– Human! I like this carriage! It's pretty!
Cale got on the carriage and blankly waved.
'I didn't even do this shit in Roan.'
Because this was a world he would never return to…
He held back because he currently had white hair, green eyes with a priest robe on.
He would have just run away if he had to do this in his true appearance.
– Human! I think I'm going to make a couple of these carriages! I'll have to ask my mom and Beacrox!
'Do whatever you want.'
Cale just waved with a stoic look on his face.
It was almost mechanical.
"Oh esteemed Purifier."
Seated next to him was Imperial Princess Olivia, who would soon have her coronation as the new Empress.
"What is it?"
Olivia flinched at Cale's rude response.
Cale didn't care and just acted as he pleased, knowing that he was leaving now.
Woooooooooooooooo–
Pop-! Pang!
Lalala- lalala– lalala-
People continued to cheer.
Their cheering became even louder whenever they made eye contact with Cale.
"Oh esteemed Purifier!"
"Purifier-nim!"
Some of them must have been followers of the Church of the Fire of Purification as they were gathered in one area, kneeling on the ground and giving him the biggest respect that could be given to someone in the church.
– Keke.
Eruhaben delivered his laughter into Cale's mind for Cale to hear.
'Let's ignore everything.'
He really wanted to ignore all of it.
"Mm. I just wanted to let you know that the former Emperor will be executed."
However, Cale had no choice but to look at Olivia after hearing what she said.
The Emperor was her father.
"Is that okay?"
"Someone needs to take responsibility. Since the Huayans patriarch is not here anymore, the Emperor is best suited to take responsibility."
Although Olivia was speaking in a calm voice… Her lips were oddly shaking as she waved to the citizens.
"You have to deal with so much."
Olivia smiled even brighter at Cale's nonchalant comment.
"It is not as difficult as the path you are traveling, oh esteemed Purifier."
"…My path is not very diff-"
"It was determined that the Fourth Imperial Prince and First Imperial Prince will be exiled."
Cale looked at Olivia because she had cut him off but she feigned ignorance.
"They both requested to be in the front lines so they will be in the vanguard for the teams taking care of monsters. I plan on calling them back once some time has passed and my position as the Empress has stabilized."
"…I remember saying that there is no need to tell me about these things…"
"The Agents of Destruction will use their attributes as mercenaries to go all over Xiaolen with priests of the Church of the Fire of Purification in order to accurately understand the current situation of the continent. Furthermore, the people who cooperated with the Huayans in the past will be sent to the extremely polluted precincts to pay for their sins. In addition-"
"…Your Royal Highness."
Olivia finally stopped talking after hearing Cale calling out to her in a low voice before making a comment.
"Thank you very much."
"Things like that-"
"Yes, you want me to stop saying things like that? But I feel like our compensation to you for all that you have done was lacking. Sadly, there is nothing we can give you."
Olivia looked at Cale. Cale flinched at the look of desperation in her eyes.
"Cale-nim. Please stay here and slowly get some rest. We will get you anything and everything you want. Can't you stay here a little longer? A year or two max."
Cale avoided Olivia's gaze.
"I've received enough compensation already."
"…Will just that really be enough?"
The people of the Empire wanted to compensate Cale and his people in any way possible.
'They gave us the entire underground tomb.'
While Cale was fighting against the Huayans patriarch in the central plaza…
Eruhaben and Aphei had gone to the underground tomb to swipe the jiangshis.
Of course, they took everything else in the underground tomb as well.
'Imperial Princess Olivia told us to hand over the jiangshis but keep everything else.'
Cale heard the ancient Dragon's voice in his mind.
– The Imperial Princess is very giving.
That underground tomb was full of extremely precious jewels, gold, and weapons.
'There were a lot of highest-grade magic stones as well.
Non-polluted ones.'
"Just that? Your Royal Highness, you didn't even check the treasures that were in the underground tomb before saying we could have it."
That's right.
Olivia just handed it to them without even looking.
"That was all I could give you right now."
The treasures in the underground tomb were all unofficial items.
"We need to use the official items for this place… So I am just disappointed that I could not compensate you even more."
"…Mm."
There were a lot.
There had been a large number of jewels in the underground tomb.
Yes, there were an extremely large number of jewels.
– Human, it sparkled so much!
Seeing the number of jewels made Cale think that it was true about the Xiaolen Planet having a lot of mines.
'…The truth is that Xiaolen said it will give me the most valuable mine of each kind with the biggest reserves.'
Furthermore, he was supposed to get treasures from Xiaolen as well.
Xiaolen should contact him in about two days.
'Mm.'
Cale was oddly uneasy.
Was it because he didn't cough up blood or faint this time? His experience here did not make him feel that it had been very difficult. That was probably why he felt as if he was receiving a lot compared to what he had done.
