My Grim Reaper Class: I can kill anything.

Chapter 74: Finally Home

*Day 38 since the Seal’s activation.*

Nathan and Liaraen left Rendel at dawn.

The innkeeper saw them off with a brief nod.

The road to the border climbed gradually through the Threshold Mountains’ foothills. The air grew colder. The trees began to thin out. High clouds partially covered the morning sun, producing a diffuse light that flattened the landscape’s colors.

Nathan drove the cart with his usual calm. Liaraen read for the first hour. Then she lowered the book. Looked ahead.

"Nathan."

"Yes?"

"The pass is approximately three hours away."

"Getting closer."

"Before the pass, we’ll find the elven checkpoint."

"Checkpoint?"

"Yes. Aelthoren isn’t a kingdom you cross freely. There’s formal control at the crossing. Elven guards with admission authority."

"Are they going to ask questions?"

"They’re going to ask several. About origin, purpose of visit, estimated duration. Most human visits to the Kingdom are diplomatic and arrive with prior documentation. A cart with two people without escort and without documentation is going to trigger standard procedure."

"Understood."

"I’m going to handle the conversation."

"Acceptable."

"When I tell them my name, the conversation is probably going to change in tone."

"I’m bad at diplomacy."

"When I mention that I was kidnapped and that you rescued me, the conversation is going to change in tone again."

"More problems."

"You’re going to have to accept formal elven treatment during the interaction without commenting."

"Acceptable."

"Nathan."

"Yes?"

"Don’t make jokes."

Nathan looked at her.

"Sprout."

"Yes?"

"I promise to try not to make jokes."

"Nathan."

"I’ll try. Honestly."

"Acceptable."

They continued.

Around midday, the road reached the first checkpoint.

---

The post was small but visually distinct.

A gray stone structure built between two enormous trees that formed a natural arch over the road. A carved sign on the arch with inscriptions in Elven and Common. Two elven guards standing in front of the arch, with light dark-green armor and ceremonial spears whose tips emitted a faint magical glow.

Nathan stopped the cart ten meters from the arch.

The guards looked at them.

One of them, apparently the senior, made a gesture with his right hand for them to approach.

Nathan drove the cart slowly.

He stopped at the arch’s foot.

The senior guard approached the driver’s seat. He looked at Nathan first. Then at Liaraen. His eyes stopped on her for approximately two seconds.

And something in his face changed.

His formal aristocratic posture restored with more emphasis. His spear shifted to a slightly more ceremonial position. His eyes widened slightly.

"You come from the human kingdom," the guard said, in Common with an elven accent.

"Yes," Nathan replied.

"Purpose of the visit."

Before Nathan could respond, Liaraen spoke.

In Elven.

As the guard spoke with Liaraen, he glanced at Nathan.

Nathan didn’t understand the words.

"Yours, just in case."

The guard went very still.

He looked at Liaraen for a full moment.

Then he inclined his head in a full formal bow.

He turned quickly to the other guard. Spoke to him in Elven as well, with more urgent tone. The other guard also went very still. Then inclined his head. Turned and ran into the checkpoint building.

The senior guard turned back to Nathan.

"Human Hunter."

"Yes."

"Your name?"

"Nathan Voss."

"Hunter Voss. I am Guardian Aeryn of the Northern Checkpoint. Lady Sael’thoryn has informed me that you are responsible for having rescued her and escorted her from human territory to here."

"Apparently yes."

"Hunter Voss. On behalf of the Kingdom of Aelthoren and specifically House Sael’thoryn, I want to express our formal gratitude."

Nathan looked at him.

*Good.*

*Here it begins.*

"I appreciate the thanks," Nathan said, with his usual controlled calm.

"We are going to provide you with a formal escort from this point to the central valley. The route will be prioritized. The intermediate posts will be notified."

"I appreciate the gesture," Nathan replied.

He turned to Liaraen.

