Chapter 23: Aftermath
Releasing a deep breath, Haruto reverted back to his base form. His raised golden hair fell down and turned back to black along with his eyebrows and green eyes. He dropped some sweats and wiped them with his gloved hand.
'Phew, that took quite a toll on me. My proficiency for that form is still too low. A lot of energy was wasted due to lack of control and I cannot draw power properly, greatly reducing the effectiveness of the form. This must be what Goku meant when he suggested to get used on transforming to Gohan during their training in the hyperbolic time chamber.'
He sighed and thought he need to train his form from now on. No wonder his other transformations were restricted. If he used them forcefully with his still weak body, they wouldn't last for long. In fact his body may be damaged from the backlash. For example if he tried to transform into Super Saiyan Blue in his current state it wouldn't even last for a second and he would lost consciousness while his body suffered from internal injuries, worst of come to worst he may as well just died.
Turning his head back to the knights, he saw them stunned with a dumb expression on their face.
"Hey, you guys alright?" He approached.
They gasped and went back to their senses. Some of them look at him with fear while some of them look at him with curiosity and concerns. The latter being Lena and Selianna.
"Woahh! That was amazing!! You're so strong!! What was that just now? And what technique did you use earlier?! Are you really a teenager!?"
Lena spoke excitedly her eyes were glimmering brightly while being "Kyaa kyaa~" and her skin flushed red from her excitement it was as if she was watching a superstar.
Haruto was taken aback from her vigor, she kept asking him energetically like a little kid and he couldn't find a chance to even speak a word.
Just at this time a savior appeared to save him.
"*cough* L-Lena calm down, you're troubling him. Look, he can't even speak anything like that."
Unexpectedly his savior turned out to be Jake the annoying knight. He grasped her shoulders and pat them to calm her down.
"Huh? Oh..."
It seemed to wake her up, she was embarrassed and blushed from losing control. Selianna smiled wryly while still laying down. Her subordinate was similar to her with how easily they lost control when they were excited. No, in Selianna's case she's able to control herself better, that incident a few days ago was a coincidence, maybe...
But it's not like she could blame her since she too was very interested with his abilities. The techniques he just used like controlling his energy attacks from afar, disappearing and appearing behind the monster in an instant, that energy sword he conjured, and his ability to suppress his power level and control them perfectly they were all very unusual, only figures from legends and myths were described for being capable of doing such things.
But most importantly....
"Just what is that golden form before?"
A knight voiced Selianna's thought and the others nodded, it appeared that was what they most curious of.
"His power grown tremendously and his temperament seems to change a bit. I never seen such spectacle before, not even in stories or myths."
"Yup yup, we know things like strengthening magic or beastmen transforming to a full beast form. But a human changing his hair to golden and turns freakingly strong? Never."
Other knights gave their opinions too and turned noisy.
So it's come to this after all....
Haruto already expected things may turned out like this but it looked like it was even worse than he thought. Now what should he do?
A terrifying thought like killing them all to shut their mouth crossed his mind for a second before he shook it off. If he do that, it feels like he will lose something important about himself. He still wanted to maintain his humanity and rationality. Of course if this case heavily influenced the safety of his important people perhaps he would consider it, but he would never kill them just for the sake of his safety, besides they're not bad people that deserve death.
Though if he found out Jake's deeds before he arrived, he may had taken back his thought.
Fortunately for him Selianna or Lena did not seem to wish to talk about his misgivings here. Perhaps after they return they would decide on his punishment.
"Umm can we talk about this later? I mean Selianna should hurry back and received treatment as soon as possible...."
He decided to put off the questionings until later. Until then he could think of a solution. Maybe they would forget about it and he could just run away secretly.
Selianna squinted her eyes, how could she not understand what he's trying to do?
But prying on others' secrets was indeed not an admirable thing. As a knight and her own principles she decided to help him.
"That's enough all of you. I hereby order you all to not reveal anything about him, is that clear?"
She said that strongly. Even though she was injured but her dignity and charisma did not faded upon her subordinates. Just by saying that the other knights nodded vigorously.
After that she turned his glance to Haruto.
"And that's how it is, we did not see anything that happened."
Haruto was dumbfounded. This girl, she's helping me?
"But of course only in one condition."
Nevermind....
"Condition...?" He asked warily not bothering to hide his disappointment.
The knights too eyed their superior in wonder. Just what will she demand of?
"...Your name."
