350 Chapter 350: Last Minute Arrival

"Richie!"

"Richard!"

My friends were immediately upon me the moment I set foot on the ground. Above, Draco circled above the city hall for a moment and let out one last triumphant roar before he disappeared. Below, the students watched the now empty skies in awe.

"Whoa…"

"That guy can actually summon a dragon?!"

"Amazing…"

"Hmph." One of the students, Castian from Caliban Academy, shook his head and sighed. "But it's a pity…didn't his friends already say he's disqualified? Seems like he was rescued by the Silver Wolves mercenaries…"

He then paused for a second and cocked his head to the side.

"…but doesn't it look more like he was the one who rescued the Silver Wolves mercenaries instead?"

"Nah, I didn't do anything." I raised both hands up. "They were actually done with their missions and were about to return to base. Since I was heading back here and we were all going in the same direction, I thought I might as well give them a lift. But they didn't need to be rescued. They could have made it back here on their own. I was just helping them return here faster, and save them a lot of time."

"You helped us a lot!" one of the Silver Wolves mercenaries told me. He smiled as he placed a hand on my shoulder. "Thanks!"

"No problem."

While the students chattered excitedly, I noticed a fairly large group approaching me. They were wearing the red and yellow uniforms of Lie Huo Academy. Three of them in particular, struck me as extremely familiar.

"You are the one who helped us!" A girl exclaimed emotionally, brushing her blond hair from her face as she tried to smile. Her eyes were slightly red from crying, and she was still sniffling. "Thank you very much!"

"I'm so sorry…" the skinny guy bowed his head. "Because of us, you ended up almost losing your life. I'm so glad you manage to survive."

"We can't express our gratitude enough," the huge guy finished as he reached out with a hand to offer a handshake. I accepted it, and while the big guy was putting enough strength to crush my hand, I knew he did it out of overwhelming emotion rather than any malice on his part. He was almost in tears. "I'm so glad…"

A lot of the other students watched, stunned by how the team of one academy had gathered around a student from another academy and expressed such an outpouring of emotion. Clearly none of them had heard what had happened to Lie Huo Academy, or to me.

"Hah! What did I tell you?"

In contrast, Craig was chuckling as he strode toward me. Slapping me in the back so hard that I was sent sprawling forward – I was pretty exhausted after trying to fight off a horde of dragons, after all, and my injured right arm still hadn't healed fully – he threw an arm around my shoulders before whispering into my ear.

"It's good to have you back."

"It's good to be back," I responded.

"I knew you wouldn't die from a little blizzard like that!" Dong Fang Yue Chu yelled, laughing in delight. "You maniac! You suicidal maniac! You actually pulled it off! You survived the Den of Dragons and returned to us safely!"

"With some time left, to boot too," Theodore added with a smile. He glanced at the holographic bulletin board, which displayed the las remaining three minutes and fifty-six seconds. Not that it mattered, since I was already disqualified. But I knew he wasn't referring to the qualifiers or the tournament. "A day later and we wouldn't be here to welcome you back."

"Sorry, everyone. I got myself eliminated from the tournament. Looks like I won't be joining you in the next stage in Aurora City."

"Don't worry about it." Harrison was the next to place a hand on my shoulder. He smiled encouragingly. "The most important thing is that you came back safely. That's all that matters."

"Thanks."

"Leave the rest to us!" Pearl said with a forced smile. "Even though it'll hurt, not having you in the team, you can still count on us to put up a good fight."

I smiled back and nodded. "I look forward to that."

"Go get some rest, man." Theodore thumped me in the back. "You look exhausted. Given how you spent so many days out in the wilderness, you're going to need it. When was the last time you took a warm shower and slept on a soft, comfortable bed?"

"About two weeks." That was the amount of time we were given to make the trek across the Aurora Mountain Range and forest to reach Olympus City, so that sounded just about right.

"Get going then. We have your stuff waiting for you in your room." Harrison patted my shoulder again. He grinned when I raised an eyebrow. "We always knew you would be coming back, so we kept everything in order."

"That's right," Cody agreed. "All of us believe that you will definitely return."

"You're a pretty tenacious fella," Bu Fan added, much to my surprise. He didn't seem to care about my surprise, folding his arms and nodding gruffly in grudging respect. "I doubt there's anything in this world that can kill you."

That was most likely because I had plot armor, but that was beside the point.

"It'll be a lot more boring without you around," Bu Fan continued as he looked away. What was he, a tsundere now?

"All right…I'll leave everything to you guys then." I glanced at Anastasia and the other Silver Wolves, but true to their professional form, the mercenaries had instead followed Redfield back to the headquarters in order to report and do whatever they needed to do. Instead of proceeding straight to their bunk to catch some much-needed sleep, they were apparently still on the clock and intended to do their duty until the end.

