1.44 The Only Way

Flare came down and sat on my shoulder when she saw me looking towards the sky. I took her into the palm of my hand and introduced her saying, "Everyone, this is Flare. She is a spirit that I accidentally summoned during our fight with the demon."

"Oh, you got a new pet. Let me hold it," said Sistina taking Flare into her palm.

"But, how is that possible? It needs a lot of mana to summon a spirit. Even we elves can only do it once every hundred years during our summoning ceremony," said Princess Eliane in a surprised tone.

"I am not sure. It just happened when I was trying to use the mana directly from the surrounding," I replied honestly.

"Using mana, directly from the surrounding, is that even possible?" asked Nina with a surprised look on her face.

"It looks so small, what can it even do?" said Princess Anna. She still looked upset; she wasn't even looking at me.

'It looks like it won't go away that easily. I will have to do something to make it up to her later.'

"I am not sure, but I am hoping that she can help in making Ronald's condition better," I replied looking towards her.

"Can it really?" asked Arica in disbelief.

"Hmm... Let me take a look first," said Flare jumping down from Sistina's hand and changing into her divine form.

Everyone had a shocked reaction on their faces as they saw that happen. Princess Eliane who was familiar with spirits said, "How can it be here. I thought it was only a legend."

"I can't believe what I am seeing. What in the world is that thing," said Dale who was standing near and hearing our conversations.

Emma was pulling her mother's hand and asking, "Mommy, Mommy, what is that birdy?". But Elly was too shocked to even speak.

"Everyone, there is no need to be afraid, she is friendly," I said trying to calm everyone down. Miss Lilith was just there standing and laughing as all this was happening.

After a few minutes, everyone calmed down. Princess Eliane looked towards Miss Lilith and asked, "Is it really who I think it is?"

"Yeah, that's the phoenix which is considered a legend even among the species with a long lifespan," answered Miss Lilith in a calm tone.

"We can talk about that later. Where's Ronald?" I asked looking towards Nina.

"He is in the wagon. His condition isn't improving so we were planning to hurry as soon as we finished our dinner," replied Nina.

Flare went close to the wagon and touched Ronald's chest with her tail. Ronald's whole body stated shining in golden light and a small golden flame appeared in his forehead.

"Master, I have removed the curse and used my flames to prevent his condition from getting worse. But, even with my powers, I won't be able to make him recover completely and restore his arm," said Flare removing her tail from Ronald's chest.

"Okay, thank you for your help," I replied. Deep down I was regretting my inability to act in time.

'If only I was a little stronger back then, this wouldn't have happened.'

Flare changed into her smaller form and sat on my shoulder. I looked towards everyone else and all of them had a gloomy face. The liveliness from a while ago was all gone and everyone was silent.

"Look alive everyone. There is a way to make him recover completely," said Miss Lilith sensing the gloominess in the environment.

"How?" I asked as soon as I heard those words. It was as if I was waiting for someone to say those words to me.

"In the center of the kingdom, there is a labyrinth called the Panacea. It is believed that there is a medicine that can cure anything there," replied Miss Lilith.

"But that's around the dragon valley. It's said that no one has ever returned alive from there," said Nina.

"Yes, most of you are not ready for this yet so only five of you will go there while the rest of you will stay here and train with me," said Miss Lilith. She then turned towards me and said, "I can't go there myself so you will need to go there with Eliane, Marina, Anna, and Arica."

"Okay, I will go there. It may be risky but that may be the only way to make Ronald better," I replied.

"B-But why me? I can't even fight," asked Marina in her usual low voice.

"There is a reason why you must go there. You will find that out when you reach there," replied Miss Lilith.

"I wanna go with them too," said Sistina looking towards Miss Lilith.

"No Sistina, let's stay in the city and train. As we are now, we won't even be able to protect ourselves. Also, we need someone to take care of Ronald," replied Nina trying to convince her.

"Okay, I will train and become so strong that you won't even be able to recognize me," said Sistina. She still looked unconvinced, but she agreed.

Since Ronald's condition was stable now, we decided to camp there for the night. I explained everything that had happened during our fight with Beelzebub to everyone else while the dinner was being prepared. I skipped the part about my consciousness meeting the Black dragon king since that would make things even more confusing for everyone else.

After we finished our talks, we had our dinner. Everybody was traveling without getting proper rest for the last two days, so they were all tired.

Flare said that she didn't need sleep and could stay on watch on her own, so we left the watch duty to her and went inside our tents. Dale and I were sharing a tent while the girls were sharing the rest.

We started our journey early the next morning. We stopped by the village where we had stayed in the inn last time to refill our supplies. After that, we didn't stop anywhere during the day and continued our journey.

After three days, we finally arrived in the city. We traveled straight to our dorm without stopping anywhere. Sam was watering the flowers in the garden when we reached there. He greeted us with his usual bow saying, "Welcome back" when he saw us get off.

I carried Ronald inside the room and put him in his bed. Sam asked Nina, "What happened?" to which she replied with, "He got injured in the battle."

After that, everyone went to their rooms to freshen up. I went straight to the bathroom and took a shower after which I went to my room. There, I laid in my bed looking towards the ceiling.

'Well, a lot of things happened since I came to this world. I was looking for opportunities in my previous life, but I never got one. Here, I have many opportunities but the one I chose was the high risk, high-profit type... Well, this is going to be a bumpy ride but at least I have many friends who are going to be together with me. First, let's heal Ronald up, we can think about the rest later.'

I was feeling sleepy so I closed my eyes thinking, 'Sam will wake me up when it's time for dinner.'

Next Chapter: The Seven Dragon Kings