Returning Home

"AAAAAHHHH!", Elinalise screamed out in pain.

While everyone else looked on in horror, Paul was quick to take action. He grabbed his favorite sword and sliced off the mass of flesh and bone that was flailing from Elinalise's shoulder without any hesitation. The mound of flesh fell to the ground with an unceremonious *plop* and stopped moving.

"Ha... Ha... Ha...", Elinalise grabbed her bleeding shoulder in pain while she tried to stop hyperventilating.

"What the FUCK, Rudeus!", she screamed out once she caught her breath.

"I-I don't know!? I think something is wrong with me."

"You don't say!"

"Hold still Elinalise. I'll stop the bleeding."

Sylphy rushed over to her aid and closed up the fresh wound on her shoulder.

I looked down at my hands and tried to conjure a small flame at my fingertip. Rather than the flame forming my mana simply exploded in a small *pop* leaving burn marks on my fingertip.

'Huh? What's going on? I can't control my mana?'

I looked back up to find everyone staring at me like I was some kind of circus attraction. The stares brought out deeply buried memories that I had thought were long forgotten.

"I'm so sorry..."

It's all I could think to say. I was on the verge of tears. Even now my vision remains hazy.

"I'm sure it was an accident", Sylphy said, finally breaking the awkward silence. "Still... maybe you should avoid using magic for a little while."

"It's... alright", Elinalise said hesitantly. "I know you wouldn't do something like that intentionally."

"Are you sure you're ok Elinalise?", I asked her.

"I won't lie, that was pretty traumatizing... but I'll survive. Do us all a favor though and get yourself under control."

"Try getting some rest", Roxy suggested. "Maybe you'll feel better when you wake up."

Zenith examined Elinalise's shoulder to make sure everything was back to normal. Roxy burned the lump of flesh some distance from our camp to avoid any chance of it mutating into some kind of new monster.

Once everyone mostly calmed down, Zenith tucked me into bed as though I were still a small child. It was obvious she was really worried about me. Heck, I'm worried too!

I was nervous that everyone would try to distance themselves from me when we went to bed, but on the contrary it seemed like Roxy, Eris, and Sylphy were all crammed right next to me. If anything they were competing to see who could get closest.

Despite the uneasiness, eventually I managed to fall asleep. Surprisingly, given what had just happened, I had a pleasant dream in which I was back in my previous married life with Roxy and Sylphy.

The three of us sat at the dining table while Lucy ran circles around it. Eventually she came to a stop beside my chair and tugged at my shirt while she stared up at me with pleading eyes.

"You want up?"

She gave a cute nod. How can I refuse? I picked Lucy up and set her on my lap.

"Dinner is ready!"

Aisha could be heard calling from the kitchen. She came carrying a large pot of rice and returned to the kitchen to grab a large plate of grilled meats glazed in soy sauce.

"Food!", Lucy yelled in excitement.

I made my plate extra big for the both of us. After every bite I took I fed Lucy a small spoonful from my plate. The food was delicious. The rice was cooked to perfection and the meat was juicy and wonderfully seasoned.

"Oh, that smells good!"

Eris walked into the room and sat down at the dining table beside Roxy.

'Huh? What's Eris doing here?'

"How was your day, Rudeus?", she asked me.

"Good uh... how about you?"

"Great! I bought a toy sword for [---] at the market this morning. He's been playing with it all day!"

As if on cue, a small child with red hair and green eyes waddled around the corner into the living room swinging around a small, wooden, toy sword.

'Who is that? Is that her son? Is that OUR son!? What did she say his name was again? I can't ask that! What kind of father forgets the name of his son???'

"Lucy! Knock it off! Be nice to your brother!"

Sylphy scolded Lucy from across the table. I looked down to see her sticking her tongue out at him. 'Her brother...' That confirms it. This other boy really is my son. Does that mean that I've married Eris too? Sylphy and Roxy are ok with that?

I looked back at my three wives who all sat at the table across from me. They were all eating their meal joyfully while chatting with one another. There wasn't a hint of resentment among them.

This was basically my ideal life that I wanted. I went back to happily eating my dinner and feeding Lucy. Unfortunately though, my newfound happiness didn't last as I was kicked back to reality... literally.

I woke up to Eris kicking me in the face. She was sprawled out on the stone floor completely out of her bedroll. Her left leg was pressed against the back of my head, almost like a replacement pillow. Her right foot was planted firmly into my cheek where she had just kicked me in her sleep.

Sylphiette had cuddled up to my right side. Her head was resting on my right shoulder while she had both her arms wrapped around my right arm. She looked so peaceful as she slept, as if she were an angel.

