"What… How?" Felipe Silvi asked when Billy suddenly appeared with the shield that Galatea left behind, she was shocked like Galatea herself had appeared in front of him.
"It seems that the thief escaped to a certain place, but soon they were defeated by someone when they tried to attack a certain person," Billy replied. "I tracked her down and negotiated with her for the relics."
That was the history that Billy came up with to avoid problems down the road with the demi-humans. Since few people knew about them, it wasn't a good idea to attach the first news of their existence with a crime. Meryl approved that idea, and his wives knew the truth, so they agreed with him as well.
"Can you be a bit more specific?" Felipe asked.
"I wish I could, but the person that agreed to negotiate with me wants to keep their identity and location hidden, so I can't say more," Billy replied.
"Hmm… I will trust your word for that then," Felipe said. "Considering that you showed up so late in the night, I would guess that you don't want to make a commotion out of this as well."
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"I am grateful for your understanding," Billy said.
"I am the one who is grateful… our people have been quite on edge since that incident, and problems with outsiders have been happening a lot more," Felipe said. "It is a pity considering that we made so much progress in that aspect in the recent years."
While Felipe was talking about such things, Billy saw Beatrice holding Helen. She seemed pretty happy about that. Still, she showed some complicated expressions as well. Before Billy could understand why Kate pinched his sides. It seemed that she didn't want him looking any more single women… it wasn't like he was male Fatale that he could make them fall in love with him with his eyes alone. Still, he couldn't complain since they had been lenient enough to let him have three wives.
"In any case, I stopped only to return the relic, and the samurai state is pretty far away, so we will be leaving right now," Billy said.
"Hmm… it is a pity," Felipe said. "Still, even with your… means of transportation, it takes quite a lot of time to move between states, so it can't be helped. I hope that our next meeting will be a less rushed one."
"I hope so too, until next time," Billy said.
Billy's group soon left the city and then left the area using the magic aircraft. They seemed a bit sad that they couldn't talk with their friends a bit more.
"If you guys want it, you can stay on our next stop for a few days since you have never been there," Billy said.
"What about the preparations for the next battle?" Kate asked.
"There isn't much to do. I am pretty sure nothing will happen for a month at least," Billy replied.
"And yet, you are working on something big again since you are always returning home late," Kate said.
"It is just another tunnel… One that will connect both continents," Billy said.
"Is that even possible to make considering the conditions?" Sarah asked while frowning. "Your magic power is unbelievable, but…"
"I suppose I can show you how things are proceeding if you want…" Billy said. "The samurai state is pretty cold, so I guess you won't like it much. Still, the food there is pretty good, and the weapons that they have are… Wait, I already showed you those."
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmIn the end, Sei reacted pretty much the same way as Felipe, but he tried to keep his dignity since it was the first time he was meeting Billy's family. Despite that, he received the katana like he was touching the most holy relic in the world.
"It still is morning, so I guess we can walk around until night," Billy said. "We need to stretch our legs, after all. Before you say anything, I don't want to meet anyone."
"You never change… Still, I can't let you go without regarding you somehow after retrieving this for us," Sei said.
"... Then, give me the location of your dungeons. That will be enough," Billy said. "I can't explain how and why, but that will be very valuable to me."
"I don't understand it, but okay," Sei said.
Naturally, Billy was going to send some monsters that could turn invisible into those dungeons to grant him more experience. He was pretty close to obtaining one thousand skill points, so he was itching to see the skills that he could get from the system now. Billy would have to use some extra mana for them to be strong enough to solo the dungeons, but it was an investment, so it was fine.
"This place is really different than the other regions we have been to," Natalie said while looking at the buildings and products of the area.
Hector and Christina also looked pretty pleased while looking at the things around them while they were on Billy's shoulders. They had never seen snow before, so it was something for them. Billy could understand the appeal of people seeing that for the first time. Still, he also could understand that the people of the region would miss the days of pure blue sky and calm weather.
In any case, the weather had improved a bit, but he was fairly sure that things should have improved a lot more after the fall of the ice titan. Later, Billy asked Sei about his opinion, and he said that such a thing was normal around there. The register that now and then, the cold gets more severe and the winter gets longer… Billy also recalled reading something like that when he came to the samurai state for the second time. At that time, he was researching the history of the world, and it was mentioned that on the longest winter in many years, Angus had disappeared…