It was easy to tell someone like Sun Jiao that they simply needed to study harder and they would eventually find their way in the world.

Things were not so simple though, of course. It was much harder to learn a language once you had passed a certain age - and he couldn't make himself age in reverse, now then could he?

Learning to read was much harder in a world where you couldn't just turn on Reading Rainbow for lessons.

Sure, someone like Hei Nan could do so, but not everyone could be Hei Nan. If it was so easy, his story would not have impacted me so, even now.

"As it is, there is another reason that this whole arrangement wouldn't have worked out," I said. "I'm going to be leaving for Hitutsa soon enough, and in the short while that I will be here, I wou't be able to teach you very much."

His eyes were rather downcast as he said, "Alright, Teacher, I apologize for wasting your time like this."

"Is-Is that it?" I asked, slightly incredulous. He had gone far beyond the norm of what would've been socially acceptable in trying to become my student, and yet he was turning away like this?

In a way, I was more disappointed in him than I was before.

"Well, what else can I do now?" Sun Jiao said. He looked like he was ready to leave.

"But- what will you do now? Where will you go?" I wouldn't have cared five minutes ago, but after listening to his story, I couldn't help but feel a tiny bit sorry for him. It didn't sound like he had many other options.

"I, will have to find something," he said simply, sighing. "Thank you though for listening to me for so long - and at least trying to give me a chance."

As he was almost out the door, I slammed my hand onto the table. "Wait! Tell me - do you really want to learn from me?"

Sun Jiao paused. He clearly hadn't been expecting the outburst. "But - I thought you just said that you couldn't teach me how to-"

"Who said that Liberomancy was the only useful skill I had? Come on, take a seat here," I said, gesturing to where he had been just seconds ago. Once he was seated, I added, "Alright, but before I take you in as my student - I have some questions. I want you to answer them truthfully." I then glared at him. "Trust me, I have ways of finding out if you lied to me. One, during your time as a bandit, did you ever kill anyone?" I was willing to overlook certain things, but murder was not one of them.

Sun Jiao shook his head. "I might rob people blind, but I never had a desire to hurt anyone if it could be helped, or take one's life."

"Alright, next - what's wrong with you?"

"Um, excuse me Teacher?"

"Even though your skills are not up to par with someone like me, I know you wouldn't be in this position unless you had done something seriously wrong," I told him. "So what is it?"

"Ah, if you were to learn of my tragic tale, Teacher, it might bring you to tears, so I had not told you so, to spare you that kind of pain," Sun Jiao said. "First of all, I was born at a very young age. On top of that, unfortunately, my mother happened to be a woman - the weaker of the two sexes. I think it was because of this, but for the first few months after I was born, I was extremely weak - so weak that I couldn't even walk those first few months. On top of th-"

I slammed my hand onto the table. "Stop joking around! If you won't tell me what's going on around here, I will walk up to the guild, and I'm sure they will tell me." Even if they had 'privacy' rules, I'm sure they could be circumvented - not to mention I didn't even need to go through official channels. Word got around quickly, and I'm sure I could find many people who would be willing to talk to me about him. A former employer, for example.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Ah, well," Sun Jiao began. "Uh… well, the first few jobs that I had as a scribe, I had gotten a tad too… shall we say, 'flirty' with a few customers, and I was kicked out. I um, may have misread some of their intentions. And then one time, at this other job, I uh, got drunk and forgot to show up in the morning… a couple of times."

I sighed. "Well, they'll be none of that if you work under me - alright? I'm trusting you in that you've turned over a new leaf."

"That I have, Teacher!"

"So let me make me one thing clear - you might've gotten off with the guards," I said. "But if you cross me in any way, I will make it my life's mission to get back at you. Forget the guild, I have a line directly to the king's ear. He considers me to be the 'rising star' of Chipker - what do you think will happen if I tell him that you've been causing me trouble? Forget prison, it will be execution for you." I didn't know if I could take things that far, but the mere threat of it should've been enough to keep him in line. "I don't want to do any of that, but if you force my hand…"

Sun Jiao shook his head. "Absolutely not! So what is this 'special technique' you were going to teach me?"

"When I was still a Rank Two Liberomancer," I explained, "much like you, I found myself forced out of a job as scribe - though in my case I had done nothing wrong. However, I was able to land on my feet because I was close to becoming Rank Three. Had that failed though, I had a backup plan on what I would continue doing to support myself - something that paid almost as well as being a Rank Two Liberomancer and making grimoires - cooking fish."

Sun Jiao looked incredulous. "What - you can't be serious? I thought that you were going to teach me some sort of hidden sword technique or whatever, not how to cook fish!"

"Listen to me," I told him. "Do you know what Lizardmen love to eat? Fish! And they will eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Do you know what all people hate though- having to eat basically the same thing over and over! As well as cooking on their own. Combine all of these facets, and you will quickly realize that anyone who can sell even mediocre cooked fish to eat will soon find his business flush with both customers and cash."

"Do lizardmen really care about cooked fish though? I've seen many of them eat them raw, or even while they're still live," Sun Jiao said.

"That is true, but they still prefer cooked fish, especially if it has been prepared well. Trust me on this, there is no better business in all of Chipker than cooking fish, especially if you can do it well. It is nearly impossible to not make money while doing so. It's like trying to sell bananas to monkeys. Or tennis balls to dogs. You just can't go wrong with this idea," I told him.

He scratched his chin. "What's a 'dog?' And what is a 'tennis ball?'"

I shook my head. "It doesn't matter what exactly those things are, what matters is that I'm saying it's a business that you can't go wrong with. I think aside from making grimoires, it was the best money I'd ever come into."

"But-but if it's so much in demand, aren't there a lot of people who are also willing to supply it? Preparing fish isn't exactly that hard…"

"That is correct - but like I said, if you're good at it, you won't have much competition," I said.

"Though, it's not just about practice though- I have a secret weapon that will allow you to distinguish yourself from the crowd."

"A secret weapon? Like a magical pot or something?"

"No, a grimoire that greatly improves what you can make while cooking fish," I told him.

"Does something as specific as that really exist?"

"Indeed, and because it's so specific - to fish, it's effect is also greater," I told him. I had heard of other grimoires that helped one cook meals, but because [Poissonnier] only helped with cooking fish, it made its effect far more powerful than what you'd otherwise expect. The narrower the effect of a spell or skill, the more potent it was as a general rule. And this was no exception.

When I had first made the grimoire that gave [Poissonnier] I hadn't thought much of it, thinking that there must have definitely been someone else in Chipker who had made a grimoire that gave a similar skill. And yet, despite all of my searching, I had not found anyone who had that skill.

I doubted whether I was the first one in the entire history of Libraria to make that kind of grimoire, as it was, Rank One grimoires were rather easy to make, but it was possible that I was the only one who had really seen how useful it could have been. Or, maybe I was just the only one with the skill who had chosen to put it to use.

With that said, maybe one had been made and forgotten? After all, there were over one hundred thousand different Rank One Grimoires that were known when you counted all the various languages in Libraria, and many of them were probably never documented regarding details as to what they did.

I certainly hadn't expected it to be as useful as it turned out to be. Not only had it supplemented my income, but had also come in handy while traveling for preparing food and making [Fish Haul] more palatable. Much as there was no strongest spell, only the strongest spellcaster - there were no useless spells either it seemed.

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.