Roxy meanwhile had gotten turned around from her original sleeping position and was now sleeping perpendicular to me, sleeping on her side in the fetal position with her head resting on my lap.

At first I found this incredibly heartwarming, but it didn't take long before I became rather uncomfortable. I was wide awake but I didn't want to move a muscle for fear of waking them up. Luckily, Elinalise came to my rescue.

*YAWN*

Elinalise stood up and stretched her arm above her head as she yawned in an exaggerated manner. Her loud yawn was enough to wake up everyone else in the room.

"I feel so much better", she said. "I needed that rest."

Elinalise picked up one of the light spirit scrolls I had passed around and activated it, summoning a ball of light that lit up the room.

Roxy sat up and blinked a couple times. Once she realized where she had been sleeping she turned her face from me but I could see that she was blushing. Eris removed her foot from my face and started packing up her bedroll like any other day.

"Just five more minutes..."

Sylphy squeezed my arm tighter and turned her head to bury her face in my shirt, hiding from the light.

I didn't mind indulging her request, but Zenith wasn't playing along.

"Come on Rudy", she complained. "Get up and pack your things or everyone will be waiting on you."

"Sorry Sylphy. I've got to get up."

I wiggled my arm out of her grip and got up, causing Sylphy to pout a little before finally giving in and packing up her bedroll as well.

Now that I've gotten some sleep, my headache is gone and I feel a lot better, but the haziness to my vision and the strange sensation I've felt ever since emerging from the giant mana crystal still remains.

It didn't take long for us to pack our things. Zenith took the opportunity to ration out some food supplies. After a quick and meager breakfast we stepped through the portal on the raised platform on the other end of the room. It took us back up to the fifth floor.

Our group continued our progression backwards through the labyrinth. Paul, Zenith, and Elinalise took up the front lines in our formation while Eris and Sylphy guarded our rear. Roxy and I were together in the center.

Due to the issue I was having controlling my mana, we all agreed that I should not try to intervene if any monsters attacked. Our current group was more than capable of handling all the types of monsters in this dungeon even without my help. Thankfully, we hardly ran into any monsters anyway. Perhaps defeating the guardian of the labyrinth had caused them to stop spawning?

The lack of interruptions meant that we were able to progress much quicker than we had on the way down. It also provided plenty of opportunities for us to chat with one another. Paul and I got a chance to speak privately when we stepped away to relieve ourselves.

"You've become quite the lady's man I see", Paul whispered to me with a wink; probably alluding to how Roxy, Eris, and Sylphiette all seemed to be sticking to me like glue today.

"What can I say? I take after my father."

"Haha. I suppose you're right. I've got no right to lecture you on the topic. Anyway... Look, I'm sorry 'bout what I said yesterday. I was out of line."

"No, you don't have to apologize. You lost a close friend. I would have probably done something similar in your situation. Besides... in the end, you're right. I acted rashly. When it comes to the safety of my family I can't seem to think straight."

"Maybe so, but a father still shouldn't say things like that to his son. I know how you felt when you heard Roxy was in danger. I can only imagine the things I would do if it was Zenith or Lilia's life that was at stake."

"I've been meaning to ask... How did you guys even get here in the first place", I asked him.

"What do you mean? After you left, we gathered our traveling gear to prepare for the journey and just stepped into your magic circle in the basement once we were all ready."

'Oh that's right. I configured the teleportation circle to send me to the desert temple in Begaritt. It's not like there was anything put in place to prevent them from following right behind me.'

"As far as traversing the desert, I'll admit it was a challenge, but thankfully you left that trail for us to follow to the Bazaar. Once we got there it was only a matter of hiring a guide to take us to Rapan as quickly as possible."

"I'm just glad you made it here safely. From what Eris was telling me, we would have all been doomed if you didn't show up when you did."

"I just hope you finally learn from this that we are a team. You don't have to do everything by yourself. We can take some of the pressure off your back. Not just me, but your Mother and Sylphy too. She's more capable than you realize. In fact, I'm certain that she could make the cut as an 'S-ranked' adventurer with ease."

"You're right. It shouldn't have taken Talhand's death to teach me that."

"What's done is done. It's not like we can go back in time and change it."

I wasn't sure if Paul was trying to hint at something or was possibly trying to make a joke, but time travel was not something that I want to ever try again. My first attempt at it didn't go as planned and I don't want to reset my whole life again; that would only be a very last resort.

Eventually our group made it back to our campsite at the third floor; the area where Geese had abducted Roxy and taken her through the teleportation trap. My jet-black Magic Armor was neatly placed in the corner of the makeshift room I had constructed at the time.

