Chapter 274: Second Member of the Fifth Party

"!!!"

Not only did the three adventurer parties feel shocked, but Killian and Pandora as well.

In fact, had it not been for Marzana leaving a few minutes earlier, she would, for sure, have been shocked the moment she heard Regis’s words.

The three of them had witnessed first-hand just how terrifyingly potent aether was— not only could it elevate the power of both aura arts and magic spells drastically, but the consumption was also minuscule.

Their only disadvantage was the fact that they were still in the Starless Realm, which inevitably meant that their energy reserves were still low.

And now that Regis had spoken about teaching them how to overcome this only disadvantage, both Pandora and Killian could only imagine just how powerful the three adventurer parties would be.

Looking at their happy expressions, Regis could not help but smile as his mind wandered, ’I wonder how Aurelia is...’

Unlike Killian, Pandora, and Regis, who had focused on training the three adventurer parties who were to be the backbone of their soon-to-be corporation, Aurelia had already been laying the groundwork for it.

She wanted their corporation not to rely on her father’s merchant organization too much.

After all, even though Aurum had explicitly stated that he wanted to be their sponsor, Regis and the others had already decided not to make this corporation e like the others who had essentially become the private force of their sponsors.

A sponsor’s role, aside from giving support, was to act as a guarantee for the Adventurer’s Guild.

However, the amount of paperwork that needed to be done, as well as the sheer number of processes required just to ensure the successful establishment of the groundwork, could only be described as overwhelming.

***

On a dimly lit study...

Scribble— Scribble— Scribble—

A black-haired young woman was submerged in piles of documents, as her hand never once stopped writing letters, words, numbers, and all other sorts of figures.

Who could she be other than Aurelia?

"Oh my Goddess of Light. I wish there were some kind of magic or artifact that automatically writes for you... Wait a minute..."

Aurelia stopped writing, pulled a small notebook from her dress pocket, and hurriedly wrote a few things down.

"An artifact that makes paperwork easier..."

She muttered under her breath as she felt that this passing idea of hers was quite something.

"Now that I think about it... Even though magic has advanced in various fields such as medicine, war, construction, and such... little resource has been allocated to the development of administrative affairs."

As someone who had stood at Aurum’s side for most of her life, Aurelia had long since been exposed to the many faces of hardship.

After all, every seasoned businessman understood that need was born from adversity.

Where problems took root, demand inevitably followed, and those who could offer the answer—who could fill the void others could not—would find profit not as a matter of chance, but as a matter of certainty.

As such, Aurelia always made sure to write down her ideas, especially those that came to her in moments of sudden clarity, so that she could turn them into potential business opportunities in the future.

To be honest, although she wanted to participate in battles in the past, she found she preferred to stay in the rear.

Of course, this did not mean that she would forfeit her position in the main party.

"Alrighty!"

Aurelia happily closed her little notebook with a smile as she buried herself in the piles of paperwork.

Scribble— Scribble— Scribble—

And once again, the sound of writing echoed in the dimly lit study.

***

Time slowly passed by.

Everyone had things going on that kept them busy, making them unaware of how much time had passed.

At this moment, in the underground training hall...

Pandora and Killian’s side was lively as they were now doing joint training to ensure flawless cooperation between the ’aura’ users and ’mana’ users.

Essentially, they were doing mock battles to practice how mages should adjust their magic spells depending on the swordsmen, warriors, and others’ positioning and vice versa.

...

At the same time, in one of the private training rooms...

Regis raised his eyebrows as he looked at the girl Marzana had brought in.

The girl had long white hair that fell past her waist, making him take a second look, as seeing someone else with white hair like his was still rare.

However, what really caught his eye were the white fox ears on the girl’s head and the two fluffy fox tails on her back.

Not to mention the fact that her eyes were covered with white bandages.

’Basing her looks alone, I’d say she’s around ten to eleven years old...’

Regis had an unsure expression on his face due to the fact that the beastkin girl before them had one obvious problem.