""""What?"""" Not only him, all the knights eyes were turned to dots along with him.
"You still haven't told me your name... So you have to tell me, that's... my condition..."
Her cheeks was red and her voice was tiny when she said that and Haruto opened his eyes wide before he laughed out loud.
Selianna's face immediately turned as red as tomato. She gnashed her teeth furiously and glare at him.
"W-Why are you laughing!? A-Anyway that's my condition so will you accept it or not!?"
This girl, isn't she so cute right now? Haruto thought while still laughing, his eyes were wet from his laugh.
"Yes yes of course I accept them Oh High Knight-sama, This humble one's name is Haruto, a lowly adventurer mostly honored for the chance to present his name upon you." He said grinning widely.
"Ha.ru.to? Haruto? Alright, I'll remember it." She was furious from his sarcastic tone but she snorted and responded properly. Though her red cheeks did not help at all.
It looked like the other knights too secretly kept his name on their mind. After all they already knew he's not an ordinary youth.
"Okay. Then what should we do now?" He asked still laughing on his mind from how cute she was.
"Right, we need to find the dungeon core, perhaps it was located in another room from where the minotaurs came from?" Selianna nodded and pondered.
"Oh you mean that hole Selianna-sama?" Lena said.
"Yes, it was weird for there being a secret room even though this should be the last room for the dungeon but perhaps this was another quirk of a 'special' dungeon after all." She furrowed her brow and looked at the hole on the wall opposite of the collapsed one (because of the beam attack from the minotaur).
"Hee, so they came from there... Huh?"
Haruto focused his attention to the inside of the hole and he felt something strange.
'What's this? I sensed something deep inside that hole. It's not a presence of living bring or their energy signature but I definitely felt it and it seems to be calling me? I wonder what that is...'
"What's wrong Haruto?" Selianna asked.
"Hm? Ah, it's nothing." He smiled and shook his head. He noticed she's already calling him intimately without honorifics.
They decided to take a look at the inside of the hole. Lena supported Selianna's body with her shoulder while Jake stood beside Lena still holding his injured chest. Then they all walked together towards that hole.
"Eh? You two are going out?"
As they walked Haruto chatted a bit with Selianna and the others. He was surprised to know that Lena and Jake was a couple. His surprise was because he couldn't see what's good about him.
"Well it just kinda happened back when we just entered the Knighthoods." Lena said holding her chin.
"Tch, yeah it was before we were assigned on our duties." Jake clicked his tongue.
"Ohh now that you mentioned it, Jake was suddenly kneeling and begging me with tears on his eyes, he was so cute back then~"
"W-Wha!? You idiot I've never done that!"
The knights seemed astonished, how could they not? The famous arrogant and aloof young man turned out to be like that in the past. And that guy actually had Lena as his girlfriend!
"L-Lena, even I am not aware of this." Selianna was shocked too.
"Well we've rarely going out together after the first few times you see. Jake suddenly be like 'Training is first priority' after that. So we've never even kissed before." She said indifferently.
"...."
They all sweatdropped hearing that. Just what use being a couple if it's like that?
Haruto sighed deeply. Lena was a very beautiful woman herself. She may not be as elegant or graceful as Selianna but she's definitely a top class beauty. In terms of face and body they're almost evenly match with Selianna's victory by a slight margin.
Such a waste....
After that they finally reached the end of the dark corrider and arrived at a small square room about 5 meters in width.
During his way Haruto never fully put down his guard, since there's no telling if an enemy still remained somewhere even if he did not sense any presence of living beings.
In the middle there's a pedestal with a fist size dark purple orb being imbedded on it.
"So the dungeon core was indeed here." Lena commented.
"But there's still no treasure chest." Jake remarked.
"...In any case let's take the core, it seems the barrier around it already disappeared from beating the minotaur." Selianna said.
Dungeon cores usually located in the same room as the last boss room. Before the boss was defeated, they were protected by a powerful barrier so challengers could not take them out before they killed the boss.
"...."
Even though the other people beside him were focusing their attention on the dungeon core, Haruto only took a quick glance before turning his sight on another object.
This object was the one he felt before that seem like calling him. At first he was curious about it but after he saw it his confusion disappeared, replaced by glee and delight.
A rainbow crystal about the size of his palm. A very beautiful crystal that's glowing brightly inside the dim cave. There's no way he forgot about this beautiful crystal because it was exactly the crystal Eisha asked of him!
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone