Chapter 44: 44. Homecoming
The exit portal spilled them into sunlight.
Nathan blinked, eyes adjusting after ten floors of silver mist and shadow. The Veiled Colosseum’s exterior hadn’t changed but the world around it had. The stands were still packed. Camera drones still hovered, lenses tracking every emerging figure. The public broadcast had shown everything: Mirko’s humanoid form, Kuro’s debut as a Shadow Assassin, Marcus Kade’s defeat.
The crowd erupted.
Not one unified roar, but a storm of competing reactions: cheers from neutral spectators, gasps from academy students who recognized Nathan, scattered boos from Stone loyalists who’d lost money. Nathan spotted familiar faces: classmates who’d laughed at his summoning ceremony, now staring with disbelief or dawning horror. The girl who’d boasted about her family’s lightning beasts. The student who’d hoped for a D-Grade Flame Wolf. All watching the Bunny King take his victory lap.
Guild scouts pushed forward, business cards raised like offerings. Nathan caught a flash of burgundy....Maris Vellan from Silver Drake Guild, her polished smile still in place, her eyes sharper and more calculating. She wasn’t the only one.
"Cross! Over here! Celestial Peak wants a word!"
"Nathan! Red Dragon Guild! name your terms!"
"Is it truly true you’ve got two humanoid summons? They aren’t borrowed? How?"
Garrett clapped Nathan on the back hard enough to stagger him. "You hear that? They’re shouting your name! Not ’Bunny King’....well, some are...but they’re shouting YOUR name!"
"I hear them." Nathan kept walking toward the exit gate.
"You’re ignoring them! That’s Celestial Peak! One of the Prestigious Five!"
"They can wait."
Dillon waved at the crowd like a performer taking a curtain call, his Cloud Serpent coiled around his shoulders. "Thank you! No autographs... just kidding, I’ll sign anything. That lady in the third row, I saw you cheering"
"Dillon." Elise’s voice could have frozen the sun.
"I’m celebrating! We won! When else is more appropriate than this!?"
"Privately. Quietly. With dignity."
"Privately, quietly, with dignity," Dillon repeated, as if memorizing a foreign language. "Sounds incredibly boring."
Mirko and Kuro had shifted back to bunny forms, Mirko a familiar green weight on Nathan’s shoulder, Kuro a shadow tucked into his jacket. The crowd had already seen everything, but small forms were easier to navigate. Mirko’s mental voice was warm. ’They’re staring, Master. The ones who laughed at your graduation.’
’Let them.’
’I intend to.’
Kuro’s voice was drier. ’The noisy ones are offering money. Large sums. Is that normal?’
’For a public duel winner? Yes.’
’Will you accept?’
’Not today.’
---
Derek’s party emerged a minute later, and the crowd’s attention fractured.
Marcus Kade walked out under his own power. His greatsword was gone... broken pieces still scattered across Floor 10... and his clothes were torn, but his stride was steady. Ursa’s summon mark pulsed faintly on his forearm. His face betrayed nothing. Eight years of climbing had taught him how to lose with composure.
Behind him, Derek Stone looked hollow. His Salamander still coiled at his feet, but its flames guttered, its heat diminished. Tyler and Reid trailed at the rear, their summons withdrawn into their marks. Neither looked up from the ground.
A figure waited near the Stone family’s private transport: a man in his fifties, tall and cold-eyed, his suit immaculate. Victor Stone. He didn’t shout or gesture. He simply stood, and the crowd around him seemed to thin by instinct.
Derek stopped before his father. The silence between them was louder than the crowd.
"We will discuss this at home." Victor’s voice carried effortlessly calm and measured. The voice of a man who’d never needed to raise it. "Your brothers will be present."
Derek flinched. "Father, Cross was hiding—he had two summons, it wasn’t fair—"
"I saw the broadcast." Victor’s gaze flicked to Nathan, just a moment, just long enough to register. Not a glare. Not a threat. An assessment, cold and thorough, the look of a collector eyeing an unfamiliar artifact. Then back to his son. "We will discuss this at home."
He turned to Kade. "Your contract is terminated. Payment in full. You’re no longer needed."
Kade shrugged. "Fair enough."
He walked away without a backward glance. As he passed Nathan’s party, he paused. His eyes flat, professional, still carrying the faintest edge of suppressed Berserker rage, they met Nathan’s.
