房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

"Dad...?"

The black-haired boy looked at the light-blue-haired man in confusion and murmured a question.

"She talks about keeping kids away from life and death battles while she has an aura of someone experienced in the killing. It is concerning that someone like her didn't develop a sense of recognizing people like her yet. She certainly isn't someone we should associate with."

Mizoe shook his head slightly and whispered an answer while glancing back at the blue-haired girl who was still frozen in place from shock.

"She's used to killing...?"

Zoemi raised his brows in shock and looked back forgetting about being stealthy about it and staring right at the girl – right in time to see her lower her haze at Mizoe's back, blush crimson red, and lower her head with eyes teared up from embarrassment.

"I get a feeling that she isn't a bad person though..."

"I didn't say that she was an enemy."

Zoemi tilted his head and say to which Mizoe smirked and pointed out while patting the boy's head.

After that, the father and son duo got in the line to enlist, when their turn came they entered a small office right behind the gate and approached the green-haired, blank-eyed woman at the desk.

"Name and age, please."

The woman said in an unenthusiastic voice.

"Mizoe Auequas, twenty years old."

"Zoemi Auequas... ehem... fifteen years old!"

"..."

Mizoe said calmly when Zoemi suddenly declared clearing his throat and trying to make his voice sound deeper – to which the woman's hand holding the quill stopped and she looked up at him with a look of an exhausted overworked night-shift worker.

"Zoemi Auequas, fifteen years old. People tell me I look far too young for my age."

The black-haired child repeated, this time without stuttering, and kept eye contact with the woman.

*creaaak*

Without saying another word, the wind magician pushed a magic device in front of her toward the edge of the desk.

"We shall see about that."

She sounded so done with all the bullshit she had to deal with that she didn't even try to confront and argue about the obvious lie said straight to her face.

"Please place your hand over the artifact. In turns."

The woman said, pointing at the magic device and waiting with her quill ready.

Mizoe reached out his hand and the device lighted up with a green light – at the same time the eyes of the wind magician behind the desk also shone with the same kind of light.

"Twenty years old, low mana, attribute, i… ICE...?! Ekhem... atribute, ice. No problems here, sir Mizoe, you have been successfully registered."

The woman began speaking out loud while noting everything she said on the parchment in front of her – she flinched and gasped in shock at one point but she hurriedly cleared out her throat and returned to her tired expression before nodding at the light-blue-haired man.

"Now. If you may."

Then she stared at the black-haired boy and motioned at the device that stopped glowing the moment Mizoe took back his hand.

"..."

Zoemi's expression turned sour but he still put his hand forward anyway.

"Age... seven. No mana. No attribute...?"

The woman sighed the moment the artifact and her eyes shone with green light – she still said the rest of the information even though the age of the black-haired child had been revealed.

She certainly furrowed her brows and glanced at the matching black hair and eyes, very much confused that those aren't the signs of shadow or darkness attribute magic.

"I'm sorry, young sir, according to the new ruleset, you cannot be registered as long as you will not present a referral from one of the noble houses of the kingdom of Bellcephora.

"..."

The woman shook her head and crossed out something she had already written down on the parchment, and Zoemi's expression soured.

For just a short moment, he wanted to do something very stupid and declare that he is the last serving member of the Banemor family and as the only member and defacto an heir to it, he is referring himself for taking part in the knight training, but he didn't entertain that thought for more than just a second.

"Hey, age is just a number, it's not like it matters for a corpse puppet like you anyway... you wouldn't be a puppet for the gorgeous miss Aspakeony, would you? We happen to have a history together, she and I... I remember everything well, I hope she does too..."

"?!?!"

Instead, he went for something even worse – he jumped and sat right on the desk and leaned forward, showing off the most devilish smile and seeing it reflected in the widened eyes of the wind magician.

The black-haired boy did what he did precisely because he recognized one of the puppets of the gray-haired necromancer. Aspaekony was close to the presence and Bellcpehora in the past timeline, and if some incarnations of people from the past timeline were capable of regaining their past memories, then Aspakeony was definitely among that group.

