The going is fun, but the return is even more fun.
After days of being rocked in the carriage, I finally arrived in front of the massive gates of the Imperial Capital Zebuldia after a month away.
The trip there had all sorts of things happen and we made detours, but the return was over in a flash.
After all, the trip there was only— There, I came to my senses and held up my fingers to count.
The going party was seven: me, Liliz, Citry, Tinno, Kuroshiro, and Haiiro. The return party was also seven: me, Liliz, Citry, Tinno, Lucia, Luke, and Anthem. Counting calmly, there was no change in numbers.
And... never mind Kuroshiro, but where did Haiiro go? I'd completely forgotten.
It was fine since the collar had been removed, and I hadn't seen their face since then, so they must have slipped off, but I felt like we could've at least said goodbye.
Lucia, who had been reading a book, noticed my state and looked up.
"Don't tell me you forgot something, Leader?"
"...No. Well, whatever."
They're surely doing fine. In fact, our Party members all have pretty strong quirks, so going home alone might be far better for their mental health than riding in the same carriage.
Half the carriage was packed with souvenirs we'd bought in Sulus. We'd loaded up to brag about our vacation to the Clan members and Eva.
Most of it was hot spring dragon buns, hot spring dragon eggs, and hot spring dragon bath salts, but there were also things like coffins containing the corpses of subterranean people. Luke and the others had hunted them. Monster materials were one of the income sources for Treasure Hunters.
Our Party used the carriage but rarely actually rode in it. In the natural course of things, Liliz, Luke, and Anthem ended up walking outside, so there was plenty of space. Citry served as the driver, and Lucia was my bodyguard.
This time, Tinno was running alongside Liliz too.
The gates of the Imperial Capital, which I was seeing for the first time in a while, were heavily damaged and appeared to be under construction. Knights of the guard stood lined up in rows, and security was far more stringent than in Sulus.
Lucia had told me some disturbance had occurred, but it seemed they still hadn't calmed down.
Well, these things happen. I stretched my back and yawned.
"Once I'm back home, I'm going to sleep nice and slow."
"...You looked like you'd been doing nothing but sleeping this whole time, though..."
"Right, I still need to charge your Treasure Weapon, Lucia. I even used 'Yearning for a Foreign Land.'"
"...I'm tired too, you know. I might punch you."
Daily life had returned. I flashed a half-smile at Lucia, who was shooting me an irritated look, and let out a sigh of relief.
§ It wasn't just the gates—inside the Imperial Capital, things had changed dramatically from what I remembered. How was this possible in barely a month?
As if bombs had gone off, numerous buildings were half-destroyed, the well-maintained roads were cracked in multiple places, and knights were desperately trying to direct traffic. The neatly lined street trees and the little café I'd been fond of had all been damaged—enough to make you think a war had broken out.
The fortunate thing was that this was after the disturbance had already happened. Even though buildings had collapsed, there were no bodies lying around, and the townspeople seemed to have grown accustomed to the situation.
Unbecoming of a Hunter, but I'm no good with corpses. I don't know what happened and I don't want to know, but I was really glad I'd been away from the Imperial Capital.
Even if I'd been here, I couldn't have done anything anyway— I left the carriage cleanup to Citry as usual, picked up a box of hot spring dragon buns, and climbed the stairs to the Clan House with a lighter step than usual.
I'd tried a few along the way, and the hot spring dragon buns were quite delicious snacks.
They didn't actually contain dragon meat, but they came in both sweet and salty varieties, and care had been taken so that even people who disliked sweets could enjoy them.
When I entered the lounge, I called out with a big grin.
"I'm hooooome! ...Huh?"
Still smiling, I froze.
The lounge, usually clean and tidy, was a scene of carnage. At the many tables, Hunters sat slumped with dead eyes, and countless empty bottles rolled across the polished floor.
It was a scene I'd seen somewhere recently. Lucia, who had followed me in, stared wide-eyed, while Luke scrunched up his face—probably thinking something unsavory.
To top it off, slumped at one of the tables was none other than the Black Gold Cross—the top-tier force among our Clan members. Their leader, Sven, looked at me with zombie-like eyes and froze.
I approached the table with a beaming smile and set the box of hot spring dragon buns right in front of the dumbfounded Sven. His shoulders trembled and his cheeks twitched as he stared at the box with its cartoonish dragon printed on it.
I gave him a few pats on the shoulder, spun around, and bolted. Behind me, I heard Sven's chair clatter as he lurched to his feet.
"Hey! Wait, you bastard! You—"
"Luke, I'm busy, so handle the rest!"
"Alright, Sven! I'll show you my new technique—let's head to the training grounds!"
Just got back and already full of energy, huh...
Sorry, Sven. I have to give Eva her souvenirs, so I don't have time to stick around for your complaints.
"Damn it! ...Don't let Klye get away!"
Sven let out a scream almost tinged with despair at the grinning Luke.
The other members raised their heads like corpses being reanimated, their eyes gleaming as if they'd spotted prey.
As we passed each other, I tapped Lucia on the shoulder. Lucia let out a high-pitched cry and started wailing.
Still beaming and out of breath, I sprinted up the stairs. Screams erupted from the lounge below.
§ "Welcome back, Klye... How was your vacation? I've heard the... rumors."
Unlike Sven, who had turned pale the moment he saw me, Eva maintained her usual demeanor.
She accepted the hot spring dragon buns with a look of exasperation at my beaming smile.
This is it. This is what I needed. Healing.
