06: We Arrived at the Enemy Stronghold! …Or So I Thought, but—YUUUM!

Following the skeletons’ scent, we plunge deeper into the dark forest.

“Grwl! (My king, the scent is getting stronger! Our enemy is just ahead!)”

“Woof, woof? (Whoa, already? All right, everyone, if the opponent looks way too dangerous, we’re gonna run for it, so get ready.)”

“Grw, grwl! (Your Majesty! We Fen Wolves are not so weak that we would flee before our enemy! Order us as you will!)”

Ah, looks like Bal is here, too.

He’s running alongside Garo like a watchdog, and he growls a forceful response.

“Arwf… (Yeah, I’m sure there’s only one weakling here…)”

Hi, my name’s Routa. I’m a coward who would like to flee.

My mutters are caught in the wind and aren’t heard by the other wolves.

I might secretly wish that they had heard me.

I don’t think I have the strength to live up to their expectations.

“Grwl! (Over there, my king!)”

As we pop out of the thicket, a regular grassy plain lies ahead of us.

“Gr-grwl…? (Wh-what…?)”

It’s just a regular meadow. With not a soul in it.

I had psyched myself up, thinking the enemy would be waiting for us. What a letdown.

Is this really the source of the scent? The Fen Wolves are running around confused, noses pressed to the ground, sniffing for the scent.

“Squeak. (Hmm, there’s something peculiar about this place.)”

Len lets out a puzzled moan.

“Arwf? (What do you mean, ‘peculiar’? It looks completely normal.)”

“Squee, squee. (There are signs of something that we can’t see. An illusion, perhaps…?)”

Our opponent is one of the Demon Lord’s generals, so he can’t be any ordinary foe.

There’s a chance the enemy is setting a trap for us. It would be dangerous to stay here for too long.

It might be better to pull back for now.

“Oh my, what took you so long?”

Everyone turns at once toward the unexpected voice.

“Grwl! (Who’s there?! Identify yourself!)”

Garo growls at a figure standing in the middle of the field wearing a wide-brimmed witch’s hat.

“Arwf? (‘Identify yourself’? That’s Hecate.)”

She always shows up out of the blue; I’m kind of getting used to it.

Sometimes she’s the family doctor, sometimes the wise witch of the forest. But her true form is that of the alcoholic elf Hecate Luluarus.

“Grr…… (The suspicious witch… Were it not for our king’s orders, you’d be dead……)”

“Arwf. (Stop it. You live in the same forest—try to get along. C’mon.)”

“Whimper…… (Y-yes, sir……)”

Garo pulls back her fangs, and we head over to Hecate.

“Arwf. (Hey there, Hecate, I haven’t seen you lately. You been busy?)”

Nahura said Hecate’s been cooped up in her workshop recently. Maybe she’s done with whatever it was.

“Same as always, eh, Routa? You don’t know the meaning of the word suspicious, do you? You really are a great catch.”

I have no idea what she’s trying to say.

Is it really so odd to greet a friend you haven’t seen in a while?

I don’t understand what I’ve done that’s got her looking so happy.

“Arwf, arwf? (If you’re here, I assume you already know what’s going on?)”

“Oh, I suppose. I figured you’d have trouble somewhere around here, so I was waiting for you.”

And again she seems to know everything, almost like she’s seen the future.

“Squeak! (Hey now, stop with the grandstanding. We need to get this done before morning! If you know something, tell us already!)”

“Don’t be impatient. You can’t find the place you’re looking for because you’re not looking deep enough.”

Deep. What does she mean by “deep”? Is she trying to say we should be looking underground?

“More precisely, you need to look beyond our dimensional boundaries. If you search normally, you will never find it. Perhaps it might be easier to understand if I say that you’re in the right place, but the wrong world.”

“Squee… (Another dimension…? I don’t know all that much about that branch of magic. Perhaps that’s why I couldn’t see through it…)”

“Mew. (Miss Len, you always go for the brute force approach, don’t you? The magic you’ve learned seems biased toward attack magic skills.)”

