"This kind of touch really feels good."
"And judging by Teacher Serie's expression, she seemed to be enjoying it too."
Unfortunately, the carriage reached the inn early. Guter got out with some regret and checked in with his teacher at the front desk.
Not long after arriving in his room and setting down his luggage, Guter heard a knock at the door.
Guter opened the door and found Teacher Serie standing outside.
"Teacher, are you looking to extend the session?"
Serie's eyebrow twitched. Though she had never heard that term before, she roughly understood what he meant.
"We can talk about that when there's a chance later."
"Hurry up and get ready. You'll accompany me to the market to buy supplies."
"Our next stop is Arter Forest. The roads there are rugged and impassable by carriage, so we can only travel on foot. We'll need to spend several nights there, and the supplies we need are numerous and varied, so the two of us need to split up."
"If we can't buy everything, we may have to waste another day in this city in the Lant Region."
"Okay, I'll be out after I wash my face."
Guter nodded. No wonder the driver hadn't discussed a meeting place for the next day when they parted this time. The hired route had only extended as far as this city.
When Guter came out after washing his face, he found Serie sitting on his bed waiting for him, her two pale bare feet swinging constantly over the edge.
Their slender whiteness, refracted by the sunlight, was reflected in Guter's pupils.
To put it plainly, Guter stared so intently that Serie was left speechless and stopped swinging her feet.
Only then did Guter's gaze return to normal.
"Since you're done washing up, let's get going."
"Here! Take this." As she spoke, Serie picked up a suitcase from beside the bed and tossed it to him.
"Thud."
Guter caught the suitcase steadily and gave it a slight shake in his hand.
It should have been empty, but he had no idea what material it was made from. It was far heavier than an ordinary suitcase.
"The one in your hand is a Magic Tool suitcase."
As though she had heard Guter's thoughts, Serie began explaining before he could even ask.
"The storage space inside this Magic Tool suitcase is far larger than it looks, and it can hold a great deal of cargo."
"One suitcase should be enough to hold all the supplies the two of us need for our overnight stay."
"That's amazing."
Guter praised it, then asked, "But Teacher, why didn't we prepare everything and pack it in here before setting out?"
"..."
After a moment of silence, Serie explained, "Because that would have made the suitcase very heavy, and I didn't want to carry such a heavy suitcase all the way here."
"Also, repellents for the mosquitoes commonly found in Arter Forest and antidotes for common poisons can only be bought most reliably and effectively in border regions like this."
"Alright, stop asking so many questions."
"Take this list. Once we get to the market, we'll split up. Meet outside the market after you finish buying everything."
"Alright."
Guter accepted the list from his teacher and agreed.
Two hours later.
Carrying armfuls of supplies, Guter emerged victorious from the market and stood outside waiting for his teacher.
Half an hour later.
Teacher Serie was still nowhere to be seen. After some thought, Guter decided that rather than stand around here, he might as well open the Magic Tool suitcase and organize the supplies first.
One hour later.
After repeatedly compressing and stacking everything without damaging the goods, Guter had reduced the space taken up by his purchases in the suitcase as much as possible, leaving plenty of room for the goods Teacher Serie had bought.
Another hour later.
After waiting outside the market for a full two and a half hours, Guter finally could not sit still any longer.
Magic power surged from his entire body, spreading brazenly throughout the market without any attempt at concealment.
Doing this in a city was extremely rude, of course—a provocation toward every mage whose presence was detected.
But efficiency came first, and Guter could not be bothered to think that much about it.
Besides, this was only a border town in the Lant Region. Even if there were mages here, how many could there possibly be?
Even if his luck truly was that bad and he flushed out one or two of them in the market, he could just beat them up if they came looking for trouble.
Guter had absolute confidence in his magical attainments.
Guter had one hundred percent confidence in his physical abilities.
With the frail little bodies of mages, let alone one or two, even if seven or eight of them came at him together, they would not be enough to withstand a single elbow strike from Guter.
According to relativity in physics, whenever Guter's iron fist came down, a few mages were bound to achieve liftoff on the spot.
Suddenly, Guter's eyes flashed. After spreading his magic power across most of the market, he finally received the familiar fluctuations of his teacher's magic power.
Just as Guter was about to withdraw his spread-out magic power, another weak magical signal suddenly entered his perception.
Damn it. I actually ran into another mage in the market. Hopefully he has enough sense not to come looking for trouble.
Thinking this, Guter headed toward Teacher Serie's location.
But troublingly, according to the feedback from his gradually retracting magical detection, that weak magical source he had detected earlier was following the retreating detection magic and gradually approaching him.
"Tch."
Guter clicked his tongue. "An old-fashioned conservative? Does he really take that whole mage code of morality and honor so seriously?"
Fine. He had been the rude one first. If the approaching mage had a good attitude, Guter would yield a little and give him a way out.
But if his attitude was bad, if he came over acting all high and mighty, then Guter would have no choice but to let him learn the skill of vertical takeoff eleven years ahead of schedule.
(It was currently 21 years before the New Era of Xin. Human mages would decipher flawed flight magic 11 years before the New Era of Xin.)
Setting this interruption aside for the moment, Guter hurried toward where Teacher Serie was in the market, wanting to see what exactly she was doing to take so long.
At the other end of the market, in front of an Antique Stall.
Serie, who had been crouching there for quite some time, examined the antiques while checking their price tags.
At the same time, she searched her memories of the eras in which the antiques had been produced, comparing them to determine whether they were authentic.
Before she knew it, nearly the entire afternoon had passed.
At last, Guter arrived. He immediately spotted his teacher squatting in front of the Antique Stall inspecting goods, and he was somewhat helpless.
This old fossil from the Shang and Zhou dynasties—is she going to buy last week's fake again?
There's an extra update, alright? Now that you've read this chapter, you can't complain that the previous one was padded anymore.
Before you continue