"Meow!"

"What?"

"I sleep here!"

Sylvester looked at Miraj with doubt. "What are you planning? You never before demanded to sleep by my chest. You… Chonky, by any chance, are you jealous?"

"What? No! I'm not jealous of anyone. That's so immature, pfft."

'Yeah, pure lies.' Sylvester chuckled and let the furry cat enter his blank.

"Dogs are cute and dumb creatures, Miraj. Trust me, they will never come close to how good you are. Besides, can they also be my cute little bank?" He asked him.

Miraj happily tucked himself near his chest and felt the warmth on a winter night. "I'm the best Chonky bank. Yes, doggies are dummies. But I don't care about them. They are too beneath me… I'm not jealous of them."

"Of course, why would a mighty tiger be jealous of little puppies." Sylvester pointed his palm at the candle near the door of the small room and sent out a gust of air. "Good night, Chonky. We're going to have to work really hard starting tomorrow."

"This pussy is always ready, Maxy!"

"..."

"Chonky, remind me to start teaching you about vocabulary and its double meaning from tomorrow—again!"

"Okie."

In a minute, Chonky was heard snoring already, while Sylvester was still thinking about work and who was the real culprit because he realised his ability to smell emotions wouldn't help too much. Because everyone has something to hide and lie about, everyone is imperfect… so they are all bound to raise the alarm to him.

'I should send Felix and Sir Dolorem to Count Raftel. I also need to find a useful thing for Lady Aurora, or else keeping her fed and entertained is a waste of resources. Maybe I can use her name to scare some fools.' he planned silently.

It was a daily routine for him to fall asleep while thinking. But now, a few more nightmares awaited him as he'd never know when the Shadow Knight would come and attack him.

Was the only way out of this situation to get stronger and kill the Shadow Knight? Unfortunately, there was only one way to know the answer to that.

…

In a room adjacent to Sylvester's, a woman more than a hundred years old relaxed in her bed and thought about a boy. But, of course, it was not in any unholy way, for she was the loyal woman of faith.

'Why does he not act like a real teenager? When I was seventeen, I was obsessed with Sir Kristen and acted like a total fool all of the time. So why is Sylvester so different? It can't be just his life experiences since I faced hell too. Even when he japes with his friends, it feels misplaced.'

'How is he so level-headed? How did he find the milk had poison in it? Are all men destined to become the Pope one day like this? Was the holy father like this too? Is Sylvester going to become the Pope one day?'She had a million questions, and each one interested her in following Sylvester for the rest of her life to see where his fate would lead him. What hurdles will he cross over?

For now, she had surely lost all her sleep. Especially because the scene of Sylvester using his light against the Shadow Knight kept reappearing in her mind.

…

In another room, a boy had decided not to sleep, for he was disgusted at his own weakness. He ridiculed himself for being called the Sword of the Lord, as he couldn't even protect his best friend.

How was he to stand beside Sylvester when the latter one day ascends to new heights? Won't he be a weakling? It was unacceptable! Absolutely unacceptable! He had spent his entire childhood training and now was not the time to relax.

Until he reached the peak of his magical and knightly talents, there was no point in calming down. Nobody will save him. Neither the church nor his family. All he had were his friends, but if he remains a weakling, then even they can't help him in the long run.

'I am a failure… but more! If Sylvester is the light that outshines all, I will be his shield that blocks all the darkness. I have peak Knightley talent, and I shouldn't stop until I sit at the top.'

Woosh!

In his room, he used a sword many times heavier than his standard sword in hopes of training his muscles to get stronger and thrust more power with the minimum amount of motion.

'Day or night, I must never stop training. Every chance I get, I should be able to make myself better… enough to stand side by side. Ha!'

…

Sylvester knew that his actions affected many people. But he never knew that Felix felt this way about him. If he did, he would have tried to help him get better. But, he supposed Felix had some self-respect that wouldn't allow him to take his help. The same was the case with Sir Dolorem.

But the problem with the old man was that his peak was not that high. He had already hit his magical peak, and only his knightly talent needed to rank up to Golden Knight level.

This was a problem that Sylvester had noticed. No matter who is beside him, if they are not monsters of Lady Aurora's level, they are bound to feel inferior. But, of course, he had no idea he had managed to even make Lady Aurora jealous of him.

