5th Maelach of Ausiriel Year 1237

Lucy's POV

"It's been 4 days Bell... We are now heading towards to see the old man... but please wake up. You are making all of us worried..." I said to her.

Currently, we are in a wagon heading towards Edolophini... if it isn't because of the Piths insisting that we have a celebration to ease the public, we would be there already... what I hate, even more, is that Piths insist that we do not include Bell into the award... saying that if the public knows that the humans have a weapon to even fight against a dragon, it would cause even more chaos... but how the heck can you say that when Bell is the one who literally did everything here...

Even May, who is usually quiet in stuff related to politics, also raised a ruckus just to get Bell recognized... It still failed badly... It's just pure disgust... I guess even if we are in another world, some things still don't change huh... At the very least, I know Edolophini and Heart Forge safer in terms of these cases... after all, in Edolophini, I myself have some influence in the town, I also have the old man to support, and Heart Forge is Petrasha's base, her influence there is definitely large.

" Petry, how long until we are reaching Edolophini?" I asked Petrasha who is now controlling the wagon. At the moment, it is Petrasha and May taking turns to drive the wagon. The reason for this is cause Petrasha is teaching Amy how to drive a wagon... I am not sure why is this a moment for that but I think it is good for the future.

" I would say around an hour or so... You wanna come out? So that the old man can see you directly and make us move in faster?" Petrasha said to me.

" No... while I am sure people will know about it sooner or later... I don't think that I would want them to swarm us directly at the gates... I would tell them after we settled Bell down... Plus, I don't think it's good to let them swarm us when Bell's two human friends are here." I answered Petry.

" True... then I will let Christine meet him then... he knows about her after all," Petry said as she moved her attention back to driving the wagon.

We are back huh... what will the old man think if his best student... lost a leg in a battle that she herself did not even participate in... will I be a disgrace...

" Don't think much of it girly. I can see what you are worrying about. It's no use worrying about trivial stuff about this. What others think doesn't matter. It is yourself that matters the most. While I am a human that probably lived less than vampires like you, I still have my own living experience. So I am just giving advice here... ha, what am I doing, giving advice to someone who lived longer than me..." Flux said.

" Just don't think too much, it's no use thinking of things that you don't know lass, plus, if yer old man is willing to bring you up, he wouldn't mind anything as long as you come back safe! After all, all old mans are like that towards the young ones." Frux added... now he also sounded like one of the old mans that he mentioned just now... well... his age would fit so it works right?

" Urgh..." Bell groaned suddenly, attracting all of our attention to her. I can see that she is now wincing in pain and just suddenly start moving! At first, it is only her face that is twitching, then suddenly, she starts leaning to the side, facing towards the wall of the wagon...

That is where we realized something... her tail changed... before, it is just a normal dragon tail that is covered with scales, well normal in a fantasy standard, not the Earth technological standard... now, there is something that starts to form at the end of the tail... it looks like a halo, but when May decided she wanted to touch it, her hand just went past through it. Like its object is ethereal... I told Petrasha to drive the wagon to the side first as I don't want the wagon to block the road, even though there probably won't be many wagons coming in this time.

While Petry did do that, she did call out to one of the lookouts for something first... I think she is trying to tell them to get someone here... if I had to guess, she must be calling the guild master aka the old man... Why must you do this Petry...

Somehow, the halo-like object takes quite some time to form... because normally, halos are circles, but this one is a hexagram... while I do not want to overthink this, could this be related to the soul stuff before? It could mean something else though since hexagrams are quite common the symbol used for spellcraft...

" Say... Lucy..." May asked.

" Bell previously mentioned about... someone in the demon continent has a hexagram soul right? Do you think it's related?" She then asked... so you came to the same conclusion as I...

" It is a bit too farfetched no? The hexagram is a common symbol used for spellcraft and talismans right? So it shouldn't be too weird right?" Amy replied...

