Chapter 30: Departure
The bonfire crackled softly.
Nobody mentioned the time. Nobody had to.
A small goblin child tugged on the edge of Vedas’s armored arm, and when the Goblin Commander looked down.
The child smiled brightly. "I’m glad you’re our Chief. With you being that... Commander? It means you will be staying with us forever!"
The nearby children immediately nodded.
"Yeah!"
"The Chief stays!"
"We can train tomorrow!"
Vedas froze, and then the smile on his face slowly faded. Then he gently shook his head. "...I can’t."
The children blinked. "What?"
Silence spread.
Nearby adults stopped talking, and the Goblin Hunters turned. Even the dancing slowly came to a stop.
The child stared. "You... can’t?"
Vedas closed his eyes and then nodded. "We have to leave."
The words hit the settlement like a hammer.
One by one. The realization spread.
The Chief was leaving.
The humans were leaving.
The miracle that had arrived would disappear.
Suri lowered her head and the smile she had been wearing vanished. Athena glanced down. And saw only four minutes remaining.
...
Nearby, Gruk slowly exhaled.
He had known this moment was coming, but that didn’t make it easier. He stepped forward and raised his staff, and the settlement came to quiet in the way it always came to quiet for him, gradually and then completely.
The old goblin looked around at all of them. At the children. The hunters. The adults who had repaired the walls and distributed the food and held this place together through every raid and every fear for more years than most people thought about. Then he looked at Arthur and Vedas and the others at the edge of the firelight.
"They were never meant to stay," he said.
Nobody argued.
"The fact they came at all..." His aged face softened. "...was already a miracle."
The children lowered their heads.
Several adults wiped at their eyes.
Gruk smiled. "We should be grateful."
The settlement slowly calmed.
Then Gruk suddenly turned toward Arthur. "Arthur."
Arthur blinked. "Hm?"
"What is your full name?"
Arthur tilted his head. "My full name?"
Gruk nodded.
Arthur shrugged. "Arthur Cronwall ."
Silence.
Gruk raised his staff.
"Then from this day forward, we are the Cronwall Tribe."
Athena froze.
Melo blinked.
Even Athy stopped moving.
Vedas trembled while Arthur blankly stared.
[Requirement Completed]
[Establish a Tribe]
[1/1]
Then the entire village erupted.
All of the children were cheering, the hunters were shouting, and the adults were laughing.
The declaration spread through the crowd like wildfire.
Arthur stood in the middle of it and looked at Mithra. "...what?"
Mithra was already laughing. "Congratulations. You’ve accidentally adopted an entire tribe."
"Does that mean they’re all my responsibility?"
"Yes," she said.
Arthur stared into the middle distance. "I feel like I should have read the terms before agreeing."
"The terms were implied," Mithra said.
"By what?"
"By you showing up."
Athena had stopped laughing long enough to write something. Even Vedas looked amused. Arthur suddenly felt like he had made a terrible mistake.
Then Gruk walked toward Arthur.
"I want to tell you something," Gruk said.
Arthur waited.
"I did not believe you when you first arrived," Gruk said. "Not truly. I hoped. I wanted to. But hope is not the same as belief." He was quiet for a moment. "You proved me wrong."
"Vedas proved you wrong," Arthur said.
"Vedas gave us hope." Gruk looked at Arthur. "But you... gave him the chance to become hope." Silence. "There is a difference."
Arthur had no immediate response.
Gruk nodded once, the satisfied nod of someone who had said the thing they needed to say.
"Come back," Gruk said. "When you can. This tribe will be worth coming back to."
"I know," Arthur said. "That’s why I’m going."
Gruk looked at him.
Then he smiled. "Good answer," he said.
...
The farewells took the time they needed.
The hunters came forward. The broad-shouldered hunter stopped in front of Vedas and did not say anything for a moment.
"I held the wall during the raid," he said finally. "I held it because I was told to and because the others were there." He paused. "But I’ll hold it next time because I want to. Because I understand now what I’m holding it for." He looked at Vedas steadily. "That’s because of you."
Vedas nodded with a grin. "I know," he said. "And you’ll hold it better."
The hunter nodded once before stepping back.
Then another hunter came with his head lowered. "Chief."
Vedas looked toward him. "We’ll protect the settlement."