Sylvester also wished to find ways to make his allies stronger without doing something illegal, such as body mutilation, to gain more power. That's what genuinely evil wizards do. Other than that, all he could think about was magical weapons.

He had only seen magic canons on the ship as magical mechanical weapons all this time. There were no other weapons that were small enough to be handheld or dangerous enough.

'I don't wish to bring uncontrollable handheld weapons into this world. They may create more trouble than help.' Sylvester thought as he got up from the bed.

The only person in the group he didn't worry much about was Gabriel. Although he may have the magical talent just to be a Master Wizard and Knightly talent to become a Diamond Knight, it didn't matter much as he was more inclined towards religion studies. In addition, light magic would help Gabriel to at least become a Cardinal Suprima.

"Maybe we need to choose a specialisation. Even I need to select a specialisation. Illusion, mind and temporal magic seem the most lucrative to me. And since I will learn metal manipulation anyway, I can easily diversify my strengths from being light-based to much more."

"Maxy! You talk to yourself too much." Miraj also woke up and complained.Sylvester, without asking, made some water appear in his palm and wiped Miraj's sleepy face as if he was a baby. It was an ongoing joke that Miraj adopted him. The truth was the opposite, instead.

"I talk to myself because I know myself the best. Now let's go. We need to start the next phase of the plan." He pocketed his items and headed out to the town.

He didn't find anyone other than Garbiel, so he ate breakfast and headed towards the Count's castle in the middle of the town.

As he walked the streets, he saw the roads were full of activity. There were fruit and vegetable stalls on the sides and carts going to and from the road. More shops were also scattered around the town, selling everything from steel items and gold jewellery to baked bread. Clearly, Jartel County's economy was flourishing more than one could imagine.

But then he noticed an extraordinary thing. The people, mostly the buyers, were not from the East side of the Sol. Many of the crowd appeared to be brown-skinned, wearing western clothes, mainly from the Masan Empire. A cloth turban with various head decorations, the torso covered with mainly sandy-white tunics, cotton pants, and leather boots.

They seem to be buying items in bulk. And that made him wonder if the Masan Empire had good trade relations with at least the northern part of Gracia Kingdom due to close proximity.

"Sylvester, I need some funds." Just then, out of nowhere, Felix approached him and requested money openly.

Sylvester looked left and right to see if Felix was talking to some other Sylvester, as Felix did not need to ask him for money. He was a rich man already.

'Ah! So that's it.'

He soon noticed the winking from Felix and went along with the whole play. "What money? I just gave you some yesterday. Did you squander it again?"

Felix scoffed. "Just give me my share of the allotted money, and I'll be done with it. I have my needs to be taken care of."

Sylvester folded his arms and made sure he was audible enough for all the drama-hungry passersby who had started to surround them. "The money was given to me to be used for work. And I am allowed to give it or take it as per my authority."

Felix pointed his finger angrily. "You have no authority! So what if you're one rank higher than me? We're both designated as the same. My administrative rights equal yours, so give me my share!"

"I command you, Priest Felix. Do not be so foolish! I am the head of this assignment!"

Woosh!

Felix unsheathed his sword in anger. "I will not take a no today! I want my share as per my rights."

Sylvester frowned and prepared his spear as well. "Are you sure? Do you wish to fight your superior? Don't be an immature child, Felix. The money is supposed to be for the goodwill of the people, not you."

"Stop!" Sir Dolorem jumped between them all of a sudden. But he also took Felix's side. "Archpriest, give him his money. You both share the same organisational rank. None of you is a senior to the other."

Sylvester put away his spear. "Fine, go ahead and squander the church's money on your useless leisure."

"Let's go, Sir Dolorem. We're clearly not welcome here. I've had enough of this joint investigation. I shall do mine from the other side—myself!" Felix haughtily took the bag of money and left.

Sylvester was left alone, with people around him feeling bad for him as he only stuck to his duties during the exchange. As per the plan, in this county, Felix was the villain.

'Good lad! Let's hope this game gives us a good return.'

_______________________

GT = 1 Bonus chapter.

Super Gift = 1 Bonus chapter.

APE TOGETHER STRONG!