Natalia, Marcus, Eden, Kent and Thomas were walking on a road back to Fort Howler. Natalia, Marcus and Eden seemed to be in high spirits, something that Kent and Thomas didn’t share, since the fight with the Almarian Grand Demon had left them both exhausted, so much so that it was Natalia the one carrying the heavy backpack that Kent carried on their way to the hunt, and hanging from the side of the backpack, almost covering it completely, was the large skull from the demon.
The weight didn’t bother Natalia, as she walked with a straight posture, ahead of everyone else, and eager to get this hunt over with to continue their trip with Marie. Behind her, Kent and Thomas were quietly talking to each other, their conversation nothing particularly important as they simply shared information with each other about Fort Howler city.
And at the back, Marcus and Eden walked next to each other, with Eden stealing glances at the quiet Marcus who hadn’t said much ever since their fight with the Almarian Grand Demon—in particular ever since it died.
Marcus couldn’t stand the constant glances anymore, so he sighed and looked over at Eden with annoyance. “What is it?”
“It’s just that…” she said with a low voice, unsure on how to phrase what she was thinking since she didn't want to anger Marcus, “you’ve been quiet for a while now.”
“What? Am I supposed to be a clown to keep you entertained?” he responded with a glare, sharply turning to look at Eden.
She was taken aback slightly but didn’t scare away from his glare as she seemed to be confused instead. “Eh? What is a clown…?”
“A fucking idiot that makes people laugh, which I’m not here for,” he responded almost sighing as he looked forward again.
“Ah! Like a jester from the empire!” she responded with a happy tone of voice, “No, wait. That’s not the point.”
“There’s no point. Quit annoying me,” he said, shaking his head and taking a step away from her to the side.
“Oh…” she dejectedly sighed, trying to get close to him again, “Well, if you need someone to talk to, I’ll be glad to listen!”
Marcus grunted in annoyance and formed the helmet back on his head, not bothering to keep talking with Eden, who simply smiled as she approached him, then turning and bending slightly as she tried to look at Marcus’ covered face. He looked down at her for a second before placing his hand on her face and pushing her to the side, forcing her to keep an arm’s length away from him.
“I see the city walls now,” Natalia said from the front, ignoring what Marcus and Eden were doing.
“We’re finally back. Let's hurry then, I don’t know if my father can keep the city locked for this long without telling the people why,” Thomas said, picking up the pace, and moving to the side to walk past Natalia.
“I agree. I’m sure that Marie and the girls are also worried,” Natalia followed up with a nod and increased her speed.
* * *
The guards at the gate noticed that the Knights and the couple of people that had left with Thomas had returned, so they promptly opened the gates to allow them entrance into the city. The people who had spent the past few days inside the city—and in particular the ones that had been close to the gates, wanting to leave—also noticed that the gate was being opened. They rushed over to look at what had changed, or if someone was being allowed to leave or enter the city, which is when a lot of them noticed the small group of people walking in.
“Isn’t that the Count’s son?” asked one young man standing at the side of the road, watching Thomas walk next to Natalia.
“Sure is,” responded an old man standing next to him, “and it seems that whatever they set out to do, they were successful.”
“Went out to do? Do you think that he just went out hunting while everyone else is forced to stay in the city for no reason? That would just be too much from the noble families!” the young man argued as he pointed at the skull on Natalia’s backpack.
The old man laughed next to the young man, who turned to look at the old man with a questioning expression, wondering why the old man was laughing, who said, “No, the young master Thomas wouldn’t do that. He’s a very skilled mage, and judging from that skull… it seems like he went out to hunt something really dangerous with those knights.”
The young man narrowed his eyes to look at the skull on Natalia’s back. “How can you be so sure? It could’ve just been a bull or something like that.”
The old man shook his head, pointing lower at the skull. “You think a bull would have those kinds of sharp fangs?”
The young man looked closer again at the skull, widening his eyes when he noticed the different details on the skull. “Don’t tell me that…”
“Yep, I think we have the count to thank for getting rid of something really dangerous close to our homes,” the old man continued, nodding his head as he crossed his arms.
The few people standing around watching the group go by in the city also realized that there was something different about the skull and murmurs started spreading amongst the crowd of people that was slowly gathering on the streets.
This didn’t escape the group walking on the road towards the Count’s fort, as Marcus looked around at the people who were looking back at them. “What the fuck is this?”
“It seems like we’re attracting the attention of the people, or rather… the skull on my back is,” responded Natalia, looking around at the people as well.
“And I think the people are also talking about me, walking in with you after so many days of lockdown,” Thomas followed up with a wry smile on his face.
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As they were walking along the road towards the Count’s fort, they started noticing that more and more people were gathering on the streets they were walking. Some people looked at them and murmured while others took a quick peek and then went back to their business.
The road started getting cramped after a few minutes of walking, and now the murmurs of people were turning to conversations, with people pointing at them.
“This feels somewhat strange,” Eden said as she lowered the hat on her head to cover more of her face.
“It is indeed different…” Thomas responded, curiously looking around the people.
Marcus completely ignored it and Kent instead took some distance from Natalia while so people focused more on her. Natalia, however, was looking back at the people that started showing up on the streets. The more streets they walked on, the more people showed up and just like that, the expressions on their faces also changed. She noticed a few people were smiling at her, and she also noticed that from within the crowds a small girl smiled at her and waved her small hand.
Natalia was slightly taken aback by this, faltering in her steps to look back at the little girl whose smile didn’t disappear. Natalia decided to remove the helmet that had been covering her face, revealing her flowing red hair and nigh perfect facial features to the crowd.
People gasped at the way the helmet disappeared as well as her appearance. The small child was also surprised, but it didn’t last long as the smile on the girl returned, waving her hand again at Natalia. She returned a gentle smile and a small wave to the small child, who beamed with joy as she grabbed onto the hem of her mother’s dress, while pointing at Natalia and giggling.
