[Rudeus POV]
As I opened my eyes, I could see the dog's snout in front of my face, its wet nose pressing insistently against my cheek.
"Uh... what is wrong?"
The world came into focus slowly, my thoughts still scattered like leaves in a breeze. The dog continued licking my face with enthusiastic affection, treating me like some prized delicacy.
My limbs felt like they were made of lead, my body refusing to respond properly as I lay there, unable to even push the animal away.
Then, I heard her voice—clear and bright, cutting through my haze.
"Rudeus!"
Eris. The sound of her calling my name sent a flutter through my chest. As my vision cleared, I could see her standing there alongside Ruijerd, his normally stern face softened with a rare smile.
Behind them stood Gyes and the elderly beast folk who had accompanied him in the bandits' den. They were deliberately averting their gazes, shame evident in their postures. The beautiful female warden hovered anxiously beside the two small beast folk girls we had rescued, her eyes darting between them and me with unmistakable guilt.
I could almost taste their remorse—the bitter regret of having imprisoned their savior so inhumanely.
Chill, girl. Thankfully, I haven't awakened any weird fetishes from this ordeal.
"Eris..." I managed, my voice coming out as a rasp.
Though my mind was racing with a thousand thoughts, my body remained frustratingly weak. After days of mistreatment, the exhaustion had seeped into my very bones, making even the simple act of speaking a challenge.
"Ugh... Where's this place?" I asked, struggling to push myself upright.
"The house of Dedoldia's patriarch," Ruijerd answered, his deep voice steady and reassuring.
Eris bounced on her heels with barely contained excitement. "I heard about it!" she exclaimed, eyes wide with admiration. "You beat the North Saint, right?! The guy with a monkey face told me all about it!"
It took several seconds for my mind to process her words, memories slowly filtering back through the fog of exhaustion.
"Did I... win?" I murmured, before a jolt of realization shot through me. "Wait! Claude, right! Where's Claude...?"
Before anyone could answer, there was a heavy thudding sound as bodies hit the floor. Gyes and the female warden had prostrated themselves, lying flat on their backs with stomachs exposed—the beast folk's ultimate gesture of submission.
"We had no idea you were the hero who saved the kids!" Gyes proclaimed, his voice thick with remorse. "I, Gyes, am prepared to receive any punishment!"
"You can boil or burn me as you want!" the female warden added in the Beast God's language, her voice trembling.
The thought of accepting her offer sent an uncomfortable warmth through me, but imagining applying the same treatment to Gyes immediately turned that warmth into nausea.
Blergh, just imagining what I want to do to the female Beastmen being done to Gyes makes me want to puke.
The elderly beast man gently stepped around the two supplicants, approaching me with dignity in his bearing.
"Lord Rudeus, as Dedoldia's patriarch, I'd like to express my gratitude." His weathered face softened into a genuine smile. "Thank you very much."
Those simple words of acknowledgment made my cheeks flush. Perhaps my suffering hadn't been entirely in vain.
"Heh...." I managed, unsure how to respond to such earnest gratitude.
"Speaking of which," the patriarch continued, glancing toward Eris and Ruijerd, "you two arrived quite late. Did something happen? I was quite worried."
"That's right! Listen to me! It was a lot of trouble!" Eris exclaimed, her face alight with excitement.
Eris is adorable. Ah, I want to embrace her now...
With animated gestures and dramatic pauses, Eris recounted the events of the week while I languished in prison. First, she explained how Ruijerd had met Patriarch Gustav and immediately sparked a misunderstanding, similar to what had happened to me. The situation nearly escalated into an all-out confrontation with the Doldia Warrior Group.
Well, Ruijerd is a poor talker. I can easily imagine that.
After resolving the confusion, they had joined forces to eliminate the remaining smuggling ring—or rather, to exterminate them completely. Their success had almost backfired when officials at Zanto Port mistook them for the smugglers themselves.
Eris herself hadn't participated in the operation, having been assigned to guard the rescued children instead. Yet she spoke of the events with such enthusiasm, her eyes sparkling and hands sweeping through the air to illustrate her tale.
I guess her Greyrat blood shows in moments like these...
Her story drew a genuine smile from me, the first I'd managed since waking.
"Speaking of which," I said, my voice growing stronger, "now that we've arrived at the beast's village, we'll have plenty of stories to tell the rest of the Boreas family."
"Right! I'll boast to Grandpa when we get home!" Eris beamed, practically bouncing with anticipation. "I want to meet him as soon as possible!"
The peaceful moment was shattered as the door burst open without warning, crashing against the wall with a bang that made everyone flinch.
"Oh, the sleeping beauty already wakes up, huh!"
