CHAPTER 111: WAY BACK HOME

The next day after the banquet party. The day was still early and dew drops still lingered on the leaves and rooftops.

Kaelen stood quietly beside Derek, Alira, and Neal. None of them said anything. They didn’t need to. The silence between them said more than any words could. There was nothing left to do here.

The backup epic-ranked awakeners had already departed, returning to their own territories, their own wars. There was no fanfare. No dramatic final salutes. Just brief nods and brisk parting words. Professionals knew not to linger where battle had passed.

Nearby, Princess Lyrissa stood surrounded by her guards. She approached slowly, her steps measured, not with royal pride, but genuine courtesy.

Derek was the first to offer a polite bow.

"We’ve overstayed our welcome."

"You’ve done more than enough," the princess said, her voice calm but filled with gratitude. "We won’t forget what your team did for us. Hather kingdom will forever remember this day."

Neal nodded quietly but said nothing.

Alira offered a slight curtsy. Kaelen, as always, kept his hands in his pockets and gave a half-smirk. "Take care of the survivors. That’s the real hard part."

The princess nodded. "We will."

A few steps behind her, Kaitlin and Sairi approached.

Sairi, ever the irreverent one, waved lazily. "Well, I’ll admit it, your team might be the only reason we’re not rebuilding this place from ash."

"We’ll bill you later," Derek said, deadpan.

Sairi chuckled. "Any time, Grandpa."

Kaitlin stepped up to Neal. Her usual steely composure was there, but softer now and more personal. "You’re leaving, huh?"

"Yeah," Neal said. "No more wars for a while."

"...Right," Kaitlin muttered. She looked like she wanted to say something more, but instead gave him a firm nod. "Then rest well. You earned it."

Kaelen glanced back at Sairi, who simply gave a lazy smile and tossed him a wink.

"If you ever want to run a business instead of destroying cities, you know where to find me," she called out.

Kaelen raised a hand in parting but didn’t promise anything.

They didn’t linger after that. No long goodbyes. No drawn-out farewells. That wasn’t their way.

They departed just past noon. No dramatic exit. Just four figures walking down a lonely stone road, no packs slung over their shoulders as they didn’t bring any to begin with. They left with footsteps steady and quiet.

The farther they got from the Hather kingdom, the lighter the air felt. Somewhere ahead, past the war-torn lands, beyond the echo of explosions and the shadow of monsters... the old world awaited.

And nestled at the edge of that world, like a hidden ember in the dusk, waited The Ashen Boar.

Their home.

Not a castle. Not a fortress.

Just a wooden tavern with creaky chairs, mismatched mugs, a cellar that always leaked, and a sky so wide you could lie under it and forget everything else.

Kaelen glanced at Derek as they walked.

"Are we really doing this? No dungeons or monsters?"

Derek grunted. "We’ve had our fill."

Neal snorted. "Bet I last longer behind the bar than you do."

"Is that a challenge?"

Alira stepped between them. "If it is, I’m placing my bet on Kaelen accidentally breaking a mug and setting the tavern on fire."

Kaelen looked mildly offended. "Hey I’m not that silly."

"You are," Derek muttered.

They laughed, just a little. Just enough.

The air was clean. The path was clear. The war was behind them.

And for the first time in what felt like years... peace wasn’t just a dream.

But in reality it was just a few days not even a week yet since they left the Dawn academy.

And waiting just over the hill lies their modest tavern.

They didn’t rush this time.

No longer on borrowed time or blood-stained urgency, the Juggernauts let themselves slow down. From the war-scarred fields of Hather, they moved through the teleportation gates like drifting feathers, choosing not the fastest routes, but the most interesting ones.

The first gate brought them to Velharn, a merchant capital nestled atop river-crossed stonework and ivy-laced towers. There were no monsters here. No alarm bells. Just a city of glowing lanterns and nighttime music.

Alira dragged Neal into a street market where fire-dancers performed barefoot on glowing coals, their movements hypnotic, their songs lilting in a forgotten tongue. She even got him to try a stick of honey-roasted tharnfruit. He hated it. She laughed so hard she almost fell over.

Derek found a weaponsmith tucked beneath a bridge, where the forge burned with green-blue flame and the hammers sang like church bells. He didn’t buy anything. But he spent an hour just watching, as if the rhythm of peace was something he hadn’t heard in decades.

"You gonna buy something?"

"Nope."

"Then move along will ya!"

Kaelen found the game houses, of course he did and left behind three noble sons nursing their pride and a few hundred thousand XP lighter. When they asked his name, he just shrugged. "Call me the guy who told you to stop bluffing."

By the time they passed through the gate to Sorvayen, the mountain kingdom, it was nearing dusk.

Here the streets were carved from jade and lined with crystal lamps that pulsed with breath-like cadence. Monks walked barefoot across suspended bridges, and the scent of herbal incense clung to the wind.

Kaelen wandered away from the group for a while. Found a quiet shrine at the edge of a cliff. Not to pray, not exactly. Just to sit.

He watched the sun dip into the distant ocean. He didn’t cry. But he let the silence hold him for a while, longer than he ever allowed it to before.

Neal joined him eventually. Sat beside him, said nothing. Just passed him a skewer of grilled meat he picked up from a vendor.

"...Thanks," Kaelen said.

"Yeah."

They didn’t talk about the battlefield. Or about the day Neal turned into a star.

But that’s how Juggernauts worked. Some things didn’t need words.