But he still let it be.
'Well, it's good to receive more things.'
He would receive whatever he was offered. He didn't like to keep saying no.
"…Although it is an extremely small compensation in return for saving the world…"
"No, your Royal Highness. It is enough."
Olivia quietly watched Cale, who sternly shared his thoughts with her.
'Seriously.'
To be completely honest, the First Imperial Prince had told her about how much jewels had been in the underground tomb.
Investing that much wealth toward the continent would have been extremely beneficial for its development.
However…
'We need to pay him back somehow.'
What he had done was saving this whole place.
'He seems to find it burdensome.'
He oddly looked uncomfortable whenever she brought up compensation.
Wealth was probably like the flowing wind to someone like the Purifier.
'But I need to at least be in his good graces this way.'
Someday…
Yes, maybe she would meet him again someday.
'I can see that the Purifier doesn't like this kind of ceremony either. He doesn't want to be in front of people that much.'
Nonetheless, the fact that they prepared it made him sit in the carriage and receive the cheering of the Xiaolen people with a warm smile on his face.
He even waved at them.
He continued to wave at all of them without stopping.
He currently looked extremely different from that dominating pressure he showed every so often. There was a warmth to him right now.
'Wouldn't there be at least some level of affection?'
Wouldn't he feel some sort of affection toward Xiaolen, the place that he saved?
She couldn't help but have that kind of hope every so often.
'How can I not?'
According to the Pope, their god, the Fire of Purification, told her to hand the divine item over to the Purifier.
Other than the members of the church, Olivia was the only person to know about this.
'If the Purifier really wanted to do so, he could have half-assed the jiangshi purification, taken the divine item, and left while saying that his time was up.'
However, he worked so hard and purified all of the jiangshis, to the point that he staggered.
Based on how he stayed inside after that until today's farewell party, his personality probably didn't allow him to show others that he suffered in pain.
'He even gave us a World Tree.'
He had given them a chance for that precious creation to lay down its roots in their land.
"…Really, truly, thank you very much. Oh esteemed Purifier."
"Ah, yes ma'am. I guess."
The Purifier avoided Olivia's gaze with an unsettled look on his face.
'He is very shy, more than he shows.'
Olivia had a hope.
She hoped that the Purifier would stop by this place at least one more time after seeing the people of Xiaolen cheering and thanking him.
The people of Xiaolen would push forward without him once he left, but…
He was their mental pillar, the person who changed the course of events of the past 300 years and opened the door for a new era.
She hoped that he would come to this place once again.
She desperately hoped for that with all her heart.
As for Cale, this was the thought on his mind as he waved at the people.
'Ah, I want to go home.'
Thankfully, the time to go home arrived soon.
* * *
Cale was standing at the same location as when he first arrived in Xiaolen.
"Cale-nim, everybody is here."
He looked around after hearing Choi Han's report. "The children averaging nine-years-old, Eruhaben, Choi Han, Sui Khan, Mary. And-
"It feels awkward heading back without having done much."
Cale shook his head as Dark Elf Shawn commented with an awkward smile on his face. Sui Khan patted Shawn's arm as he responded.
"You did a lot of work that wasn't visible."
"Haha."
Cale looked at Shawn and Vampire Jezna and nodded his head.
Although the two of them had not spent much time with Cale in this world, they had done quite a lot of things.
They were with the Church of the Fire of Purification, observing the movements of the House of Huayans while Cale was in the Imperial Palace.
They kept a thorough eye on the situation in the capital when Cale and the others were not here.
'They were also part of finding the locations of the other two secret areas with the jiangshis.'
Although they had not been visible in the forefront, things would have been quite complicated without the two of them.
It was always best to have as many allies as possible to delegate tasks.
"Does that mean I left a good impression?"
Jezna asked Cale.
It made him recall what Jezna had said to him.
'He told me to make a very good impression, sir.'
What Duke Fredo had supposedly said to Jezna…
'He told me to make sure that my actions benefit Endable.'
Cale nodded his head at Jezna, who had silently done everything she was assigned and only brought this up now that it was time to head home.
Yeah. Very much."
"Hoohoo."
Jezna smiled.
'Mm.'
The smile made him feel a bit leery. It was similar to Ron's smile whenever he handed Cale a lemon tea.
'Now that I think about it, the emotion I felt after chatting with her was…
That she gave me an ominous feeling. Right?'
Cale felt that he would see this smile of Jezna's again but looked away knowing that there would be no reason for that to happen in the future.
"Umm, umm-"
It was because an extremely timid someone was hesitantly approaching him.
Aphei.
She chatted with Raon, On, Hong, and Eruhaben, in that order, before now approaching Cale.
