At that same time, Jin and his group resumed their journey toward the capital. Three days had passed since the extermination at the bandit hideout, and Poire had begun to wonder whether there was truly any job in the capital for inferior beings like them. Being the kind man he was, Jin assured them that their ability to read and write was already a huge edge, and urged the girl to have more confidence.
Hakama, meanwhile, pointed into the distance and told them the capital was near.
Jin was absolutely gobsmacked when he stared at the grand beauty of the royal capital. By the evening they arrived inside it, and the place was bustling with people on every side. Hakama revealed that the capital relied on imports, which meant every kind of good was available here, even the Kodama clothing they had mentioned before.
Jin found it all interesting, and took notice of a number of insect mutants among the crowds. There was an abundance of races around here, showcasing how differently they had all developed. The streets were tidy. Safety was top-notch in the capital, too. But even with all those benefits, there were some disgusting parts, and Jin reflected that each era carried its own bundle of problems.
He asked Hakama about the entrance exam for the academy, and learned that it was going to be held the following week. They would be waiting until the exam started.
Overhearing their conversation, a blonde girl wondered whether this party was interested in entering Harness Academy, especially when they all looked like inferior species.
At the inn, Hakama and Nino pounced on top of the comfortable beds. At last they could sleep somewhere proper.
With his initial goal of reaching the capital fulfilled, Jin found himself wondering what he should do next. Even in a new era, he still had to find a way to make money to survive. He had received a lump of money for the extermination of the bandits, but he knew it would not last forever, especially not with four of them. Then there was the added issue of finding these children jobs to work at, and the immediate solution to that would be a meeting with Argus. Right now, however, they knew nothing about the man's location, or what connections might lead them to him.
Jin turned over a number of options, prioritizing the investigation of the Corruptors first. He knew there were people in this era trying to exploit such monsters for their own goals. Corruptors were by nature very dangerous beings, so they could not be left unattended. This time he refused to let the living face total annihilation again.
Casually, he asked Hakama what the people of this country did when they had to research something.
Apparently, they read books on the subject, or consulted someone knowledgeable. The books themselves were pretty expensive. Even in the village they had had to read books together just to afford them. At the same time, the royal capital boasted a spectacular library, which made research much easier.
Jin liked that idea, because it meant he could use the library to his advantage and find clues about the laboratories Kagura had left behind.
At the library's reception desk, however, the girl on duty openly refused him entry. Books were considered sacred national property, and they did not allow just anyone in freely. Only the students of a recognized academy, or nobles, were allowed to use such a place. Once again the situation had gotten more complicated.
Hakama reminded him, to his embarrassment, that he could not even read in his current state, though he was trying his best to learn the letters. It would take him a while to get a full grasp of the language.
He was still scratching his head over it like a man with an exam to prepare for when two men in cloaks began secretly watching them as part of their mission. They came up to confront Jin for what was supposedly a simple chat, though the conversation started with a violent punch.
Jin reflexively caught his fist right away, then taunted the man for having such amazing manners in his introduction. So much for the city's safety, when people attacked like this. The man remained arrogant, and Jin forced his fist up into the air, diverting a powerful magic blast. The fighter praised him for having sharp instincts, while Poire could not fathom how these people were openly using divine power in the middle of a civilian zone.
Jin wanted to understand what these losers were after, and soon figured out that someone had placed a target on his head. That only worked out in his favor. Even though the bullies threatened his group to get lost from the capital unless they wanted to deal with real danger, Jin did not budge on his position, and invited the man to try attacking him again, only to catch his fist and slam him into the hard ground.
After delivering a reality check to one of them, he turned to the other, who was firing a magic blast right at him. Jin refused to dodge and blocked the fiery attack head-on, making the man think he had dealt some serious damage. But out of the smoke came a hand, and Jin grabbed him and lifted him up as if he weighed nothing.
Adopting a serious tone, Jin mocked them for being pathetically weak while challenging him. That was, if they even had the will to try. His victim, meanwhile, was questioning how on earth a low-level species was capable of so much strength.
Suddenly a knight from the order stopped the fight. It was Karina, annoyed that she had to interrupt her day off for this trouble. She did not even care about the assailants who had attacked Jin. She just wanted to throw both Hakama and Jin in jail for good this time, which in the end worked in his favor, since the scene attracted the attention of someone connected to Argus, even if she was currently screaming in his face.
Having broken up a street fight, Karina spotted Jin and immediately got excited, because she believed she had finally caught the inferior species causing trouble in the city again. She was just about to start lecturing him when a demi-human bystander approached her and admitted she had seen everything that happened. The bystander explained that Jin had actually been the one attacked first, and that he had only been defending himself during the fight.
When Karina checked the faces of the attackers, she quickly realized they were her usual foolish troublemaker juniors from Harness Academy. She quietly hoped that the Holy Captain's younger sister was not involved in this mess again.
Jin asked Karina whether she was currently on patrol, and questioned her about it, pointing out that he had thought guild members usually handled duties like this around the city. Karina replied that she was simply taking care of her nightly responsibility of maintaining order while she was on her way to a café nearby.
Now that she had personally seen Jin defeat several strong students from the academy with ease, Karina began to feel that her captain's earlier suspicions about this so-called inferior human might actually be correct. She tried to leave after asking Jin not to cause any more trouble, but Jin stopped her and used the chance to request that she guide him to her captain, Argus.