Ben leaves Magnolia after getting that surprising kiss. It's just a kiss on the cheek, but it still takes a lot of Mira's bravery. It makes him happy, but also makes him fall into a dilemma.
Now that Mira has made a very clear sign, he also needs to give an answer. He needs to decide where their relationship will go. It can't be too long or he will hurt Mira's feelings.
"Sigh, I can't make her wait for too long, but I can't give an answer soon too. There are many things that need to be thought thoroughly," says Ben as he walks.
Ben is someone who thinks seriously about love relationships. He has many painful experiences and that makes him insecure about his love life. Losing his blood family has made him afraid of losing his loved ones again.
He trains to be stronger & stronger just to avoid that from happening again. That insecurity has subsided since he joined the guild and met with everyone there. Even so, he can't remove that insecurity from his heart.
That feeling is still lingering deep in his heart, haunting him. He keeps training to remove that feeling, but through these years, he realized that strength alone isn't enough to protect everyone he loved.
Many people are stronger than him and they still fail to protect their loved ones, like Morgbitt. They can't even protect themselves, take Midas for example. That's why he never feels that his strength is enough and never will.
"Damn, I can't go anywhere by thinking about this myself. I need to talk with Gramps and hope he can help me," says Ben a little frustratedly.
It takes a week for Ben & Bella to reach their village, it's 5 days before Ben's birthday on 12 May. They could move faster if Ben didn't daydream and stopped too many times. Mira's kiss is affecting him too much.
"Ben, home!" says Bella excitedly as she points at their village.
"Yeah, we're finally home," says Ben happily.
Ben slaps his cheeks and thinks, 'Get ahold of yourself, Ben! Think about that later, you are home now, so you need to show that you are fine.'
He takes a deep breath and calms himself. Now he shows a nice & relieved expression, ready to meet with his family in this world. Bella can't wait and flies to the village. It makes Ben laughs and he follows Bella to the village.
The village guard sees them and gets very excited. He rang the bell and shouts to everyone that Ben & Bella has returned. Everyone in the village gets excited and they run to the village entrance.
Wendy & Carla move ahead of everyone and arrived first. They look into the forest and see Bella is flying toward them. Then they see Ben is walking far behind Bella while waving his hands & smiling.
"BEN NII-SAN, BELLA-CHAN!" shouts Wendy & Carla as they runoff.
The 2 girls run to Bella and hug each other happily. They're too happy in fact that they fall to the ground because they move around too much while hugging. Their clumsiness makes the villagers and Ben laugh.
Ben arrives near them and helps them stand up again. The girls then hug him happily too and he hugs them back. Wendy & Carla are very happy that they are crying in his arms.
Ben smiles & rubs their heads like what he always did before saying, "I'm home."
"*sniff* Welcome home," replies Wendy & Carla.
"You've grown up, Wendy, Carla," says Ben while smiling.
"Ben nii-san too," says Wendy.
"Yeah, you grow too much even after halting it for a long time. What did you eat actually?" says Carla as she measures Ben's height.
"Hahaha, let's talk about that later, everyone is waiting," says Ben as he points at the villagers.
The girls nod and they walk to the village entrance. Roubaul is standing in front of the others and they all have smiles on their face.
"We're home, everyone," says Ben.
"Welcome home," says everyone before they rush at Ben & Bella and lift them.
The villagers throw both of them in the air as if they are superstars. Bella is happy and Ben just follows the flow by not doing anything. It finally stops after a minute because Roubaul tells them to stop.
"You must be tired. Have a rest, for now, we can do anything else after that," says Roubaul.
Ben nods and goes to his house so he can sleep on his bed that he has left for a year.
"Your own home is truly the best," says Ben as he lays on his bed.
He sleeps instantly after he laid on his bed and so is Bella. They sleep better than any time in this one year, even better than when they slept in a hotel. There's no better place than your own home, after all.
They wake up late the next day and no one wakes them up in the morning. Everyone just let them rest after having a tiring journey for a year. They wash themselves before eating their breakfast.
After that, the village holds a party to celebrate their success. Some men have hunted many animals this morning for this party. Everyone is happy now because Ben & Bella have returned safely.
The party lasted until the afternoon and many people are wasted, especially men. It makes Ben sigh because his guild has started to become like Fairy Tail now. Luckily, this isn't a usual thing like what happened in Fairy Tail.
Ben leaves the wasted men and goes to the Guild building. He needs to talk with Roubaul and report his 1-year journey. He doesn't need to report it actually, but he feels like he needs to tell the old man.
Maybe he will get some advice or enlightenment from the old fossil. There are many things that still make him curious in his journey, after all. He hasn't found their answers, so maybe Roubaul can help him.
The girls are there because Wendy & Carla want to hear his story too. No one mind it, so Ben starts to narrate his journey's story. Bella also chimed in every once in a while. They don't hide anything, even the meeting with Morgbitt, a demon.
Roubaul approves Ben's action toward Morgbitt even though the old guy is a demon. Even demon has emotions and different personalities. They can't judge demons to be the same just because they are from the same race.
Ben keeps narrating his journey for hours until the sky turns dark. No one wants to stop, so they continue it. They even eat dinner while still hearing Ben & Bella's stories.
They finally get into the part where Ben & Bella found the Magic Library. Ben narrates it excitedly as that is his favorite part. The stories in the library also excite the ones who hear them. It even makes Wendy & Carla want to go to the library on their own one day.
The storytelling goes well and everyone is happy with it. But then something strange happens when Ben arrives at the part where he read about Nirvana & Nirvits. Roubaul & the villagers' expressions change for a brief. It's just for a moment, but Ben realizes it.
'As I thought, they have some kind of connection with Nirvana & Nirvits. I will ask Gramps tomorrow when the girls aren't around,' thinks Ben as he continues his story as if nothing happened.
They finished at midnight after Ben hastened his story a bit. The next day, Ben has a private talk with Roubaul in the guild building.
Ben doesn't chit-chatting first and asks, "What's your connection with Nirvana & Nirvits?"
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Sorry guys, I was in hospital in the last 3 days, and my condition wasn't that good so I couldn't write & upload anything. But now I can start uploading daily again, so don't worry.
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You can read up to 35+ chapters ahead of this fanfic novel & the other one on my Pa_treon page if you are interested.
Clicking that power stone/like also seem to be a good choice, hehe.
I've uploaded:
1. Chapter 169 of Fairy Tail: Sun Eater
2. Chapter 180 of Transcended as Lord Buggy
https://www.pa_treon.com/CaptMermain
(the web didn't use _underscore_, it's to avoid censorship)