16 Returning "Home"

"Did you think Sen survived that attack?" Raizan questioned Feng as he took a piece of bread from a cupboard in the roofless house to eat. "I am not sure, but somehow I feel that he should be alright. I mean, he was the one who brought us to this god forsaken place." Feng continued to lie on the bed staring into space.

"User, you can actually telepathically tell Feng of your area in order to facilitate a rescue." Sen shot a goblin that was running towards him. In less than five minutes, he was able to move his right arm again but his shoulder still hurts quite a lot.

Sen decided to stay in hiding for a while until he knew he was able to move properly unless the situation demands otherwise. "They could possibly be engaging the remnants of the goblin army in town." Sen said. The system remained quiet for a long while, not telling of the leisure activities of his comrades.

After twenty minutes or so, Sen was able to walk with some difficulty and he slowly made his way back to the village. Separately, Raizan and Feng caught up with the villagers and the princess at the Village Hall.

The villagers continued to wail in sorrow for they can finally mourn in proper but the Royal Guard and Princess Zelanie was relieved to know the battle was more or less over. They knew the village might still not be safe as goblins can hide well.

"Where is Sir Sen?" Princess Zelanie was a little concern to see only two of them were around. Raizan shrugged his shoulders but Feng reassured Princess Zelanie that he should be alright.

Sounds of hoofs were heard from afar and a group of heavily armoured knights were marching in from the rear of the village. They gradually stopped right in front of Captain Rogers and were horrified to see the scene of battle in the village square.

"This is nothing compared to what has happened in front of the village gates." Captain Rogers replied upon seeing their horrified faces. The knight commander saluted to Captain Rogers and told his men to secure the area. Apparently, Captain Rogers had sent a messenger pigeon to a nearby village where reserve Royal Guards and a small knight contingent were on standby in case of emergency.

He gave a message when the village was raided before participating the fight with Princess Zelanie. A day to bring in reinforcements was considered to be extremely efficient and how prepared the Kingdom was to maintain the princess' safety. They however underestimate the Princess initiative to join the fight to protect her countrymen.

The armoured knights now started their door to door search for any remaining goblins that are hiding in the village but they had no luck finding any at the moment. Some started their perimeter defence patrols while two knights went back to a nearby village town to request for supply.

"Captain Rogers, it seems that we need to create an expedition to search and eliminate the main base of goblins", Zelanie started to do some paperwork in the village hall to facilitate the the start of recovery for this particular village. "It seems that we have been too concerned about the neighbouring countries that we had forgotten our own people."

"Yes your princess, I will oversee it once we get back to the Palace." Captain Rogers kneel to acknowledge her orders.

"Sir! We saw a man walking via the main village gate!" The perimeter guards were given an order to aid a man carrying a wooden stick and report back to the princess.

"Rogers, let's hurry to welcome him back." Zelanie's eyes brightened as she placed her paperwork down and equipped her leather armour. "Well, I am certainly in no hurry." Captain Rogers rolled his eyes a little.

Sen managed to reach near the village gate and saw the destruction of his Strider. It was completely charred and parts of the legs were scattered all around the site of explosion. In his inventory, the Strider option turned into Strider (Damaged).

He sighed as he recalled the ruined parts of the Strider into his inventory. He continued towards the Hongshan Village, Sen was mildly surprised when he saw real armoured knights started patrolling the vicinity of the perimeter. The guards saw him and even came to offer a hand for Sen. He realised it could the workings of the princess.

Though Sen had more or less recovered due to his regeneration ability, he still pretended to be slightly injured and accept the offer of the guards. The guards brought a cart forward to him and he lie on it. "This is finally over isn't it, System."

The System did not reply so he looked at the minimap again. True enough, there were still a couple of goblins left in the village. "Guess the system wants the place to be cleared without a single one alive inside the village." The guard slapped the butt of the horse to signal it to move forward.

Princess Zelanie told Raizan and Feng about Sen while they were reading the books and records from the village library as requested by Raizan. Raizan was especially intrigued by the books he read since they were in a totally separate plane like what Sen had suggested.

