Small talk abounded for a while, and soon they got a few more guests. There was Oslo and a few others, bringing some paper bags with them. "We brought some food."


    "As expected of my brother!" Ansel said with a smile. He then looked at Winona, "Are you not ashamed?"


    "Then go date him!"


    "Are you jealous?"


    "SHUT UP!"


    She yelled, blushing.


    In fact, when he fell unconscious, Ansel heard Winona cry pitifully for him. Carrying the baby in her arms, she sobbed the whole way while he was brought to the hospital. He could hear her shaky voice asking how he was, if he was going to be alright, and the like.


    At the time, he thought, he couldn''t die. If he did, what would this woman do?


    Anyway, it broke the last bit of the paper wall between them and he just couldn''t stop himself from teasing her now.


    Not that Winona appreciated it, of course!


    "Where are the others?" Althea asked, looking around. In retrospect, all their team members were there except for Eugene and Sheila.


    "Melissa fainted and hadn''t woken up."


    "Sheila… she''s in another room," Winona said. "She''s with Eagle."


    After settling the babies, the couple then went to visit the other teammates. They saw Luis and the others awkwardly standing outside though.


    Eagle''s arm… unfortunately couldn''t get reattached in the end. Due to the healing potions and the natural improved regeneration of the body in Xeno, the window for reattachment was greatly narrowed down. Combined with the low-technology that they had, even Volohov wasn''t able to save Eagle''s arm.


    Still, Sheila couldn''t help but keep trying, and she tried to use her ability on him, using as many cookies as she still had in her space to recover her mana.


    As she did so, she was crying while Eagle was just watching her fondly as if it wasn''t his arm that was lost.


    Sheila continued to sob, trying to heal him, and the heartbroken Eagle couldn''t help but stop her (for the nth time since she started trying). "Silly Sheila, even if you spend all your mana everyday it won''t grow back."


    Sheila broke into sobs, and Eagle looked genuinely lost. It was here that Althea and the others decided to save him and knock on the door, making the two flinch.


    They pretended not to see the red eyes and greeted them as normal as possible. Sadly for Sheila, she was unable to hold back and hugged Althea as she broke into sobs.


    "Altheaaaa wuuuu—" Althea gave a reassuring smiled and patted her back. "This place is so magical," she told her, "Who knows what will happen in the future?"


    "Wuu…"


    Eagle heaved a deep breath, his eyes not leaving Sheila''s back for a while before turning to Garan and then his teammates, giving them awkward smiles. "Hello Captain, everyone."


    "How are you?" Garan asked.


    "Alive and well, thank you."


    "I apologize. If I finished Baltimore faster—"


    "It''s not your fault, captain. I got careless," he said. Baltimore wasn''t the Lord of the most powerful village for nothing. The Captain already did incredibly well.


    As Sheila sobbed in her arms, Althea watched the men''s interaction as well. Her heart felt heavy.


    Eagle was a very good soldier, and losing his good arm was a huge hit on him. It was such a pity his potention was cut so abruptly.


    He was also her close friend''s man and also hers. She naturally felt sad he was hurt like this.


    Oslo said he could get the potion but it was in Bluelle, so she wasn''t just reassuring Sheila when she said the future was uncertain.


    Fortunately, regardless of what happened, Eagle seemed to be taking it all in a stride.


    "It''s fine. I have my other arm. Eugene can do without two legs, why can''t I?"


    …


    Now that the war was officially over, the Guians were led to the Village Center to register, with the ones who weren''t ambulatory yet brought with what was called a wheel chair.


    The contraption alone amazed the aborigines—slaves, local, or guests—primarily because of its functions of transporting people who couldn''t move themselves.


    In fact, even bothering to do so was novel. Generally, these people would be relegated as waste and wouldn''t be allowed to get much resources, let alone something so special.


    But here it seemed to be taken for granted, as if their lives weren''t useless even if an appendage or two was.


    The territory was already peaceful, and there were few things to clean up and arrange after the war—and also due to the fact that almost everyone went to help.


    At this point, people were already going around, some already setting up mobile stalls, and many ready to go out and hunt again. There were even children playing already, whether it was playing tag or just climbing up a random tree to get their share of fruits that day.


    Anyway, because there were so many people, their procession inevitably got the attention of this crowd.


    They walked along the ''pedestrian street'', keeping the wider road clear. It was wide, but there were hundreds of them, let alone the crowd that parted to give way to them, standing right at the side of the road, watching their movements very closely.


    They felt shy at the attention their procession was getting, but it was very different from the type of looks they usually got.


    For example, when many of them were led along Guia''s streets as new slaves, they would get derisive looks, while the women would get disgusting lustful ones.


    Here, they were looking at curiosity, and a vague sense of… welcome?


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    Perhaps this territory just really lacked slaves and were showing some gratitude?


    Then they remembered Elder Mathilda''s words, welcoming them as citizens who had the right to buy their own freedom.


    At the time, they were cynical, not daring to hope too much. What if it was just a cruel way to crush their hurts?


    But seeing as how they were looked at by the common citizens, and even by the children, was indicative of the place''s overall attitude towards them.


    Could they… really allow themselves to fall into hope?