Their barbed exchange was never going to end on a pleasant note.
Neither side could really be called right or wrong. Their positions, their standing, and the lives they had lived meant they viewed the same reality from entirely different heights and angles. Gods had their own way of seeing the world. Chardo, as a member of the mightiest Familia, had his own. The new generation, Alise and Ryuu, had theirs. Duncan, too, had his own.
Whatever the case, with Chardo joining them, the return journey became astonishingly smooth.
Not even the Loki Familia would casually deploy a Level 7 adventurer to guard a retreat. After all, even Orario's current strongest warrior was only Level 6.
It took them just one week to cover what should have been nearly two.
Because they needed to find a healer for their injuries, Artemis had to bring her Familia to Campbell, and since the flying dragons had been borrowed, Ryuu and Alise also chose to travel with Artemis's group.
"You really don't want to come with us for treatment first?" Artemis asked, a trace of concern in her eyes.
Panacea was powerful, yes, but it still wasn't the same as being treated by a proper healer. Once bones had set incorrectly, even Panacea couldn't fix them. They would have to be broken and reset the right way by a professional.
"There's something more important waiting for me back home," Duncan answered at once, shaking his head. "Once everything's settled, then I'll deal with it."
"Then we'll meet again next time. Either when you come to us, or when everyone's recovered, we'll come visit you."
After Duncan had finished saying his goodbyes to the rest of the group, Artemis smiled warmly and reached out to ruffle his hair once more.
The expedition had been full of hardship, but it had also brought him companions who had gone through life and death beside him.
"You really managed to get along with Lady Artemis," Chardo remarked on the way back, sounding genuinely surprised. There was a faint trace of nostalgia in his gaze, as if Duncan reminded him of someone he had once known.
"Why wouldn't I?"
"How should I put it… She's undoubtedly a benevolent goddess, but among the gods she's also one of the most stubborn and least flexible. She's always kept both gods and mortals at arm's length. In Orario, I'd say only a few deities like Hephaestus can truly get along with her. Though, to be fair, a lot of that comes from how disgracefully the male gods behaved back in Heaven."
"The gods' unchanging nature is woven into their divinity. Making one of them change is an extremely difficult thing. The old man is the same. The fact that you managed to make Artemis soften at all—if people in Orario heard about that, it would cause an uproar. Gods love that sort of entertainment."
"They really do sound like a bunch of people with too much time on their hands."
"Ain't that the truth? That's why you shouldn't get too tangled up with gods. Their world and ours are completely different."
Thus, chatting on and off along the way, the two of them hurried back to the cabin.
It had once seemed shabby and crude to Duncan, but after walking through death so many times, it now felt warmer than any palace. Only that little wooden house could still give them the feeling of home in this world.
"Duncan! Uncle Chardo!"
The moment they reached the porch, Bell came bursting out.
Whether he had sensed their presence or had been tipped off by Zeus or Alfia, Duncan couldn't tell. Zeus stepped out after him, and while his expression didn't change much at the sight of Duncan safe and sound, relief flickered unmistakably in his eyes.
"Where's Alfia?"
When he didn't see her, Duncan's heart immediately sank.
"She had another episode a couple of days ago," Zeus said, his face darkening. "She's in bed resting now."
The attacks were growing more frequent.
As for Chardo—he might have looked fine on the surface, but anyone who had examined him knew the truth. Half his body had been blackened by Behemoth's poison. A normal adventurer would have died three times over by now.
And yet Chardo still moved around as if nothing were wrong, and could even fight at the level of a first-tier adventurer.
To any healer, that alone was a miracle.
"I'm going to see her."
Duncan didn't waste another second.
He strode into the cabin at once. The familiar little house, which should have put him at ease, only made him more tense. It was not until he finally saw Alfia sitting there beside the bed that the tightness in his chest eased a little.
"You're all making too much of it," Alfia said with a faint smile. "I told you, I know my own body better than anyone."
She was dressed in her nightclothes, propped up against the bed. Her mismatched eyes softened in a way she herself likely didn't notice, and after motioning Duncan over, she let out a dissatisfied sigh.
"Let me see. Right arm, left leg, ribs, and your back. Side effects from top-grade elixirs. Looks like Chardo arrived with the Panacea too late. It's fine—I'm quite experienced with this sort of thing. We just need to snap the relevant parts cleanly and set them again."
"Please don't say terrifying things so casually!"
Duncan shivered.
Alfia's tone had been light, but knowing her, she absolutely meant every word.
"If you go to a healer, they'll do exactly the same thing."
Her brows drew together, clearly displeased that he seemed to distrust her technique.
"Now's not the time for that."
As he spoke, Duncan pulled something seemingly out of thin air.
A pendant.
The instant it appeared, everyone in the room reflexively fixed their eyes on it.
The silver pendant gleamed brilliantly in the sunlight. The diamond-shaped crystal set at its center shimmered with starlike radiance, enough to make anyone instinctively hold their breath. Just looking at it seemed to calm the mind.
Around the crystal floated mysterious rune-like sigils, orbiting it like a halo. They were visible, yet intangible—almost like a magical projection. But the depth of what they contained was such that Alfia, who had immersed herself in magic for years, could no longer look away the moment she saw them.
It was a system of magic completely different from anything in the Lower World—something outside the framework of ordinary spellcraft.
If one were to borrow the gods' terminology, it would be more accurate to call it an outer art.
The magic used by the children of the Lower World came from the blessings engraved on their backs by the gods. But the pendant before them…
For all Alfia's mastery of magic, she could not perceive even the faintest hint of how it functioned.
"This is… the method you were talking about?"
Alfia lifted her eyes from the pendant and looked first at Duncan, then at Zeus standing behind him.
Unexpectedly, there was a rare trace of confusion on the old god's face.
The gods were supposed to be omniscient and omnipotent beings.
Even after descending to the Lower World and sealing away their divine power—thus losing their omnipotence—they still retained their omniscience. To them, seeing a thing once was enough to understand how it worked. Even knowledge they had never encountered before would reveal itself at a glance.
That was why the children of the Lower World could not lie to gods.
And yet now, for perhaps the first time, the old god looked baffled.
Though he masked it almost immediately, Alfia still caught it.
Which could only mean one thing:
Even the mighty god himself could not make a judgment about this mysterious pendant.
....
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