Kazuma had to admit it was strange being on the other end of the deal, Aqua and him, had always been the ones asking for help or looking to others for to teach them how to do things.

So he decided to humor the kid, they had long ago changed their clothes from the ones they had arrived with to ones suitable for living in Mantle, but that didn't mean that they couldn't mix the two if they were going to go on a miny adventurer.

So he mixed his old tracksuit with the clothes he wore when he used to go on adventurers.

When he was in the other world he had made it so that both sets of clothes were capable of keeping him safe from the climate, meaning that if it was too hot or too cold he would be okay, however, there was a limit to what they could do.

There are two other reasons why he and Aqua hardly leave Mantle.

For whatever reason the Grimm are attracted to Aqua, it's as if she is a magnet for them just like she was for the undead in the other world the Grimm target her and only her, but unlike the undead, they want to kill her.

They learned that the hard way and had it not been for Aqua's ability to purify the Grimm they both would have died that day.

The other reason is that despite being able to perform more powerful spells, that were locked away before Aquas powers were blocked differently in this world.

Now if she wanted to use anything beyond her God Blow, she needs to hold hands with me and in a situation where they are being attacked by monsters or people, that puts them in a bad spot and makes them easy targets.

Kazuma let out a small breath as he thought about his own weakness, he once had someone with a strong defense to keep the enemy occupied and not die and he had someone with a powerful finishing move that meant certain death for the enemy regardless of who they were.

Now both Darkness and Meguming are in another world and impossible for either Aqua or him to reach.

That just meant that if he was going to kill any monsters or be able to resist any of the Grimm's attacks, he either needed to absorb power from something or hold onto Aqua.

It didn't take long for Grimm to start to gather near them, they had taken Whitley and his bodyguard to the same spot where Aqua had planted the plants, and almost immediately the Grimm began to show up.

Aqua and he had managed to play it off as them trying to get the kid to learn fast because he was already too old t just be starting in being an adventurer, but the truth was they were keeping an eye out for Grimm.

Fortunately or unfortunately the Grimm that showed up was a single dragon that could control snow and it was thanks to Aqua who let him absorb some of her power that he managed to kill it without any trouble.

As for the kid and his bodyguard, they were shaken by their experience and Kazuma didn't expect to see either of them anymore.

"Hey Kazuma," Aqua said to him

"Yeah" Kazuma answered Aqua as he worked on the old golem he found the other day.

"I was thinking, I know we worked hard to get this house, but" she began to say something but Kazuma already knew what she was trying to say before she said it.

'You want to go on another adventurer like we use to" he said to her as he picked up the old combustion golem.

"Not a big one, I mean Meguming isn't here, but one that takes us outside of Mantle, you know visit a town"

Kazuma didn't say anything he knew how Aqua felt, she liked to perform for the people of Mantle and hear their praise, but they had been so focused on just trying to survive that they hardly had any time to relax.

Even now despite nat having gone outside all day, Kazuma was still working, not because he wanted to but because he had to.

Kazuma wanted to tell her that it was too dangerous, that the Grimm would be drawn to her like moths to a fire, but...Aqua was the only one he had left and seeing her sad expression was something he couldn't bear.

There's a difference between seeing Aqua crying or panicking from something she brought on herself, to her being hurt from something she couldn't control or had anything to do with.

It was just something he couldn't accept.

"Of you want to go see some of the towns, how about we go to the bar and see if there are some jobs out there, that way we can get paid and we can go around visiting the towns," he said to Aqua

Kazuma watched as she rose from the counter and sat up straight, all of a sudden Aqua had a bright on her face one that he hadn't seen in a while.

He turned around and placed a small fire dust crystal inside the golem and instantly the golem came to life as the crystal shattered inside it, the thing only managed to give two steps before dying.

Kazuma turned to Aqua and they both looked at each other before they graved anything they could find lying around that could be burned and putting it inside the golem's stomach.

Then Kazuma created a small flame and watched as the fire grew, the moment the fire was hot enough, the golem began to walk.

Kazuma and Aqua watched as the machine walked up to the front door opened it and walked out of the shop\ house.

They would have chased after it, but it would run out of power anyway, so it would most likely stop working when the fire inside its stomach burned out.

