Meanwhile, currently unaware of the events that are taking place at the battle between Elrich and Paul, the condition around the capital had stabilized.

"HAAAaaaa!"

*CLANG!*

The duel between two combatants at the training area of the Eberbach residence had just concluded. A sword flew through the air and landed on the ground together with its wielder.

*THUD!*

"That concludes the match!" Zwei who was acting as a referee raised his arm to signal the end. "Sodina ojou-sama is the victor!"

"I win again!" Sodina triumphantly grinned towards her compet.i.tor.

She had won every single match they had ever since they started sparring against each other. Sodina couldn't understand, were all heroes really this weak when they first arrived in Edea? If that were so, how could he speak so arrogantly like he had done whenever he talked to people like the king or n.o.bles like Julian?

"Hmm…" Kazuya got back on his feet and dusted his clothes while deep in thought.

The way he acted whenever they would duel annoyed Sodina. His continued losses didn't affect him at all and from the young miss' perspective, he wasn't getting any stronger either. Kazuya only continued to reflect on the match that occurred and didn't share any of his thoughts so no one knew what he was thinking.

"Hey! Are you even taking this training seriously!?" she asked in an annoyed tone.

"Hmm?" Kazuya curiously turned towards Sodina and smiled. "Of course I am. I can even confidently say that you are quite talented. You have been showing improvements despite how weak your opponent is." He complimented her.

What Sodina was most annoyed about was ever since they started sparring against each other, the hero had never tried to launch an attack against her. He had taken a defensive stance and focused on taking whatever she threw at him. This of course, always ended up in Kazuya's loss.

"Then why have you been taking a pa.s.sive stance all this while? You can't win if you don't attack!"

"That is normally true but… I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to face your father if I decided to attack." Kazuya ignored her surprise and continued. "It should be about time for my next appointment so I shall see you later, Miss Eberbach."

"This guy—!" Sodina wanted to give him a piece of her mind but her shoulder was grabbed by Zwei before she could take a step forward.

The butler shook his head sideways telling her that she shouldn't do it. She just couldn't understand, just what does her father and Zwei see in this weak hero?

"Please try to understand young miss, Kazuysama does not mean anything bad by what he says. He does not like to mince words unless it is necessary." Zwei commented.

"Then what did he mean by what he said? He hasn't won a single spar against me and doesn't even come close! How can he say such arrogant words?" she may have been a little agitated but Sodina was genuinely curious.

"As far as I know, the only person who has lived after being attacked by Kazuysama is Alicisama. This was not because of her abilities or any other circ.u.mstance but the princess only survived because Kazuysama did not want to kill her but he did inflict injuries that turned her highness into a cripple." Zwei explained. "To my knowledge, every other person who has fought against him have all lost their lives."

"…" Sodina shuddered as soon as she heard Zwei's explanation.

"I have seen and met many kinds of people in my time and I can confidently say that Kazuysama is one of the very few people I find quite unique and interesting. Though he has grown up in a world that is supposed to be almost devoid of mana, his battle senses are quite unfathomable." Zwei continued.

"Is he really that great?" Sodina really didn't pay much attention to Kazuya after the first few matches they had. She already knew that heroes initially were very weak so she didn't mind his losses until today.

"I believe so. From what my eyes can see, Kazuysama has already gotten a grasp of your swordsmans.h.i.+p, young miss. From an observer's point of view, he is using you to incorporate a style he is creating that should be a combination of what he does in his world and what he is learning in ours."

"Really?" she really couldn't tell. From her point of view, all he was doing was struggling while defending against her rapier's swift attacks.

"Please don't underestimate Kazuysama, young miss. He has already grown to the point that he can control the flow of your battle to make you commit mistakes and errors." Zwei reminded.

"Come to think of it…" she thought back on her match just now. There were times where she would overstep and leave openings. Kazuya hadn't taken advantage of them so she didn't think much about it but she now understood that they would have been fatal mistakes that would have caused her harm.

Sodina's opinion of Kazuya had changed. She hadn't had much experience like Zwei did so this left her curious. What she wasn't aware of, however, was that even a man with Zwei's experience had yet to completely grasp what the hero was doing.

It was one thing to do this in a sparring match like earlier but if Kazuya really intended to do that in actual battle, it would be too risky in Zwei's opinion. This was why he was baffled as to why the hero continued doing it. He was even using Sodina, a person br.i.m.m.i.n.g with talent as his test subject.

"Looks like I need to mix things up next time." Sodina grinned as she thought about seeing the hero lose his cool after she surprises him with moves that she had yet to show.

-

After Elrich left Maynira, Kazuya had set a specific schedule for himself. His usual days consisted of sparring with the young miss of the Eberbach house, going to the castle library to study, and roaming around different parts of the capital.

