Steampunk Era: Mad Abield

Anthony accompanied Malin out of the hall, and in the courtyard, the young man seemed a bit uneasy. To Malin, it appeared he had been struck a blow—because his great-grandfather felt that he could not adequately educate his eldest son and would rather entrust the child to a stranger he had just met for the first time.

Even if that stranger appeared to be no more than 12 years old.

"Anthony, don’t worry. The old man is just too concerned about your child. If you want to raise the child yourself, I’ll return him to you."

"No, Lord Malin, please don’t say that. You’re not from Farole and don’t understand our traditions. Do you know, if a mentor returns a child, it signifies that the child is uncarvable rot, beyond hope. My great-grandfather chose you as my eldest son’s mentor for a reason." The young man hastily explained, his face changing color drastically.

Malin nodded, "Alright, I won’t bring it up again."

At the same time, he thought to himself— I really do have the talent of a childcare center director.

Anthony said he would take Malin and the others to their lodging, so first, they went to pick up Faye and her companions—they were in the nearby garden, as the elder of the Gallo family had insisted on seeing only Malin himself.

"My great-grandfather believes the times have changed, but peers of my grandfather’s generation don’t think so. They stubbornly believe that nothing has changed. As for the firearm you gave me, they think such firearms are too expensive, but they don’t understand the concept of ’time cost’. Furthermore, for a qualified grand swordsman, the price is exorbitant." Anthony walked ahead of Malin, discussing things Malin was, of course, already aware of. After all, it was Malin who had introduced the concept—a marksman, trained with a thousand ordinary bullets in three months, whereas a grand swordsman takes five years to graduate as an apprentice, then needs to survive five battles to become a real grand swordsman. After that, he must further hone his martial skills until he can kill a Chaos warrior on his own, barely qualifying as a grand swordsman. And even then, there’s more to strive for.

Whereas marksmen only need to form a three-person archer squad and can use bullets designed against Chaos to kill Chaos warriors in their first battle.

Those who do not recognize the changes of the times will only be swallowed by its tides.

"Your great-grandfather is old but has a clear view of matters," Malin patted Anthony’s arm. "By the way, I don’t know the customs of Farole, can I see the bride? On the way here, I must’ve heard about the bride’s beauty at least dozens of times."