Chapter 45: A Grateful Feeling, And Farewell

The northern outskirts of Gilishon.

Down this direction is the Azapita Mountain Range, and in the foothills sat a local mine popular for supplying the capital city with valuable mana crystals.

High or low grade, these minerals powered protective barriers, everyday enchantments, and the gear of the royal guard.

Lately, though, supply had stopped.

A monster infestation surging from the outer forests had turned the site into a death trap.

Enter the [Blue Dew Lions].

"Um... doesn’t this seem like a job for our seniors?"

Cecelia asked the question, shifting uncomfortably. (1)

She was the newest addition to the party, having only joined the adventurer’s guild a few weeks ago. A pretty girl with generic brown hair and zero experience that showed in her outfit: she padded her endowed body with so many unnecessary layers of heavy armor she looked like a ball.

Jet, the party leader, burst out laughing.

"Relax! I’m a gold-class adventurer, okay? A few forest pests aren’t going to give us trouble. Honestly, I was hoping we’d land something a little more exciting. But all the good quests keep getting snatched up by that new guy everyone’s calling the Silent Ghost Devil."

Cecelia tilted her head. "Who’s that?"

Gilbert, the party’s bard, sighed dreadfully.

"He’s some freak of nature taking all the highest-ranked quests in the entire guild. For one, if the guy was actually registered as an adventurer, he’d probably be rainbow-class by now. But he clearly doesn’t care about rank. He just walks in, grabs a quest, completes it in minutes, and comes back for another one without saying a single word to anyone."

"Gasp! Wait... he’s not even an adventurer? He’s taking these dangerous quests and... doing them for free?!"

Mhm, Gilbert nodded quietly.

Jet yawned sluggishly, resting his hands casually on the hilts of the twin scimitars at his waist.

"Because of that freak, we’re stuck taking scrap jobs like this. The Emerald Palace needs a fresh supply of mana crystals after some rascal prince stole their whole stock."

When the words "rascal prince" left Jet’s mouth, Cecelia’s mind instantly short-circuited.

Her thoughts floated to the handsome blonde prince who had stolen her heart, swept her off her feet, and then brutally dumped her. She’s angry, but at the exact same time, the memory sent a blush spreading straight to her ears. She grabbed her thumping chest and bit her lip.

’That cruel, terrible man... he just abandoned me!’

Jet and Gilbert paused, looking over at her with tired faces before sighing together.

"She’s dreaming about that prince again."

Deena, a slender witch in bedazzling, clinking jewelry, shook her head in utter disgust.

"I swear, I wish I could just kill that prince myself so I don’t have to deal with her sighing about him all day."

Cecelia’s helpless obsession with this "unknown" prince was a daily hazard for the group.

Suddenly, DOOOOOMMM!!

An explosion shook the earth feeling like a meteor crashed into the kingdom. The force of the goliath shockwave alone almost blew the entire party away.

Jet stabilized himself, barely.

"Whoa! That wasn’t normal! Must be some kind of monster wave or something! Forget the mine mission and focus on this! I’m itching to kill something!"

Already full of excitement, Jet unsheathed his scimitars and bolted toward the direction of the blast. The rest of the party ran after him but their legs were too weak to keep up with someone this swift.

By the time Cecelia, Gilbert, and Deena finally caught up, they found Jet standing still. His arms were trembling, barely able to hold the weapons in his hands.

"Jet? What’s..." Gilbert’s words were stolen from his mouth.

The scene before him was the thief.

A path of slaughter was before them. The bloody remnants of high-rank monsters littered like trash across the earth. There were headless bodies of orc champions, hordes of hobgoblins turned into red paste, and huge demon boars with their faces slashed wide open.

Cecelia had never seen anything so horrifyingly brutal in her entire life. She stumbled back in fear, clapping a hand over her mouth as tears welled in her eyes, trying desperately to keep down her vomit.

Deena slowly walked up beside the shivering Jet.

Her eyes followed the bloody trail of slaughtered beasts until they reached the dense forest beyond.

Her breath hitched.

... The vast forest had been divided in two.

It was as if a gigantic blade had dropped straight from the heavens and carved a massive ravine straight through the landscape. Many would even call it the work of a god, but it’s only close to one.

There’s one man standing at the center of the ruined forest.

Wild auburn hair, cold blue eyes. His shirtless upper body was covered in heavy muscles and dragon scales.

Gilbert took several shaky steps backward.

"Auburn hair... that cold stance... that killing presence... it’s him. The Silent Ghost Devil!"

The celebrated Third Prince of Falsbane.

Leander panted heavily as he looked down at the sword in his hand that shriveled into dust.

"Hmm, slashing the forest in half seems to have worn out the sword... or was it my mana? I can’t tell."