“S-squeak! (Wh-what are you saying?! I know other magics, like my transformation magic! That’s a high-level spell, to boot!)”

“M-meow! (Th-that’s some reaction.)”

Thinking about how weird it is for a cat to be bullied by a mouse, I get back on track and ask for more of an explanation.

“Woof, woof. (Okay, I understand the alternate-dimension thing. But how do we break through?)”

“I could cast a spell that would do the trick, but it will take some time.”

“Arwf. (That’s no good. We’ve got to be back before morning.)”

I don’t want my lady to be lonely.

“Well then, we’ll have to use force to break through. If we hit the boundary with enough magical power, we’ll drag your foe to our realm. And among us, the magical attack with that much power would be…”

At that everyone turns to look at me.

It’s gotta be me.

Time for another vomit beam.

“They are late…! Why has no one returned…?!”

The Lich, Ruler of the Dead, is becoming impatient.

Unaware that the trusted skeleton warriors he dispatched have been crushed to dust, he grinds his bony finger against the armrest of his stone throne.

“There is no possible way that that many of my soldiers were completely destroyed… That’s impossible… Only the Hero is capable of such a feat.”

Coming to a sudden realization, the Lich looks up with a shocked expression.

“It cannot be! Has the Hero been reborn?! No. This is not the time to be searching for my Nightmare. I need to move our location before he discovers this graveyard…”

This graveyard is the source of the Lich’s power and the resting place of countless skeleton soldiers.

He hid it behind a dimensional barrier as well as underground with the intent that no one would ever find it.

So long as the Lich resides within this graveyard, he has the ability to summon a limitless army of the undead.

This graveyard is a pivotal location for creating soldiers for the coming invasion of the human world. So it must be defended until the Demon Lord is resurrected.

There isn’t a moment to lose. The Hero appears to have been reborn, and so this graveyard must be moved before he discovers it.

“I—I must hurry…!”

The Lich raises his staff, but as he begins the ritual to transfer the graveyard’s location, a crack splits the gloomy sky.

“Wh-what in the—?”

There is no ritual to invade this realm of the undead. What kind of magical power are they attacking with?

But before the Lich can process this thought, a beam of light bursts from the sky and pierces his giant body.

“Awoooooooooooooooooooooooooo!! (Here I coooooooome!!)”

At Hecate’s instructions, I fire a vomit beam straight down in the middle of the field.

The beam of light punches through the ground, the soil, the bedrock, and then continues on downward past that.

Is this really okay? I know I’m the culprit, but still.

What if it starts spouting a hot spring or lava or something?

I look around to see the field now has a crack in it and light is peeking through.

And with the way the ground’s starting to shake a bit, should I really keep firing this thing?

I’m getting worried, but the moment I glance over at Hecate, the ground breaks open with a sound like glass shattering.

“A-arwffff?! (Wh-whaaaaat?!)”

The moment I realize the ground has broken out from under me, I am met by the sensation of weightlessness.

Directly under the meadow wasn’t earth, but sky.

We all fall into the purple-clouded sky.

“G-grwl—?! (Wh-what the—?!)”

“Wh-whinnnnyyy! (E-eeeek!)”

“M-mrooooooow?! (W-we’re falling?!)”

“S-squeeeeeeeak! (D-darling! Do somethiiiing!)”

“Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrwf! (You do something! You’re the dragon! You can flyyyyyy!)”

So is this what parallel worlds are like?

I never thought it would just be a secondary space like this.

We are tossed into the air without a moment to even react, falling head over heels.

And the ground is rushing toward us.

My stomach is clenching, and I feel like I’m about to wet myself.

“All right, everyone, get it together.”

Hecate, falling along with us, has one hand holding down her skirt while the other waves her staff.

“A-arwf… (Wh-whoa…)”

Everyone’s falling speed immediately slows.

