novelhk Chapter 205: The Road Back
Chapter 205: The Road Back
"We're finally back!"Gauss and his team stood before the city gate of Grayrock Town, which was far less imposing than Barry City's. His voice carried a subtle but unmistakable sense of relief.
After being used to the towering walls of the Forest Capital, Barry, covered with watchtowers and fortified defenses, the short, rough-stone walls only two or three meters high in front of them now seemed oddly comforting—almost nostalgic.
Aria couldn't help lifting her hand to gesture the height in the air.
Gauss took a deep breath. The air here carried a familiar blend of Mud Statue scent, woodsmoke, and a faint trace of livestock—this was the scent of Grayrock Town.
Since arriving in this world, this had been his first real journey away from home.
Now that he was back in the familiar town, he couldn’t help but feel a rush of emotion.
After all, this was where his path as an adventurer had begun.
At the gate, a young unfamiliar gate guard was about to step forward and bark at them to move to the back of the line. He was quickly yanked back by a scruffy-looking veteran beside him.
The old guard gave them a smile and bowed slightly.
“Welcome back, Lady Aria, Sir Gauss, and this gentleman here as well. Hope the journey wasn’t too rough.”
After nodding in thanks to the guards, Gauss led the way down the familiar main road, reins in hand guiding his ostrich mount.
The town hadn’t changed much since they’d left.
The streets, just wide enough for two carts to pass, were lined with humble shops. A few women sat on stools under the eaves of their homes, chatting while scrubbing laundry in wooden basins.
Farmers with fresh vegetables were haggling loudly with shopkeepers at the general store.
The air was thick with the mundane, everyday life of the town.
“Looks exactly the same.”
Serlandul glanced around, taking everything in. As someone who had never lived here, he couldn’t help but take a few extra looks at the town his two teammates had called home.
After a while, he came to a conclusion:
Just your average, run-of-the-mill frontier adventurer town.
While they were looking around, the townsfolk were just as curious about them.
Especially the figure at the rear of their group—Serlandul.
Quite a few people jumped at the sight of him.
Half-snake people were an extremely rare sight in this town.
And small-town folk generally hadn’t seen much of the world.
Gauss noticed their reactions.
“Let’s head home first.”
The three of them walked toward the residential area.
Along the way, they noticed that the number of professional-level adventurers around had noticeably decreased.
Many had been drawn to the Maze outside Barry City.
Still, a large number of adventurers were expected to return soon.
They turned into a narrow stone-paved alley.
As they passed a street corner, Gauss glanced toward a certain direction.
Once he caught sight of a familiar figure, he finally relaxed.
Inside the inn, Sophia and her assistant Winnie were casually chatting at the front desk.
Suddenly, Sophia seemed to sense something.
She turned her head toward the door, and her eyes lit up with surprise.
"Gauss! When did you guys get back?"
“Just now. Haven’t even dropped off our luggage,” Gauss said, giving the Storage Bag at his waist a pat.
“Oh right, Sophia.” Something occurred to him, and he gave Serlandul a light pat on the shoulder. “Let me introduce you—this is my new teammate, Serlandul, a priest.”
“Serlandul, this is Sophia, the proprietress who looked after me before.”
“Hello.”
“Hi.”
They exchanged a brief greeting.
At first, Sophia’s eyes flicked away uneasily when she looked at Serlandul.
He really didn’t look like a normal human at first glance, and he carried an inherently cold aura.
But once she heard he was Gauss’s new teammate—and a priest, no less—a faint smile finally surfaced on her face.
She wasn’t clueless about the adventuring world anymore;from time to time, adventurers stayed at her inn.
So she knew a priest was generally a healing class.
Knowing Gauss now had a healer on the team, she genuinely felt happy for him.
Having a medic around meant a lower risk of injury, right?
“Have you eaten yet?”
“Not yet,” Gauss waved his hand. “We’re going home to rest first, we’ll come find you for a chat later.”
After saying goodbye to Sophia, Gauss and Aria split up briefly to go home.
Naturally, Serlandul followed Gauss—his place was big, with two unused guest rooms.
As they stepped through the front door, the furniture was already covered in a thick layer of dust.
