A Returner's Magic Should Be Special Chapter 137

They had been traveling smoothly for six days now.
The airship had arrived in the city of Grinpell, close to the border between the Magical Kingdom and the Hebrion Empire. The layover was mandatory as they were required to clear the screening process of Grinpell, since they passed through the Empire.
The airship gently descended. Grinpell was a fairly busy city, thanks to it being somewhat of a trading hub between the two countries.
When Adjest went out to the deck, she saw Pram already peering down while leaning on the railing of the airship.
His reaction was unusual. Normally he would be amazed by the scenery of a new city and bounce around everywhere. But today he showed such a subdued reaction.
“If I could have seen this with Master Desir, it would have been great… ”
Pram had been extremely loyal to Desir for such a long time. Ever since they had enrolled in the academy, they had never left each other's side. Rather, it was almost surprising for him to not show any change of expression until now.
Adjest spoke to Pram.
“Do you miss Desir?”
Pram flinched and looked back.
“… Um, how long have you been there?”
“For some time.”
Pram buried his face into the railing and every part of his face not covered, including his earlobes, turned crimson.
“I feel a little-A little embarrassed.”
Adjest walked towards the railing and stood next to Pram.
“Once we finish clearing this Shadow World, everyone who participated will return to the original world. If we clear the Shadow World quickly, you'll see him soon.”
“That's true.”
Adjest continued.
“So what I mean is, you don't need to be so gloomy.”
“What?”
Pram stared at Adjest in shock.
After taking a moment to recollect himself, he smiled.
“Of course, Master Adjest.”
The airship started to shake and rattle as it landed on the airfield after receiving clearance from the control tower.
There were many other airships on the airfield, so theirs didn't stand out at all.
Here in the border town, there were a lot of merchants who interacted with the Magical Kingdom. There was a gigantic river dividing the two countries and they often crossed the border with airships to prevent getting attacked by monsters. It was mostly merchant ships on the airfield, but there were also a few military ships from the Hebrion Empire too.
In the modern age, such a sight was rare to behold. Teleportation gates had been widely deployed and usage of airships had been completely phased out.
Kei went through the required formalities and paid the docking fee for landing at the airfield. Afterward, he gathered all of his men and ordered them to go have fun while staying within the city; it would take about three days to get through the screening procedure.
After such a long time sailing, a three-day break was truly a breath of fresh air. The sailors disembarked, their excitement was palpable.
“Okay, it's our turn to disembark.”
Kei assisted Aldin, who was mumbling incoherently. Adjest and Pram took their time climbing down. They expected all the sailors, who departed the ship well before them, to have disappeared by now. Instead, they were all just standing there.
Their eyes were fixed on the same place, eyes bulging as if they had just seen a ghost.
“What's wrong?”
Adjest and Pram turned their gaze upon what the sailors were looking at.
“… Do you have any idea how tedious it was for me to wait for you to catch up?”
And there were the two people they thought they would not see before clearing the Shadow World.
* * *
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“… So I did the Lord a little favour, and was able to use the teleport gate.”
Desir and his party, along with Kei and Aldin, booked themselves into a cozy inn.
At the inn, Desir described their journey to Kei, Pram and Adjest; filling them in on how exactly they had arrived via the teleportation gate. Of course, he omitted a few key parts of the story.
In his version of events, they killed an evil alchemist at the Lord's request. They made sure to tweak anything related to the Shadow Worlds in particular.
Nobody noticed how they slyly tangled the truth with lies.
After listening to the story, Kei spoke up.
“That must have been a challenging journey. I shouldn't say this as your employer, but wouldn't it have been easier for you if you didn't come back? It'd still be considered a successful mission complete, even if you hadn't come back, since that unsavoury incident took place while you were on duty.”
“Well, our peers are all here, and we thought we'd do as much as we can, as we had already been paid. I believe that's the right attitude for a mercenary.”
Kei did a double-take as he re-evaluated Desir.
“… Admirable.”
“I don't think I deserve a compliment; that's simply what is expected of us.”
“You'd be surprised. Many mercenaries think it's over once they get paid.”
“Our mercenaries also despise those people very much.”
“You're very different from the mercenaries that I know. I hope we meet again after this.”
