Our teacher is not very good at teaching.
Whenever he teaches us something, everyone falls asleep.
Our teacher is suspicious.
He keeps going somewhere at night.
Sometimes, even when he goes out during the day and comes back, he smells like blood.
Even so, my friends and I like our teacher.
I hope he stays with us forever.
―Day 00, Mary….―
“…….”
Kyle fell silent as he read the child’s diary.
He had thought he was being careful, so discovering that a five-year-old child knew everything came as quite a shock.
It was another moment that reminded him that children seemed oblivious while actually noticing everything.
And it was not only Mary’s diary.
Sarah, who was merely a year older, seemed to know that Kyle went out every night to beat criminals into submission.
Had they grown up in ordinary households, they might not have noticed. However, as children who had once roamed the streets, they all had at least a vague idea of what he was doing.
Kyle reproached himself and resolved to move more discreetly from now on.
“Whew… This is difficult.”
After only a few days, he had already learned just how difficult raising children could be.
Still, his grueling efforts had produced results.
After spending several nights roaming the neighborhood and crushing anyone who caused trouble, no one came near the orphanage to pick a fight anymore.
Filth such as slave traders had also stopped approaching the orphanage.
The surrounding criminal organizations Kyle had dealt with first would take care of any remaining petty criminals who did not know better, so there should not be any further problems.
However, one issue had arisen.
“Good morning, sir!”
“Ha… I told you not to do that.”
Kyle frowned as a group of men in black suits greeted him the moment he stepped outside, bowing at ninety-degree angles and shouting at the tops of their lungs.
He was not the boss of a criminal organization. What would the neighbors think if hundreds of gang members came to the orphanage every morning and bowed to him like that?
“We apologize.”
“Tsk! More of you came than I expected.”
“Yes! No one wanted to miss the opportunity to learn from you, Teacher!”
Kyle let out a quiet sigh.
In truth, this arrangement had also been made entirely for the sake of keeping the orphanage running.
Unless more donations came in, he needed a source of income. Thus, he had agreed to teach members of the surrounding criminal organizations in exchange for donations.
The money was certainly important, but his greatest reason was that he wanted to reduce the number of times he personally had to visit the nearby organizations and beat them into submission.
He could not continue roaming the streets every night and crushing criminals forever.
“Even the senior members came?”
“Haha… We were wondering if we might be able to learn a thing or two as well….”
Kyle chuckled at the embarrassed senior member and nodded as though it were no problem.
“You are welcome to join. Just make sure you pay.”
With that, the lesson began in earnest.
First, he had to teach them the absolute basics.
“You need to get your bodies moving first, do you not? Everyone, run from here to there!”
At his command, the gang members began running in unison.
The most important thing was to rid their bodies of all their unnecessary tricks.
To accomplish that, they needed to relax their bodies completely and rebuild their foundations using only the most basic combat arts.
In truth, whether someone possessed talent for mana was practically the standard by which strength was measured. However, even talented people often failed to advance any further because they had learned too many pointless techniques.
“If your foundations are lacking, learning expensive techniques will only build another wall that prevents you from advancing.”
Kyle ran alongside them while kindly explaining why they were undergoing this training.
They had to master the movements physically before they could move on to other techniques.
The same principle applied even to ordinary people who had not awakened mana.
They needed stamina and fundamental combat training before they could skillfully use magic guns or magic tools.
“In one week, I will begin conducting mana aptitude tests on those whose stamina has improved enough. As for those of you who have already awakened mana, I will determine which techniques you should focus on learning. Work hard!”
“Yes, Teacher!”
Kyle chuckled as the criminals answered him with a thunderous shout.
Most of them were nothing more than petty criminals, but the thought of rehabilitating them into respectable members of society did not seem so bad.
After teaching the gang members at dawn, it was time to train the residents of the Rehabilitation Center.
As soon as the morning sun rose, he put them through an intense hour-long training session.
Then, he gathered the Rehabilitation Center residents and the surrounding petty criminals and led them somewhere.
As they walked, Kyle spoke in a warning tone.
“I will say this again. Labor is also a form of physical training. If you cannot endure this much work, you should not even think about learning the higher-level techniques.”
The men nodded.
“I hope all of you pass this test and earn the right to learn my techniques.”
Upon hearing that this was a kind of test, the criminals clenched their teeth and resolutely followed Kyle.
Their destination was an old pier.
“Goodness, sir. You are going to break your back doing that.”
Kyle smiled as he supported a staggering elderly man.
Then, with a glance, he ordered the criminals to begin unloading cargo from the old boat.
“I do not have any money to pay you, even if you help.”
“Do not worry, sir. This one is in the house.”
Kyle turned his gaze toward the dilapidated pier.
It had once been used by fishermen. However, after merchants poured money into constructing the main piers, it had gradually been forgotten. Now, only a few small fishing boats used by elderly fishermen remained.
Pier 1 was mainly used by cargo ships, Pier 2 by passenger ships, and Pier 3 by fishing vessels.
With the bustling harbor packed onto the opposite shore, not far from the train station, no one had any reason to use this decrepit pier on the far side.
Thus, Pier 4 had become a haven for stowaways.
‘In truth, these people are the real owners of this city.’
Most of the fishing boats currently using Pier 3 belonged to outsiders who had moved in as the merchants arrived.
