Capítulo 19: Heroes Return
Around two and a half weeks passed ever since Helena's party went out for an expedition in the Forest of Echoes.
Although the villagers are doing their daily tasks and the trainees are continuing with their daily training regimen, there is a heavy air of unsettledness in the village, their warriors left two and a half weeks ago and there are no signs of return yet.
Blanc along with some battle ready, talented trainees have been protecting the village from the occasional mutated wolf attacks.
"Haaah!!"
Blanc exclaimed after killing the last wolf that was attacking the villagers. As usual, no one was hurt again this time.
He couldn't help but look at the direction of the Forest of Echoes.
"Helena, brave warriors, please be safe." Blanc silently prayed.
Their anxiety didn't last long as cries of relief can be heard near the forest entrance.
"Ahhhh… Finally back home.. I thought I was gonna die."
"Damn! Looking back, we got into way too many close calls."
"Feels great to inhale fresh air again!"
The sighs of relief were from the expedition party.
Everyone made it back in one piece and the villagers couldn't help but drop their current tasks and dashed towards the expedition party.
"Big sister!! Uaaahh… You're finally back. I thought you guys were never coming back!"
Adelaine rushed towards Helena and hugged her.
She has been on edge these past few weeks worrying about her sister's safety.
Similar scenes can be seen from the relatives of the warriors.
Some villagers asked if they were alright, some were glad that they're finally back, and the others were bombarding them with questions regarding their expedition.
Seeing the overly enthusiastic crowd, Helena couldn't help but intervene.
"Hey Hey Hey! Make way everyone! These guys are exhausted right now so can we let them rest for now? I promise that we will announce the results of the expedition soon."
"Yes, everyone, please disperse for now and carry on with your tasks, I will handle checking the conditions of the brave warriors and announce the results later."
Blanc chipped in and helped Helena disperse the crowd.
Hearing this, everyone dispersed and let the warriors rest first.
"Hoooh.. Thanks for the help there Blanc."
"No problem. You wanna rest first, or should we talk about the results?"
"I would like to rest for a bit."
"Gotcha."
After their conversation, Helena went back to her hut to rest. Although he was surprised about Helena's response, he respected it and let her rest first.
"She must have experienced a lot of negative things inside the Forest of Echoes."
Blanc thought, since this was the first time he saw Helena admit that she was tired.
A few hours later, Helena went to the training grounds to meet up with Blanc.
Since Helena went on an expedition, he has been the temporary drill master of the new trainees and he made sure that they kept on improving day by day.
"Hey Blanc."
"Yo, how are you feeling?"
"I'm good now, thanks."
Blanc made sure that Helena is alright first. After all, their safety is the number one priority.
"There were a lot of close calls actually and we almost died lots of times."
"First of all, we already marked the dangerous territories, here check this map."
Helena said as she handed over the map with markings to Blanc.
"Next, you won't believe this. We encountered trolls and goblins inside the forest. I thought they were just fictional creatures, turns out they were real!"
"Hmmm... Although I read in some books that they were real, I couldn't believe it at the time. So they were actually real." Blanc muttered in amazement.
Seeing that Blanc was amazed by her stories, she continued.
"The freaking trolls were huge! Their muscles were bulging, even bigger than my previous captain's muscles! They also had crudely crafted battle axes made from wood and metal, heck, they even had light leather armor!"
Helena started to boast about the troll's appearance.
"Alright, stop boasting now! I already know their appearance from books. Though, they could craft weapons and armor? That's kind of dangerous, these trolls seem to be a bit intelligent if that's the case. Did you manage to check if they had a troll camp or settlement of some sort?"
"We didn't engage the trolls that time since we were in a pretty bad condition ourselves. Although we didn't exactly check, while we were going around the area, we heard lots of troll roars near this area right here on the map, so we marked it as a dangerous territory."
"Hmm.. I see. What about the goblins?"
"Well, we were in a very bad condition when we encountered those little green shits. Besides, they ambushed us on our way out of the forest so we didn't get to check where their settlement was, but they should have a settlement since they had a leader during the ambush."
"I see, good work. You should rest early for now. You had a hard time huh? Sorry about that, I'm just very glad that you are safe."
Blanc couldn't help but let a bit of his emotions out.
Helena was his woman! how could he bear it once he heard that Helena suffered lots of hardships during the expedition.
Also, there was no guarantee that she would even make it back alive.
Although he would not show it to the villagers, he was on edge everyday worrying about their expedition squad. He can finally rest easy now.
"Hey! Don't be so sad! You should be happy that I'm back now! Besides, It's not all bad news after all. Here, look!"
Helena cheered him up as she showed him the rare herbs that she picked up including the glowing mushrooms in four different colors.
"This is?! Clover of relaxation...Blood ginseng...Feverdew…Fairywand stem.."
Nerdy boy Blanc named the rare herbs one by one.
Helena was very happy upon seeing Blanc's "I can't believe these things exist!" look, and a smug smile appeared on her face.
Blanc continued checking the herbs excitedly until he saw the four glowing mushrooms.
"N..No way.. These mushrooms still exist?!"
Blanc exclaimed again, and it turns out these four mushrooms were catalysts of alchemy recipes that were declared extinct.
Their cultivation methods were lost so everyone thought that these mushrooms were extinct already.
Hundreds of ideas were now formulating in Blanc's mind.
These mushrooms will surely open a lot of development paths for them in the future.
REFLEXIONES DE LOS CREADORES 
Meowder
Meowder Ayeee, we're at 19 chapters :)
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