Chapter 1343: Return and Departure
---Thres---
“Jeez, took them long enough,” Alison commented at the sight below. Standing in the governor's estate, the alchemist and the immortal witch were watching a procession of people flow through the gates of Thres. They had been pillaging some of Adams' good booze while he was away.
Governor Adam, Mike's party, what remained of Adam's men, and the refugees they saved had finally reached Thres after a four-day journey. It was much quicker because they had taken the direct route, straight through the ruins of Beta.
Originally, his route would have been too dangerous to walk with refugees, even if Adam had not lost many of his comrades. However, thanks to Alison's complaints, Mike's party took the lead on the way back, securing everybody's safety on the express route, which may or may not have involved a huge murder of slimes charging through the ruins and landscape.
The crowd below looked moody and tired, residues of slime still stuck in their nooks and crannies, but alive. Alison couldn't imagine what they went through, and she didn't really care. She wanted to leave Thres already and finish her own mission. They had stayed here for long enough.
She understood the importance of their mission. But to her, it was not just about collecting and exploring ingredients in the Evergrowing Forests, or acquiring their seeds to spread them across the worlds of Spatia.
Unlike Mike, who chose to take this mission, Alison was here for her expertise. She had been forced to separate from the boyfriend she had finally found! She wanted to return to Minas Mar as quickly as possible, so she could be with Neeco again.
This whole Thres business had only cost them time, and now her original mission was only about to start! How much longer would they have to be apart?
“We should sober up before meeting Mike and Adam,” Evee suggested, casting a detox charm on herself. Alison stared out the window, thinking of Neeco, so it took a moment for the witch's words to sink in.
“Oh, yeah, sure,” she said, chucking a small phial of potion that wiped the alcohol from her insides. Her wistful thoughts left with the booze, and she focused back on the situation at hand.