The sun was already peeking from the horizon when Grey flew down from Mt. Vermont and arrived at his grandpa's house. The first thing he noticed as soon as he landed on the ground was his mother's worried gaze, looking at him with tears before rushing towards him.

Emily quickly wrapped him in her warm arms and said, "What took you so long? I was so worried?" Tears slowly dropped from her heavy eyes as all her worries were lifted.

Grey just looked up at her, noticing her half closed eyes and the black spots around it, indicating her lack of sleep probably caused by anxiety. Her hug was also tighter than it usually was, but it doesn't feel suffocating at all. Grey could feel its warmness that could probably heal his mentality in an instance. He find it strange for someone who knew his true identity to be acting all worried like this, but couldn't blame him, he was their one and only son.

"Looks like I really made you worry this time." Grey calmly spoke to her, looking away while guiltily grinning, before slightly scratching his cheek with his finger.

"It's alright, as long as you're safe." She replied, letting out a sigh of relief before finally letting him go from the tight hug and wiping the tears on her eyes using the sleeve of her clothes.

Soon, Jurgen and everyone also arrived in the scene, all eyes directed at Grey as soon as they landed. "That kid's fast." The old geezer uttered, stroking his lower back and looks like in pain.

On his right, Jagger was carrying Rose on his both hand while Ryner was yawning boldly on the side. The rest of the guild members were also present behind with Reynold chatting with them while laughing.

And finally... "Dear!" Edward hastily rushed towards his beloved wife and gave her a warm hug followed by kiss, causing Jurgen to swiftly flew behind Grey to cover his eyes.

"What are you doing gramps?" Grey cluelessly queried, trying to pull away the hands that were blocking his vision.

"Alright, let's head back." Jagger loudly yelled to his guild members, facing towards the town.

"Yes!" The guild members echoing reply was heard through out the surroundings before marching towards their guild barracks located at the center of the town.

Jagger was left behind to wave his goodbye and said, "Reports will be written tomorrow–" He stopped and shook his head, remembering that it was already sunrise, "–I mean later. So be prepared for possible questioning from the Royal military." He said to Jurgen before he turned around and walked away, still waving his hand.

"Of course I'll be prepared." Jurgen yelled his reply, waving back at him as he walked away.

Finally, the long night is finally over and now they all wanted to rest their fatigued bodies. Walking inside without taking of his boots, Reynold effortlessly fell down to his bed as soon as he walked inside his dim lighted room and fell asleep the moment he closed his eyes.

Jurgen also headed inside his room and lied down on his warm soft bed, letting out a long sigh before completely falling asleep.

Meanwhile, Emily guided Grey to his room, helping him take off his shoes and then hopping on the bed soon after. She closed the door slowly before going inside their bedroom and lied down while waiting for her husband who's still washing his dirty feet in the bathroom.

Everyone slept peacefully as the sun completely shined to welcome the day.

...

Three hours have passed and birds started chirping outside Grey's bedroom window. He was still sleeping soundly when the sunlight through the window warmly rubbed his face, causing him to open his eyes slowly, and blinked a few times to clear his vision.

"It's morning?" He whispered to himself, looking at the blinding sunlight coming through the window with narrowed eyes. He placed his hand on his head and gave it a rough rub before memories from earlier occured in his head. Soon after, he came to a realization, 'Oh, that's right, I went inside the tunnel dungeon.'

More scenes from earlier played in his mind as he struggled to lift his aching body out of bed. Which he finds unsurprising because of his reckless mana usage earlier that caused his body to tense irregularly. After somehow managing to get up, Grey slowly stepped in his indoor shoes and stood up from his bed. Still feeling the aftereffects of his carelessness, he slowly pulled the door lock and carefully flipped open the door.

Upon stepping outside his room, Grey stumbled upon his mom who's seemingly just got out of bath and was combing her hair as she walked in the corridor. "Good morning mom." He greeted her with a smile while slowly closing the door behind him.

"Ohh, good morning!" She greeted him back before walking him through the hallway. As they got closer to the living room, they both smelled the sweet aroma of something being brewed in the kitchen.

As soon as they reached the living room, Grey looked around and Jurgen suddenly came to his sight, sitting near the kitchen and was busily chopping some onions on a wooden board. His eyes are watering crazily as he sliced the onions with an annoyed expression and shocking his head constantly.

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Not too far away from Jurgen, on the left, he also saw his uncle Reynold slowly stirring the soup in a large pot while occasionally staring at the stubborn old man struggling to cut onions. His cheeks were bulging from trying to hold his laughter.

"Where's dad?" Grey asked his mom, ignoring the seemingly usual comedic scenario in the kitchen, causing Jurgen and Reynold to stop what they're doing.

"I think he's out, fetching water from the deep well." Reynold replied, grabbing a plate of chopped onions and then dumping it into the pot. He looked like a witch brewing some dangerous spell when he started stirring the soup with a creepy smile on his face.

"Don't worry about your dad." Emily dropped on her knees to level with Grey's height. "Look at yourself, you're so dirty." She said, pressing her hands on both of his cheeks. "How about taking a bath?"

