It had been almost two weeks since the incident with the ancient vampire. Things had returned to normal and the sun had finally begun to shine on the City of Sails.
The innocent people of the city who had been abducted had finally returned home to their loved ones. The night-time curfew had also ended, causing the entire city to celebrate till late into the night.
Actually, the celebrations still hadn't stopped. It was understandable after all. The citizens of the city had gone through a lot of troubles, and now they were finally happy.
After finding the chamber full of treasures, the Count took it upon himself to clear out everything first and bring it back to the city.
Upon discussing the division of loot with Lisa, it was finally decided that all the magic texts, artifacts, precious herbs, and ores would be given to the three students of the Clover Academy.
Whereas, all the money that had been found in the chamber would belong to the Count, Magus Emory, and Magus Karl. Some compensation would also be given to the families who had lost their loved ones.
Adam had vehemently opposed this decision. He was willing to give up the most precious of artifacts if it meant that he could swim in gold coins. But after strong persuasion from Lisa and Edward, he reluctantly agreed.
Today was the day that the three students would finally leave Hannes City. They'd been here for almost two months already and it was time for them to return to the academy.
The three of them were currently in their rented manor along with the Count, Magus Emory, and Magus Karl. A grand banquet took place as servers brought dish after dish of the famous local cuisine.
Seeing Adam drink Caldera with great pleasure, Magus Emory laughed. "I have told my people to store all the barrels of Caldera available in your carriage. That should last you a couple of months even if you drink every day."
"Puah!" Adam finished a gourd of wine and slammed the empty gourd on the table. His face was flushed red as he replied with a wide grin, "Magus Emory, you're the best! Kahahaha!"
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})Magus Karl, not willing to be outdone by his friend, chimed in. "Magus Adam, although I don't have wine to offer, I do have many beautiful granddaughters of marriable age, over a dozen of them in fact. I wonder what you think?"
Adam was taken aback by this sudden proposal. He popped another gourd open and drank some more wine before answering with a twisted laugh, "Uehehehe, Magus Karl… That's perf—umph!"
Afraid that his friend might end up marrying over a dozen women and create a harem in his drunken stupor, Edward hurriedly covered his mouth and nervously laughed.
"Haha, Magus Karl, Adam is still too young. He has his whole life ahead of him. Let's talk about this next time."
"Oh… I see, that makes sense." Magus Karl deflated like a balloon.
Count Hannes, seeing this scene, couldn't help but chuckle to himself. He turned to look at Lisa who was elegantly having her meal, and asked, "Magus Lisa, when will the professors from the Clover Academy arrive?"
After exiting the cavern, Lisa immediately wrote a full report of their mission, including their fight with the Rank 1 Vampire and also the appearance of a possible weakened Rank 3 Vampire.
Also, because the strange shadowy wall that served as the entrance to the cavern may possibly have some relation with the Shadowmuir, she had already sent the report via Blackie.
She looked at the Count and replied with assurance, "Considering the fact that the academy had many flying steeds, I don't think it should take the professors that long. At most, they should be here by the day after."
Hearing her, the Count sighed in relief. Although they had thoroughly surveyed the cavern and didn't find any more hidden dangers, it was still better to be sure.
"Alright, thank you very much." The Count smiled.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})The banquet didn't continue for long as the three kids still had to leave for their journey. The Count and the two Magi bade farewell, saying they had something urgent to do.
Seeing them leave so hurriedly, Adam pouted in slight displeasure. "We did—hiccup—so much for them, and they won't even see us off out of the city? Hmph!"
Lisa rolled her eyes at Adam's antics. "Stop being such a drama queen and go pack your things."
Adam saluted her while struggling to stand straight. "Yes, ma'am!"
The next moment, he willed the white lotus to clear up his foggy, intoxicated mind and within a split second, he had become completely sober! Then, he went up to his room and started packing his stuff.
Although he was quite salty about not being able to take the gold and platinum coins from the ancient vampire's chambers, he had still managed to take a lot of other items that were up to his satisfaction.
He looked at the black cape in his hands and praised, "Elegant and practical!"
Suddenly, his body shivered and he said in disgust, "I've been corrupted by that witch, Lisa. I would have never imagined I'd use such words while looking at clothes!"
