Aside from the two people who came to greet them, no one else was there—Gauss's group returned quietly.
Once they were back at the base, he dismissed the Red Dragon Company members who'd been longing to go home, sending everyone off to reunite with their families.
They'd been away on assignment for over a month, and the job itself had been dangerous enough to weigh on people psychologically. Now that they were back in "home territory," it was only natural that everyone wanted to see their loved ones as soon as possible.
"Do you have a place to stay?" Gauss asked the Night Owl Team—Laevin and the others.
"If you can't find anywhere, you can stay at our base for a few days."
Even though the Night Owl Team's usual stomping ground was Grayrock, and this was their first time in a major city like Falrim, they had still followed Gauss's group here.
After all, adventuring wasn't a profession that required you to put down roots in one spot.
"Then… thanks, Gauss," Laevin said.
After arranging lodging for the Night Owl Team, Gauss left the Red Dragon Company base.
As for folding the Night Owl Team into the Red Dragon Company—he had no plans to do that for now, and Laevin didn't bring it up either.
It wasn't that Gauss couldn't. With the subtle influence of the Proof of Leadership specialization, his authority inside the Red Dragon Company was immense—practically a one-man rule.
Even if he shoved a handful of low-level freeloaders into the roster, nobody would dare object.
But the Red Dragon Company was already running smoothly. Unless someone came in like Luna did—bringing capital, and strong enough to matter—anyone who wanted to join had to go through the process: checks on strength, age and potential, family background, and more. Only the right people were approved.
Gauss then took the others straight to Fang of the Gray Wolf's base.
After getting out of the carriage, he walked into a compound that resembled the Red Dragon Company's base in some ways. Plenty of people were already waiting at the gates.
He looked the place over—it had clearly been cleaned in advance, neat and orderly.
"Welcome, Captain!"
"Welcome, Captain!"
"…"
Most of the former Fang of the Gray Wolf staff had never met Gauss in their lives, but they switched fast—"Captain" was already rolling off their tongues.
Compared to field teams, rear-line staff accept a change of boss much quicker. Work is work. A new boss is just… a new boss.
Gauss lifted a hand in greeting.
With Luna guiding him, he toured the entire grounds.
This compound was noticeably larger than the Red Dragon Company's base. Fang of the Gray Wolf might be considered a "rising group" next to the true old giants, but it had been operating for over a decade—by comparison, the Red Dragon Company was still the newcomer.
Now, this entire place was about to become Red Dragon Company property.
Of course, there were still plenty of procedures to clear.
Fortunately, Gauss had recorded a lot of evidence with a memory crystal, and Luna's people filled in the missing details. The Adventurers' Guild officials who came to register the situation quickly got the picture.
"This is probably going through," Ivan said, exhaling as he watched the officials hurry off.
He handled most of the Red Dragon Company's guild-facing paperwork, so he had a decent read on how guild staff behaved.
And maybe it was his imagination, but guild staff always seemed… unusually cooperative when dealing with Red Dragon Company business.
"When the approval comes through, Ivan—work with Luna and the others to handle the handover," Gauss said.
Absorbing an entire adventuring company wasn't something you did with three sentences. He wasn't going to hover over the process personally—this was exactly why he had capable staff.
After one more circuit of the grounds, he returned to the Red Dragon Company base.
Now that he was back, he needed to digest everything he'd gained.
He closed his eyes and felt the changes in his body.
If you looked only at numbers, his body and mind were unimaginably far from a normal human's—especially his Intelligence. Lately, his mental power felt almost too active.
When he sank into himself, he could feel it: condensed, tangible mental force.
At first, that force had been weak. But as his Intelligence rose—and as he deliberately trained it—it grew stronger and stronger.
Now it had the equivalent strength of several dozen kilograms.
That didn't sound impressive—just a stronger Mage Hand, one that cost focus instead of mana.
But the two weren't comparable at all.
Even for crude telekinesis, raw mental force was in a different league.
It was freer. Gauss could shape it however he wanted—compress it into a single point for explosive output, or split it into dozens of distributed threads.
Mage Hand, by contrast, was more like a prewritten "program": mana spent for a fixed outcome. Even upcasting only strengthened it within preset limits.
Stable, yes—but also rigid. If you tried to modify it too much, the spell model collapsed. And even if you managed a successful alteration, that wasn't "Mage Hand" anymore—it was basically a new spell entirely.
Mental force was his. Every strand belonged to him.
And unlike Mage Hand, it was far harder to detect. It couldn't be dispelled, countered, or reduced by things like spell resistance in the same way.
As that thought settled, the air around him moved.
Dozens of fine needles he'd prepared rose into the air, then began orbiting him like they shared one mind.
Whoosh.
They spun so fast they started to whistle.
Gauss focused on a spot on the wall—then the needles launched together.
Pff. Pff. Pff.
The reinforced wall behind him gained dozens of tiny, barely visible pinholes.
And this wall had been specially strengthened—ordinary blades wouldn't leave a mark.
If those needles had struck flesh instead of stone, a single one might have been enough to kill even a professional adventurer.
"Not bad," Gauss said, nodding.
The best part was the stealth.
A knock came at the door.
"Gauss, the rabbits you asked for have arrived."
"Come in."
His butler entered, followed by a maid carrying two cages of gray rabbits.
"Shall I inform the kitchen to prepare them, sir?"
"No need. Just set them down—and close the door on your way out."
The butler didn't ask questions. He bowed and left.
Gauss looked down at the rabbits.
He hadn't bought them to eat—he'd bought them for experiments.
Maybe he'd tested too many sparrows recently, or maybe the ravens had chased them off, but he'd noticed it was harder to find sparrows around the base now.