Oh, right, levitation magic.

“Squeak… (Y-you saved us…)”

“Meow. (I never doubted you, Mistress.)”

“Grwwl… (Tch, to be in debt to a witch. Disgraceful…!)”

“Whinny! Whinny! (I don’t want to fall! I don’t want to faaaaall!)”

But we’ve already landed.

Mare’s still panicking, even though our feet are on the ground.

“Arwf…? (So this is our foe’s home turf, huh…?)”

It’s an ominous place.

A thick mist hangs in the stagnant air.

A number of tombstones are scattered about the landscape. An unthinkable number of tombstones.

“Arwf… (Ugh… Something stinks around here…)”

It smells like a drainage ditch.

An unbearable stench for such a delicate, sheltered pet as myself.

“This would be miasma. It would rot away the lungs of ordinary folk, but you all should be fine. Though with this horrid smell of dead flesh, I truly would prefer not to tarry.”

Yeah, no kidding. I don’t want to take this stench home with me, or Lady Mary will tell me I smell bad.

“Arwf! (Okay, everyone! Let’s wrap this up and head home!)”

“Ar-ar-arooo! (Your wish is our command!)”

From across the expanse of this endless graveyard come the howling replies of the Fen Wolves.

“…Squeak? (…And? Where’s our enemy?)”

“…Arwf? (…Huh?)”

There’s no one here.

Where’d they go?

“Meow. (Routa, it looks like the hole you carved out is over there.)”

There’s a giant hole bored into the ground where Nahura is pointing.

It looks like it might have been a small hill before a giant beam of light crashed into it and dug out a giant crater.

We form a circle around it and peek inside.

“You don’t suppose the enemy leader had the bad fortune to be standing there, do you?”

“Arwf, arwf… (Ha-ha-ha, not a chance…)”

There’s no way something that crazy could have happened.

No one’s luck is that bad…

……right?

But there is no other sign of an enemy in the area. The graveyard is quiet.

“Squeak, squeak! (Fwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! You destroyed him before he could do anything! You really are the strongest, my darling!)”

“Grwl…! (You’ve done it, my king…!)”

“““Ar-ar-aroooo! (Our king is the strongest!)”””

Len leads the pack in cheering our victory.

Sorry, everyone, I think it might be too early to celebrate. I don’t think it’s going to be that easy.

My warning lights, I mean Fenrir senses, are tingling, telling me that something weird is going on.

And they’re pointing right at the center of this massive crater.

“I think this joy may be a little presumptuous.”

“Arwf. (Yep. Thought so.)”

I hear clattering noises coming from the hole.

The figure runs up the side of the crater and leaps from the top.

“Heh, heh-heh-heh… So you have come here before me… And to have the ability to wipe me out in an instant…”

The figure that appears is a monstrous skeleton.

It looks like the flesh has been stripped from a giant, with a huge skull towering above.

“To destroy my barrier and to make it to this graveyard—I am impressed… But that will be the end of your achievements…”

Skeletal fingers grip a staff, and a robe appears, covering the figure.

Our enemy’s revival takes but an instant.

“I am the Lich, Ruler of the Dead. The Apostle of Decay, leader of the undead army! As one of the Five Generals of the Demon Lord’s army, I work to sow confusion. Do not think it so easy to defeat—”

“Arooof!! (First Strike Beam!!)”

A beam of light smashes the Lich dead-on and obliterates him.

“Arwf. (That’ll do it.)”

There we go.

“Th-that will do nothing…! How dare you attack me while I do my introduction…! Have you no honor? No desire to fight a fair fight…?!”

Nope.

As they say, it’s a dog-eat-dog world out there. And I’m a dog. So I’m going to eat you. Omnomnom.

That said, this guy sure is tenacious. Not that I thought I had actually won with only that.

I was fairly confident I blew him away completely, but, like last time, the Lich’s body is quick to re-form.

