Return

After returning, he looked at Hajime, who was pale and resting with his eyes closed. The horde pressured them to exhaustion then used his remaining energy to vomit everything he ate for breakfast.

"Hajime." Vergil called him out.

"Yeah?" Hajime slightly opened his eyes.

"Cover the crevice with a wall made with your magic. I'm going back to inform Meld about this." Vergil said and Hajime only nodded in response. He used his magic and earth rushed up covering the entrance of the crevice.

Looking at the sealed entrance one more time, he picked up the heads before heading straight back to the the entrance of the labyrinth.

They have only separated with the main party for a little more than an hour. In his mind, Meld was still giving them a lecture or a crash course on what to watch out for inside the Labyrinth.

And he was right.

Meld just finished briefing all of them and was about to move out when they saw Vergil. Meld had a bad feeling after seeing Vergil being alone. His eyes stared at the heads being gripped by Vergil, by the hair.

All of the students who saw the things that Vergil was holding, vomited. Kouki, with his sense of justice acting up, rushed forward and stood in front of Vergil.

"What happened to Yuka and the others? And why are you holding human's heads?" Kouki asked Vergil. He held his sword tightly as he stared at Vergil.

"Them? Humans? Kouki, you're overpraising them. Even insects were leagues above these guys. As for Yuka and the others, they are currently resting. I just came back to inform Commander Meld of the situation." Vergil said as he walked past Kouki brushing shoulders with him.

"Commander." Vergil called out.

"What's the matter?" Meld calmly asked but seeing the heads in Vergil's hands, he had an idea of what's going on.

"There are people aiming for us." Vergil's words shook the students to the core. Fear, nervousness, and worry for their own lives rose in their hearts.

"I'm pulling my party out, for now. My members are not yet strong enough and were not prepared to face any kind of variable in the labyrinth. These guys prepared a skeleton horde for our party to wear us down. Thankfully, I managed to best them and killed them." Vergil said making Kouki ask him.

"Why did you kill them? You could've just captured them!" Kouki shouted. Vergil sighed after seeing Kouki's sense of justice being misguided again.

"Do you want me to leave my defenseless party members with these scum? What if on my way here, they woke up from their slumber and killed my party members, are you willing to take the blame for that?" Vergil stared at Kouki seriously. Seeing the tension rising, Ryutarou stepped up and voiced out his opinion.

"He's right, Kouki. We do not know what will happen if he just left them with his party members." Ryutarou said making Kouki waver.

"You do not even know their skills, what if they unleashed their bindings? How can you say that leaving them, with my party, unconscious is the best choice? Hajime and the others doesn't have the guts to kill and these guys will take advantage of that. I'm asking you, are you going to take the blame if that event happened?" One of the things to counter a misguided sense of justice is to rouse their sense of guilt. With guilt slowly rising in Kouki's heart, his sense of justice was questioning itself.

"I'm just informing you of the situation, I'm going back to fetch my party members. If you want to proceed in diving deeper in the labyrinth, I suggest you take extreme precautions." Vergil said before turning heels and ran back to the place where he left his party members.

Standing in front of the crevice, Vergil shouted.

"Hajime, open up, we're going back!"

The rocks covering the entrance separated, creating an opening for Vergil.

"Did you meet any trouble?" Hajime asked Vergil.

"No, not at all. Are they still asleep?" Vergil asked and Hajime nodded.

'Their stamina and mana reserves are pretty low.' Vergil thought before facing Hajime.

"Can you carry Taeko, back? I reckon she's the lightest of the three. I'll carry Yuka and Nana. Also give me all the bags, let me stuff all the contents in my bag." Vergil said and Hajime complied as he helped Vergil sort out the contents of the bag to make sure it all fits. The blood of the heads were slightly dry as he put them in sacks to give it to the adventurer guild.

Vergil then carried the two ladies in his arms. It might not be the perfect way to carry them but it was the only way for them to return with everyone, leaving none behind.