I didn't want to leave the armor here, but with my mana being so unstable currently, I was too nervous to try and put it on. I had to feed mana into it in order to reduce the armor's weight and make it wearable. Pouring unstable mana into the Magic Armor seemed like a bad idea considering the wide array of weaponry that was built into it.

Sylphy offered to wear it out of the labyrinth for me, but I told her that might not be such a great idea either. It's true that Sylphy had far, far much more mana than the average mage, but this set of Armor drained your mana at a truly absurd rate. Even myself from my previous life could probably only wear it for half an hour at most. What made it dangerous was the armor's incredible weight. The armor was so incredibly dense that the entire set weighed several thousand kilograms. If Sylphy, or anyone for that matter, were to run out of mana while piloting this thing the sheer weight of the metal would instantly crush them. I was pretty sure that Sylphy would be able to activate it, even if only for a short time, but I wasn't willing to risk it.

In the end, we decided it would be best to leave the armor here for now. I could always come back to collect it later and it was so heavy that we didn't need to worry about thieves trying to steal it.

It took only a little more than a week for us to make it all the way back to the entrance of the labyrinth. Once we made it outside, I asked Sylphy if she could construct a small stone cavern underground beside the labyrinth's entrance.

Sylphy constructed the underground room and I spent a couple hours carefully drawing out a complex magic circle using chalk. A teleportation circle constructed like this would only be temporary and could only be used one time. Once I finished, Sylphy closed up the entrance and covered it with sand.

Using this magic circle, I could return here to reclaim the Magic Armor once I regain control of my mana.

"Is everyone ready to head home?", I asked as I pulled out a large scroll from my traveling sack.

"I'm more than ready!", Eris exclaimed.

"I can't wait to take a warm bath", Zenith said with a sigh.

"You're talking about Sharia, right?", Roxy asked as she appeared deep in thought.

"Everyone grab ahold of someone's hand and stay in contact. Let Sylphy know when we're all ready."

I handed Sylphy the return teleportation scroll that would send us back to our basement. Once everyone was in position, Paul gave her the signal and she activated the scroll.

In the next moment, we all appeared back in our basement and the teleportation scroll crumbled to dust.

"Home Sweet Home!", Zenith exclaimed.

"Woah...", Roxy marveled at the massive, glowing teleportation circle engraved into the basement floor. "I still can't get over the fact that you can draw up such complex teleportation circles on your own. This one looks even more complex than the ones we saw in the Teleportation Labyrinth."

"Oh, that's right! You've never seen our home yet, have you Roxy? Let me give you a tour!", I said excitedly as I led her by the hand up the stairway. Sylphy followed close behind us as she too wanted to show off our manor.

When we made our way to the kitchen we ran into Lilia, who had been washing dishes. "Master Rudeus! Miss Sylphiette! You've returned!", Lilia stopped what she was doing and embraced the both of us.

"I've been so worried! Where are your parents? Are they back too? I see that you've found Miss Roxy."

"We're here!", Zenith yelled from down the hallway.

"It's nice to see you again", Roxy answered Lilia with a smile.

"Rudeus! Welcome back!", Aisha yelled out as she came running down the stairs. When she reached me she hugged me tight. I reciprocated by patting her head.

"Woof!"

Leo licked my hand so I gave him some head pats too.

"I'm glad to be back."

"Your parents will be so happy to know you're back!", Aisha told Sylphiette.

"They aren't home?", I asked.

"No, they're at work; and Norn's at school."

"Oh. Yeah, I suppose that makes sense. I kind of lost track of the time of day after being in that Labyrinth for so long."

"What was the labyrinth like?", Aisha questioned eagerly.

"Give Rudeus a chance to rest before you bombard him with questions", Lilia scolded.

"It's fine", I said, waving off Lilia's scolding.

"It was dark and filled to the brim with monsters and dangerous traps", I answered her.

"Woah! I'm glad everyone made it back ok!"

Paul and Elinalise both winced visibly when they heard that.

"Well... it's a long story", I answered her somberly.

"Let's talk about that later", Sylphy suggested, trying to change the subject for now.

"You all must be starving. Aisha, help me cook up a feast to celebrate everyone's return!"

While Aisha and Lilia got to work preparing food, Sylphy and I finished giving Roxy a tour of our home. By the time Lilia called us back down to come eat we had finished and I told Roxy and Sylphy to go on ahead. I had something I needed to do first.

I went into my study and dug out one of my lithograph tablets; specifically the one that was linked with Orsted. I needed to send an important message.