No one knew the real reason a famous instructor Baront Staterwind came here.

At first, when his ident.i.ty yet revealed, the scholarly 2nd Tier Specialist was bidding his time in a small and peaceful inn. But after the event in front of Yashura Family’s gate, everyone knew him, so it was natural that the Badril Village Head met him himself and accommodate the instructor with a better living place.

“If Sir Baront had some needs or doubt to be helped with, feel free to contact me at my office,” said the always smiling Village Head.

Baront Staterwind nodded. “Actually, there’s something I need to ask for. An information or a little story would suffice.”

“Oh? Care to explain? My village certainly would solve your problem in no time!”

“It’s just a small matter. I just wanted to know if there’s some rumor about a wandering spirit came to this village, possibly currently stayed at Yashura Family’s household.”

“A spirit?” the Village Head shook his head. “I’ll ask around. See if I can come with something,” he continued with a rea.s.sured tone.

“Then could you did some profiling about the young man called s.h.i.+ra Yashura?”

“I’ll get to that too.”

“Then sorry for the trouble.”

When the old village head excused himself, Baront Staterwind wrote two letters for his personal disciples, which issued an order for them to come to Badril Village as soon as possible.

That was a scene from a few days ago.

In a small yet fast and st.u.r.dy carriage, a girl and a young man sat warily.

“Brother Jerrin, did you know why Sir Teacher called us so abruptly?”

“A little,” answered the young man. “Teacher commissioned by the Blue Robe Acolyte Society to investigate a powerful influx of spirit activity months ago.”

“If it’s just to complete his work then naturally he needs to contact professional Spirit Servants, not us!” pouted the young girl.

The good-mannered young man smiled. “Maybe we could gain some valuable experience this time. Who knows? Or maybe he needs Madam Ross’s help to deal with the spirit.”

The girl’s pair of eyes suddenly shone when she heard his cousin mentioned the name.

“Driver, please be haste! Our Sir Teacher was waiting in some rural village for a few days by now!” shouted the girl.

“Yes, Young Lady!” answered the sound from the front of the carriage. The carriage’s horse suddenly accelerated.

Today.

s.h.i.+ra woke up from his short sleep this morning. The dream about the old voice and the gate was extremely vague for him to remember clearly. So it was natural, for him, to yawned lazily and carelessly like this.

He’s not yet fully awake but there’s already some noise came from the main building.

“s.h.i.+ra! Immediately come with me!” yelled Mila Yashura. Her experience was more fierce than usual, as it seems she still not forgot about how s.h.i.+ra nonchalantly told people to not continue “the stupid fuss”, which unfortunately was started by her.

What could s.h.i.+ra do? It was quite good if the older sister didn’t start beating him out of the blue. So after washed his face, he obediently followed her behind.

He entered the main building, which usually used as his uncle’s office and for other official reasons. Inside, he saw three unfamiliar faces.

The Yashura Patriarch, upon seeing his lucky-star nephew, exclaim all of sudden in an excited tone. “Quick, quick s.h.i.+ra! Greet Sir Baront Staterwind and his two personal disciples!”

s.h.i.+ra blinked for a moment, then awkwardly waved his hand and greets with a forced smile. “h.e.l.lo there…”

Mila and Shuro Yashura were speechless.

This introverted youth… how troublesome…

“Hahaha, what a carefree youth!” the scholarly instructor wasn’t offended with s.h.i.+ra’s casual greeting. Moreover, he suddenly found himself quite pleased with his natural yet shy appearance.

“Sit s.h.i.+ra, sit! We have a lot to talk about,” the Yashura Family Patriarch pat the wooden chair beside him with a wide grin.

Then, Baront Staterwind asked a lot of questions to s.h.i.+ra Yashura. s.h.i.+ra able to answer in a reluctant manner, which was quite dissatisfied the silent disciples.

Almost all of the questions were spirit and unnatural beings related.

“Haha, Sir Baront Staterwind, my nephew right here was a ghost magnet. He got possessed a lot in his younger days. We, as his family, always supported him but there’s always rumor flying around about how he was cursed with a bad omen,” Patriarch Shuro told his guests with a wary tone.

“Bad omen?”

“Yes. Besides those ghosts problem, there’s also…”

“Oh, I heard quite a lot about s.h.i.+ra before coming here. So I know what you mean.”

The chat for two hours full. They told about themselves to each other in a casual atmosphere.

s.h.i.+ra got acquaintance with the two personal disciples of Baront Staterwind’s. The young and pretty girl was Merly Yurin, and the matured looking young man introduced himself as Jerrin Yurin.

After their chat with Yashura Family, Baront Staterwind and his two disciples walk back to the inn. They talk a lot before, but from the expression of the teacher, the Yurins could tell that their teacher didn’t get what he was looking for.

“Sir Teacher, does Sir has some instruction for us?” Jerrin Yurin asked mildly.

