Chapter 375 A Heartfelt Reunion
Lyrian mused these words with some empathy for the kids, but his thoughts were more derived from his curiosity about the mission.
'None the less... I've learned a lot from this quest.' He was surprised just how much it related to his mission.
A few minutes later, Rothis, Cylline, and Solvir all found themselves well recovered.
As they spoke with Lyrian and each other, they walked with the kids back to the village.
Cylline and Solvir led the front, while Rothis and Lyrian stayed in the back. Rothis wanted to maintain this position as he was still worried for the safety of the children.
They all soon arrived back in the village, and the children were mostly silent the entire way.
This was until they walked past the village gates, of course. Seeing the hundreds of faces present to welcome them, tears of joy immediately began to pour out from their eyes.
They ran to their relatives and friends, embracing them tightly with joy.
It was enough to melt a grown man's heart, seeing all the reunions.
Outimbe couldn't help but tear up seeing all this.
However, it wasn't all just laughter and joy. There were of course some parents in the back of the crowd whose hopeful eyes turned dull as they didn't see their children return to their warm hands...
Some didn't make it back, which was the cruel reality of this situation.
Those who did were most likely mentally traumatized for the rest of their lives.
The very thought of it, and seeing the faces of the devastated parents in the back felt slightly upsetting for Lyrian.
Call it what you want, but Lyrian didn't like seeing this happen to people. He automatically related it to him and his family.
How would his mother feel if he was to not return back home? His father? These images came into his mind as he saw those sad faces in the crowd.
'More of a reason to solve this mission I guess...' Lyrian mused, as Outimbe and Kaio walked to where he was.
They wholeheartedly thanked him and the adventurers, gripping tightly to his hand.
"A-about the payment..." Outimbe spoke, "I know you said to not pay you, but I feel we must for what you have done. I would feel horrible to send you without repaying for what you have done." He handed over a pouch that was seemingly full of gold.
The adventurers didn't speak as Lyrian looked at the pouch, and then back at Outimbe.
"Old man, it seems you still haven't learned your lesson. You may feel horrible to send us without reward, but I bet your village would feel a lot worse if you did..."
As Lyrian said this, Outimbe was taken aback. He had a moment of self-reflection once again, at a loss for words.
Seeing this, Lyrian decided to step in, "Look... use this for the betterment of the village."
Lyrian took the pouch and opened it up, pouring a small pile of gold coins into it from his storage ring before returning it to Outimbe's palm.
Kaio and the adventurers gasped, seeing over 30 gold coins pour out from Lyrian's ring.
They were shocked at how much money he freely spent like that, but Outimbe was bewildered on another level--unable to even express his feelings of astonishment and gratitude.
'Money wise, I won't run out for a very long time... I'll give them at least that much to repair this town.' Lyrian thought to himself, taking a step back and turning around.
"L-lord!" Outimbe exclaimed as Lyrian and the adventurers began to leave Otinka village.
"Please! I can not accept this!"
As Outimbe said this, Kaio himself slapped him on the back of the head this time.
"Fool! When will you learn your lesson! Just be grateful!" He said in an outburst, as Outimbe fell to his knees--curling into a ball before breaking down in a flurry of tears.
"T-th--THANK YOU!!" He screamed at the top of his lungs after ten seconds, catching the attention of everyone in the village as birds flew from nearby trees.
Lyrian and the others were already quite far by this point. But as Lyrian heard those words, he couldn't help but allow a light smirk to tug on his lips.
'Looks like he's finally learned his lesson...'
Soon, the four arrived back to Hogolsworth inside the walls of the kingdom.
'It was a waste of time and money to use that wagon...' Lyrian mused, having been led by the adventurers.
He saw that compared to the slow horse, their running speed was far faster.
However, he also noticed why the adventure had not wanted to take the running route, as they were panting by the time they returned.
As soon as they entered the city, Lyrian went his separate way.
"Hey! Where are you going? We haven't really completed even a single quest..." Solvir shouted, but Lyrian wasn't looking like he was going to turn around.
"That's enough for today. I have things to do." Lyrian shouted past his back, musing, 'It's quite late now anyways... I want to take a thorough look at the dark purple crystal that I got.'
He soon returned to his room in Rocks Adventurer's Tavern, laying the crystal down on a table as he took a long look at it.
It resembled Manathryll in shape but clearly emitted dark energy that seemed to suck the very light in the air around it.
'Light is a form of energy created by Mana, the source of all matter, so it makes sense why this thing would be absorbing it. It seems to absorb all sorts of mana...'
"Scan."
┏━━━Scan━━━┓
Name: Dark Ore
Description: A mysterious element capable of absorbing all manners of Mana in its region. This ore has unknown origins and powers, but it does seem to be limited.
┗━━━━━━━━━┛
"Hm..." Lyrian said, hovering his storage ring on top of it again as it was quickly stored inside.
"I can't get any more information on that for now... but those men in black that the Alpha Orc was talking about still intrigue me. I'll talk to those Von Haven's about it... maybe they know something."
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