I open my eyes.

...

I'm back in the medical facility.

My head hurts and I feel really drained.

It feels like I have been sleeping for several days.

I briefly look around but see no people.

Besides the bed I'm lying on are my clothes folded up on a stool and my sheathed sword is leaning on the wall.

What...happened?

I remember...

We fought that dragon and won...

And then...

Another monster appeared...

And I...

Used armageddon inside its shell...

But then I don't remember anything...

...

Did I die?

Or did I defeat it?

Who won?

Status screen: open

Quests:

Current quests: None

Completed quests: Save the Henduria port(return to the start to claim the reward)

...

I did it...

I killed that monster and saved the city.

I...won...

...

But what is this?

Return to the start?

Does that mean I need to go back to that tiny island?

How will I even find it again?

...

Hmm...

Perhaps...

I can try this again...

When I focus on the 'return to the start' the familiar mysterious ball of something shoots out and flies out of the room.

But at the same time some more text appears.

You must return within 50 days.

47 days left to return.

...

I must return within fifty days?

Huh...

...

In other words...

I'm now free for some time?

Well, as long as I can return within those fifty days I guess...

But I don't know what will happen if I return too late.

Will I start over?

Or will the god punish me in some way?

...

I won't take any risks...

I should probably return as soon as possible.

...

But I'm finally free...

At least for a few days...

I should make use of it...

...

But I don't really know how.

Where would I even go?

What would I do?

Hmm...

Blizzard invited me to go back with them.

But I refused because I still had this stupid quest.

But now that it's done, I might be able to go.

Should I go?

...

I slowly get up from my bed as I shove away the sheets covering me.

My body aches quite a bit, but it's bearable.

After massaging my shoulders a bit I stretch.

After changing into my clothes, I grab the sheathed sword.

Afterwards, I head to the door and exit the room.

"O-oh hey Reiza..."

Right after exiting I see some familiar faces.

"...hi Feldo."

It's Feldo, Dave and Nathan.

"Umm...we just returned and heard that something quite big happened when we were gone..."

"...yeah"

"A-are you okay? I also heard you used up all of your mana and fell into coma."

"...just woke up."

"Oh I see."

"You should probably go see the guildmaster."

"He sounded a little worried."

"...okay."

We walk through the hallway of the medical facility.

It's actually very quiet in here and I can barely even see any people walking around.

I guess not many people got injured in that attack.

When we take a step outside though, I am overwhelmed by the crowds of people everywhere.

Everyone is running around excitedly.

Carrying bags full of something or riding carriages stuffed with those bags.

It looks way livelier than ever before.

What happened I wonder?

Wasn't there a monster threatening this city a few days ago?

Speaking of which, it seems that I have been unconscious for three days.

Is it because I have used up all of my mana in that fight?

I don't really know how that works...

If I ever completely ran out of mana in the dungeon, it usually meant death.

We stop by some food stall on our way and bought meat skewers.

I was quite hungry after three days of coma...

And this meat is really delicious.

Even though apparently it's ogre meat.

But why is it so much better than anything I ate in that dungeon?

When we finally reach the adventurer's guild, there are tons of people entering and leaving it.

Most of the people entering seem to be carrying those bags.

Really, what's inside them?

As always, all the eyes look at me when we enter.

But for some reason, they don't all contain pure fear.

Some of them seemed excited when they saw me instead for some reason.

"Miss Reiza!"

"You finally woke up?"

Claudia calls out to me and she seems as happy as everyone else.

The fear she usually has around me is now completely gone.

"...just woke up."

"Ah is that so?"

"Is your body fine already?"

"You were in quite a critical state before."

"...I'm fine."

Critical state?

"For now let's head up, the guildmaster is there together with lady Blizzard and sir Belion."

"...okay."

"Ah...I guess we will stay here."

Feldo awkwardly scratches his cheek as he says that.

Is he not allowed up there?

Well, not that I mind going by myself.

I wave the three goodbye and go upstairs along with Claudia.

This time, there aren't any people looking at the papers hung on walls.

It's totally empty up here.

We walk toward Phil's office and Claudia knocks on the door.

"Miss Reiza woke up!"

A few seconds later, the door opens and Phil's figure appears.

"Oh Reiza! Are you alright now?"

"...yeah"

When I looked at the status window earlier, I noticed my was health was maxed and my mana was about half filled.

My head doesn't hurt anymore and the muscle aches are almost completely gone as well.

"Reiza! You are awake!"

Blizzard comes rushing past Phil and jumps at me.

Instinctively, I punch her in the gut and she topples over.

...

"..euh...ugh...so mean...I just wanted...to hug you..."

...

What...?

Hug me?

What happened?

Was she...always like this?

When I look at Phil, he sighs.

"Please excuse lady Blizzard..."

"She seems to...have taken an unnatural like to you when you were unconscious for some reason."

Eh?

But why?

"Well, I'm sure you are confused since you just woke up."

"So let's go back inside and talk there."

"...alright."

Claudia returned downstairs and I stepped into the office.

