“Why me, though? You could have used it yourself or given it to someone else,” Eric asked.

  Bella Noll chuckled at Eric’s stupid question.

  “What can I say? So far, only you are still sticking around with this old lady. The rest of your brothers and sisters have all left to live with their new parents before they could even reach eight years of age. Thus, now it ended up in your hands. As for not using it myself, the reason is simple—I am old!”

  Eric nodded and didn’t ask anything more about the pocket watch.

  Bella Noll recalled she still hadn’t informed Eric about the pocket watch’s features, so she began, “This watch has quite a few features. It will run for a long time without any external energy input. It takes Mana from the atmosphere to charge itself, and even if you go into a special space where there’s no Mana, it will still run for a long time—how long, I don’t know. But since Elendo said so, then it could very well be 100 years, if not more.”

  Seeing Eric’s disbelieving expression, Bella Noll shrugged. “Anything he creates will only be the finest of the finest. Not to mention, he claimed it was his best creation back then. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if it runs for 1,000 years without Mana. Other normal features are…”

  Following that, Bella Noll explained a few basic features she was aware of regarding the pocket watch.

  In fact, she was quite ignorant of its complete capabilities, as it required a user to register with their Mana signature. Elendo refused to reveal the watch’s tier to her, but if she had to guess, it was a Tier 5 or above artifact, which are beyond expensive, even for a normal Rank 5 or 6 to afford. She was certain the pocket watch could do far more than what she knew.

  “...This watch is also very sturdy. You can even use it to defend yourself. It can repair itself with Mana if the damage is only internal. There are other features, like it automatically selects time according to location, and it can also be used as a compass. Discover these things yourself.”

  “To truly use this pocket watch to its full extent, one needs to register it with their Mana signature. Everyone has their own unique Mana signature once they become a Mana Wielder. I don’t know what else it could do, so explore it yourself when you become a Mana Wielder.”

  After Bella Noll finished explaining, she drank the remaining water in her cup.

  Eric was dumbfounded when he heard that the watch was so sturdy it could even block a sword strike and arrows without getting a single scratch! He realized this was truly no ordinary watch. It seemed he had found a true competitor for the Nokia 3310 in this world!

  Eric sucked in a deep breath. It seemed he had gotten a little too overpowered while still being an eight-year-old brat. He should now be able to proclaim himself as a Minor-Elite Boss, right?

  Eric didn’t really understand Mana Wielders and all that, but he knew this town had few such individuals. He had planned to investigate later when he grew up a little more, but now he really wanted to know. It also seemed Bella Noll herself was a Mana Wielder, which shocked him, as he hadn’t been aware of it before.

  Nonetheless, now that he had accepted the gift, he had also inherited some debt from some unknown child.

  “Ahem, since I have graciously accepted this pocket watch, I also need to know how that incident happened. Did anyone attack your home city? If so, why?”

  Bella Noll stared at Eric speechlessly. She had thought he wouldn’t ask, as she had intentionally diverted from that topic.

  She shook her head. “Don’t think about such things. I have no interest in revenge. Nothing will come back. I also don’t want you endangering your life over something that happened decades ago. I won’t tell. I am just happy you accepted the gift—that’s all.”

  Eric chuckled harmlessly. “You’re thinking too much. I didn’t say I would take revenge or anything. I just want to know what happened.”

  Eric indeed planned to bury those responsible for the attack in the future. Whether they were good people or not was of no importance to him—they are all going down. Of course, only when he became capable enough.

  Bella Noll’s eyelid twitched as she watched the air around Eric. Since he was quite inexperienced, he didn’t know, but he was clearly exuding bloodlust and couldn’t hide it from her eyes.

  She sighed, feeling exhausted despite it being only early morning. “Fine. I’ll tell you this much: two extremely powerful Mana Wielders fought in that city’s skies. Their battle destroyed nearby areas too. As for who they were…”

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Bella Noll hesitated; sending Eric to do something so dangerous was not only pointless but something she would feel bad about, even in her grave.

  Eric swiftly put Bella Noll's worries to rest: “Don’t worry, I won’t make a single move against those two until I am strong enough to deal with them with ease.” He knew Bella Noll understood his intention, so he didn’t hide.

  Despite acting cool, Eric was feeling really numb internally. He knew Mana Wielders were beings who were a little more powerful than normal humans, but what was this?

  He had thought the city was ruined by a country’s war or some random dude testing a nuclear bomb there, but no—these people fought in the skies? Were they birds or pilots?

  Sadly, since he had accepted the advanced Nokia 3310, he could not stop! He needed to at least learn the names of those wild pilots.

  Bella Noll sighed, not because of Eric’s promise, but because there was no escaping this.

