by CHIROLU
“Vint, guide them to some place a bit removed from the town. Can you use Wind magic or something to get them to notice us?”
“Will give try.”
Vint’s Wind magic had earned his father’s seal of approval. Raising a roar alongside directing his magic, the pup managed to get the shapes in the distance to suddenly stop moving.
“They noticed... let’s move,” Dale said before taking off running at a speed far beyond what a normal human could achieve. Vint looked surprised at first, but then happily took off at full speed after him. Vint forgot their objective along the way and started enjoying it as if they were playing a game of tag. This resulted in him almost flying right into Dale when he stopped at their destination.
“You dumb mutt!”
“Woof!”
With some speedy footwork, Dale dodged Vint, then landed a light blow on his head. With that, the pup seemed to remember what was going on and started grooming himself, as if to gloss over what had just happened.
The place Dale had guided the soaring wolves to was the open clearing used as a flying dragon landing space whenever he was invited to the capital. Dale and Vint looked up at the sky and saw numerous soaring wolves descend. At their head was a slender black-furred wolf that Dale was acquainted with. Dale had previously visited the soaring wolf village to request Hagel’s assistance. At that time, he had conversed with this female wolf, Vint’s mother. She had jet black fur, and wasn’t as fluid in the languages of man as Hagel and Vint were.
Apparently she also remembered Dale. Without any hesitation, she smoothly landed right next to Dale, not even making a sound. Vint turned to face her jet-black frame and wagged his tail.
“Mommy.”
She looked at Vint and Dale with her dark reddish-brown eyes and in a high-pitched, feminine voice said, “Sorry for all the trouble my child has caused you.” Dale had heard it before, but she really did seem strangely accustomed to saying those words.
“No, he’s been no...” Dale started to respond with that old cliche, but then stopped and thought for a second. He pondered whether or not Vint had been a hassle.
He moves to the beat of his own drum, but he carries things for Latina, and plays with Theo... He’s actually been working pretty hard, now that I think of it.
He may have actually been doing quite a bit compared to watchdogs at large the world over. He really did do as he pleased a bit too much, though, so Dale was hesitant to praise him.
Having reached a conclusion internally, Dale faced back towards Vint’s mother. He may have not wanted to praise Vint, but he also couldn’t worry the pup’s mother, either.
“Honestly, he’s been doing a good job of carrying out all the tasks assigned to him, so you don’t need to worry.”
“Not at all. He surely just causes you trouble...”
“No, that’s not the case at all.”
Despite being a very common sort of conversation between two guardians, it was a rather bizarre situation, as one of them was a mythical beast.
Dale caught a fleeting glimpse of Vint out of the corner of his eye, and found that the pup had a self-satisfied look about him. Dale didn’t let it show on his face, but that irked him.
Several of the other soaring wolves had a look of “well, there’s no helping that” about them in regards to the conversation between Dale and Vint’s mother. Considering how fluent she was at apologizing, Vint must have done whatever he pleased back in their home village too.
“By the way, what is it that you came here for...?” Dale asked.
“My kids, three, gone. Searching,” the mother wolf responded awkwardly.
While Dale thought on that meaning, Vint approached his mother’s side with a know-it-all look about him.
“Said want come, no helping.”
“Three?”
“Sad leave others behind, so no helping.”
With Vint’s reply, Dale arrived at the conclusion that they were likely discussing the three puppies. Applying a bit of liberal translation, what she was saying was, “Three of my children went missing, so I came in search of them.”
As Dale nodded to himself in satisfaction, Vint’s mother suddenly opened her mouth wide and chomped down on her son.
“Yelp!”
“Ooh, you actually sounded like a dog for once...”
Vint continued to be gnawed upon as Dale stood there choosing something unusual to be impressed over. Vint tried to escape, but his mother was easily leading him around by the nose. When she pinned him down with her front paw, Vint once more let out a pathetic yelp.
The other soaring wolves showed no signs of trying to stop this exchange between mother and son. As such, Dale didn’t feel like getting involved, either. He didn’t want to interfere with this bit of canine-style discipline, and though Vint was being bitten he didn’t seem to be injured or bleeding. It was clear that his mother knew restraint. Even for someone from a different species like Dale, that fact was obvious.
But, well... being bit by such a big carnivore sure is a pretty rough form of discipline...
He was also in awe of the way that the mother wolf handled her movements. Despite Vint’s swiftness, he was unable to do anything, left powerless to stop his punishment from continuing on. She may have been even more skilled at physical combat than Hagel.
After a short while of enduring that punishment, Vint rolled over and showed his belly to his mother. It was a pose of complete surrender.
With that, his mother stopped her attack.
Dale looked over at Vint and saw that he was tearing up. It was the same face he had made when he seriously made Latina angry and she declared she would stop brushing him. Apparently he was truly sorry.
“Um... if it’s about the pu... your children, then they’re in town, but... if a large number of mythical beasts descend upon a human town, it’ll result in utter chaos...”