But he couldn't deny it though. The cape was indeed good. It provided the wearer complete protection from darkness-type Rank 1 spells, and partial defense from other Rank 1 spells
Moreover, it protected the wearer from all types of harsh weather. The cape would naturally adjust the temperature around the wearer's body to a comfortable level.
The youth wore it over his black Magus robes and then looked at the other items.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})He picked up a ring that had an intricate feather pattern around it and put it on. This was the Ring of Light Fall. Like its namesake, it was inscribed with the Rank 1 Spell: Light Fall.
The ring would automatically activate when the wearer suddenly dropped for more than two meters. Alternatively, it could also be activated manually. It was a convenient magic ring.
Apart from these two artifacts, the rest of the loot that Adam had taken for himself included a few magic texts, rare magic herbs that managed to survive for centuries, and finally an unknown ore that he planned to make a new pair of gauntlets out of.
The ancient vampire was extremely wealthy, having in possession of many magic artifacts, both offensive, defensive, and even extremely rare storage types. Alas, these were the only things that caught Adam's eye. The rest were distributed between Edward and Lisa.
Unfortunately, they were never able to find the vampire's most valuable treasure, his grimoire.
It took Adam a while to pack up all his belongings. He even had to clear up his temporary lab and carefully store all the apparatuses. After gathering everything, he placed them in his room.
Seeing the several large chests piled in front of him, the youth's eyes gleamed with excitement. He grabbed an exquisite-
looking, double-piercing, silver earring from his pocket that had a red gem carved into a four-sided star hanging from it. Then, he put it on his left ear.
Following that, he gave a mental command, and all the large chests in the room vanished!
"Hahahaha!" Adam laughed with great enthusiasm and punched the air a few times in sheer excitement.
The earring was a space-type storage artifact with a volume of 25 cubic meters!
Adam guessed that its market value would be at least 20,000 gold pieces. Moreover, this wasn't the only storage-type artifacts that they'd found. There were three more of this type
—all of them rings—and were taken by Edward, Lisa, and the Count.
After playing around with the earring a couple of more times, Adam was finally satisfied. He leisurely went down and found that his friends, the mercenaries, and the servants were already waiting for him outside.
"Took you long enough," Edward grumbled.
"My bad, my bad, let's go." Adam got on his black steed and pulled the reigns.
As the traveling party made their way through the West District and into the Bazaar District, they were puzzled. Lisa, who was at the forefront of the party along with Edward and Adam, couldn't help but frown.
"Why is it so… empty?"
"Who knows? Maybe they went to take a nap?" Adam replied while digging his nose.
"It's morning," Lisa spoke while clenching her fists. Suddenly, she flared up. "And stop digging your damn nose all the time! It's disgusting!"
"F-Fine, relax," Adam replied weakly and stopped his actions.
Suddenly, when they turned around the corner, they were drowned out by a boisterous cacophony of sounds.
"Whoa! They're finally here!"
"Our saviors!"
"The heroes of Hannes City!"
"Lord Adam, Lord Edward, kyaaa~"
"Lady Lisa, look here, look here!"
The three kids were dumbfounded. They didn't expect to receive such a grand send-off on their way out. The three of them couldn't help but feel embarrassed after receiving such a level of fanfare. It couldn't be helped, they were still kids after all.
With faces flushed red, they slowly made their way to the city gates while waving at the crowd.
Adam seemed to be enjoying the most out of them because at some point he had started doing backflips on the horse and even casting spells into the air to entertain the crowd.
When they reached the city gates, they found that Count Hannes, Magus Emory, Magus Karl, as well as all the upper echelons of the city along with all the city guards, were waiting for them.
When they saw the traveling party arrive, they gratefully bowed. "Benefactors of Hannes City, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts!"
They raised their heads and looked at the three kids full of gratitude. Count Hannes came forth and firmly shook hands with Adam. He spoke with tearful eyes, "Thank you… thank you for saving all of our lives."
Adam replied with a gentle smile, "You're welcome."
The Count personally shook everyone's hands and finally sent them on their way.
They came here as anonymous individuals but left as heroes.
