The purpose of the Lennart dojo tour could be broadly divided into two:

One was to verify the skills of the dojo disciples. Two was to expand their knowledge and experience.

The Tin Knight compared this system to a certain pocket monster gym-crushing content, but in fact, there was quite a big difference between the two.

Unlike the global competition organized by an official association on that side, the essence of this one was more like a broad and large-scale family event.

Positively speaking, it was flexible; negatively speaking, it lacked fundamentals, so how each test would be conducted was entirely up to the discretion of the representative instructor.

In this context, Norman’s claim that, “I already know you’re strong, so I’ll look at something other than combat power,” wasn’t completely unreasonable.

However, for Adelaide, who had been desperately raising only her combat specs throughout the journey, it was a very troublesome proposal.

It was the Tin Knight’s fault for focusing solely on stat and skill building, ignoring culture and everything else.

Perhaps sensing Adelaide’s strong aversion, Norman took a step back.

“Ah, due to my poor expression, there seems to be some misunderstanding. I said ‘peace lion,’ but I’m not expecting some tremendous achievement. To put it more crudely, you could call it a messenger.”

“By messenger, do you mean delivering a letter?”

“Yes, the content itself is nothing special. It’s just to ease the current tense atmosphere, suggesting something like a light joint event. Miss Adelaide, you just need to officially deliver the letter and officially receive an answer, and that’s it.”

Only then did Adelaide relax her guard a little, but not all her doubts had disappeared yet.

Sophia, who had been quietly silent beside her, asked, “If it’s as you say, it doesn’t seem like a difficult task, but that’s why I’m curious on the contrary. Can such a ‘simple task’ replace the test?”

The Tower of Annihilation was in the city center, while the Lennart dojo was closer to the outskirts, but it wasn’t tremendously far or difficult to travel between them.

Even an ordinary person without any special abilities could reach it in tens of minutes just by walking across the downtown area.

It seemed too easy to be called a test.

So much so that one might suspect some hidden agenda.

“Haha, I see. It’s a valid point. However, it probably won’t be as easy as you might expect,” Norman showed a kind-looking, generous smile, then added. “At least until now, not a single person sent as a messenger has returned with a reply.”

Sophia’s gaze became calm. Adelaide gulped, and the bone mouse hiding in her hair on her shoulder quietly lit up its jewel.

Adelaide asked with a trembling voice, “You don’t mean they died, do you?”

Norman shook his head, “It’s not like that. They just fainted.”

Advance towards the front of the tower, inform the spirit guarding the door of your business, and hand over the letter to the mage from the Tower of Annihilation who comes out.

He said that no one had managed to complete this simple action without fainting.

“The civil officials who hadn’t trained their bodies collapsed even before reaching the door, and the disciples fainted in the process of speaking to the spirit. Even the instructors saw the mage coming down but fainted before managing to hand over the letter.”

The only one left was Norman, the representative instructor, but for him to go personally would be like an earl of one domain personally visiting another domain to hand a letter to a guard.

It could be dressed up as “boldness” once or twice, but if overused too often, it would end up damaging Lennart’s prestige itself.

“For it to be a coincidence, it’s too blatant. It seems they don’t even intend to hide it.”

“It’s probably not a direct attack. According to the victims’ stories, it feels like the fear and pressure you’d feel when facing a huge beast is intensified to the extreme.”

In the end, this too was a kind of battle of wills.

“They won’t harm the messenger, but ‘a weak messenger collapsing on their own’ is not something they need to intervene in. Is that it?”

“No, I think intimidating someone into fainting still falls well within the category of ‘harming’…” Adelaide meekly objected to Sophia’s speculation.

“That’s correct in principle, but they are the most ferocious even within the Magic State. Their standards are different from ours, so if we don’t let this much slide, the conversation won’t even start,” Norman gave a bitter smile. “It’s somewhat difficult to call it fortunate, but currently, since the late emperor passed away, the Empire has been consistently non-interventionist regarding policies towards the Magic State. On our dojo’s side as well, unless we’re making small event proposals like this, we have no other reason to send messengers, so diplomatically, it’s passing quietly without much commotion. However, the fact that there’s no major diplomatic problem doesn’t mean it’s okay to leave this situation as is.”

The elderly instructor gazed at Adelaide.

“I’ll entrust this to you. Any means are fine. You can try to find and break through the principle of the ‘pressure’ they apply, prepare defensive magic tools, or even attempt a pure frontal breakthrough—I won’t stop you. Please overcome their mischievous prank and complete the role of a messenger.”

Adelaide pondered silently for a moment.

She glanced at Sophia, but she just smiled as if to say she’d leave it up to her, and the bone mouse on her shoulder didn’t send any special signals either. This might simply be because Dorothea was too busy to respond, but anyway, the choice was given to Adelaide.