In actuality, just their flying so close had caused plenty of chaos as is.
“Understood.”
“I’ll come again with them tomorrow, so could I have you wait in a place removed from town?”
“My sincere apologies for repeatedly causing such trouble for you.”
Dale couldn’t help but wonder just what Vint had done back home to result in this vocabulary of his mother’s.
After seeing Dale and Vint off, the soaring wolves took off to the other side of the mountain. Dale gave a sigh of relief, figuring if they were far enough away that they couldn’t be seen, an extermination unit wouldn’t be formed.
Thus, Dale successfully stopped a fight between mythical beasts and humans before it even began.
However, he had forgotten something: there was someone in the Ocelot who it would take even more time to convince than the soaring wolves.
What Dale saw when he returned to the Ocelot was Emma with her arms around the puppies, objecting with all her might. His cowardly “big bro” Kenneth was looking on and thinking, wearing an expression that said he had no intention of getting involved with his beloved daughter’s protesting. It seemed he was afraid that if he took away the puppies, she would play her trump card of yelling out “I hate you, Papa!”
If her mother Rita were to yell at her, that would bring an end to the situation, but it would also result in a crying fit so fierce it would sound like the world was ending. Understanding that, and also being soft on the adorable little poster girl by nature, the regulars chose to simply watch and wait.
It seemed the most Emma’s little arms could hold tight was two puppies, so the gray-furred female succeeded in squirming her way free. The puppy headed towards Latina with her tail wagging, and when Emma’s attention was focused on wanting to get her back, the other two managed to slip out of her grasp. The puppies all clustered around Latina, enthusiastically wagging their tails. While watching that, Emma furrowed her little brows firmly in displeasure.
“Emma,” Latina called out in a very kind, pleasant tone. That was enough for the girl to break dow
n sobbing. Latina beckoned Emma with a smile, and then picked her up in a hug.
“No... I don’t wanna...!” Emma yelled out loudly while crying.
“Right,” Latina replied, just hugging and listening to the girl rather than scolding her. She stroked Emma’s hair to soothe her, and waited patiently until the girl calmed down.
“Listen, Emma...” Latina said in a gentle voice, looking Emma straight in the eyes. “Their mother came to pick these little ones up. I hear she’s really worried about them.”
“But... but...”
“I know. You understand too. You just feel sad about it, right?”
Though she kept on objecting, Emma didn’t deny Latina’s statement. The whole time, a kind smile remained on the older girl’s face.
Latina had been a very pampered child. She hadn’t been spoiled, though, as she was constantly restraining herself. But at her core, she was still a pampered child even so.
Perhaps that was just the way she was because of the great loss she had suffered when she was very young. And it may have been affected by the never-ending doting from Dale, too.
As a result, Latina was skilled when it came to doting on others.
She would gently draw close, and with great kindness and her unique soothing nature, she would support those who had been hurt. Seeing her overflowing with such concern for others, she at times seemed almost divine.
Well, if demon lords are like a type of god, then I guess feeling that she’s a “goddess” isn’t exactly wrong!
However, unsurprisingly, that fact had nothing to do with how Dale felt.
Seeing how much she had grown only made it stand out all the more how much he hadn’t, to such a degree that it almost felt somehow refreshing.
“Vint, you can deliver your siblings to your mother, right?” Dale called out to Vint, suddenly remembering he was there.
“Woof.”
Immediately after the scolding from his mother Vint had been acting meek, but he had since completely returned to his usual self, lazing about.
“Won’t they get homesick, or feel lonely or something...?”
The pups didn’t look to be feeling that way at all in regards to their parting. That was why Dale had thought to ask, only for Vint to respond without a hint of hesitation, as always, “Just bring again, fine.”
“Hey.”
The pup apparently had no intention of repenting.
“They may come on own...”
Dale couldn’t immediately come up with a response to that statement.
He had no idea how long it would take for these furballs to grow up enough to understand the language of man and fly on their own. However, there was no guarantee that within a few decades, there wouldn’t be pups with wings wandering all about throughout Kreuz. In fact, it was actually pretty easy to imagine.
If I let Latina go play in the soaring wolf settlement... no. That’d only make things worse...
If he took Latina on frequent visits to his home village, the soaring wolves could let off steam by meeting with her in the mountains. That thought occurred to him for only an instant before he shot it down. With that the number of soaring wolves acquainted with her would only grow, and there was a chance it would cause the situation to worsen.
After failing to come up with a concrete solution, Dale looked over at Latina, who held Emma in her arms.
For now, it seemed that this incident at least closed the distance between those two in a single go.
Emma was so young that even Dale didn’t feel jealous of her. Theo wore a complex expression on his face, though, having had both his “big sis” and little sister taken away from him at the same time.
Dale became lost in his own thoughts again, thinking that there was no helping the way that Theo felt.
By the way, Dale had forgotten that there was no guarantee that the furballs in question would just behave themselves and head obediently back on home.
“Arf.” “Arf.” “Arf.”
“Gah?! Stay out of there!”
