When she heard the news of her parents' deaths, Adele did not cry. She forced herself to appear calm. She knew that the burden of this family had fallen on her shoulders. The world is unfair, there are people who are born with a golden spoon, and there are people who are born destitute. Some people change their fate through hard work, and some people who were originally high above are tragically transported and fall into the abyss from which they will never recover.

Adele has three younger brothers and two younger sisters to take care of, the youngest of whom is still an infant. On the day of her parents' funeral, Adele secretly vowed in her heart that she would protect the family no matter what. Her younger brothers and sisters had lost their parents, and she didn't want them to suffer any more misfortunes.

Adele's parents didn't leave much savings for their children. Thankfully, Adele has shown a great talent for spellcasting since she was a child. Her mentor, a traveling mage from the Empire, cared for her even in the most difficult of days. With the help of her mentor, Adele became a full-fledged mage at the age of fifteen.

It seemed like overnight: people's perception of Adele's family changed. People no longer discuss several children in a pitiful tone. They look at Adele with envy in their eyes and begin to address Adele by an honorific title, the same way they used to call Adele's parents.

The day of the mentor's return to the empire is approaching, and he hopes that Adele can go with him, in the mentor's opinion, with Adele's talent for spell casting, if he follows him to the empire, he will definitely be able to go further. Adele politely declined the mentor's invitation, and instead stayed in her hometown to serve the lord. As a court mage, she was able to earn at least two gold coins per month.

The mentor expressed regret over Adele's choice. But he could understand Adele's choice. Adele still has several younger siblings to support, and she can't leave them yet.

The mentor is gone. The peaceful life lasted less than half a year. It wasn't until the day when the creditor came to the door that Adele knew what her parents had done before they died. That's a huge amount of arrears, perhaps more than the parents have earned in their lifetimes in business. To make up for the losses, the two of them continued to borrow and then borrowed more money to cover the bigger deficit. By the time the two of them died unexpectedly, the amount owed was already an astronomical amount: two hundred gold coins.

Even selling everything in the family, including the ancestral house where Adele's family has always lived, is far from enough to repay the money.

The news spread, and those who usually showed a smile on Adele were afraid to avoid Adele at the moment. Even the kind-eyed old lord that Adele has been serving was embarrassed in the face of Adele's request. Adele's heart grew cold. She finally understands that in this world, the only person she can rely on is herself.

Of course, she can also choose to walk away. However, seeing the eyes of her younger brothers and sisters, Adele's heart softened again. She was reluctant to let her siblings lose important relatives again. She shuddered at the thought that her family might end up on the streets penniless.

The next day, Adele resigned like an old lord. The old lord did not refuse her request. No one knew that last night Adele locked herself in her room and cried all night. Never since Adele was sensible, she had never cried like this.

Adele begged the creditors to give her another six months. The creditors agreed. For the first time in her life, Adele left her hometown. Less than three months later, a messenger from afar arrived at Adele's house and handed over more than two hundred glittering gold coins to Adele's eldest brother. The arrears were paid off in such an incredible way.

No one knows how young Adele earned this money. Rumors spread about Adele, but she never returned to her hometown. The female mage would give her younger siblings living expenses from afar through the Continental Chamber of Commerce every quarter, but she never showed up.

Yasim is Adele's eldest brother. Like his sister, his talent for spellcasting has made him a real name in the local area. The court mages who had worked with Adele were reluctant to let Asim stay in this remote place and repeat the mistakes of his sister. Eventually, with their help, an Imperial mage took Asim as an apprentice. The benevolent mage was sympathetic to the family's plight and offered to provide them with a new home in a distant empire.

After consulting with his siblings, Yasim accepted his suggestion to sell his hometown house and leave this sad place forever with his siblings

Shortly after the empire settled down, Yasim wrote a long letter to his sister. Of Adele's siblings, he is the only one who can get in touch with her sister. In the letter, Yasim gave a detailed account of his current situation and invited his sister to go to the empire and continue to live with them.

"Come back, sister," Yasim wrote, "we miss you so much. ”

……

When Adele received a letter from her brother, she had mixed feelings.

