Sebastian nodded in understanding. He immediately left to carry out the order Edmund had given him.

Borrowing Edmund’s horse, he rode swiftly out of the village and headed toward the city guild office.

Leonor and her team had been carrying out their guild mission since early morning.

Considering their abilities, Sebastian was confident they had already completed their mission and were currently at the city guild office.

Edmund remained near the burned wheat fields, waiting alongside Liam, who stayed close to him.

There was something strange about the ground where the wheat fields had been completely burned away.

A crimson mana aura was evaporating into the air, as if traces of magic had once existed there.

The two of them waited while sitting inside a small wooden hut near the field.

Edmund did not know whether Leonor had completed her mission yet, but he hoped she had.

After half an hour of waiting, the sound of galloping hooves came from the north.

Sebastian arrived riding Edmund’s horse, followed by Leonor and Sera fifteen minutes later.

"What happened?" Sera asked in shock.

The two women were stunned to see the vast wheat field reduced to nothing but ashes and blackened ground.

Edmund stood from the hut and walked toward them.

"A fire broke out without any clear cause. I asked Leonor to come because I felt something was strange," Edmund explained.

Edmund’s footsteps stopped at the spot where the crimson mana aura was radiating.

He asked Leonor and Sera to step into the burned field and stand directly in front of him.

"Take a look, Leonor. You might be able to see it with your eyes," Edmund explained.

Leonor lowered her head and looked at the ground. The crimson mana aura radiating from the soil immediately surprised her.

She quickly crouched down to inspect it more closely.

Edmund and Sera exchanged brief glances before crouching beside Leonor.

"This really is a crimson mana aura, but I don’t think this is that sigil," Leonor replied.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. I can clearly see rune sigils. This isn’t one of them."

"Let me examine it, Leonor," Sera said.

Leonor shifted aside and allowed Sera to inspect the area.

Using her tree magic, Sera extended roots into the ground even though she could not see the crimson mana aura in detail like they could.

"This is a trap rune. It’s already inactive," Sera answered.

"Are you sure?" Edmund asked.

Sera fell silent for a moment before chanting a short spell that caused a medium-sized red magic rune to appear above the ground, startling many people nearby.

However, the woman quickly reassured them that the rune was harmless.

"Relax. This is only the reaction of an inactive trap rune."

In an instant, the red rune faded and scattered into tiny magical particles that drifted into the sky.

Edmund and Leonor watched the sight, followed by the other police officials.

"It’s inactive now," Sera explained as she stood back up.

Liam stepped closer to them, curious about what they had discovered. "Can you tell who the culprit is?"

Sera turned toward him and shook her head. She could not confirm it.

However, based on her experience as a mage researcher, she had another answer.

"Usually, the mages who do this are people holding a grudge against the owner of the wheat field," Sera explained while crossing her arms.

"That means we’ll need to investigate this by questioning Saf and the others," Liam said.

"Based on the level of the trap rune attached here, this is classified as a low-grade rune. It could only be activated by a mage above level 15."

"You can start your search from that category, Liam," Sera explained.

Liam nodded. He felt grateful because Edmund and his companions had managed to provide valuable information.

Edmund was still somewhat confused.

His entire life, he had only studied swordsmanship techniques and the abilities required of a knight-class fighter.

He knew nothing about trap runes or other forms of magic runes.

His curiosity had started after the battle against Morgana, then continued with the sigil and eventually the Salvation Order.

Edmund became even more interested after realizing Leonor’s class was mage.

"So, the mage who planted this trap rune was a demon?" Edmund asked.

"Not exactly. The crimson mana aura you saw comes from monster core energy."

"Monster core?"

Leonor agreed with Sera’s explanation, "The characteristics of monster cores are aggressive and explosive. If they aren’t handled with proper spells, they become dangerous for mages."

"What she said is true. Usually, mages use monster cores as an energy trigger when creating trap runes."

"The traps can take many forms. Floods, fires, storms, even sinkholes," Sera explained.

"So if this trap caused a fire, does that have something to do with the culprit mage’s affinity?" Edmund asked.

"Yes."

"You heard all of that, Liam?" Sera asked as she turned toward him.

"I heard it. Thank you for your help," Liam replied.

Edmund felt relieved that the fire case could be resolved quickly now that the culprit’s characteristics had been identified.

However, that still did not mean his Rule System mission had succeeded.

He still needed to figure out how to control market prices so wheat prices would not skyrocket because of the fire.

He would need to purchase wheat from other cities to stabilize the market supply, especially now that Saf would be unable to provide eight tons of wheat during the upcoming harvest.

Edmund’s attention shifted toward Leonor, "How did your mission go?"

Leonor turned toward him and smiled brightly, "We managed to kill the goblins easily. In total, we killed around fifteen goblins, even though the mission objective only required ten."

"That’s good. It seems your team is working well together," Edmund said.

"And what about your level, Leonor?" Edmund asked.

"It already increased to level 8," Leonor answered.

"May I see it?"

Leonor nodded. She traced the letter ’S’ in front of her face and tapped it once, causing her personal status panel to appear.

[Status:]

[Name: Leonor Aschwin || Age: 17]

[Race: Human Half-Demon]

[Affinity: Fire (Max)]

[Class: None]

[Level: 8]

[EXP: 525/1000]

[Bond: Conviction || Energy: 30/100]

Edmund looked at the status panel and confirmed that Leonor was indeed still level 8.

She still had not chosen a class because that process would only happen during the awakening ceremony for new students at Livden Academy.

There were still twenty days left before the academy’s new student registration opened.

At the very least, Edmund had to make sure Leonor reached level 10. As for the others, he would not force them.

At minimum, level 7 would already be good enough for them.

"That’s impressive progress," Edmund said.

"I’ll give you three medium-grade monster cores if you accept my challenge," Edmund offered.

"What is it?" Leonor asked excitedly.

"You must reach level 10 in less than twenty days," Edmund answered firmly. "What do you think, Leonor?"