Dealing with the Aftermath
After the Great Dragon Kathe flew off, Nia sat down weakly.
She must have been on edge this whole time.
On close inspection, her tail was clenched tightly between her legs.
I patted her on the head.
“You kept your cool very well. Good job.”
“Thank you. But I can’t even stand now.”
“You’re just relieved that the dragon is gone now. It can’t be helped.”
She had at least abstained from putting her tail between her legs until Kathe went away.
That was some nerve, considering she had encountered a Great Dragon on her first mission.
Shia hugged her tightly.
“Nia. You did wonderfully.”
“Oh, thank you, sister.”
“Yes-yes. You’re just like your older sister, Nia.”
As we all praised Nia, Grulf began to run in a circle around me.
His tail, which had been between his legs a moment ago, was now wagging vigorously.
He was suddenly very energetic now that Kathe was gone.
Grulf looked at me with pure expectation.
However, I felt a bit of a dilemma about whether or not I should praise him.
Grulf had been hiding in my shadow the whole time.
That wasn’t exactly something praise-worthy.
However, he hadn’t cried or run away either.
And perhaps that was as much as I should expect from a wolf pup.
“Grulf, you did well too. I’m glad that you didn’t run away.”
“Groof!”
As I petted him, he puffed out his chest proudly. And then he wagged his tail even more.
As I petted Grulf for a while, Nia was finally able to stand on her feet again.
She slowly got up.
“Are you fine already?”
“Yes. I’m sorry that you had to see something so pathetic.”
“No, don’t worry about it.”
“Thank you.”
Nia said with a smile.
“As we just won a great victory, we must give a cry of triumph!”
“Cry of triumph?”
“Yes! It is a custom in our tribe to do it after a great victory.”
“I see.”
“Yes! It is a very important custom. Do you mind if we do it?”
“I don’t mind.”
And so Nia took in a deep breath. And then shouted very loudly.
“Ruff-ruff!”
I heard this shout before.
The beastkin wolves had shouted this after winning the battle against the Vampire High Lords.
So it was actually an important tradition for them.
After shouting to her heart’s content, Nia stopped to look at Shia.
“Sister? Why aren’t you shouting too?”
“Um, it’s just that…the timing is very difficult.”
Shia said as she fidgeted.
Now that I think of it, I only saw her doing it once.
It was after defeating the High Lord.
Maybe she felt embarrassed.
“Sister, let’s do it together.”
“Uh, but…”
“We have to do it after defeating a powerful foe.”
“But it was Mister Locke who defeated the dragon…”
Shia said modestly.
“Shia. This is a victory for the whole party.”
“Is-is that so.”
“Alright sister, let’s do it together!”
“OOOOOO! Ruff-ruff!”
“AWWOOOO!”
Grulf also added his howl to Shia and Nia’s voices.
When they were done, Grulf looked at me smugly.
Shia and Nia also looked somewhat refreshed.
As they enjoyed the sensation of having shouted, Serulis looked towards the cave.
“Concealment magic is amazing. I can’t even tell where the cave is anymore.”
“A good Sorcerer will still be able to find it, but a Warrior might have trouble.”
“I suppose so. Oh, we haven’t dealt with the goblin bodies yet.”
“They burned up by the dragon breath.”
“Oh, right… It’s a good thing we collected the magic stones first.”
Had we not done that, the mission would have ended in a failure.
“Well, let’s go back then.”
“We are freed from the work of dealing with the bodies!”
“It’s nice and easy.”
And so we all started to walk towards the capital.
After walking for some time, Nia came up next to me.
“Mister Locke! Mister Locke, are you a Magic Warrior? They say that you are the strongest F-Rank Warrior.”
“So you haven’t told her, Shia?”
“Yes. I didn’t think I should tell anyone your secret without your permission.”
Shia was a very serious girl.
“I see. Thank you.”
“No! It’s the obvious thing to do.”
Shia’s tail wagged happily.
And so I turned to Nia and said,
“I’m registered as a Warrior at the guild, but my real job is a Sorcerer.”
“Really! But it’s amazing that you were able to control the dragon like that!”
Nia’s eyes were bright. I felt as if she had immense respect for me.
“Mister Locke is the strongest Sorcerer.”
Serulis said proudly for some unknown reason.
“Was this not the first time you’ve fought against a dragon, Mister Locke?”
“Yes. I have beaten dragons before.”
“How many have you beaten?”
“Hmmm. I have beaten three of them solo. And as a party, I would say around ten. But there are even more that we forced to surrender, like today.”
Stronger dragons tended to be intelligent. You could talk to them.
And so it was quite common to find a solution through talking, once you have shown your power.
And through the information network of the dragons, things tended to head in a positive direction over all.
“That’s amazing!”
Nia’s respect seemed to deepen.
“It really is.”
“Yes.”
“Groof.”
Serulis, Shia and Grulf all looked at me with admiration.
