Chapter 73: Return
Suppressing their impatience, Jin and the others urged the carriage onward toward the city of Lienz. There was no particular reason to rush, but the fact that they would soon be home made their hearts feel light.
And so, with only brief rests along the way, they kept the carriage moving, finally returning to the city of Lienz after roughly half a month.
In front of the gate stood merchant caravans waiting their turn to enter the city, and Jin’s group lined up behind them. They weren’t kept waiting long before it became their turn.
“Oohhh! If it isn’t Jin. Welcome back.”
The one who called out from the gate was Burke. Before Jin had departed, Burke’s face had been clouded with worry over Nils, but now he welcomed them with a broad smile.
“It’s been a while, Burke-san. From the looks of it, Nils has recovered safely.”
“Yeah. Thanks to you all, he’s doing great. Really, thank you.”
Burke answered Jin’s question with a smile, and Jin felt relieved—but at the same time, a faint sense of discomfort crept in.
“Oops, sorry. Others are waiting, so I’ll give my thanks properly another time.”
Before Jin could identify the source of that unease, Burke returned to his duties as a gate guard. He had noticed people lining up behind Jin’s group.
“Welcome back, Aria—and everyone else, too. You may pass.”
After efficiently peering into the carriage and confirming the presence of all four of them, Burke gestured for them to enter the city.
And so, though it was a bit hectic, Jin and the others finally made it safely back to the city of Lienz.
After parting ways with Burke at the gate, Jin’s group first returned the carriage and horses they had borrowed from the guild.
Having relied heavily on the two horses during this journey, they all took the time to properly thank them—brushing them down and feeding them before parting ways. The horses even looked a little forlorn when they separated, so Jin and the others resolved to come visit again with carrots.
All of their luggage was stored inside Infinite Storage, so they traveled light. Though they had been away for just over two weeks, the scenery felt nostalgic as they slowly made their way through the city.
“Jin Onii-chan!”
A lively voice called out to him, and the girl who owned it—Airis—came running over. Jin crouched down and gently caught her, and a moment later, the Orto couple hurried over as well.
“I’m back, Airis. I made it back safely.”
“Welcome back! Ehehe. We pinky-promised, remember~?”
It was an unexpected reunion, but Jin was happy to see Airis looking so energetic right after returning. At the same time, he could finally feel—truly—that they had done it.
Airis, Jin, Aria, and the others watching over them, and the Orto couple as well—all of them were smiling brightly.
“It’s been a while, Orto-san, Iris-san.”
After playing with Airis for a bit, Jin stood up with her still held against his chest and exchanged greetings with the Orto couple.
“Welcome back, Jin-san. We’ve been waiting for all of you.”
“Truly. Thanks to you, Airis can be this lively again. Thank you so very much.”
But the Orto couple didn’t stop at simple greetings—especially Iris, who bowed deeply with tears welling in her eyes.
“No, no, please raise your head.”
They were in the middle of the city, with plenty of people passing by, making the scene extremely conspicuous. Jin urged her to straighten up, feeling a bit flustered.
This journey and the matter of Mana Fever had been carried out in strict secrecy, known only to a handful of people. Even though they had ultimately avoided using the Demonbane Elixir, the existence of Pergrune and the past he had spoken of meant it still had to remain confidential.
Of course, the Orto couple hadn’t been told anything specific, so they shouldn’t have known that Jin’s group had done something. Still, perhaps because of the promise Jin had made to Airis, they had managed to piece things together.
Thinking that, and recalling Burke’s earlier words, Jin found that the sense of discomfort he’d felt refused to fade. Finally, he decided to ask outright.
“Um… how did you know that we did something?”
“Huh? Well, it’s become a rumor, so I thought everyone knew…”
“…What?”
Jin and the others were left speechless, frozen in place.
“Sorry!”
The scene shifted to a room inside the Adventurers’ Guild, where Greg was bowing deeply to Jin and the others.
It was still fresh in their minds how Jin’s group had contacted Greg from Tron using the magical communication device to report the solution to Mana Fever. That was where the information first leaked.
Because the temple had soon been mobilized on a large scale to address the issue, Greg hadn’t been able to keep everything fully under control despite trying to enforce secrecy.
What leaked was merely information about where the communication had originated—but that was enough for rumors to spread that adventurers in the city of Tron had been the key figures who saved the children. If it had ended there, it might not have been exposed. However, news soon arrived, again from Tron, that Gerd had been defeated, and the report included mention that Jin’s group had played a part.
That was the decisive blow.
Since this incident arose so suddenly, there had naturally been no gag order in place. While no one had actively tried to spread information, it was only natural that someone would eventually connect the two separate streams of information that leaked out.
And so, rumors that accurately hit upon the truth spread throughout the city of Lienz.
“Please raise your head, Instructor Greg. This was bound to come out eventually.”
The only thing that leaked from the guild was where the communication had originated, and that in itself wasn’t particularly important information. Even if it had slipped out reflexively, it wouldn’t have been strange. There was no way anyone could have imagined that a notice bearing Jin’s name would later circulate. Jin had no intention whatsoever of blaming Greg.
“When you think about it, even though it was necessary, keeping it secret became difficult the moment we made contact.”
