Chapter 47   - 47: Join Us

Van could not help but look around him as his eyes started to adjust the light. He then slightly looked up, causing Andrea’s tears to drop on his face. Feeling the warm feeling trailing on his face, Van finally realized that he was truly back outside.

"Nathan!"

Van quickly wiped Andrea’s tears from his face as he looked towards the familiar voice-- Nisha’s.

Van could not help but furrow his eyebrows as he stared at Nisha who was running towards him.

"Nathan, you’re alive!"

"You...", Van slightly backed away as he gently took off Andrea’s arms, his eyebrows then shook as he looked menacingly straight at Nisha’s eyes, "Where are my crystals!?"

Nisha could not help but halt her steps as she blinked her eyes a couple of times, her face filled with confusion, "W... what?"

"You took my crystals and disappeared!", Van waved his hand, ready to turn his [Time Perception] skill on anytime soon.

"Evans... what are you saying?", Andrea could not help but look back and forth between Van and the female explorer sporting a bandana. She was also quite curious as to why the woman was referring to Van as Nathan.

"These people left me to die and took all of my crystals!", Van snarled.

"What!?", Nisha raised an eyebrow, "You’re the one that disappeared!", she shouted, "When we defeated the Portal Boss, you were gone!"

Van clicked his tongue as he slowly approached Nisha. He was about to say something, but then he felt a jangling right inside his pocket. Van slightly squinted his eyes as he quickly retrieved his pouch from his pocket, only to feel the familiar weight that it once had. He opened it, and lo and behold, his crystals were there.

"W... what the", Van could not help but slightly stuck out his tongue before clicking it and awkwardly smiling towards Nisha, "...Sorry", he said quietly. Still, his confusion grew further. He was sure that his pouch was empty the last time he checked it when he was... fighting the Portal Boss. What exactly was happening?

Nisha also squinted her eyes as she looked suspiciously towards Van, but after a few seconds she let out a sigh, "Anyway... Why did you only come out now, kid?", she said as she gently wiped the sweat on her neck, "We all thought you exited the Portal before us, but when we defeated the arachnaea and got out, you weren’t here, and no one saw you coming out. The Portal was still up, so we figured that you were still inside"

Van furrowed his eyebrows even further, "You... defeated the Portal Boss?"

"...Yeah", Nisha shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly.

"How were you able to kill it?", Van’s eyes widened in shock, "Did it say anything to you before it died?"

"...Say anything? What do you mean?", Nisha raised an eyebrow, "Did you hit your head or something? Monsters... don’t speak". Nisha was now looking at Van like he was some kind of lunatic. The first time she saw Viel was him laughing on top of the corpse of a monster, and then attacking her afterward. Maybe... he really was a crazy person?

"W... what?", Van’s confusion was reaching its peak as numerous ideas appeared inside his mind.

Did they fight a different Portal Boss? They just instantly disappeared earlier, could it be that there was an invisible Portal that transferred them to someplace else? But once again, if so, is something like that even possible?

He also remembered the Portal Boss giving him some sort of feather, it was in his hand before his vision blacked out, but now it isn’t.

Are Portals really this complicated? He entered with his mind clear, but now, all he had are questions upon questions.

Seeing the expression on Van’s face, Andrea could not help but let out a sigh as she slightly pulled Van away, "Maybe you should take a rest, Evans", she said.

But before they could even take a single step, Nisha told them to wait, her voice a bit hurried. She then took off her bandana, shaking her head and revealing her luscious ash-grey hair.

"The 7-Headed Cerberus guild is looking for promising recruits in the future", Nisha said as she waved her hair, "Do you perhaps want to try and join us?"

"...", Van only looked at her with a blank expression on his face. Was she... trying to seduce him into joining the guild? Maybe if Van hadn’t seen the face and the body of the Portal Boss earlier, then Nisha’s hair-waving technique might have worked a little bit for Van. But alas, the arachnaea truly was in a different league.

Nisha was about to open her mouth once more, but before she could do so, a loud screeching sound reverberated throughout the Relic Graveyard. Everyone present could not help but turn their heads towards the direction of the noise, only to see a car stopping just before the barricade that the standby unit constructed.

"That... that’s a transportation relic!", the people started clamoring and whispering to one another.

This so-called transportation was very familiar to Van-- it was a car, and there was only one person that he knew who owned something like that.

The door of the car then quickly opened and a woman came out of it, and to Van’s expectations, it was Sarah.

The leader of the standby unit quickly rushed towards Sarah and stretched his hand, "M... Miss Sarah, we didn’t expect to see you here!", the standby unit leader said, his tone filled with respect.

Sarah, however, just waved her hand and started walking towards Van. Her sighs could be heard even from a far distance, "I knew it was you", she said as she shook her head.

"I received a report that a student went inside a Portal in the Relic Graveyard", Sarah looked Van straight in the eyes, "Who else could it be but you?", she let out another sigh.

Although Nisha was slightly taken aback by the sudden appearance of this... authoritative woman, it still will not change the fact that she was in the middle of inviting Van to her guild, "Oi", she said haughtily, "Can’t you see I am talking to the--"

But before she could finish her words, her mouth was covered by Scott and she was quickly dragged away by her guildmates. All of the people from the standby unit that were also previously curiously staring at Van all looked away.

Van could not help but look around him. This was the second time that people suddenly avoided him because of Sarah.

Just... What exactly is Sarah’s identity? Van thought as he squinted his eyes. And how is she everywhere!? Are she and Gemma related?

"Miss Sarah", Andrea quickly wiped her hand and stretched it towards Sarah.

Seeing this, Sarah smiled as she shook Andrea’s hand,

"We meet again, Miss Andrea"