I JUST WANT A PEACEFUL LIFE

While Angus is busy learning from Darren, Anna and Mira play around to who knows where. At first, Angus and Jayna worried they would get lost, but Darren reassured them. He could always pinpoint everyone, even in this disturbing mist.

Using this chance, Jayna and the Duchess begin to hunt for edible meat. At first, Darren wants to reassure them that he has enough food. But, Angus refuses his offer as Darren already does enough for them.

Moreover, he and Jayna should be the one that provides Anna as her guardian. Unless it is an emergency, he prefers not to rely on others too much. Fortunately, the old vampire is like a walking encyclopedia.

He knows what kind of beast and the first-grade monsters are edible and taste great. Angus also knows little about it but didn't explore this stuff deeply. Actually, he could cook and has quite deep experience in his past life.

However, he is quite a perfectionist when it comes to making food. For him, if he wants to cook food, it should be perfect or nothing at all.

Even though it is silly since there is no such a thing as perfection, it is his motto when he makes his food. He not only just cooks good food but the best possible food for the ingredient. Angus always tries to bring the best flavor to the food.

Without countless hours of deep research, he will never be able to do this since the beast and monster meat in this world has various tastes.

Although he could easily do it and start researching cooking, he already has too much on his plate just to learn magic, runes, alchemy, and other magical things.

If Angus only learns martial skills like in his past life, he will have a lot of free time to do the cooking but is always busy as new things keep appearing in this magical world.

Darren himself is also a good and capable chef because of his master. Sometimes Mira likes to request something weird out of nowhere.

For example, a fruit tastes terrible and she commands him to make it good. In the past, Darren even needed to create a whole research team to comply with Mira's wish, who could forget about it any moment.

When Angus and the others hear Darren's story, they feel Mira is quite an unreasonable master who likes to do what she likes. She is pretty similar to Anna, who always does what she wants.

'No wonder Anna is close to her. Their character is similar. I bet Mira also wants to become Anna's friend on a whim.' thought Angus.

Then, Angus notices that Darren is already living for who knows how long and must know many things.

"Master Darren, what do you know about a monster-minded person?" asked Angus.

The gentle butler startled at Angus's question for a moment before glancing at him with his menacing blood-red eyes.

"I guess it is about Lady Anna?" asked Darren.

"Yup. As her guardian, I need to know more about her since she seems quite different yet similar to what I found in the past record." said Angus truthfully.

"As her guardian… Hohoho… This is the first time I hear monster-minded people need a guardian. But, well, anything is possible in this world. Anyway, as for your inquiry, I have deep knowledge about those bar.. I mean those particular people." replied Darren.

Angus didn't take offense from Darren's word since it is right Anna could live on her own even without his protection.

"Can't I trade something for that knowledge?" asked Angus earnestly.

"Normally, I never trade my knowledge to others unless it is the master's order. However, I find your group to be peculiar." replied Darren.

"Peculiar?!" asked Angus back.

"One is an unusual monster-minded person capable of befriending Master. One is someone who somehow has Fire Phoenix power, not ordinary ones. One is a human who is somehow able to break her physical limit and is still growing."

"However, none of them is as unusual as you. Did you know that you are an anomaly? Not unusual but an anomaly?! Something that shouldn't happen or exist. The only person I know that is an anomaly is only Master Mira." explained Darren.

"Anomaly?!" asked Angus in confusion.

Darren didn't reply and only gave a warm smile while taking out a thick book from his storage device.

"I hear you made a bet with the Master to master five of your ancient powers before she told you about herself. Young Baron Angus, how about this. If you can master them before fifty years, I will explain further why you are an anomaly." said Darren.

"This book contains all of my knowledge about monster-minded people. I know someone from your group will soon ask for it since their information is rare."

"But, I never know you are quite a special person until the Master makes a bet with you, Young Master Baron. Therefore, this book is a gift for me. I hope you put it to good use." added Darren.

"Err… sure." replied Angus to the cryptic explanation and took the thick book.

After hearing Darren's other condition, he somehow feels like the old vampire is confident that he could master five of his ancient powers before fifty years rather than betting on it.

This would be impossible for a normal person, even the most talented. But, Angus has the help of his idle system, which keeps generating soul points to enhance his attribute.

As long as he has enough soul points, he could keep enhancing his attributes and master the ancient power in no time.

The ancient power may be a conceptual power with vast possibilities and experience. Still, if his mind is comparable to a supercomputer or more, he will be able to master it in no time.

If he wants, he just needs to focus on his intelligence attribute before being able to simulate various kinds of scenarios to master the ancient powers.

However, no one should know about his idle system. Not even Jayna knows about this system despite him already revealing his past life.

He just told Jayna that he is that talented when she finds something weird about him. Although Jayna grumbled at his narcissistic answer, she didn't press further.

'It seems old monsters like Darren and Mira manage to see through me. Come to think of it, King Leon also noticed it. Well, whatever happens, will happen.' thought Angus.

Angus didn't know anything about things called anomalies. Even if he knows it, he will not care too much as it didn't change anything for him. Just knowing someone is a monster or has a mysterious power will not suddenly change his lifestyle and habits.

Angus is already mature enough to change his way of life and do different things. His goal is the same as before. He just wants a peaceful life.

As he lays his trap rune, he also decides to sneak peek at the book Darren gives and finds it is written in unknown incomprehensible words. Then, he finds the old vampire snickering at him as if playing him in his palm.

'This old man?!!' cursed Angus as he noticed the old man wrote the book in various languages.

He also recognizes a few of them, but it is entirely unreadable until he can fully translate them. In the end, Angus decides to store the book and think about it later.

After a few hours of hunting dozens of edible beasts and first-grade monsters, they decide to pick up Anna and Mira before returning to Craghost Town. To their surprise, Anna and Mira are near a small purple-colored pond surrounded by Death Rose.

"Darren, useless." said Mira coldly while accompanying Anna to play in the pond.

The old servant immediately slumps to the ground in defeat. Yesterday, he managed to procure one Death Rose before returning. But, he never knew there was a place filled with Death Rose.

Since Death Rose will not bloom in place with traces of living beings, they also couldn't place where other Death Rose bloom. It means all these Death Roses are blooming together at the same time. Otherwise, they will never be able to bloom in the same area.

"Angus.. Big sis…*Munch* *Munch*" called Anna while chomping the Death Rose nearby like a snack.

Anna and Mira hang their legs on the pond while letting Onyx swim inside it. Noticing the unusual surroundings as he finds no other plant nearby the pond and the purple mist, Angus reacts fast. He casts a barrier spell on everyone [3rd Circle – Fire Barrier] [4th Circle - Nature Barrier].

Angus cast Fire Barrier to Jayna and Aunt Extalia while Nature Barrier to Darren. A mere Fire Barrier will never be able to hold his own magic resistance. Moreover, Angus is not stupid enough to cast a fire spell on a vampire, which is one of its weaknesses.

"Ohh.. Such a flawless cast!! As expected of Young Baron Angus. Still, you didn't need to worry about the fire barrier hurting me. Unlike those lowly vampires, I am impervious to fire elemental. [5th Circle - Surge's Barrier]" said Darren while casting his fire barrier spell on everyone.