Chapter LXIX - Praise the Sun (part 1)

"Ahahah! And he went like, 'Eh? What are you guys doing here!?'. Everyone became so silent and awkward, it was fantastic!"

Cony explained as she tried to hold her stomach intact. She has been dying from laughing way too much while telling the story, and everyone can probably tell why.

Right now, we are heading out from the dungeon. We have been walking for an hour already, and we still couldn't find a way out. I couldn't find the signs that I left, and it's probably because I stopped making them at one point. Now I'm regretting not putting a lot more signs on the path, but I was quite bored at the time.

So to pass the time, everyone decided to tell me what happened while I was gone. 

Apparently, Cony and Valey got called by the Office master because of an incident during their mission, but they had already agreed to let Hod do the talking with the master. Apparently, master Valon was okay with the issue after they explained it, and Hod somehow appeared too late. By the time Hod entered the room, Cony and Valey had already explained and the issue was already solved, and it's just heavy awkwardness in the room.

Hod was pretty embarrassed about it. He was about to cover for the team, but instead the team somewhat pranked him.

"Hey, it's not our fault. The master was the one who called us!"

"Yeah, it's not like we want to fool you or anything!"

Cony and Valey defended themselves, but in front of these two ladies, Hod can't do anything.

I remembered back in my junior school day I got bullied by a lot of girls in my class. That was heavily embarrassing. Not fun, not fun at all.

"Oh, and there's this one time-"

"Hey, what's that?"

Cony was about to tell another story, but Hod found something worthy enough to change the topic of the conversation. He pointed at the mark on the wall, the marks that I made.

"Oh, finally!"

I shouted as I stared at the sign closer. I explained to them how I left these signs along the way, so that I won't get lost. I did it because I heard the double dungeon was like a maze, so I thought we might need some signs for a way back.

"Why… didn't you make more of these?"

"I… got bored..."

I defended myself, but Cony still laughed.

We followed the signs all the way to the top. As for the slippery and steep paths, I used fiery blazes to burn the mud, creating a hard path capable of being stepped. We used some heavy weapons and tools to hike the steepness and finally arrived at the entrance.

As soon as we arrived at the entrance, there were a few people waiting.

"You guys are... the disguised knights."

Hod said to them, as he studied their appearance. They are no longer wearing their disguise. Instead, they are wearing some heavy armour. The biggest person, the group leader, stepped forward to face Hod. He immediately bowed in front of him.

"I... We... apologize for not being much of a help."

The group leader bowed his head a little bit at Hod, but Hod waved his hands.

"No, no, no. Anyone with the right mind wouldn't even drop down to a double dungeon. Especially when it's very difficult to come back out and it's quite a maze."

"Right... anyone with the right mind."

The group leader turned to me, and I immediately asked.

"What...?"

"Is this weirdo really your friend?"

The group leader asked Hod, and Hod nodded.

"Yep. She's actually the reason why we were able to go out."

"Oh..."

The group leader looked at me while scratching his head. I simply posed by putting both of my hands on my hips.

Behind me, Valey chuckled a little.

"Uh... Then, shall we go outside?"

"Yes. We've been missing the sunlight."

The knights led us out of the dungeon. After reaching the exit, both Barett and Cony kneeled down on the ground and looked up.

"Oh... Praise the sun...!"

"Oh dear, the light!"

The sun was technically quite down already, but it's still there. It's been around two hours ever since I went in the dungeon, and I went in around 12pm. Which means right now it's 2pm.

The group followed their march back to the village. The knights have their own carriage that they used for themselves, so they will be separated from us while we use the public carriage transportation.

"Say, how did you meet the knights?"

I asked Hod when we were inside the carriage. Since there's five of us, the whole carriage is for ourselves to own and no one else. Hod was too busy admiring the sun that he turned the second time I called him.

"Oh, that. Klane said that there is a group of knights that will also be helping us on the mission, and we can find them in the nearby village when we arrive. And so, we did."

"Huh. Convenient."

"And you? How did the knights know you?"

"They were eh... guarding the entrance."

"Let me guess. They didn't let you enter?"

"Nope. And I had to 'borrow' one of them as a guide."

Hod facepalmed, while everyone else chuckled. Must've been quite the scary experience for that guy…

But I had no choice, I didn't want to get lost.

They told me what they were doing inside the dungeon for nearly three days. Luckily they had canned food for situations like that, so they won't be dying from hunger. Though, they are... quite smelly.

"Be sure to bath once you guys are back."

"Heck yeah, we will."

"Definitely."

I said and Valey and Barett said aloud. I turned back to Hod.

"Your mother was alone at the shop?"

"Y-Yeah... I was actually worried as hell."

Hod didn't mention anything about being gone for three days to his mother, so his mother must've been pretty worried by the sudden disappearance of his son.

But it is how it is when your son works as a professional adventurer. Sometimes they just don't come home at all. As for Hod, however, he has to be there to help his mom.

While I was dozing out, Cony shook my shoulder.

"Rize, Rize! Tell me everything about your mission!!"

From her expression, she looked quite curious about what 'fun' I had during my mission. Knowing that it wasn't fun at all, I won't tell her now.

I waved my hand at her, removing her hand from my shoulder.

"I will, I will. Just not here."

"Okay! Free dinner at Hod's tonight!!"

""Yeayy!!!""

"Who the hell decided it's free dinner!?"

The others continued telling what I missed during my long mission while the carriage marched towards Mazino. I wonder what Hod's mother's reaction would be when Hod returned, as well as the free dinner that he brought along.

After arriving in the kingdom, Hod said that he will be the one to collect the rewards and let the others go home first. Everyone else bade farewell and left to their own paths. Since I don't have anything to do back at the inn, I went along with Hod and we both went to the Office to collect the reward.