He opened the envelope and unfolded the letter paper.
The handwriting inside wasn’t exactly pretty, and because the writer had been in a hurry, the strokes were a bit messy, with even several misspelled characters, but it didn’t affect understanding.
"Teacher Gauss, by the time you see this letter, I should have already left this country.
Please don’t worry about me.
Mom said the people who came today seem to be relatives from Grandma’s family, here to take us home.
To a very faraway place.
The adults say it’s called the Roland Kingdom.
I really don’t want to go. I want to wait for you to come back, so I can keep learning Magic from you.
I’ve already learned the Tricks you taught me, and I’ve read quite a few of those books too.
But Mom said we have to go, that I can’t stay in the village by myself.
Teacher, do you think we’ll be able to meet again?
But please don’t worry. Even if I go somewhere else, I’ll definitely keep practicing hard. I’ll become very, very strong, and then I’ll go look for you.
Missing you, Rhine.
The letter wasn’t long.
So she went to the Roland Kingdom?
Gauss folded the letter back up and put it away, but his thoughts quietly drifted off.
The Roland Kingdom lay to the northwest of the Carlos Kingdom where they currently were.
It was quite far from Goat Village.
For the vast majority of ordinary people, travel in this world was far less convenient than in Gauss’s previous life, so unless they happened to live near the border, going abroad was something most people could never accomplish in their entire lives.
And not just ordinary people—even for an Adventurer, without special reasons, one wouldn’t lightly leave one’s own country to venture into foreign lands.
He could easily imagine how lost a young girl who had never once left her village since birth must feel when she heard she had to leave her hometown and go to another kingdom.
"Sigh....."
Gauss couldn’t help but let out a sigh.
He still found it hard to calm down for a while about Rhine being taken away.
He had no idea whether this would turn out to be a blessing or a curse for her.
A family that could marshal its strength to investigate across borders and complete a search for relatives was bound to possess considerable power and resources.
For Rhine, who came from a poor background yet possessed outstanding talent in Magic, returning to such a family could very well mean better educational resources, a more favorable cultivation environment, and a broader network of contacts.
From that perspective, this was undoubtedly a favor from fate.
However, Gauss also understood all too well the complexity and undercurrents of the noble world.
Power, profit, bloodline, inheritance...
All these factors woven together often made family affection no longer pure.
With Rhine, this "lost" bloodline, suddenly returning, would she be drawn into internal family strife? Would her Magic talent be carefully nurtured, or regarded as a kind of resource?
None of that was known.
And why had they only come to take their family away now?
...
Gauss shook his head.
What had happened was already done, and half a year had passed since.
All he could do now was hope that returning to her family would have a positive effect on Rhine.
At the moment, Gauss truly wasn’t suited to leave the relatively familiar Carlos Kingdom and go searching for Rhine in a foreign kingdom.
First, the journey really was far; second, he was still far from being completely safe—you had to remember, the Dragon Worship Sect was probably still harboring thoughts about him as a special target; third, although his current strength was considerable, if he had to face a powerful, genuinely influential great noble house, he still didn’t amount to much. In other words, even if he trekked over mountains and rivers to find Rhine right now, with his current strength he wouldn’t be able to affect anything.
All he could do was wait until they returned to town and then ask people to gather all sorts of information about the distant Roland Kingdom.
If, in the future, the time was right and he had become strong enough, he would set out on a journey to see how Rhine was doing.
"So? Where did little Rhine go?" Aaliyah asked when she saw the worried look on his face.
"Her family was taken to the Roland Kingdom."
"The Roland Kingdom, that really is far." Albena rubbed the back of her head. Although the Giant bloodline tribe she came from was remote, it was still within the borders of the Carlos Kingdom.
Among those present, perhaps only Serdur, the Half-Snake Man from an island, had ever set foot outside the Carlos Kingdom.
"Once we get a bit stronger, we’ll go look for little Rhine." Aaliyah clapped her hands, encouraging them.
"Mm."
"That day won’t be too far off." Serdur looked at Gauss.
This wasn’t blind confidence; it was because he had complete faith in Gauss.
When he first met the captain, the captain had only just reached Level 2, and now he was already a Level 6 Professional.
And in terms of actual combat strength, he was even more absurd.
Since their main goal on this trip—Rhine—wasn’t in the village, Gauss and the others didn’t stay in the village any longer than necessary. After leaving a few Skill Books behind, they mounted Hephaestus and left Goat Village, flying toward Gray Rock Town.
...
Bean-sized pellets of snow fluttered down in great flurries.
Yet when they drifted close to the Red Dragon Dragon Beast Hephaestus, they quietly melted away.
"I’m tired."
The one who said this was none other than Hephaestus, who was flapping its wings and flying through the heavy snow, using the Dragon tongue to make sounds only Gauss could understand.
The corners of Gauss’s mouth lifted slightly.
Wasn’t this progress?
Hephaestus had started to talk.
Although for now it could only express a few simple short sentences and phrases like "want to eat," "I’m tired," "want to sleep," "yes," "no," much like a child who had just learned to speak, as long as the first step had been taken, its pace of improvement would only grow faster and faster.