His cold blue eyes landed on the party members. There was no disgust in his gaze. Instead, it was the gaze of a man who’d reached the the pinnacle of his discipline... an overwhelming look of true beatitude.

...

Meanwhile, on the opposite side of Gilishon, a much warmer scene was happening on the eastern outskirts.

Mariella was clinging tightly to Adonis’s arm, resting her head softly against his shoulder as they both smiled at Garm and Geles, who were fully packed and ready to head back to the Soron Dukedom.

"I really can’t thank you two enough for all your help."

Adonis was the first to speak.

Garm laughed deeply. "Oh, forget it! We had a blast too!"

Geles agreed with a nod.

Adonis handed the nodding elf a small sack.

She took it curiously, pulling open the drawstrings to see four bottles of Naxos runic inks.

"Gasp! These are—!"

"Since we didn’t really have any use for them, I figured you should have them all. You were so excited to work with them, it’d be unfair not to hand them over."

"...TH-, THANK YOU!"

She sparkled at him with her bright red eyes.

Adonis smile lasted a second, then he caught Garm and Geles sharing a strange look.

"Hm? What’s that look for?"

Geles giggled softly. "Well... we also got a gift for you."

Garm handed over a heavy sack that almost dragged Adonis’s arms down to the dirt.

Beside him, Mariella quickly pouted. Because Adonis’s arms were now full, she couldn’t hug either of them. Hmph. She shot a deadly glare at Garm.

Garm flinched. "I-, I apologize, milady!"

Adonis opened the sack to inspect the contents. It’s packed to the brim with high-grade magic minerals and metals that brought a warm smile to his face.

"This is incredible. Thank you."

Garm and Geles grinned at him.

"Consider it an early wedding present!"

They all laughed.

Once Garm and Geles vanished down the road, Adonis went ahead to lock up the warehouse and return the heavy key ring to the landlord.

The landlord immediately went off, yelling and complaining at the top of his lungs. He’s complaining about the horrifying state of the property’s latrine.

The poor guy was unfortunate, he had no idea a dwarf would go through their dwelling period on his property.

Sigh~ Adonis could only nod politely and endure the earful.

Safe to say, nobody was ever going to step foot in that latrine again now that it was filled to the brim with a mountain of biohazardous dwarf waste.

After getting his ears chewed off, Adonis finally walked away, facing his next massive hurdle.

And it was a big one.

How on earth was he going to sneak Alpis into the royal palace without getting caught?

A disowned prince casually strolling back onto palace grounds holding hands with a dragon girl was far from normal. With her horns and pointed tail, anyone who saw her would assume she was a demon before they ever guessed dragon.

Eventually, Adonis put together a makeshift plan.

He got his lovely maids to use their charm and delicious food to distract the front gate guards. While the guards were occupied with their bliss, Adonis and Prussia stood side-by-side to form a human wall, awkwardly shuffling sideways past the gates with Alpis hiding right behind them.

Prussia’s forehead creaked as they shuffled like fools.

"Couldn’t you have come up with a better plan?"

"I don’t see you coming up with genius plans either."

"Oh, shut up!"

Once they successfully got through and ducked safely inside the servant quarters, the petite dragon girl dusted off her hands with an air of triumph.

"Fuhahaha! You minions have done a magnificent job sneaking me into your central command, good humans! I shall reward you greatly with—!"

Her words choked dead in her throat.

GROOOOOOWWWL!!

Her belly let out a ferocious rumble. Alpis instantly collapsed onto her knees, reaching a tiny, trembling hand out toward Adonis with giant, teary eyes.

"Muuu! Adonis... feed meeee~!"

Adonis shook his head, looking over at Prussia.

"Go make something for her to eat."

Prussia sighed. "Fine."

"...Eh?"

Adonis narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously.

His sudden stare felt strange. Prussia felt uneasy. Deep down, she secretly loved being looked at by Adonis, but she was far too ashamed to ever admit it out loud, causing a deep pink blush to fill her cheeks.

She instinctively wrapped her arms around her chest, staring off to the side.

"Wh, What’s you’re problem?"

Adonis ignored the beauty of her slender, muscular body.

"Nothing. It’s just... since when do you readily take orders from me without throwing a tantrum?"

"People can change!"

Prussia yelled as her face burned hotter.

Adonis just waved his hand dismissively as he left.

"Sure, sure. I’ll be back in a bit."

Prussia blinked, pausing. "Wait... where are you going?"

Adonis tucked his hands casually behind his back, giving her a cool, innocent smile.

"Oh, nothing much. I just want to have a little tea time with my favorite stepmother."

...

(1) Cecilia from Chapter 4