The sky was overcast on the way home.
A fine autumn drizzle settled on their shoulders.
Leon looked up at the dark canopy of clouds and sighed.
"Raining again."
After a battle like that, nobody was hurt, but everyone was mentally drained.
Leon, Jeanne, Rose, and Kureha were veterans. Some had never fought in a war themselves but had seen enough of war's cruelty through one channel or another. Others had been in the thick of it, killed and been nearly killed. They were holding up fine.
But Laurier and Aura, two juniors experiencing carnage like this for the first time, were running on fumes both mentally and physically.
If the reinforcements hadn't arrived when they did, the taut strings of their composure might well have snapped.
Noticing their listless expressions, Rose slowed her pace and fell in beside them, her voice low and gentle.
"Laurier, Aura... are you two okay?"
Hearing that warm, soothing big-sister voice, the elf girls shook their heads in silence.
Then Aura looked up at Leon, Jeanne, and Kureha, who had stopped and turned back toward her and Laurier. She shook her head again.
"Thanks for worrying about us, Rose."
"We're fine, really. It's just... seeing something that brutal for the first time hit us harder than we expected. We just need a little time. A good night's sleep and we'll be back to normal by tomorrow."
Beside her, Laurier mustered her energy, raised both hands and gave her own youthful cheeks a couple of slaps, forcing a smile.
"Yeah, exactly! Something like this is nothing!"
"We're going to be great elven Adventurers. No way we're getting knocked down by one attack!"
Seeing the two of them rally under Rose's care, Leon, Jeanne, and Kureha exchanged a glance, warmth flickering in their eyes.
They'd all been there. They knew.
These two juniors, tempered by this ordeal, would emerge with tremendous growth in spirit and resolve once they'd had time to recover.
This wasn't a boost in stats or technique. It was a baptism of the soul.
Then something seemed to cross Leon's mind, and he turned to Jeanne and Kureha with sudden curiosity.
"You two... the wars you've been through were way worse than this, right?"
Wars they'd been through?
Jeanne and Kureha both paused. Then Jeanne's expression went flat, her tone as dry as someone reading an instruction manual.
"What's different about war? Just more or fewer dead. That's all."
"At its core, it's all the same."
Kureha nodded quietly.
"The war in my homeland was different from Jeanne's, though."
"It was... a war for our race's survival, not a conflict between factions over interests."
"If we lost, our entire people would be wiped out. We had no choice."
The war between humans and demons, huh... Leon fell into thought.
Jeanne looked surprised.
"If it was a racial war, then yes... that would be far more brutal."
"No wonder you were... so badly wounded when you were summoned..."
Kureha had long since made peace with her past. Besides, when she'd "died," she'd already said goodbye to her former self.
Now, in this new world, she had family she cherished and friends who cared about her. She embraced her new life without a shred of regret.
As for what came before, she'd let the wind take it.
...
...
"We're finally home!"
Pushing open the courtyard gate, relieved smiles spread across everyone's faces.
No matter what happened out there, only home could offer that feeling of safety and warmth.
They kicked off their dust-caked boots one by one at the entryway, slipped on fluffy animal-shaped house slippers, and made a mad dash for the big, soft sofa in the living room.
The moment they relaxed, the exhaustion they'd been holding back crashed over them like a wave.
Forget tidying up or cooking dinner. Even talking felt like effort.
Laurier curled up like a small animal, sinking deep into the sofa cushions, clutching a goofy throw pillow and nuzzling into it contentedly.
"Mmmmm, this feels so good!"
Seeing her lounging there looking adorable and lazy, Leon smiled as he finished changing his shoes.
"Hah..."
He flopped straight down onto the carpet, hands behind his head, squinting up at the Magic Stone lamp on the ceiling casting its warm amber glow, and let out a long sigh.
"I figured today wouldn't be peaceful... but I never expected we'd get dragged into the mess too..."
Rose shifted onto her side on the sofa, one hand propping up her cheek, and teased him with a smile.
"We made it back safe, didn't we? And it wasn't a total wash. Kureha punched above her weight and took down a Level 2 Evilus elite. Barring anything weird, thanks to her skill, the high-grade Excelia she earned should be enough to level up."
"And then there's..."
She trailed off, fixing Leon with a meaningful look, as if silently reminding him: You took Lady Demeter's mission. You think you were coming home empty-handed? With your personality... you wouldn't lift a finger without something in it for you, would you?
Meeting Rose's playful gaze, Leon laughed in spite of himself.
He said nothing, and with a thought, opened his Falna panel.
...
Assets: Reserves: 3,620,000 | Cash: 471,920,000
Excelia: 1,083 points
...
Everything else in his Basic Abilities was negligible since he'd just leveled up.
He hadn't exactly pushed himself into any blood-pumping, life-or-death duels, so gaining a few dozen points here and there was about right.
Today's main haul was Excelia.
If he remembered correctly, when he'd leveled up to Level 3, he'd scraped by right at the cutoff to max out his Basic Abilities. His Excelia bar had been bone dry, a pathetic 3 points left.
And now...
The number had jumped to 1,083.
Evilus had been his top donor for the day, hands down. Generous as hell with the tips.
Evilus members might be scum, but compared to monsters they had one advantage: when there were targets to shoot at, he didn't have to waste time hunting them down. They just kept running at him to die.
The efficiency, Irregulars aside, blew normal Dungeon grinding out of the water.
And their Excelia payouts were absurdly high.
A random Level 1 grunt gave at least 10 Excelia, and the number scaled with the target's strength.
Level 2s started at 20, and so on up the chain.
Take today's battle.
The one that left the biggest impression was the squad leader of that outside faction allied with Evilus, the one who'd led the ambush on Lady Demeter right at the start.
That guy alone had been worth 35 Excelia. Add in his squad of pure Level 2 elites, and just from them Leon had racked up close to 200 Excelia.
And Evilus had sent two squads like that.
They'd delivered it right to his doorstep. It would've been rude not to accept, so... he'd reluctantly helped himself to Evilus's generous gift basket one more time.
On top of that, over on the main battlefield, he'd been constantly working the edges of the melee, picking off kills with guerrilla tactics...
In a single day, he'd earned more Excelia than a solid week of grinding in the Dungeon.
Of course, that was compared to normal daily exploration. Emergencies or proper team expeditions were a different story entirely.
...
...
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