After almost an hour of walking, he could see them, still camping near the entrance. Kouki stood up and helped Vergil carry Nana and Vergil switched his carry to Yuka into a princess carry. Shizuku, seeing that felt mixed emotions as she saw herself being the one being carried like that. Shaking her thoughts, he looked at Hajime who's carrying Taeko on his back before looking at Kaori who's biting her dress secretly in frustration making her let out a silent chuckle.

"Why haven't you guys left yet? I thought for sure that you guys are continuing the expedition? Are you worrying about us not catching up?" Vergil asked with his brow raised.

Seeing no one answering his question, he confirmed that they were waiting for them.

"Meld, I'm going to be honest with you. You should go and continue your expedition, every second you spend while waiting for us here is a batch of exp missed. We're not going to go back anytime soon, I'm going to train my members up so that we can respond to such situation with ease once more. We will be underleveled, sure, but I think we can circumvent that disadvantage with combat experience." Vergil said sincerely making Meld think further.

"Fine, since that's what you want, we won't trouble you. Go back and let Loa arrange a temporary residence for you." Meld said before turning heels and looking at everyone in the eye.

"We're going forward!" Meld said and Kouki had no choice but to return Nana to Vergil's arm for him to carry, he switched Yuka over from a princess carry, back to his arm.

Seeing their group move forward, Vergil and Hajime stepped outside of the labyrinth.

"Vergil, are you sure that we'll be fine, even if we're underleveled?" Hajime asked but Vergil smiled at his question.

"Definitely, you'll see the difference once we return." Vergil was confident with it. If he could make his party learn how to efficiently use their skills to their fullest then they would be a force to be reckon with.

They walked back to the adventurer guild hall and asked for Loa but was told that Loa was out on a journey, as for the details, they were not told.

Facing a serious problem of having no one to ask for, they didn't know who to turn to. Seeing their dilemma, the guild worker offered to help them bring the three girls to the infirmary which they were glad to do so.

The guild worker then told them to visit the one acting as the branch head whenever Loa is out. Thanking the guild worker, they followed the directions given by the guild worker and ended up on a floor below the Branch head's office.

They knocked on the door as a soft womanly voice was heard.

"Come in."

Vergil, leading the way, opened the door to see a woman of tall, athletic build and fair skin. She has short gold-blonde hair tied back into a ponytail with grey-blue eyes.

She wears a white jumpsuit embroidered with gold symbols and a diamond-dot pattern along the legs, a long blue tailcoat, and a short black and gold cloak with a blue inner lining

On her waist was a silver and blue sword with a gold grip in the shape of a spread bird wing, set with a sky-blue gem. She was sorting out papers and placing them on a stack near the window.

"Welcome, Heroes. Loa told me about you guys." She said with elegance.

Hajime was stunned by her beauty but Vergil was thinking of something else.

'Isn't she 'that' person? What the fvck, Zeltretch?' Vergil thought as he stared at the woman. Vergil shook his thoughts and came with told her what he wanted.

"Knight Commander Meld said that we can ask Mr. Loa about our temporary residence here in Horaud." Vergil said to the woman.

The woman sat down on her chair and checked out some files on her table. Her table was a bit messy due to the amount of files placed in it.

"Oh, I got it. Do you know the building near the training hall?" The woman asked.

"Yes, is that the building that houses a teleportation magic circle?" Vergil clarified and she nodded.

"Yes, that one. That building is the Heroes' temporary residence." The woman said to them.

"Thanks." Vergil said and was about to turn back when she spoke again.

"If you have any more questions, please be sure to address me while Mr. Loa is out." She said to them.

"Then how do we find you if we don't know your name?" Vergil asked coolly. He already knew who she was, it was just courtesy to ask her name.

"Jean Gunnhildr, Former Imperial Guard Commander of the Heiligh Kingdom. Temporary Branch Head of Horaud's adventurer's guild." Jean said with a smile on her face.