Teacher, Is There Reproductive Isolation Between You and Me?

After a moment of silence, Guter said seriously, "Teacher, your reasoning is impressive."

To his disciple's praise, Serie merely shook her head.

"It is not that my reasoning is particularly strong. I have simply seen more."

"Also, do not think about claiming that bounty. Matters involving nobles are extremely troublesome to get tangled up in."

"You will most likely have to face more than just the bounty itself."

As Serie spoke, a trace of displeasure appeared on her face, as though she had recalled some unpleasant memories.

"Understood, Teacher."

Guter nodded in agreement. After all, their goal was to reach Holy City Hutrall as quickly as possible, and such a "side quest" clearly was not something they should take on now.

When the carriage stopped outside an inn, Guter got out first and extended a hand toward Serie, who was still inside, intending to help his teacher down like a gentleman.

Serie glanced at her disciple, but she accommodated him, placing her hand in Guter's outstretched palm and letting him help her down from the carriage.

The coachman greeted his two employers and said he would take his leave first. Since few inns in the city had stables, he needed to find one where the horses could be fed and rested.

Guter nodded. After arranging a time and place to meet the coachman tomorrow, he watched the man leave.

Once the carriage had gone into the distance, Guter and his teacher headed into the inn together, intending to settle their lodging for the night first.

However, when they reached the inn's steps, Guter's attention was caught by a troubled young married woman.

Leaving his teacher slightly behind, Guter hurried over to the young, beautiful woman and grabbed hold of her baby carriage.

"Hello, ma'am. Are you trying to get it up there?"

"Huh?"

Approached by a stranger, the woman instinctively took several steps back. But seeing the sincerity in Guter's eyes, her fear quickly faded, and she answered.

"Yes. My husband had to leave me temporarily because of something."

"But the baby suddenly seems uncomfortable. I do not know whether she is hungry or sleepy, so I wanted to take her back to the inn to rest first."

"It is just that this carriage is so heavy, and I cannot carry it up alone. If I carry the baby upstairs first, I will not be able to come back down right away, and there will be no one to watch the carriage."

The woman spoke with distress.

"It is fine. Let me handle it."

After receiving the married woman's consent, Guter firmly grasped the baby carriage with both hands and carried it all the way up with remarkable steadiness.

Outside the inn, the woman looked at the baby in the carriage, who had neither cried nor fussed, and sincerely thanked Guter.

When she saw Serie standing beside Guter, she even briefly misunderstood the relationship between them.

Serie did not mind. After the woman left, she patted Guter on the back and gave her disciple an approving gesture.

At the same time, the system's notification sounded beside Guter's ear.

Ding!

Daily Quest: Daily Good Deed completed

The sudden system notification actually left Guter stunned for a moment.

Once he came to his senses, Guter smiled and shook his head, then checked in with his teacher.

How should he put it? The power of habit really was terrifying.

He had completed the Daily Good Deed task more and more often. Helping people in need whenever he could had seemingly become one of Guter's habits.

When he had helped the woman carry up the baby carriage, he had not even thought of the Daily Good Deed task.

Still, perhaps such forgetfulness was not a bad thing.

He was neither a mindlessly self-sacrificing saint nor a villain rotten to the core.

Doing good deeds still made him feel good. Besides, he could earn system rewards and build a good reputation.

Why not?

After Guter and Serie received their room keys from the inn's front desk, they each returned to their rooms to put down their luggage and wash up. Then they met up to stroll around town and, before night fell, found a restaurant highly praised by the locals.

At the dining table, Guter looked at his teacher sitting across from him, wolfing down steak and juice. After hesitating for a while, he finally asked a question he had long wanted to ask.

"Teacher?"

"Mm?"

"According to the legends in storybooks, are elves not supposed to like fruits and vegetables and drink dew? You seem... not to be like that."

"Hehe."

Serie rolled her eyes at her disciple. After chewing and swallowing the steak in her mouth, she took another sip of juice to wash it down and said,

"If we truly followed what those storybooks described, would your teacher have to live up in a tree every night as well?"

"Mm."

Guter nodded.

"I do not know where these storybooks and rumors came from, but they have given people such strange stereotypes about elves."

Serie patted her forehead and explained helplessly.

"We elves and dwarves both fall within the category of humans."

"Other than a few physiological traits and our extremely long lifespans differing from humans in the narrow sense, there is no real difference."

"We have neither the racial magical talent mentioned in rumors nor the strange habit of having to live in the wilderness like in storybooks."

"Most elves can use magic, and their magical attainments are fairly good. That is because, over such long lives, we have to find something to do, and magic, with its endless mysteries, is obviously most people's first choice."

"Our mastery is not because elves are more talented at magic. It is merely because we have practiced for a long time."

"Honestly, humans have the greatest talent. Whether it is magical talent or combat talent, you humans can reach, or even surpass, the long-lived races in just a few decades."

"So, do not hold those stereotypes anymore."

Serie looked at the disciple before her and jabbed her fork through the air at Guter as a warning.

"Then..."

After hearing her teacher explain that elves and humans were not all that different, Guter continued asking.

"Teacher, since elves and humans do not differ much, is there reproductive isolation between you and me?"

Serie: ???

"Um..."

This time, Serie fell silent for a long while.

Only after quite some time did Serie speak to her disciple.

"I truly do not know the answer to that question."

"But, Guter, there is something else I know very clearly."

"What?"

Guter, who had been about to continue teasing Serie with his words, stopped and asked in confusion.

"If you do not shut that mouth of yours, your teacher will blast you away with magic."

Guter: .

I will behave. Please spare me.

At the same time, City Lord's Mansion in Fortress City - Frich.

Unlike Guter's cheerful atmosphere, the City Lord's Mansion was shrouded in oppressive tension.

The city lord's wife clung to her eldest son, who had just returned from hunting in a white robe, and cried her heart out.

That white robe, which had not picked up even a drop of blood or speck of dust despite fighting magical beasts at close range, was now soaked with tears.

The eldest son held his mother, who wept over his younger brother's disappearance, and for a moment did not know what to do. He could only cast a pleading look toward his father.

But what could his father do? The moment he saw the white robe on his eldest son dampened by tears, his eyebrows began twitching wildly.

If she had not been his beloved wife and the mother of his children, the city lord would have pulled her away long ago.

This book would go on an indefinite hiatus starting next chapter.

(Fake. Happy April Fools' Day, everyone.)