The Strongest Wizard Becomes a Countryside Guardsman After Taking an Arrow to the Knee

Chapter 72 – Return to Mulg

I burned the body of the ancient dragon away and said a prayer.

I think you have to respect a dragon that would venture to a faraway place to die in order to protect an egg.

Vi-Vi, Femm, and Moofy all stood silently.

At the end of that moment of silence, Vi-Vi and the others came to look at the egg.

「Hm. So this is an ancient dragon’s egg.」

『It’s very small compared to the size of an ancient dragon.』

「Moo Moo」

I had made my promise to the dragon. I had to return with the egg and protect it.

「Except for the size, it’s no different than a chicken egg.」

「You can’t break it easily?」

「That’s what the dragon said.」

But there was no reason to be rough with it.

It was the child of an ancient dragon.

『You should put it in your magic bag.』

「I would if I could.」

『Can’t you? I think you put eggs in there before!』

When we bought several things in the town, I had put eggs into the bag.

Maybe Femm was talking about that.

「You can’t put living things in a magic bag.」

「Rarf?」

「Those eggs I put in were infertile, right?」

「Wuff?」

Femm didn’t know the difference between fertile and infertile eggs.

Eggs were just food for wolves. I guess they never needed to learn that difference.

I explained the difference to Femm.

『I see!』

「Moo Moo」

Both Femm and Moofy looked at me, fascinated.

「We’ll have to take it home in hand. Femm, could you take it easy on the way back?」

『Okay. I’ll be careful not to shake it too much.』

「Thanks.」

We all headed home.

We progressed pretty easily as there were no magic beasts on the way.

It was tiring having to hold it for so long, so I wrapped it against my chest with some fabric.

We camped once on the way and the next day we arrived at the wolves’ territory after noon.

I was caring for the egg, or Sighisoara, the whole way.

Since the others were careful too, they would look at it when we took a break in returning.

At the edge of the wolves’ territory, several wolves were waiting for us.

I didn’t want to get in the way of any conversation the wolves had, so I got off of Femm.

Femm and the other wolves sniffed each other.

「Ruff Wuff」

「Ruff!」「Waof!」

Femm barked and the other wolves barked back.

They had to be talking about something.

Femm proudly turned to me.

『My pack has protected the territory well.』

「Good, thank you all.」

「Ruff Ruff!」「Wuff!」

I petted all of their heads.

The Femm turned to me and said.

『There’s still magic beasts around here thought.』

「I bet. But with the ancient dragon gone, I bet they’ll go back soon.」

『Maybe we should scare them back so they return faster. Is that okay?』

「Sure.」

Femm breathed in deeply and said,

「Wa…『Wait, Vi-Vi, you need to cover your ears.』

「WHY?!」

『Because I’m about to howl loudly.』

Vi-Vi had peed herself at the sound of the earth dragon’s cry.

If she hears the cry of a stronger beast like Femm, there’s no reason she wouldn’t again.

Of course, unlike the dragon, she wouldn’t be hit by it directly.

It might be perfectly fine, but she should cover her ears just in case.

「I guess I have no choice.」

Vi-Vi said frankly.

Even though it looked like she was thinking,「WHY THE HELL DO I HAVE TO DO THIS?!」

Either way she didn’t want to pee all over herself again.

Femm breathed in again, deeply.

「GAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHH!!!」

「MOOOOOOOOOOOOooooOOOOOOOO!」

The wolf king Femm howled out with magical force.

It wasn’t as much as the ancient dragon, but it was much stronger than the earth dragon.

For some reason, Moofy also mooed along.

Moofy had no magical force in her voice. Just a loud moo.

「Eeep!」

Vi-Vi squealed a bit. Maybe because she was holding her ears.

But she didn’t have an accident.

『This should get all the weaker beasts to run away.』

「Good. It was quite a howl.」

「Ruff」「Moo」

Femm rubbed up against me, wanting to be petted.

Moofy also looked like she had finished an important task.

I rubbed them both.

When we arrived at Mulg, the sun was going down.

Cruz was sitting in front of my house. She was petting the other wolves.

「ALLLLL!」

She ran up to us as fast as she could when she saw us.

Then she jumped up on me.

I covered the egg on my stomach. I know that it was a tough egg, but just in case.

「I was worried about you…you didn’t come home!」

「Yeah, sorry about that.」

Two nights, three days. Something like a small trip.

「We all waited for you every night until late at your house!」

「Well, sorry for making you wait.」

「Heh heh.」

Cruz was embarrassed. I hadn’t complimented her or anything though.

Luka came out from my house. She probably knew I was home from Cruz’ shouting.

「Luka, thanks. We figured it all out thanks to your analysis.」

「Really? Good to hear.」

While I was talking to Luka, Cruz was clutching onto me from behind.

「Tell me what happened!!」

「I wonder where I should start…」

After thinking a second, Millet and Collette came out of the house too.

「Welcome back, old man!」

「Nice to be back. Were you a good girl?」

「Yeah! Millet wasth REALLY LONELY WITHOUT YOU!」

Collette was as happy as usual.

Millet grabbed my right hand with both of hers.

「I was…very lonely.」

「Oh…yeah, sorry.」

「Mister Al, welcome home.」

「Thanks.」

And after that, Millet smiled at me, warmly.

My heart seemed to jump a beat…she was so cute.

Cruz was still clutching onto me and was now looking at the egg I was holding.

Maybe she thought it was a souvenir.

「Al! Tell me! Tell me what happened!」

「Oh, yeah…」

Millet somehow was able to pull Cruz off of me.

「I know you have a lot to tell Cruz, but since dinner’s ready for you…」

「I am hungry for some lowly human food!」

「Moo Moo!」

Vi-Vi and Moofy were ready to eat.

「Well, you can tell us as we eat dinner.」

「Yeah, that’s the best.」

Yureena and Luka said, agreeing, as we all settled down for dinner.