Using young workers, those newcomers had built large fishing fleets.
As a result, the people who had originally lived in the city had been pushed all the way out here, where they were forced to live alongside dangerous criminals.
“Sir, would you be interested in making use of these men?”
“…What?”
“They will work diligently if you give them orders. Take them out on your boat and teach them the job. Until they become reasonably skilled, you only need to pay them half the usual daily wage.”
The elderly man looked doubtful.
Kyle gave him another encouraging push.
“You have plenty of unused boats anyway, so why not give them a chance? Even if you return and decide not to employ them, no one will complain.”
The old man looked over the young men.
Many of them were familiar faces—men who had once lounged about filthy alleys without the slightest motivation, stealing money from travelers.
Naturally, the old man’s gaze was filled with distrust.
To reassure him, Kyle turned toward the men and spoke.
“This gentleman will be your teacher and will show you how to work. You will treat him with the utmost respect. Understood?”
“Yes! We will serve him to the best of our abilities!”
The old man’s eyes widened at their rigid discipline.
“Please take good care of them today.”
“V-Very well.”
Kyle respectfully clasped the old man’s hands as he made his request, leaving the man with little choice but to accept.
After loading a large group of unemployed men onto the boat, Kyle headed somewhere else with those who remained.
Their next destination was a shipyard that repaired half-ruined fishing boats.
It was a shipyard in name only. In reality, it was little more than a scrapyard occupying a single empty berth.
Kyle approached an old man who sat there staring blankly at the sky.
“Sir, are you looking for any young workers?”
“…What?”
The old man looked at the group of men standing behind Kyle.
His expression turned to surprise when he recognized some familiar faces.
He had immediately realized that they were criminals.
“Goodness, there is no need to worry. All of these men have been rehabilitated.”
Kyle turned around as he spoke and saw that the young men had already begun tidying up the surrounding tools and materials of their own accord.
“Do you happen to need any workers?”
“I do, but….”
“Then why not try employing them for a single day? You may send them back if you decide they are completely useless.”
Like the fisherman, the old man clearly wanted nothing to do with them.
Kyle pleaded with him to give them just one day, adding that he did not even have to pay them.
After Kyle went that far, the old man could hardly refuse. In the end, he reluctantly nodded.
Having found work for every remaining unemployed man, Kyle immediately returned to the orphanage.
As the sun rose, he joined the children, who prepared a simple breakfast with their tiny hands.
He led them through morning exercises, gave them a brief lesson, and then allowed them to play.
Afterward came another of Kyle’s classes.
As usual, most of the children nodded off during the lesson.
Kyle looked crestfallen as he prepared lunch himself.
Even when afternoon arrived, he had no time to rest.
There were more lessons, combat training, and even basic instruction on controlling mana.
He could not rest in the evening either.
He had to train the residents of the Rehabilitation Center after they returned from their day of labor.
“Goodness, I am exhausted.”
Kyle ended his day looking utterly drained.
The beginning was always the most difficult part.
He believed that after enduring a few more days, the general framework would be established.
With a sigh, he revised the following day’s schedule to account for the problems he had noticed that day.
Only late at night did he finally fall asleep.
Several days passed.
On the neglected eastern outskirts of Boritz, a strange rumor began to spread.
“I heard the gang members in that district have started doing honest work.”
“There is a rumor that they go to the pier and work every morning.”
It sounded unbelievable.
The abandoned pier in a district infested with every manner of petty criminal seemed to be coming back to life.
Even more absurdly, there were rumors that the criminals who worked so diligently donated part of their daily wages to a newly established orphanage.
“That is impossible. Those men would never do something like that.”
“I heard they even perform some strange exercises and train in front of the orphanage every morning.”
“They say crime has disappeared from that district as well!”
A man who had been silently listening to the rumors tilted his head and spoke.
“Could that orphanage actually be a training center for gang members?”
“What?”
“Think about it. They gathered a group of orphans, and now they are trying to restore the half-abandoned Pier 4. Would it not make more sense if a new boss had appeared and was changing the district to bring it under his control?”
The others began nodding, finding his theory plausible.
Criminals had been rehabilitated?
Rather than believing such an unrealistic claim, it seemed far more reasonable to assume that a new boss had taken control of the district and was transforming it.
Before long, the rumor grew even more exaggerated.
People began saying that a new criminal organization had emerged in the eastern district and was rapidly conquering the surrounding organizations as it expanded its territory.
However, the elderly residents who actually lived in the district saw things differently.
“Hoho… It seems a true benefactor has come to our district.”
“Indeed. I never imagined those young men could change so much.”
An elderly fisherman smiled as he looked toward the distant orphanage.
He had expected to continue struggling alone until he died in solitude.
Never had he imagined that he would once again be able to enjoy a lively life as a fisherman.
“I should take some of today’s catch over to them.”
“Hmm! Then take these with you while you are there.”
“What is this? Dried fish?”
“Yes. It seems that a young man found workers for the shop over there as well. It has reopened.”
The old fisherman smiled brightly and looked around.
This dilapidated pier, which had once seemed hopeless after criminals all but seized control of it, was gradually beginning to change.
Perhaps his friend beside him sensed the same atmosphere.
Before he knew it, a smile had appeared on the other man’s face as well.