BSS 111

Chapter 111

[Growl.]

“Rai!”

As he emerged from the water, shaking off the droplets, I saw Rai glaring at the little child, showing his teeth fully in anger.

The moment he noticed me, he quickly hid his fangs and pretended to lick the child’s head.

[Ugh, what a cute little human.]

His licking looked terribly awkward.

When Rai was in his wolf form, he had a habit of showing a lot of the whites of his eyes whenever he had done something wrong and was wary of my reaction.

Just like now.

“You didn’t just try to bite, did you?”

[What are you talking about! A noble being like me would never do such a thing! What an unpleasant misunderstanding!]

“Do you even know what ‘noble’ means? You’re the one who enjoys your master’s suffering.”

[Not at all! I was calmly protecting my master’s clothes. I am Rai, the loyal hound.]

Maybe he doesn’t really care that he’s a spirit. Or maybe he isn’t even a spirit.

When I looked at him suspiciously, Rai immediately prostrated himself, showing his back.

I casually sat on his back and picked up the clothes I had left beside him, putting them on one by one.

Rai in wolf form was sturdy enough to be used as a chair.

It wasn’t exactly comfortable, but it was solid.

“Jini, how long do you plan to stay here?”

“Hm… I’m still thinking. Maybe another day or two. Would that be okay?”

“Of course. You can stay longer if you want. If you wish, I can find an empty house for you.”

I tied the ribbon on the waistband of my underskirt tightly and looked up.

“An empty house? Didn’t you say I shouldn’t stay long in the village?”

“That was before you did us a favor. Now, everyone’s very favorable toward you. A week should be fine.”

A week… That was tempting.

I had been forced to sleep on the bare ground inside Dragon Rare for two months, and even after being freed, I wandered through the vast forest for ten days.

I urgently needed some stability.

A proper bed, well-cooked and seasoned meals—those things.

After a brief moment of thought, I shook my head.

“No, unfortunately, I’ll leave the day after tomorrow.”

I put on my leather boots and stood up.

“You’ll still be tired. Are you sure?”

“By then, I’ll have recovered from the journey… And more importantly, I need to contact my family and friends quickly.”

“Then there’s no helping it.”

They must be worried. Wondering if I died comfortably, if my bones remained, or if I was buried somewhere. That kind of worry.

First, I needed to let them know I was alive.

It had been over two months since I was kidnapped by the dragon, so no one would hold onto false hope and endure suffering thinking I might still be alive.

“Then prepare the horses in time.”

“Thanks. Thinking about walking out there… really makes me…” But how do I return the horses?”

“When you get to Mielta, there’s an inn our tribe always uses. You can leave them there.”

“Leave them? Will my sister come get them later? That would feel so sorry…”

“No, it will be used by the tribe member returning from the city.”

I nodded to show I understood, and my sister smiled lightly, putting on a leather shirt.

“You’ll have to stay at that inn for a day, though.”

“That’s fine. What’s the inn’s name? Is the city large? I’ll need communication facilities to contact my family and the academy.”

“Of course. Mielta is a large city. It has one of the few magic towers in Koran.”

That was a relief.

This world didn’t have many means of communication.

Letters were common, but even the fastest would take three to four months—too slow for urgent messages.

Nobles often used telegraphs, but not mechanical ones—purely magical, usable only between cities with mage towers.

The advantage was speed; the downside was cost, and the content could be exposed because someone had to transcribe and deliver the messages.

I planned to use the fastest and most expensive communication magic: essentially a magical video call.

Through a round crystal like a witch’s orb, you could see the other person’s face and speak, only usable from a magic tower.

“Undine!”

I called out the presence that had been bothering me ever since I finished dressing.

Pretending to talk with my sister, I ambushed the small presence that had been following us behind the rocks.

“Kyaah!”

As soon as Undine was summoned, she quickly caught it, trapping it in water and presenting it in front of me.

Gotcha! This little one!

It was a girl I had never seen before.

“Aini?”

“…Ah.”

Was she my sister’s daughter?

Why didn’t she just speak? Why was she hiding and following? Suspicious!

