Chapter 834: 834: Return To Nocta

After successfully saving Nadia and Castel, we arrived safely at Nocta.

The dwarves murdered all the antidemons on the way back. Couldn't have asked for a better escort.

However, as soon as we entered Nocta, we noticed that a few people were missing.

『Sophie's not here!』

(Eh?)

Fran looked around in a panic, but Sophie and her guards were definitely gone. However, it seems that they did not disappear on their own.

Jayne approached Fran as she was searching for Sophie.

「Sophie said she was leaving a while ago.」

「To where?」

「Dunno? But she gave me a message for you.」

「A message?」

「"My debt is repaid." That's all.」

「Sophie......」

Come to think of it, it all started when Sophie almost ran from paying for a meal, then Fran paid for her.

She put it so much work buffing everyone, healing us, and restoring Nadia's humanity.

If she wasn't there, it would be easy to imagine how hard we would have failed.

It's pretty safe to say she was the MVP.

And we were able to win her over to our side with the price of a single meal. That's just...... too cheap.

「I didn't stop her because it looked like she didn't want to make a scene.」

「......I didn't get to thank her properly.」

Frankly, we got too much out of her and Fran thought so too. She did owe us a debt, but that was barely comparable to how much she fought for us.

(We need to thank her the next time we meet.)

『Yeah.』

Sophie left us early, but now it was about time to say goodbye to Orfalve and Jayne.

We had discussed this before we arrived, but the dwarves and the demonkin planned to defend Nocta until the end of the antidemon season.

They had an antidemon quota to achieve, which they already accomplished by participating in the battle for Castel. That's why they didn't need to force their armies on any more expeditions.

「Leave this town and Nadia to us! We will protect them no matter what!」

「Only after we fully protect Nadia-chan will there be a happy ending!」

「Nn. Please do.」

It would be nice to stay at Nadia's side until she wakes up. Fran especially thought so.

But we couldn't overlook the black market slavers in the illegal city of Sendia.

According to Jayne's sources, the amount of slaves shipped out always skyrockets after the antidemon season.

That's probably due to the capture of wounded adventurers and children who have lost their parents.

Fran's face when she heard that children would be captured by slavers was like Donadrond's face when he got pissed.

So there's no way that Fran could ignore the slavers holed up in that illegal city.

As a result, we decided to leave Nadia with someone we could trust and head to Sendia ourselves.

We were currently on our way to the Adventurers Guild with the hundred man army, Orfalve, and Jayne. The other dwarves already went back to their base in Nocta.

There was a bit of a commotion at the guild because so many people had arrived at once. Fran didn't seem particularly bothered, and simply reported the details of her request at the counter.

The guildmaster and submaster immediately barged in. Apparently, they were also interested in the outcome.

「So your request has been completed then? That's great to hear!」

「......Nn.」

「Now then, we will pay the participants the commission fee.」

We finished up the request completion procedures while being sandwiched between guildmaster and the submaster. That emptied our wallets quite a bit, but it won't affect us too badly since we got a ton of antidemon points.

A total of 3 million points from that battle alone, the most of all the participants at Castel.

Considering that Orfalve came in second place with about 1 million points, you can tell just how many points Twisted Horn was worth.

Since it costs 1000 points to stay in a suite room with full board + snacks at the best inn in Nocta, we could live there in luxury for 3000 days.

That's worth a ton of cash.

「Fran-chan! You're back safe!」

「Mulsani!」

「Thank goodness......!」

Mulsani rushed into the guild.

When he saw Fran, he hugged her with a tearful smile on his face.

He was crying quietly at first, but then his emotions got the better of him and he started sobbing.

A lot of people were watching, but no one interrupted. I guess they didn't want to disturb the heartfelt scene, but I doubt any of them knew how to console a sobbing middle aged man either.

Then, there was one brave man who dared to open his mouth.

「It's rare to see you so distraught, Mulsani-san.」

「Z-Zehard-san......? Sniff. I-I'm sorry to embarrass myself like that.」

Mulsani now remembered where he was. Finally, he let go of Fran. Not that Fran minded really.

「Good work on your escort duty.」

「Hahaha. This girl is a bonafide adventurer, so we were practically useless. We all got saved by the Dwarf Queen in the end anyways.」

Zehard wore a self-deprecating smile, and the other adventurers followed suit. The dragonkin, mercenaries, and knights all felt similarly.

They understood that they would have been in serious danger without Orfalve and Jayne's assistance. Even if they did everything they could, it wasn't enough.

That was the reason why they couldn't be truly happy.

「Don't say you're useless!」

And the one who challenged that belief was Fran.

「No one was useless. If any one of us was missing, we would have failed. You were the best comrades I could ask for.」

「Little lady......」

「And if it weren't for all of you, I wouldn't have made it in time to save Nadia.」

That's a fact. Without their support, we would have gotten stuck struggling with the red dragon and clawed knights. There's no way we could have reached Twisted Horn in time.

Fran spoke to everyone, not just Zehard, with an unusual look of complete sincerity.

「Thank you, guys. For helping us.」

She bowed deeply after saying that. Everyone had their own reaction to Fran's words, but the mood was no longer gloomy.

After realizing that Fran thanked them from the bottom of her heart, their feelings of self-denial disappeared.

「Well, we're glad to have joined you.」

「Me too.」

「Me three!」

It wasn't only the representatives of each group that thought that way. I heard happy shouts coming from all the people working under them.

I'm just so glad we were able to get back without losing anyone.