Within the ancient palace.
Upon the Golden Throne, Theus slowly raised his head. He froze for a moment before realizing what had happened.
"Did... did I return?"
"Huh?"
Theus scratched his head. This situation was truly strange. He took several deep breaths and tried to analyze it.
"This return was rather inexplicable. In the past, aside from returning of my own accord, only the death of a vessel could force me to return."
"Mm, returning after death is perfectly normal. I never doubted that, but later I discovered that dead vessels could be descended into again. That means 'death' itself is not necessarily a prerequisite for returning."
"What happened before this return?"
He had awakened on the shelf, searched the room for clues, secretly made his way onto the deck, and examined the figurehead... then there was nothing.
Wait. Theus suddenly frowned. After looking at the figurehead, he had done one more thing.
At the time, he had let out a breath of relief and subconsciously glanced around, only to discover that he was at sea rather than in port.
Was... was there anything special about that? He had merely looked at the sea. Was that why he had been forced to return?
"No, it wasn't just this time. I seem to have been forcibly returned to the Golden Throne once before." Theus narrowed his eyes as he remembered.
Previously, he had descended at the site of Chloe's ritual to summon an evil god. After talking with Chloe for a while, she had decided he was an Outer God and did something to him, forcing him to return.
What had she done again?
It seemed she had gradually made him drowsy, and then he had returned without understanding why.
Uh, thinking about it this way, if passive return was not