Chapter 249 - Picking Up Lydia
As the carriage continued to move about, slowly through the city. John began having recollections of everything that had happened.
Despite him not having realised, this city contained a lot of memories related to him and the group. He conquered the dungeon, saved a beach, was knocked out during a raid, met new people, hopefully made one or two friends and a fantastic person for him to hire as a maid.
Lots had happened, and it wouldn\'t be fair to just leave without saying bye, but they had to get going as soon as possible, and Zakaragi was a noble, word might reach the wrong person if they told him.
John continued to stare at Master Sylvia before letting out a sigh and asking.
"Hey, master."
"Yes?"
"Before the duke\'s party, I ended up finding myself a maid who is capable, but I have to go and pick her and her little brother up. I also have a few other things to do, do you mind if I go?" John asked
Master Sylvia gave a nod and seeing this, John got up before thanking her and heading off.
"Thank you, Just continue the journey, I\'ll find you anywhere within 1 kilometre after you leave the gate, it\'s fine."
Whilst John\'s range for Deprehendre had remained as strong and vast as always, it didn\'t grow like his other spells in term of range, only accuracy.
John assumed that the range of his spell was proportional to the amount of magic power he had. As the fundamental concept of Deprehendre was to let the magic power flow out in a wave, like a radar, after compressing it and releasing it.
"I know." Said Master Sylvia as she gestured at him to go
"Haha, of course."
As John was about to jump off the carriage, he suddenly stopped before looking back at Master Sylvia once more.
"Um master, speaking of parties, where were you during the mansion attack?" John asked with a smile, doing his best not to display suspicion and trying to play it off as a simple question.
"Holding off the rest of them." Said Master Sylvia
She said it in such a calm way that John had no room to doubt her, hell he didn\'t use his lie-detector spell, but he doubted it would work either way. But that question and reply was enough, it was all it took for John to calm down.
He had been keeping his eye on Master Sylvia, but she had much more experience than him, and if she was really a traitor, why go through such lengths of training him only to get rid of him?
[If Master Sylvia wanted us dead, we\'d be dead.] John thought to himself
Being able to use stronger spells or magic better mattered nothing when it came to assassination, especially with Master Sylvia\'s skillset.
"I apologise..." Master Sylvia muttered, just barely loud enough for John to hear
Hearing this, John formed a small smile before casting \'furtim\' and vanishing.
"It\'s fine."
John\'s voice resounded through the carriage, before the feeling of something jumping off of it, caused the carriage to slightly shake.
Seeing this, Master Sylvia continued the journey with the carriage with expectations to soon reach the gate.
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After having discovered that Serena had been taken, John had used the voice ampification spell to call her name.
With no answer, John eventually gave up before moving to his next task. Getting Lydia and her brother and future sister in law a safe place to sleep.
Despite having been angered, John could still think logically, the only problem with that was, it was mainly influenced by his \'possession\' state, and he didn\'t feel too secure about it.
His eyes had turned dark along with his hair, he could no longer hold back the transformation, but he didn\'t care, he didn\'t feel the need to, or rather, it made him feel less anxious but increased the seething rage within him.
But rather than worrying about that, he focused on how he\'d be able to get Lydia to safety. Being with them would be the safest option, but John would not be able to defend his inn while searching for Serena.
He couldn\'t trust on Master Sylvia\'s support because recently she always disappeared at the most important times.
As he looked around from the air, he noticed Zakaragi with Tiana and a man who appeared to be his father, before he gained his idea.
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"Hopefully, it was a good idea... I had to hide the truth by claiming that I was an S-Rank adventurer after all."
John had used his position of S-Rank adventurer which he had earned to ask Zakaragi\'s dad, the Earl for a favour. Any noble would want an S-Rank adventurer to be indebted to him, and John made use of that fact.
It wasn\'t much of a lie as John indeed had the potential and plans to become an S-Rank adventurer, so all he was doing was claiming one of his future privileges.
