The next few days were spent setting up the stall every noon, and Sun Jiao trying out new recipes later on in the afternoon in my apartment. If he did well with the new recipes, I would let him sell them the next day, otherwise I'd tell him that they needed work before we could test them on the market.

Things didn't always go smoothly. Sun Jiao made mistakes, as expected. Most of them were minor, thought he had messed up three times to the point that it required me to step in and make the whole thing again from scratch.

That wasn't to say that he wasn't making progress - it was good, and I was relatively confident that he would be able to stand on his own feet by the time I was done reading the grimoires I'd purchased.

I also had thought of something else that might drive business up - most restaurant franchises back on Earth had some kind of a mascot. And what kinds of mascots were the most popular?

Cute animals, of course!

[Summon Red Fox] turned out to be handy here. The red fox would trot back and forth between our stall and the other side of the street, trying to roll over, stand on its hind legs, and otherwise look adorable as it tried to shepherd people towards our stall.

I tried to make sure that it didn't end up becoming an annoyance, otherwise I might be reprimanded for using that kind of magic, but it seemed to be at least relatively popular.

I wasn't the only one who was coming up with new ideas.

"Don't you think it would be better if we had a board that shows our prices?" Sun Jiao asked me once. "That way we don't have to read them out or explain them each time someone asks?"

"You're right - but we'll need them written in both the lizardmen and human scripts," I told him. "Do you see the problem?"

"Ah… right…"

"But it's not a bad idea. Just because we can't make it doesn't mean that we can't pay someone else to do so. Just not right now." We had barely begun making money and I didn't want to squander it paying for anything I didn't deem to be absolutely necessary.

Despite having to oversee Sun Jiao, my progress when it came to Liberomancy did not stall by much. I could still read even while supervising him occasionally - there had been one time when he had almost spilled something on one of the grimoires I had been reading. Looking back at it, I probably shouldn't have shouted at him as much as I did, but I still recalled how it felt knowing that I had let a Rank Three grimoire go to waste atop the walls of Arconia.

With a few hiccups, two weeks went by with us doing moderately well for ourselves when one day, a messenger from the guild arrived while we were working one evening on a recipe involving trout.

"Oh, maybe they found something interesting…" I muttered. Could a grimoire that helped you fly have finally shown up? Seemed doubtful, but maybe something else I was searching for had arrived.

"Master Liberomance - I'm sorry, but your presence is requested upon the walls immediately," the messenger said, and alarm bells began ringing in my head. "A group of dryads has been spotted near the walls."

"What?!" Sun Jiao exclaimed, almost dropping what he had been cooking onto his foot. I was almost as shocked as he was. I had had nightmares about the fighting that had gone on atop the walls of Arconia for weeks after it was over. A flood of images began to deluge my mind, of screaming, blood, and the sound of marching dryad feet; but I kept them at bay while trying to keep my composure.

"Alright then," I said. I didn't ask any further questions - I understood that this was an emergency and that I might soon be fighting for my.

The main issue was what to do with Sun Jiao.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Sun Jiao, forget what you're doing," I said. "We'll work on it tomorrow."

"Got it," he said, tidying up after dousing the flame on the stove.

Once we were outside and on the streets, I told him to go back home.

"Wait - what?" Sun Jiao asked, sounding extremely surprised. "B-But Teacher, didn't you want me to come with you? To back you up in the fight?"

I gave him a weird look. "No offense - but you're barely a Rank One Liberomancer. What are you going to do other than get in the way?"

"Teacher, saying 'no offense' at the beginning did not make that any less hurtful."

"Am I wrong though?"

"Still, let me see if I can help you in any way! And if it gets too bad, I promise I'll run away to safety," Sun Jiao said.

Knowing him, I did not doubt the second bit at all. "Alright then, let's go, and remember - the other people of the city probably don't know about this yet, so let's not spread undue alarm, alright? Keep it on the down-low."

The people were still walking around like nothing had happened - so word had likely not gotten out yet, or the people in charge were trying to maintain order for now by keeping the information confined to a few people.

Either way, I could see that nothing would come out of telling people the dryads were outside the gates given I didn't have much of the information myself - how many of them were there? And were they close to the gates?

We ended up grabbing the nearest carriage we could find as it was faster than using either my bear or Elephant Frog, and after we reached the base of the walls, the sight of my purple sash was more than enough for them to lift the barrier preventing most people from just walking up it so the two of us could go up.

I didn't know if there was a barrier like this during normal times, given that back in Arconia before the dryad invasion you were usually able to walk up the wall if you wanted to at almost all times. However, the capital was more focused on defensive strategy so maybe civilians weren't allowed on the walls? Or perhaps this was just a temporary measure with the dryad invasion?

"He… uh, is with me. My assistant," I explained when they asked me why Sun Jiao was trailing behind me. "He's also a Liberomancer." I added that last part, and they waved us both off without further protest.

Sun Jiao had complained quite a bit about how much society favored Rank Two and Rank Three Liberomancers especially - but the fact remained that he was also blind to how much he was favored above other people just for being a Liberomancer. He had squandered many of the opportunities that he had gotten thanks to that, which many people would never have in the first place. The reason that he could be out on probation was thanks to leniency from the justice system because he was a Liberomancer. And the only reason that he was able to practice cooking with the [Poissonnier] ability was because he was a Liberomancer.

It made some sense that he would only look at those who were doing better than him or who outranked him, that was just human nature - I was much the same given how much I kept thinking of how I might never be able to get to Rank Four like Lance or the king normally despite being at the enviable Rank Three, wasn't I?

As we climbed up, I was reminded of how much out of shape I was compared to many people in this world. I had never been that athletic back in college, and even if I had been, I think I'd still have trouble with some things.

I had gotten somewhat better physically after coming to Libraria, but I was still not quite up to par, given I started panting by the time we got to the top of the stairs. Mostly training my Liberomancy skills had been the right call, but it did have its drawbacks given how much that involved sitting in a room writing and reading all day and night. I still practically had the same noodle arms as I did back in college - even Sun Jiao was in better shape than I was. There were times back in Arconia that Granny Qi would give me a strange look as if she couldn't believe just how weak I was. Having grown up on a farm, while a bit embarrassing to admit, she probably would've been tougher than me were she the same age.

Sun Jiao was able to outpace me, even though he had been the one doing most of the work on the stall earlier on during the day while I was sitting and enjoying the city scenery while reading. Too bad increasing your stats didn't really increase your physical prowess in any way on their own.

But, I had other things on my mind besides the thought that I should start working out more.

"So that's them," I said, pointing out in the distance so Sun Jiao could see. I didn't know if my [Unobstructed Sight] gave me a better view, but I counted about two to four thousand dryads, out in the distance.

I scanned the rest of the horizon - nothing else like that, so that was the only large group near the city. That was good - we could easily take on that many.

But, the issue would be the surrounding villages. Right now, the dryads were not making any moves - either towards us or against us, but once they realized they had no chance against us, they would split up and attack whatever they could get their hands on. And that would likely lead them to the villages nearby, which did not have the infrastructure to defend against so many of them.

No, the right thing to do was to gather as many Liberomancers as possible and sally forth to des-

"Good to see you again, Master Stefan," a voice said, interrupting my train of thought.

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