"Aphei-nim."
"…Are you leaving now?"
"Yes ma'am."
"...."
Aphei's fingers were fidgeting as she stood there silently. Her head was slightly down as well.
It felt as if this Dragon was slowly becoming even more timid.
'Ah, other than when she is destroying things.'
This timid nature was probably her original personality while her natural disposition was coming out now that the situation was stable.
'Aphei chose her homeland in the end as well.'
At first, Aphei had said that she would go with them.
A Dragon born from dead mana… It would definitely be helpful if such a Dragon was by Cale's side.
However, she said that she would remain in this world after seeing the fake World Tree.
'I was alone but I was not alone.'
She said that she heard from the fake World Tree.
'I heard that there are very few existences like me in your world? I also heard that a lot of people don't like them?'
It was the truth.
Although people's views of necromancers were now better in the Roan Kingdom and many other areas…
There were still quite a lot of places that did not have a good view of them.
It was especially because Arm's main forces consisted of black mages and Dark Elves. In fact, there were people who were even more wary of those using the dark arts now.
'I'm going to stay here.'
Aphei chose to stay here.
"Umm-"
Aphei raised her head.
She continued to fidget as she spoke.
"Bye."
She then gently raised her hand and waved a very short wave.
"Yes ma'am. Please be well, Aphei-nim."
"Yeah. You stay healthy while I don't see you as well."
'Hmm?
I feel like I heard something weird?'
Cale wanted to ask Aphei what she meant by that but Aphei had already turned away from Cale and headed toward Mary.
It looked as if she still had a lot of people to speak to in order to say goodbye.
'Mm. I'm sure it was just a random comment.'
Cale decided to ignore it. He then started to look for something.
That was why he did not manage to hear what Raon came over and quietly said to Aphei.
"Hey Aphei! I'll be waiting for you!"
"…Yeah."
"I'll be researching it too! If a god can make something, so can I! We are great and mighty Dragons!"
"…Yeah…I'll research it very hard too...!"
On, who had been quietly listening, looked at the two Dragons with an odd gaze. Unfortunately, Cale did not have the time to pay attention to the two Dragons.
"What are you looking for?"
Sui Khan approached and asked.
"Our captives-"
"Here."
"Ah. They are here as they should be."
Sui Khan pointed behind him.
There were two black burlap sacks. Number 7 and the Chief of Staff were unconscious inside the sacks.
"Mmmmph! Mmph!"
No, one of the people in the sacks seemed to have woken up.
"Ah, he's up again."
Choi Han walked past Cale and nonchalantly approached the sack and hit a few spots.
"Mmmmph! Mm!"
The moving burlap sack became quiet again.
Cale quietly looked at Choi Han and…
"Number 7 is slowly waking up faster and faster from being knocked unconscious."
Cale had a thought on his mind for the first time in a long while after hearing that calm report.
'Vicious bastard.'
Choi Han truly was vicious.
Cale definitely saw it. Cale had seen how the sacks had flailed even more intensely while severely shaking as soon as Choi Han touched it.
Number 7 was acting as if he would throw up as soon as he saw Choi Han's face now.
"Let's go, sir!"
Cale held back a sigh and turned around after hearing an energetic voice.
Durst approached Cale while wearing his priest robe.
He had a large bag on his back.
"Yeah, human! Let's go!"
Cale nodded his head after hearing Raon's voice.
That was the signal for people to move to their spots.
Oooooong– oooooong–
Cale pulled out the divine item that had been vibrating in his pocket since earlier.
The tablet-like screen appeared on the mirror.
< Return Letter >
< Would you like to return now? >
< Yes/No >
He wondered why 'No' was even an option, but… Cale reached his hand out without any hesitation.
< Yes >
The moment Cale's finger touched that word…
Oooooong– oooooong–
The area started shaking.
Cale felt the darkness slowly covered his view.
"Please have a safe journey back."
"Thank you for everything."
Olivia, the Pope, Zero, etc.
The few people who had followed them to the temple said goodbye to Cale and the others.
Cale simply responded by slightly bowing toward them and closed his eyes.
'Now time to go home.'
* * *
Cale had returned.
He was in the Roan Kingdom.
He was in the Temple of the God of Death.
"…Mm."
He took a step back.
He had a look of disgust on his face.
Someone was approaching Cale with their arms wide open.
"Dongsaeng! My little dongsaeng! Welcome back!"
Crown prince Alberu Crossman. He was quickly walking toward Cale with an extremely elegant and warm look on his face.
'What's up with him?'
Cale immediately started scowling.
– Human, it really feels like we are home!
Of course, he ignored Raon's comment.
—
Translator's Comments
Why is Alberu acting like this?