Chapter 334: Leaving

The sun reached its peak and was already on a declining steep when Aiden had finally reached the end of his tale.

Mostly it was him who spoke, as he continued explaining all the strange, wondrous, and mind-boggling occurrence that happened during the long night. He obviously skipped through the details about his servants, and also kept silent about his venture to the Sanctum and his strange reunion with his father's remnant spirit fragment, and how he regained his memories from another life. 

He also kept the true end for the orcs a secret, and only mentioned that he had completely dealt with them. With their leaders' dead, the rest of the tribe had returned to their original lands and are no longer having any desires of conquest. This whilst wasn't completely true, wasn't false either, Aiden felt better this way.

These were details that were mostly unrelated to the task the Masked Lady had entrusted him with anyway.

At first, when Drake noticed the strange peculiarities in his friend's story, he almost flinched and spoke up, but in the end, he decided against it. He must have had a good reason for omitting such important details, and it was also quite beneficial for him, that his pathetic failure was not mentioned to the public.

When he got to the end of recounting his side of the story, Aiden heaved a long sigh of relief. He finally got back and completed the last requirements for the quest in the system. Not a moment later, just as he expected, he heard the bell-like sound of an incoming system notification in his mind. 

"Thank you for taking the time to tell us all that, Aiden. I greatly appreciate your help in this matter." The Mistress gave her thanks first before she added thoughtfully.

"So, what if what you said is true, then that means the whole threat of the orcs and this so-called Horde is no longer present. Surprisingly you did not just manage to get the information we needed, but you also managed to end the looming danger completely! This is great news!" She exclaimed, with a tinge of happiness visible in her voice.

"For the time being, I have no more tasks for either of you." The Masked Lady glanced at Sara as well as she remarked. 

She clapped with her hands, causing the door to open back up and the elderly butler, Sebas to appear once again. Without uttering a single word, he bowed at the doorway, waiting for her Lady's command.

"This meeting took longer than I expected, please excuse me for that." The Lady continued. "Seeing how it is so late today, I am sure you are all famished. Please stay for a bit more, let me invite you all to a meal. Enjoy your lunch with us, before you leave."

She offered, which nobody objected to. After all, just like she had mentioned, both boys and all the girls were quite hungry by now. Although Galina still a bit of a problem, as she felt the strain of her steadily lowering reserves, she still agreed. 

However, before her mana could run dry and her illusion could fade away, Aiden gently placed his hands on her back as they were walking towards the large and ornate dining hall and injected a bit of extra energy into her system. 

A single yelp was the only thing that escaped her lips, before she could reign in her emotions, causing the transference of energy to be a short one. Still, as her system slowly processed the much higher quality [Soul Power] and turned into the lower quality Mana that it could utilize, it should still be enough to keep her current look for the next couple of hours without any issue.

—

After a delicious, luxurious, and most importantly sumptuous meal, the group now with the addition of the real Scarlet and Sara to the group have left the Mistress' mansion and ventured out of the slums with relative ease.

Besides Sara, the group was still rather astounded by the sight of the large structure suddenly vanishing from sight as they left the protective bubble that surrounded it. They couldn't help but wonder if anybody could just stumble upon it.

"No, you don't have to worry. Those without the direct acceptance of the Mistress would be unable to get in. Those with weaker wills would simply turn around leave the opposite direction, while others would find an impassable wall of energy. 

Even if they would still try to force themselves through, the guards would immediately be alerted and would swiftly deal with the threat." Sara explained, understanding to looks in their eyes as they turned around to leave.

Surprised by this revelation, the group kept asking the purple-haired girl as they slowly left the district and continued making their way through the Residential District, towards the direction of the Guild's Hall.

Eventually, as they arrived at the crossroad that would either lead them further along, and eventually towards the Salty Pig, the inn where Aiden still had his reserved room, or change paths and get to the Adventurer's Street, they stopped.

Aiden, who was now keeping his appearance hidden behind his black mask and hood again, turned to look at the awkwardly looking purple-haired psychic lady, he spoke after heaving a tired sigh.

"Sara, we need to say our goodbye's here. I will not be returning to the guild today. I want to get back to my room and rest up. I haven't had any rest since before we embarked on our mission."

"I… I see." Sara spoke up whilst lightly fidgeting. She was feeling extremely awkward and embarrassed, she wasn't sure what she should be doing. From her side, she has long crossed what she should be feeling towards a friend. As she was uncertain about Aiden's situation, she had come to the realization that he was already way too important for her. The thought of him being in trouble captured or worse was not a pleasant thought. 

When she finally saw him returning, she just couldn't control herself anymore and flew into his embrace. At that moment, she finally accepted the truth: She liked this boy. Just like her mother, her mistress had wanted, she had fallen for him. 

The problem was, that all the while the boy didn't send any obvious signals. Sara wasn't sure if what she was feeling was purely platonic, or if there was any chance for her to be in his heart already. 

Still, whatever was the case, she at least wanted to give a chance to herself, to this happiness, even if it would remain purely platonic, one-sided.

As she was in the midst of such troubling thoughts, she suddenly felt a pair of strong arms wrap themselves around her and pull her into a warm and already quite a familiar hug. Shaking her head and forcefully coming back to her senses, she surprisingly noticed that she was being embraced by the masked boy.

"Be safe, okay?" Was the only words that she heard; the boy of her heart had gently whispered into her ears as he hugged her.

"Em." She couldn't possibly respond, as her mind was a mess, and she had to hide her face from him, as it was red as a tomato. When they separated, she hurriedly pulled the hood over her head and swiftly turned around, hiding her mess-of-an expression from the group.

"I-I-I n-need to g-go now! S-see y-you guys, t-tomorrow!" She left, without waiting for any word from the rest of the group, even leaving Scarlet behind who was now over the shock of meeting the second version of herself and was grinning as she looked at the receding back of her recently made a new friend.

"Wow, she is so hopeless…" She chuckled, turning to look at her brother. "So where to now?" 

Looking at the departing figure of Sara a while longer before turning away, Aiden spoke as he turned towards the Salty Pig's direction.

"Not sure about you guys, but me and Galina here will return to the inn. It was an incredibly long and tiresome day, I really need some rest."

"As for us little sis…" Drake added, matching her sister's curious gaze. "We will also get a room there and take our well-earned rest. We also need to bide our time for the time being, as one of our brothers, Dan is still in this city." 

"What?!" Hearing him mentioning that a sibling of theirs is close by Scarlet jumped in shock. "Little Dan is still here? Where? What are we waiting for, let's go and save him!!" She exclaimed, already ready to march into whatever dangers she had to, not caring about anything else. Although she had already learned about him back when she was just a slave, that was more than a year ago, she was quite surprised that he was still being kept somewhere in the city limits.

Seeing her, Drake smiled, before trying to calm her down. After all, they still had to wait quite a bit before the start of next year and with that, the beginning of the Academy's Grounds to open its gates for the yearly Admission Tests and select the few most talented and luckiest to be accepted as new students.