Dragon's Wrath: The Cursed Returnee

"She was pretty useful to your father, right?" Ethan asked. "Wouldn't he help her to gain her favor for the sake of the future?"

"You talk as if my father is some schemer. Well, you are not completely off the mark, but…" Ian scratched the back of his head. "You have to think about the other part. Emily is pretty prideful; would she receive the help of someone and then owe something that big to others? I don't think she would accept that."

Emily was a pain in the ass in some aspects. Ethan knew that. Still, he didn't want to think that she was stubborn to that point, but he wasn't the right person to judge others by that kind of thing. In the end, Ethan decided not to think about it. His hero days were over, and now he could move when he was certain that he would gain something in exchange for his services. Besides, Emily left without telling anyone, and even though she was an excellent person to talk with, Ethan didn't feel like helping someone who thought so little of him. Even if she had her reasons, Emily could have asked for help.

"Well, it doesn't matter," Ethan shrugged. "Emily probably doesn't need our help, and the population of that country is quite large, so they must have a lot of heroes. They got this."

Ethan had a point, but Ian wasn't that convinced of his reasons. Besides, Ian did want to see with his own eyes how things would unfold in one of those places. Helping Emily was a plus, but the problem was: how to go there without causing any issues? Although Ian could ask his father for a hand, he was too busy at the moment compiling the intel they obtained in the excursion and researching other things related to it.

"Going alone won't be fun either," Ian muttered. "What should I do in this situation to find a way to go and bring Ethan with me? I need to make amends for the problems I caused him before, after all."

Ian certainly had a weird way of making amends, but still, causing more problems seemed like a good option to him. In any case, he had to carefully plan his actions in order to make things go as smoothly as possible.

Although the classes happened without any issues and Ethan focused on them, many of his classmates focused on talking about the dungeon breaks. It was only natural since most of them returned when the dungeons had already appeared. It was weird, but some of them were really excited about it since life had been pretty dull as of late.

After classes, Ethan headed to the simulator's floor, and weirdly enough, Ian didn't show up to annoy him. Ethan didn't want to admit it, but he kind of got used to it by the sudden appearances of Ian and Emily. For someone who had to fight alone for several months in a strange land, their presence was really appreciated. However, it didn't take long for Ethan to regret thinking about that. Around noon, a very excited Hannah called him.

"Ethan! Why didn't you tell me why you were so interested in those dungeon breaks?" Hannah asked.

"I am as interested as anyone," Ethan frowned since, despite the question, Hannah looked pretty excited.

"Still, if you should have told me the real reason, I could have helped you much sooner," Hannah said.

"Help? Help with what? I don't need help right now," Ethan said.

"Aw, come on, don't be so bashful. You are at that age, after all," Hannah said, and Ethan could easily visualize her smile. "You can count on your big sis in moments like this, and you already know that."

Hannah was saying some suspicious things, and Ethan didn't like that… something happened, and he wasn't aware of it. Fortunately, it didn't look like something too problematic. Without thinking too much about it, Ethan found the reason why everything seemed so suspicious… Ian was behind it. He did something while he wasn't bothering Ethan, and by the look of things, he did something very annoying.

"Hannah, I don't say what he said to you, but you probably made you misunderstood some things," Ethan said after taking a deep breath. "Anyway, tell me exactly what he said."

"Your best buddy, Ian, said that someone very important to you might be in danger," Hannah explained. "However, since you didn't want to cause problems to anyone, you were really conflicted with that really important person, and as expected, that person is a cute girl."

Ethan's head began to hurt… Ian really had a death wish. That idiot was so annoying, but he wasn't exactly stupid to incite Ethan's wrath directly. He knew that warriors have a conduct code, and they wouldn't just kill somebody just because that very someone was annoying to their very core. True warriors weren't fans of torture either, so Ethan could only choose indirect methods to make the idiot pay.

"Hannah… you are smarter than that, don't believe in the words of someone you never saw, okay?" Ethan said. "Please, just tell me that he just talked to you, and you didn't do anything thinking that by doing so, you would help me."

"It is okay. Like I said, you don't need to be so bashful," Hannah said. "In any case, all preparations are already, pack your things that; I will soon teleport you two to where I am."

"Please, listen to me…" Ethan sighed.

It was unfortunate, but it looked like Ethan's opinions on the matter were irrelevant. In the end, Ethan couldn't even try to solve things since Hannah probably used her contacts in the government to 'help' Ethan and his friends in that matter. He will make Hannah lose face if he refuses to help Emily now.

Before going home to pack his things again, Ethan searched for Ian to kick the idiot a few times. However, he was nowhere to be found. He was a sneaky piece of shit...