Another hunter stepped forward. "We’ll become stronger."
A third clenched his fist. "When you return..." His eyes burned with determination. "We’ll be worthy of standing beside you."
Vedas smiled. "I’ll look forward to it."
The hunters straightened immediately.
Nearby, several children rushed forward. One of them grabbed Vedas’s hand. "Come back."
Another nodded rapidly. "You promised!"
Vedas looked helpless. "I didn’t promise."
"You did!"
"I didn’t."
"You did!"
The argument immediately started.
Even Suri laughed.
Then she froze because she suddenly remembered. There wasn’t much time left. The female Goblin slowly walked forward, and the settlement became quiet.
Suri stopped in front of Vedas, and her hands trembled slightly. Not from fear, but the mix of emotions she was feeling right now.
"Chief."
Vedas looked at her.
Suri took a deep breath. "We’ll keep training." Her voice shook. "We’ll become stronger."
"So next time..." She looked away as she was trying very hard not to cry. "...you won’t have to worry about us."
Vedas smiled. "I know."
That was all it took. Suri immediately lowered her head. Because if she looked up, she knew she would start crying.
..
Mithra had found the children.
She sat down next to them, but all of them looked away, still crying.
"You all survived," she was saying, quietly enough that it was a conversation. "You held onto each other. You protected one another through everything that happened." She looked at the small faces around her. "You should be proud of that."
One of the children pressed both hands over their face.
Another looked at her. "Will you come back too?"
Mithra looked at the child. "I’ll try," she said.
"That’s not yes," the child said.
"No," Mithra said. "It’s not." She did not soften it. "But trying is real. I mean it."
The child processed this with the seriousness children applied to things that mattered.
"Okay," the child said. "We’ll be here."
Mithra smiled. It was the warm one, the one she kept for things she meant fully.
"I’ll remember that," she said.
A smaller child crawled into her lap without asking. Mithra looked down, then looked around as if checking whether anyone had objections, then put her arm around the child with the ease of someone who had made a quick decision and was comfortable with it.
Arthur watched this from across the bonfire.
"Mithra," he said.
She looked over.
"Three minutes," he said.
She nodded, but she didn’t move. "One more minute," she said.
"Sure," Arthur said.
He looked away and let her have it.
...
One of the younger children had found her at some point during the evening and had been following her. The child was standing nearby, looking up at Athena with wide, curious eyes.
"What are you writing?" the child asked.
"History," Athena said.
"Whose history?"
Athena looked at the child for a moment. "Yours," she said.
The child considered this. "I’ve never had history before."
Athena smiled. "Everyone has history. Someone just has to write it. And now you guys do; I’m writing it down so it doesn’t disappear."
The child looked at the notebook. Then at Athena. Then sat down next to her and stared at what Athena was writing.
Athena smiled at the child before she continued writing with one hand and rubbing the child’s head with her other hand.
...
Athena checked again.
One minute left.
Arthur looked around the settlement one final time. The repaired walls. The lit huts. The people who had been afraid at the beginning of the day and were not afraid now. "I’m going to miss this place," he said.
Mithra nodded.
Athena nodded.
Neither disagreed.
Light suddenly erupted from their uniforms.
The Goblins panicked. Children rushed forward. Hunters shouted farewells. Suri smiled through tears.
Gruk raised his staff. "May the Cronwall Tribe remember this day!"
Arthur looked around one last time and then smiled. "I’ll be back."
The light swallowed them.
The world vanished.
...
Greenleaf Town at night was louder than the morning had been.
Professor Roland Hayes stood at the edge of the examination grounds and observed the crowd that had assembled since the workday ended.
Parents, merchants, representatives from three different academies, and enough townspeople that the square had stopped having comfortable space in it. The Entrance Exam ending always drew attendance, but when it was close to nighttime. The crowd at this time was always the biggest.
Students were returning in the steady flow that Roland expected from a reasonably successful exam. He walked the perimeter, noted which beasts had survived and which had not.
Before he could think further, a pillar of light appeared.
Cassian Valemont appeared, and Taurus followed behind him. Roland smiled when he saw the Valemont heir looked fine.
Then Cassian immediately walked over. "Instructor."
Roland blinked. "Yes?"
"How do our beasts get stronger?