" That is why I told the lookout to bring out Lucy's old man here. He is an elf and is also the guild master of this continent, so he should have some knowledge of this. But I can tell you one thing... the dwarven kingdom does not really use hexagrams for spellcasting... if we were to use a symbol to help, it would be whatever related to the magic we are doing and not some random symbol like this." Petry explained as she comes into the wagon.

" It looks golden, at least in color, but we can't touch it, but maybe it is only limited only when it's being summoned... though I kinda want to ask, why is it attached to her tail. Not to mention, it does not seem to be affected by gravity as it is floating around her tail." Petry analyses as she tries to touch it with her hand, mana, and also moving her tail. As she said, the hexagram seems to be bounded to her tail as the moment Petry lifted it, the hexagram follows.

After minutes of waiting for the hexagram to slowly form it has formed 3 out of the 6 corners of the hexagram, it is then we heard someone coming close, I think it's the old man... 

" So... what do we have here... it's my girl! You are back finally!" old man yelled out pretty loudly... urgh I hate this...

" So, what do we have here, three humans, a vampire, an elf, two catkins, an oni, a dwarf, and... is that a dragonkin?" the old man continued... great job for not knowing the mood...

" Zeyle, do you know anyone that would know of this symbol? This would normally be used in either magic circles or talismans or even within spellcraft in our previous world. But for my entire time within Astrea, I had not seen this symbol at all within the Dwarven Kingdom, I wonder if you ever saw this symbol in the other kingdoms." Petry explained to the old man in quite the professional way, though because I have seen it quite a lot of times already, I am used to it, it seems Amy and May are still not used to this yet... Well, nobody would think of the old Petry as a politician and let alone an expert on that.

" I must say, Lord Petrasha, I have not seen anything similar. Us elves normally don't use symbols but rather runes in spellcraft, and I do not have any data that any other race uses this too. The closest thing I can relate is just the symbol being used as the racial symbol of the fels. But it has been centuries since we saw the last fel. At the very least, the last time I remember seeing a fel is during the great war." the old man explained. But Lord Petrasha.... no matter how many times I hear about it, I will still want to laugh at it!

" Is that so... it means that we have no clue what this is then..." Petry mumbled. Clearly frustrated that our only clue is now lost. 

" Still, those humans did a number on you huh Lucy..." the old man said suddenly... oi, what is the sudden change of topic!

" She got shot but those anti-mana weapons, it was Belgrynd here who helped Lucy pass through it. It is safe to say, Belgrynd proved us that it is possible for one to recover even after getting hit by those weapons." Petrasha explained. It is mostly only the old man and Petry talking throughout this whole time, with me occasionally adding in. Kent, May, Amy, the 3 humans, all said nothing, being completely quiet the entire time.

" Is that true huh, that sure helps a lot, that is also related to why the gal is like that right?" the old man asks.

" While I would want to say it is, the current transformation of the hexagram is totally unrelated to that. At least in my opinion. If it is related to the anti-mana weapons, it should have happened once she collapses from it... not after days it happens." Petry replied...

" Is that so... then I am also out of idea then~ Oh well, I think it is alright for you guys to come in. It is not like people will be able to get past you all to come in~ Just make sure don't open it too much until you reach the house though. With the news from the coast, tensions are getting higher." the old man said as he left the wagon... Damn it... 

" I guess I will start moving the wagon back huh..." Petry said as she also heads out, leaving me Christine, May, Amy, and also the three humans... and an unconscious Bell...

In just a moment, I can feel the wagon started to move again. At the very least, this time with the old man here, I do not have to worry about others swarming. He will definitely be a good deterrence for any other people. 

Our uneventful journey within the wagon ended after a good 10 minutes as we reach the old man's house... or my house... how long has it been since I last came back, is it a decade already? I have been living with Petry ever since we found May and Amy. I wonder how the kids are now... or should I say... did the old man get more kids in...

