The return journey from the underground city of Earth Ruins was very smooth.
Not as I feared, we did not run into any troops from Noppoi.
Instead, we encountered several labyrinthine demons. Each time, Burgess and Ark’s combination of great sword and long sword lured them to a nearby large room and fought them off without a hitch.
Arc was originally a student of Burgess. They were in perfect synch.
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Two basement levels.
Also in the great hall with the entrance crack to the third level. No Noppoi troops were there.
Instead, the wreckage of the messed-up carts and baggage were lying around.
“What a waste.”
Most of the luggage scattered on the ground was food and water.
In other words, there was not much left.
The more expensive items, such as recovery medicine, must have been stored in the “warehouse” of the exploration party.
At any rate.
The way home was without much danger. No harvest.
As planned, on the seventh day after leaving the underground city, we returned to the surface.
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When we got out.
The sun.
It was just setting after a long ruins treasure hunt.
In fact, it’s been a month since we saw the sun.
Too bad it’s just about to set.
This is a tasteful scene.
“It’s beautiful… What Albus said just before diving into the ruins. Now I feel like I can understand it.”
Clarice muttered to herself.
“Keep the sun in your eyes. You won’t see it for a while. If you act rashly, you’ll even never see it again.”
They all gazed at the setting sun with deep emotion in their own way.
“Loloi, too…I’m beginning to understand.”
“I’ve already burned it in my eyes, so I’m going now!” And then. Loloi was also the first to enter the ruins with her back to the sun.
She seemed to be sentimental about seeing the sun for the first time in a month.
But then. Suddenly, she chanted, “Warehouse take-out delos.”
She took out a crystal ball that contained a piece of the Inexhaustible Omega Sun.
Immediately, the area was enveloped in a daylight-like brightness.
“But! Loloi has the sun! Now I can see the sun whenever I go underground again!”
Loloi is super proud.
“Hid it away, hid it away! Don’t show off that thing here!”
It’s too valuable. It would be a terrible thing if all the treasure hunters around us were after it at the same time.
Well. I think they would usually mistake it for a flash ball or some kind of light source magic.
“I forgot to try it in the ruins, so I just messed it up.”
With her tongue sticking out in a “heh heh” kind of way, Loloi put the piece of Omega Sun back in her warehouse.
Then we spent the night in the middle of the ruins that night.
The next day, before noon, we returned to Kilket.
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Liora and Ark were going to try to track down Fina again, this time to the southern town.
To Liora, I handed her a bond stone filled with Fina’s mana.
“I handed it to you. I think it would be better for Liora-sama to have it.”
When I said that.
Liora, with tears in her eyes, thanked me.
“Please don’t add ‘sama’ or anything like that. I am grateful to all of you, including the fact that you saved my life. I have nothing but gratitude for all of you. There is nothing I can give you in return right now. But I will eventually, I promise.”
With that, she bowed deeply.
We parted at the west gate of Kilket and disappeared into the crowd.
Then the four of us. We returned to the orphanage in Mitra and rested up for the day.
The next day, the long-awaited appraisal of the treasure began!