“Exactly. And we do need to spread the countermeasure for Mana Fever as soon as possible anyway. Once we do that, even if it didn’t leak in Lienz, the chances of it leaking in Tron would be high.”
Aria and Rachel followed up one after the other.
Given that it couldn’t be ruled out that children suffering from Mana Fever existed in other cities as well, spreading this treatment was only natural for Rachel, who also worked at a clinic. In fact, about seven days had passed since they began using the new method, and verification was complete, so they planned to distribute the information through all guild branches as early as tomorrow.
That meant that, going forward, no children would lose their lives to Mana Fever. But once that happened, tracing the source of the information wouldn’t be especially difficult. After all, the use of magical communication devices was always recorded, and Greg’s attempt at suppressing information only applied to Lienz—it didn’t extend to Tron.
Greg felt responsible for what had happened and was apologizing, but if responsibility were to be assigned, Jin himself shared it for not taking steps to enforce secrecy either. And since the matter of the Demonbade Elixir hadn’t leaked, Jin judged that this was still the lesser evil.
“More importantly, Instructor Greg, let’s think about what to do from here on out.”
“Erza’s right. There are still things we can’t talk about.”
“…Understood. Sorry.”
Urged by Erza and Jin that what mattered now was how they responded going forward, Greg finally raised his head.
The thing they couldn’t talk about was, of course, Pergrune. If his existence became public, there was a risk that the truth about the Madoren Flower = Mana-Absorbing Flower would come to light, and it could also mean breaking the promise they’d made to him.
While Jin hadn’t told Greg Pergrune’s name or the details of the Madoren Flower due to that promise, he had explained that they encountered a sacred beast and, in exchange for giving up on obtaining Madoren Flower petals, were given a hint about how to solve Mana Fever.
If they were going to conceal the existence of that sacred beast, then the key issue would be how to fabricate the circumstances and location under which they learned the solution to Mana Fever. Jin and the others continued discussing the matter with Greg for some time, and eventually settled on the following story.
First, as for the solution to Mana Fever, it was fortunate that the actual method was one that made people think, “Ah, I see,” once it was explained. It was essentially a “Columbus’s egg” type of insight. So they decided to go with the explanation that Jin—who had been constantly thinking about the children suffering from the illness in Lienz—suddenly had a flash of inspiration.
However, the name Mana Fever itself had been obtained through Jin’s Appraisal, so it couldn’t be made public. Instead, the story would be that, based on the common trait that almost no patients over the age of thirteen were affected, he suspected that the solution involved Basic Magic.
Incidentally, the reason Jin made it seem as though he himself came up with the idea wasn’t out of a desire for recognition, but in preparation for any potential trouble that might arise in the future. They had also considered claiming they’d heard it from a fictional third party, but abandoned the idea due to the risk of impostors appearing and abusing it for criminal purposes.
They also decided that Jin’s realization had occurred while descending the Dazul Mountain Range. After discussing the idea within the party and judging it to be most likely correct, they headed to the city of Tron and contacted Lienz from there.
The important point here was that Jin and the others had gone to the Dazul Mountain Range purely for their C-rank promotion exam—the location itself was unrelated to the incident.
Thus, if the matter ever came up again, they would stick to the explanation: “On the way back from the promotion exam, I suddenly had a flash of insight. I had a strange conviction that it was correct, so I reported it—and it really was the right answer.”
While it wasn’t a story completely free of holes, it was the safest and least problematic version they could come up with.
Greg had already been told the full extent of the truth that could be shared with him, and Jin intended to later tell Clark and Bean the same limited version as well.
Even so, Jin couldn’t deny feeling frustrated by these restrictions. He believed that the truth about the Madoren Flower and the mistakes of the past were matters that couldn’t be avoided forever. But the reason Pergrune hadn’t permitted them to speak of it was likely because he believed that now was not yet the time. Still, if Jin ever felt that it became necessary to reveal the truth, he planned to go and seek Pergrune’s permission once more.
With their policy decided, Greg moved on to his final summary.
“Alright. Then we’ll go with this story from here on out. I’ll also keep this information suppressed on the grounds that you don’t want to draw attention to yourselves—that’ll actually make it more believable. Still, based on the rumors already out there, things around you might get noisy. Sorry about that, but handle it as best you can. Anything else?”
At Greg’s final question, Jin glanced at Aria. She remained silent, lightly shaking her head.
“Nothing.”
At Jin’s reply, Greg seemed to notice the exchange and twisted his mouth slightly in amusement, as if he’d caught on to something.
“I see. Then you’ve all been on a long journey—take two or three days to rest properly. Seriously, good work. And Jin, you’re drinking with me tomorrow.”
“Haha, got it. I actually have something I wanted to talk about too, so I’ll gladly join you.”
The two of them smiled as they made the promise, completely unaware that the expressions on the women’s faces watching them had stiffened slightly.
Nor did they notice Erza and Rachel exchanging a glance toward Aria, who was planning to talk to Greg later about her future.
In any case, after that, Jin and the others finished reporting their C-rank promotion exam at the guild—and with that, they were officially promoted to C-rank adventurers.
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