F-ranker Sword Saint: My Soulbound Sword is Secretly SSS-tier!-Chapter 249: Guilty Gaze

The confirmed promise of a way back home made Caleb and Lesha’s hearts burn with determination.

Rarely did the two speak on the way back to Egress, as all they could think about was the final operation — their final labor.

They schemed...and daydreamed.

Daru, too, for a bit.

Before the group knew it, they had already arrived at the Reprieve, their entrance causing the mystical borders to ripple and the wretches nearby to look.

"T-They’re back! Everyone, they’re back!!" screamed a beastkin.

The group’s return spread like wildfire throughout the entire haven. Before long, they were surrounded, and surprisingly, Nando, too, was there.

It was the first time the old man hadn’t taken advantage of the commotion to slip away.

Caleb calmed everyone down and called for order, managing to take control of the situation with the threat that he wouldn’t explain unless the scene was orderly.

So, the wretches contained themselves, even though they were bursting inside like breath held too long in drowning lungs.

They wanted to know...They were desperate to know.

Would they be able to return to their homes as was promised?

The wretches trembled, both excited and anxious, though much more the former.

Caleb, at the very least, would have been grim and downcast if their hearts and hope were destined to shatter today.

His composure was quite promising.

So, they wanted to hear it. The confirmation that they would be able to return after one last operation.

The non-combatants were quite embarrassed that the hardships they had to endure were far less.

However, this didn’t make their desire to return any less, and most of them still wouldn’t fight if allowed to stay and tend to the strange crops and the shacks. They would be of very little help in combat, anyway...

Perhaps they would even drag their comrades down due to their incompetence.

The Damnedlings continued swarming from all directions of the thriving town, and soon, everyone was present. The fateful moment arrived.

The revelation.

It was simple, yet maddening, at least to the wretches who had stayed here for a long, long time — some a good portion of their entire lives.

Stone stairs, as gray as the skies outside the mystical Reprieve, rose from within the ash, towering to the heavens.

None of them could see what was behind the clouds. However, all of them sensed it.

Home...their motherlands...

Only the Gravewarden and his dark enforcers stood between them and freedom.

The Damnedlings were dumbfounded for a moment before erupting into wild cheers, screaming at the top of their lungs with mad gazes.

They were simply too happy, and why wouldn’t they?

This...this elusive stone stairs...they’ve sought it for multiple years, and finally, there it was, waiting for them.

Some almost went crazy.

Had Lesha not warned Caleb about the possible repercussions of this method, they would not have been ready for those who truly went insane, hopping on the steps and beginning their ascent to freedom right then and there.

Before those few wretches could make it far, though, the stone stairs dissipated, and they fell back down to the ashes.

"What?! The stairs, where are..."

The moment they came to, they realized that everyone was staring at them. Only then did those few calm down a bit.

Caleb looked at them sternly.

"Calm down. We have not cleansed ourselves of our "Damned" status yet. While we have no concrete evidence of what would happen if we forced the issue, do you truly want to play with your lives after making it this far?"

His words were like a bucket of cold water poured over the Damnedlings’ heads, blessing them with clarity.

Indeed.

They had not been thinking straight.

With an example right in front of them, the others were able to completely calm down. Egress has waited for years already.

A few more days or weeks, at most, was not a big deal. At least not when compared to the possibility of losing their chance completely. It was advisable not to get ahead of themselves.

Still, they were deeply shaken.

Even Thrad, who was a veteran and was not one to speak too much nonsense, couldn’t stop himself from asking a stupid question.

"S-So, once we succeed in eliminating the Gravewarden and placing the five heads on the five graves, we will be cleansed of our Damned status and will be allowed to climb to the surface?" 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

"Correct. We must make sure that the operation goes as smoothly as possible, so that more of us can return. I’d like to say that all of us would make it, but that would be talking empty words, wouldn’t it?" Caleb responded, a hint of bitterness flashing in his eyes.

A third of them perished in the last operation, and with their deaths, many more would lose their lives in the final one.

Mayhaps he himself would fall in the end. On honest talk, only a fourth of them would be returning to their worlds, a third on generous grounds.

It was also possible that only as few as a wounded dozen would make it.

Either way, the number could only be smaller, not higher.

Or so he thought...

A pair of eyes observed, deep guilt burning in their depths, until finally, the flames surged and could not be contained anymore.

It raged, devouring the man from within.

What would he be returning to, anyway? A world rebuilt...a world with no inhabitants except for him...

Nando suspected that there was something deeper at play.

While he somehow became the chosen one of whoever side it was that the entities he was trying to revive belonged to, he found it more and more difficult to complete his harrowing, perhaps heretical quest.

One that he had suddenly obtained, alongside a staggering amount of necessary knowledge, after merely surviving for a long time in this god-forsaken realm.

In all truth, he was probably older than the ongoing Sword Trials in the youngsters’ worlds, and while his body had been somehow preserved and would even be reverted to his prime after he completed his mission, his mind was weary.

He was suddenly uncertain if he could take the burden of sending the hardworking and genuine youngsters to unnecessary deaths.

They had already secured everything they needed, after all. They had toiled enough for their freedom.

And they had grown on him...

All that remained uncompleted was his quest.

Nando sighed.