《Lone: The Wanderer [Dropped Version (includes original draft of the rewrite's first volume)]》Book 4 Chapter 1: Felron's Border and Swind's Concealed Anger
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Lone and Hazel's group walked through the massive light yellow rift and stepped onto the rocky plateau that it led them to. Once they were all through, Alisa willed the portal to close.
Lone enjoyed the light breeze that rustled his hair and tickled his skin. "Where is this? I don't remember anywhere like this near the world tree."
Alisa had a proud but shy look on her face. "M-My rifts can take you anywhere in any direction so long as it's within five-hundred miles of the starting location. Fifty normally, but Scott multiplies the range by ten times."
Lone whistled. "Wow. That's really amazing. Soph can only teleport fifteen-miles at most."
Soph squeezed the tails she was holding before she whispered, "Yeah, but I can teleport over a thousand times before I run out of mana points..."
Lone lightly knocked her on the head before he bent over and pulled her in for a light kiss. "Yes, but if you were bringing nine other people with you - ten if Rachel didn't have her current condition - you'd be stuck at about fifty 'ports, right?"
Soph pouted and kissed him back. "Not if you were all in Eolande's Glade."
Lone nodded with a happy look on his face. "I'm proud you remembered that dirty little trick."
Scott - who was now spread out on the floor after George practically dumped him there - asked, "Eolande's Glade? What's that?"
Lone tugged on the anvil and furnace necklace that was hanging around his neck, showing it to the kids. "This is a keystone to a pocket dimension. The dimension in question is The Glade of The Tylwyth Teg. It's originally from Earth. Eolande brought it with her when she came to Altros."
Alisa's previous bashfulness was practically blown to smithereens as curiosity clouded her expression and her eyes turned sparkly. "A pocket dimension?! Those are legendary works of art! There's only seven confirmed to exist on Altros and even the most talented space mages can't make one nowadays! How was there one on Earth?!"
"There's still one on Earth though," Lone said as he tilted his head. "It was Soph's home until she and I were brought here."
Eolande only commented by saying, "Before God started massacring the magical races, magic was a very easy thing to come across. My Glade was personally created by Lord Hades, while the one Soph treated as her home was probably made by the traitor, Poseidon. Zeus had no talent for space-weaving. That's what we called space magic, by the way."
Alisa's eyes were spinning at this point. "So unbelievable but so incredible..."
"Anyway," to change the subject to something more important, Lone asked, "How much further is it to Mystopolis?"
Hazel replied with, "Another thousand miles roughly. It took us three portals to get here from The Academy."
"I see... Well, we could get there in two days then. One if we used some mana orbs," Lone surmised when he factored in Soph's insane teleportation capabilities and the fact that it was already late in the afternoon.
"Are we going to do that?" the girl in question asked as she cocked her head back and looked up at Lone now that she was comfortably snuggled up to him with her back to his chest.
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Lone rested his chin on her head and hummed lightly. "Yes. We need to get Rachel's soul healed as soon as possible."
"Mr Immortus..." Swind was filled with nothing but appreciation.
"Well, with that decided," Lone smirked. "Shall we start?"
Emma raised her hand and gleefully said, "You'll have to stop at Felron's borders so they can check us and identify us."
Lone frowned. "Is that necessary?"
She nodded. "Yup. Every guard has a little gem that can identify those who aren't registered in the kingdom. They have orders to attack on sight if they find someone who hasn't been verified."
Lone clicked his tongue. "I'd rather not deal with the law in a human-run kingdom whenever possible... Should I just kill the king or queen to make a big enough ruckus that us slipping in won't matter?"
George paled at the frighteningly realistic scenario that Lone was muttering about. "I-I understand that you have bad feelings about kingdoms, especially human run ones, but Felron is not like Milindo. Were you to be betrayed like back then, the Grand Guildmaster wouldn't let it ever go since you're adventurers. She's very protective of her own, even wooden-plates. There's also the fact that it's public knowledge that you and Soph are wanted by Headmaster Erion."
Lone moved his jaw in thought, disturbing Soph's golden locks. "Fine. But if the kingdom's men try anything funny with any of us, I'm not gonna lie down and take it like a fucking bitch."
"Potty mouth..." As usual, Soph complained about Lone's rough language.
Hazel nodded. "That's fine. Ah, some people might be a bit... racist. They won't start trouble directly, but they might be a bit rude to you guys since you're all demis expect for Soph."
Lone just scoffed. "Fuck 'em. I endured so much shit before coming to Altros. So long as they're not trying to hurt, kill or imprison us, they can do whatever the fuck they like. Disgusting humans and their damned prejudices."
Eolande laughed. "How hypocritical, Husband. Are you not being prejudiced against all humans right now?"
Lone case her a side-long glance. "No. I know there are good humans out there. Soph and the kids are perfect examples. I'm more pissed off at how stupid people can be. At least the elves only looked at us funny. Not a single one tried to disturb Soph beyond a few harsh words. If you have to be a fucking racist, at least be civil about it like them."
Hazel could feel her eyebrow twitching. 'Big Bro is going to love The Academy. I'm kind of looking forward to him putting those arrogant nobles in their places... Ah. I shouldn't be thinking like that. You've got to be the responsible and mature one, Hazel.'
