“Daddy, where are we going?” Heidi, who was currently riding on Bedivere’s shoulders, asked.

“Actually, I am not sure,” Bedivere replied. “But since my Maste– I mean, Lux, said that it is a wonderful place, I trust that it is so.”

“Will I have lots of friends there?”

“Of course! My Heidi is so kind and sweet. It’s impossible for my daughter to not have any friends.”

Heidi giggled after hearing her father’s praise. Lilia watched her husband and daughter’s interaction with eyes filled with tenderness and love. She couldn’t stop herself from tearing up.

She had been waiting for years for Bedivere’s return, so their family would be complete once again. Now that he was here, she felt as if all of her suffering and hardships for the past two years were paid in full.

“Is everyone ready?” Lux asked as he sent a party invitation to everyone around him. “We’re going now, so I hope that all of you can accept my party invitation.”

Several rows of text appeared in front of Cai, Keane, Heidi, and Lilia, asking them if they wanted to join Lux’s party.

A Normal Party could only have a maximum number of seven people. Raid parties consisted of anywhere from fifty to a hundred people, but this was only available to people who belonged to a Guild.

But this was enough. The Half-Elf didn’t know if his plan was going to work in the first place, and he was just hoping that his theory would work.

“I will tell you in advance. We are going to a place that is very far from Human territories,” Lux stated. “Also, the laws there are quite different from our laws. It will take some time getting used to, but I’m sure that all of you will be just fine… maybe.”

“Maybe?” Cai asked. “What do you mean, maybe?”

Lux ignored Cai’s question and put on the Mask of a Thousand Faces before opening his Soul Book. In the eyes of the dwarves, he was supposed to be dead already. Only the high-ranking members of the Leaf Village, the Stronghold of Norria, as well as the Kingdom of Gweliven, knew that he wasn’t really dead.

However, in order to allow Scarlet to become a Slayer Candidate and break through the ranks of a Ranker, he still needed to lie low for a while until things were wrapped up properly.

Also, there was no point in answering the Boar’s question because he still wasn’t sure if he would be able to take them there by adding them to his party.

In truth, Lux was still debating whether he should bring Cai and Keane with him on his journey. But after everything the three of them had gone through together, he decided to trust that his two companions would be able to keep his secret.

Going to his ability page, Lux took a deep breath as he prepared to activate the skill called…

Eternal Guardian.

This was the skill that would allow Lux to return to Leaf Village anytime he wanted. Since he could no longer create a guild in the Human territories, he decided to take a chance and make a guild in the Kingdom of Gweliven.

“Everyone, get ready,” Lux announced. “We will go in 3… 2… 1!”

Lux, as well as Cai, Keane, Bedivere, Heidi, and Lilia, were bathed in white light. A second later, all of them disappeared, leaving the Vahan Empire behind.

——-

Plaza of Leaf Village…

A brilliant flash of light spread in the surroundings, catching the attention of the nearby dwarves in the plaza.

When the light receded, they saw a couple of Humans and a Boar, standing beside the Statue of the Eternal Guardian, which everyone in Leaf Village treated as their main attraction.

“Where are we?” Cai asked.

The Boar could instinctively feel that they were no longer in the Human territories because the scent and feel of the surroundings were a bit different from what it was used to.

“Dwarves?” Bedivere glanced at the people that had gathered around them and instantly recognized that they were Dwarves.

Even in the Western Regions of Elysium, other races such as Elves, Beastkin, Dwarves, Gnomes, and Half-lings could be found.

Bedivere had interacted with some of them in the past, making him familiar with the Dwarven Race, who were notorious for their passion for strong alcoholic drinks and stubbornness that put Humans to shame.

“Wow!” Heidi clapped her hands as she looked at the people around them. “Look! Little People!”

“Heidi, they are not little people. They are Dwarves,” Lilia immediately corrected her daughter because she was afraid that the Dwarves would take offense and get a bad impression of them.

Just like Lilia had thought, the Dwarves who heard Heidi call them Little People frowned. In order to correct this, Lilia used her eloquent skills to salvage the situation.

“Heidi, remember this,” Lilia said. “Dwarves are very kind and gentle people. They are very hard-working and very dependable people. They say that if you have a Dwarf as your friend, you will have nothing to fear because they will stick with you through thick and thin.”

