Kapras and thus alleviate the pressure on the Iron-class creatures.

But Bray quickly realized that this was wishful thinking.

Silver species are distributed all over the world, and finding them requires the world itself. More importantly, the number of silver species is not small.

It's not something that can be achieved by working hard for a few years.

During this time, he also had to leave Naruko, Levy, and Nia on the side...

To be honest, if Bray had chosen to do that, he would have ended up being neither a hero, nor a good father, nor a good husband.

Even now, Bray still has some doubts about his relationship with Naruko, wondering if it's the kind of relationship a normal married couple should have.

I always feel like I'm arguing with her or unilaterally beating her up.

To think that one person could reverse the entire situation is simply wishful thinking, just like how Bray once thought he could single-handedly stop the Silver Seeds.

It's a bit unrealistic, a bit too idealistic.

"Really?" The girl was a little skeptical of Bray's words, wondering if he was pretending to be weak while actually being strong.

Who knows, this uncle in front of me might be just as formidable as Lord Carrasco.

I heard that Lord Carrasco single-handedly defeated the demigod who had entered the safe zone, which greatly inspired everyone.

This person is able to enter and leave the safe zone every day...

"It's really nothing special, just good luck," Bray said in a nonchalant tone, as if this topic was less important than "Have you eaten today?"

He was just lucky to run into a great hero and learn swordsmanship.

He was just lucky to have stumbled upon the ruins that preserved other memories of himself.

He's just lucky; White Face hasn't managed to kill him yet.

If Bai Mian were standing in front of me, I would ask myself honestly, could I beat him?

We can't beat them.

"..." The girl looked at Bray's back with suspicion.

"Okay, I think so too... You're more like a homeless person than a master."

"Uncle, my name is Tina. What's your name?" After more than a year, she finally asked the uncle his name.

"Breaklas." Breklas waved casually with his back to the girl, making a point of including his surname when he gave his name.

"Don't call me uncle. You're not an uncle until you're thirty," he added, before pushing open the dilapidated wooden door once more.

The girl was stunned for a moment, then showed a surprised expression; she actually knew this name.

Braclas, also known among adventurers as the "Ghost Hunter".

Tina first heard the term "Demon Hunter" when she was about eleven years old.

Unexpectedly, when she turned sixteen, she was able to see the adventurer in person.

"Demon Hunter" refers to an adventurer who is as ferocious as a demon, and also implies that he only hunts monsters as powerful as demons.

Back then, she had a strange longing for this adventurer who was known for his handsome appearance.

Powerful! Ferocious!

But just now, her fantasy was shattered.

Bray does have a fierce appearance, but he is too decadent and lacks any sharpness, which is completely inconsistent with the eerie name of "Demon Hunter".

Not powerful! Not fierce! And a bit of a couch potato.

"You're the 'Demon Hunter'!?" Tina couldn't help but shout out after Bray had completely left.

Bray almost fell to the ground from Tina's shout.

“Oh yeah! It’s the ‘Demon Hunter’!” Levy remembered that Bray was often called that, and raised her paw in response.

His tone seemed quite proud.

"You should just forget about that title." Bray sighed and left the Adventurers' Guild without looking back.

"This name used to scare a lot of kids." He recalled his embarrassing past.

Honestly... after all this time, there are still people who remember their titles.

The person who always called him "Mr. Demon Hunter" is no longer here...

"Is Bray in a good mood?" Levy asked curiously, looking up at Bray with her arms around his waist.

"It's alright, let's go find a good bed." Bray gently rubbed Levy's cheek and said casually.

There was no obvious joy in his dead fish eyes.

However, Levy was certain that Bray was quite happy right now.

As for the reason for her happiness, Levy wasn't quite sure. Perhaps it was because of the title "Demon Hunter"?

Levy frowned, tilted her head, and looked completely bewildered. Bray casually sat down in the open space, examining the commission form in his hand.

The paper turned yellow not because it had been there for too long, but simply because it had been soaked in dirty water.

It's not that papermaking is impossible now, but it's too resource-intensive, so most paper now comes from recycled paper.

This included a large quantity of paper that had been soaked in dirty water.

Where did the dirty water come from? When countless sheets of white paper fall into puddles on the ground, wouldn't it look like this?

Paper that hasn't been soaked and ruined is also a resource.

"Bray, what is our commission?" Levy asked curiously, lying behind Bray.

Bray felt as if a small lion was lying behind him, giving him a sense of weight.

Children really do grow fast during puberty...

“A very common missing person request,” Bray said casually.

Bray didn't particularly pick and choose a case; he simply accepted one with a fairly good reward.

In fact, most of the commissions within the union are difficult for Bray to complete.

Some were searching for items outside the safe zone, while others were searching for people outside the safe zone.

Finding something is more than twice as troublesome as fighting.

It's no wonder that few people are willing to take on the mission; even if they risk their lives to leave the safe zone, they are not guaranteed to find the target.

Actually, Bray didn't have absolute confidence in accepting this commission; he was just trying his luck.

You can use your inner eye to sense it when the time comes.

Yes, I did it without thinking.

If not, go back and say you can't find it.

If you see a corpse, then simply go back and report the bad news.

To be honest, most of the missing person requests were posted more than a year ago, so the chances of finding the person alive are really small.

Just because you die doesn't mean you can escape to another safe zone.

"Even if they find a corpse or belongings, will they still give a reward?" Bray suddenly noticed a small line of text below the commission form.

"It's probably impossible to find the body, but we can try to find the belongings." If it really was a body, it should have decomposed after more than a year.

There is a chance to search for the belongings of the person who commissioned the search.

Of course, it would be even better if there was a one in ten million chance of finding a living person.

Who knows, maybe that person is alive, and then on a whim, risking their life to return to the Imperial Capital Safe Zone, only to run into Bray again?

That's how you get twenty copper coins, which will replenish Nia's food rations.

Who knows, there might even be enough money to get Nia a wooden sword, fulfilling the mischievous little girl's wish to learn swordsmanship.

Gold coins were no longer the common currency; instead, copper coins were used instead.

Carrasco may have thought that the old nobles who hoarded large amounts of gold coins could easily change the "ecological environment" of the safe zone.

Copper coins were a currency that no one, regardless of social class, would hoard in large quantities.

It's basically like starting over... but starting over has its pros and cons.

The downside is that things are like what happened to Bray now.

Bray used to have a huge sum of money in the bank, which was considered "the enemy of God," but now he has to rack his brains for a long time just to buy some clothes.

He once thought that he would no longer have to struggle for money in his future life and could live a more comfortable life.

Looking back now, I realize how naive I was.

If only I had been smarter back then and saved more copper coins.

"Shall we go now?" Levy asked tentatively, her tail accidentally wrapping around Bray's waist.

Honestly, Levy's tail isn't soft at all; it felt a bit uncomfortable when it was curled up.

However, Bray could not say this aloud, and could only sigh helplessly, as long as Levy was happy.

“Hmm.” Bray nodded, then stood up and dusted off his trousers.

Levy naturally got off Bray's back.

The safe zone isn't very big; the entire inner city is just so-so, spanning no more than three kilometers.

Moreover, Bray didn't live in the center of the inner city, but rather in a place slightly on the edge.

Of course, this is also quite convenient; it doesn't even take an hour to leave the safe zone.

---

Levy, who was standing next to Bray, suddenly twitched her long elven ears a few times.

"The clanging and banging is so noisy," Levy said dejectedly. =A=