“That power so easily penetrates my defensive barriers… It cannot be…the ultimate destruction magic…?! But if you can wield such powerful magics, exactly who in the underworld are you…?!

“Woof! (I’m a pet!)”

“A-a pet…? What is a pet doing here…?”

That’s what I’d like to know.

I should be lazing about the mansion living the pampered pooch life, but instead I’m here fighting the Demon Lord’s army.

“Whatever you are, this is my territory! My domain! No matter how many times you attack, it is impossible to defeat me here in this land!”

Spreading both arms to flaunt his immortal body, the Lich boasts of his victory.

“Regret that you ever set foot within my graveyard!”

The Lich waves his staff, and the ground beneath the graves begins to bulge as an army of the undead begins to rise.

“Arwf?! (Whoa, so this is where those guys came from?!)”

Damn, there’s a lot of them.

Probably even more than came to attack the fields.

And they won’t die until the magic runs out, right?

Which means, seeing as this is their home field, with limitless magical power, they’ll keep regenerating forever.

…Shoot, is this checkmate?

“Grwl! Grwl! (Do not falter! Maintain ranks! Protect the king!)”

At Garo’s command, the wolves take formation and kill the skeletons with a beautiful combination attack, but the skeletons quickly revive.

The agile Fen Wolves skillfully dodge the skeletons’ counterattack, but unlike our foe, we’ll eventually run out of stamina.

It’s only a matter of time before our movement slows and they defeat us. The longer time goes on, the more disadvantaged we’ll be.

“GROOOOOAR!! (Get off of me!! Infuriating creatures!)”

Len has transformed back to dragon form and is using her entire body to crush the skeletons. But given how many of them there are, her efforts are a drop in the bucket.

“GROOOOOOOAR! (I’ll burn you all at once!)”

Her fiery breath immolates the skeletons around her, but they just re-form from the ashes. We’re just buying time at this point.

“Meow?! (O-ow! Was that a cinder?! Lady Len, please do that over there!)”

Nahura, with her nonexistent fighting abilities, is fighting against the flying sparks.

What is she even trying to do…?

“Ho-ho, when you first broke into my kingdom, I wondered about who you might be, but now I see that you have no connection to the Hero…”

The Lich, standing opposite me, mutters to himself in apparent relief.

What’s this “Hero” he’s talking about?

I mean, there was the one in that book that my lady read to me.

The Legendary Hero Routa, the one with the same name as I.

So if one of the Demon Lord’s generals isn’t just a fairy tale and actually exists, does that mean that the other generals and the Demon Lord exist as well?

And if so, wouldn’t that mean that the Hero this guy is so afraid of could also be in this time?

“Arwf? (So there should be a Hero, right?)”

If you exist, Hero, come on out! The guy you’re supposed to defeat is right here! Why is a pet like me fighting?!

This is a serious dereliction of duty.

“You are unworthy enemies without the Hero. After you’re killed, I shall resurrect you and add you to my undead army!”

No thank you.

I creep away from the Lich and his maniacal laughter.

“N-neigh! (W-wait!)”

The cowardly Mare jumps in front of me.

“Well, if it isn’t my Nightmare. I did not recognize you in this new form. So you have returned.”

“Whinny! (Please tell me! Who am I?! Why can’t I remember anything?!)”

The Lich stills before Mare’s pleas.

After a short moment, his skull begins to shake and rattle.

“Ho-ho, ho-ho-ho-ho. What do you think you’re saying? Of course you cannot remember your past. You are merely an evil spirit that I created. A spiritual warhorse that I formed by mixing the ashes of a saint and the bodies of two beasts before laying a curse upon them. That is what you are.”

It’s as she predicted: Mare used to work with these guys. And it looks like she’s a spirit created by the Lich as well.

“Wh-whinny…? (I-I’m, I’m no one…?)”

