◈ 411. [Side Story] Return
I don’t know how to return to reality from the spirit world in the normal way.
All kinds of expedients and system circumvention tricks are mobilized.
How, how, after all the hardships, I returned from the spirit world to reality through the injured crossroads.
“… what what… … ?”
I opened my mouth in amazement in front of the changed South Gate of the Crossroads.
Cross Road… … It was a completely different city from what I remembered.
“Chuckling!”
“Hee hee vroom vroom!”
“It was delicious, today’s rice!”
Aren’t men in leather jackets with mohican hair screaming strangely, running around brandishing clubs?
Wheein… … .
Not a single citizen can be seen in the city seen through the gates that are open. It is lifeless and dead, like ruins.
The walls of the fortress are dented in places, and iron bars or barbed wire are attached unsightly.
Here is the final Hwaryong Peak.
Kururureung… !
lively.
A large skull-shaped artifact hangs on the southern wall, and flames shoot out of its eyes and mouth.
“… What is this end-of-the-century tail?”
I shuddered at the sight of the blue flames of hell emanating from the skeleton’s mouth.
“What the hell happened to the city when I wasn’t there?!”
“ah… So that’s… … .”
“How can a cataclysm like this happen just because you’ve been away for several days?! uh?!”
Then Ader hesitated behind me and opened his mouth.
“Your lord, did you first fall into the spirit world?”
“uh… I did.”
“When he returned, he returned through the spirit world.”
“It did.”
“The flow of time in the spirit world is completely different from reality. Since you went through that place once… … .”
Ader looked at me.
“This time… It’s been quite a while.”
“… ?!”
Embarrassed, I swallowed dry saliva.
If the city that used to be normal has changed so much at the end of the century.
How much time has passed while I’m lost and wandering around there… … ?
It was then.
“Two guys over there! What are you guys doing!”
“Find a suspicious-looking outsider!”
Mohican-haired end-of-the-century warriors who were running in front of the gates approached us.
They giggled, sticking out their tongues and licking clubs and daggers.
“We are the soldiers who keep the city safe! What happened to this city?!”
“I like to be honest. Our captain doesn’t like to see pointless blood. … !”
“Our captain is a terrifying man who has neither blood nor tears, but he really enjoys spilling blood and tears on his opponents!”
I strode towards the menacingly brandishing clubs and chattering.
As I approached, the embarrassed Mohican men flinched and retreated. I glared at them in the eyes and growled.
“Guide me to that person who is your captain.”
“yes? no, that’s… … .”
I yelled at the guys who were sweating profusely.
“Hurry up, you bastards. Right Now!”
***
So. Entered the city with the Mohican-headed warriors.
The interior of the city without a single citizen and not a single ant was silent. I drool as I looked at the empty interior of the city. What is this… … .
The Mohican warriors who glanced at me like that guided me to the barracks.
“Commander deputy!”
“I’ve caught those who look suspicious!”
Upon entering the barracks, the Mohican warriors shouted.
Then,
“Are they suspicious-looking people?”
The blonde knight who was standing at the entrance of the barracks examining the pile of weapons asked.
“The battle will begin in a few days, but there are suspicious people coming from somewhere… .”
My eyes met with the blond knight who turned away while talking.
The knight’s blue eyes widened.
“… Lord?”
I was speechless.
His armor had a lot of scratches, and he had lost weight as if he had worked hard, and he had a seasoned atmosphere like a veteran, no matter what he had been through.
It was a very familiar face.
I called my knight by name.
“Lucas!”
“Lord? Are you really a lord? oh my god… !”
Throwing away the things in his hands and running, Lucas immediately knelt down in front of me.
“You are alive, my lord!”
“then. I struggled a bit, but I came back like this.”
When I left home, they said I was a high school student, and that was exactly what I was told.
Lucas looked up at the grinning me with emotion, and suddenly tears welled up in his eyes.
“Stay still… .”
And then he started crying bitterly.
“I thought he was dead… … uh uh uh… … !”
Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu0007 Lucas started to let out his characteristic bear-like howl.
Then the Mohican warriors who had guided me to this point broke into a cold sweat.
“Our captain… He is a terrifying person with no blood or tears… … .”
“Our role model… He was an ideal warrior… … .”
“You cry like a bear… .”
Breaking into a cold sweat, I struggled to appease Lucas. hey hey! All of your underlings (?) see it! Stop crying Jiji!
After a while, the real Lucas explained the current situation to me. First of all, how much time has passed since I disappeared.
“half a year… ?!”
I opened my mouth wide.
“Half a year has passed?!”
“yes. To be exact, it is 6 months and 15 days. I counted the days every day since the day my lord disappeared.”
Lucas elaborated as he blew mucus on his handkerchief. I couldn’t close my open mouth.
It was about the time when summer had already passed and the beginning of autumn was approaching.
Lucas explained all about the city’s end-of-the-century atmosphere.
The mohican-haired friends are just newly hired mercenaries.
The reason why the fortress became ugly was that it was damaged by the battle that lasted half a year without me.
The large skull hanging at the south gate is a rare artifact acquired in the last defense battle.
And the reason why there are no people in the city is because the boss stage is just around the corner, so they evacuate.
“After the lord disappeared, we fought a total of three more defense battles.”
After facing the goblin army on stage 15 and then going through stage 16, I fell to the other side of the other side.
In other words, while I wasn’t there, Crossroads survived until stage 19.
It was fortunate that the defense battle cycle was long for half a year.
“Considering that the powerful corps invaded every five times, I thought the next defense battle that was about to take place would also be a difficult battle… … Citizens were sent out ahead of time.”
“Nice job Lucas.”
Besides that, after receiving this and that big report, I patted Lucas on the shoulder.
