The Runic Alchemist-Chapter 504: Fiture or Past ? Part - 5
Weeks turned into a month, and before they knew it, six months had passed. Not much had changed in the little village covered in white—not even the temperature. Some days, heavy snow fell, while on others, the sun shone brightly for a while.
Sam, along with Sariel, Grace, and Amy, had settled quite well into the oddly wholesome pigmen village. Even though they looked nothing alike, the villagers treated them like family. Since Sam and his friends contributed greatly to the village's protection, they were always rewarded with plenty of fruits, meat, iron, clay tools, and even handmade accessories gifted by the female villagers.
Grace and Sariel knew healing spells, and in this small village, they were the only hope if someone was injured. The families of the healed warriors worshipped them as if they were gifts from the gods.
Grace had even learned some common words of the villagers' strange language. Sam had never seen her so enthusiastic and happy—trying to converse with them and participating in the weird, funny rituals they taught. At the academy and even in front of her family, she always acted like a noble, graceful lady. But seeing her now—free from all that—smiling even more radiantly, Sam couldn't help but smile to himself.
Living under one roof with a beautiful woman like Grace.. In their first month, controlling himself had been difficult.
Seeing his discomfort, Grace had asked him the reason. When he told her, she had laughed so loudly that even the pigmen in the nearby huts might have heard her. After that, she never missed a chance to tease him, even trying to seduce him - though her efforts were more funny than sexy. But slowly the jokes had become too real.. and they didn't stop themselves either, becoming far more than just close friends.
"Did you ever tell him?" Grace asked one evening as they sat atop the base stone step of the giant shrine. The sunset view from here was mesmerizing, and they were watching it in silence.
"No, Never got the chance." Sam replied with a complicated expression.
When they had visited Lucian's home in Dawnstar and met with the Ashborne family, Grace had introduced him to her family. She had revealed her feelings for him in front of them and had wanted to tell them before she and Sam publicly ignored her engagement to the prince of Dawnstar.
Needless to say, it hadn't gone well.
Because of the fear surrounding Damian's name, her family didn't want to make a big issue out of "nothing" and told her to cancel the arrangement herself if she could—but not to drag the Ashborne family name with her. They would not publicly acknowledge her relationship with Sam and would still consider her engagement to the prince as the family's official stance. She wasn't the only daughter of Duke Ashborne—she had two sisters and two brothers as well.
More than her wishes, her family cared about their house's reputation. They didn't want to make an enemy of the prince or the royal family.
When Damian had shared his dream of building a city of his own, Sam had officially asked Grace to come and live with him. Even though it meant disrespecting the nobility of Dawnstar directly and bringing unnecessary trouble to Damian's city, Sam wanted to do at least that much for her.
The source of this c𝓸ntent is freewebnøvel.coɱ.
It was a huge risk, and with everything happening with the Highswords and Lucian's father, he had never found the right time to tell Damian. Then Einar had even told him about how the meeting with Damian's parents had gone.. and he didn't want to burden him with more troubles. It was his issue to solve. At worst, they could just leave Dawnstar and settle in some village in Eldoris.
"Will he accept it.. even at the risk of making Dawnstar his enemy?" Grace wondered aloud.
"I know he will.. It's just asking him such a thing that makes me uncomfortable. It's not his problem.. He has already done too much for me, far more than I can ever hope to repay."
"He fought the Dragon Emperor for Lucian," she pointed out.
"He was lucky.. It won't be that easy every time. The guy has no self-awareness, even when he crosses lines he shouldn't," Sam replied.
"Like getting Land Breaker back?" she asked. "Do you think that was the reason the Highswords suddenly started infighting?"
"I don't know," Sam admitted. "I just hope that, for his sake, there will always be good people around him who will stop him from doing something reckless."
Grace looked at him for a second and nodded. It wasn't their first time talking about what had happened, but without any real information, it was all just speculation.
Grace placed her head on his shoulder as they watched the sun slowly go down. However, just then, Sam felt an incredibly strong fluctuation in mana right behind him. As they turned to look back, a massive, glowing blue swirling waygate opened up. In the next second, a colossal metal ship zoomed out, casting its shadow over both of them.
Seeing the very familiar steel giant, making a ton of noise, with the bright white letters DREAMLIGHT displayed on the side, both Sam and Grace smiled like they had never done before.
It was back.
He was finally here.
***
[Snow region of the unknown planet, Damian's POV.]
The moment Damian emerged from the waygate aboard Dreamlight, the first thing he saw was a massive stone wall. He quickly slowed down, turned the ship around, and made a small circle, ascending higher to see just what in the hell he had nearly crashed into.
It was an enormous stone structure, shaped like a pyramid but covered in snow—far more massive than the real pyramids. Just one step alone was over 60 to 70 meters high, and there were many steps leading up to a platform half-covered in clouds and snow.
For a second Damian was lost in wonder then remembered Sam and sensed the guy's mana somewhere near the giant structure.