The first thing Gauss did after getting home was use magic to clean every corner of the house, inside and out.
Serlandul had wanted to offer a hand, but seeing how expertly Gauss used his magic to clean, he swallowed the offer.
“Captain, which room am I staying in?”
He curiously wandered around the first floor.
“Both guest rooms on the first floor have never been used. Pick whichever one you like.”
Gauss was fully immersed in cleaning.
The White Wand gave a significant boost to .
Originally, the spell’s range was limited to a small area—but now it was several times larger.
The cleaning and stain-removal effects had also improved dramatically.
In no time, the whole two-story house was sparkling clean.
The furniture practically glowed.
Gauss looked over his handiwork, thoroughly pleased.
After instructing the four Clay Spiders, “Don’t leave the house, and don’t break anything inside,” he and Serlandul, who had already unpacked, headed off to meet Aria.
As the semi-host here, he felt obliged to show Serlandul some hospitality.
tes unsettled them deeply.
“You can go now. Be better people. Stop throwing your weight around.” Gauss sighed.
He had no interest in taking revenge on them.
The three men quickly nodded.
“Yes, yes, we’re going!”
With that, they scrambled away, crawling and running as fast as they could.
While Gauss had been questioning them, other villagers had taken notice.
But seeing Carson and the others run off in terror, the rest of the villagers didn’t dare act rashly. They leaned against doorways, watching Gauss and his team walk deeper into the village with guarded eyes.
Still, when they saw Gauss’s face, a strange thought arose in all their minds—unspoken, but shared:
Why does he look so familiar?
Gauss led his companions to a small courtyard in a corner of the village.
His original family had been relatively well-off in Stonebrook.
They owned some land, and his father, Horst, was also a skilled hunter. That trade had supported the family—two sons and a daughter—through the years.
In fact, both sons had above-average physiques.
Looking back now, Gauss realized that in stat terms, a value of 5 in an attribute meant normal human health.
And back then, aside from having 6 Intelligence, all his other stats were at 5. Pretty average on paper.
But in this era—especially in poor, rural villages where meat was scarce—having a “normal, healthy” body was already a rare thing.
In recent years, however, Horst had gotten older and his legs had grown stiff. He hunted less frequently, and the mountain’s game population had also declined, so the family’s meals had worsened.
Neither the original Gauss nor his older brother had inherited Horst’s hunting skills. Being a hunter might seem simple, but it actually required talent.
Then two years ago, a drought hit, and crop yields dropped sharply.
That... might have been what pushed Gauss to leave home in the first place.
Realizing this, Gauss stopped in front of the gate.
“What’s wrong? Not going in?” Aria looked at him and blinked.
“Nothing.”
He took a deep breath, bracing himself mentally, and pushed open the rickety gate.
Creak, creak—!
The gate was tied together with a few vine cords, and it groaned loudly as he opened it—like it would fall apart with the slightest push.
He stepped into the courtyard.
“Father, Mother, I’m home!”
He thought those familiar yet distant words would be hard to say, but they came out far more naturally than expected—like breathing.
In the courtyard, a young woman and an older one were sitting on stools, chatting while weaving straw sandals.
They heard the creak at the door.
Looking up, they saw a tall man in a black robe standing at the entrance.
He had a broad build—just standing there, he looked like a wall.
Although Gauss had changed a lot over the past year—almost two—Rosa still recognized his face instantly.
She stood up in disbelief, her face filled with emotion.
“You… You… You’re Gauss! My son!”
The moment she saw Gauss’s handsome face, tears instantly streamed down her cheeks.
Gauss hurried forward.
All the fear, guilt, and anxiety he’d bottled up about seeing his family again—gone in an instant. His whole body trembled.
This was his road back—and the woman before him was his flesh and blood.
“Mom, I’m home.”
Gauss bent down slightly and wrapped his arms around her.
Over a year ago, when he left home, Rosa had been the one who objected most strongly.
She was like millions of other mothers—deeply devoted to her children, unwilling to see them leave her side and venture into the world.
In her simple way of thinking, no matter how tough life got, as long as the family stuck together, scrimped, and endured, they could get through it.
“These past two years, why didn’t you listen to me and come home?” Rosa’s voice trembled as she finally embraced her youngest son again.
