Timeskip

A few years later...

A tall young man with long black hair tied into a high ponytail was standing in front of a large toad-like Danger Beast that would classify at least as Class 1 in strength.

The danger beast opened its mouth and attacked the young man with its tongue who in response only put his hand on the handle of his still sheathed sword.

*Swish* *bang!* Danger beast's tongue was strong enough to decimate the earth under the young man but the tongue completely missed its target which confused the beast.

The young man was already standing behind the beast with already more than two-thirds of his sword back in the sheath.

*cling* *Splash* *bang* When the entire sword returned to its sheath with a metallic sound, a red line appeared in the middle of the beast's entire body before blood started spurting out, creating a small rain of blood, and the beast's body suddenly split up into two halves and fell on each side on the ground.

This young man was precisely Ink who spent already a few years with Oarburgh without any contact with Babara and Taeko. Of course, he knew that they have visited the hideout a few times, mainly to introduce the newest recent member but Mera didn't want Ink to meet them and even he himself didn't want to see them before his promise with Mera is fulfilled. He even missed getting acquainted with the said new member but he didn't mind it that much. The only thing he heard about that person is that they are female...how surprising...and also that she is a redhead and quite beautiful, in other words, completely useless information to Ink.

Ink turned his head back at the corpse lying behind him with a slightly bored expression before he looked down at the sheathed sword in his right hand.

'The cut wasn't the cleanest but I guess it's the sword's fault here...I should request for a much better sword now that I am tall enough and my body frame is suitable to wield heavier and longer weapons.' Ink sliced off a few chunks of the beast's meat along with its poisonous parts before returning to the hideout. Right now he was 15 or maybe 16 years old, he himself wasn't really sure, not like he cared, however, today was his 3rd year being together with Oarburgh.

When he returned to the hideout, there was already someone to greet him right behind the entrance.

"Yo, looks like you had some fun outside" Gil said with a wide smile while leaning against the wall and raising her fist.

"Not much, I want to ask for a new better sword. I can barely cleanly cut Class 1 danger beast in half. I think it's time for me to get a custom-made sword since I doubt I will grow even more." Ink replied and released a small smile while giving Gil a fist bump.

In course of those years, Ink changed considerably. Mera also started occasionally teaching him and giving him hints regarding the similar skills they share. She also taught him how to improve his facial expressions up to the point where he could even pretend to be captive of love. His eyes could now shine in happiness however he only used those skills whenever he was out on a mission. Here, he was comfortable and it also included his dull eyes and usually blank expression, however, at this point, everyone got used to it and started even thinking that Ink was wearing it just to mask some insecurities.

"Ho? So we are at the demanding stage already? Are you perhaps at the peak of your puberty? Just don't you rebel on me, I am still the one responsible for you. By the way...I thought you would be annoyed by having long hair, I am surprised that you still haven't cut them short." Gil said with a teasing tone.

"It doesn't annoy me, it just doesn't matter to me. Plus I am already past my puberty" Ink closed his eyes and replied with a low sigh at the end, walking past Gil who immediately followed after him, walking next to him.

"Oh? That's surprising...Since you are saying you are already past your puberty...did you have them?" Gil asked mysteriously with a smug look on her face.

"? What do you exactly mean?" Ink looked to the side and asked her while looking at her with a confused expression.

"Ah...you know...wet dreams. Did any of the maids have to clean any stained blankets? haha." Gil asked with a cheeky smile while poking Ink's side with her elbow, it was quite clear that she was teasing him and just wanted to embarrass him. As one could notice, they became quite close after all those training sessions.

"Oh...Yeah, sure I did but I cleaned them myself." Ink smiled when he "understood" what she meant to ask before replying while looking in front of him with a light smile, not embarrassed at all.

"Eh?" Gil looked at Ink's face with a surprised expression after seeing how nonchalant he was about this matter.

"I am glad you asked" Ink turned back at her and said, confusing her furthermore.

"W-What do you mean?"

Hearing her question, Ink brightly smiled with closed eyes.

"That's because you were the one who was appearing the most during those times. It feels kinda nice seeing that you care about those things, feels almost like a fate."

"EH?!" Gil took one step away from Ink as her cheeks became slightly red. Ink and most people would think that she just became slightly embarrassed but embarrassing someone like Gil took a great deal...It was easily possible that she just became slightly turned on upon imagining the idea, after all, Gil was a huge pervert on par with Mera. While Mera was strictly focused on women, Gil never had much time to interact with men other than Ink which led her to like women too however she hasn't explored the other side yet, making her a bit curious.

"Don't be so alarmed...It was all just a joke-" Ink said while facing forward and Gil sighed however in Ink's ears it sounded perhaps a bit disappointed.

"-is what I would like to say but what do you expect? Boss told me all about those things just so I wouldn't be seduced on the missions but except for Daniel, there are only women here...How am I supposed to control whatever happens in my dreams? It also doesn't certainly help when I hear moans from the boss's room whenever I pass by." Ink continued, giving a short glare at Gil as if saying that it's her own fault.

"You-! If you dare to trick me once more, I will be forced to teach you a lesson!" Gil said with an upset expression while gritting her teeth with a raised fist.

Gil quickly calmed down and started seriously thinking about the things she just made fun of. She admitted that it must be quite hard for a young man to be around so many women.

"...I never thought about it much but...It must be quite bad for your concentration, right? I have never really noticed during our training sessions, sorry." Gil apologized since she thought that as Ink's mentor, she should have seen through those things.

"Don't think too hard about it. It's just during the dreams that I have no control over it. You have never noticed because my concentration was always only on the training." Ink said with a blank expression.

Hearing his "comforting" words, Gil just smiled.

"But be honest with me now...I know that you got plenty of missions that required you to go to towns or villages...Don't tell me you have never hired a prostitute when you definitely had plenty of money..." Gil asked with a doubtful expression. Seeing her expression, Ink knew that she was seriously asking.

"I did not...I don't know, feels too weird for me to do something so private with a woman I don't even know." Ink replied with an indifferent expression.

'...He really didn't...?' Gil thought with a slightly surprised and worried expression because she knew that Mera started giving Ink more money as "travel expenses" but Gil knew why Mera was doing it. Mera always warned him about those things but she didn't strictly forbid him to go to brothels after he is finished with the mission. Mera wanted Ink to be healthy but she didn't want to admit it so she just left it like that and let him do as he wishes.

'Even when he first came back and returned most of the money given to him as "travel expenses", Mera-sama started calling him a little virgin out of nowhere... Was she trying to pressure him?' Gil thought while holding her chin.

"Gilberda-sama, Ink-sama..." While they were walking the hallways, they met maid with a long blonde hair. She immediately bowed her head to both with a smile on her face.

"Good morning, Rem." Ink raised his hand to wave at her before once again looking forward.

Even his status rapidly grew in the entire organization. However it wasn't just because Mera started teaching him, everyone here understood her way of thinking when it came to men. They recognized Ink for his diligence and most importantly his clean record of his missions. Despite doing each of them all alone from quite a young age, he has yet to fail a single one of them and no one even knows his identity outside of Oarburgh, therefore everyone already recognized him as true Oarburgh.