On my way to see another treasure

"How is she?"

Licuz anxiously asks the nurse.

"She is fine chief. We fed her healing potions so all she needs is rest."

The lady in front of him responded while applying the finishing touches on Lucia's bandages.

"Then, I shall take my leave now."

She stands and bows silently towards Licuz before making her way out the door.

[Click]

As the door shut tight, the two remaining people in the room started to converse.

"Chief, I'm fine."

The first one to start the conversation was none other than Lucia. She stares directly into her superior's eyes that were looking at her with a heavy face.

"That was a magnificent fight you put on back there."

Licuz tries to cheer himself up by gathering a smile, causing Lucia to reciprocate.

A few seconds pass and Lucia turns away to stare at the blank ceiling.

"He's strong. He really is."

Lucia speaks with a tone of reverence.

"How strong do you think he is?"

Licuz pries curiously. He had obviously known how strong Rolan was due to their past encounter where he had released his aura, but he had wanted to know the opinion of the captain of the guards, one of the strongest members of the tribe.

"It was like facing an unclimbable wall."

Lucia continues staring at the expressionless ceiling while slowly recounting her battle with Rolan.

"No matter how much I tried, I couldn't overcome the sheer difference in our strength."

Her tone becomes more and more disappointed as her story continues, but still carrying a hint of reverence.

"The worst part was that it felt as if he wasn't even using a quarter of his full strength. It felt like he treating the fight as a game."

She lowers her head to stare at her hands wrapped in bandages.

"I'm sorry Lucia, because of me-"

"What are you saying?"

Lucia immediately turns back and cuts Licuz's words in an attempt to correct a misunderstanding.

"I was the one who proposed the idea. Besides, if we didn't do it would everyone have looked at sir Rolan like that?"

That was true. The fight really did bring about a big change in appearance for Rolan.

Licuz recalls back to after the end of the fight.

As he announced the winner of the battle, eyes gleaming with both fear and awe filled the audience, and that included the stubborn elders. Everyone was astounded to see the result of the battle.

"I hope we're right."

Licuz snaps back to reality upon hearing Lucia's words. He looks down towards her once more.

"I really hope he's as the prophecy foretold."

Lucia faces Licuz while slowly gathering a smiling face.

"Could you do me a favor?"

"What is it?"

"Please tell the guys outside to get back to work. I know they're waiting outside."

Despite being bedridden and having her senses dulled due to her injuries, Lucia could tell that her subordinates were all anxiously waiting for her at the corridor outside the room.

"I will instruct them."

Says Licuz in an earnest tone.

"Then, I shall be on my way."

He nods before turning away, causing Lucia to reciprocate with a nod as well.

~~~~~~~~~~~

[WHOOSH!]

The sound of wind entered my ears as we cut through the sky above Etelia at a tremendous speed.

Our trip back to the old Parakirt village was delayed due to the duel with the guard leader, but luckily we still managed to leave before the afternoon struck.

But, it really was awkward back there.

After the battle with the guard leader, many of the guards made a fuss saying they wanted to take revenge for their leader. But on the other hand, many of the scouts and some members of the guards recognized my strength and requested a duel as well.

Fortunately because of Licuz we didn't get into any fights. He also shed some light regarding his plans during the fight.

Apparently he had the guard leader, Lucia, challenge me in order to let's my power be known to all of the tribe. This was because even if I did manage to pull out the sword and fulfill the prophecy, the dark elves wouldn't want to follow a weak leader. And since nobody witnessed me defeating the wyvern king except for Lyndis and Zonn, he thought it was a necessary process.

Well, it seems my suspicions were correct then, the fight was his doing after all.

I wonder how that Lucia woman is doing right now?

I don't think she was that hurt since they immediately took her away to nurse her, I also heard from Licuz and Aire that she was giving a hell of a lot of healing potions to drink.

Hmm...

Thinking back to the fight, the guard leader really was incredible for her standards. I do hope to teach her some demonic arts soon. With her combat arts and fast-paced thinking, she might soar even higher than Lyndis or Zonn.

But that's a thought for another time.

While I was busy getting lost in my thoughts, Blade started to descend.

Presently, all of us are riding on his back.

Surprisingly Licuz wasn't all that shocked when he saw Blade transform into a wyvern, I thought that it would be hard to convince him to get on but here we are.

The real challenge was convincing that elder, Kera. He made such a big commotion about boarding the flight that other people gathered, only to cause an even bigger problem.

Ultimately, Licuz and I told the entire story about the wyvern king and how Blade came to be. It was insanely hard to convince them, like seriously, we spent about close to two full hours trying to settle everything with the elders.

The citizens were also not all that happy and some of them went as far as to point daggers at us, causing the guards to be dispatched.

Well, I can see where they were coming from. If you told them a creature like the one who ruined their village and killed their tribespeople reemerged in their current village, their entire community would no doubt freak out.

Oh well, at least everything's settled now.

But still, I'm glad elder Kera hasn't caused any problems during this trip.

Maybe it's because we're more than 100 meters in the air, but it seems despite the rash and impudent demeanor he gives off, he really does follow the laws of the tribe to the fullest. He's totally different from those stuck up nobles back in my third life.

As we touched down, Blade spoke.

"We have arrived brother."

I nod and jump off to disembark. The others who saw me naturally did the same.

As I thought, Blade really does cut the journey.

We alighted without any delay and started walking in the direction of the village. Because of this, it wasn't long before the familiar scene entered our view.

Collapsed houses, crumbling structures, countless fallen trees and an environment covered in melting snow that formed several small pools of water lying about. Seems like all the snow is starting to turn into liquid because the ice wyvern king is no longer around to support the environment with its icy mana.

"This..."

I moved my head slightly and managed to catch a glimpse of the moment when both Licuz's and Kera's jaws dropped in sync.

They walked to the center of the village without hesitation as we once did and stood there wandering their heads, trying to take in the overwhelming atmosphere.

Licuz starts to bend down to pick up a piece of wood broken apart from the nearby ruined building.

Seeing the destruction, he let's a tear to run down his face but quickly tries to hide it by turning away and facing the opposite direction.

Was this his first time analyzing the destruction?

There, he faces a massive tree and tilts his head upwards to glance at the fragmented building above. He gapes in silence for a few seconds before Lyndis runs up to him, hugging his side.

"Father..."

She sheds a tear as well after seeing her father in pain.

Licuz reacts by finally looking down and patting her on the head. From my angle, I could see a solemn smile forming on his face.

Zonn walks up to his older brother and smacks him on his back, startling him.

"What are you waiting for?"

His grins widely while trying his best to cheer Licuz up.

Licuz finally relaxes himself and lets out a sigh of relief. He turns to me shortly after and extends his hand to point at the large tree.

"The secret tunnel of the chiefs are located right under there."