Roland blink. "The easiest way is to kill monsters and absorb their mana into the Beasts. But you could also spar with them–"
Cassian quickly asked. "What about evolution? Is there actually any established method?"
Roland frowned. "Established method? If one existed, the person who developed it wouldn’t just be the wealthiest individual on the Elysia Continent. They’d be the wealthiest in the entire World of Paradise." He paused.
Cassian frowns and says. "Then how is it possible for someone to evolve their Beasts?
Roland chuckles and says. "That’s something you will learn in your first year at the academy."
"Then how does beast level relate to evolution?"
Roland considered this for a moment. "Levels aren’t just strength. But things that help a beast figure out how to evolve."
Cassian looked at his Taurus standing beside him. "Has any Beast Tamer ever evolved their beast on the first day of receiving it?"
Roland stopped before laughing. "Of course, not."
Cassian didn’t laugh. "Not even the Grandmasters?"
Roland paused. "Even them. To evolve a beast in one day is impossible."
Cassian looked down and then quietly muttered. "...I see."
Roland frowned as he watched Cassian walk away. Something about this conversation felt wrong, and it only left him more confused.
Then another pillar of light appeared.
Then the crowd erupted.
Leon Draken walked out of the teleportation light, and the reaction he received was the reaction he always received. But then Roland froze before blinking and then rubbing his eyes as if what he saw was the light.
Leon was smiling.
The famous heir that has never smiled in his life... was now smiling. Roland processed this for approximately two seconds before he saw the dragon.
Mephistopheles was larger.
The presence coming off the creature had become even more terrifying. The representatives nearest to it were stepping backward without having decided to. Not out of fear but shocked at the Golden Dragon’s growth.
Roland crossed the distance quickly. "Leon... Your dragon."
Leon looked at him with those golden eyes that had always made Roland feel briefly examined. "Mephistopheles evolved."
The examination grounds went silent.
And then it erupted in the next second.
Roland’s mouth opened and closed. An evolved dragon. First day. The conversation with Cassian slotted into place behind his eyes, and the realization of what Cassian had been asking about became visible.
Leon walked to his designated area and sat down. The crowd followed him with its attention, and his family’s guards created the distance that reporters and representatives kept trying to close.
His face slowly changed. "...what happened in that exam?"
Students continued returning through the teleportation gate. Roland barely noticed them as his attention was still on Leon.
An evolved Golden Dragon.
On the first day.
Impossible.
Then...
"...Did you hear?"
Roland’s head turned.
Two students hurried past. "It was Arthur."
"...Arthur?"
"The Goblin guy."
They disappeared into the crowd.
Roland frowned, and then a minute later another pair arrived.
"I’m telling you..."
"...Cronwall actually did it."
"What?"
"I still don’t believe it."
They noticed Roland nearby and immediately stopped talking.
Roland’s frown deepened.
Then three more students appeared. "...No, the Goblin."
"The Goblin?"
"It became a warrior."
"...Impossible."
Roland stared after them.
Warrior?
Before he could think further—
Another group returned.
"...He even fought a dragon."
"...No."
"I’m serious."
"The Goblin actually—"
The speaker froze after noticing Roland and quickly changed the subject. Roland looked from one group to another.
Arthur Cronwall.
Goblin Warrior.
Dragon.
Every conversation contained one of those words. "...What happened in there?"
More students appeared.
Another pillar of light appeared.
Athena Silver stepped out first, and she immediately began writing in her notebook. Nothing unusual there.
Then Mithra Lucis appeared.
Roland relaxed slightly.
Good.
She could explain what happened.
Before he reached her—
Another pillar of light erupted and out came Arthur Cronwall.
Roland paused.
Arthur looked around the examination grounds, and then he smiled.
Not the relieved smile Roland expected.
Or one of exhaustion.
It looked like someone who had just come back from the best day of his life.
A strange feeling settled into Roland’s chest. As though something was very, very wrong. As though he had missed something important.
Roland looked toward Leon.
Toward Cassian.
Toward the students still whispering.
Then back toward Arthur.
He suddenly realized something. Every strange conversation tonight... Had somehow led back to the same person.
Arthur Cronwall.
Roland narrowed his eyes. "...Just what happened in the Veridian Realm?"
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