The younger brother's enthusiastic handwriting turned Adele into hesitation. It's not because she doesn't want to be with her siblings. It's been two years since Adele left her hometown and dreams of her younger siblings almost every night. However, Adele is not sure if she will be able to return to her siblings safely, and she does not want her return to cause new problems for her siblings.

In order to pay off the loan, Adele can be said to do whatever it takes. She even considered marrying a wealthy man as a concubine, but she didn't find anyone willing to pay her two hundred gold coins in one go. Eventually, the leader of an illegal mercenary group came to her aid. He lavishly lent Adele two hundred gold coins from his personal assets and asked Adele to serve his mercenary group for ten years. The work of the illegal mercenary group is very dangerous, but the income is far higher than that of ordinary court mages, and the mages who are willing to deign to join the illegal mercenary group also have at least forty gold coins per year.

It's an unjust contract, but Adele has no choice.

After the leader assures him that he will not extend the new debt to his younger siblings, Adele agrees to his invitation.

At first, some members of the mercenary group were unimpressed by the leader's decision. If Adele was bent on dying and died on the battlefield after working for the mercenary group for less than five years, wouldn't the leader make a loss-making deal? But they despised the fierce eyes of the chief. The leader knows that Adele will never ask for death, and that she will do whatever it takes to survive in order to be reunited with her siblings.

For two years, the leader has appropriately "used" Adele, squeezing out every ounce of her strength, but always leaving her a glimmer of hope. Under his guidance, Adele learned how to make the most of every spell she learned on the battlefield.

Adele even mastered the art of fighting like a warrior, replacing her staff with a spellcasting sword, and hiding the necessary casting materials in the mezzanine of the small round shield, unexpectedly using spells to deal a fatal blow to those who despised her. The rest of the mercenary group began to accept her, and two young men pursued her all the time.

But the nightmare of death has always haunted Adele. The enemies of the illegal mercenary group are not only terrifying monsters, vicious bandits, but also ill-intentioned peers, and even mercenary guilds and powerful regular armies. She had survived once, and the enemy's blade tore open her lower abdomen, but her companions fought desperately to save her.

Now, her brother's letter has once again ignited hope in Adele's heart. The place where the younger brother is going is the land ruled by the Duke of Glaxia Empire. Unlike his hometown in Okad, it was a peaceful and fertile land. Bandits and illegal mercenary groups are reluctant to set foot there, and the Duke and his mighty army will strike at anyone who dares to invade the land. But the open gun is easy to dodge, but the hidden arrow is difficult to prevent, and Adele is still worried that she and her younger siblings will be secretly retaliated against by the mercenary group. Moreover, it is not so easy to leave the mercenary group.

Adele has a lot of friends in the mercenary group, but she doesn't know who she really can trust. She didn't want anyone to find her.

Finally, Adele thought of someone. The oldest man in the mercenary group, Burns, has revealed to Adele more than once that he intends to break away from the mercenary group. Burns was a member of the local mercenary guild, a noble "wild rose" who had to leave the mercenary guild and join the illegal mercenary group because he was framed as an arsonist. He has no way to return to his hometown, but he still wants to find a place to retire peacefully.

Unlike Adele, Burns knows many secrets of the mercenary group, and the leader will never let him leave easily. Both Adele and Burns know exactly what happens if they run away: the leaders will punish traitors and deserters with the harshest punishment. Some people have their eyes gouged out, some have their tongues cut off, some have their feet cut off, and what awaits them is a miserable life that is worse than death.

As Adele expected, Burns is willing to help her escape from the mercenary group. The weather-beaten Burns has long regarded Adele as his best partner to escape from the mercenary group. On the other hand, Burns had long hoped to go to the Empire for the rest of his life, and the two hit it off.

In order to hide from the eyes of the leader and his colleagues, the two planned an "attack" on the side of the cliff, and when the others arrived, they only saw the two "body fragments" torn apart by the wolves. The friends eventually found only Burns' blood-stained battle axe at the bottom of the cliff, as well as Adele's broken spellcasting sword. Even in the most brutal battles, Burns and Adele never abandoned their weapons.

The members of the mercenary group who searched for them were almost certain that both Burns and Adele had died here.

But this is nothing more than a scam. Burns even prepared a broken sword for Adele that was identical to her spellcasting sword. Armed with dry food, clean water, and weapons, the two quietly left the chaotic land and headed for the empire's borders.