Chapter 43.

Its fine if you understand. Rather, the platinum coin is really worth that much? Leisha was greatly surprised.

Yes. A single platinum coin is an amount needed to run a counts territory for a month. If you think about it, our village is much smaller than a counts territory, but we spend a lot of money.

How large is our village usually?

Hmm, if you look at the population, its about one small territory in terms of the empires territory? In reality, the village should be called a city, but we call it a village for convenience.

Then why did you make it difficult and ask to exchange five?

Thats because, I learned from Den that when asking a stranger for a request, its good to put pressure from three different aspects.

Three aspects?

Yes. Force, status, and money. With enough of these things, there isnt a person who wont give in~

At the sight of the sighing Leisha, Lancelot had no choice but to trail off. While looking back at what she might have done wrong, Leisha wanted to grab Dens collar and shake him, asking what he taught the innocent Lancelot. If Den were here, he would have protested saying he taught Lancelot because he was too innocent. At least he didnt teach how to use the opponents weaknesses to threaten, pry into their weakness, or create and attack their weakness.

Leisha knew nothing of this and thought Den being kind was bullshit and asked Mac who had a serious face, What are you thinking about so seriously?

Mac slipped out of his contemplation and answered, Ah, the flow of mana is more active than usual. I almost killed that merchant by mistake while releasing my aura.

Zahanna wasnt mistaken when he thought he saw his life flashing before his eyes. If something were to go wrong, the released aura by Mac could have given him a heart attack and killed him.

An astonished Lancelot yelled, What?! You cant kill him! There arent many people who can acquire the supplies that the village needs!

Hahaha, I know. Thats why I forcefully suppressed it.

Please be careful in the future. Lancelot folded his arms and exuded an intimidating pressure that made Mac feel awkward.

It felt as if all the people around were turned into pudding. Mac gave a bitter smile. Now I think Im starting to understand why Bloody-nim would want to come back home.[1]

Mac felt like he understood why people outside the village called the Crows a battle race rather than a battle tribe. If there was this much of a difference, then there was nothing to say even if they said it was a different race.

Rather, can you speak like how you were speaking to the merchant before? It sounded cool when you spoke with a deep voice on purpose, Leisha said with a slight blush on her face.

Mac smiled frivolously and waved at the remark. Ahahaha, theres no way. It was so cheesy I could die. If His Excellency, the Diplomat didnt order me to do it before we entered the city, then I would never have done it.

Leisha had a look of discontent on her face. But Mac only smiled, stroking his goatee.

Before they knew it, the branch manager of the Druval Market returned to the room with rolling tables displaying the items. Lancelot and Zahanna prepared for the second round of negotiations.

-o-

The entrance examination for the magic and knight school was a fairly famous event that was part of the four major festivals, along with Thanksgiving, New Years, and the emperors birthday.

In order, there were entrance exams for entering low-rank and middle-rank knight and magic schools and in the evening, soon-to-graduate students took an exam in order to become a court magician or knight. Each exam was public, allowing the people of the capital to enjoy the magic and brilliant sword competitions that they normally couldnt see. Because there were few opportunities to see such competitions, it had effectively turned into a festival.

In reality, the reason why new students were accepted during an awkward time in the fall semester was that if they did it in spring, it would overlap with New Years festival, the biggest festival in the empire, leading to accidents from massive crowds. Therefore, rather than trying to manage and disperse the massive crowds, it was just easier to move the spring exam to fall.

Actually, the main attraction was not the students taking the entrance exam but the prospective graduates exam to be court magician or knight.

However, since I came to watch the crybaby siblings, aka Lisbon and Alice, entrance exams, I wasnt planning on going to the exam for prospective graduates. I had no desire to get bumped into in the crowd. If I was going to watch, then I would watch from afar with clairvoyance like magic.

I was standing at the front of the magic school listening to the announcement, and waiting for the crybaby siblings. According to the schedule, there were about 20 minutes left until the magic school exam but they had yet to show up. As I was wondering if something had happened and if I should go check the boarding house, someone shouted my name from afar.

Den! Over here!

About 100 meters in front, Lisbon was w