“Unfortunately, after I had finished making you, the Hero sealed us away. It is not that you cannot remember anything, but that there is nothing to remember. Well, I would have figured you would at least remember the face of your creator, but I suppose if you forgot the only thing you ever knew, then making you was not worth the effort.”

The Lich puts his hand to Mare’s forehead as though grieving.

“Neigh… (I’m… I’m…)”

At learning the truth, Mare backs away, flustered.

“You have caused me a lot of anguish, but now you are finally back. Yet with that timid personality, you are not suited to being the Demon Lord’s warhorse. I shall have to erase your current memories and plant new ones that will give you a more evil, ferocious personality.”

“Wh-whinny…! (No… I don’t want that…! I don’t want to forget everyone…!)”

“Do not be unreasonable. If you want them, I will be adding them to my army after I deal with them here.”

A giant, bony hand reaches out to capture Mare.

“Whinny…! (I don’t…!)”

My destructive magic blows apart the arm reaching for Mare.

“…You have yet to give up?”

The destroyed arm repairs itself in an instant, and the Lich glares at me with eyeless sockets.

Whoa, I think that pissed him off. That’s super-scary. I think I’m gonna wet myself.

But I’m still going to say what I have to say.

“Arwf, arwf. (That had nothing to do with giving up or not. Mare’s our family. And if you think you can just take her, then we’ve got a problem.)”

“Were you not listening? That horse was originally part of the Demon Lord’s army. It is a tool that I created and gave life to. It is different from a monster like yourself. And yet you claim it to be family?”

“Woof. (That’s right.)”

I think of everyone here with me as family in some way or another.

And it looks like we’re all still standing.

You say that Mare is actually supposed to be the Demon Lord’s horse? So what?

“Why do you refuse to give up my Nightmare? Are you looking for battle strength? Do you want to take over this world in the place of the Demon Lord?”

“Arwf. (Ha, you’re thinking way too small. You think shallow ambition like that would satisfy me? Okay, I’ll tell you. Listen up. What I want is—)”

Cutting off my words, I draw in the largest breath I can.

“AWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! (I want to eat and sleep and not work and be loved every day and in order for that I need Mare because she’s essential to doing all the heavy lifting around the house in place of meeeeeeeeeeee!!)”

Phew, feels good to get that out.

The Lich is swallowed by a wave of light.

But then immediately starts to revive—again.

“Wh-which is the more shallow ambition?! You desire my finest creation just to make it your pack horse?! Surely you jest! I am appalled by your complete lack of ambition!!”

Rude.

That’s my greatest desire.

Without Mare, my happy-go-lucky pet life is going to face some serious hardships.

Not to mention how sad old man James will be if she disappears, and Zenobia, and Lady Mary, and Elusive and Grace, and everyone else at the mansion.

I’d rather not have that heavy rain cloud hanging over my pampered pooch life, thanks.

“Arwf, arwf! (What I’m saying is, Mare! Don’t give up! Let’s defeat this skeleton guy and go home! It’s time to make your choice!)”

“N-neigh… (R-Routa…)”

“Your positivity is wonderful, but haven’t you forgotten something? Your magic cannot defeat me…!”

The Lich, who has finished regenerating, renews his attack.

“Awooooooo! Awooooooo! (I’ll just keep on attacking! Mouth beam! Mouth beam!)”

“Ho-ho-ho, it is pointless, pointless! My magic is limitless here. Even with the ultimate destructive magic, you cannot destroy me!”

The back-and-forth struggle between destruction and rebirth collapses, and the Lich suddenly manages to grab ahold of me.

“Arwfgh…! (Urk, wait, time out…!)”

It doesn’t do any damage, but I can’t budge even an inch. He’s seriously strong for being nothing but bones.

The Lich lifts me up, suspending me in midair.

Now what do I do? Stuck like this, I can’t move anything but my head.

I wonder if he’d accept my surrender at this point.

“You seem troubled, Routa.”

Hecate’s voice comes from somewhere below me.

Even in a pinch like this, she still doesn’t lose her cool.