…
Gauss didn’t know how to respond.
With the original Gauss’s memories and emotions fully fused into his own, he Gauss—there was no distinction between the two.
Whether it was the original’s desire to make something of himself and return in glory, or his own emotional baggage and fear that kept him away—neither were really good excuses.
“…Sorry.”
“You must’ve gone through a lot these past two years.” But Rosa’s next words only made his guilt deepen.
Behind them, the young woman Meilin stood frozen, unsure of what to do as she stared at her brother-in-law, her face still dazed.
She hadn’t spent much time with Gauss—he’d left home to make a living less than a year after she married into the family.
But the Gauss she remembered was a small and skinny guy—not particularly tall—and compared to the tall, handsome, obviously well-off man standing before her now, the difference was... unbelievable.
Only those striking jade-green eyes held a flicker of familiarity that reminded her of the boy from before.
“…I’ve been working as an adventurer these past two years.” Gauss briefly explained his situation to Rosa, then turned toward the gate.
“Mother, Meilin—let me introduce you to my teammates.”
At his call, Aria and Serlandul stepped inside.
“Aria, and Serlandul.”
Both of them smiled.
But Serlandul’s smile made Rosa and Meilin instinctively take half a step back, just as they were about to greet them.
It was a primal reaction—an unconscious fear from seeing something inhuman.
Fortunately, Gauss had warned them in advance. Once they knew who he was, the two women managed to suppress their unease and forced out a polite smile.
“Where’s Dad, Big Brother, and Sis?”
“Your father’s napping inside. Your brother took your little sister to the fields.”
“I’ll go wake him up.” Meilin quickly headed to the inner room.
A moment later, Horst walked out with a limp. He and Gauss shared a quick embrace.
You could tell Horst was genuinely moved by his return, but as the head of the household, he still held back a little—keeping his composure.
Even so, there was a flicker of guilt in his eyes.
The two of them exchanged a few words, then fell into a quiet, awkward silence. Thankfully, Rosa jumped in with nonstop questions about the past two years, keeping the conversation flowing and easing the tension.
Not long after, Gauss’s older brother Hawk came running back with their little sister Cicero, who looked around eight or nine, and Meilin trailing behind them.
“Big Brother! You’re finally back!” Cicero squealed in delight. Her shoes were still muddy, but she bounced forward and threw her arms around his leg.
“Yeah.” Gauss reached down and ruffled her hair.
When he left, she was only six or seven years old.
Back then, he had lied to her—told her he was just going out to play for a few days. And now, almost two years had passed.
The little girl had grown a lot.
“Gauss, you hungry? I picked some melons from the field,” Hawk offered in his usual quiet, honest way. His rough linen clothes were full of patches.
Just like their father, he avoided looking Gauss directly in the eye.
Back then, there had been a lot of harsh realities to deal with. Horst had broken his leg and spent a fortune on treatment, but it hadn’t helped—he was still partially disabled and couldn’t hunt properly.
Then came the famine year—poor harvests, barely any game in the mountains.
The family still had some savings and grain, but with two young men to feed and several mouths at home, they’d eventually decided someone had to leave and lighten the burden.
Since Hawk was married and Meilin was already pregnant at the time, it was only natural that seventeen-year-old Gauss be the one to leave with a bag of dry rations and try to make his own way.
In this world, the eldest son inherited the household, and the second son had to forge his own path—it was a common thing.
Still, Hawk had never stopped thinking about him. He felt guilty. He’d even considered asking around about Gauss’s whereabouts, but in a remote rural village, what connections could a simple farmer have?
“Alright, let’s cook then. I brought some ingredients too.”
When Gauss took out the big slab of beef tenderloin and various vegetables, the whole family was stunned. Only then did they really understand what kind of life he was living now.
They’d guessed from his clothes that he was doing well outside, but they didn’t really know how much those outfits were worth.
But beef tenderloin? That stuff was hard to get even if you money.
Cicero’s eyes widened. The red, marbled meat looked so perfect she almost drooled on the spot. She stared at it like she wanted to leap over and gnaw on it raw.