Initially, Julia had stuck to him whenever he left the Eberbach house. She was worried that he would attract all sorts of trouble. When Kazuya showed that he was seriously studying support arts and eventually found himself observing the clerics of the church, she had finally taken his advice and train herself back at the Eberbach residence.

There weren't many chances Julia could get to beat the young lady of the Eberbach house and Sodina had similar thoughts. It was rare for them to battle with each other, so the two were happy to fight with each other while Kazuya escaped their sights.

He had a specific reason for roaming around the capital and that was to find a specific individual. Although he came back to Edea with the purpose of revenge, there were certain events from his first life that he had some lingering regrets on.

One of them was the common district's hidden necromancer who had turned many commoners into undead minions in an attempt to escape after he had been discovered by Kazuya and his party. He may not have been focusing on the role, but he was still a hero in name. There was no way that he would leave the innocent citizens to die if he could do something about it.

When Kazuya told Natsu about the incident, he was given information that he had not expected. The necromancer he knew turned out to be an acquaintance of Natsu himself. This had opened a discussion between the two heroes as they tried to figure out what might have caused the boy who was talented with dark arts to turn into a villain in the future that Kazuya experienced.

"It turned out to be the church of light again…" Kazuya felt sick to his stomach every time he had to think of maintaining a good relations.h.i.+p with them. Even though it was only temporary, Kazuya would have focused on that hypocritical church first if only he could have.

Natsu's time in Edea was one of the ages where magic had been in the limelight. Various magics were researched and revived by him and he didn't discriminate against any sort of magic. Most of his discoveries and knowledge were even openly taught to those who had potential.

His land and his home eventually turned into the land in which was referred to as the neutral land of knowledge known as Vane. This was also where the famous Vane Academy was located.

Unfortunately, as talented as a magician he was, the hero Natsu eventually decided to return back to his world. Those who feared the retaliation of such a talented man had grown bolder over the pa.s.sage of time.

The church of light eventually expanded their influence and since human lives were usually short compared to other races, it was they who were most susceptible to the church of light's brand of brainwas.h.i.+ng.

Humans, being the most numerous race in Edea, it didn't take long for dark magic such as Necromancy to be labeled as evil and forbidden. Since they were the opposite of what the church decrees as 'light', it wasn't hard for them to convince people that such magics were only for heretics.

["If you can, please try and see if he can be saved."] Kazuya remembered the words of Natsu who barely asked anything of him after he had agreed to teach him everything Kazuya could learn until his departure.  

After thinking about it long and hard, Kazuya agreed to do his best. He couldn't promise anything as all he knew about the person was his appearance and how he immediately reacted after Kazuya and his party discovered his presence. Would things have turned out differently if they did not show any aversion to his necromancy?

Kazuya had to admit, Necromancy was indeed a branch of black magic that was easy to a.s.sociate with evil. Just the thought of zombies or a caster controlling someone who used to be alive was easy to misunderstand. But, after Kazuya learned more about the dark magics from Natsu, it naturally fell into one of the categories of magics.

"[Like any other power, it is the wielder who inevitably determines how to make use of what they are capable of. Dark magic itself is not evil, even light magic can be used by people who have evil hearts.]" Kazuya recalled Natsu's words.

It was then that Kazuya realized that he had been wrong about many things. Even as someone who had lived through one lifetime, albeit short, he realized that he needed to keep an open mind and not let preconceptions cloud his judgement.

This had been the reason why Kazuya had yet to take action once he found his target. He chose to observe the man he knew to be the necromancer whose actions in his previous life made him doubt whether he was worthy of taking up the mantle of the hero.

"Punctual as always I see." A cleric who was sweeping outside the church greeted Kazuya as soon as he arrived.

"You were waiting for me?" Kazuya was a little puzzled by the cleric's actions.

"Yes! I heard about your deeds when I stopped by the slums last night. The children enthusiastically talked about you as they mentioned how you healed the people of the slums and even fed them with no remuneration." The cleric excitedly talked. "I knew I wasn't wrong in permitting you to observe our activities in the church!"

With Kazuya's hatred of the church, there was only one reason why he kept coming back to this place. It was because the necromancer that he had been searching for was not hiding as he had expected. He was actively serving the church as a cleric!

The necromancer that had caused the deaths of thousands was in front of him and using support magic off all magics! Even with all his experiences, there was no way Kazuya could have predicted such a thing!

"I see… so I guess that Jorelle-san was the cleric they talked about. I heard that you stopped by to do charity work in the slums at least once a month." Kazuya realized that there was indeed something about this person that he still hadn't grasped.

-