Old friends.

We reached the merchant City of Karuna fairly quickly, arriving there we immediately booked an Inn and then had a hefty lunch.

Astraea familia had some really good cooks, but now we were back to our amateur cooking, if only food stayed in the same condition inside [gate of babylon],

Though the town looked roughly same as before,

Man, the nostalgia.

I need some new books just to remember the good ol time.... Why do I sound like an old man.

Shiva spilt off to visit his friends here, while I went for the book shop, hmm.. I forgot the way there.

After searching for a while I found the one which I did not visit the last time I was here.

Upon reaching the book store, I was greeted with a familiar situation as a group of high elves blocking the path with a frown on there face whenever they saw anyone other than a elf

One word, no wait, two words..

Deja vu.

One of them saw me coming towards the shop.

"his highness Alf and Princess are currently inside the shop, come back later" high elf said

Serious deja vu.

One of the elf was staring at me, he looked a little familiar,

He looked like he suddenly remembered something, wait isn't he the one...

"you are the one I kicked in the balls"

"you are the one who kicked me back then"

We both pointed at each other,

At the same time the people around us, were murmuring on, as a high level adventurer there talk very much audible to me. Some even figured I was the rumoured 'destroyer',

well I haven't seen anyone with white hair and a blindfold going around kicking high elves other than me.

The high elves also heard the talk and were hesitating to speak anything now, ha, take that it's called being famous. Hahahaha.

"what's with the commotion"

Oh a protagonist candidate character appears,

Aerin ljos Alf, the heir to the throne of high elves, his reading on the nice guy index, is off the charts.

"what happe...." another voice called out and halted just as the person saw me, I spy with my covered eyes, a familiar face.

Even if Riveria hasn't met or seen him personally, She had already heard enough from Finn and Gareth to figure out who was the person in the centre of this mess.

Lio looked around at the swarm of people, What the hell is this situation, everyone is just staring at each other,

Someone, anyone, say something damn it.

"it seems like we met again, Lionard" thank you mister wannabe protagonist, you just need an overpowered ability and you are good to go.

Huh? Hold on, he remember my name, damn, his nice guy readings is going off the charts.

"yes, it's been a while, your highness"

Manner lessons from Artemis for the win.

"huh?" riveria perplexed at the situation, as her younger was actually acquainted with 'destroyer'. She had no clue about any of this.

The Prince waved at the guard,

"it's alright he can come, a fellow appreciator of literature is always welcomed."

The guards moved aside as I walked inside the store, which only had four people, me, Aerin, Riveria and the shopkeeper.

"the last time we met, you were no older than 10. But now the whole continent recognises your presence" Aerin said.

"stuff happened in the past few years" I nodded. Shit is really going down lately and here I thought staying quiet in altena would fix it.

"let me introduce you to my older sister, Riveria" he said as he gestured towards Riveria, who was still processing the situation.

Just until a few days, he was wrecking havoc in orario and now he is discussing literature with her brother.

"Riveria, this young man is..."

"destroyer, I know" Riveria interrupted Aerin and introduced herself again.

"Riveria ljos Alf, vice captain of loki familia" she said while looking straight towards his blindfold.

She would lying if she said she wasn't interested to see what was behind that blindfold. But according to alize and Ryuu, eyes that shows you your worst nightmare.

It sounded absurd, well it could have been a lie.

"Lionard, sole member of shiva familia" the boy responded.

"alright let's just take a look around, we are almost done here, right sister" Aerin asked Riveris who nodded.

now that I met met these two here, it just makes my task easier. Getting inside the Alf forest would have been a pain.

"Riveria, Aerin, I want to ask something from the two of you" lio said to the Royal siblings who looked at him in confusion,

"what is it?" Riveria asked.

"do you have ancient spells, the ones before the gods descended"

Both Aerin and Riveria looked at each other.

"specifically the one used by queen celdia"

Lio looked at the pair, who seemed confused by his sudden question,

"yes we do, everything was written down by the Queen in a tome and is passed down to the Royal family each generation, it is one of our national treasure"

Huh?. Passed down from generations. National treasure. There goes my spells.

"can I borrow that book"

"I apologise but it is not something we can show to an outsider" Riveria said a little afraid but didn't show it on her face, the man in front of her was extremely dangerous.

"I am willing to compensate or fulfil any request in return as well" lio added.

"apologies my friend, but we cannot even show it to any other high elf aside from the Royal family let alone a human." Aerin replied.

"it's alright" lio sighed and said.

Oh well, I can't have everything now, can I. I will have to make do with the spells I already have.

"if I may ask, why did you need it" Aerin asked in curiosity, even if it was an heirloom, it was useless to the them,

even his sister, who was the best magic caster in the family in generations since the great Queen celdia, couldn't cast the spells without being worried about the backlash.

The spells achieved from falna were not only safe but also could be achieved easily compared to the decades worth of study needing to cast a single spell without falna. It just wasn't effective.

