As Milka had called us, we all went to the dining room.

  Eric and Goran were waiting for us there.

  Both of them had been drinking before the sun had even gone down.

  “Locke, you’re awake!”


  “Were you tired? Maybe it means you just look young, but you’re really the same as us inside!”


  Goran said a little too happily.

  “Not sure what I should say to that.”


  Eric and Goran had also returned in the morning and taken a short rest before going about their days work.

  And then they came to visit me when they were done. It was very impressive.

  “Have you been drinking a lot?”


  “No, not much.”


  “Lightly. Very lightly. Just like we would drink water.”


  Eric and Goran looked a little red.

  They were at least a little drunk.

  Serulis looked worried.

  “Daddy, I wish you wouldn’t drink so much.”


  “Bah, don’t worry.”


  “And you still have to eat your dinner.”


  “Ah, I know. Sorry.”


  Drinking during the day was not exactly a praiseworthy thing, I guess.

  However, Eric was the king and Goran was the guild master of the Adventurer’s guild.

  Their work was very stressful. So I didn’t see why they shouldn’t relax like this once in a while.

  “Dinner, huh? How exciting.”


  “You can sit down, Kathe.”


  “I know.”


  I went to help Milka and the others.

  When there were a lot of people like there was today, you needed more people to carry the food.

  After that, we all sat down at the table.

  Food had also been prepared for Lord Gerberga, Tama and Grulf.

  “You can eat now.”


  I had said, but they did not start to eat.

  “Cluck.”


  Lord Gerberga was staring at me.

  Maybe he was thinking that my food looked better than his.

  In any case, I decided to start eating my own food.

  “Cluck.”


  Lord Gerberga said. Then he began to eat too.

  And he ate incredibly fast.

  Lord Gerberga’s food was actually quite similar to ours, but with more vegetables.

  He was able to eat the same types of food because he was the God Fowl.

  “Woof.”


  Tama started eating too.

  Tama ate raw meat and boiled potatoes. He looked to be enjoying it.

  “Groof.”


  Grulf saw that the others were eating and started to eat too.

  Being a spirit beast meant that he could eat human food as well.

  However, tonight he had the same food as Tama.

  It was kind of interesting seeing the smaller ones eat first.

  Maybe they had their own ranking.

  “This is very, very delicious.”


  “I-is it really?”


  “Yes. Milka. You must be a genius chef!”


  Kathe announced.

  The food was perfectly average, but Kathe had taken a strong liking to it.

  Which was good.

  While we ate, Kathe said,

  “About the Ancient Ruins Protection Committee, do you have any requests?”


  “What do you mean?”


  The Committee was the name of the alliance between the dragons and the kingdom of Mendilibar. Well, it was a secret alliance, anyway. We could not make it public, and this was just a temporary name.

  It wasn’t so much an alliance but a committee for the dragons and the kingdom to work together against the dark ones.

  “Of course, I mean offices.”


  “I think you should do as you like. What about you, Eric?”


  “Aye, I will leave it to Kathe.”


  “I see. Then I will take care of everything!”


  We knew what we had to do and who was a part of it. Creating offices was not really important.

  Kathe could call herself the chairperson if she really wanted.

  “By the way, Kathe. Is it alright that you didn’t check the other ruins today?”


  “But I did? It was around midday.”


  That was just as I was sleeping.

  “So was everything alright today?”


  “Yes. I use this magic tool.”


  So saying, Kathe put a large bracelet on top of the table.

  “This tells me if anyone has been caught by the intruder detection magic that I cast.”


  “Ah, how useful.”


  “Yes. And it did not react at all today. And I did not see anything particularly strange from above, either.”


  I had a look at the bracelet.

  It looked quite well-made.

  “Did you cast magic onto this yourself?”


  “That I did.”


  Kathe looked very clumsy, but was actually good with magic.

  “Groof.”


  “Woof.”


  The two canines had barked quietly, and so I turned to look.

  Grulf had put some of his share of raw meat into Tama’s plate.

  Grulf was worried about how thin Tama was.

  Tama licked Grulf gratefully and then returned the meat to Grulf’s plate.

  “Grrr.”


  “Woof.”


  Neither wanted to back down.

  “Neither of you need to worry. There’s plenty of food left.”


  “Groof.”


  “Woof.”


  Grulf seemed to be satisfied with this, and returned to eating all of his meat.

  “Are you full, Tama?”


  “Woof.”


  “I am slowly increasing the amount of food that I give him. But he still doesn’t eat much.”


  Philly sounded worried.

  “As long as he isn’t eating less. He would just get indigestion if he forces himself to eat.”


  “Yes. Tama, you let me know if you’re hungry, okay?”


  “Woof.”


  By then, Lord Gerberga had finished his food and was riding on Grulf’s back.