And like that, while still bickering about the specifics regarding discrimination, its origin, why its 'horseshite' - in Lone's words, the group of ten spent the next four hours teleporting.
"So that's the border gate?" Lone asked as he marvelled at the massive stone structure that was glowing with a faint aqua-coloured hue. It was clearly enchanted, and a thick wall that was also covered in magic formations stretched as far as the eye could see.
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"Yeah. Em, R-Rachel will need to get registered too... The babies as well if you want to show them in public. M-Maybe not Garadia since she's a dragon... People will either revere her or try to kill her regardless..." Alisa hated that she had been designated to explain things to Lone.
Hazel's group had held a vote on who would do it. Emma was the only one who wanted to, but she was horrifically bad at such things, so after democratically voting, it was decided that the task would fall onto the tiny space mage-wannabe.
Lone scratched his chin. "So, we just line up and then show our adventurer plates?" Lone asked.
"Em, yeah," Alisa replied.
"Okay. Sounds simple enough." Lone got up and stretched. Just as he was about to return to their groups, he asked, "What happens if someone tries to start shit with us since we're mostly demis? Anyone with enough strength will be able to feel our ranks, but you know that anyone below B-rank won't, yeah?"
"Um... handle it normally?" Alisa said in a very unsure manner. 'This is why I didn't want to do this!'
"Normally, huh? Sure." Lone had a big happy smile on his face.
He shoved his hands into his pockets and strolled back to The Wanderers and the kids. Alisa couldn't help but pray that no one tried to assert themselves over Lone's group out of boredom.
Rachel was affixed to Swind's back via a comfortable looking device that resembled a chair. She was still making her strange moaning noises, but no one in Lone's nor Hazel's group pointed it out.
Swind himself didn't want to let her out of The Glade, but he had no choice since it could cause serious problems down the line once her soul was repaired, so he had to endure for now until she was registered with the kingdom.
Soph was holding Lone's hand while he cradled Kyuubi in his other one. Breena was also out of Lone's shadow for once and was walking slightly behind him and Soph.
Eolande was floated alongside Swind and Rachel with a bored look on her face while the teens trailed just behind them.
The two groups of adventurers totalling twelve people - Kyuubi included - entered the long line to the border gate.
Naturally, Hazel's group was ignored completely while practically every eye turned to The Wanderers.
Many showed disgust or distaste but didn't voice it out loud. This only worsened when they heard Rachel groaning. Finally, one group of adventurers who had joined the line shortly after Lone's and Hazel's groups were fed up of the noises she was making.
A tall and burly man with scars all over his body boldly walked up to Swind and pointed rudely at Rachel. "Can't you shut that cripple up? She's disturbing everyone," he said before muttering, "Filthy demis..." under his breath.
Soph squeezed Lone's hand and looked up at his face with concern vivid in her expression. He shook his head in response. "Swind can deal with this. He's a people-person, I'm not. I'll only step in if they resort to violence," he whispered to her.
Soph didn't reply but she was still very anxious. In her mind, Sophie was actually enjoying herself quite a bit. 'We can't believe a D-ranker is looking down on Swind. This will be very entertaining.'
Swind knitted his eyebrows. "I'm sorry, Mr...?"
"Ha. Did you hear that, Bill? He called you 'Mr'. Polite for a filthy demi, huh?" a shrill voice claimed. Its owner was a gangly man with short messy blonde hair. He was dressed very well, so Swind suspected that he might have been a noble or perhaps a merchant's son.
Again, Swind repeated himself. "I'm sorry, Mr Bill. We are not trying to cause a disturbance. Please forgive my partner's condition."
The burly man, Bill, scowled. "Don't talk to me, you filthy demi. Just shut her up before I do it. I can think of a thing or two to stuff down her throat to keep her quiet," he suggested with a lecherous smirk strewn across his face.
The gangly man laughed. "As expected of Bill, huh? Even kids aren't free from your hands. I thought you'd have better tastes than a demi though."
Bill just shrugged and walked away. The blonde-haired rich-looking man leered at both Swind and Rachel before he followed after his apparent group member.
Lone was mildly surprised. "Hmm..." Swind's fists were clenched tightly in anger, but he had managed to control himself perfectly.
When the two men were back in their place in the line, Lone unleashed his Ascending Might's unique aura and focused it solely on the men very quickly. They both collapsed and started foaming at the mouth. Their other group members panicked and tried to help the two, but to no avail. Satisfied with his work, Lone grinned and cancelled the skill's effects.
Meanwhile, Eolande was very interested with the reactions of the demis in the line as well as of those that were B-ranked or higher.
The demis were all either looking bitter or upset while the B-rankers were practically shaking in fear. It made sense. She was an XX-ranker, Lone and Soph were S-rankers, Rachel was an SS-ranker while Swind and Breena were A-rankers.
Even ignoring their peculiar and abnormal strength, in a normal scenario, their group would be an absolute collection of powerhouses no matter where they went. It hardly helped that some of the people who were aware of their power had noticed that it was Lone who had casually knocked out a D-ranker and an E-ranker within a split-second and by doing nothing more than looking at them. Or at least, that's all he'd done from their point of view.
'This is going to be fun...' Eolande thought to herself as she licked her lips. Now she was looking forward to their eventual arrival at Mystopolis even if she was dreading her coming conversation with Lone.
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