Rabbits were cheap, and sturdier than sparrows—better test subjects.
He extended his mental force and let it settle over one rabbit.
He could feel its soul-flame inside: a tiny spark, weak compared to humans or monsters.
As his mental force approached, the rabbit's soul instinctively resisted.
But the difference in strength was so absurd that the resistance barely existed. His mental force slipped into the body effortlessly.
And if his control hadn't been so refined, the rabbit's loose, fragile soul might have collapsed outright before he even touched it—rather than shrinking into a corner like it was doing now.
Even so, the rabbit began trembling violently, spasming like it was having a seizure.
Gauss ignored the flailing and simply observed.
If he wanted, he could erase the rabbit's soul at any moment and occupy the body briefly—something close to possession.
Of course, it didn't mean much to him.
Even if he forced it, he couldn't hold the body long. It was closer to puppeteering a shell than truly "taking over."
"Interesting," Gauss murmured.
He erased the rabbit's soul, forced the body to stop convulsing, and made it hop around inside the cage.
"Possessing a living body… actually feels clumsier than controlling needles."
Life really was strange.
Even if a rabbit had no hope of resisting him in raw power, the connection between soul and flesh created a different kind of resistance. The body rejected him.
He could control it only because the gap was enormous. Against a stronger soul, that rejection would become much harsher.
Even the weakest creature's soul and body were tightly bound.
"Still… that's good."
Instead of disappointment, Gauss felt relief.
True "possession" seemed harder than he'd expected.
That was a good thing—less chance of him or someone close to him ever running into that kind of threat.
And he had no interest in taking someone else's body anyway. Killing by telekinetic force, or using external objects to kill, was enough. He wanted to keep his body original.
Even if he ever grew strong enough to possess others, he wouldn't walk that path.
It might extend lifespan—but he sensed it came with huge problems.
Like that brain-swapping witch he'd met in the forest.
She used surgery to transplant her brain into a compatible body, effectively shifting her "self" and extending her life—but even then, her personality was clearly warped.
If you swapped souls directly, it would only get worse.
After thinking it through, he tested the other rabbits too:
using telekinesis to reverse blood flow,
displace organs,
crush the tiny heart directly.
It worked.
But telekinesis inside a living body was clearly less efficient. The rejection made his mental force burn faster.
So in practical terms, guiding external objects to pierce a target was still better than brute-forcing the inside.
Once he'd gone through the rabbits, he tested other applications of mental force.
His "divine-sense" overhead awareness grew sharper.
Sitting in his room, he could feel everything happening across the base—even through walls. Indoors or outdoors, nothing escaped his perception.
And it was extremely covert.
Across the entire base, only three people faintly sensed something:
Luna, Alia, and Shadow.
It was their first day back. Everyone was resting.
Luna was talking with Ivan about the merger work between the two bases.
Alia was in the room next to Gauss's, lying on a soft bed with a casual book, scratching an itch without thinking.
Shadow was checking her gear and bottles.
When Gauss's awareness spread over the base, all three lifted their heads, puzzled. After sensing nothing obvious, they shook it off and returned to what they were doing.
Gauss pulled his mental force back in.
He had no interest in spying. Even if no one could detect it, he couldn't be bothered.
He could tell that if his Intelligence crossed into a new tier, these abilities would likely strengthen again.
In Falrim's central district, inside a tidy, disciplined academy, children around ten years old moved through the grounds.
They were either from wealthy families—or exceptional talents with standout physiques. Otherwise, they wouldn't have made it into Falrim's official junior combat preparatory academy.
At dusk, in one dorm room, Cicero put her wooden sword away and wondered when her brother Gauss would come back.
During last week's school holiday, she'd asked her parents to take her to his adventuring company, but he still hadn't returned.
It had been over a month. She missed him.
As for the academy's training, she didn't find it exhausting. The lessons were basic—meant not to interfere with growth.
But some classmates were irritating.
That said, she wasn't the type to be bullied. She didn't pick on others—but if someone provoked her, she wouldn't swallow it.
At first, there'd been little cliques trying to squeeze her out. After she dropped them in sparring with the sword technique Gauss and Albena taught her, nobody dared mess with her openly.
At most, they whispered behind her back: she only got in because she was lucky.
In the hallway, as Cicero reached for the door, a younger kid hurried up.
"Cicero! Una's bleeding—someone beat her up!"
Cicero didn't hesitate. She turned back, grabbed her wooden sword, and ran after them.
Gauss, Albena, Alia—everyone had told her: a sword was for protecting your companions.
When she reached the empty lot behind the teaching building, she saw Una on the ground, pinned by a well-dressed girl and a few others.
Cicero's anger snapped.
"Get off her!"
The bullies turned—and recognized the academy's notorious "wild girl" charging in with a sword.
They didn't even get a word out before the solid wooden blade smashed into someone's head.
Thud.
The girl's eyes rolled. She toppled over.
Cicero didn't hold back. She sprinted through them, cracking down again and again until several bodies hit the ground.
"You… you can't hit people! This isn't combat class!"
"I'm hitting you!"
Cicero dropped the last one too.
The messenger kid, pale-faced now, finally realized who one of the victims was.
"Cicero… someone saw. That girl—she's from the Zevier family."
"You're going to be in huge trouble if you're caught!"
Cicero didn't flinch.
"You go back. I'm taking Una to the infirmary."
She hoisted her friend up and started moving.
The messenger kid froze, then grit her teeth and followed anyway.
In this academy, there were plenty of powerful families.
But the Zeviers were different.
…
That evening, Gauss was eating with his companions when someone leaned in and whispered something in his ear.
Gauss's brow tightened. He stood.
"I need to step out for something."
~~~
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