After The Battle
When I went out on the surface, there were many beastkin wolves gathered around.
Altogether, there must have been one hundred of them.
Goran was talking to them about dealing with the aftermath.
The beastkin wolves had rushed here after wiping out the enemies in the area.
I had destroyed the barrier with Meteor Strike.
And then I had killed all the enemies inside with Eric and the others.
However, as it was an ambush, we had not touched the surrounding area.
Eric said,
“It’s their main base. So there should, of course, be dark ones in the surrounding area. And so I asked them to sweep the area.”
“How many of them were out there?”
“There were ten evil dragons and two magic machines. There was also a band of about seventy vampires led by a lord.”
“That’s…quite a lot.”
The evil dragons were especially dangerous. As were the magic machines.
And seventy vampires could raise hell.
Just then, I saw that Danton Woolcott was rushing towards me.
Danton was Shia and Nia’s father.
“Danton. Are you alright?”
“Aye, I am fine.”
“He is actually not completely healed. He shouldn’t have been out today…”
“As a father, how could I stay when my daughters were fighting so hard?”
Danton was as stubborn as ever.
I was a little worried.
“Still, you beastfolk wolves sure are strong.”
“I am happy that you think so… But we were unable to stop the evil dragons from coming here.”
It had been their role to stop any enemies who would try and return to the base.
“It cannot be helped. The dragons can fly, after all. It is enough that you stopped the machines and vampires.”
“Yes. It was a great help.”
“It is the highest honor to hear you say so, Your Majesty.”
And then Danton turned to Shia.
“I hope you were able to be useful to Mister Locke and the others?”
“That was my intention.”
“Yes, Shia was a great help. As she always is.”
“Thank you for saying so, Mister Locke. And…where is Nia?”
“Nia is helping to protect the water dragon princess.”
“What… Can she handle such an important role?”
“I returned to the settlement once during the fight. She held her own admirably.”
“What a surprise…”
“Even I hadn’t expected her to…have grown so much.”
Danton heard this and smiled happily.
As we talked, the oldest of the beastkin chiefs walked up to us.
He bowed to Eric, who stood next to me.
“Your Majesty. To destroy the enemy’s barrier with meteors… I was shaken to my core.”
“Of course, you were.”
Eric said a little happily.
“I had assumed that a sorcerer would do something about it. But I imagined it would be to force it open.”
The old chief looked around him and then stopped at Dorgo.
“Was it you who cast that magic, Your Majesty?”
Dorgo was acquainted with the beastkin tribes.
As they were both in charge of watching the surrounding area, they had probably been introduced.
“It was not me.”
“I see. I was thinking that such great magic could only be done by a dragon within the royal family…”
“Oh, even for us royal dragons, such magic would be very difficult…”
Dorgo said with a chuckle.
Then the old chief looked at me.
“Could it be you who summoned the meteors?”
As Dorgo had denied it, I was the next likely person.
Aside from the beastkin, the only people here were Eric, Goran, Serulis, and Dorgo.
Well, Grulf was here too, but he didn’t look like he could summon meteors.
And everyone knew that Eric and Goran were not sorcerers.
Serulis had traveled with the beastkin recently and was known to be a warrior.
And so if it wasn’t Dorgo, than it had to be me.
Shia and Danton looked at me worriedly.
They knew that I wanted to keep my identity secret.
“Yes, that’s right. I hope that the shock waves did not cause any trouble for you…”
“Oh, not at all. The summoning of the meteors made our job much easier. It reduced casualties for us.”
“That’s good to hear…”
“You would have lost your advantage had you taken time to force your way into the barrier. They would have been able to prepare to meet you.”
As I talked with the old chief, about ten other chiefs gathered around.
And then the old chief bowed once again.
“Thank you. You made good use of the information that we risked our lives to acquire.”
“Don’t mention it. It was thanks to your bravery that we were able to attack them.”
Eric said.
“Indeed. Locke’s magic would not have been much use if he didn’t know where to use it.”
Then one of the younger chiefs spoke up in a hesitant voice.
“Please correct me if I’m wrong, but could you be the Great Philosopher, Our Saviour, Grand High Sorcerer Ruck?”
At this, the rest of the beastkin wolves became excited.