The Talentless Inheritor

"..."

Kathrina who was overseeing Sebastian's training looked at his perfect shots without any expression on her face.

When Sebastian finished firing an entire quiver of perfect shots, he lowered the bow and Kathrina approached him.

"Young master, is something the matter? I can sense hesitation each time you fire."

Sebastian smiled wryly, "was it that obvious? I thought I had concealed it pretty well."

After the goblin subjugation, Sebastian took a few more sessions with Kathrina and was told he didn't need to practice so frequently anymore. Today was the one day a week that they still met and Kathrina could sense the changes within him.

"Is this about the matter with Sir Gilbert?" she asked.

Sebastian shook his head, "it's something else. Though I can't really tell you, I can just say that I'm very mentally fatigued right now."

Sebastian placed the bow down and laid down on the floor. Kathrina looked at him for a few seconds before walking next to him, scooping up her skirt and laying down. Her hair was tied into a ponytail and she had to tilt her head as to not ruin it.

"Young master, did you know that I'm an orphan?"

Kathrina didn't seem to have expected an answer as she continued, "as an orphan, I had to do many things I wish I hadn't. I didn't have a choice. But, although it's true that I wish I hadn't, I didn't regret doing them. It sounds stupid and complicated but what I'm trying to say is that instead of turning this experience into regret, learn from it instead."

"I didn't even tell you what I was worried about," Sebastian retorted in disbelief.

In response, she flashed him an indecipherable smile, "I don't need to know what your problem is to understand what you're worried about."

Although Sebastian had a ton of questions and retorts to her statement, he couldn't voice any of them and ended up staying silent.

...

"You... what?"

Gilbert looked at the man in front of him with furrowed brows. They were in his private study where he conducted most of his business as an heir.

"I... hired an assassin to kill the inept but he was found burned to death in an alley," the man answered. He and Gilbert were the same age but it was obvious there was a hierarchical relationship between the two of them.

"Crowley, are you an idiot?!"

Gilbert slammed down on his desk and roared in rage.

Crowley flinched and lowered his head. It would be one thing if the assassin succeeded but that wasn't the case.

Gilbert sat down knowing that yelling at Crowley wouldn't do anything and rubbed his temples. "You say that he was burned to death, how exactly did that happen? The inept doesn't have any abilities."

Crowley nervously reached into his clothes and pulled out a piece of paper, "I believe that it was the tool he showcased that was used to light his arrow on fire. He might've made a flammable concoction, threw it at the assassin, and used the tool."

Gilbert frowned at the words written on the paper. He placed it over the candle by his side and once it completely turned to ash, he looked at Crowley. "Are you saying he can make a concoction that can burn a person instantaneously? How did he get the resources for that?"

Even if the kingdom funded research on it, it would still be difficult to create something of that scale. It would definitely be costly—how did Sebastian get the money for it?

"This is just a rumor but..." Crowley leaned forward with a serious expression on his face, "I've heard that the head of the House of Sol had begun giving him a monthly allowance and it's not a small sum either."

Gilbert furrowed his brows. Even if that were the case, how did Sebastian do it so quickly?

"He is number one in theory, perhaps it has something to do with that?" Gilbert began to take out several papers from his desk after muttering to himself.

"Where's Roan's report?" he asked Crowley when he couldn't find the papers. Crowley wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed and neither was he his right-hand man, but he was definitely the most reliable when it comes to searching for information.

"I've already filtered it and it only contains unnecessary information. Right now, we should focus on finding out if he's really an apothecary."

Earlier, Crowley had been cowering in fear but now that he knew Gilbert wasn't going to punish him, he proactively began giving suggestions about how to deal with Sebastian.

If he really is an apothecary, then even Gilbert had to be careful. An apothecary is a respected profession because they create and research medicine to save people but it's also feared because if they can create medicine, then it's a given they can create poison as well.

Even if Gilbert were to strengthen himself further, a good poison would be more than enough to deal with him. Also, what would he be able to do if he spontaneously combusted? His muscles strengthening themselves wouldn't help him much.

"I'll leave this task to you, don't make another mistake. I'm not as patient as you think I am."

"I won't!"

Gilbert didn't spare Crowley another glance as the latter left the room.

Outside the room, Crowley raised his thumb up to his mouth and bit down with a convulsing face.

"That inept dared to make me look like a failure in front of Gilbert...!"

It was the epitome of rage. If anyone were to see the expression on his face, they'd definitely think twice about approaching him.

...

"..."

Sebastian wandered the streets aimlessly. He wore common clothes and a hood as a disguise but he didn't feel the need to hide his face. His left hand was still covered with a glove while his right was revealed.