No doubt Brent would order them to wash up and get some rest after they checked in and briefed him slightly on what happened out in the field. With our current magic and technology, he could peruse the recordings from our devices anyway.

Whatever the case, they were getting paid for their jobs as mercenaries. I wasn't. So I had no reason to feel sorry for them and follow them into the whole reporting and briefing process. I was exhausted from expending so much mana in summoning and fighting the dragons that I was pretty much dead on my feet.

Nope, I was going straight to sleep.

Bowing to my teammates, I bade them farewell and left for my room that the tourmant organizers had reserved for us.

*

The next morning, I was about to catch the next train back home, to Jing Tian City, when I found myself mobbed by a bunch of people.

Well, I did expect my friends to show up. They knew as well as I did that I was disqualified, so they were sending me off. There was bitter disappointment present, especially when they realized that we wouldn't be fighting together. Apparently they considered me a vital asset in combat. They overestimated my abilities, and I was somewhat relieved that the pressure would no longer be upon me to help the team reach unprecedented heights.

However, I was surprised when I saw the students from Lie Huo Academy show up too. Evidently they found out that the disqualified students were leaving at this time, and they hurriedly turned up to see me off.

At least that was what I thought, but…

"Oh…we are disqualified as well. Remember? Our whole team needed to be rescued by the Silver Wolves. You were part of the rescue team, remember? So naturally we were all eliminated from the qualifiers."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"No, no." the big guy waved my apology away. "If anything, we are the ones who are sorry for putting you in danger. If it weren't for you, Amelia would have been the one who fell into the bowels of the cave."

"And I don't think I would be able to survive for almost a week and escape alive, like you did."

The girl called Amelia bowed her head. Suddenly, I realized that she was the one who had been standing on top of the wall for the past few days, looking out into the open, as if waiting for her team members to return before the deadline. But that was all a misunderstanding. She was waiting for news on the person who saved her life back in the Den of Dragons.

"For what it's worth, we tried to appeal to the tournament staff to get you reinstated," the skinny guy told me. "After all, you risked so much to help us, total strangers. Your courage and selflessness serve as an inspiration to all mage students."

I wouldn't be so sure about that. Even now, I was sure the comments were full of edgelords condemning what they perceived to be my stupidity, mocking me for being a naïve idiot who risked my life to save strangers, and whining in the forums about how I was a goody-two-shoes main character, and demanding for ruthless, murderous and psychotic main characters who could kill without batting an eyelash.

They could go read some other story then. A specific isekai revenge story, if they so desired that kind of thing. Hell, I didn't dare to recommend The Golden Gravekeeper to them because I wasn't confident that it was edgy enough for those emo teens with such juvenile mentalities.

One day they were going to have to learn that killing everybody who pissed you off or offended you was not a solution.

"That's fime. It was my fault for letting my guard down and underestimating the blizzard." That was partially true. If I had known the edge was going to crumble, I would have stayed a little further back. Even if Black Tortoise fell off, I could just dismiss him and safely bring him back to whatever soul dimension he inhabited before I summoned him.

The captain of Lie Huo Academy inclined his head respectfully and offered me a hand. I shook it good-naturedly.

"We'll remember this," he told me with a smile. "We'll never forget the debt that we owe you. One day we'll definitely repay you for this favor."

"You exaggerate," I told him with a laugh. "I only did what anyone else would have if they were in the same position."

"I wonder how many people are willing to risk their lives for a total stranger." The captain glanced to the side, and then shrugged when he saw the inane amount of edgy comments condemning me as stupid. "Not many, I'd wager."

I shrugged, not interested in what other people thought or would do. I did what I thought was right, I acted according to the values I inherited from Dad – to be a hero, to save those more vulnerable than myself. That was enough for me.

"Well, we had best get going then." I turned to my friends. "See you guys then, and good luck for the tournament! Do your best!"

"We will," Harrison assured me. I nodded, and then turned to board the train.

"Wait a minute!"

All of us froze when we heard that powerful voice echo thunderously throughout the train platform. Turning around, we caught sight of Feng Hai, the great leader of the Silver Wolves, hurrying toward our position. He gestured at me, and I nodded dumbly before stepping forward to meet him in between.

"Instructor Feng Hai? What are you doing here?"

"Last minute orders," he replied as he paused to catch his breath in front of us. Grinning wolfishly, he placed a hand on my shoulder. "Richard Huang, thanks to the bravery and selflessness you displayed in your rescue of other students during the tournament qualifiers, the organizers have decided not to eliminate you. They have reinstated your place back in the tournament."

There was a stunned silence for a moment as everyone in the train platform allowed his words to sink in. And then…

"NANI?!"