’Sunken cheeks, prominent cheekbones, hollow eyes, and skin stretched tightly over her bones gave her a gaunt, skeletal appearance.’

Thoughts appeared in his mind as he did not know what to say.

That was right, the beastkin fox girl before him was very, very, very malnourished.

It was to the point that it looked as if her skin were sticking to her bones themselves.

’W-What’s the meaning of this...’

Regis was extremely confused as to why this elven girl brought him a malnourished beastkin.

He soon recovered from his speechlessness as he carefully spoke, "Marzana, this is..."

However, instead of replying directly, the elven girl looked at the beastkin and nodded slightly.

Seeing this, the fox girl took a step forward and knelt on one knee, making Regis extremely nervous, ’I feel like she’ll collapse anytime soon!’, but wait, even with her eyes blocked, she seemed to know where I am?’

Another thing he noticed was that when Marzana signalled the beastkin earlier, the latter seemed to be able to accurately sense what was happening around her.

’Things are getting interesting, it seems...’

Oblivious to his thoughts, the beastkin spoke.

"Greetings, Lord Regis. I am Aeola Lis van Canina, a member of the Fox Family belonging to the Caninia Tribe of the Beastkin Clan. It is my utmost pleasure to meet you."

Suppressing the random thoughts in his head, Regis nodded seriously, "It’s nice to meet you as well."

He then looked at Marzana with an expression as if to say, *What the hell is going on here? Who is she?*

Marzana had a slight smile on her face as she finally spoke, "You mentioned that I can choose the members of my party by my own standards, right?"

"You mean to say..." Regis finally had an idea of who the beastkin girl in front of him was.

"Yes. I want Aeola to be a member of my adventurer party."

"Are you sure about this? No, knowing you, I’m sure you’ve thought of it already. But could you not have given her something to eat before coming here?"

"Well, about that..." Marzana scratched her cheeks with her index finger, looking unsure.

Fortunately, Aeola raised her head, looked Regis straight in the eyes despite her blindfold, and spoke.

"Pardon me for interrupting, Lord Regis. But I have been cursed since I was a child. Young Mistress Marzana already had me eat my fill; however, due to my curse, my body does not seem to change, no matter how much I eat."

"Curse...?" Regis repeated under his breath, feeling a sense of deja vu for some inexplicable reason.

Marzana glanced at Aeola with a gaze of gratitude before speaking to Regis, "Yes, Regis. Like me, Aeola had also been cursed since the day she was born. Please look through the document in your hand for the details."

"Alright, please wait for a minute..."

Regis spoke politely as he read the document quietly.

It turned out that Aeola was a product of a certain noble’s hedonistic tendencies towards his beastkin slave, who was also her mother.

When her mother gave birth to her, she had been so thin she was practically skin and bones.

However, because of her beauty, the hedonistic noble spent a fortune on her care, hoping her condition would improve and that she could grow up healthy.

Unfortunately, Aeola’s condition only worsened.

No matter what kind of food she ate—or even the potions she took—she could not gain weight, as if the nutrients in her body were being absorbed by something else.

Things got to the point where the hedonistic noble immediately sold her to a certain group of beastkins.

However, things did not get better for Aeola.

Due to her weak physique, she was shunned even by those of her own race.

After all, it was a well-known fact that beastkins respect physical prowess above all and looked down on mages even within their own clan.

Unfortunately, Aeola was of the Fox Family, which was known for its high magic talent.

From then on, she served as a slave for her own kind, doing all sorts of chores until Marzana finally ’acquired’ her.

...

Regis rubbed his brows with his index finger and thumb, "I understand everything now."

Marzana’s slight smile turned stiff, nervous at what his decision would be.

On the other hand, even with the white bandages covering her eyes, Aeola was obviously much more apprehensive as she awaited the decision that would decide her life.

After a few moments of silence, Regis suddenly raised his head, his blood-red eyes piercing.

"Alright. First of all, remove the bandages from your eyes."