Aria, holding Cicero in her arms, watched the little girl practically salivating and silently muttered to herself—
Gauss had brought back plenty of food. By the time they sat at the table, everyone was stuffed—everyone except him, that is.
Just as they were about to start chatting again…
“Mom, Dad—I need to head out for a bit,” Gauss said suddenly.
“Is something wrong?” Rosa asked.
“I came back on a commission—there’s a group of Goblins upstream from Stonebrook that needs to be taken care of,” Gauss explained simply.
“Huh? You’re going now?” Rosa had just finished clearing the dishes, and her face was full of worry.
Goblins were dangerous.
She understood that Gauss was an adventurer now and monster hunting was part of his job, but hearing him say he was about to fight those inhuman creatures still made her heart skip a beat.
“Don’t worry. I’ve done dozens of missions like this. Nothing dangerous. I’ll be back soon,” Gauss reassured her with a smile.
“Can I come too?” Cicero asked excitedly.
She was at that age where everything seemed like a game. Because of the recent Goblin threat, Hawk didn’t let her play with the other kids in the village anymore. Even while working in the fields, he kept her close.
“No!” Gauss refused sternly, no room for negotiation.
Even if the chance of anything going wrong was just 0.1%, there was no reason to bring a child.
Fighting monsters wasn’t a game—even a lion used its full strength to swat a rabbit.
To him, Goblins were easy to kill. But if Cicero followed him and got the wrong impression—thinking they weren’t dangerous at all—then she might one day take a fatal risk.
She was still too young to understand the real world.
Scared by his serious tone, Cicero shrank back two steps, her eyes downcast.
“Then I won’t go… I’ll wait for you to come back.”
“Please be careful,” Rosa and Meilin chimed in, still clearly uneasy.
But Horst showed no concern.
He’d seen a bit of the world in his youth. Though he never talked about it, he had once dreamed of becoming an adventurer when he was young—before reality smacked him in the face. In the end, he settled in the countryside and started a family.
He knew exactly what those adventurer badges hanging on Gauss’s team meant.
Even if he couldn’t imagine Gauss had achieved all this in just two years, there was no doubt about the badges’ authenticity.
His youngest son had accomplished something none of them could have ever dreamed.
As he watched Gauss and his teammates disappearing through the gate, Horst felt a mix of pride and awe.
“Don’t worry, Rosa—Gauss can handle those Goblins easy,” Hawk was saying. “You remember George from the next village over? The sword teacher? He’s nowhere near Gauss’s level…”
He was trying to reassure their mother with concrete comparisons—helping her see just how capable Gauss had become.
But Cicero still looked a little disappointed.
She really wanted to see her big brother fight Goblins.
Still, Gauss’s firm tone had left no room for argument. She didn’t even dare speak up.
The three members of Gauss’s team mounted their ostriches and slowly made their way down the village road.
Along the way, they heard murmurs from the villagers.
Someone had seen him coming out of Horst the hunter’s home after staying a long while, and they’d already guessed who he was—but they still couldn’t quite believe it.
Some of the smarter ones had already grabbed eggs and vegetables and were heading to Horst’s house to pay a visit.
Aside from his own family, Gauss didn’t have much attachment to the rest of the villagers.
“I can’t believe you’re actually from here,” Aria said, still sounding stunned.
When she first met Gauss, she assumed he was some noble’s son—at the very least, an illegitimate child. Only nobles had access to the kind of talent and resources he showed.
But what they saw today made it crystal clear: Gauss had been born and raised in this village—just a plain, ordinary kid from the countryside.
And now, not even two years later, his entire life had changed beyond recognition. Could someone really jump that many social ranks in so little time?
If she imagined herself in Gauss’s shoes, she knew she couldn’t have done it.
It took talent, luck, magic, and effort—none of which could be missing.
“Captain really is a genius,” Serlandul said calmly.
He had long since concluded that Gauss’s talent was far beyond anything a normal person could imagine.
A true genius was someone who shattered expectations—who made the impossible possible.
No matter how absurd the things surrounding Gauss seemed, they all made sense to him.
In fact, Serlandul had a suspicion...
Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced toward Gauss. His heart skipped a beat.
A thought stirred quietly in his chest:
The Child of Divine Grace.
A legendary figure from the half-snake people’s ancient tales.