Realizing that the woman’s strength far surpassed his own, Noel left with no choice.

If he recklessly fought back, he could end up injured and humiliated, tarnishing the Jax noble family’s name.

Edmund turned and realized Sera would go overboard if she attacked Noel.

To prevent that from happening, he stepped in and settled the issue.

"It seems the matter is already clear. The Diva Party did not cheat in taking the mission from the city guild," Edmund said.

Noel turned and looked at Edmund’s face. In the end, the man chose to nod and agree with Edmund’s words.

No matter what, he would not be able to win if such a rule truly existed.

"Fine. I won’t make an issue out of it anymore," Noel complained.

With irritated expressions, they walked away from the sidewalk beside the city’s main road.

Edmund also asked the crowd that had gathered there to leave the area.

Slowly, one by one, they left and forgot about the incident. Denise stepped forward toward Edmund, followed by Aya, Nicole, and Helena.

"Thank you for your help, Viscount Edmund," Denise said.

"It’s nothing. As long as you’re right, you should be brave enough to speak your mind even if your opponent is a member of a noble family."

"I’ll try to be more firm, Viscount Edmund."

Leonor walked over to Denise and asked how they were doing after the argument earlier.

Sera chose to approach Edmund instead, not to talk about Noel and his party.

"About Leonor, I’m planning to take her on a certain mission. That is, if you don’t mind," Sera whispered softly into Edmund’s ear.

"What is it?"

"Hunting five Red-Headed Snake Monsters."

Edmund narrowed his eyes. He knew the quality of the Red-Headed Snake Monsters and the reason why Sera chose that mission over the others.

"Why did you take that mission?" Edmund whispered.

"Among the other A-Rank missions, only that one is ideal for Leonor."

"Are you sure you can protect her?"

Sera cleared her throat and nodded. "I’m sure."

The man fell silent for a moment, looking ahead once more toward Leonor, who was still chatting with her friends and making sure they were alright.

After the battle against Morgana, Sera had started seeing Leonor differently.

She believed Leonor possessed extraordinary strength beyond her apparent abilities, but chose to hide it for certain reasons.

Edmund did not know the reason, nor did Sera. Only Leonor knew why she acted that way.

"Alright. Are the other members coming too?"

"No. This is a duo mission."

"I understand."

The man walked over to them. He told Denise and the others to rest and return to the orphanage, and he also told the other instructors to rest.

Night had begun to fall. Their work was finished, and the guild mission they had been carrying out was also complete.

"Then we’ll take our leave."

"Bye, Leonor."

Denise and the others waved goodbye and left the place, heading back toward the orphanage located in the western part of the city.

Natalie and the other instructors also said their farewells. Sera asked them to come again tomorrow to help the Diva Party carry out another guild mission.

They had to keep doing that routine solely so Leonor and the other Diva Party members would become more accustomed to battle.

In the end, it would greatly help them once they entered Livden Academy.

Right after Denise and the instructors left, Sera glanced sideways at Edmund. "Want to come along?"

"I haven’t fully recovered yet. Are you trying to kill me?"

"Haha, I’m just joking."

Now, Sera and Leonor walked away after saying goodbye to Edmund. They did not head west like Denise and the others, nor north toward the Aschwin Mansion.

They turned at an intersection and headed east. The location of the Red-Headed Snake Monsters was extremely remote and deep within the forest.

Out of the three forests surrounding Archester City, only the eastern forest was inhabited by medium-strength monsters.

Even though the Red-Headed Snake Monsters were stronger than slimes or goblins, the guild alliance still had not categorized them as medium-grade monsters.

The monster cores inside their bodies were also low-grade monster cores, which meant their strength was not considered that high.

Elsewhere, Edmund climbed back onto his mount and quickly rode away from the city’s main road to return to the Aschwin Mansion.

Personally inspecting the fire site while still not fully fit had exhausted Edmund quickly.

Since his paperwork was already finished, Edmund planned to go home and immediately throw himself onto his bed for a full rest.

Tomorrow, Edmund would have an important meeting with the heads of the two departments.

Everything was being done to make it easier for Edmund to complete the system rule’s second mission.

Edmund was certain he could finish that mission faster.

***

The next day.

Edmund’s condition had completely recovered after fully resting yesterday. His body no longer felt sore, and his steps were no longer limping.

To take advantage of his recovery, Edmund chose to train and maximize his swordsmanship.

He trained with several soldiers in the backyard, though not to the level of extreme full-seriousness training.

From the direction of the Aschwin Mansion, Sebastian walked toward the backyard and saw Edmund fighting against three people at once.

With one final slash, the three soldiers lost and fell after being struck by Edmund’s blunt iron sword swing.

Sweat covered his face, and his breathing became heavy.

"Impressive," Sebastian praised.

Edmund turned and looked at him. The man had come alone wearing his usual formal suit.

He took out a handkerchief and handed it directly to Edmund. Edmund accepted it and began wiping the sweat from his face.

"What is it, Sebastian?" Edmund asked.

"They’ve arrived, the heads of the Trade Department and the City Finance Department," Sebastian replied.

The man raised his hand and pointed toward them. The two people were standing near the back entrance of the Aschwin Mansion.

A man and a woman. Edmund recognized them.

Edmund walked over and shook hands with them politely.

The man was Lucas, Head of the Trade Department. Meanwhile, the woman was Annie, Head of the City Finance Department.

"I’m glad you were willing to come to the Aschwin Mansion," Edmund said.

"You are the ruler of the city, Viscount Edmund. Of course we would come," Lucas replied.

"Go with Sebastian to my office first. I need to prepare myself beforehand," Edmund explained.

"Understood, Viscount Edmund."

Together with Sebastian, they returned inside the Aschwin Mansion and climbed to the second floor where Edmund’s office was located.

As for Edmund, he returned to his room to bathe and change clothes.

After spending half an hour preparing himself, Edmund finally arrived and opened the door to his office.

Lucas and Annie immediately stood up and turned around, smiling as they greeted Edmund.

"There’s a specific reason why I invited you here. It’s related to yesterday’s massive wheat field fire," Edmund explained.

"We already heard about it." 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Edmund walked until he fully reached his desk, "Now, I want to discuss preventive measures to stop market commodity prices from surging as a result of the wheat field fire."

"Understood, Viscount Edmund."