  “Fine. The names of the two are Nymeria Aetherlark and Ethan Johannes. You must keep your word and don’t die, or else my ashes will awaken to beat you up! They were already extremely powerful Mana Wielders back then, and I have no idea of their ranks, as I personally wasn’t there to witness their battle. As for their reason for fighting, I also have no idea.”

  Eric nodded. He had to scribble those names somewhere, or else he would definitely forget.

  “What was the name of the city you used to live in? If I am nearby, then I will try to pay a visit.”

  Bella Noll stared at Eric with complicated emotions. Since she had already spoken so much, giving the name of a dead city wasn’t much.

  “That city was called Jourmoth. It was situated in the northern region of the Refmira Kingdom.”

  Eric knew they were currently in the Silvia Kingdom, but he had no idea where the Refmira Kingdom was; nonetheless, it probably wasn’t anywhere close. He wondered just how far Bella Noll had traveled to leave her past behind.

  Seeing the topic finally end, Bella Noll relaxed.

  There was still the main topic for which she had called Eric upon this morning, so she finally addressed that: “Back to the main topic. You brat, you’re smart, so you should have already guessed why you are here this morning, right?”

  Bella Noll’s tone changed to teasing, and Eric could guess why; thus, it was his turn now to start experiencing exhaustion.

  He groaned, “Is there no one else to take the job? I don’t want to!”

  Bella Noll chuckled, “Come on, two still-growing beauties. If you manage to grasp their hearts while they are still young, then you are totally set for life!” She laughed.

  Eric gave Bella Noll another nasty glance. He absolutely didn’t want to take any babysitting duty! He disliked handling children, not that he hated children, but he didn’t want to waste his time on them. Similarly, he also disliked the idea of being a father, which was one of the major reasons he never married in his past life and wasn’t planning to in this one too.

  Even though Eric himself was still a child, he couldn’t handle children, and that was why he had no friends of similar age within Ringwood Town.

  He was just too happy being all alone!

  Eric groaned with a face full of despair because he knew he could not escape this cruel fate, but he still tried to do his best. "You know, I don’t get along with children in the town and don’t even have a friend at Ringwood School!"

  Ringwood School was the only school in Ringwood Town. Eric was admitted, but he never attended except during final exams. He felt it was a waste of time. Yet he was also aware that it was a great privilege and luxury for him as an orphan to even have the opportunity to study. This was also Bella Noll’s grace toward all the children in the orphanage, as she had to pay a considerable sum for their books, school fees, and so on. Despite this, she had never forced Eric to go to school; she had even allowed him to skip it entirely except for the final exams at the end of each year.

  Bella Noll laughed. "Then isn’t this better? You’re finally getting the chance to make friends your own age. This is definitely an opportunity you shouldn’t miss!"

  Eric rolled his eyes. He knew there was no escape, after all, he was the only grown child in the orphanage. He also knew those girls would be even more depressed if no one talked to them, especially when they were already in such a wretched state.

  He also didn’t want to be indifferent toward Bella Noll’s request, given all the care she had provided him since his toddler days.

  Bella Noll suddenly recalled something. "Right, for last year’s birthday, you asked me for all the books up to the final grade of school. How is it going?"

  Eric shrugged and casually answered, "It’s been over for a long time."

  Bella Noll looked at him in disbelief. "Did you really just study all the subjects up to tenth grade and completely understand them?"

  She knew Eric was very smart for his age, but this was unexpected. A seven-year-old boy had finished all the studies a 14- or 15-year-old would complete, and he’d done it within a year.

  Eric nodded in confirmation. It really wasn’t much for him; he came from the advanced 21st century, after all. This much knowledge was childish. He was certain anyone could do the same.

  Although he had read all the books, he had forgotten most of their content.

  Overall, he was very impressed by this world’s knowledge. Just this isolated Ringwood Town was fairly advanced in terms of knowledge—not like 21st-century Earth. From that, he could also guess this world, Celestia, was reasonably developed. A different kind of development than Earth, as both had faced different things, so they discovered and explored things differently, though a lot of things were also similar.

  Eric recalled something, so he also asked, "Grandma, you never told me about my background—where I came from? Who brought me here? What happened to my hometown?"

  Bella Noll shook her head gently. "Now is not the time to talk about this. Also, there really isn’t much I know. I’ll inform you of what I know after you grow up a little more."

  "Fine," Eric relented. He wasn’t that desperate. "Since you’re putting me into more work, you must give something in return, right?" His eyes sparkled with cunning.

  "What do you need? More women?" Bella Noll smiled back.

  Eric fell off his seat.

  'What can an eight-year-old even do by having more women?!'