The golem was one of several that Kazuma had found when he was exploring Mantle, there was a giant pile of them just laying around and he had started to repair them just to pass the time when there wasn't enough work or it became too cold to be outside.

He had fixed more golems before and they all ended up doing the same thing, the moment they had a fire burning in their stomachs they just walked out of the door, where they went no one knew.

In all honesty, Kazuma had no idea how many he had fixed by now, he just knew that they were a lot of them, sometimes he wondered where they went, but no one in the city seemed to be telling stories about seeing robots or roks that look like men walking around so he assumed they stopped working somewhere.

"Okay let's go," he said to Aqua, as they both headed to the bar.

][][

[Present ]

Weiss walked into her mother's room and to her surprise, a giant dog was laying on the bed, the animal let out a small grow as it tried and failed to intimidate her.

She watched as her mother gently patted it on the head calming it down.

"Mother, whose dog is that?" Weiss asked her mother but the woman just stayed quiet.

Neither of them said anything and Weiss watched as her mother patted the creature as it struggled to breathe.

"Are you okay?" she asked her mother.

"Yur grandfathers...he's gone," her mother said to her with a weak trembling voice, Weiss could tell that her mother was doing everything in her power to control herself.

"I saw it" Weiss answered her mother before she began to walk closer to her.

"Mom what happened when I was."

"When I was returning to Atlas, the airship I was on was ordered to stay where it was so communications could stay up, but" Weiss began to say to her mother.

"So that was you," Willow said to her daughter

"A lot of things have happened since you left, your brother is Adventurer now, and he's now the head of a small company"

"He buys things that Kazuma sells to him and then he mass produces them for everyone in Mantle," Willow said to her daughter.

"...but that's not what you want to know is it"

The sound of the front door slamming open and the familiar voices of the Turks that had used her home as a base filled the mansion

"Quickly get him to any room available!" Silver ordered the Turks

"Mom!" Whitley called out to Willow and Weiss watched as her mother's posture slightly straightened.

"I'm here!" her mother called out to Whitley and the dog immediately began to whimper as it tried and failed to get off the bed

Weiss listened to her brother run up the stairs and she watched as he entered the room.

"No," he said as he looked at the large dog

''How bad?" he began to ask

"His spine and both front and back legs are broken" her mother answered her brother

"..."

"..."

"Father managed to turn one of the engines and considering Atlas hasn't crashed into Mantle I'm guessing we bought some time," he said to Willow as he tried to search for the right words to say to his mother, but as he failed to do so, he decided to just say what he knew.

"Winter has Aqua, I managed to get her to let Kazuma go, but once he wakes up and realizes Aqua is under the militaries control" Whitley sid to his mother

Weiss watched as her mother quickly stood up and looked at her brother with wide eyes filled with fear, and Weiss could see her mother was at the edge of panic.

"Didn't she see what those two did?"

"I know, but as long as Kazuma is here I can calm him down."

"The military won't do anything to Aqua" Withley began to say to his mother but Weiss interrupted their conversation.

"Can someone tell me what's going on?" she asked her mother and brother.

She watched as her mother and brother turned to look at each other.

"A lot of things happened" Whitley answered her, as he walked past his mother and tried to pet his dog.

The animal let out a small whimper and it shook with pain as it felt Whitles hands touch its fur.

Weiss could tell that the conversation was over, so she walked out of the room and she immediately noticed several men and women wearing black suits walking around the mansion.

The strangers moved aside as she walked past them but she could see the dirty looks they gave her as she walked past them.

She noticed that one of the rooms was guarded by several of the strangers and she tried to see what was inside.

The men opened the door for her but refused to let her in.

On the bed was a man not that much older than herself sleeping, there were guards all over the room keeping an eye on him.

Weiss knew that the position the guards were in, wasn't a position meant to keep the man safe, no it was so that they could retrain him if he tried to do anything.

"So you must be the boss older sister"

"Someone said to her

Weiss turned around and found a man with short red hair kept in a spiky form standing behind her.

'Sorry miss, but you can't go in there, believe it or not, but once that guy wakes up, it's going to take all of us, plus the boss, and maybe you to just slow that guy down"

"Who is he?" Weiss said to the man

"He's the reason things in Mantle and the towns were getting better and why the boss is who he is now," the man said to her

"Oh sorry my name is Reno" Reno introduced himself to her