They were Vint’s siblings. There was no way that things would go so easily.
“Arrf.” “Urf.” “Arf.”
“Don’t go crying like that! You make it seem like I’m doing something wrong!”
“You shouldn’t go teaching the youngsters to abuse animals.”
“Shut up, you!”
Dale and the valiantly fleeing furballs played a game of tag inside the Ocelot, with the regulars interjecting with occasional jeers. That “game” continued on into the night, until the furballs fell asleep with satisfied looks on their faces. Dale took them back to their mother the next day, signaling the end of this chaos.
3: Sequel: The Platinum-haired Maiden and the Golden-eyed Maiden Make a Grave Visit
As of late (which is to say ever since returning from Vassilios), Dale had spent each and every day lazing about and being an all around good-for-nothing. If it were just a few weeks, that could be written off as him taking a vacation, but when that became a few months, those around him couldn’t help but start looking at him differently.
Meanwhile, Latina unsurprisingly spent every day working busily away. The fragile look she had about her while recovering was completely gone now. It seemed that having something to do really was good for her.
“At a glance, it kind of looks like Latina is supporting you, doesn’t it?”
“I feel like Latina really could support me just fine, even if I became completely dependent on her,” Dale replied, punching holes into the documents that Rita had eliminated from the mountain in front of her and then binding them with string. More than helping out, he was just killing time. And Rita didn’t feel comfortable trusting him with any complex work, as his gaze was constantly following Latina around.
Rita continued to pile up the documents she was finished with in front of Dale, feeling exasperated by him all the while.
“This has to be presented to the temple of Akhdar, so leave it separate... Well, it may be true that you don’t have to work, but how about searching for a new place to live?”
“I worked several years straight without ever taking time off, so I’m just taking a bit of a vacation. That’s all...”
The reason Rita had said he didn’t need to work was because Dale was a hero on the global scale, one who had carried out the great task of eliminating the demon lords. On top of that, it had been more than just one. He had been responsible for the defeat of the Second, Fourth, and Seventh Demon Lords. (It had not been made public that he had eliminated more demon lords than just the Calamities. That was because he had carried out his vengeance on those demon lords like a skilled assassin, ensuring he didn’t leave behind any evidence.) The reward he had received for that was enormous. He could quite literally spend the rest of his life fooling around, never working again.
Even just having a direct contract under the duke had been earning Dale more money than a normal adventurer could ever dream of. The reason that Rita and Kenneth didn’t try to stop Dale when he first said he would take in the young Latina was because they were aware of his robust finances. Those hefty savings also made it so Dale could buy all sorts of things for the young girl without worrying about the cost, even including expensive magical tools from time to time.
Despite being raised by a man like that, Latina had remained extremely frugal. That was a result of her own personality.
Before responding to Rita, Dale glanced over at Latina. And then, in a bit of a quiet voice, he said, “I just can’t right now. Latina still isn’t back to her old self yet, right?”
“...I see,” Rita agreed after having her voice catch in her throat for a second.
Rita had also watched over Latina all this time, as a guardian. And as a woman herself and the mother of two children, Rita was able to notice things that Dale and Kenneth couldn’t.
“A whole lot happened... so at least for now, I think it’s best not to change things too much. And I want Latina to be there when we decide on thin
gs like that, too.”
“That girl really does push herself too hard...” Rita said with a sigh, looking at Dale. Her expression showed clear concern.
“...Is it really best to just leave things up to the passage of time?”
“I’m not sure she has things all sorted out in her mind just yet... She was pushing herself the whole time during her visit ‘back home.’ It feels to me like she’s only just now gotten a chance to relax.”
Dale felt that even though her sister was now its ruler, Vassilios wasn’t a place she was especially comfortable staying in, especially seeing how she had once been exiled from there.
She had also really strained herself in order to be as little of a hindrance as possible.
She really did look relieved ever since returning to Kreuz and their everyday lives there. Dale didn’t feel like she would welcome another sudden change in environment.
At the same time, Latina also felt more than a little responsible for Dale’s cruel annihilation of the demon lords, leading to some emotional instability. Dale wasn’t especially aware of that, though.
Ever since he was young, Dale made a clear distinction between his “work” and the rest of his life. If not for that, he would have fallen apart long ago.
However, Latina couldn’t do that. Unlike Chrysos, in her position with so many responsibilities, there wasn’t anything she could do about things right now.
And so, she swallowed her feelings of wanting to atone, knowing all the while that she would eventually have to find a way to do so.
Latina insisted on sticking to her normal everyday life as part of her quest to bring some stability to the whirlwind of emotions in her heart.
Dale may have had his hidden deplorable bits about him, but he actually did have more reasons behind his current vacation than just his economic status.
First off, now that he’d eliminated the Demon Lords of Calamity, there were no more enemies left that he needed to fight. So for the time being, Dale wouldn’t be getting any work as a hero.
Another big reason was the fact that his basic abilities had been so greatly elevated by him becoming a demon.