[It’s the little one who kept following.]

[You noticed?]

[Yes. I thought she was Anel’s daughter, so I let her be. She’s been following from home.]

I gestured to Undine to release the girl.

I also helped remove the water from her soaking body.

The shock of being trapped in a water bubble must have been big—Aini’s small eyes darted nervously before she ran to hide behind Anel.

Hiding behind legs and glaring at me, she looked exactly like a little wildcat.

“Th… that person is weird!”

“Aini, I told you not to be rude to guests.”

“But, that person is talking to a wolf! I saw it! The wolf spoke!”

[What! A talking wolf? Where!?]

Idiotic.

[Rai is the one speaking to you.]

[Huh?]

Wait a second.

That’s weird.

How did the kid hear Rai’s voice? Only the master should hear the spirit’s voice.

Maybe because she’s also a spirit? But she’s clearly a normal human child.

“What are you saying, Aini?”

“I’m serious! That wolf and that person! I heard them talking! Even now!”

Oh my, she really can hear it.

I looked down at Rai.

Rai blinked his big eyes and looked up at me.

“That wolf must be possessed by a demon!”

“Aini!”

“This sister must be a witch too!”

I had often been called a witch, even nicknamed “the witch of the annex” at the academy.

Children generally feared me.

I knew why. I didn’t smile at them for their psychological comfort.

What could I do? They disliked me.

You can’t be kind to others while being unfriendly to yourself.

“Sorry, Jini. Aini is just scared.”

“I’m serious! Mom!”

“I’m used to it. Kids disliking me isn’t new…”

I stopped speaking as something eerie caught our attention.

My sister and I simultaneously glanced quickly toward the riverbank.

Just barely, we heard a scream tearing through the air.

The uneasy splashing of the river echoed, causing tension.

The peaceful afternoon was shattered by multiple hostile presences.

“Lizardmen!”

[Whoa, there are a lot.]

Even at a glance, there were more than twenty monsters.

They were crossing the river quickly, which wasn’t wide.

With only their brutal heads visible above water, they looked like a pack of crocodiles.

Lizardmen could breathe underwater and were highly intelligent, sometimes classified as a different species.

They traveled in groups, hunted intelligently, had culture and language, and could converse with humans.

Still, some argued whether to classify them as a species or as monsters—they ate their own kind, humans, and anything they wanted, like hyenas.

Bad luck—Lizardmen at the riverbank.

And everyone was naked, with no weapons.

[They seem to have timed this deliberately.]

Rai got up, scratching his ear with his hind leg, watching the river as if it were someone else’s problem.

[Seems so. They’re supposed to be smart; I guess that’s true.]

[Even so, Master, you seem too relaxed for an ambush.]

[You first.]

I was indeed calm.

Watching the lizardmen climb onto the shore, towering over two meters, baring sharp teeth, and swinging thick, long tails freely, my only thought was whether their tails could regenerate if cut off.

They looked reptilian, but walked on two legs and moved freely underwater. Truly a hybrid.

I knew they were common in jungles, but it was my first time seeing them in person.

There weren’t any near Maji Rare.

“I have to go.”

Unlike my leisurely observation, my sister hastily snapped off a branch and pushed Aini completely into the bushes.

“Aini, stay here quietly.”

“Mom! Don’t go!”

“I have to!”

“I’m scared… Can I go home?”

“No. They might attack from another direction. You have to stay here. Understand?”

Her firm tone was familiar.

I remembered when I was little, and our mercenary group was attacked by ogres—my sister had hidden me just like that.

Back then, I didn’t know what I could do.

Just like Aini, I had no idea what to do.

While I briefly looked down at Aini, my sister had already sprinted toward the riverbank.

Despite the chaos, the tribe moved efficiently.

They grabbed whatever was at hand and blocked the lizardmen from advancing toward the village.

They were a brave tribe.

Only very young children ran away.

“Undine.”

Still, what can they do with just sticks?

If someone gets injured, I’d have to heal them, so I moved to prevent that.

I wasn’t moving to help them per se.