How to Rent an Apartment After Defeating the Demon King

His gaze moved between his father and Aldric. Karim opened his mouth as though searching for the best way to answer, but Aldric spoke first.

“Yes.”

“A real, real knight? With armor and a real sword?”

“Yes.”

“And you really fought?”

“Yes.”

“I think you just became his favorite hero,” Lucas said.

Karim looked at his son.

“You already knew he used to be a knight.”

“But I thought you meant knight like in the stories.”

“What is the difference?” Aldric asked.

“In stories, they have shiny armor, horses, and they save princesses.”

“Some armor was shiny when properly maintained. Horses were also common.”

“And princesses?”

“I have occasionally been responsible for protecting members of royal families.”

Yanis turned toward his father with a triumphant expression.

“See!”

Karim raised his hands.

“Fine. I give up.”

“You really did just confirm almost everything he imagined,” Emma said.

“I merely answered accurately.”

Lucas leaned toward Yanis.

“Now ask him if he had a cape.”

“No, I did not. Capes are not practical in combat.”

“Too bad...”

Patrick burst out laughing.

Yanis moved even closer to Aldric.

“And you knew how to fight with every weapon? Even axes?”

“I knew how to use them, but I did not specialize in them.”

“Spears?”

“Yes.”

“Bows?”

“Well enough for certain situations.”

“Hammers?”

“Much less.”

Lucas looked at Karim.

“He’s going to go through the entire inventory.”

“You brought this on yourself...”

Yanis asked several more questions until Samira reminded him that he had already spent a large part of the evening questioning Aldric.

“Let him breathe for a while.”

“But he knows about dragons.”

“The dragons will still be there tomorrow.”

Yanis looked at Aldric.

“Are you coming back tomorrow?”

Karim burst out laughing.

“That’s not exactly what she meant.”

“We will probably see each other again.”

The boy returned to his figurines and resumed his game, changing the positions of his soldiers according to the advice Aldric had given him a few minutes earlier.

The rest of the evening passed quietly. Lucas made one last attempt to convince Aldric to tell them about the battle against the largest dragon he had ever fought, but Karim ended the discussion by pointing out that it would take several hours if they started going through all of the former knight’s campaigns. Patrick joked that they should set aside an entire evening for his war stories, which was met with enthusiasm from Yanis and protests from Samira.

A few days later, Karim asked Aldric if he was available on Wednesday afternoon. The question came during their break at the depot, as they were finishing their sandwiches before getting back