After choosing to leave, they regretted it.

"My lady, you are the first human ever recorded to have emerged intact from a mountain giant's lair. Why? Did you use some perfume that the mountain giants hate? Or perhaps..."

"Norton, shut up! This isn't the Scholars Guild, that's enough!"

Valeria interrupted him again in a bad mood, then smiled and said to Heidi:

"I'm sorry, Miss Elena, my subordinates...are all a little weird."

"No, it's okay."

Heidi shook her head and looked at the man with glasses named Norton again.

Scholars basically play the role of researchers in this world, responsible for ecological research on various monsters and demons, as well as technological development.

To use Aize's words, it is basically a strange combination of biologist and engineer.

Like magicians, they have their own organization and largely monopolize the knowledge of this world.

Other teams, whether they are adventurers or heroes, basically bring some scholars as consultants.

But the Goddess Blade of the past is not needed, after all, there is this guy Aze.

For this reason, Heidi had basically no chance to come into contact with scholars and was quite unfamiliar with this existence.

He asked with a little curiosity:

"Mr. Norton is a scholar?"

Being asked this question suddenly, the man with glasses, Norton, was stunned for a moment, then he raised his head with an unusually proud smile:

"Yes! I'm the 351st graduate of the Imperial Scholars Research Association. I'm a genius who mastered the science of monster ecology in just six years!"

Six years?

But it only took Aize two years, and there were basically no monsters he didn't recognize.

Moreover, in the past two years, the time spent on learning has only been very small. Most of the time is spent on fighting, planning, executing missions, and intrigues with various forces.

If it is true, then Heidi's evaluation is not as good as Aize's by a finger.

At this time, Valeria smiled and pressed Norton's shoulders:

"Although this guy has a bit of a strange personality, he's really useful when it comes to monster knowledge. I put a lot of effort into getting him into the team. This time, too. Without him, we wouldn't have been able to find the mountain giant's lair."

So this guy isn't exactly bragging.

So, is it really that Aize is too invincible?

Think about it too.

Heidi smiled wryly and shook her head.

What that guy said, in addition to the theories of this world, also included a lot of knowledge from another world.

Since I am also a genius, why should scholars from this world compare with me?

In the past, when he was earnestly explaining science to people, Heidi still found him annoying.

Looking back now, if I had listened a few more times, the situation might have been different.

Heidi smiled bitterly to herself, picked up the soup bowl and took a sip, her mouth felt bitter.

It’s not the taste of the soup, but in this situation, when I think of Aize, I have this feeling.

She couldn't help but wonder if the situation would be different if Aize hadn't left her.

Valeria, who was standing by, saw Heidi's depressed mood and thought she was just thinking about her so-called "father" again, so she didn't think much about it.

I just quickly tried to smooth things over:

"Eat quickly. We'll take you to Limok after you're done. Don't worry."

Chapter 20 The Girl's Request

After arranging everything, Aize devoted all his energy to the compilation of teaching materials to be used in the future academy.

After all, as the key to military expansion, people, or talents, are the most important.

Unlike previous battle plans, as a teaching material, what is more important than the examples themselves is the ideas and concepts they contain.

In order to make it understandable to those people in this world who have no foundation, Aize must choose his words very carefully.

Although it is a very tedious job, the time is not tight, so it is still quite leisurely.

When you are tired, you can drink tea, take a nap, etc., and no one will kill you for a disagreement.

As the work progressed, time gradually turned to the afternoon.

When Aize was resting, Alicia suddenly came to the door.

The day before yesterday, because of the arrival of the church delegation, Aize left halfway to deal with it. When he came back, Alicia had disappeared and did not show up the next day.

It's like appearing and disappearing like a ghost.

Aize once wondered if this guy had turned into something inconspicuous again, hiding in the dark and observing him.

Fortunately, no.

"Aize, um... can you help me?"

Said the pink-haired girl who came to the door.

Since there was plenty of time, Aize naturally had no reason to refuse. He agreed readily and followed her to the commercial street of Tafia.