"Cross." His voice was low, meant only for them. "That was a hell of a fight. You’ve got something unusual, more than just the summons." He glanced at Mirko, then at the small black shape in Nathan’s jacket. "If you ever need a mercenary who doesn’t ask questions, someone who’s seen what you can do and isn’t scared by it, who can keep... secrets... look me up, okay? Yeah, okay"
Nathan nodded. "I’ll keep that in mind."
Kade’s mouth twitched, not quite a smile, but close, then He walked away, disappearing into the dispersing crowd.
Derek was ushered into the Stone transport by his father’s silent attendants. He didn’t look back. The door closed, and the vehicle hummed away, carrying him toward a conversation that would likely be worse than any battle.
---
The party gathered one last time before dispersing. The crowd thinned; camera drones retreated. The guild scouts had gotten the message "Nathan wasn’t stopping" and began reluctantly pulling back.
Garrett was still buzzing, Red sprawled at his feet in an exhausted heap of crimson wool. "I can’t believe we actually won. My heart is still pounding. Is that normal? Healthy?"
"Your heart’s been pounding since Floor 3," Dillon said. "Mine’s been steady. Pure samurai calm. Discipline."
"You screamed when Kuro appeared behind you. On Floor 5. I heard it."
"That was a tactical scream. Different."
"It was high-pitched like a girl in a horrow movie."
"You’re remembering it wrong."
Elise stood apart, her Frost Golem dismissed into her summon mark, staff stored. She looked at Nathan with an expression no longer curious, something quieter and more settled.
"What will you do now?" she asked.
Nathan considered. The city sprawled around them, Towers gleaming against the afternoon sky. Guilds were drafting offers. The TCA was updating his file. Lucy was waiting at home, probably bouncing off the walls.
"Rest. Train. Get stronger." He paused. "The duel was one fight. The world didn’t stop because we won."
"No. It got bigger." Elise stepped closer. "I meant what I said. I want to climb with you again. Not as a one-time arrangement. As a party. If you’ll have me."
Nathan met her eyes. The Winterhart heiress, the academy’s top student, who’d looked at him with pity during graduation. They’d both come a long way.
"I’d like that."
Dillon groaned theatrically. "Great. More training. More drills. More Mirko yelling about formation spacing."
"I do not yell," Mirko said from Nathan’s shoulder, pink eyes narrowing. "I correct. Firmly. There is a difference."
"That’s yelling."
"It is emphatic instruction."
"It’s yelling with extra words."
Garrett laughed, hauling Red to its feet. "Same time tomorrow?"
Nathan shook his head. "Take a few days. Rest. We’ve earned it. Then we start again."
---
The apartment door opened before Nathan could reach for the handle.
Lucy crashed into him like a small, determined meteor, arms wrapping around his waist with surprising force. She’d clearly been waiting by the door, watching through the peephole or just listening for his footsteps.
"You won! I watched the broadcast! Mrs. Chen let me watch.. she said it was educational! You were amazing! Mirko was amazing! The new one! Kuro! she was SO COOL! When she turned invisible and stabbed that big guy and he YIELDED!"
"Lucy. Breathe."
She took an exaggerated breath, still clutching him. "I breathed. You won. You actually won."
"I promised, didn’t I?"
"You promise a lot. You keep most. This was the biggest." She pulled back, eyes bright. "Was it scary? It looked scary. The mist was creepy. But you didn’t look scared. You looked like you knew exactly what to do."
Nathan knelt to her level. "I had good people watching my back. That’s what makes the difference."
Lucy nodded seriously. "Mirko and Kuro and Elise and Garrett and Dillon. I remembered all their names. Mrs. Chen said Elise was a Winterhart and that’s a big deal. Is it a big deal?"
"It’s a moderate deal."
"She looked at you a lot. During the broadcast. When you weren’t looking. Mrs. Chen noticed too."
Nathan made a mental note to talk to Mrs. Chen about appropriate commentary. "We should go inside. It’s cold."
"It’s not cold. You’re avoiding the subject." But Lucy let him steer her through the door, both bunnies hopping from his shoulders onto the bed.
The apartment was warm. Someone—probably Mrs. Chen—had left a covered pot of stew on the stove. The star-shaped nightlight was already plugged in, casting soft shadows across the rumpled blankets. Everything was exactly as Nathan had left it, and somehow that felt like the biggest victory of all.
