Stepping out of the glowing portal, Chrites, Vane, and Linease felt the familiar, heavy silence of their primary underground base settle around them.
The operations room was mostly empty, the digital clocks on the wall confirming the sheer amount of time that had passed during their mission on the Cebel continent.
Linease looked up at the digital calendar, her shoulders immediately slumping forward.
A highly depressed, anxious emotion washed entirely over her face as she let out a long, shaky breath.
“I am in massive trouble,” Linease groaned, speaking with a deeply worried, panicked emotion.
“What am I possibly going to say when I get home?
I have been completely gone for two whole days, and I did not inform my parents about anything.
I only told them I was going out for a quick evening walk.
How am I going to explain being this late?”
Chrites unhooked his painted demon mask, pulling it off his face to reveal his calm, average civilian features.
He looked at her distress and offered a relaxed, reassuring smile.
“Do not worry,” Chrites said, speaking with a supportive, confident emotion.
“I will come with you to help explain things to your parents.”
Chrites glanced over his shoulder at his tall lieutenant.
“Are you coming with us, Vane?”
Vane bowed his head respectfully, holding his digital tactical tablet against his chest.
“No, sir.
I do not have much time right now because I have to compile the full DTN asset report for Silas.
So, you can go ahead with her, sir.
My apologies for this time.”
“No problem, Vane.
It is nothing,” Chrites replied, speaking with a completely casual, indifferent emotion.
“I can handle the talking from here.”
Linease turned to Chrites, her brow furrowing as she tried to calculate their alibi.
“So, what is our exact plan, Chrites?
What are you going to tell my family?”
“It is simple,” Chrites explained, leaning against a metal console with a highly calculated, educational demeanor.
“After we get to your house, I will take the lead.
We will tell your parents that while we were walking, I was suddenly attacked by a group of wild street thugs.
Because I am just an average rookie, you stepped in to protect me.
While protecting me, you easily defeated the thugs using your Elite Slayer training.”
Linease nodded slowly, listening intently as Chrites laid out the narrative.
“Because of the magical damage to the street, the civilian police and military investigators arrived shortly after,” Chrites continued.
“They were highly suspicious of how a teenage recruit could so easily crush an entire gang of armed thugs.
So, they held us in secure custody for an intensive interrogation.
They kept us in their investigation rooms for two days, verifying our identities, running background checks, and asking endless questions about which military academy we were enrolled in.
That is the perfect reason for the delay, and I will be right there to back up your entire story.”
Linease’s face lit up with pure relief.
“Oh, that is a perfect plan!
We can absolutely use that narrative.”
“Let us go,” Chrites said.
Without putting his demon mask back on, Chrites tapped into his spatial magic.
The dark liquid shadows pooled around their feet, transporting them instantly out of the subterranean bunker.
They did not appear directly inside her house.
Instead, Chrites smartly teleported them into a quiet, shadowed alleyway situated just down the street from her neighborhood, allowing them to walk the rest of the way like normal teenagers.
As they approached the property, Chrites stopped walking, his eyes widening slightly.
It was a sprawling, highly luxurious, multi-story estate surrounded by tall, wrought-iron security gates and perfectly manicured gardens.
“Wow,” Chrites remarked, speaking with a genuinely surprised, impressed emotion before stepping through the front gate.
“Are you really, really rich?
I did not know that about your family.”
Linease blushed slightly, waving her hand dismissively with a humble, shy emotion.
“Oh, I am not that rich, Chrites.
Honestly, this house is nothing compared to the absolute size of our organization’s underground headquarters.”
Chrites chuckled softly, shaking his head.
“Oh, that does not compare at all.
That bunker is not connected to my personal life, and that is definitely not my home.
That is just our workplace.
If you ever want to come see my actual home, you can come by anytime.
I do not have any problem with that.
But for now…
let us go inside and face the music.”
Taking a deep breath, Linease unlocked the heavy oak front doors, and they both stepped into the grand foyer.
Standing directly at the entrance of the living room were her father and mother.
The tension in the air was immediate and suffocating.
Her mother looked incredibly upset, her eyes shining with highly emotional, relieved tears as she rushed forward.
“Linease!” her mother cried out emotionally, throwing her arms around her daughter.
“We were beside ourselves with worry!”
Her father, however, stood perfectly rigid.
He was a tall, imposing man with a highly stern, authoritative emotion.
His sharp eyes immediately bypassed Linease and locked entirely onto Chrites.
“Where exactly have you been?” her father demanded loudly, his voice echoing off the marble floor.
“And who the hell is this boy?”
Chrites stepped forward politely, immediately dropping into his perfectly crafted persona of a timid, perfectly ordinary civilian recruit.