"Can I have a couple of these?" Sebastian bought skewers from a stall and began to divert from his previous path.

He didn't know where he had gone in a daze but when he came to, he found an old decrepit building with an eerie aura. But, his steps only stopped for a moment before he opened the door.

"Hm?"

A pale woman sitting behind a desk with many bottles of liquid placed on top raised her head once Sebastian entered.

Sebastian took a quick glance around to find out it was the shop of an apothecary.

"Customer, are you looking for anything in particular?" the pale woman asked.

Sebastian didn't respond but instead begin to look around. The various potions and pills had labels on them so he didn't have much trouble.

The pale woman decided to ignore Sebastian, it wasn't strange for oddballs like him to visit such a place after all.

He reached out his hands towards several potions but retracted them and only took a couple before heading towards the pale woman.

The potions that he had taken didn't seem to be very special compared to the rest but it caused the woman to raise her brows. The potency in the potions was higher than the rest.

"Looks like customer has a good eye," she commented, "this one costs 1600 Aur while the other one costs 1500 Aur but as a first visit bonus, I'll leave it at 3000 Aur in total."

"Thank you," Sebastian took out three large silvers and placed them in the shopkeeper's hands before turning to leave.

"I await your next visit with anticipation," she added as Sebastian stepped out of the door.

...

"How exactly will these help me?"

Sebastian spoke while swishing the potions inside their vials.

—You will need a few more additional ingredients to perfect the potion. Once you do, you will have another trump card.

She answered quickly but as always, he had to ask her a few more times to get the full picture.

"What are the ingredients and where can I get them?"

—The easiest ones to find are the—

Balanos listed about seven ingredients in total. Five of them could easily be found in the market and weren't particularly expensive but the final two ingredients required him to find a private seller or go out to get them himself.

"Looks like I really do have to become a mercenary..." Sebastian sighed and got ready to register. It was particularly late but he needed to keep his identity a secret and registering at night was a perfect time.

He began to search his room for something to cover his face with but as expected, there was nothing except cloth.

"Would I be able to find a mask in the market at this time?" there were plenty in the morning but it was already about eight in the evening, very few stalls would still be open and a stall that sells novelty items being open was even more unlikely.

—Use the cloth. I'll expend some of my power to hide your features.

Sebastian did as he was told. He quickly wrapped the cloth around the lower half of his face and then dr.a.p.ed the hood over his head. He faced the long mirror on the wall and as if in cue with his actions, his face gradually became more obscured. It didn't look like it was covered but for some reason, he couldn't see his own face clearly, as if there was something that prevented him from engraving the features into memory.

He walked out of the estate while hiding from the eyes of Martha and Baritos who should still be awake then headed towards the Mercenary Guild.

It wasn't a very fancy place, it was just a large wooden building. Even from outside, it was obvious that there were a lot of people inside even at this time where most of the townspeople are in their homes.

Sebastian took a deep breath and walked into the door. Only the receptionists paid attention to him while the rest of the mercenaries were talking while eating and drinking.

Sebastian approached the nearest receptionist and spoke, "I want to register as a mercenary."

The receptionist wasn't a man with a rugged face as Sebastian expected, it was a beautiful woman with an ample bosom.

"Are you fifteen years old or older?"

"Yes."

"Then, please fill this in."

With just a simple 'yes', Sebastian was allowed to become a mercenary. Isn't the security a little too lacking?

The receptionist handed him a parchment and a quill pen with a bottle of ink and a regular sheet of paper with a normal pen.

"Can you read and write?"

Sebastian nodded in response and the receptionist began to inform him.

"This paper is your personal information sheet and this parchment contains your contract as a mercenary."

While he was filling in his information, the receptionist was telling him about the rules and benefits of being a mercenary.

"—in the case of your untimely death, the guild isn't responsible for giving your beneficiaries any pension unless informed so. The membership fee is 1000 Aur."

Sebastian handed over small silvers and then the paper and parchment both of which were completed.

"Your name is... blank, and your alias is Raven. Are you sure about this?"

The receptionist asked Sebastian to confirm. Names were optional but aliases had to be filled in if it was left blank, or so Sebastian was told while he was filling it in.

"Yes."

"Alright. Your mercenary card will be given to you tomorrow. On behalf of the Mercenary Guild, I welcome you, Raven."

The woman bowed her head slightly and Sebastian nodded back in courtesy before checking out the various requests written in the notice board.

"I need to get even stronger," Sebastian muttered to himself while looking at the requests with insane conditions. He probably wouldn't even be able to do an eighth of the requests here.

"Balanos, where do I start looking?"