A week later.
Two weary figures walked along the road outside Magnoelia city.
Hop's face was gaunt as he stared at the familiar city not far away, his eyes a little watery. "Elusa, did you see..."
Elusa's complexion was also slightly haggard, her voice trembling, "Hmm, we're back. Finally back..."
Originally, they were traveling by magi‑train from the eastern continent back to Magnoelia in the western Fiore Kingdom, which should have taken less than three days.
But shortly after the magi‑train left Dusk Town, Hop and Elusa on board began to suffer dizziness, headaches, pallor, and nausea.
That's when they remembered a terrifying oversight.
Dragon‑slayer magi are prone to motion sickness.
If only one got sick, the other could help, but the trouble was that both of them had become dragon‑slayer magi.
This meant that if anyone on the train turned hostile toward Hop and Elusa, they might not even have the strength to resist.
So things quickly took a turn for the worse.
Fortunately, Dusk Town was remote with hardly any traffic; Hop and Elusa managed to reach the next station and forced themselves off the train.
Since every mode of transport caused them trouble, the two reluctantly chose the most primitive method—walking.
Of course, walking all the way back to Magnoelia would be absurd, but Hop's "wing" magic saved them a lot of time.
They walked for a while, then Hop carried Elusa flying for a stretch, and in about seven days they traversed the Ishiugal continent from east to west.
Elusa fared better, since a third of the journey she was carried.
But Hop, who did all the work, was utterly exhausted.
In the little flower pot Elusa held, the sunflower gathered its strength and formed a tiny orb of sunlight, which she turned toward Hop with a happy glance.
Hop stroked the sunflower and tucked away the light orb; without its magic restoring his mana, he would have collapsed halfway.
As for why he didn't swap dragon‑slayer magic with Elusa to restore his mana, Hop could only say a sudden, colorful thought in his head left him too embarrassed to speak.
After all, Hop's first encounter with the "mana‑recovery" concept was in the original Fate game... Seeing Hop's exhausted, gaunt appearance, Elusa felt embarrassed, realizing she hadn't helped at all on the journey and had become a burden to him, which was uncharacteristic for her normally self‑reliant nature.
"Hop, you've worked hard all the way. Rest well tonight, and tomorrow I'll treat you to a feast."
Hearing he could eat for free, Hop perked up with a grin, "If Her Majesty the Queen treats me, any hardship is worth it~"
"Smooth talker."
Though she sounded a bit disdainful, Elusa smiled, "Hop, let's head back to the guild first, just show up so everyone won't worry."
Hop nodded; whether he shows up or not didn't matter to him, since he lived at the guild.
As soon as they stepped forward, a surprised voice echoed from behind the road.
"Elusa~ Hop~ Wait for me—"
No need to turn; Hop and Elusa knew who called them—Nazz's voice was always that lively, and of course he himself was the same.
He turned to see the pink‑haired boy running toward them, followed by a blond girl and a blue cat. Hop greeted with a smile, "Yo, isn't that Nazz? Haven't seen you in a week—did you finish your report?"
Nazz's smile froze; how could someone bring up that issue right away... Habi perched on his shoulder, lifted a cat paw and said cutely, "Aye~ Nazz and Grey couldn't write the 20,000‑word self‑critique, so the guild master punished them to clean the guild for a month each. Since Grey is on duty this week, we went out on a quest."
A 20,000‑word critique would indeed be a death sentence for Nazz and Grey; they couldn't possibly write it. Hop suspected Makalov was just trying to give them a hard time.
Elusa greeted Lucy and asked, "Did your mission cause any major damage this time?"
Lucy's expression instantly became awkward, a embarrassed look, stammering without words.
Seeing Lucy's reaction, Elusa immediately understood, turned and grabbed the nervous Nazz who tried to slip away, "Nazz, how many times have I told you to hold back in fights during missions, so you don't waste your reward."
"Now you're teaming up with Lucy, causing damage and dragging her into the cold wind with you."
Elusa crossed her arms, her sharp gaze making Nazz tremble, "Tell me, how much did you earn on this mission, and how much did you lose?"
"We... didn't make any money," Nazz stammered.
This time Nazz's squad took a contract to infiltrate a duke's mansion and destroy a novel, initially for 200,000 J, later raised to 2,000,000 J after meeting the client.
The duke liked maids, so Nazz and Habi jokingly coaxed Lucy into disguising herself as a maid to apply at the duke's house, then secretly destroy the novel.
But who knew the duke was not only ugly, his taste was bizarre; the maids in his house looked grotesquely odd.
Maid Lucy naturally failed the interview, so they resorted to infiltration.
As expected, an accident happened.
The duke hired mercenaries as security, who discovered the infiltrating Nazz and Lucy, leading to a big brawl in the mansion.
Nazz beat two mercenaries and helped Lucy defeat the duke, who also used star‑spirit magic, then successfully took the novel the client wanted destroyed.
When they returned to the client, they learned the novel's author was the client's father, who had been imprisoned by the duke and forced to write a disgraceful novel, eventually cutting off his own arm and dying in despair.
That's why the client wanted the novel destroyed.
However, Lucy discovered the novel was enchanted with a "text‑replacement" spell, hiding its true content—a book a father wrote for his son.
Because they didn't destroy the novel as required, Nazz unilaterally refused the client's payment, seeing that the client lacked the funds.
They blew up the duke's mansion and beat the duke up, but after all that, the squad gained nothing but enemies.
Seeing the stern Elusa raise her hand toward him, Nazz thought he was about to get hit again, and he and Habi instinctively crouched, covering their heads.
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