I opened the envelope and unfolded the letter inside.
The handwriting wasn't pretty. The strokes were messy—clearly written in a rush—and there were even several spelling mistakes, but it was still easy enough to understand.
[Teacher Gauss,
When you see this letter, I should already be gone from this country.
Please don't worry about me.
Mom said the people who came today seem to be my grandmother's family. They're taking us home.
To a very faraway place.
The adults said it's called the Kingdom of Rolan.
I really don't want to go. I want to wait for you to come back and keep learning magic from you.
I've already learned the cantrips you taught me, and I've read several of those books.
But Mom said we have to go—we can't leave me alone in the village.
Teacher… do you think we'll be able to meet again?
But please don't worry. Even if I go somewhere else, I'll keep practicing.
I'll become really, really strong—and then I'll come find you.
Missing you,
Rhein]
The letter wasn't long.
So she'd gone to the Kingdom of Rolan…
Gauss folded it back up and put it away, but his thoughts drifted far.
Rolan lay northwest of the Kingdom of Carlos—very far from where they were.
For most ordinary people, travel in this world was nowhere near as convenient as in Gauss's past life. Unless you lived near a border, leaving your country was something most people would never accomplish in their entire lifetime.
And even for adventurers, unless there was a special reason, they usually didn't leave their homeland to roam abroad.
He could easily imagine how lost a little girl—who had never even left her village—must feel when told she was leaving home for another kingdom.
"…Sigh."
Gauss couldn't help letting out a long breath.
He still hadn't fully settled emotionally over Rhein being taken away.
He didn't know whether this would be a blessing… or a curse.
A family capable of organizing cross-border searches and a reunion like this had to have real power and resources.
For Rhein—poor background, extraordinary magical talent—being brought back into such a family might mean better teachers, a far better environment to grow in, and wider connections.
From that angle, it was fate smiling on her.
But Gauss also understood how complicated the noble world could be—its currents and undertows.
Power. Interests. Bloodlines. Inheritance.
When those things tangle together, family affection often stops being pure.
Rhein returning as a "lost bloodline"… would she be pulled into internal disputes? Would her talent be cherished and trained—or treated as a resource?
There was no way to know.
And why did they only come now?
…
Gauss shook his head.
What's done is done—and half a year had already passed.
All he could do was hope this reunion would help Rhein more than it harmed her.
Right now, Gauss wasn't in a position to leave the relatively familiar Kingdom of Carlos and search for Rhein in a foreign land.
One: the journey was truly long.
Two: he still wasn't completely "safe"—the Dragon Cult was almost certainly still eyeing him.
Three: even with his strength, he wasn't strong enough to contend with a powerful, ruling grand noble.
In other words: even if he crossed mountains and seas to find her, he might still not be able to change anything.
For now, he could only return to a city later and have someone gather information about Rolan.
When the timing was right—when he was strong enough—he would travel and check on her himself.
"So… where did little Rhein go?" Alia asked, seeing how heavy his expression was.
"Her family was taken to the Kingdom of Rolan."
"Rolan… that's really far," Albena scratched the back of her head. Her giant-blood tribe was remote, but still within Carlos.
Aside from Serandur—who came from an island—none of them had likely ever set foot outside Carlos.
"When we get stronger, we'll go find her," Alia clapped her hands, trying to lift the mood.
"Yeah," Gauss nodded.
"That day won't be far," Serandur said, looking at Gauss—not bravado, just confidence.
When Serandur first met him, Gauss had only just reached Level 2. Now he was Level 6.
And in terms of actual combat power… it was even more ridiculous.
Since their main reason for coming—Rhein—was no longer in the village, they didn't linger. They left a few skill books behind, then rode Hephaestus out of Goat Village, heading toward Grayrock.
…
Snowflakes the size of beans drifted down, melting the moment they got close to the red dragon-beast Hephaestus.
"I'm tired," came a voice—dragon-tongue, simple but clear.
It was Hephaestus, flapping through the heavy snow and speaking in words only Gauss could understand now.
Gauss's lips curved slightly.
Wasn't this progress?
Hephaestus could talk.
Sure, it could only manage a few simple phrases—"I want food," "I'm tired," "I want to sleep," "yes," "no"—like a child who had just learned speech.
But once the first step was taken, the rest would come faster and faster.
Gauss checked Hephaestus's condition. It was a bit drained, but nowhere near exhausted.
This was just the dragon's laziness acting up again.
"Push a little more, Hephaestus. We're almost there."
"When we reach the destination, I'll treat you. I'll personally pick the fattest cattle and sheep from the market."
"I'm tired. No."
"Food. Yes."
Hephaestus instantly perked up, replying with its tiny vocabulary, and its wingbeats grew stronger.
And this time Gauss wasn't lying—Grayrock really was close.
Through a gap in the clouds, a small shape appeared at the edge of the horizon.
"Finally… Grayrock Town!!"
…
They swapped from Hephaestus to normal mounts and made their way along the road.
The closer they got, the more Gauss felt a strange "homesickness anxiety."
He laughed at himself—softly, a little helplessly.
It had been less than a year since he left, but it felt like forever.
Maybe because so much had happened in that one year.
He and Alia exchanged a look—both reading the same emotion in the other's eyes.
