Chapter 117 …
“Meow!”
At that moment, what appeared above the extermination squad wasn’t a person, but a monster in the form of a cat.
The squad, tense as they looked up, let out a sigh of relief and sheathed their swords again.
“What is this? Just a small monster?”
“Damn it, we got all worked up for nothing…”
The cat poked its head out and then scampered away quickly.
Once the cat monster disappeared, there was no sign of life around anymore.
It really had been the presence of a cat monster!
One of the heroes who hadn’t sheathed their sword yet looked at the place where the monster had vanished and asked,
“Shall we hunt it down?”
“No need.”
However, one of the royal palace knights stopped him.
Their reason was simple: they had a long journey ahead, so there was no point in wasting time on a tiny monster.
And so…
“Time wasted.”
The small cat monster, not having gone berserk, wasn’t threatening enough to warrant the squad drawing their swords, and this place was a special area where humans rarely ventured, so there was even less reason to kill it.
Under normal circumstances, they wouldn’t have been startled by such faint signs of movement.
But now, given the extraordinary situation where the corpse of the evil dragon Ezekiel had completely vanished, the squad was naturally shaken.
Fortunately, after the cat monster’s brief appearance, the squad left Rare without suspicion.
And, muttering to themselves, they promised that if they ever encountered that monster again, they would definitely defeat it.
Not long after…
“…Gone?”
“It’s gone…”
Two small children popped out from the snow-covered bushes.
The knights in Ferdinand’s white secret agent robes were with them as well.
‘That was close!’
I exhaled a sigh of relief as I carefully watched the place the extermination squad had disappeared to.
We hadn’t emerged from the bushes even after they fully left, just in case the overly suspicious heroes rushed back.
Thankfully, they didn’t return. Once we confirmed it was safe, we quickly emerged from the bushes.
“Phew… that was way too close. Thanks, Meow.”
[That’s not an ordinary cat, it’s a monster, so don’t call it Meow!]
“But it’s a tiny cat-shaped one right now.”
I greeted the cat monster warmly and tore off a small piece of bread to give it.
The cat monster didn’t eat the bread, but it didn’t refuse it either.
[Do you think monsters eat like humans?]
I ignored X’s muttering and kept my gaze on the place where the extermination squad had gone.
‘X, stop talking nonsense and think carefully. Do you think they took the egg shell with them?’
[Hmm… nothing was in their hands.]
‘Right? Then they probably didn’t notice it.’
[Exactly. If they had found the egg shell, they would have made a huge fuss about finding the baby dragon. They wouldn’t have returned calmly; they’d have turned the whole area upside down.]
“That’s what I think too. Looks like they didn’t find it. They’re too calm for people who would have found an egg shell.”
Lemart agreed with X’s opinion.
After a moment of thought, I picked up X and leapt down.
[Ah!]
“Ah, Miss!”
From below came X’s scream, and from above, Edith’s worried voice.
I slid down the hill on X’s back, tapped my bottom to show I was okay, and gave a thumbs-up.
“I’m fine!”
[I’m not fine…!! This little one! You could have jumped down on your own, but you rode on me!]
“But sliding down like this is faster than just jumping down.”
A sigh of relief escaped from X’s body strapped to my back.
Ignoring X, I glanced back at the entrance of Rare.
‘Did they really not notice it?’
Had the egg shell completely disappeared?
I wanted to check anyway. I tightened the bag with the baby dragon inside and dashed into Rare.
“Ah! The torch!”
I was so rushed that I forgot to grab a torch.
“Miss, you need to take a torch!”
If Marugo, who had followed behind, hadn’t handed me the torch, I might have lost my way in the dark cave.
“Ive, come with me.”
Lemart, who had quietly followed, stayed right behind me.
I nodded as I received the torch and hurried into Rare.
We passed through the long, dark corridor quickly and reached the place where Ezekiel had been lying.
Ezekiel’s body was gone, and the egg shell…
“Huh? It’s here?”
“…Indeed?”
It was there. Sitting plainly in a very visible spot.
“Kyu!”
The baby dragon peeked its head out of the bag, seemingly happy to be back where it was born.
Holding the baby dragon tightly, I poked the egg shell.
“…!”
A soft blue energy rippled outward from the spot I touched.
“Could it be that Ezekiel’s power remained in this egg shell, and that’s why they couldn’t see it?”
Ezekiel had said before dying that he placed a special power in the ‘egg’.
Only I could extract the egg from his body.
So maybe that’s true.
But then…
“…Why can you see it?”
I asked Lemart abruptly.
“…Good question.”
He replied awkwardly.
[Maybe because you’ve been close to it often, part of your power got absorbed by him. Either way, your influence seems to allow this human to see the dragon egg too.]
“Kyu!”
The baby dragon chirped.
“I see…”
I nodded and carefully collected the egg shell pieces, scraping up even the smallest fragments.
“Take them?”
“Yeah, open the bag a bit.”
After gathering all the egg shells, I approached Lemart, who opened the bag after removing all his clothes.
I poured all the shells inside and shook my hands clean.
“All done! Let’s go!”
“Why did you take these?”
“You never know when they might be useful. And what if we left them here and Ezekiel’s power fades, revealing the shells? Humans must be thorough.”
Many people had failed in the past by being careless after completing a task.
We ourselves almost came back here because we weren’t meticulous enough.
Anyway, I secured the egg shells, put the baby dragon back into the bag, grabbed X, and headed to leave the cave.
Or rather, I tried to.
“Wait…!”
I held Lemart and went quiet. The path ahead led straight to the exit.
I thought I heard breathing from the entrance.
‘X, can you sense it?’
[Yeah, someone’s there.]
I quietly told Lemart to stay still and focused.
I could sense someone standing at the entrance.
Even if unseen, I felt someone peering into the cave.
‘Let’s hide!’
I whispered to Lemart and hid all we were carrying in a rock crevice.
He followed silently and hid too.
Who could be waiting for us out here?
[When you get stronger, you’ll probably sense the presence ahead more precisely. For now, just confirming that someone’s there is enough. Still, well done!]
X gleamed proudly.
‘Don’t sparkle!’
I blocked X’s light, worried it might reveal our presence to whoever was outside.
We didn’t move an inch. Not until the person disappeared from the cave entrance.
How long did we wait?
‘Gone!’
Finally, the presence at the entrance vanished completely.
Then, I saw a sparkling light near the cave entrance.
It was the signal the knights of Ferdinand were sending us.