While I, on the other hand, am freaking out. I’m already starting to pee a little.

“Arwf! Arwf! (Yeah, just a bit! Or maybe a lot! We’re kind of running out of options here!)”

You got any good ideas? I’d like an amazing plan to defeat this guy, please.

“Well then, how about I give you a hint.”

Hecate lifts her index finger like she’s giving a lecture.

“Routa, did you enjoy that boar you ate yesterday?”

“Arwf?! (What?!)”

It was delicious. Raw, to be sure, but delicious nonetheless.

But what does that have to do with this situation?

“And did you leave any leftovers?”

“Arwf— (No, we ate it all! Every last bite! To the last delicious bone—)”

Bone?

Oh, right, we ate the bones.

And these guys are made of bones.

The boar bones were delicious.

Which means these guys, who are made of bones, should also be delicious.

The science checks out.

“And if they’re inside the stomach of the strong-bodied Fen Wolves, their magic should be nullified. And without magic, they can’t regenerate.”

You don’t need to spell it out, Hecate. I got it.

“Just what are you talking about? It is no use trying anything. I shall crush you in my grasp—”

I cut the Lich short by opening wide and eating one of his fingers.

“Gwa?!”

Whether from pain or from a burgeoning sense of something being off, the Lich drops me.

Back on the ground, I crunch through my bite.

“Crunch munch crunch!! (The texture, this explosive flavor… This guy…is delicious!!)”

“What?! Y-you ate me…?!”

The Lich stares at his hand with shock.

The finger isn’t regenerating.

Looks like Hecate was right on the money.

“Woof! Woof! Woof! (Hey, everyone! I figured out how to defeat these guys! It’s easy! Just eat them! Like we’re always doing! Easy, right?!)”

And after all this fighting, we should all be starving.

These guys aren’t our enemies.

They’re our food.

At my words, the eyes of the Fen Wolves light up.

“““Drool? (Food?)”””

The emotionless skeletons feel their first inklings of fear.

Exactly. Look at you all, spread out before us.

It’s a feast, isn’t it?

Faced with the likes of us, our prey can only say one thing.

“D-do not come any closer…! Stay away…!”

We slowly stalk the skeletons and encircle them.

And then our mouths open wide.

“Grrrruff!! (It’s dinner tiiiiiiiiiiiime!!)”

“““Awoooooo!! (Dinnerrrrrrrrrrr!!)”””

“N-nooooooooooooooooooooo!!”

The tide turns in an instant.

With me at the head of the pack, the Fen Wolves dive into the skeleton forces and begin devouring their bones.

Snap, snap. Crunch munch. Gulp.

Man, these magic-steeped bones are something else. It’s kind of surprising.

The first bite has this kind of musty, stale flavor, but then they turn completely irresistible.

And now for a quick report on the food situation. Everyone’s stomach is distended, the skeleton soldiers are completely destroyed, and the Lich, the source of their magic, has only half his skull remaining.

“This cannot be… How can such a ridiculous fighting method defeat one such as myself…?!”

“Arwf. (You all were delicious. Thanks for that.)”

My thanks are the tipping point for the Lich’s rage.

And yet his powers refuse to manifest, his magic disperses, and what remains of his skull begins to crumble.

“Arwf, arwf? (Probably pointless to ask now, but just who are you guys? I figured you were just fairy-tale characters, but here you are, so does that mean there’s actually a Demon Lord as well?)”

He said something about a Hero, and I’d really like to avoid more disturbances back home.

So along those lines, how about we just leave me out of whatever’s going on?

“Ho-ho-ho-ho, you were after my Nightmare, were you not? And you’re sure you want to waste your time asking a question such as that?”

“Arwf? (Huh? If you’re talking about Mare, she’s still here. And don’t worry, we’ll be taking her back home with us.)”

“Ho-ho, with my power I can command any of the undead. And that includes that Nightmare… If I am to be defeated, I shall be taking it with me…!”

