Chapter 513: 462 "Fairy Country"_2
"What do you plan to do now?" Reiger asked, "You were imprisoned by those fairies in the village, ready to be handed over to some execution squad, right?"
"Now that you’ve escaped, do you have any plans on where to go?"
"I’ll see it through as a good person and accompany you for part of the way."
Reiger’s words suddenly choked Altoria.
"What’s wrong?" Reiger raised an eyebrow and said, "You don’t even know where you plan to go, do you?"
"...I don’t know." Altoria murmured, grumbling, "I hadn’t thought that far ahead, I was only focused on how to escape from the dungeon."
As for where to go after escaping the dungeon, Altoria had truly not considered it.
However, she didn’t feel lost.
Leaving the village was something she had known would happen for a long time.
Should she simply go on a pilgrimage as originally planned?
But the chosen staff was still in the village!
Altoria found herself in a predicament and started to feel torn about it.
"Alright." Reiger seemed to understand Altoria’s current situation and said, "Do you have a temporary place to stay?"
"A temporary place to stay?"
Altoria murmured again, then seemed to think of something, turned her head, and looked toward the coast.
"You’re going over there?"
Reiger confirmed this point.
"Yes." Altoria nodded and said, "I have a friend living there, the only place I can think to go is there."
Saying so, Altoria smiled with a hint of distress.
"But I almost did something unforgivable to him a few days ago, isn’t it too shameless to suddenly turn up now?"
Clearly, Altoria was still hesitating.
To this, Reiger had only one thing to say.
"Regardless, you’re now unwelcome by the villagers of Tintagel. If you don’t visit your friend now, once you leave this place for good, you may never get the chance to see him again, you know?"
This statement deeply moved Altoria.
She felt the same way.
She definitely wouldn’t be able to return here in the future. If she didn’t take this opportunity to see "Grandpa", wouldn’t it be much more difficult later?
With this thought, the scales in Altoria’s heart began to tip.
"Are you really going to take me there?"
Altoria turned to Reiger, looking directly into his eyes with a blink.
Those eyes seemed to penetrate one’s soul, making anyone who saw them feel unconsciously uncomfortable.
Reiger, however, appeared unmoved.
"Having met you first upon arrival here must be some kind of fate," Reiger said calmly, "Besides, I was the one who brought you out of the dungeon. Given that, I need to make sure you won’t be captured again."
There was another thing Reiger didn’t say.
He was well aware that the seemingly innocent and cheerful girl in front of him was about to face a very rough destiny.
Her ending in the original story had left many people unable to let go.
The ordeals she faced in this world had incited anger in many people.
Reiger wasn’t quite there himself, but since he had encountered her, he decided to give what help he could.
Not to mention, he could do whatever was in his power to prevent an imminent tragedy.
"..."
Altoria didn’t speak, but in her uneasy gaze, a hint of incredulity emerged.
After a while, the girl revealed a bright smile.
"Thank you! You really are a good person!"
And so, within less than an hour of arriving in this world, Reiger received his first "good person" card.
"Hold tight."
The one deemed a good person by the girl extended a hand of guilt in calm disposition.
"Wait!" Altoria called out, urgently requesting, "Take me away in a different manner!"
She really did not want to be carried away under someone’s arm again.
"Fine."
Reiger agreed readily and scooped Altoria onto his shoulder...
"Isn’t this even worse!?"
Altoria, lying on Reiger’s shoulder, let out an embarrassed scream.
"[High-level Teleportation]."
Ignoring the girl’s complaints and struggles, Reiger activated the teleportation magic and vanished atop the hills.
...
It was a workshop located near the cape, not far from Tintagel.
Standing isolated at the end of a coast battered by waves, the workshop stood tall like a lighthouse, with its roof sporting a chimney, puffing out smoke. The smoke was not from cooking that could bring a sense of warmth and homeliness but from industrial exhaust emitted during the operation of a forge.
According to Altoria, this was a forge that did not exist in Tintagel.
In that forge lived a blacksmith from the Earth Clan. His name was Ecter, a Forging Master who had resided there for hundreds of years. He was known for his queer temperament, unpleasant attitude, rough behavior, and chaotic style. In Altoria’s words, he was a bad person.
Yet, this bad person was one of the few friends Altoria had made during her life of sixteen years, and she even referred to him as Grandpa.
"Swoosh!"
Bringing Altoria with him, Reiger teleported and arrived at the location, setting down the crestfallen girl who had been on his shoulder.
"Alright, how much longer are you going to be so disheartened?"