Chapter 128 – Time to return.

“Lucille, you are alive!”

“Ahh…”

“Please calm down Charlene, I’m fine.”

A smiling blue-haired noble lady was being hugged by a young blond girl that went by the name Charlene. The two friends were now back together, the first thing this young earth mage did was toss herself at the ice mage’s dirt-covered body.

The other people around them were a bit surprised by the unlady way of acting. Most of the time Charlene was composed and acted as a proper noble lady of her status. Now, on the other hand, she was even sobbing slightly.

‘Did those two have such a relationship with each other?’

Roland had to take a step back after watching the two girls hug it out. He had come across this Charlene person before. From his point of view, the girl was more in line with all the haughty nobles that he knew.

Whenever she spotted him talking about runes with Lucille she gave him that look. One that told him that he shouldn’t associate with one of her friends. Most nobles did feel like the commoners were below them in any way shape or form.

This wasn’t anything out of the ordinary as he was just not considered part of their group. People tended to create their own small or big cliques, if someone wasn’t part of them then they didn’t belong. This was the same for these nobles. Only when accepted as part of their prestigious group they would start treating someone as a proper human being.

They were now all gathered outside the lake area. The mountain goat beastmen were tasked to go grab the Knights. With Roland, Robert, and Lucille being exhausted from the trip they were in no condition to make it over the lake again.

The knights had used the planned encampment and continued with their test even when Lucille was trapped. It seemed that accidents like this were somewhat included in the whole expedition.

Losing one of the mages was not apparently a big enough reason to not get a passing grade. Now Roland was curious if they would not get any demerits as the three people that fell down were able to return on their own accord. This depended on the instructor who was watching over this whole fiasco. He might even want to sweep it under the rug as he was not able to react in time to save a viscount’s daughter either.

“Knight Robert, please give me an explanation, how were you able to return here.”

The loud voice of Lord Percival moved Roland’s attention away from the two young girls hugging each other. Robert and him had already drunk some healing and stamina potions, all given to them by Lobelia.

Roland felt a bit ticked off by the tone of voice this noble was using. It was clear that he didn’t think much of Robert as he did not use this harsh way of speaking when talking to either of the noble ladies.

Robert’s facial expression that had gone milder after their experiences down in the dungeon reverted to its old stiff shape. His eyebrows went at an angle and he stood up straight while doing the usual knightly salute.

The perfect knight that was starting to show some human traits was back to his old self or at least that’s how it seemed. Roland’s only worry was him disclosing their run-in with the dangerous boss monster.

He had given them the option of backing out but not like a noble would see it like that. Roland could be held accountable for endangering nobles. This could bring various troubles his way, which he would like to avoid at all cost.

“Yes commander, I will make my report now!”

‘Huh?’

While standing up straight Robert’s eyes moved to the side and Roland could see him glancing at him for just a second. This took him a bit by surprise but after Robert started to speak out he realized why he was looking his way.

“After being trapped in the cave we discovered a passage that let us to a series of corridors, with Wayland’s help we…”

‘Wayland? Not the adventurer?’

It felt like Robert was finally treating him like a proper person, before the fall he mostly referred to him as ‘Adventurer’. Roland continued to listen to this explanation and to his surprise, any information about the room filled with metals and the boss chamber was kept out of it. Robert even downplayed the number of monsters they needed to face after leaving the boss chamber.

The report that he gave informed Percival that they just found a series of underground corridors filled with bug-type monsters. Then at the end, they found an opening that led them to the middle of the lake.

“An exit from the tunnels?”

“Yes my Lord, but after the lava flooded, I fear that the entrance has been sealed..”

This was another lie, after they went outside the pathway closed itself automatically. Robert made it sound like the mechanism was a one-way exit.

“Good… at ease…”

Percival nodded with his head, he was not an adventurer so he was not that interested if there were any treasures below the dungeon. He was more concerned about passing this mission and not having a precious noble lady that also possessed a rare class to die on his watch.

Roland wasn’t sure what to say, he wanted to thank his half-brother for keeping it a secret. Before he could do that a certain nun from the sun church appeared before him. Her hands were already glowing with the holy light.

“Mr. Wayland please don’t move, I’ll heal your wounds.”

A miracle of healing appeared before him, Sister Kassia’s hands glowed in golden light. When this light touched his skin he could feel a tingling feeling wash over him. He had drunk a healing potion beforehand but healing spells were slightly different.

They worked instantly, a tier 3 priest could even recover lost limbs if their magic was high enough. There were even some rumors that tier 4 healing classes were able to resurrect people with a loss to their experience and some memory loss.

If those rumors were true or not was hard to confirm. Tier 4 healers were all candidates for the pope position. It was a somewhat special class at tier 5 that could be used only by one person per church. This left all the main churches with one pope and only when they died would another pope be chosen.

Roland wasn’t aware of how this all worked but the rumors said that the gods from these churches were involved in it. Thus getting a tier 4 healer in motion would require a lot of capital and power, probably only high aristocrats of the duke caliber and above could move someone like that into action.

While the nobles were busy with Robert and Lucille, Roland was able to catch up with his adventurer group.

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“You’ve seen better days… at least you can just repair that armor of yours…”

Lobelia was the first one to speak up while Silvio moved in from the side and gave Roland a pat on the back.

“Good job, glad that you were able to make it out alive.”

“You’re tough for human, next time no slip.”

Korgak chimed in with a one liner, then for some reason after seeing Silvio patting Roland’s back he decided to come over and give one of his own. The half-orc was much larger than the tracker so his pat was a full time smack to his backplate. The already damaged armor rattled slightly while Roland had to take a step forward.

“Mr. Korgak please be more gentle, Mr. Wayland has been through a lot, he must drink a lot of water and rest!”

Sister Kassia shook her head at the large half-orc that somewhat dropped his head down. He was not sure what happened during the stay at the camp but he seemed to be afraid of her.

“Now then Mr. Wayland, let me recite a passage of our holy gospel while you recover!”

Roland’s mostly neutral-looking face that was still covered by the helmet showed a frown. It seemed that this was the problem as the moment the gospel was mentioned the other party members started inching away from the nun.

“I think I’ll pass…”

Roland side-stepped Sister Kassia while she was reciting some strange passages from their version of the bible. Lobelia and Armand also cleared out from around them while the cleric continued her speech, it seemed that she really let them hear it during the camp stay when he was done.