The Dwarves who heard Lilia all nodded their heads in agreement, giving the pretty woman a thumbs up in their hearts for being a woman of culture.

In the past, the local Dwarves of Leaf Village might have panicked after seeing so many Humans in their Village, but after being around Lux for quite some time, their tolerance for seeing other races had increased.

Still, some of them looked at the new arrivals with wary gazes. Even though they had already gotten used to seeing a Half-Elf, Humans were still a different race from the hero that saved their Village.

“Everyone, please step aside.”

A voice filled with authority said, and the people parted to allow an old Dwarf to pass through.

“My name is Cedwyn, and I am the Head of Leaf Village,” Cedwyn stated. “Please state your names, and how did you arrive here in Leaf Village?”

Several Dwarven Guards, as well as Riders of Norria, also appeared in the plaza. They were the defenders of Leaf Village, so they wanted to know if the people that had suddenly appeared in their village were friends or foes.

Lux immediately recognized Aron, who was the captain of the Guards of Leaf Village, and Boreas, the Captain of the Riders of Norria, which also served as the representatives of the Stronghold of Norria in Leaf Village.

“Village Head, it is me,” Lux said as he stepped forward. “There are some matters that I need to discuss with you, and I would appreciate it if we could talk in private.”

Cedwyn glanced at the chubby boy that he was seeing for the first time and frowned.

“You seem to know me, but I don’t know who you are,” Cedwyn replied. “What qualifications do you have to ask me to talk to you in private?”

“Um, I still remember you telling me that when you were young, you sneakily took Grandma Annie’s pan…”

“Oh! My long lost friend! It’s you!”

The Old Dwarf immediately grabbed hold of the chubby boy’s hand and shook it vigorously, preventing Lux from continuing what he was about to say.

“I didn’t recognize you right away because you’ve gained some weight.” Cedyn was sweating buckets, especially when he noticed Grandma Annie arriving at the scene with the two little girls, Laura and Livia, who were Sid’s little sisters, by her side.

“Come. You must be tired from your journey. Let’s go to my house so we can catch up with the old times.” Cedwyn didn’t even wait for Lux’s reply and dragged him away. “Everyone, settle down. This is my friend…”

“Lucien,” Lux said in a volume that only Cedwyn would be able to hear.

“Right! This is my friend Lucien,” Cedwyn announced. “We go a long way back to when I was still an adventurer. Everything is fine. I can vouch for their identities. Everyone, please step aside. We’re coming through.”

The village head brute forced his way out of the encirclement, dragging Lux towards his house. Cai, Keane, Bedivere, Heidi, and Lilia followed behind because if they lost sight of Lux, things might get complicated when the other Dwarves start asking them questions.

“Should we follow them?” Aron asked Boreas who was standing beside him. “They look suspicious to me.”

“It seems that Cedwyn knows him, but just to be sure, let’s follow them,” Boreas replied. “Just don’t bring too many guards, so it won’t cause a commotion.”

To the surprise of the two Dwarves, Grandma Annie started to walk towards Cedwyn’s house with the twin sisters in tow.

She had already suspected that the one that Cedwyn dragged away was Lux, who was wearing a disguise, so she decided to follow in order to confirm her suspicions.

It was not only her that started to move, Randolph, as well as the Elders of Leaf Village, were also walking towards the Village Head’s house.

Just like Grandma Annie, they all had their suspicions as well.

Some of them even felt their blood boiling inside their chest in excitement because they had a feeling that the person that had saved their Village, whom they hadn’t seen for several months, had finally returned to visit them. Follow current ᴏᴠʟs on Noᴠlꜰire.nt

Randolph, in particular, was more excited than the rest.

His heart was beating wildly inside his chest because, even though he didn’t want to admit it, he had missed his one and only Disciple.

Lux had promised him that he would visit Leaf Village from time to time, but after not seeing him for several months, the old blacksmith thought that the Half-Elf had forgotten them.

Now that he was back, he was looking forward to hearing his tales of faraway lands and the adventures that he had taken part in during the time that he was away from the village, which the Half-Elf had already considered to be his second home.