What was with Sven's expression, like he'd found his parents' murderer or something. What was I supposed to have done?
"Klye, you went through a lot with the Barrel Thieves too, but over here... it was rough while you were gone... If you could thank the Clan members later, that would be great."
I already brought you hot spring dragon buns.
"Come to think of it, have you thinned out a bit?"
She didn't have bedhead, her uniform was worn perfectly, and her glasses were polished. But overall, she looked slightly more gaunt than the Eva I remembered.
Eva wasn't a Hunter, but she was the de facto leader of this Clan. If the Clan members were that exhausted, it wouldn't be surprising if Eva had accumulated just as much fatigue.
I was just a figurehead, so whether I was there or not shouldn't have mattered—but maybe it had been mentally exhausting for her not to have someone to take responsibility when things went wrong.
"You've been under strain too while I was gone. If you have work, I'll take care of it here, so get some rest."
Clan management work was enormous. I barely understood most of it, but if I had Lucia and Citry help out, it would go smoothly.
Citry could handle anything, and Lucia helped whenever something came up—whether because she was worried about her brother's embarrassing reputation or for other reasons—so she was well-known among Eva's subordinates too.
At my suggestion, Eva's expression softened slightly around the eyes. She sighed and shook her head gently.
"No, the disturbance has already subsided... I left the report on your desk, but it was quite the uproar—a conflict between the 'Magic Staff' and the remnants of the Tower of Akasha turned the entire Imperial Capital into a hornet's nest. Even calling them 'remnants,' there seemed to be quite a few powerful figures still hiding out there, and we received emergency requests for assistance, so a large number of our members were mobilized."
"That... must have been rough."
I was really glad I'd gone on vacation. The Clan Leader of the 'Magic Staff,' 'Abyss Fire Extinction,' was a terrifying Mage. Just how terrifying? She was so terrifying that Lucia made a disgusted face just from hearing her name.
I tried to avoid running into her as much as possible, but every time we did meet, I had to give it my all to keep from making a sour face.
On top of that, I'd earned her grudge. It was already resolved, but back when the Clan was first established, I had accidentally recruited a Party she had her eye on.
And I'd won them over. To be honest, that Party was the second or third most troublesome Party in our Clan—the Star's Holy Thunder—and ever since then, I hadn't been able to walk freely around the Imperial Capital.
If that terrifying old woman was involved, it was no wonder Sven Anger looked like he was about to die. She was the type to treat even Ark like a little kid, and more than that, she seemed like the kind who would hesitate not at all—no, would actually take delight—in turning people to ash.
Eva's words carried a dark intensity, as though she had been through a great deal.
"On top of that, the opposing Mage was also formidable—can you believe it? They apparently attempted to conduct a summoning ritual for a Thunder Spirit! In a crowded capital, a Thunder Spirit!?"
Was it hell?
Spirit summoning was a secret art. Lucia used it casually to create waterfalls, but an offensive elemental spirit was treated as a strategic weapon on its own. It was obviously not a spell you should use in a populated capital, even from my incompetent perspective. So this was what being part of an Arcane Society was like.
Come to think of it, Arnold had repelled a Thunder Spirit, but that was because no one was controlling it. A spirit under a Mage's command, with its power directed and aimed, was truly a disaster in itself.
"After hearing that, can you imagine what 'Abyss Fire Extinction' did? She summoned the Fire Spirit she had contracted with! She tried to fight power with power! I really... can't believe it. This is exactly why Level 8 is—"
Sorry about that, somewhat.
"...How is the Imperial Capital still standing?"
When I'd seen the destruction, I'd been shocked, thinking a war had broken out. But if 'Abyss Fire Extinction' had summoned spirits, then the fact that only this much damage had occurred was nothing short of a miracle.
That old woman was rumored to have once burned an entire Treasure Hall to the ground. And 'Abyss Fire Extinction' had the overwhelming presence to make that entirely believable.
Eva furrowed her brows, looking troubled.
"I don't have detailed information, but it seems... both sides were severely depleted after the spirits expended enormous power..."
"Hmm. Lucky break, then?"
"The Thunder Spirit in particular seemed to have been heavily drained, so the resolution came fairly quickly. Well, I suppose we were fortunate."
Spirit summoning was a technique that invoked and employed existing spirits. Its power depended greatly on the spirit's condition, in addition to the caster's own abilities.
Naturally, when not being employed, the spirit was off somewhere doing as it pleased, and there was a time lag between activation and the spirit's arrival, making it a highly inconsistent technique.
There were even stories of people attempting to summon in a critical moment, only to find their contracted spirit had been destroyed and couldn't be called.
Incidentally, Lucia carried a Water Spirit in a bottle since she used it frequently to create waterfalls. Her way of taming it was extraordinary. She'd always been good at handling animals. She was even the one who had trained my 'Dog Chain.' Well, it was already over. It had nothing to do with me.
I casually shoved the report aside on my desk and opened my personal box of hot spring dragon buns (twenty-four inside). I'd bought as many as I could, so there were still about thirty boxes left.
Just as I bit into a strawberry-flavored red dragon bun, Eva casually said something incomprehensible.
"Come to think of it, Klye. About the 'White Blade Gathering'—"
"Mmgh? *cough* *cough*... Ah, sorry for being away. I wasn't just goofing off, you know."
I swallowed the strawberry dragon bun and immediately launched into an excuse. Eva blinked at me with a puzzled expression and said: "Huh? No... it was postponed, so the event is three days from now. I was debating whether to send a notice of your absence, but you made it back in time. Truly, I'm glad."