Grayrock wasn't everyone's hometown, but for Gauss and Alia, this plain little adventurer town meant something.
For Gauss especially… calling it his "hometown" in this world wasn't wrong at all.
The first time he opened his eyes to this new world was in Sophia's inn room.
Back then, his pockets were emptier than his face.
Besides Sophia, he'd had ties to maybe only a handful of people.
Now he looked at the companions beside him.
"Sir Gauss… should we go in?" Albena asked, confused by his sudden pause.
"Yeah," he nodded.
Albena, Serandur, and Shadow had no other plans, so they were spending the year's end with him—returning to his "starter town," Grayrock.
The guards at the gate seemed to be a different shift.
They blinked at the party's levels, checked them quickly, and waved them through.
Only after they passed did the guards begin whispering, someone suddenly yelping as if they'd recognized who these people were.
But that was later.
Gauss and the others entered the main street.
Not many pedestrians.
Snow fell onto stone slabs scattered with coarse rock salt, melting into damp patches. The road looked slick and wet.
"We're back," Gauss murmured.
"So this is your hometown?" Albena turned her head to look around, a little underwhelmed.
It felt ordinary—no very different from Silvergold Town—just slightly more developed roads and buildings.
"Yeah," Gauss said. "This is where I started as an adventurer. It's been so long… and somehow the streets still look the same."
Alia snorted and rolled her eyes.
It hadn't even been a year. Of course most towns wouldn't change much.
"Let's go to my place first," Gauss said.
He and Alia both owned houses here—right next to each other.
There should be enough rooms. If not, they could buy more. For them, Grayrock real estate was basically cabbage prices.
As they walked, they stood out.
With the wind-and-snow blessing, they didn't feel cold and weren't bundled up, which made them look even more conspicuous.
And this group was either gorgeous (Gauss, Alia, Shadow) or visually distinctive (giant-blood Albena, half-serpent Serandur).
Naturally, townspeople stared and whispered.
People returning at this time of year were usually locals.
"Who are they?"
"They look kinda familiar…"
"Me too."
"That woman is huge…"
Gauss didn't need a map—his memory guided him.
Soon he arrived at a familiar street.
"Sophia's Inn."
He took a deep breath, looking at the half-open door.
During his absence, the inn had expanded again—Sophia had "eaten" the neighboring storefront too.
"Sophia's business is getting bigger and bigger," Alia noted.
It was lively inside. He could hear the hum of eating and conversation.
"Perfect," Gauss said. "We haven't had lunch yet."
He led them through the door.
…
Sophia had her head down, checking the ledger—though anyone watching would see her mind was elsewhere.
She was counting dates in her head.
The year was about to end.
If Gauss's party was coming back to Grayrock, it should be around now.
Since winter began, she'd been thinking about it, but they still hadn't returned.
She wasn't clueless about why her business had grown so fast.
It wasn't her "management genius," and it definitely wasn't luck.
It was Gauss.
Guards patrolled this street far more often now, and they "happened" to frequent her place.
And they were extremely polite—polite like it was an order from above.
Even when she tried to treat them, they always paid in full.
That kept order high, which boosted business.
Then she heard footsteps and a cheerful "Welcome!" from the door.
She looked up on instinct—
—and froze.
"Gauss… you're back?"
Her eyes locked onto him first, scanning him up and down, before she finally remembered herself and hurried over.
Compared to last time, he'd changed again.
So much that she almost felt "men really do change with time."
He was tall. Snow was falling outside, but there wasn't a speck of snow on him, and his clothes looked like they carried their own light.
Familiar… and yet strangely unfamiliar.
"I'm back, Sister Sophia," Gauss replied with a smile.
He looked around the inn like he'd come home.
"Right—let me introduce my new teammates."
"This is Shadow. This is Albena."
"Alia and Serandur you've met before."
"And Sophia… this is the sister who helped keep me fed back when I could barely afford meals."
Shadow and Albena immediately shook Sophia's hand upon hearing that.
"Oh, don't make it sound so dramatic," Sophia waved it off, embarrassed. "I didn't do much."
"Have you eaten?"
"Not yet."
"Then I'll cook for you," Sophia said, already rushing toward the kitchen.
The inn had cooks now, sure—but since Gauss was finally back, she wanted to cook personally.
She moved too fast for Gauss to even stop her.
"Sister Sophia is still as warm as ever," Alia sighed.
The other diners all looked over.
Someone swallowed nervously.
"Is that…?"
"Shh. Eat."
The mood in the room shifted. Some patrons who half-recognized the group looked like their limbs didn't belong to them anymore.
Gauss simply nodded to the room as greeting and took an empty table.
His gaze lingered on the kitchen, but his thoughts drifted.
He'd noticed stronger guard presence at the town gate.
Given Grayrock's location—frontline-adjacent to the Jade Forest—had the situation tightened while he was away?
Jade Forest…
The place he'd first risked entering the outskirts of, to kill his first goblin.
Back then it had been deadly.
Now… he could face it far more calmly.
He'd read bits of news on the road. Someone claimed they'd seen a massive shadow over the forest—meaning the Green Dragon Queen, long dormant in her lair, might be moving again.
He didn't know if that was simply a creature stretching after a long sleep…
…or something with intent.
If it was the latter, it could mean the old "peace by contract" might start shifting again—making the border more dangerous.