“Squeak?! (What did you just say…?!)”

“Mew?! (He can’t…?!)”

Spinning around, we see Mare’s body start to disappear.

“Ho-ho-ho, to cause you anguish satisfies me…! I shall see you on the other side, Nightmare…!”

And with these final words, what remains of the Lich crumbles away.

Leaving behind a dead silence and a fading Mare.

“Neigh… (It looks like I’m fading away again…)”

Mare sounds sad but content.

“Whinny… (Everyone, our time together may have been short, but thank you for looking out for me…)”

She bobs her head up and down in a facsimile of a bow.

“Neigh whinny… (And everyone at the mansion was so kind to me… Grandpa Elusive and Granny Grace took me in as family… I’ve never had a father or a mother, but it felt so warm and loving… It must have been what having a father and a mother is like… I’ll never get to see them again, but will you please let them know just how happy they made me…?)”

Mare’s body is almost completely see-through by this point.

She looks at me, tears falling from her eyes.

Of course, for such a wish, I—

“Arwf. (Um, nope.)”

I already have an answer.

“Whinny?! (Wh-what?!)”

“Arwf, arwf. (No way… What do you think you’re doing, disappearing like that? Didn’t I already tell you? You still have to pay us back for the food you stole.)”

“Whinny… (But I’m—I’m about to disappear…)”

Yeah, only if we let you go.

Now, if only there were some other source of magical power to keep your body preserved.

“Arwf! (Speaking of which, if you would, Hecate!)”

“Well, I figured you’d ask.”

Hecate lets out a seemingly troubled sigh, but it looks like she’s got it covered.

“We should be able to fix this by reconnecting the severed source of magical power to Routa. Routa’s store of magical power should be about equivalent to this graveyard, after all.”

“Arwf! (You’re amazing! I knew we could count on you, Hecate!)”

Can I give you a lick to show my thanks?

I’d be glad to just lick your feet.

Even until they get pruney.

“Okay then, here I go.”

With a wave of Hecate’s staff, Mare stops vanishing.

“Arwf. (It kind of feels like there’s some weird pull, but also not.)”

It’s like a part of my magic power that I’m not really conscious of is being pulled out of me.

And as if time were being rewound, Mare’s body starts to revert to how it was before.

“Wh-whinny…! (I—I can feel Routa’s warmth filling me up inside…!)”

Can you please not say it like that?

You’ve got a nice voice, but you’re still a horse, and that’s really not my thing.

Back to how she was before, Mare lets out an excited whinny.

“Whinny! (Routa, thank you! I really didn’t want to disappear! I wanted to stay here with everyone!)”

“Bark! (Well, that’s good to hear. So keep on working hard for the family, okay?)”

Which, in turn, will let me rest.

A perfect solution where everybody wins.

“Well then, I still have things that need attending to, so I’ll be leaving first.”

As she speaks, the ground lights up around Hecate. Teleportation magic.

“Arwf? (Hmm? You still have work to do?)”

“Magical disasters—have you forgotten?”

“Arwf… (Ah…)”

Oh, right. Whenever we cast too many spells in one location, that magical power builds up, and unless addressed, it can give birth to new monsters or disasters.

And this time we’ve got the bonus of all this miasma hanging about. If we don’t take care of it, the guild will send investigators again.

And I don’t want to deal with that hassle a second time.

Which is why it looks like Hecate is going to seal it all up once more.

“Arwf, arwf. (Sorry about all this, Hecate.)”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll merely take some of Gandolf’s liquor as payment.”

“A-arwf. (S-sure. Just be gentle, please.)”

Sorry, Papa. I can’t stop her.

I’m giving up your treasured alcohol to protect my pet life.

As the gleam from the ground grows in strength, the air between us and Hecate glows a blinding white.

“…That’s two down. Four to go… And then little Mary will be—”

Hecate mutters something as she lifts her staff, and we all vanish through her teleportation magic.