"...well finders keepers"

Mars quickly emptied the safe but when he picked up the piece of raw gla.s.s he felt a jolt coming form it and let it go

"...wait a minute"

Mars poked the raw gla.s.s piece again and felt the same jolt only this time a smile spread on his face

"this seems like pure mana... but how is that possible?"

Mars's understanding of mana came from the elvers of the Mother forest, that had told him mana was the aura of the soul, but this piece off raw gla.s.s seemed to be made of pure mana

"well whatever"

Mars cut up more of the carpet and made another sack which he used to pick up the piece of raw gla.s.s

"well then... let's get back to the mansion"

"okay..."

Mars and Victoria left the underground area and when they pa.s.sed the trap in the storage building Mars set it off and sure enough the net filled with junk metal fell down on the path with a loud clang

"just for safety's sake..."

On the way out off the storage building Mars picked up a empty crate and placed it in the middle off the road before he lit it on fire and sat down and waited and within a few minutes a few guards showed up, one of them gave Mars a questioning look while the other began to put out the fire

"what happened here? and who are you?"

"my name is Mars, I'm a guest of the barons and I have just wiped out a outpost belonging to the 8 heads by orders of the baron"

The guard widened his eye slightly before he asked

"...and how do I know you are telling the truth?"

"well you could ask Reimund yourself, but this will be faster..."

Mars pulled out his necklace of the apostle and showed it to the guard

"s-s-sorry for doubting you sir apostle!"

The guard clearly panicked and gave a deep bow

"I don't mind, you are just doing your job... the outpost is through that door, take the middle path and after the net with metal junk is a fake crate where the underground entrance is located... how are you with blood?"

"blood sir?"

Mars gave a sigh

"let's just say they didn't surrender..."

The guard took a glance at Mars's sword before he gave a nod

"understood, we will take it from here... hey you call after reinforcements, I will stand guard here"

"yes sir"

Mars stood up and gave a wave too the guard before he and Victoria began walking back to the Mansion when Mars gave a sigh as he looked up at the stars

"what's...wrong?"

"hmm? oh I'm just a little tired that's all..."

"okay..."

Mars and Victoria both remained silent until both off them returned back to the mansion where Mars left the b.l.o.o.d.y sack outside on the training field and went up to his room with Victoria where he put the sack with coins, the 2 red gemstones and the sack with the raw piece off gla.s.s on the table and sat down on the chair

"okay first off the coins..."

First he began to take out the coins one by one and stacked them on the table to count but quickly ran into a problem as most off the coins in the sack was small gold coins which he had no idea how much was worth

"well there's 4.000 cell just in silver coins so that's something... as for the gems and the piece of raw mana gla.s.s I have no idea... let's just go to sleep"

Mars took off his clothes and laid down on the bed and quickly fell asleep while he used the [Demon sleep magic]

"Mars... Mars wake up we're almost there"

Mars opened his eyes and looked out the window and saw high rise building zooming past along with a constant stream off flying cars like the one he was riding with his dad and asked while rubbing his eyes

"why do we have to live so far away form grandpa anyway?"

His dad remained silent clearly in a sour mood form having to visit his dad whom he was in a bad relations.h.i.+p with since he had married his current wife that was Mars's mom

"what does grandpa even want anyway dad?"

Mars's dad gave a sigh

"he wants the contract fulfilled"

"what contract?"

"the one i sighed when I married your mom and left the family"

Mars became even more confused, but seeing his dad's sour mood he refrained from asking as the flying car flew into a parking loot halfway up a building where both off them stepped out and saw a man in a military uniform waiting on them that gave a salute to Mars's dad

"this way please, the general is waiting"

"lead the way"

Mars looked up at his dad and saw he had a stern face while both of them followed after the man into the building and after a while both off them ended up in front off a door where the Man gave another salute and left

"dad?"

Mars's dad broke his stern face and keeled down and rubbed his son on the head and said in a calm tone

"don't worry son, both me and your mother will always love you"

Mars sprung up in the bed, outside the first signs off the morning sun could be seen as the sky gradually turned bright

"I see, so my parents loved me..."

Mars felt happy and sad at the same time and wiped his face where a tears had been streaming down before he got out of bed and put on his clothes and grabbed his sword, the doc.u.ments he had obtained yesterday and went down to the training field where he sat down next to the sack which had made a small b.l.o.o.d.y lake around it and started to meditate while he waited for the 4 knights and Hanna to show up, and soon Mars heard one set off footsteps that stopped at the edge off the field and sat down

"good morning Mars"

"'morning Hanna..."

"erm... what's in the sack... the one that's bleeding?"

"it's a gift for your dad, could you go get him for me?"

"sure..."

Hanna stood up and left the field and a few minutes later Mars noticed 2 sets off footsteps approached the field one off them gave a yawn

"what is it Mars, Hanna said you had a gift for me?"

Mars's eyes snapped open before he stood up and picked up the sack that was still dripping blood in one hand and the doc.u.ments in the other and faced Reimund

"yes I do, I have in fact 2 gifts for you"

Reimund narrowed his eyes slightly when he saw the sack dripping blood, but he remained silent as Mars continued

"last night I was on a outing when a group off the 8 head a.s.sa.s.sins attacked me, afterwards I sought out you for permission to wipe out the outpost off the 8 heads in town which you gave me right?"

"yeah I did..."

Reimund still looked puzzled but Mars gave a wide smile and raised the bleeding sack slightly

"what you don't know is that after I revived permission I attacked and wiped out the outpost here in Malrton and now I bring you 2 gifts... one is the 'head' of the outpost and the other is the doc.u.ments that was in his office"

Shock appeared on Reimund's face as he looked first at the sack then at Mars and then at the doc.u.ments before he calmed down with a sigh

"...good job Mars, I will see if I can get a bounty for you... also if you endanger my daughter again I will throw you out"

"what?"

"you heard me"

"SIR, YES SIR!"

"very good"

Reimund took both the doc.u.ments and the sack and left Mars and Hanna alone on the field where Hanna asked

"what are today's training?"

Mars gave a smile and went over to a rack with training equipment where he picked out 2 wooden swords and threw one off them too Hanna while he asked

"how's your swordsmans.h.i.+p?"

"...this is the first time I'm holding a sword"

"oh... don't they have sword training at the academy?"

Hanna gave a look of disbelief before she gave a sigh

"no, it's called Destra's magic academy for a reason..."

"oh... I see, then do you have any interest?"

"no, not really..."

"okay, then hit me with your sword as a start"

"...really?"

"really"

"okay then here I go"

Hanna raised her wooden sword and brought it down on Mars with clumsily movements that Mars quickly sidestepped

"slow and clumsy, grab the hilt properly!"

"y-yes!"

Hanna brought the sword up again and gave a slow slash at Mars which he effortlessly dodged again

"slow! again"

"yes!"

Hanna's sword continued to hit air for the next few minutes but Mars was astonished as her speed off improvement was fast

'she's gripping it nicely now, her stance is better and her sword is almost double the speed...'

Mars looked at Hanna and decided to put a lot more sword training in the future training program