Chapter 144: First Foreign Mission Success

As I had thought, we were on our way back to Singapore the next day.

I felt the plane come to a stop and the light for the seatbelt sign going off.

I unbuckled my seatbelt and stood up, right as the rest of my Guardians got to their feet as well.

My luggage was being handled by Olivia as the Oni easily carried both her own suitcase as well as mine in each hand, allowing me to only worry about getting off the plane instead.

The stewardess pushed the door open right as I reached there and joined her colleagues in bowing to me.

I thanked them for their work before stepping onto the boarding stairs to make my way down to the airport tarmac where a limousine was waiting.

Minister Ba was there waiting for me with a big smile on his face, though I did notice his smile brightening slightly when I emerged with my two floating hands above my shoulders.

Maybe he’s happy that I was growing stronger?

I plan to have this be a permanent part of myself when I’m dressed up as the Mortal God so people will unconsciously link the floating arms to me which would make them believe that anyone without the floating arms could not be me.

Although... I guess one downside to this is that I would obviously stand out more as the Mortal God and to some people, I might even appear less human.

Or in a more direct sense... I might be seen as a monster.

Well... As much as I would like to say that I don’t really care what the public’s perception of me is, I am still the face representing my country and also the people working under me, so I would have to be extra careful in dealing with public relations as much as I might hate it.

Why I had those thoughts was because despite them wearing shades to hide their eyes, I noticed that some of the security agents on the tarmac looked quite fearful of my new appendages.

I even went out of my way to create these arms to look more like armoured gauntlets instead of human hands so if anything... It looked more like I had floating gloves but that still made people fear me...

At least Minister Ba wasn’t fearful of me, and if did, he certainly did not show it.

He approached me with his arms outstretched for a handshake with a smile on his face.

Then again... I suppose it’s partly because he most likely already received a report about it since I started openly showing it off in the last few days of the expedition after he had concluded his business with Minister Ma.

"Mortal God!! Welcome home! How was your trip?"

"Good. Thank you for arranging everything, Minister," I greeted back casually.

"Ahahaha! Think nothing of it, Mortal God! This much is natural! You are still our Mortal God so how could we provide you anything but the best?"

Well... That’s all the politics talking where you’re obviously doing all that for me to maintain your own authority in this world.

Still, I did not say that out loud and merely just nodded along.

His gaze then went over to my floating arms and nodded at them, "I did not get to say this the last time but I see you have also awakened a new ability? Is it part of your power as a Mortal God?"

I nodded, "It is. I’m still not sure who it is that I am an avatar of but I guess this might be a big clue to it."

That was half a lie since it’s a fact that these arms came from a book which is a part of my power while the arms themselves aren’t actually part of it.

If anyone outside of us were trying to guess what god I was, this should at least give them a false trail to follow.

I figured it would be better for us in the long run if which god I was remains a mystery to others instead of being public knowledge.

Not that I know who it is myself right now anyway...

Seriously... Just who am I?

At least I managed to narrow down the pantheon I should belong to but even then, there’s still so many possibilities within that specific pantheon...

Whoops, I was almost lost in my thoughts again.

Minister Ba smiled at me, "I’m afraid to impose this on you, Mortal God... But news of your return has spread amongst our people and they have been looking forward to welcoming you back home as well. I don’t know if it is appropriate to ask but..."

I saw through what he wanted immediately and nodded, "Sure, I can appear in front of them and maybe say a few words."

"Perfect, we will escort you there, Mortal God."

Minister Ba stepped aside to gesture towards the car so I stepped inside it, keeping my arms floating outside and above the vehicle which will float along with us.

I thought about shrinking it down for this car ride but thought that I might as well try to see if I could do this in case I needed to materialise them outside a vehicle I’m riding to defend it against an attack.

The convoy drove towards the main building of the airport, specifically the arrival hall in Terminal One before dropping us off.

We moved through a side door that was being watched by a crowd of people in suits to enter the main building, most of them eyeing my floating arms as I had to carefully move them to fit through the doorway.

I wondered if there was a way to make them immaterial so that they could pass through walls?

That’s something else I’ll have to experiment with later I guess.

For now, I walked through the airport building where a clear path had been laid out for me to walk through by the suit wearing agents, keeping the public that were also within the airport away from me.

Most people who saw me immediately stopped and started taking pictures with some of them letting out cheers as I walked past.

I waved at them in return and soon enough, there was a crowd following me through the airport as I headed towards the arrival hall.

My group descended the escalator to head towards the customs which had a lane open specifically for me to walk through without needing to stop for any inspections and I found myself weaving through a crowd that had gathered in the baggage claim area, presumably having camped here after they arrived on their own flights to try and catch a glimpse of me.

The crowd extended all the way to the exit and they had to deploy quite a number of police officers just to keep the crowd in check.

A good thing too because as soon as I appeared, the crowd seemed to instinctively surge forward in an attempt to get closer but the police quickly held them back, maintaining order within the hall.

I waved at the crowd as I walked past, even using my floating arms to do so.

While there were a few who looked up at them in fear, it looked like overall, most of the people were awed by it instead.

That’s definitely a good thing.

As I was walking through the crowd however, a few people at the front were pushing out what looked like notebooks towards me.

At first, I wasn’t sure what they wanted until it slowly dawned on me that they were asking for my autograph.

Wait, seriously? I don’t really think I’m someone people would want an autograph from, right? I mean... It’s not like I’m some influencer or something right? What do I even do here?

Even if I want to give them my autograph... I don’t even know what I’m supposed to sign!

There’s no way I’m signing my real name on it! Do I just write ’Mortal God of Singapore’ on the page or something? That’s so lame!!

As though reading my mind, Olivia quickly came to my rescue as she stepped up beside me.

"Our apologies, but in lieu of recent events, the Mortal God will not be giving out anything today! That includes autographs! Please understand!"

Her powerful voice boomed around the hall which made the crowd let out disappointed groans but I guess most people still remembered the attempt on my life not too long ago so they cooperated and retracted those notebooks.

Now it wouldn’t look like I was the one who decided not to give them the autographs but more because it was the governing body in charge of this that decided I wouldn’t be giving it, saving me from having to embarrass myself.

Still, despite what she claimed, I ended up addressing the crowd with a short speech telling them about how we had helped our neighbours deal with their rift problem and strengthened our ties as allies.

I then ended my short public appearance by thanking everyone for showing up to support me before I turned to leave, only to pause when I saw my family also there amongst the crowd. What the heck? Why are you guys--

Oh... They came to pick me up...

Well... I guess I need to slip out somewhere and out of this disguise then...