“We look forward to it. Having more clients is never a bad thing.”
The notification sound appeared in the middle of the conversation between Desir and Kei.
[Kei Hazumaryun thinks you are useful.]
[Kei's likeability for you has increased to “Trust on condition”]
That was an unexpected earning.
The trust with condition meant his likeability rating had increased to a point where he could be trusted to a certain extent.
Obtaining Kei's favour could be helpful in the future.
After recounting their journeys, they split up and started to head back to their respective rooms. Kei and Aldin shared a room, while Desir and his party would stay in a different room.
“Ah, I'm going to be away for three days. I'd like you to protect Aldin properly during that time.”
Before retiring for the night, Desir's party was given the order to guard Aldin.
[Main Quest, ‘Guard in Grinpell' has started.]
[Kei Hazumaryun will be doing an important task for three days. His guarding range has been greatly weakened.]
[-A strong enemy is seeking Aldin Cepheus. Protect him at all cost.]
[-You fail this quest if Aldin dies.]
Desir gathered his party and briefly told them what truly happened instead of the fake story that he shared while Kei was present. He filled Adjest and Pram in on the detail of their second main quest.
“So this means we must get rid of the power behind the Homunculus.”
“Yes. We need to stop the research involving the creation of Homunculus.”
“It feels like this is a lot tougher than our previous main quest.”
It was just a plain guarding quest and it had now expanded into foiling some group's plot.
Adjest spoke up.
“But it's simply too broad of a scope to find this unknown group. Do we have any clues to go off, Desir?”
“We only have one, but it's a good start. It's the mana circuit I took from the lab.”
He took out and held the mana circuit he had stowed in a pocket near his chest. This was a piece of old technology used to store mana. The kind used before mana stone technology was developed.
“Aren't those supposed to be made in the Magic Kingdom? What is it doing way out in the middle of the desert?”
“Exactly. Someone in the Magical Kingdom provided him with a mana circuit for his illegal research.”
“mana circuits were made using a highly developed manufactory system. Every mana circuit has a unique serial number. We can trace this mana circuit back to the factory which manufactured it based on this.”
“And the factory must have the record of who bought it.”
Romantica said.
“Correct. We will track down the unknown backer with this.”
“In that case, we'd better get to the Magical Kingdom first.”
Adjest concluded.
“In order to do that, we need to guard Aldin well for the next three days.”
* * *
Their quest 'Guard in Grinpell' ended three days later.
“That was so hard.”
These were Desir's first words after they re-boarded the airship on the completion of the inspection.
“I agree.”
“I've never seen anyone more unlucky than him.”
Adjest and Romantica strongly supported his complaint.
It was like three days in hell.
Even though the quest only involved protecting a crazy old man for three days, it ended up being a very challenging ordeal.
The crux of the main quest in progress was protecting him.
Protecting him up until that point had been a breeze. After first finding themselves on an airship in the Shadow World, they hadn't had to do much directly with him. They were just passengers, like he was, on the airship. However, for the three days that they were protecting Aldin, there were numerous misfortunes. It was as if all the misfortunes for the journey had all come together.
A street light falling out of the blue, a beast that escaped the circus, a signboard falling onto his head, the number of incidents was truly too many to count.
It seemed as though every element in the world was trying to eliminate him. Even Desir, who had vast experience dealing with Shadow Worlds, did a double-take.
“Come to think of it, I almost got sucked into one of the engines that was acting up on the airship.”
Pram's eyes were sunken.
“Oddly enough, we were attacked too many times by monsters.”
Romantica rubbed her sleepy eyes, yawning.
They ended up focusing all of their effort on protecting Aldin, leaving no extra time for sleep.
They ended up not leaving the inn at all after the first day.
Usually, a trading city had a lot to see and enjoy, but they couldn't even afford to dream of such a luxury.
Des1r's party worked hard, so Aldin was kept safe and sound as a result of their diligence.
On the airship, there was Kei. They wouldn't need to struggle like they just had.
Meanwhile, the final quest in the first main quest line started.

[Quest 'Last Hurrah' has commenced]
[You have excellently protected Aldin Sepius from unfortunate disasters. Please do your best to guard him until the end.]
[-You are in the middle of a hidden quest at present. His life or death affects that quest greatly.]
—-
Chapter brought to you by Robert S.
ED2: Purplemen101
TLC: N/A
QC: Dr Lock

Chapter end