Claude stood in the doorway, his frame silhouetted against the light behind him. Something about him was different than before. A stark, unnatural line ran down his left arm, the skin there bleached several shades paler than the rest of his tanned complexion. His sleeveless tunic did nothing to hide the fresh, angry wounds that mapped a painful journey across his limbs.
"What happened to you, Claude?" I asked, genuinely concerned despite his abrupt entrance.
"I mean, why are you here? And what's wrong with all your wounds?"
He leaned against the doorframe, studying me with eyes that seemed older than his years.
"Alright, before I answer your question, can I ask you how long has it been since you've been traveling?"
The question caught me off guard. "Huh, what do you mean? We were teleported to the Demon continent. Me and Eris. We just arrived in the Millis Continent for around a week, and we've been in the Demon continent for about seven months...."
"I see..." Claude's expression hardened, a bitter smile twisting his lips. "Well, you must be so dumb then."
His words struck like a physical blow, igniting a flash of anger within me. What right did he have to insult me like that?
"Fucking dumb..." he continued, his voice low but cutting. "You've been outside for all these months, and all you see and care about is your little missy here? Well, I know she's cute, but seriously?"
Confusion dampened my anger. "What do you mean by that?"
Claude's eyes—those strange eyes that had always seemed to see through people rather than at them—narrowed with something between frustration and pity. There was a weight behind his gaze, something heavy and knowing that made my skin crawl.
"Sigh... I already knew about this, but hearing you say it makes me feel infuriated." He pushed himself away from the doorframe, shaking his head. "Just go and ask that monkey-faced guy there... I can't bear to see you right now."
Without another word, he turned and walked away, his footsteps echoing down the corridor long after he'd vanished from sight.
The room fell into confused silence.
...
..
.
[NARRATOR POV]
"Who's that?" Ruijerd asked, his gaze lingering on the empty doorway.
"He's my childhood friend from Buena Village..." Rudeus answered, his brow furrowed in confusion.
"He's strong, Ruijerd," Eris interjected, her voice tinged with respect that she rarely showed for anyone. "I can tell you that Ghislaine was very impressed with his swordsmanship. It's something that happened before our teleportation incident, but that guy can defeat Rudeus easily with his swords and make the Sword King Ghislaine use her full capability to train him..."
At the mention of the Sword King, Gyes's expression transformed into one of shock. Ghislaine wasn't just a legend to him—she was family, a sister whose prowess had become the stuff of legends.
Gustav, noting the stunned beast man, stepped forward to fill the silence.
"I heard it from the elves," he said gravely. "The one who incapacitated the entire slave
trading operation—who are also smugglers—was actually that boy. The elves from the neighboring village were being led by him after the slavers targeted their settlement first and successfully kidnapped several of their villagers the day before."
Eris eagerly jumped in to share her first encounter with Claude, while Rudeus followed with his own account, each filling in details the other missed. Their stories painted a picture of a young man whose abilities defied his apparent age, whose presence commanded both respect and unease.
"A Mana burst, huh?" Ruijerd murmured, his ancient eyes reflecting memories long buried. "I haven't seen one since the end of the Laplace war..."
"A twelve-year-old advanced swordsman..." Gustav shook his head in wonder. "I've already encountered the young Water Mage Saint, but to find an all-rounder of Advanced rank... No, he might already be a Saint-ranked swordsman."
His assessment wasn't exaggeration—Claude's defeat of the North God Saint Garus, even an exhausted one, stood as testament to his extraordinary abilities. More impressive still was how he had commanded the elves efficiently despite the language barrier, organizing them with tactical precision that spoke of experience far beyond his years.
Yet there was something else about the boy that set everyone on edge: the bloodthirst that emanated from him like a physical force. It wasn't the uncontrolled rage of youth or the calculated intimidation of a seasoned warrior. It was something else entirely—a deep, existential fury directed not at any individual but at fate itself.
The elves, despite owing him their freedom, remained wary in his presence. They spoke of how he moved with the fluid grace of someone who had faced death countless times, how his eyes sometimes seemed to look through the present and into some terrible future only he could see.
"But why would he suddenly get so mad at me?" Rudeus asked, breaking the contemplative silence.
Gustav's expression grew solemn. "From the look of it, you might not be aware..."
"Aware of what?"
"I don't know much about it, but as we tracked the smugglers who kidnapped our children, we heard about it many times."
Eris and Rudeus exchanged confused glances while Ruijerd waited patiently for the man to continue.
Gustav drew a deep breath before speaking, his voice heavy with the weight of revelation.
"The light that transported you to the Demon Continent is something that happened to everyone in the Fittoa Region of the Central continent."
"They called it the Mass Teleportation Incident, and it caused everyone in the Fittoa region, whether humans or beasts, to be transported everywhere within the world."
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