Liaraen had her aristocratic posture fully restored. Her face was expressionless. Her pale green eyes held carefully controlled attention. But Nathan, after twenty-six days with her, noticed the small trembling in her hands folded on her lap. Not fear. The specific trembling of repressed anticipation.

*She’s been imagining this moment for a long time.*

*Coming home.*

*Good.*

The other guard came out of the post with two additional figures. Two younger elves, with similar armor but lighter ceremonial spears. Apparently the assigned escorts.

Guardian Aeryn turned to them and gave quick instructions in Elven. The two young ones nodded. They positioned themselves one ahead and one behind the cart.

Aeryn turned back to Nathan.

"Hunter Voss. The escort is ready. You’ll reach the central valley in approximately two days. Once there, Lady Sael’thoryn’s house will receive you and you can rest."

"Acceptable."

"Welcome to Aelthoren."

"I appreciate the welcome."

Nathan drove the cart forward.

They passed through the arch.

And for the first time since Nathan could remember in his adult decisions, he entered a kingdom that wasn’t Vael’Karenth.

---

Aelthoren, in the first hour of travel, was considerably different from Vael’Karenth.

The forest wasn’t exactly a forest. It was a living organization of trees.

The trunks were spaced with a regularity that suggested intention. The spaces between trees were covered in short, uniform grass. Certain trees had carvings on their bark that Nathan didn’t understand but that emitted a faint glow similar to the guards’ spears. Light filtered through the canopy with the specific quality only forests tended for centuries by deliberate hands possess.

And the birds.

Nathan had spent weeks in the northern continent’s forests and had heard several distinct species. But Aelthoren’s birds had songs Nathan recognized as musical in a more literal sense. The sounds organized themselves into sequences. They responded across different trees.

Nathan stopped the cart for a moment.

He looked.

He looked more.

Then he spoke, quietly.

"Sprout."

"Yes?"

"This forest sings."

"Yes."

"With structure."

"Yes."

"Do all of Aelthoren’s forests sing like this?"

"Not all with the same organization. The central ones, yes. The border regions, less. The forest we’re in is one of the oldest. Apparently the birds have been developing synchronized vocal patterns for generations."

"It seems like they have a lot of free time."

Nathan kept driving.

The two elven escorts maintained the pace with the efficiency of trained warriors. The front one cleared the way when the path narrowed. The rear one closed in with his spear in a resting position. Neither spoke during the first hour.

Around mid-afternoon, the path descended considerably.

Nathan controlled the chestnut horse’s pace to avoid straining it on the descent.

And approximately when the last hour of descent began, the landscape opened up.

Nathan stopped the cart.

He looked.

Ahead of him, toward the valley floor, an enormous valley stretched in all directions. Forests covered the entire valley. Rivers snaked between the trees. And distributed throughout the valley, architectural structures Nathan hadn’t been able to concretely imagine from Liaraen’s descriptions materialized before his eyes.

Houses built in the trees.

Not small cabins. Complete structures. Rooms distributed along enormous trunks. Halls between the major branches. Walkways of living wood connecting different levels. Some houses had three, four, five visible floors. Others were smaller but elaborately constructed.

And in the center of the valley, larger than any other structure, a specifically colossal tree rose above the rest of the forest canopy. With a house built around it that apparently incorporated the entire trunk as architectural structure.

Nathan looked at it.

Looked more.

Then he turned to Liaraen.

"Sprout."

"Yes?"

"That large tree in the center?"

"Yes."

"That’s your home."

"Yes."

Liaraen looked at him.

And for the first time in the last few hours, her restored aristocratic posture trembled very slightly. Not visible to anyone but Nathan. But visible to him clearly.

"Nathan," Liaraen said quietly.

"Yes?"

"I’m home."

"It seems so, Sprout."

"Definitely yes."

Nathan drove the cart toward the final descent.

The two escorts maintained the pace.

And approximately two hours later, when the afternoon sun began to lower behind the western peaks, they entered Aelthoren’s central valley.