"It's related to my skill, I cannot tell you that, unless you can let me borrow the book" lio said with a cheeky smile,

"ha ha ha I am afraid I cannot do that" Aerin replied with laugh, it was fair enough.

After chatting for some time with the Prince, lio left the shop without buying anything.

The moment the boy left the shop, Riveria who had been quiet for the majority of time let out a relaxed sigh.

Seeing the abnormal behaviour of his usually graceful older sister Aerin asked,

"what happened sister?"

Riveria looked at her brother

"do you not know how dangerous of a person he is"

Unlike orario were his presence was supposed to be secret or the incident with freya familia which the familia tried to Bury.

Warusa was a different story, there were hundreds of witnesses as well as the weird mountain in the middle of the desert were the County was supposed to be, is present for anyone who wish to see for themselves.

"I think you are panicking too much sister, he does not have any reason to attack our kingdom. And with all the power he has I doubt a few spells will be much of a big deal for him" Aerin said

Riveria couldn't refute the argument here, it seemed reasonable. But she couldn't help but feel worried after all what they saw in daedalus was still fresh in her mind,

Would he attack her familia with that monster will they be able to defend themselves.

This only fueled the fact that they need to get stronger.

...

Lio went straight to the Inn after discussing with the Royal siblings,

Hmm?. Shiva wasn't back yet. I guess I'll just take a stroll around the town, the sky was getting darker by the minute as nighttime was closing in,

Lio decided to head for the guild to see if he could do something to pass time.

The last time he was here, there was no guild building and mercenaries took quest directly from the requester. Now this guild acts as a middle man between them. The town was developing quite nicely,

The moment I entered the guild building, murmuring started died down one by one as everyone's attention went towards me.

The people present were mostly adventurers, while there were many level 1 adventurers, I spotted only one level 3 and a few level 2s.

For a town this far from the dungeon, this was kinda impressive.

I walked up to the reception to get a job request only to stop at the sight of the receptionist, a level 1 cat girl who I very well know.

The said receptionist also saw me, narrowed her eyes trying to remember, then had a sudden epiphany and lunged at me,

"little li-nya!!" she shouted before jumping towards me.

Who the heck li-nya?.

This person or rather, this cat person was the one whose role of her teddy bear was fulfilled by yours truly for 4 months, Nala fizen.

Now I could use limitless to prevent that bear hug... But I was no longer 5, and absolutely did not mind putting my face between those racks,

Hence I accepted her with open arms only for someone to catch her mid-flight.

"what are you doing Nala" the person who ruined our perfect reunion said.

I looked at person who ruined our reunion, he was a level 2, and looked kinda familiar,

"don't you recog-nyaa-se him, Ron" Nala said pointing towards me,

Hold it, Ron!?. Holy mother of Jesus, he changed so much. What happened to that quiet kid.

"is that lio?" Ron looked me and asked.

"sup, long time no see" I waved in greeting,

"my word, it has been a long time, you have grown up so much" he added as Nala struggled to get off his grip,

"where are Lowe and Larry" I asked as the mood suddenly changed,

Someone died, someone definitely died.

"Lowe is out for a job, Larry... He.."

"it's OK I understand." I said

"he was a good friend and very good brother, even though our time together was short I will reme...."

"hold on, hold on" Nala suddenly interrupted me while Ron carryed her like luggage with one arm, and pointing towards a corner of the guild.

There at the far side was a small table and two chairs, with a human man and Chienthrope(dog person) woman, couple sitting on them caressing each other with zero concern about there surroundings,

Some adventurers looked towards the couple muttered 'lucky bastard' and proceed to curse there upcoming nine generations altogether,

"isn't that.." I said as I pointed towards the man who kinda looked like Ron.

"it is him nya" she responded while nodding. When are you going get down.

he was the quiet and plain kid in the background, when did he become the protagonist of a shōjo manga.

Hold it, plain quiet kid in the background, yep he definitely qualifies for the protag of a shojo manga.

"what happened"

"puberty" Nala immediately responded with a serious face.

"wait, he is over 25" when I first met them, he was 15 and it has been more than 10 years now,

"it came late" Ron said with a straight face,

Oh.

"Moving on, you two seem close... And please put her down" I asked Ron, who was still carrying her like luggage with one arm.

"guild master said to keep an eye on this idiot" Ron put her down and said.

It turns out they are working with the guild and the level 3 I spotted above me was the guild master, but I was curious as to how they reached level 2 and level 3 in this town.

They told me that 3 years after I visited the place was attacked by monsters,

the monsters in the dragon valley started coming down, the same event that cleaned the loga tribe.

Dragon valley is one of the 3 great unexplored regions, and has the most dangerous monsters in the world aside from the dungeon, the one eyed black dragon and the middle of the ocean.

Adventurers from here, mercenaries, elven army as well as Dwarven army all took up arms to exterminate them.

From fighting these monsters they were able to level up, one person, a dwarf reached level 3 and established the guild,

We were talking when suddenly someone crashed inside the guild, a human adventurer.

"the monster horde is coming" he shouted panicking and afraid,

Aaahhh... It been a while, Clichés.