I ended up sending Celeste back to Chalm. Her task was to assist everyone else and wait for any rumors regarding the other girls. Raissa, Lydia, Garnet, and Terra were all still missing. Shao was the only other girl that I knew her location. I would probably go fetch her next, but I had waited for so long because I wasn’t even able to cast the spell to get to her.  

The dimensional portal had a week-long cooldown. I had used the spell to send Shao away right before I went to the Ost Republic. Since then, only a week has passed for me. It might have been two months for everyone else, but my skills didn’t refresh based on everyone else. I had taken a couple of days to get through the Illusory Sword Dungeon and a couple of days to get through Maid’s Lament. That’s to say I had only regained my ability to cast the spell recently, and if I cast it again, that would be another week I was stuck on Earth before I could return.

Thus, when I entered the traveling guild, I was alone. Dav and Pait were already there waiting for me, as was a blue mage. I didn’t know if this was the same blue mage that had sent me to the Ost Republic sometime before. Most of them seemed to be old men in robes with beards. Siti seemed to be a single notable exception to this rule. It was no wonder she had caught the interest of the country’s grandmaster.

“Are you ready? You’re not going in that, are you?” He eyed my armor up and down.

“Is there a problem?”

“I said I had permission to bring a servant, not a warrior.”

“Is it that uncommon?” I asked. “Wouldn’t a diplomat that was visiting a foreign country need some kind of protection? I’d think it’d be common that one of their servants double as a bodyguard, don’t you think? Ah… I can also do this.”

I lifted my hand, and a moment later my features changed slightly. It was a slight change, but now I looked like an Osterian. I was already tall enough, so it only involved darkening my skin a bit and changing my facial features slightly. I figured that given the countries tensions with humans, it might be preferable if I was Osterian. At least, that’s what I thought.

Dav and Pait both let out words of surprise as they saw my face change. Even the blue mage seemed surprised by such a spell.

“You are full of surprises.” Pait declared, eyeing me up and down. “I guess you’re right. Bring an Osterian bodyguard as a servant wouldn’t be suspicious at all. In this case, we’ll leave it.”

I gave a nod. I wasn’t going to start running his bathwater or anything, so it was best that I established my disguise early on.

“In that case, our first teleportation will take us to a town on the border of Esmore.” He explained for my sake while paying the blue mage the fee.

I nodded again and the group of us entered the blue mage’s teleportation circle. It was only a few moments later when the light appeared and we left Aberis.