When I entered I noticed Belion sitting there.

Unlike the others, he still seemed scared of me.

But inside that fear, I could see some firm determination.

I wonder what he's so determined about?

When we were all seated, I asked where Bob is.

They said, he was helping with exporting the monster materials.

Exporting monster materials...?

From then on, they explained everything in detail.

This is what happened after I used the armageddon inside the turtle.

The impact of it was enough to completely decimate the turtle's flesh inside the shell.

However, the shell only got cracked and otherwise stayed intact.

When chunks of the turtle started flying out of the shell through the hole in the front, some of the spell's flames also spilled out.

At that moment, Blizzard and Bob used up all of their mana to create a shield with ice and earth magic to protect the city.

Apparently it was really close...

After that was over, they searched for me and found me lying somewhere in the forest unconscious.

They said I was wounded all over from getting violently flung away by the explosion.

Phil took me to the healing magicians right away and I was eventually saved.

The medical facility staff said I would be unconscious for quite some time because I completely dried up my mana capacity.

Blizzard supposedly came every morning and evening to the room I was lying in...

I'm not sure why, but they said that at some point, everyone stopped caring I'm some ancient monster and treated me like a normal girl.

I guess I'm not that menacing when I'm asleep?

And most of my mana was gone as well...

Hmm...

After the armageddon flames inside the turtle's shell subsided, Phil gathered people to collect any materials left from the turtle and the dragon.

This small group of people eventually became almost everyone in the city, because there was just too much.

While a lot of the turtle's flesh was obliterated, some of it got propelled out of the shell after the explosion.

There were also the dragon's remains to be taken care of, so there was plenty of work to do.

From what they told me, all of these materials are extremely high quality.

For example, the dragon's blood has incredible regenerative properties.

That must be why he was able to endure so many of my attacks.

The problem right now is the giant turtle's shell.

It's too tough to be cut into pieces and transported and too heavy as a whole.

That's why some people thought about making the inside of that shell a building of some sort.

But nothing is decided just yet.

Blizzard and the others will go back to the royal kingdom to inform the king of everything that's happened here.

After that, the king along with some other important people will decide on what to do with this shell.

"...my business is done...for now."

"...I can accompany you there."

"Oh! That would be great!"

"Wait..."

"Your business here was the monsters?"

I wonder if I can tell them now?

But I don't really want to risk being sent back at this point...

"Ah, who cares..."

"You could have told us earlier I guess, but it's fine."

No I couldn't...

"Oh right, about the reward."

Reward?

What reward?

"The turtle will still take a while but the dragon's materials have been evaluated."

Phil stands up and heads to his desk.

He opens a drawer and pulls out a tiny chest out of it.

After closing the drawer, he walks up to me and opens the chest.

"Your share is 10 azure gold coins."

Huh...

Coins for killing that dragon?

And isn't even one azure gold coin a lot already?

I'm getting ten of those?

One by one, he pulls out ten azure gold coins and lays them down on the table.

"It's really a lot..."

"Even after counting in the cost for the damage caused."

Wait.

Damage caused?

"...there was...damage?"

"Ah yeah, the turtle's head flew and crashed into one house."

"The house was totally destroyed but at least it stopped the head from flying further in."

"There wasn't anyone in the house so nobody died."

"Overall, I'm really surprised that there have been absolutely no casualties."

...

Nobody died...

That's good.

But one house was destroyed...

I almost failed...

Or wait.

Didn't the quest say 'more than 2 buildings are destroyed'?

That means it was fine for one more to be destroyed, right?

Well either way, it was close.

I take the coins and put them in my storage.

After that, we talked a bit and I decided to visit the 'work site'.

When I got to the giant turtle's shell I saw a mass of people all around and inside the shell.

There were ladders and ropes for people to climb inside and on top of it.

I jumped inside the shell with air blast and looked around.

The people there were using some glowing orbs to illuminate the surroundings.

There were many burnt chunks of the turtle's flesh thrown around.

These people seemed to be gathering them into bags and carrying them outside.

I drew my sword and swung at the shell's side intending to cut off a piece.

But my sword reflected off of it and didn't even leave a scratch.

[Phantom cut]

...

Nothing.

It's too durable.

I might be able to cut it with phantom annihilation, but i can't really do any finer cuts.

The shell might be more useful as a whole, so I won't try it.

After ending my experiment, I returned back to the guild.

Two days later I said goodbye to Feldo's party, who stayed in Henduria to help.

And then I left for the royal capital along with Blizzard, Bob, Belion and the carriage's coach driver.

45 days left to return.

Bonus:

This marks the end of the Henduria port arc.

Next time: Temporary freedom

"By the way, what's with the cover art?"

I kinda wanted a cover picture so I made one.

"Hmm, so what does it mean?"

"An eye radiating light in a cloud of smoke?"

"Or is that supposed to be some 'the power of light shall shine through darkness!' cliche thing?"

...

That's not supposed to be smoke.

And it doesn't really mean anything...

I just drew something random and slapped the title onto it.

"Wow, how half assed."

Whatever...