Lucy immediately scooped Kuro up from the bed. The Shadow Assassin—who, less than an hour ago, had materialized behind a Level 51 Berserker and whispered boo in his ear—went rigid for half a second, then relaxed into the hug with long-suffering dignity.
’The small human is squeezing me,’ Kuro observed through the link.
’You get used to it,’ Mirko replied. ’Eventually. Mostly.’
’I am a Shadow Assassin. I am not supposed to be squeezed.’
’I am a Knight. I am also squeezed. It is the price we pay.’
Lucy looked up at Nathan, Kuro still cradled in her arms. "So what happens now? Do you get a trophy?"
"No trophy per se. Just a record on the TCA leaderboard."
"That’s dumb. You should get a trophy. I’ll make you one." She set Kuro down and began rummaging through her art supplies. "It’ll say ’Best Climber.’ With glitter."
"Glitter is unnecessary."
"Glitter is always necessary."
---
Later, with Lucy asleep on her side of the bed—one hand on Mirko’s green fur, the other tucked under her pillow near Kuro’s dark shape—Nathan sat at the table and opened his interface.
Messages had piled up since the moment the duel ended.
Silver Drake Guild — Formal Sponsorship Inquiry
Celestial Peak — Elite Climber Recruitment
Red Dragon Guild — Conditional Membership Offer (High Priority)
TCA Broadcast Division — Interview Request
TCA Internal Review — File Update Notice
Golden Hawk Guild — Provisional Party Contract
Three independent sponsors
Two Tower research foundations
One academy... his academy, inquiring about a guest lecture
Nathan stared. A month ago, he’d been ranked 199th out of 200 graduating students. Now the Prestigious Five were sending offers, and his old academy wanted him to lecture.
He deleted the academy request. Some things were too strange to contemplate.
Mirko shifted to humanoid form and sat beside him, her armor shed for the simpler bodysuit. The silver filigree was gone, but the confidence in her posture was new... harder, more assured. "You’re thinking."
"Always."
"About what?"
Nathan leaned back. "About what comes next. The attention won’t go away. Every guild in the capital knows what we can do now. The TCA has a file on us—probably flagged from the Tower of Beginnings. Derek’s father looked at me like an asset he hadn’t figured out how to acquire. And somewhere out there, I feel there’s more hidden in the shadow, there usually is..." He paused. "We’re not hidden anymore. We’re not safe."
"We were never safe," Mirko said quietly. "We were only ever getting stronger. There’s a difference."
"Maybe. But the stronger we get, the more people notice. And the more they notice, the more enemies we make."
"Then we make allies too." Mirko gestured at the messages. "The ice mage asked to join permanently. The sheep Climber would follow you anywhere. The noisy Samurai, despite his flaws, fought well. And you have us." She met his eyes. "You have me. You have Kuro. You have Lucy. You are not alone, Master. You haven’t been alone since the day I called your name."
Nathan was silent. Then, quietly: "You called me an idiot first."
"You were an idiot. You’ve improved."
"High praise."
"I am a D-Rank Knight. My praise is worth more now." But she was smiling.
Kuro’s voice came through the link, soft and dry: ’If you two are finished with the emotional exchange, the small human is drooling on my fur.’
Nathan glanced at the bed. Lucy had shifted in her sleep, her face pressed against Kuro’s dark flank. A tiny spot of moisture was indeed forming.
"That’s affection," Nathan said.
’It is damp.’
"Wet affection."
’I am learning to distinguish the two.’
Nathan closed his interface. Tomorrow, he’d sort through messages, decide which guilds to talk to, plan the next climb. Tomorrow, the grind resumed, the world kept watching, and the long road toward whatever the Bunny Girl System was building continued.
Tonight, he had a cramped studio apartment, a sister making him a glitter trophy, two summons who had just defeated a Level 51 Berserker, and the quiet, unfamiliar sensation of having won something that mattered.
He crossed to the bed and lay down beside his strange, small family. Mirko curled against his shoulder. Kuro, with a mental sigh of resignation, allowed Lucy to continue using her as a pillow.
Outside, the city hummed. The Towers gleamed against the night sky. And Nathan Cross: transmigrator, Archer, summoner of Bunny Girls, closed his eyes and let the victory settle over him like a blanket.
Tomorrow, the climb will continue but tonight, this was enough.
