[Eon’s POV: ]

“Wooooo hooo~!”

She just went to Atraxia a few days ago and now she is coming back from there once again.

‘It’s so nice to have a personal warp gate. Makes things pretty convenient.’

She was able to go all the way to the south of the empire in the blink of an eye, spend her time there, play around with others, make them all tired, and come back just the next day.

‘They do have to take care of her though, so that is a bad thing.’

Alas, they will have to suffer like that for a little longer since our work isn’t going to be completed anytime soon…

‘We will be leaving overmorrow.’

She will be by herself for a few days. And since we don’t know when exactly we will be back ourselves, we couldn’t tell her when exactly we would be back.

But at least we know it shouldn’t take more than a week or so, so things will work out somehow.

‘Thankfully, she’s a smart one.’

She wasn’t being clingy, she wasn’t even angry anymore and thankfully, she was handling her sadness.

We weren’t here for months and now we won’t be here for a week.

Only Zoe might understand how difficult it might be for her and for me as well, but I know she will somehow handle my little angel and the rest of them.

{ “How could you love her so much and still do what you have to?” }

A voice I’ve become familiar with over the last few days spoke from the shadows with intrigue, perhaps after seeing the bitter smile on my face.

“Well, humanity never conceals its desires to attain the heavens. Yet few work to achieve that perfect bliss.”

This voice speaking from the shadows… I don’t know who they are.

Since a few days ago, they had been watching us, the people of this house, me… they had been observing us and a few of us- only the ones this person wanted to, to be precise- knew their presence.

However, just like me, no one did anything to confront them.

No one even paid attention to them and acted as if they did not exist all the time.

Rein and I were not the same at the start, but soon we realised the identity of this person thanks to the other’s behaviour.

“I love her, sure. However, the only way I can help her see this vast and beautiful world outside of the place she can go to without being in harm’s way would be through doing what I’m supposed to.”

I know my extensive love for her can become a poison to myself, but I understand the risk.

And I’d still not stop loving her any more than I do right now.

“If anything, my love for her will continue growing…”

The path I trend on is not that of a hero or a protagonist. It’s not the path of the greatest magic archer, not the path of the strongest or the path of the sole honoured one.

‘At the centre of it all… my life changed thanks to that adorable little girl. If not for her, I would not have even suffered as much as I did.’

I don’t blame her for what happened to me, in fact I’m eternally grateful for everything that I received thanks to her mere presence in my life.

“How could I love her as much as I do? Well, I’m crazy. How could I work even while knowing I can’t be with her? Well… I love her.”

It’s simple. Pretty simple.

Even this person in the shadows might not understand what my words might mean, but that was my answer.

The simplest answer I can possibly offer to this outsider.

{ “You’re quite a complicated one.” }

This person will be the one to bring us to the place where the grand conference is going to be held this time.

He was one of the people from the council that decided things about the conference and was someone who would guide the others to the location after getting familiar with them.

They did not know much about us before getting assigned to us, so they spend some time with us secretly in order to understand the nature and needs of the people that they will be in charge of through the conference.

“I’m a pretty simple person, actually.”

Now that she was back, I couldn’t stay inside the house and not greet her.

There was work pending, yes, but the work can wait.

“Just like you who is doing something to gain out of what you are doing, I am also doing what I am doing to ultimately obtain something.”

Walking down from my room, I walked down the stairs and then, using my movement technique, I jumped out of the first floor window.

“Gehehe. What do you mean it wasn’t funny~? It was soooooo~ fun~! We will play in the lake next time~!”

She was still in the garden with the rest of them.

Zoe seemed tired, Quin was exhausted as well. It seemed like Carla had not slept for the last two days or something, and Alf was… well, Alf was being carried by Taika.

It seemed like he had passed out from exhaustion.

“Calm down Anna. You calm down a little… walk slowly or you will fall.” Quin seemed to be exhausted and she was still telling Anna to be careful.

“Let’s go surprise big brother, everyone~!”

“Yes, let’s go surprise him~.”

“Yeiiiiiii~! Let’s-… hmmm? Aikkk!”

It was always fun to see her surprised expression but this time, even though I had approached her using my unique movement technique, it wasn’t like I had used any skills.

Taika saw me coming and even Quin saw me when I was suddenly standing behind Anna.

Only Anna was so lost in her happiness that she did not see me coming and got surprised when she looked back at me standing right behind her.

“Big brotherrrrrr!”

And then she was angry.

“You surprised me for a moment there.”

“Don’t do that to her, Eon.”

“Haa… I’m going to sleep.”

Carla was tired so she did not wait there and just went inside. And though Taika wanted to be with Anna, she first went in to put Alf in his bed.

He seemed very tired for some reason, so I can at least tell she had made him run around all day and do things that were still too exhausting for him even as a strong mage.

“I was just joking, hehe.”

Picking the little one up, and giving her a kiss first, the rest of us also just went inside.

They had just come back from Atraxia while Rein was still there, wrapping up some things.

She was also invited to the conference so she had to prepare from her side and take care of the things that the representative of the Atraxia had to look after.

All five of them would be there and even her genuine follower, Sir Lich Morris that Anna had taken a liking to would also be there with them.

‘I already knew the conference this time was going to be even more grand with many more people attending than usual.

The headmaster had even warned me to prepare as much as I can since there will be important people attending this time around, so I was even more nervous.

Everyone had already told me how it would not be something easy, so I had to be ready for even new expected things now.

“So… tell me. What did you do?”

But giving her some of my time comes first.

“Oh~. Yes~.”

She wasn’t angry that I suddenly sealed up on her since she had already pulled my hair angrily for that while we were coming back.

When I asked her about her time in Atraxia the second time, she got excited and started shouting even before we sat down on the couch of the hall room.

“So! We first went to the farm garden and played with some monkeys~!”

She told me how they went around the new place, saw the hills this time, and then went to the place where Leo, Rein’s grandma’s familiar Great earth turtle lived.

The area was hidden deep within the forest so the civilians did not have permission to go there, and the few families who knew within the forest and maintained the fields and important plantations were all people of Atraxia.

“We went through the forest, then we reached this big lake where the big turtle grandpa lived, and then there were a lot of fish in the lake~!”

It was a specially protected area under the influence of sir Leo. Some creatures that lived there were not found outside of that certain southern area anymore.

The Atraxias were not the protectors of the southern gateway into the empire, but they held a special position in the empire as not only the greatest supplier of natural products, but also as the people who protected some of the very special endangered species.

‘The protectors of the southern gateway to the empire were, in fact, elves.’

We should sometimes go visit them when all of this is done.

There aren’t many elvan tribes left anymore, so they are a little difficult to deal with for the outsiders.

Thankfully, Atraxia and they had been in a long standing contractual relationship so, we should have some fun if nothing big happens.

“Next time, we will play in the lake~! I will ask my big turtle grandpa to show me around the lake as well~.”

She was happy to have such fun even without the two of us around.

And she knew we would be leaving the day after tomorrow, so even though she could have been sad and gloomy, she was smiling cheerfully right now.

And this pretty smile of hers was all that I needed as a Parting gift…

‘Quin, Zoe, Taika, Carla, Alf, grandpa Zhen, Miss Moon, Chry… I will be leaving her in good hands.’

So, they better take care of this pretty gem of mine.