Looks like after they left, these trainees didn’t slack off either and are still training really hard.

If this keeps up, in a few years, with some luck, a few of them might even turn into Professionals.

"How’s the situation in the village? Have you run into any danger?"

Robert shook his head.

"Nothing dangerous. After you left, we even organized people to wipe out quite a lot of monsters in the nearby woods. That made it much safer than in previous years when we were collecting firewood for the winter recently."

He sounded very grateful as he said this.

Every autumn and winter in the past had always been a relatively dangerous period.

Monsters and wild beasts, in order to stock up food for the winter, would often assault the village to hunt goats, while the villagers, in order to gather firewood, were forced to leave the village and enter the forest.

But after Gauss and the others arrived, they not only reinforced and strengthened the palisade around the village and built watchtowers, they also trained quite a few militiamen like them, teaching them a skill for killing enemies, which made those foes that had once seemed ferocious and terrifying no longer so scary.

"That’s good."

Gauss nodded.

"Emmett, you take the teachers into the village. I’ll stay here and keep watch."

"Got it."

Knowing that Gauss and the others were going into the village, Robert didn’t delay them further and gave some instructions to his companions.

His gaze swept over Albena.

That female Giant looked extremely tall; if she were an enemy, she could probably break down the sturdy palisade with just a bit of effort. But considering she should be the teachers’ new teammate, she no longer seemed that frightening.

And Teacher Aaliyah, Teacher Ying, and Teacher Gauss had all changed a lot as well.

He could still recognize them, but compared to when they last came, they all looked more distinguished now. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

He shook his head and stopped thinking about it.

He respectfully saw Gauss and the others off.

"Gauss, looks like your new title still hasn’t reached this place," Aaliyah teased in a low voice.

Gauss shook his head.

"Naturally. After all, the village doesn’t have an Adventurer’s Guild."

To be precise, even caravans passing through here were relatively few, so the channels through which they could get information from the outside world were naturally quite slow.

The reason his title had spread so fast was largely due to the Adventurer’s Guilds in the towns; they regularly updated news and newspapers in their halls for people to read. Besides that, there were travelers, Bards, caravans, and other people who moved back and forth between towns and villages, passing on bits of information by word of mouth.

The fact that much of his news hadn’t reached the village, he felt, was also a good thing.

After all, he had no intention of showing off in public and making a triumphant return in silks, especially since this wasn’t even his hometown.

Better to keep a low profile.

He planned to take a look at Rhine, confirm that she was safe, leave behind some new "materials" for her to study, and then leave the village.

Soon, the other people in the village also heard that Gauss and the others had arrived and all came out of their houses to welcome them.

"Where’s Rhine?"

Gauss glanced around but didn’t see that little blond kid.

So he looked at the others and asked.

"Rhine?"

"Oh! You mean that little brat Rhine?"

The villager he questioned slapped his own forehead.

"She and her family were taken away."

"Taken away?"

Gauss blinked.

"When did this happen? Who took Rhine’s family?"

"Not long after you left, less than half a month, I think," the village uncle recalled.

It wasn’t really surprising that when Gauss mentioned Rhine just now, he didn’t think of her at first; it was just that this had already happened half a year ago.

The villagers had long since grown used to the fact that her family had moved away.

"As for who those people were who came to take Rhine’s family, we don’t really know. It seemed like they were from her mother’s side of the family. They came in a very luxurious carriage—one look and you could tell they were big shots from the city—and they quickly took Rhine’s whole family away."

"They probably took them to the city so they could live a good life."

"That convoy was so, so long it stretched from one end of the village to the other. It scared me half to death, and there were loads of soldiers outside the village as well."

"I always felt Rhine’s mother wasn’t simple. She’s so pretty..."

The others all chimed in one after another.

They didn’t think Rhine and the others being taken away was anything bad for her; on the contrary, they were very envious.

Because the people who came that day were obviously of no ordinary status, even to villagers like them who had never seen much of the world.

Besides, if they had wanted to harm villagers like them, there would have been no need to make such a big fuss.

Seeing Gauss’s tightly furrowed brow.

The village uncle thought for a while, then added one more piece of information.

"I remember there were lots of fancy golden flags hanging beside the convoy. There seemed to be a golden claw drawn on them."

This extra bit of information made Gauss’s brow loosen slightly.

Before, he had been thinking he had no idea who had taken Rhine away.

But with this information, finding her might become much easier.

It sounded like a noble family’s crest—a golden claw. He silently noted down this heraldic clue.

For now, he couldn’t connect it to any particular noble house.

But once he returned to town later and asked some scholars who had studied noble heraldry in detail, he should be able to get an answer.

From a rational standpoint, he also felt that Rhine and her family probably weren’t in any mortal danger after being taken away.

Maybe she had noble blood, and her relatives had found her and taken her back?

This also answered a long-standing question in Gauss’s heart—why a girl from such a remote village like Rhine possessed such outstanding Magic talent.