My return took longer than expected.

Securing the culprit was the first priority. Morion's people, who rushed over at Esther's call, tied up the unconscious Cain, Thompson, and Skyler with restraints.

Restraining Skyler proved somewhat troublesome since he was originally a spirit, and thus, binding his outer armor was futile.

However, there were special restraints for monsters, allowing them to secure Skyler. As a player, I focused mostly on exterminating monsters, so it was my first time seeing a monster being restrained up close. Unlike humans, who are handcuffed, monsters were put inside a giant spherical glass bead.

Normally, it's an artifact in the form of a ring as small as a finger, but when used for restraint, it expands its volume by forming a barrier with mana.

It seemed quite convenient and useful, but I heard it's difficult to use in battle. It takes time to expand the barrier, and making just one of those artifacts requires considerable time and funds. I wonder if they're made of Viper Steel.

Naturally, my eyes were drawn to that artifact stored in the workshop. Although it's only effective as long as my mana isn't depleted—a sort of half-measure—unlike the real thing, it has the advantage of not costing anything to use. It might be useful for temporarily restraining someone.

──And then.

"The scenery feels somehow nostalgic."

I headed towards Constel in a car.

From disrupting Indus on the aerial railway, to working as a lifeguard in Cropolis, and then meeting Renzo on my way back, to Heldre's mansion.

Though it wasn't a long time, the variety of experiences made the journey towards Constel feel warmly familiar.

The drive was provided by an employee of Morion. It seemed Esther was still on-site supervising. Enough time had passed that the mana from Manggot would have dissipated, but it was still too early to relax.

“Student. Consider yourself lucky. If the director hadn’t been there, something terrible would have happened.”

The driver spoke to me.

I replied with a smile.

“Yes, truly, it was a stroke of luck. Perhaps it was the mercy of Justitia.”

“Heh. The director would have been pleased to hear that.”

People from Morion almost entirely credited Esther for what happened in the mansion.

Of course, Esther herself didn’t claim as much, but considering the situation, that was the only possibility they could think of.

This created a peculiar understanding of the incident at the scene.

Esther thinks I acted alone, Morion believes Esther handled everything, and once this incident is made public, the general populace will believe Morion caught Indus.

However, none of those are the truth. As long as these three psychological barriers exist, no one will realize Manggot’s involvement.

“Here we are.”

“Thank you.”

After a while, the car stopped.

I politely thanked the employee and then looked up at the entrance of Constel.

The reason for coming to Constel instead of the Roach mansion was to deliver the news to Jane and the other teachers.

Jane, who knows I was kidnapped by Renzo. But even so, she wouldn’t have spread the word everywhere. Probably only a few teachers know about it. Spreading it everywhere would only cause confusion.

Perhaps they are forming a team to retrieve me again. Osprey would be involved in it.

That’s why I needed to hurry back to Constel to inform them of my safety.

And intending to go to the staff room at Constel, I changed direction and headed for the principal's office instead. I didn’t want to involve teachers who were unaware of my situation.

But when I arrived at the principal's office, it was empty. Knocking elicited no response, and there was no sign of anyone inside.

‘Ah, perhaps.’

With that thought, I turned and headed towards the meeting room.

The very place where we had meetings with the teachers about capturing Indus.

In the distance, I heard voices coming from the conference room.

"Then we should dispatch a small, elite team first…."

"If we move too hastily and are discovered, it would put the student at risk…."

Cautious words were exchanged inside. It was about some kind of ominous operation.

I guess it must be about me.

Knock, knock.

I knocked lightly on the door of the conference room. But no one came out. Rather than ignoring me, it seemed that they were so engrossed in their meeting that they couldn't hear my voice.

Hmm.

There's nothing I can do about it then.

Creak.

I slowly opened the door. Inside, I could see the teachers gathered around a large table. They didn't pay any attention to me as I entered and continued their meeting.

Besides me, there must have been many people coming in and out of the conference room. They must have needed to bring in various materials for the operation. It was the same during the last meeting I attended.

It felt strange to see so many people concentrating all their efforts on planning an operation to save me.

"Ahem. I'm back."

I spoke with a light cough. Then, the teachers glanced at me and tried to resume their conversation, but their faces changed strangely and they looked at me again.