Feng was looking at the manuals left by the blacksmith in this particular plane. Upon hearing the message, they put the books now and went to the city square where a horse cart was carrying someone over.

"Sen, how did it go? Managed to kill their general?" Feng was the first to ask.

"Killed their King in fact. It was perpetually impossible to kill him even with the Strider's direct hit. That last major explosion was probably the only thing that did the trick." Sen sat up and came down from the cart.

"Sir Sen, Thank you for protecting the village from a huge threat. I assured you your rewards if you return to the palace with us. I can bestow you a lord's title for your efforts and an acceptable amount of gold. If you wish for something else or like to increase my side of the bargain, feel free to do."

Princess Zelanie who became even more beautiful than the day before, kneel in front of Sen causing all her subjects to near hysteria. How can a princess bow to a commoner? It was truly unacceptable and Captain Rogers kept asking Zelanie to stand up but Sen did not care much.

All he want to do was to complete his objectives to return back home. He was too tired and did not manage to get any proper sleep for the past few days

"Princess, you put me in a difficult situation, please stand up. Honestly, we casually came by this area, we do not need any gold or title. Let us just clear the village of goblins, alright?" Sen cannot be bothered to with anything else. "

Casually came by?" Captain Rogers sweat a little upon hearing that.

He asked Raizan and Feng to follow along. Feng went ahead and copied Sen's rifle again and passed it to Raizen. The new guards were shocked by the show of magic in front of them but seeing how Zelanie and Captain Rogers had no expression, it meant they knew about it.

Most felt uneasy but they were willing let the issue slide except for a guard with high faith to the Bishops. "Sorcery! Warlock!" That sole guard took out his weapon and wished to strike them down. Instead of running away, Sen went towards the guard and parried his sword with the rifle. He used the back of his rifle and knock some sense of the guard's head.

The Guard fell to the ground with the stick aiming at him. Sen pull the rifle away from his face and gave a shot at the ground. The guard was surprised by the sound of the stick and it felt that his life was in immediate danger. The other new guards starts to unsheathed their sword.

"Enough!" Princess Zelanie exclaimed. Without him and his team, I would have died. The village would have perished. In fact, you will be killed by the goblin horde or army that are now lying dead outside of this village if it was not for their help. If this is the way you treat our saviour, my saviour, then I will kill you as a person who commited treason!"

The guards slowly lowered their weapons and were frustrated that what the princess said was right. They were definitely be powerless against the goblin army if what the Royal Guards described were true.

Sen laughed bitterly in his heart. "System, she said I was her Saviour."

"She did not know that you were nearly going to be a cheapskate one too." the System retorted.

Sen signaled the other two to follow him and they had killed the remaining goblins that were scattered around the village. He later reason with them he felt the presence of the goblins and he believed killing the remaining goblins will be the ticket back home.

After putting a bullet into the last goblin. The phenomenon of the environment starts to flicker back to what they were familiar with. "Hmm, it seems even the time of my watch turned back to the point where I just ate my dinner and saw you guys in my office." Raizan spoke while looking at his watch and his surroundings.

"Have a good rest you two and report to me personally at 10am tomorrow. Feng, you are also hereby promoted to Lance Corporal as well. Good night." Raizan waved his hand began to walk back to the Village hall and the route back was familiar enough. Feng said his goodbyes to Sen and they both returned home to rest.

Sen reached home and saw that his parents were back from their tailor store with a sumptuous meal on the table. Earlier in that afternoon in the Earth Plane, they were glad he returned safely back home and promised they have a good meal for dinner.

"Thank goodness, I am starving." Sen did not hesitate to partake in his share of the family's dinner and told them the good news that he was promoted to Lance Corporal for the things he had done. After the meal, he went to take a long bath as he reviewed the System's status screen, feeling proud. "Mission Complete."

Separately, Princess Zelanie realised the trio was gone after completing their task. "I will not forget about your help and kindness, Sir Sen."