As Petry parked the wagon in the backyard of the house, all of us started to get out of the wagon one by one, with the humans way first. Of course, we had made sure that no one is nearby to see them. The old man seems to directly lead them into one of the empty rooms. After the humans, May and Christine helped to carry Bell into the house. Petry already left the driver's seat so she does not need to wait for us. The last one is me and Amy... as I still need someone to help me get on and off the wagon... it is this kind of time, that I really appreciate the development of prosthetics in my old world... Good luck Petry...

As I enter the door, what I saw kind of surprised me... there are no kids within my sight, mostly adults with a few teenagers, with me knowing almost half of the adults...

" Look! Lucy is back!!!" one of them yelled. I remember this one... he is the one who learned some 'weird' stuff from the old man... damn he is quite big already... well not as tall as Christine yet, but quite good already. After all, in elven terms, he would still be a teenager. You would need to be almost 100 years old to be an adult after all. So technically, Christine is also still a teenager, not that I would want to burst her bubble of being an adult. No need to be that harsh on her.

" Lucy? Wait what happened to you? How did you get hurt?" because of the ruckus that guy made... almost everyone in the house that knew me to start swarming us... which is surprisingly a lot. Strange, I thought the old man will let them go to the capital to get some formal education?

" Before you ask, yes I did send them to the royal capital, but they already graduated and came back to help me. Ikor there is the close combat trainer, while Iciler is the vice-guild master now with Jervar as the guild master of Edolophini. Iciler's sister Iseri is now the vice president of the ICEA merchant company too. As for me~ I am now just a plain old man in retirement.

" You useless old man... whatever, that doesn't explain why are they all here though. If Ikor is the trainer and Iciler is the vice-guild master, shouldn't they be at the guild now?" I asked as I continue to move towards the same table in the dining room. That table has always been the place where all of us discuss stuff or just hang around. Sure there is a room where we all play games or do stuff together, but we still just use this if it's just small talks or for serious talks.

" We heard you're coming back so we all took the day off~ the guild isn't that busy anyway!" Ikor said. Out of everything, you learned the laziness of your adopted father...

As I sat down, so does the old man, Iciler, and other brothers and sisters.

" First of all, welcome back Lucy! It has been forever since you last come back you know?" the old man said as everyone either nods or just stay there silent.

" Yes yes, but I won't stay here for long. We have to rush towards Heart Forge. I don't feel safe leaving the humans here. They are much safer in Heart Forge with their policy there." I said which earned quite a lot of different reactions from the others. Some felt sad, some felt worried, though there are also those who have the face of 'why the hell is I here' within the group.

" Wanna come with me then? I am also going to Heart Forge to restock some of my goods. Those lumium lamps sure sell a lot in other kingdoms. The more the merrier after all." Iseri suggested. Which apparently, isn't really that appreciated by her sister.

" No thanks... after all, we got a patient to look for, and being together with you would only be a hindrance to you. I know that merchants do want to complete their trips as fast as possible. Time is money after all." I denied her of course. While you might be my 'sister' I still have no reason to really go with you. After all, I prefer to be with my gang. 

" Anyways... for real this time Lucy, welcome back! Even though it will be short, welcome back home!" they all said in unison. This really is heartwarming...

" You know, it's weird none of you mentioned about Lucy's missing leg. " if there isn't someone like Christine...

" Christine, since we are back here, how about we relive some of our memories here... with some 'education' " I said as I went back to my room with me dragging Christine with one of my hands and Amy assisting me.

I am home old man... glad to be home... even if it's just for a short while.

Benokelvin

Re-education time for Christine~

Bell is more of a side character in this chapter as well, it's Lucy coming back to her hometown in this world!

Gah, this took way too long... I can feel the quality drop... I feel that next time, I either write a chapter completely or don't write at all... writing them bits by bits is prone to create a lot of mistakes...

This story will probably be on hold for a month as I have to complete assignments... Well, even if I say that, I will still probably continue to write, just not as often...