“It seems like people are getting a bit emotional about your return, Lord Howler,” Kent said with a chuckle as he looked around at the excited people watching them walk in the city.
“Yes that seems to be—”
“Long Live Lord Howler!” a man shouted from the side of the street.
“Long Live Lord Howler!” followed up another one, making more people join, until their voices turned to one in high emotion.
Thomas waved as he put up a wry smile at the people, unsure as to why everyone would react like that. Natalia was in a similar situation, and she would as well return gentle smiles at the people, with small waves to them, exciting a few people.
“Did you see that?! That beautiful Imperial Holy Knight waved at me,” a young man joyfully exclaimed, turning to look at another one next to him.
“No! She waved at me!” responded his friend.
Natalia and the group ignored those kinds of things as the people gathering on the streets all looked at them and cheered them, some of them even thanking them for getting rid of the evil keeping them besieged inside the city.
Eden didn’t bring too much attention to herself, as she walked close to Marcus, who also ignored everyone else on the street.
“Look at that, boy,” a large man said standing next to a child, as he pointed at Marcus. “That’s how a real man does his business. No arrogance, and no showing off.”
The child smiled while quickly nodding his head and looking with bright eyes at Marcus, who just grunted. Eden chuckled next to him. “It seems like people are getting the wrong idea despite our best efforts to be ignored.”
Kent also chuckled when he heard Eden’s words.
They walked a few more blocks, with the people’s cheers following behind them, until at a certain corner, among the crowds of people, Kent saw a small girl, standing next to a slightly taller boy. They were the kids he had helped a few days back. They had better clothes, and there wasn’t any dirt on their faces anymore. The boy seemed to be nervous as he looked around at all the people, in particular at Natalia, while the girl seemed to be glaring at her instead.
Natalia also turned to look at them, but their expression had changed before her eyes landed on them as they had noticed Kent as well and were now smiling and waving at him. Natalia smiled slightly as well, half turning to Kent. “Why don’t you return their good intentions to them?”
Kent awkwardly smiled and waved at them, and as they were about to wave back, someone seemed to call them from behind, so they quickly turned around and left the crowd. Natalia smiled, shaking her head as she kept on walking on the road.
Once they approached the Count’s fort, the amount of people gathered on the streets was enough to make it seem like a festival, while the guards near the gates were all standing at attention and greeting the incoming group, grandly opening the closed gates to let them inside the fort as if they were heroes.
The group entered the gates, which were then slowly closed, keeping the group of people cheering and shouting long life to Thomas outside to watch as they were being closed off.
At the entrance of a deeper door of the fort stood the Count, and behind him were Marie and her servants.
“What is this about?” asked the Count to Thomas, approaching hastily towards him.
“I was just about to ask you the same thing. You didn’t prepare that whole spectacle out there?” asked Thomas, pointing back with his head at the fort’s gates.
“No, of course not. Imagine my surprise when I hear my guards talk about the people cheering my name on the streets, when just yesterday they were thinking about breaking down the gates,” the Count responded with a sigh and a shake of his head.
“Still, as you can see, we were successful with the hunting of that Skeletal Grand Demon,” Thomas continued as he pointed at the large skull on Natalia’s back, who turned and dropped the skull on the ground.
Marie was taken aback as she looked at the large skull drop on the ground, approaching carefully as she said, “T-this is the thing that you went to kill?”
“It is,” Natalia responded while nodding and looking at the skull, “It wasn’t an easy fight, I’ll admit.”
Marcus scoffed from the back. “It was fucking hard! If we didn’t have these armors we would’ve died like five times over!”
The Count and Marie frowned at Marcus, with Marie glaring when she noticed how close Eden was standing next to Marcus as well as the thing on her back. “Lord Marcus, that Chaerian stole something from you!” she said in a loud voice, pointing at the rifle on her back.
“I didn’t steal it! He let me have it!” Eden quickly responded by grabbing the rifle’s muzzle that extended to the side of her leg.
“And you expect us to believe the worlds of an animal like you?!” Marie said with indignation, turning then to one of the guards that came out with the Count. “Please take that away from her.”
“No,” Natalia responded with a glare to the guard before he moved, and then to Marie, who was taken aback, “It is as Eden said; Marcus let her carry it, and it’s fine for her to carry it for now.”
“Lady Natalia, you can’t be serious, this is—”
“Enough, we didn’t come out here to fight and create a commotion,” the Count interrupted before Marie could say anything else, “rather, let's come in. I’m sure you’re all tired, and some rewards are in order for this accomplishment.”
“Also, we should drop the lockdown on the city and return everything to normal,” Thomas continued, walking closer to his father.
“Right,” the Count responded with a nod as he looked over at the guard that Marie had ordered before, “Please issue the notice to the city to let everything go back to normal, and do tell the people what had happened if they ask.”
“Yes sir!” the guard said, quickly moving out of the fort with a few guards in tow.
“Now, let's settle down for a moment,” the Count said, walking deeper into the fort.
As the group started following behind them, from one of Kent’s pockets a piece of paper fell down. The butler bent down to pick it up.
“Excuse me sir, you dropped this,” he said to Kent as he handed the piece of paper.
“Oh! Thank you,” Kent responded with a nod and kept on walking behind the Count.
Marcus scoffed from behind when he saw this, murmuring to himself in a mocking tone, “How fuckin’ clumsy.”
“Hey! Those things happen sometimes! Especially when you carry as many notes as I do,” Eden said, taking out a few notebooks from her pockets with a couple of papers falling on the ground. “See?”
“Sure, whatever,” Marcus responded as the group walked deeper in the fort, leaving behind the loud cheering of the people outside.