Looking at himself, his skin was tainted with black ashes and dust that dried together with sweat. And after sniffing himself, he finally realized that he was smelly and indeed needed to bath. Although struggling, he quickly ran towards the bathroom a few turns away near his own bed room.

As soon as he arrived, Grey slid open the wooden door and stepped inside just to be surprised by hot steams of water that engaged his eyesight the moment he entered the bath. "It's a hot bath?" He stood there asking himself before he blew away the steams using wind magic to confirm it.

In front of him, a pool of water with bubbling sound coming from it. Grey looked at it with awe for a moment before proceeding to dip his toe in the water. "Oww!" He overreacted, just to find out that the water hotness was just enough for him to endure. The young wizard gave a noticable smile before instantly removing his clothes and hopped into the hot water.

"SPLASH!"

With his height, the water level reached his chest in standing position. The first thing he noticed as soon as he dipped into the water was its high mana frequency that flows together with it, massaging his overly tensed body, letting it relax. 'Ahhh, this feels nice.' He thought, closing his eyes.

Soon after spending about 10 minutes in the bath, all the weights he was unnecessarily carrying until earlier were lifted and his body felt lighter than ever. 'I wish I could do this forever.' He wishfully thought before suddenly...

"KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! "

A knock was heard across the large bathroom, causing him to snap back out of his thoughts. The knock was followed by a voice saying, "Grey, get out here quickly!" The voice sounded like Emily's and she seemed to be rushing and catching her breath, causing Grey to worriedly hopped out of the bath and grabbed the towel near the door.

After wrapping the towel around his small body, he vigorously slid open the door and met his mom's gaze. "What happened mom?" He asked worriedly.

"Dress yourself, hurry." She hastily replied, slightly panting.

Without asking any question, Grey quickly followed her instruction and ran to his room. He opened the closet and grabbed any clothing his small hands could reach. The one he got was a brown shirt with long sleeves paired with a black pants with six pockets that he usually wears during training. He then carelessly let the towel drop from his body and put on the clothes that he got from the closet.

Soon after putting everything including a pair of leather boots that he doesn't know he have, he rushed towards the door and pulled it open. As soon as he open the door, he swiftly ran to the living room only to find no one. "Mom?" He called, gazing at the empty kitchen that has a pot of soup left boiling. 'Where's everyone?' He asked himself, and before he could even think of anything, he heard a loud call coming from outside.

"GREY?!"

The voice surely belongs to his mom, and soon, it was quickly followed by heavy footsteps in the background, impacting the ground like soldiers marching on broad daylight. The sound came behind the door not too far away from him. So he ran towards it and as he got closer, the marching sound became even louder, bringing questions inside his head, "What?" He hastily flipped open the door to see his mom already looking at his direction.

Emily was standing close to Edward who he thought was still away. Beside them are Jurgen and Reynold. All theirs eyes are averted onto something while constantly waving their hands, causing Grey to also stare in that direction while he walked towards them.

"THUD! THUD! THUD!"

From his position, Grey can see several horses marching towards the town with two people riding on each one of them. Looking at the people on top of it, he saw people wearing black military uniforms with golden outline. All of them are wearing a black military hat and looked fierce as they focused their eyes on their front everytime the horses march. "What are –"

Before Grey could even utter a question, his mom gently patted his head and said, "Wave your hand.", in a whispering manner as she gave the passerbys a warm smile.

Grey did what he was told to do, he waved his hand at the strangers and also smiled... awkwardly. Taking another glance at them, he suddenly remembered that the queen was scheduled to visit that day. Everything makes sense to him now.

'So this people on horses are the Royal wizards from the Royal military?' Grey couldn't help but be amazed as he looked up and waved at them. He kept waving to every single one of them who came to his vision and no one was spared. After looking at them a few times, a large golden carriage being pulled by two horses came to his sight.

Grey was surprised, not because of how fancy it is, but because something inside is giving him goosebumps; a presence of a strong wizard. He couldn't see a thing from outside because of the curtains surrounding the carriage but the mana frequency surely belongs to someone from the royal military. He sensed the presence of three people inside and concluded, 'The queen is definitely inside.' But among them, he could feel that another person inside that carriage possesses such powerful magic and its definitely not the queen.

'So there are much stronger people out there eh?' The thought drew a smile on his face, before the final horse passed by his vision and finally able to withdraw his tired hand from waving.

"People from royal military are really on a different level." Reynold suddenly blurted, chuckling uncontrollably. "They never failed to amaze me." He added.

"They are all highly trained individuals that graduated from Alexus' grand magic academy, of course they'll be on a different level." Jurgen replied back with a prideful face. "With them, commoners like us would just be second rate wizards." He also added, sighing sharply.

Hearing those words made Grey wonder, 'Do commoners really have no place in this society?', staring at the footsteps that the horses left. 'Well, I guess that's always the absolute rule established by this magical dependent world.' He thought, before the mood was ruined by a loud shout.

"Let's head inside everyone, we have a soup to slurp!" Shouted by Reynold who's already on the entrance.

"Slurp?... that's a disgusting word Reynold." Jurgen disgustingly faced away from him before also heading inside.

Emily and Edward also walked inside with excited look on their eyes. Grey quickly followed them with a smile painted on his face. 'I love this life, strong or not, I'm always been and will always be proud to be a commoner.'