Roy was reunited with his family, which was made up of Amelia and Arlo. It was pitifully small. But they were considered his true relatives. They had shown his concern and care unlike that father of his.
They gave him warm hugs that lasted a while.
Then… he had to answer their many questions.
He explained the situation to them while the elder mage helped a healing potion down Delilah’s throat.
Moments after, the unconscious her digested the reddish health potion. This resulted in her wounds closing rapidly. She was healed in less than an hour. Only scars were left on her once mangled back. But that sight didn’t sit well with Roy.
“We can’t… leave her like that. Men might not care about their looks, but to a woman, looks matter a lot. Is there any way to heal her scars?”
Roy was the type that returned a drop of water with an entire bottle. Delilah had shown him kindness. She was injured like this while saving him. Thus, of course, he felt the need to do his best to help her recover to her peak condition.
“… How did she get them?” Vizards asked in a toneless voice.
Roy replied honestly, “This injury resulted in an attempt to save my life.”.
Finding that out was enough for Vizards to feel the need to restore the beauty of the lass.
Vizard handed over green-colored bandages to Amelia and proceeded to explain their uses to her: “Apply these bandages on her, and don’t let her take it off for a day. That will be enough to erase her scars.”
“I understand.” Amelia nodded.
“The lady’s clothes are to be changed. Let’s not stick around. Whoever does is a pervert that thinks with his lower head.” Arlo’s joke made the elder mage’s face blue. Roy and Julian immediately walked out. They didn’t want to be mistaken for a pervert. Tao other came out before the door was locked and curtains were drawn over the windows.
“Let’s get you fixed.” Amelia undressed Delilah. The second she pulled the strips of clothes wrapping around her chest, two beautiful melons sprang out. Compared to her own, they looked better and fuller. Thousands of words of praise might not be enough to define them. She secretly felt jealous of her.
“I wish I would have a figure like her too.” Which woman wouldn’t want to look beautiful? Amelia also wanted to look beautiful for her master. But she didn’t know that she was already charming and cute. She was the type that would arouse the desire to protect her in the heart of men the second they saw her downcast face.
She wiped the blood off her body, bandaged her gently, and then dressed her up carefully so as to not wake her.
“Bomb!”
Suddenly, a tremor was felt throughout the county. Roy could feel the ground beneath him shaking as if an ancient beast had awakened from its slumber and was ready to cause destruction.
It wasn’t just his imagination.
The workshop was terribly shaken by it. The books that were in the selves nearby and the flasks on the heaters fell down to the ground. Hit by it, Julian fell to the ground, his head hit the ground, and thus he fainted. Thankfully, no blood could be seen coming out of it. He hadn’t burst it open. Roy was finding it hard to stay standing. How could he help others? He had to hold on to something to keep himself from falling.
Meanwhile, Arlo and Vizards, although shaking, looked ridiculously relaxed.
Their eyes met.
Then… as if the earthquake was unable to affect them, they started chatting.
“An earthquake at this time? Just what caused it?” Arlo wondered.
The elder mage’s neck snapped to the right, his profound gaze looking at the sky through the window.
“I feel something enormous approaching.” Vizards said in a shaky voice.
Whatever it was didn’t matter.
But… the fact that it caused a change in the elder mage’s voice meant that it must be something great.
“Let’s go out and see.”
They both charged out of the Workshop, taking flight; their figures were like unfastened balloons that flew towards the clouds.
Right then, the earthquake stopped.
Roy was confused by it.
But before he could think about what could’ve caused it, the system’s notifications rang in his ears.
『You have returned to the County.』
『You will be rewarded handsomely.』
『Accept your reward.』
His confusion was slightly cleared up by these notifications.
A barrier surrounded the County. Its maintenance was done by mages regularly. One such mage could be seen standing on top of the wall just behind it. He was snoring loudly. It looked like he had fallen asleep whilst standing. But when the Earthquake happened, he was shaken awake, and he looked around in bewilderment.
Very interestingly, at the edge of his vision, he saw a black line drawn in the air.
Unable to believe that, he rubbed his eyes and looked at it again.
It was still there, proving that he wasn’t seeing things.
“W-what is that?”
“Idiot!” Because he was caught slacking, the back of his head was slapped, and he was dissed by his superior. “It’s a powerful soul shard traveling at high speed! It’s going to crash on the upper edge of the barrier.” He pointed at a certain spot. “Hurry up and open that area of the barrier. Let it pass through. Once it enters the county, it’ll be sealed inside. And then… it won’t be able to escape us. It will be trapped inside the County. We’ll capture it and present it to the Count. Maybe this will give us a raise or a promotion!”
The mage, who was in his twenties, moved his hands in a circular motion while chanting; his action resulted in a hole appearing in the air, and the soul shard passed through that very gap to enter the County.
“Capture it! Whoever gets it will be the one to present it to the Count!”
A moment later, powerful mages and knights could be seen flying and running after it. They all hoped to be the ones to capture it because that would help them climb the social ladder easily.
All sorts of moves were used to entrap it, but like a slippery eel, it escaped their grasps time and time again, only to move toward the southern District of the County.
It passed by Arlo and Vizards and rushed into the workshop through the window.
The thing hundreds of people were desperately trying to capture stopped before Roy.
And then, ridiculously enough, it… dropped into his palm!!!