Hearing Aster's words, the man reached out, trying to grab the young Elestar by the collar.
But before his hand could touch him, it was caught and stopped by the old man sitting beside him.
The adventurer's expression twisted as he bared his teeth and glared at the elder in front of him.
"Are you in a hurry to enter your grave?"
Valorant remained motionless, his face cold and unyielding—like an unbreakable cliff.
The silence itself was a warning.
Seeing that no response came from the old man, the adventurer tried to pull his hand back.
It didn't move.
He shook his arm, trying to free himself.
Nothing changed.
Finally, his patience snapped. The adventurer raised his free hand, preparing to punch the old man.
"You wretched old man!"
Valorant didn't wait.
He rose in one swift motion, twisted the man's restrained arm behind his back, kicked him hard in the spine, and sent him flying straight through a nearby window.
Aster stared at his master in shock.
'He kicked a grown man straight out the window…'
Noticing his disciple's gaze, Valorant slowly sat back down and said in a low voice,
"The people here seem rather rough."
At that moment, Silvia returned to the room. She was carrying a tray with white paper, a crystal sphere, and beside it two gold coins and forty silver coins.
Seeing the shattered window, the guild employee glanced at the boy and the old man. When she noticed they were sitting calmly as if nothing had happened, her brows furrowed.
Approaching them, she forced a strained smile.
"Sir… this is your reward."
Valorant glanced at the tray and extended his hand.
"I'll take the two gold coins. The rest is his."
Aster turned toward his master, then reached out and took the coins—money he had earned with his own hands for the first time.
The sensation felt strange… yet pleasant.
After handing over the coins, Silvia looked at Aster.
"Come closer."
She then began asking the standard registration questions, while the young Elestar answered without hesitation.
"Name?"
"Aster."
"Age?"
"Twelve."
"Good. You're exactly the minimum age for registration. If you were eleven or younger, I wouldn't be able to register you. You're lucky. Now place your hand on the sphere and direct your mana into it."
Aster felt relieved hearing that. From her earlier expression, he had feared she might refuse him.
He placed his hand on the transparent crystal sphere and directed mana into it. The sphere absorbed the mana and began to glow, shimmering with light.
"That's enough. Remove your hand," Silvia said.
"That's it?" Aster asked, confused.
"Yes. What were you expecting?"
'Master really didn't need to break that window,' Aster thought, glancing toward Valorant.
"You're officially registered. Look at the hand you placed on the sphere—you'll see a mark. Show that mark at other guilds, and they'll recognize and serve you."
Aster looked at his hand. Etched there was the city's name, its emblem—a fortress—along with the guild name and today's date.
"This shows where and when you were registered. Now we need to determine your rank," Silvia said, placing a sheet of white paper over the sphere.
The light from the sphere projected symbols onto the paper.
"You're D-rank."
"Is that good?"
"Considering your age? Yes. It's a solid start."
The Adventurers' Guild had six ranks in total: E, D, C, B, A, and S.
These were determined by one's mana capacity and physical condition.
Seeing that the registration was complete, Valorant said to his disciple,
"We should return to Dan now."
"Congratulations on registering with the Northstat Adventurers' Guild. May fortune favor you in your future adventures, Adventurer Aster," Silvia said stiffly as she saw them off.
As Aster and Valorant exited the guild, they spotted the adventurer from earlier sitting outside, finally beginning to stand.
"I'll show you one day, old man."
"How exactly do you plan to defeat one of the Seven Sages?" Aster interjected calmly.
At those words, everyone on the street froze and turned their gaze toward the old man beside him.
Valorant pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head with a pained sigh.
The adventurer stared blankly.
"What did you say? That's impossible. This old man?"
Hearing that, Valorant's expression hardened. A faint trace of bloodlust leaked from him.
Fear spread across the faces of the onlookers.
The man's voice died in his throat.
Meanwhile, Dan was preparing the carriage and brought it around to the front of the inn.
From the opposite direction, Aster and Valorant approached.
"Good day, Sir Dan."
"Hello. How are you feeling? Fully recovered?"
"Yes. I'm much better now."
Valorant opened the carriage door.
"We're leaving."
Aster and his master boarded the carriage, and once again they set out on the road. Dan took his usual place at the front, guiding the horses.
As they neared the city gates, a thought crossed Aster's mind.
'I should've come here half a year ago. If I had made it back then… what would have changed?'
What could have truly happened?
He pondered the question briefly, then decided—
His current life wasn't so bad after all.
***
Four days passed.
Duke Alaris's estate turned out to be far more distant than Aster had expected. After days of travel, they finally arrived.
The carriage stopped in front of the estate gates, where two soldiers stood guard.
Despite Duke Alaris being one of the most important figures in the empire, only two guards protected his residence.
And they didn't even look like proper soldiers—more like farmers wearing armor.
'Is the duke just that confident in his own safety?' Aster wondered.
"Greetings, lads! Open the gate. I've brought the guest Duke Alaris summoned," Dan called out.
The soldiers opened the gates wide and let the carriage inside.
Looking out through the window, Aster felt as though the duke's residence resembled a palace. The closer they got, the larger it seemed in his eyes.
When the carriage finally stopped in front of the building, someone was already waiting at the entrance.