Return to the Mansion

  Refi smiled as she watched Philly leave.

  “We should let them talk for a while.”


  “Yes, that would be best.”


  “She can stay in the palace tonight and Eric will take her back tomorrow.”


  “Isn’t Eric busy?”


  “He is busy. But, isn’t he going to visit you anyway?”


  “.……He might.”


  Eric visited me quite often.

  So if he was just taking Philly back as a part of that, I guess it was alright.

  “I feel bad for taking him away so much.”


  “I don’t mind that, but……”


  “What?”


  “Eric. I think he is eating too much recently.”


  “Ohh……”


  This was about eating two meals in a row.

  “Locke, could you warn him as well?”


  “Alright. I’ll tell him.”


  “Thank you.”


  I said goodbye to the princesses and returned to the mansion.

  Grulf and Lord Gerberga came with me.

  “Cluck-cluck.”


  As we walked down the passage, Lord Gerberga hopped onto my shoulder and clucked happily.

  “Lord Gerberga, did you have a good time then?”


  “Cluck!”


  He flapped his wings.

  “I see. That’s great.”


  He had fun playing with the princesses.

  “Groof-groof!”


  Grulf was running excitedly in the passage.

  “And you, Grulf?”


  “Groof!”


  He barked and then jumped on me to lick my face.

  “I’m happy to hear it.”


  I said as I petted him.

  When we arrived at the mansion, Milka was waiting for us.

  Luchila was there too. Perhaps she had really missed Lord Gerberga.

  “Mister Locke, welcome back! Will you be having dinner?”


  “Yes, thank you.”


  “It’s my job!”


  Lord Gerberga jumped from my shoulder over to Luchila.

  “Cluck-cluck.”


  “How was it, Lord Gerberga?”


  “Cluck-cluck!”


  “That’s great!”


  Milka looked behind me and asked.

  “Huh? Where is Master Philly?”


  “She’s talking with her parents. She’ll be staying at the palace tonight.”


  “I see. So is Tama with her too?”


  “He is.”


  And then Milka and Luchila went to the kitchen to prepare the food.

  On the other hand, Grulf and I went to the drawing-room.

  Kathe and Dorgo were there.

  “Ah. You’re back, Locke!”


  “Good evening. Any news about the enemy base?”


  “Nothing I can say for certain.”


  “Oh?”


  So it wasn’t that they had no information at all.

  In other words, they had some information they were unsure of.

  As I wondered about this, Dorgo continued.

  “The enemy has cleverly erased their tracks……but we are narrowing down the possible locations by looking at the shifting monster population.”


  “You can tell by looking at that?”


  “The dark ones are mortal enemies of many monsters. With High Lords and the forces of the Most High King there, the monster population is bound to change greatly.”


  “The monsters become food for the dark ones.”


  They believed the population would go down because monsters would run away or be hunted down.

  “We also want to find out about the human population……”


  “But it’s difficult for us to find out.”


  I wasn’t sure about Dorgo, but Kathe couldn’t even tell the difference between humans and goblins.

  Besides, they would just scare everyone if they tried flying over a human settlement.

  “You should leave that to Eric.”


  As we talked about this, Grulf started to play with Kathe.

  He put his paws on her shoulders and licked her face.

  Kathe petted him happily.

  Then Serulis and Shia arrived.

  They were both covered in sweat. They had probably been training.

  “Shia, Serulis. Welcome back.”


  “Good evening!”


  “We’re back.”


  “Where is Nia?”


  “Nia was training with us too. But she went directly to go and help Milka.”


  “I hope she’s not too tired.”


  Even though she was an apprentice, surely she should be allowed to rest after practice.

  Nia was very serious about her training.

  And so I headed to the kitchen to take her place.

  It was just as I stood up that Serulis said hesitantly,

  “Um, Mister Locke. How did it go?”


  “The magic tool, you mean?”


  “Yes.”


  “We did a lot of research. But it will take a little more time…… But don’t worry, we’ll try to finish it soon.”


  “Thank you, Mister Locke.”


  Kathe tilted her head to the side.

  “Oh, yes. I heard from Milka that you went to the library today. Were you doing research on magic tools?”


  “We were. Philly and I went to the palace library.”


  Dorgo reacted to this.

  “Magic tools, eh? What kind?”


  “I wanted to make an accessory to raise mental resistance……”


  I explained to them that I wanted to make it for Serulis.

  “I see……”


  “Yes, Charm is very dangerous.”


  Dorgo thought for a while and then said,

  “A tool to raise mental resistance. Hmm. I may be able to help you with that.”


  “Really?”


  “We wind dragons are very good with alchemy. So we have books on it. Though, I am not sure if they will help you.”


  “Thank you!”


  And so it was decided that when Philly returned the next day, we would go to the wind dragon palace.