Most of the teachers did something similar.

"...Frondier?"

That heavy and somewhat cold voice. Osprey, who was sitting in the back center, widened his eyes as he looked at me. It was the most surprised I had ever seen Osprey look.

At his mumble, all the teachers who hadn't noticed me yet turned their attention to me. Jane was among them. I was glad I didn't have to explain things separately.

I spoke.

"Yes, Frondier de Roach. I've just returned,"

"Frondier!!"

Then, someone came running towards me, calling my name. She hugged me tightly and buried her face in my shoulder.

It was Malia.

"Frondier! I'm so glad, Frondier…!"

Her voice was trembling with emotion. I felt a sense of awkwardness.

The look in her eyes and the tone of her voice when she saw me off to Elysia's Tower came back to me.

Malia smelled like my mother. It was such a cowardly thing to do. Even though she wasn't my real mother.

...But even so.

I quietly closed my eyes and let out a hushed voice.

Only now did I feel like I had finally finished something long and arduous.

"I'm back, Mother."

* * *

The teachers of Constel were in an uproar when they found out I had returned alive from Renzo.

Of course, there were only a few teachers who knew about it, but it was also true that their impression of me had changed.

Some of them tried to ask me how I had escaped from Renzo's clutches, but they were always interrupted by Malia and Jane.

"What are you trying to ask a student who just barely made it back alive!?" The teachers backed down at their murderous tone of voice. It was convenient for me.

At the mansion, everything remained the same. After all, the people there couldn't have known that I had participated in the operation or that I'd been kidnapped. When I faced Enfer, he treated me just as he always had. It was truly a comforting peace.

From my perspective, it was good timing. I couldn't afford any pointless interruptions from now on.

Inside my room at the Roach mansion, I performed the inspection I'd been waiting so long to do.

"First, Renzo's spear and shield."

The weapons Ares had given Renzo, 'Enkephalos' and 'Rinotoros'. That was the name of the spear and shield, respectively.

When Renzo took those two divine items out, I had them stored in the workshop right away, but they weren't usable at all.

Because...

[??]

• Grade: ???

• Description: ???

Detailed Abilities >

- ???

- ???

Both the spear and shield were displayed like this. At first, I thought it was an error.

'Ares must have hidden them.'

Ares must have heard about me from Hephaestus and apparently took appropriate action.

That said, I couldn't believe he was able to hide not just the item descriptions but their names as well. Was that possible because they were his creations? Of course, he could still use them since he had simply hidden the information about them.

Their performance was the same as before. The reason he hid the information was probably because there was another characteristic of the two items that I didn't know about.

The only thing I could learn about that was that both items had two detailed abilities listed.

The spear's 'Infinite Attempts' and the shield's ability to block everything in front of it, though I didn't know its name. Apart from those, each weapon must have had one more ability.

Was that ability the one Ares was trying to hide?

"Well, I'll look into that later."

A god had made a decision and hidden it. There was no way I could figure it out at the moment.

Besides, those two things weren't my main concern today.

I opened my smartwatch.

[Main Quest: Operation Suppress Indus, completed.]

[Main Quest: Operation Suppress Indus]

•Description: Indus's plan has been revealed. Stop the plan and suppress Indus members.

•Objective: Suppress Indus members and leader.

•Rewards: Compensation varies depending on the number of people suppressed.

• Failure may result in a state of anarchy.

[Check Reward]

- Anarchy averted.

- All named characters survived.

- Subdued Individuals: Heldre, Kraken, Cain, Thompson, Skyler. Successful subduing of all Indus leaders.

[The highest grade reward has been determined. The reward will be provided according to the character's current level.]

Following the previous main quest, the second highest grade reward.

With a sense of anticipation, I checked the following.

But...

[Error.]

[Heldre's contribution to the death has been confirmed.]

[The possibility of a character transition for the named character, Renzo, has been suggested.]

[Recalculating the reward.]

[Calculation complete.]

[Transcendental grade reward will be granted.]

"...Huh?"

I reread that for a while and then furrowed my brow. A word I'd never heard before while playing the game Etius had appeared.

"What's a transcendental grade?"