“Hmm,” the scholar mumbled a bit. “What do you think about that s.h.i.+ra child?”

“He was a plebeian!” exclaimed Merly Yurin with a sneer. “Teacher? You aren’t appointed him as the third student, are you? I disagree!”

Jerrin looked at his little girl cousin and shook his head. “He was shy but shrewd. He lies a lot when Sir Teacher asked him questions, especially about the spirit.”

“Mm. You did notice? I thought that inexperienced eyes of your couldn’t tell the nervousness of him come from his insecurity or the lies.”

“There’s still a lot for me to learn,” Jerrin Yurin said humbly.

“Teacher! Why do you care so much about some unimportant brat from this unremarkable rural village? A lot of young men from my Yurin Family were better than him!” Merly Yurin, the second disciple, was annoyed and dissatisfied.

Yet, the teacher only lets a wide smile bloomed on his face. “We need to come back again tomorrow.”

On the same day, s.h.i.+ra met the Good-Natured Spirit.

“Ol’ Good-Natured Spirit, someone wants to meet you,” s.h.i.+ra told him.

“Who? Is she beautiful? Is she has big chests and a big b.u.t.t?”

“No. It is a he. He’s very famous, though.”

“Then no.”

“Okay.”

The day after that.

s.h.i.+ra’s body was aching because of an accident when he practicing ‘Water Flowing Style’ this morning. He still held a grudge against the Good-Natured Spirit who, out of boredom, decides to mess with the pitiful youth.

A girl servant of Yashura Family called him, said the famous guy and his two personal disciples had come again.

Baront Staterwind asked the same questions again to s.h.i.+ra. As the Good-Natured Spirit won’t bother to meet with a guy, s.h.i.+ra had to keep making excuses.

Seeing their conversation keeps went round and round, the instructor finally decides to speak frankly.

“When Young Lady Mila and Young Lady Bhela were dueling, you actually block the incoming arrow with some unique energy.”

A grin flashed on Baront’s face when he said that. s.h.i.+ra smiled too.

“That was such an unique energy. But frankly, I was a Blue Robe Acolyte Society retiree, dealing with that kind of energy was like ch.o.r.es to me.”

“What did Sir Baront implies?” Patriarch Shuro didn’t understand.

“It was a spirit doing. Naturally, some wandering spirit won’t meddle in mortal problems. Unless someone asked him to.”

All eyes staring the youth. s.h.i.+ra could only let a dry cough.

Then Baront added with a bitter smile. “I know the revered spirit was very proud. He wouldn’t want to meet a n.o.body like me, right?”

“No! It’s not like that!” Patriarch Yashura expression fell as he looked at the bitter looking scholar. “It must be that the revered spirit was very busy! Yes, mm! That’s it! He must be very busy that he had no time for meeting a famous and witty and respectable person like Sir Baront! Right, s.h.i.+ra?”

s.h.i.+ra shook his head. “No. All he did all day was fooling around.”

Patriarch Shuro was speechless again by this d.a.m.ned nephew. He smiled wryly as he looked at the scholarly instructor who lets out an awkwardly bitter cough by now.

“If you want to meet him, you should appoint a third person who does the talk to you,” s.h.i.+ra then glances at the second disciple of him, Merly Yurin. “Yesterday I accidentally saw a woman spirit talking to you.”

“So what?” Merly pouted. She felt it was beneath her dignity to chat with this poor young man.

“Maybe the revered spirit you all talked about, is willing to meet with the woman spirit.”

Again, in the inn.

The three people sat at a roundtable. There’s an extra person in the room, who actually was a spirit.

“Madam Ross, we’re sorry to trouble you,” Baront Staterwind bowed his head.

The beautiful spirit nodded. “No problem. I’ll talk with the spirit you referred to.”

“Thank you,” Baront bowed once again.

“But it’s interesting though. A normal Spirit Servant wouldn’t able to see me if I don’t want to. But the youth who hadn’t received any education from you folks was able to. That youth sure was interesting. Did you wish to take him as your third student?”

“Yes,” answered Baront Staterwind.

“Very well. I shall meet the spirit and convinced him or her to join your faction. But it should be a difficult, though. It must be a very proud spirit to only shows its face to a strong spirit like me.”

And s.h.i.+ra meet again with the Good-Natured Spirit too.

“Ol’ b.a.s.t.a.r.d Spirit, someone actually wants to meet you!”

“d.a.m.n you c.o.c.ky brat! Call me Good-Natured Spirit! I told you I was only joking before, you still angry geez…”

“That’s not important. You must meet this person, or else my face would be at the stake.”

“I told you I’ll never meet a guy.”

“This time would different. You would meet a beautiful spirit, with big chests and big b.u.t.t. I saw her with my own eyes.”

“Then let’s go! What you’re dallyin’ about? We shouldn’t let our guest waiting!”