After careful consideration, Adelaide nodded, “I’ll try.”

* * *

And Dorothea, watching this scene through the bone mouse, grumbled, “That kid with a timid personality isn’t backing out of something like this. It looks like a troublesome task, she should just yell at them to take a strength test instead of messing around unnecessarily.”

The Tin Knight, listening from the side, expressed doubt.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ asks what’s the point of threatening the examiner to change the test content!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ argues that the meaning is in overcoming a struggle!]

“What do you mean, what’s the point? There’s a big difference between getting the token or not.”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says that indeed, the reward is important!]

Contrary to Adelaide’s prediction that they would be too busy to pay much attention to their side, Dorothea had been watching almost everything that happened at the dojo from start to finish.

It wasn’t because the Tin Knight’s modification work finished so quickly—in fact, the Tin Knight was in a disassembled state with only his head and core remaining, chatting with Dorothea.

The work was still in full progress, and the reason Dorothea could leisurely observe elsewhere despite this was simple.

In short, Gale was too competent.

“Hmm, Sig? Can you hand me that over there?”

As the White Knight handed over the thin iron plate obtained from the blacksmith as instructed, Gale engraved a few magic characters on it.

Then the iron plate would bend or cut on its own, turning into a tool that fit perfectly in Gale’s hand.

Dorothea felt an emotion that was either admiration or jealousy, thinking that her versatility was really something else.

In fact, this wasn’t the first time Dorothea and Gale had worked together.

They had also joined forces when creating the magic doll workshop in Tik-Tok.

However, at that time, there wasn’t much difference in the workload between Dorothea and Gale.

While Gale’s contribution was significant in detailed tool creation, Dorothea was the main force in providing the essential labor at the construction site.

But this modification work didn’t require the physical labor through mass mobilization that was a necromancer’s specialty, and Dorothea didn’t have knowledge regarding magic dolls necessary to participate in the detailed modification work.

Or more precisely, Gale’s level of skill and understanding was so high that there was no need for Dorothea to help separately.

Dorothea said incredulously, “You, was your real job a doll technician instead of a mage?”

“There’s nothing you won’t say to a mage certified by the magic tower. Well, I pride myself on having skills that wouldn’t lose to most doll technicians, so I’ll take that as a compliment this time.”

While constantly chattering, Gale’s gaze was fixed on the workbench, and her hands never stopped for even a moment.

In the midst of working like this for a while.

“Hmm, I need to stop the magic circuit for a moment. Tin Knight? I’m going to empty the mana for a bit, is that okay?”

[…]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ answers that it’s okay!]

Dorothea noticed the strange gap that existed until the answer came back.

But instead of pointing it out, she remained silent, and soon after, the Tin Knight stopped his activities and halted.

Creak, creak.

While engraving various magic characters inside the Tin Knight’s body, Gale spoke, “Dorothea.”

“What?”

“Actually, I’ve done some background investigation on your knight.”

Dorothea paused for a moment, but then crossed her arms and legs as if to say continue, “Why?”

“Because I was curious. An old-fashioned magic doll that I had never seen before indirectly engaged in a skill battle with Sig and won, so I couldn’t help but be interested. So I investigated this and that. But the results were unsatisfactory. It was truly strange,” Gale said. “The Tin Knight’s power is still lacking compared to his prime. To be precise, even if the temporary peak is close to his prime, the capacity of the vessel to hold mana is small, so the time he can maintain it is ridiculously short. Conversely, during his heyday, he must have used such power more easily and comfortably… For someone of that ability, there should be records left. But strangely, there were very few historical materials.”

Dorothea silently listened to Gale’s words, “I speculated two reasons. One is that the period when the Tin Knight was active wasn’t just the distant past, but truly ancient times. And the other is that someone intentionally erased information about the Tin Knight from history. Maybe it’s both.”

At that moment, Dorothea asked for the first time, “You said earlier that there were few historical materials. That sounds like there were some, though?”

“Yes, when I asked my mentor, she showed me a fairy tale book. The content was quite abstract, though.”

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ Once upon a time, long long ago.

‎

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎In an age when darkness covered the land.

‎

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎There was a very brave knight.

‎

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎The knight’s arms were cold metal. He never lets go of his sword.

‎

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎The knight’s legs were cold metal. He never felt fatigue.

‎

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎The knight’s head was cold metal. He never needed rest.

‎

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎The knight’s heart was cold metal. He will never despair.

‎

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎Ah, noble and loyal knight.

‎

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎When will you be able to rest?

‎

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎All those who bore witness to your nobility with their own eyes have returned to the earth, yet you are still on the ground.

‎

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎How long will the children of the children you protected call you a hero?

‎

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎Once upon a time, long long ago.

‎

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎In an age when darkness was leaving the land.

‎

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎There was a very pitiful knight.

***

https://ko-fi.com/genesisforsaken