"Zoemi, you are being rude."

Mizoe rolled his eyes and picked the boy up by the scruff of his shirt and got him off the desk.

"Please, don't mind my son's behavior. He's just upset about the new rules."

The light-blue-haired man lowered his head to the shocked wind corpse puppet and backed off the room without waiting for a response to his son's outrageous statement.

"...what kind of history could you possibly have with the headmaster of the Aspaekony Academy...?"

Already outside, and at a safe distance, Mizoe breathed out and asked with a grumpy expression.

"...she visited the Banemor mansion a time or two – I remember her talking with my grandfather.. they seem to be friendly with each other, so I thought that she would be willing to help me out a bit..."

Zoemi came out with a lie in less than a second and explained while looking up at Mioze with innocent eyes.

"And if that corpse puppet doesn't belong to lady Aspaekony? Or if she actually does but lady Aspaekeony is on Espines' side and will recognize you just to have you killed off?"

"...!"

The light-blue-haired man rolled his eyes in disbelief and scolded the black-haired boy in a hushed voice, causing the child to flinch in realization.

He... didn't think of that outcome at all.

Did... did he messed everything up...?

"Well, it's not like we can do anything now. If that corpse puppet really is lady Aspakeony, he has dozens of corpse puppets at their disposal and would be able to get us before we even leave the city. Might as well just stay and see how things would play out."

Mizoe breathed out seeing the shocked face of his son and patting his shoulder before standing up and looking towards the area where the first duels were already taking place.

The place looked different than Zoemi expected it – the one where he trained in the past timeline had no stands for the audience to watch on one side, for example.

"Oi! Don't block the road! If you are waiting for participants or just want to watch, go sit down at the tribunes!"

"...!"

The two of them were then shouted at by a passing armored man who definitely felt that he was much more important than everyone else.

Still, his words weren't wrong – the father and son duo weren't exactly blocking the way, but they were making it inconvenient for others to move along.

The two of them looked at each other and ended up walking towards the stands and taking a seat at the nearest available spot.

"Oi! Go for a break."

The armored man who shouted at Mizoe and Zoemi before entering the arena and waved at the instructor who just finished a duel and was giving advice o the defeated participant on what he should improve.

"...sure..."

The previous instructor frowned, looking at the armored man with an annoyed expression but ended up nodding and seeing off the participant before leaving the area.

"Next! Korilwas or whatever!"

The armored man raised his voice even more, not bothering to remove his helmet while he spoke and a muscular commoner with brown hair and gray eyes stepped up to him.

"Pffft. No chance."

*SLAM* *crack*

"AAAAARGHHH...!"

The armored man shook his head and scoffed, swinging his sheathed sword at the commoner without properly announcing the beginning of a duel and creaking the unsuspecting man's arm.

"Get that fool out of here! NEXT! Itwinoa, or something!"

The new instructor scoffed at the man wailing in pain at his feet and shouted over the disturbed whispers that filled the area.

"What in the world are they thinking...?"

Mizoe furrowed his brows, glaring at the armored man who wounded the next participant with yet another surprise attack.

The rate at which the new participants were disposed of increased immensely as the armored instructor was getting rid of them without even giving them a chance to show off.

"...so weird..."

Zoemi sighed in disbelief, agreeing with his father's bewilderment.

There was something seriously wrong going on there.

"See? Father told you that it would be too dangerous to enlist, are you convinced now?"

"...?"

As yet another unfortunate person was carried off the area after getting brutalized by the armored man, Zoemi picked up on a familiar-sounding voice coming from a few rows above him.

He turned around but still had to move quite a bit to notice the person who said that.

There were three hooded people seated in the second highest row of the audience stand, they all looked to be children, and all the adults seating right around them seemed to be focused on their surroundings far more than the duels taking place in front of them.

...which would mean that they were all in charge of protecting the hooded children.