Dealing with the Aftermath
After the Great Dragon Kathe flew off, Nia sat down weakly .
She must have been on edge this whole time .
On close inspection, her tail was clenched tightly between her legs .
I patted her on the head .
“You kept your cool very well . Good job . ”
“Thank you . But I can’t even stand now . ”
“You’re just relieved that the dragon is gone now . It can’t be helped . ”
She had at least abstained from putting her tail between her legs until Kathe went away .
That was some nerve, considering she had encountered a Great Dragon on her first mission .
Shia hugged her tightly .
“Nia . You did wonderfully . ”
“Oh, thank you, sister . ”
“Yes-yes . You’re just like your older sister, Nia . ”
As we all praised Nia, Grulf began to run in a circle around me .
His tail, which had been between his legs a moment ago, was now wagging vigorously .
He was suddenly very energetic now that Kathe was gone .
Grulf looked at me with pure expectation .
However, I felt a bit of a dilemma about whether or not I should praise him .
Grulf had been hiding in my shadow the whole time .
That wasn’t exactly something praise-worthy .
However, he hadn’t cried or run away either .
And perhaps that was as much as I should expect from a wolf pup .
“Grulf, you did well too . I’m glad that you didn’t run away . ”
“Groof!”
As I petted him, he puffed out his chest proudly . And then he wagged his tail even more .
As I petted Grulf for a while, Nia was finally able to stand on her feet again .
She slowly got up .
“Are you fine already?”
“Yes . I’m sorry that you had to see something so pathetic . ”
“No, don’t worry about it . ”
“Thank you . ”
Nia said with a smile .
“As we just won a great victory, we must give a cry of triumph!”
“Cry of triumph?”
“Yes! It is a custom in our tribe to do it after a great victory . ”
“I see . ”
“Yes! It is a very important custom . Do you mind if we do it?”
“I don’t mind . ”
And so Nia took in a deep breath . And then shouted very loudly .
“Ruff-ruff!”
I heard this shout before .
The beastkin wolves had shouted this after winning the battle against the Vampire High Lords .
So it was actually an important tradition for them .
After shouting to her heart’s content, Nia stopped to look at Shia .
“Sister? Why aren’t you shouting too?”
“Um, it’s just that…the timing is very difficult . ”
Shia said as she fidgeted .
Now that I think of it, I only saw her doing it once .
It was after defeating the High Lord .
Maybe she felt embarrassed .
“Sister, let’s do it together . ”
“Uh, but…”
“We have to do it after defeating a powerful foe . ”
“But it was Mister Locke who defeated the dragon…”
Shia said modestly .
“Shia . This is a victory for the whole party . ”
“Is-is that so . ”
“Alright sister, let’s do it together!”
“OOOOOO! Ruff-ruff!”
“AWWOOOO!”
Grulf also added his howl to Shia and Nia’s voices .
When they were done, Grulf looked at me smugly .
Shia and Nia also looked somewhat refreshed .
As they enjoyed the sensation of having shouted, Serulis looked towards the cave .
“Concealment magic is amazing . I can’t even tell where the cave is anymore . ”
“A good Sorcerer will still be able to find it, but a Warrior might have trouble . ”
“I suppose so . Oh, we haven’t dealt with the goblin bodies yet . ”
“They burned up by the dragon breath . ”
“Oh, right… It’s a good thing we collected the magic stones first . ”
Had we not done that, the mission would have ended in a failure .
“Well, let’s go back then . ”
“We are freed from the work of dealing with the bodies!”
“It’s nice and easy . ”
And so we all started to walk towards the capital .
After walking for some time, Nia came up next to me .
“Mister Locke! Mister Locke, are you a Magic Warrior? They say that you are the strongest F-Rank Warrior . ”
“So you haven’t told her, Shia?”
“Yes . I didn’t think I should tell anyone your secret without your permission . ”
Shia was a very serious girl .
“I see . Thank you . ”
“No! It’s the obvious thing to do . ”
Shia’s tail wagged happily .
And so I turned to Nia and said,
“I’m registered as a Warrior at the guild, but my real job is a Sorcerer . ”
“Really! But it’s amazing that you were able to control the dragon like that!”
Nia’s eyes were bright . I felt as if she had immense respect for me .
“Mister Locke is the strongest Sorcerer . ”
Serulis said proudly for some unknown reason .
“Was this not the first time you’ve fought against a dragon, Mister Locke?”
“Yes . I have beaten dragons before . ”
“How many have you beaten?”
“Hmmm . I have beaten three of them solo . And as a party, I would say around ten . But there are even more that we forced to surrender, like today . ”
Stronger dragons tended to be intelligent . You could talk to them .
And so it was quite common to find a solution through talking, once you have shown your power .
And through the information network of the dragons, things tended to head in a positive direction over all .
“That’s amazing!”
Nia’s respect seemed to deepen .
“It really is . ”
“Yes . ”
“Groof . ”
Serulis, Shia and Grulf all looked at me with admiration .