John didn\'t force them, but instead just asked, Zakaragi was nervous that his father would object, but contrary to this, his father was happy to help.
"So, it\'s been a week since then... I wonder how they\'re doing..."
As John flew around, he looked around the area for the same mansion he had been instructed to head to before.
Left and right, he quickly turned his head before propelling himself straight downwards as he spotted the mansion
As he flew onto the mansion garden which was on the front, he looked back at the gate which was a few ten meters behind him, before muttering. "Maybe I should have knocked...?"
[It\'s a little late for that, let\'s just get this sorted with.]
The mansion was big and well maintained, something you\'d expect from an earl. Although it did have a rather old vibe to it.
Once he reached the door, he quickly knocked on it.
*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*
[Speaking of which... This city is part of the kingdom of Xoleria, so doesn\'t that mean that the Earl should have territory in other areas... Why is the duke and Earl both in the same City? Which noble owns this city anyways?]
As the question just suddenly popped up in John\'s head, the door to the mansion opened wide, showing a familiar maid waiting on the other side.
Her long pink hair floated downwards as she elegantly bowed to the guest with an impressive looking maid outfit. A mixture of both black and white, simple yet perfect.
[I wonder how those two would look in a maid costume...]
"Welcome, how may I help yo- John?!" Lydia asked with a surprised expression
"Yeah, it\'s me, John."
***
"And that pretty much sums it up." Said John
John had just finished explaining the situation to Zakaragi\'s father, a man whose eyes never left the boy. John wasn\'t one to be intimidated, but the man reminded him of kurt, in more ways than one.
"I see... So you\'ll be taking your leave, urgent matters are indeed urgent matters." Said Zakaragi\'s dad
The five of them, including Zakaragi\'s dad were in his office. John had come back to get Lydia and he was explaining the situation of everything that had happened before.
Lydia, her younger brother, future sister in law, Zakaragi and John.
"That is correct." Said John as he tried to hide how nervous he actually was
"Very well, I take it you\'ve already packed your things?" Zakaragi\'s dad asked as he looked over at Lydia
"Yes, sir." Lydia replied
"Good, take good care of this young adventurer, you\'re free to go." Said Zakaragi\'s dad
[Eh? That\'s it? No need for us to give compensation or nothing?]
Zakaragi\'s dad had sheltered and protected Lydia and her brother for John despite it having been an unreasonable request, and he asks of nothing?
"Huh...? We\'re leaving? Why?" Saphir asked
Suddenly, Lydia\'s younger brother, Hayden, ran straight towards Zakaragi\'s dad before he gave him a small hug.
Lydia who saw this felt her heart sink, before saying. "Hay...den... That\'s rude..."
Her face had a smile displayed, but the words made chills go down the boy\'s spine, causing him to quickly let go of the hug.
"S-Sorry!"
"Sir, I apologise, on behalf of my younger brother, I\'m prepared to face any punishment." Said Lydia as she bowed nervously.
Zakaragi\'s dad gave the boy a head pat as he did so, before he said.
"Haha, don\'t worry, it\'s fine. That\'s quite the sister you have there."
"Sir..."
"Yes! She\'s the best sister in the world!"
"Hayden..."
"Of course, she\'s my fiancée\'s sister, after all." Saphir happily claimed
"S-Saphir..."
"If you ever decide to stop working for this adventurer, you\'ll have a place here. We could use a skilled maid like you." Said Zakaragi\'s dad
[It appears That Lydia had helped with household chores during her stay here, and Zakaragi\'s dad seemed to have taken a liking to her, but... Sorry, you\'re 1 week too short."
A smile was formed on Zakaragi\'s face as he saw this, before stretching out his fist towards John.
"Stay safe and become the strongest." Said Zakaragi with a smile
John stretched out his fist and connected it with Zakaragi\'s as he said.
"And you, make sure you become a strong and high ranking noble."