“You’ve done well without me.”
“I was only going to do what my lord taught me, but… It wasn’t easy.”
We laugh at each other and have conversations like that.
“I’ve been there~ I asked the forge, and they said they could somehow match the number of arrows until the day of the defense battle.”
A female knight wearing a helmet entered the barracks.
The female knight, who came with a box full of arrows in both arms with great strength, looked at me and said,
“Huh?”
Knock the box in both hands to the floor! Dropped.
“… lie.”
Taat!
The female knight who hit the ground landed in front of me in the blink of an eye. Grabbing my terrified shoulders, she rocked me back and forth.
“Seniors?! That’s right, senior?! Are you back, senpai?!”
“No, wait there!”
“I went somewhere and now I’m back, really! Do you know how worried we were?!”
Stopped shaking me by grabbing my arm, I asked in bewilderment.
“Let’s just ask this for now. Who are you?!”
“Why don’t you recognize your proud junior? It’s me!”
No, among the female knights I know, there is no one with a physique like you… .
… wait for a sec.
In the first place, there is only one person who calls me ‘Senior’?
“… Maybe Evangeline?”
“Then who else is there besides me!”
As the female knight took off her helmet, her long platinum hair tied back flowed down.
The smile of a child with protruding fangs was still the same. A blurry X-shaped scar appeared on the cheeks that had lost their breast meat and were slimmer, and… … .
He was so tall! That’s why I can’t recognize you!
“How tall can you get in half a crazy year?!”
It’s not that I’m overdoing it, but I think it’s really about 10cm big.
Of course, you have to be 10cm taller to be shorter than me, but when the guy who was about to be 150cm suddenly grew taller… … Your body balance has completely changed, so you look like a completely different person!
Despite growing taller, Evangeline nodded with a childlike face.
“This reaction! Because you wanted to hear this reaction? Now you could call it a real sexy-dynamite-hot body, right? Mmm ha ha!”
I guess he was still obsessed with his dynamite hot… … .
“You don’t know how unfair it felt to me that even though I grew this much, that man still treated me like a child. But now that I have been recognized by my senior, I have to admit that man too!”
As Evangeline pointed at him, Lucas raised his eyebrows in displeasure.
“What do you do when you grow taller? My mind is still a kid… … .”
“Hey, you say that, but in reality you are nervous, right? Aren’t you afraid that I’ll chase you and jump over you?”
“How can you follow my height?”
“It’s a growing season! I’ve grown this much in half a year, so I’m sure I’ll grow even bigger in the future!”
I looked at the two knights bickering among themselves with a big smile.
iced coffee… I miss you. I missed you. Seeing my men chatting among themselves like this… … .
“Prince?”
At that moment, a panicked voice came from the entrance of the barracks.
Let’s look back, the familiar boy with curly brown hair… … No, the young man was standing there. I waved my hand warmly.
“Damian! A long time!”
Damian rubbed his round eyes with the back of his hand and smiled.
“Haha, I must have been a bit overworked these days… I see everything in vain… … .”
“No, you are a clairvoyant. Can you see anything wrong?”
“I even hear hallucinations. haha really… … Are you a little tired?”
Damian, who was muttering, gathered the holy power in his hand and put it on his forehead, saying,
“Get better… get better… .”
and stirred.
No, your brain isn’t broken! I mean real!
after a while
“I thought you abandoned us and went to the ecliptic… … .”
After confirming that I was real, Damien wept as he held onto my sleeve.
“Last time, we protested as a group against the prince’s orders. So I thought he was so angry with us that he abandoned us and left… … .”
“… At that time, I was wrong. And I’m not so irresponsible as to throw this place away.”
No, it wasn’t my intention, but since I left it for half a year, I was really irresponsible… … .
I looked at Damian. Damian had his long curly hair tied back in a ponytail. and… .
“… Are you tall too?”
“Ahaha… I guess there was still room for more.”
He also grew taller.
Before that, he had the youthful appearance that could be called a boy, but now that he has grown taller and his lines have become a bit thicker, he has become a full-fledged young man.
‘… Half a year is a long time for children.’
I didn’t feel these guys growing up when we were together, but I definitely feel it after meeting them after being apart for a long time.
He said he grew up day by day, but in half a year he evolved into the next form.
And finally.
“His Highness the Prince Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”
Among the main party members, Junior, who was the last to hear the news, hurriedly ran.
“I knew! Because I knew! The fact that Your Highness is not the one who will abandon us nor the one who will die outside!”
Junior looked the same as half a year ago. A wide-brimmed wizard’s hat, a baggy robe that covers the body, and… … .
“Cooler!”
… until hemoptysis.
As soon as he got in front of me, Junior vomited blood on the floor.
When I opened my mouth and looked at it, Junior stammered shyly, wiping the corners of his mouth.
“… It’s a dog gag.”
“No, that repertoire doesn’t work anymore?”
All the other kids have evolved in a positive direction, so why are you coughing up blood again! Wasn’t it better than that?
“I thought everything was better, but the last remaining element was left in the magic furnace… That caused trouble again.”
Damian administered healing magic to Junior, who was suffering from anxiety, saying ‘Be better, get better’.
Lucas, who came next to me, smiled bitterly and explained.
“Junior has been through a lot in the past. Apparently, I can’t let the mage’s power rest… … .”
“I did a lot of work, and hemoptysis recurred.
Junior, who had recovered roughly, showed off his characteristic foxy eye smile.
“anyway! I’m so glad you’re back, Your Highness.”
“… .”
I looked around. Lucas, Evangeline, and Damian all smiled around me.
“It really is.”
Making eye contact with the party members one by one, I said again.
“It’s nice to be back.”
With sincerity, so.
