But even the earth around the adamant was quite hard, making it difficult.
"This doesn't look like it'll be easy to finish. What if the water dragon comes..."
"I'll mine it all, even if it costs me my life. But can't I use it myself?"
"That's true."
Disappointment appeared in Aint's eyes.
A sword or armor made of adamant, said to be the hardest substance in the world. Honestly, as a knight, it would be a lie to say he had never imagined it.
"But if I offered some of the adamant as payment..."
Gardner cut off Aint's words.
"..."
Aint couldn't argue with that. He was all too aware of this fact himself.
"Then who could we sell this to? We can't just sell it to anyone..."
Gardner asked in a voice that genuinely couldn't understand the hesitation.
***
"Well, did you get what you wanted?"
Janice greeted Gerhard with a sly smile as he emerged from the ground.
"Any problems?"
"Just some monsters running wild and fighting with students nearby? Nothing that required an assistant professor's intervention."
"That's good."
"Is it all over now?"
"For now."
At those words, Janice retrieved her clone that had been keeping watch from the tree.
"Then my job of sitting in one place is also over."
"It hasn't even been a day."
"Even a day of staying still makes me restless."
"So, is our contract complete?"
Janice asked Gerhard, who chuckled.
"I've fulfilled what you wanted, and you've already paid the price."
"Yes, well done."
"But I'm really curious, what kind of spirit potion is it? What kind of potion is worth going to such lengths for?"
Gerhard silently stared at Janice instead of answering. Seeing his look, she shook her head.
"Right, you wouldn't tell me. Well then, farewell. Good work, Assistant Professor. Call me if you need anything else!"
Janice disappeared with a snicker. Gerhard took his place on the tree, where he should have been as an assistant professor.
"Things went better than expected."
The amount of mithril was substantial, and Aint hadn't discovered him.
'Is this amount enough to make it?'
It was 20kg, but mithril was an extremely light ore, so its volume was enormous, comparable to a decent-sized house.
The quantity shouldn't be insufficient.
'The problem is finding suitable ore.'
Mithril was called blessed by mana because of its excellent mana absorption and conductivity, but it couldn't shine on its own.
Alloy. Only by mixing mithril with other metals could its efficiency increase more than twofold.
Naturally, inferior ores wouldn't be satisfactory.
"I'll have to spend all my money to find the right material."
He thought that if he mobilized all his connections and the power of his family, he might find a few items worthy of being paired with mithril.
"Adamant, or at least dark iron would be best..."
As if those ores could be obtained with mere money.
'Anyway, the job is done, and if I just finish my assistant professor duties...'
That's when it happened.
—!
Kwang!
Kieeeek-
Keng keng-
Explosions, roaring sounds, beast howls, screams, and the strong stench of monsters assaulted his nose.
Gerhard stood up. In the distance, dozens of hell hounds were chasing a student.
"Help me! Save me!"
Half-tattered armor, dried blood crusts everywhere, desperate cries.
A student being chased by an overwhelming pack of monsters.
Professors and assistant professors were stationed in each area to supervise and manage the practical training in preparation for such incidents.
But Gerhard deliberately didn't intervene.
Even as the student fled again and again, screaming dozens of times, circling the tree where Gerhard was perched hundreds of times.
"Oh, really!"
Finally, the student shouted.
"Are you really not going to help me until the end?"
"Should I help?"
"Aren't assistant professors stationed here to help students in danger?"
"If they're in danger, yes."
Gerhard rested his chin on his hand and tapped the tree.
"But would an elf be in danger from mere hell hounds in a forest?"
"...Tch."
The orange-haired elf, Ariadne, clicked her tongue.
As she lightly jumped up and landed next to Gerhard, the pursuing hell hounds crashed into the tree.
—!
"Stop being annoying and deal with them quickly. The tree is going to fall."
"Why don't you help, Assistant Professor?"
"I guess all that talk about elves loving forests and trees was nonsense."
Finally, Ariadne cast a spell. Dozens of wind blades engulfed the hell hound pack like a storm.
Kagagagak-
She couldn't take out all the hell hounds at once, but some retreated after suffering fatal wounds. The hell hounds backed away, confused by the sudden turn of events.
"Were you looking for me?"
"It was a coincidence."
"Then go away."
"...I was looking for you."
"Why?"
"I was curious."
Curious? At Gerhard's question, Ariadne nodded.
"As far as I know, second-year students don't become temporary assistant professors."
"They just don't do it. It's not that they can't."
"Exactly. Everyone avoids it because the drawbacks outweigh the benefits, so I'm curious why you did it."
Looking at her eyes full of curiosity, Gerhard quickly understood the situation.
"Did your father... Duke Florian order you? To somehow make connections with people from the Margrave family and build relationships?"
"...Is it that obvious? I thought my acting was pretty good."
Ariadne didn't deny it.
"Very obvious."
"I won't deny it. So, shall we be friends?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because I'm older."
Even for an elf, there wasn't much difference from humans. Just pointed ears and a slightly better affinity for forests and spirits.
"Then how about becoming close seniors and juniors?"
"That doesn't appeal to me either."
"I'm the heir to the Margrave family, you know?"
"Weren't you working on Aint?"
"Can an elf live on meat alone? Sometimes we eat fruit too. I'm going to get close to all six Margraves anyway, so what does it matter?"
From that brief conversation, Gerhard understood her personality.
An extremely thick-skinned and shameless type.
"I wasn't even thinking about people who might give me money..."
That's when it happened.
————!
A deafening roar rang out from the distance.
It was a roar.
The fury of a dragon whose lair had been destroyed and whose treasure had been stolen.
"...Oh, damn."
Gerhard swallowed as he saw the water dragon appearing, sending all the lake water spraying outward.
'Could Aint be dead...?'
Something had gone wrong.
"A water dragon? Why is such a thing here... Huh? When?"
Ariadne blinked in bewilderment.
In the distance, Gerhard had already vanished like a speck.