Speaking with a highly respectful, nervous emotion, Chrites explained the entire pre-planned story to her father.
He described the sudden thug ambush, praised Linease’s incredible strength in saving him, and detailed the exhausting, two-day military police investigation that kept them locked without their communication devices.
Her father listened with narrowed eyes, analyzing Chrites’s highly average demeanor.
“Is this true?” her father asked, looking back at Linease with a highly skeptical, serious emotion.
“Are you telling me the absolute truth?”
“Yeah, yeah, it is the complete truth, sir,” Chrites interjected quickly, speaking with an earnest, innocent emotion.
“None of it was fake.
If you want to verify it, you can contact the local precinct investigators.
They finally cleared our records just an hour ago.”
Her father stared at Chrites for a long, heavy moment before his shoulders finally relaxed.
“Okay, okay.
I can understand the military protocols causing a delay.”
Suddenly, her father’s stern expression shifted.
A highly amusing, deeply curious emotion crossed the older man’s face as he crossed his arms, looking back and forth between the two teenagers.
“So,” her father asked, asking a really serious but funny question.
“What exactly is the relationship between you and my daughter?”
Chrites completely froze.
He stood there entirely answerless, his mind going completely blank.
Operating a global syndicate and fighting god-tier mages was easy, but navigating awkward parental interrogations about teenage relationships was something he had absolutely no experience with. Get faster updates on g.com.
He opened his mouth, but no words came out.
Seeing him stuck, Linease quickly stepped in, her face flushing bright red.
“Dad, stop!” Linease blurted out, speaking with a highly embarrassed, frantic emotion.
“He is just my friend!
He is a brand-new classmate I met at the academy opening!”
Her father raised an eyebrow, a highly amused smirk playing on his lips.
“Okay, okay.
Well, whatever the case may be, I am just glad you are both safe.”
Chrites bowed his head quickly, eager to escape.
“Thank you for understanding, sir.
Well, it is getting late, so I am going to head home now.”
“No, no, no, absolutely not,” her mother insisted, speaking with a warm, highly welcoming emotion as she stepped forward.
“It is way too late for you to travel back on an empty stomach.
You must stay and have dinner at our home.
The food is already prepared, and since you are Linease’s friend who kept her company, we insist.”
“Yeah, you should definitely stay and eat with us,” Linease added, offering a hopeful, encouraging smile.
Chrites kept his polite smile glued to his face, but internally, he groaned.
*Oh man, where did I get stuck tonight?* he thought to himself with a highly exhausted, trapped emotion.
Accepting defeat, Chrites agreed to stay.
“Excuse me for one moment, please,” he said politely, pulling his smartphone from his pocket.
He walked into the quiet hallway to call his own parents.
Knowing his parents would get highly suspicious if he used the same excuse too many times, Chrites smartly crafted a completely different alibi.
He lied smoothly, telling his mother that he was staying over at a classmate’s house to finish up a massive academic group project for the academy.
He confirmed he would be eating dinner there and returning late.
His mother accepted the story easily and cut the call.
Pocketing his phone, Chrites walked into the sprawling, beautifully decorated dining hall.
The long mahogany table was laden with highly expensive, perfectly roasted meats and warm delicacies.
Taking their seats around the table were her father, her mother, Linease, and her older brother, a highly imposing adult mage who eyed Chrites with quiet curiosity.
Chrites took a seat near the corner, keeping his posture modest and quiet as they all began eating.
Halfway through the meal, her mother set her silver fork down, looking across the table at Chrites with a deeply gentle, maternal emotion.
“Chrites, I really hope you will continue to be good friends with my daughter,” her mother requested softly.
“Since Linease is entirely new to this city, she does not really know anyone outside the academy walls yet.
I do not want my daughter to feel isolated or alone here.”
Chrites swallowed his food, looking up with a perfectly warm, respectful emotion.
“Okay, absolutely, ma’am.
You do not have to be worried at all,” Chrites promised sincerely.
“I will be very happy to help her navigate the city and the academy.
It is no problem at all.”
The dinner concluded with pleasant, lighthearted conversation.
Once the meal was fully finished, Chrites stood up from the table, bowing politely to her parents and her older brother.
He said a warm goodbye to the entire family, sharing a quick, knowing look with Linease before walking out the front doors.
Stepping out into the cool night air, Chrites walked for a few blocks until the estate was entirely out of sight.
With a silent flicker of spatial displacement, he teleported the rest of the way, arriving perfectly inside his own dark bedroom.
Completely drained from the endless social and magical hurdles of the past forty-eight hours, Chrites collapsed heavily onto his soft mattress, falling fast asleep the moment his head hit the pillows.