As a completely civilian area, the commercial street did not suffer much damage in the previous battles.

It even seems more lively than usual because of the huge demand for supplies brought about by post-war reconstruction.

Their destination was a restaurant in a corner of the commercial street run by Anna and others.

As the incident ended, the store resumed business almost immediately.

When the two arrived, the black-haired mixed-race girl, Anna, was already waiting at the door.

She changed into her previous outfit, which looked a bit like a maid outfit, and looked quite cute.

"Big brother, big sister, welcome!"

The little girl smiled and bowed, then led the two into the store, sat them down at a table in the corner, and poured tea quickly.

"Thank you."

While expressing his thanks, Aize glanced around the store.

It wasn't mealtime, so there shouldn't be much business, but surprisingly, there was another table besides Aize.

Compared to the previous situation where there were few customers even during peak hours, this is much better.

“How’s business these days?”

"Thanks to Big Brother, there are no more troublemakers, and business is much better than before."

Anna said with a wry smile:

"But, after all, this is a shop run by a mixed-blood, and there was a bloody incident and people died there before, so everyone... is probably a little scared. But it's okay, just take your time."

The attitude is quite positive.

It’s better to say that this child has always been too obedient.

You know, the childhoods of most mixed-race people do not support them having such personalities.

It’s a bit hard to imagine what kind of environment he grew up in.

But it’s not a good question to ask, I can only think about it.

Anna paused and asked again:

"By the way, big brother, I heard about the academy. When will it start?"

Aize raised his eyebrows:

"It will probably take another two weeks to prepare everything. Uh...how did you know?"

"The witch sister told me! She even invited me to her class to study magic together!"

"Oh? Really?"

"Ok!"

The little girl nodded vigorously.

And Aize's gaze involuntarily fell on Anna's black horns hidden in her hair.

Red eyes, black hair, black horns.

At first, the first thing that came to Aize's mind was the succubus.

But from current observations, this doesn't seem to be the case.

But other races...

...Demon Clan?

Not really...probably.

Thinking of this, Aize shook his head.

Since Villian invited her, she must have noticed something. She can just ask her directly when she gets back.

First, we must solve the current problem.

He picked up the teacup, took a sip, and asked:

"What is it that you asked me to help you with?"

When it came to the point, Anna put away her smile and her expression suddenly became serious.

Said:

"Brother, some of our former companions in the village didn't like living in the city, so they moved out and planned to build a new village. Did you know about this?"

"Yeah. I know."

It can even be said that it was arranged by Aize.

"This morning, my companions who were clearing the fields found a severely injured half-breed near the camp. He looked like a slave, with a collar around his neck."

"He was seriously injured. Did the collar... escape from somewhere?"

"Ok!"

Anna nodded vigorously.

"She said she was captured in the eastern part of the kingdom and transported all the way to the nearby mountains. She managed to escape when the guards weren't paying attention. It's said there are hundreds of other people imprisoned there as well!"

Aize nodded and asked:

"So, you want me to help you get them out?"

"Yes! Please, big brother!"

It sounds like a simple request, but it's actually not.

The slave trade, even the slave trade against mixed-race people, is strictly prohibited at the legal level in all human countries today.

Under such circumstances, those who could transport hundreds of slaves across the entire kingdom were definitely not a small group, and they must have the endorsement of the nobles behind them.

The purpose of transporting people here from thousands of miles away is very clear.

They just wanted to sell slaves to the demon territory through the Tafia checkpoint.

The war between demons and humans has reached such a stage that there is no open trade at all.

But smuggling does exist, from weapons, luxury goods, contraband, to slaves.

Some merchants would take these things and exchange them with the demons for various things that humans could not produce or were extremely rare. This kind of barter was quite popular during peacetime.

In short, this is not a problem of one or two teams of slave traders looking to make a quick buck.

If he intervenes, Aize will likely have to face a huge network.

The stakes are high.