Silence descended upon the place where the Sea Dragon had departed. Though the disaster had retreated, no one rejoiced immediately since the incident had occurred too suddenly to feel real.
"Did, did that monster really just leave?"
Terence broke the silence with a question. Among everyone who was reading the room, he could ask boldly because his intellectual curiosity as a mage was that strong.
"Because we returned the egg it was looking for."
"No, but still, after causing all that chaos, it just leaves right away after we returned a single egg?"
The others felt similarly. Given the scale of the Sea Dragon's rampage, the commotion wouldn't have easily subsided just by returning the egg. It had fought with the resolve to die. The inertia of emotion couldn't be cut off as easily as with scissors.
"Well, it might have sensed something with some kind of sense unique to sea dragons."
Osian, who had released his armor, stroked his chin with his hand. He spoke speculatively, but this was probably close to the correct theory.
The moment the Sea Dragon received the egg and held it in its mouth, it remained still as if confirming something. And when it opened its eyes, its attitude had clearly changed.
Why did the Sea Dragon cross the continent and come all the way to Tirna to find its egg? Unless it knew the egg's location precisely, it couldn't have come straight to Tirna.
Sea Dragons give birth to only one offspring. As a result, they display tremendous maternal affection to prevent their species from dying out.
Such maternal affection is as sharp as a sixth sense beyond the five senses, like a knight's intuition.
That was why the Sea Dragon had sensed that its egg was in Tirna on a distant continent.
And after retrieving the egg, by licking the egg's surface with its tongue, it could roughly understand what had happened during that time.
It was a bodily fluid unique to Sea Dragons that was smeared on the egg's surface.
By applying this fluid that hadn't dried to the egg, the Sea Dragon could maintain the egg's temperature even without incubating it.
This bodily fluid stored situations and memories of a sort, allowing it to roughly understand what had occurred around the egg.
That was why the Sea Dragon immediately grasped the situation and retreated after holding the egg.
Most importantly, the Sea Dragon was aware that Osian could have killed it but chose not to.
Certainly at that moment, if Osian had swung his sword down, the Sea Dragon would have been split in half without being able to resist.
However, Osian swung his sword away from the Sea Dragon, even though he might have died from a counterattack as a result.
The Sea Dragon couldn't exchange verbal communication with humans, but it wasn't stupid. It was indebted to him. Though its body was injured here and there from the fight and its stamina was greatly depleted.
It owed him its life and was able to retrieve its egg. For the Sea Dragon, it was fortunate to have regained something more precious than anything else in the world.
However, since Osian didn't know the Sea Dragon's inner thoughts, he could only vaguely guess.
'Still, since it said it wouldn't forget the favor, it's fortunate that it didn't leave with only bad feelings.'
Osian looked back at Seren. The person who had contributed most significantly to resolving this matter was undoubtedly Seren Gracia.
"Good work. It must not have been easy to use your ability, yet you granted my request."
"I owe you a debt of life. And I can't keep living without using my ability."
Seren knows that to cure this constitution of hers, it would be foolish to consistently avoid it. She must properly face herself and subjugate it head-on.
For that, she was now doing training she'd never imagined in her life.
"Still, well, it's not a bad feeling. It feels refreshing to do this thing called exercise."
When Osian gave her an eye-smile that said she was commendable, Seren turned her gaze away with a flushed face as if embarrassed for no reason. She seemed shy as she twirled her hair with her fingers.
"More importantly, was hiding the egg indeed Mother Goose's doing?"
"Yeah. That's right. The city government also sent members of the Witch Tea Party to respond, but what was guarding the egg wasn't an ordinary familiar. Since the situation was urgent, I just took the egg and came out, but what's happening at the scene right now is..."
"Since it's related to Mother Goose, Diolan must have stepped in."
Osian thought of Diolan, a man who acted as if everything was bothersome and approached matters that piqued his curiosity with playfully mischievous behavior.
Diolan's actions were light, but Osian knew that within his eyes flickered some unresolved flame.
That must be the sense of betrayal and anger at being abandoned by his mother, Mother Goose, who created him.
Diolan was searching for the reason why he was abandoned. For what reason Mother Goose abandoned him.
"Shouldn't you go help? The opponent is the Big Bad Wolf, evaluated as one of the strongest among Mother Goose's subordinate familiars."
At Seren's words, Osian shook his head.
"No need to worry. Diolan isn't as weak as you think."
"You sound quite certain."
"Well, of course."
Osian said with a chuckle.
"That guy. In all the fights until now, he's never once been serious."
"Keuruk."
Phlegm bubbled up from his mouth. The wolf steadied his blurred vision. What on earth just happened?
-Ptooey.
The wolf spat out the thick blood pooled in his mouth. Pain arose in his chest. Touching it with his hand, there were three diagonal wounds crossing it.
-Sssik.
The wolf curled up his snout and grinned.
"Wow. This is surprising. To think that you, cat, became this strong without me noticing. Or perhaps you weren't giving your all during the time we knew each other?"
The wolf spoke while replaying the fight from moments ago.
What the wolf was most wary of was Rotkäppchen's Beast Slayer. If hit by that, even he, a formidable familiar, would die instantly without question.
That's why he hadn't been particularly wary of the other two, Cinderella and Diolan.
But now, he had to change that thinking.
'Damn cat bastard.'
The wolf's eyes gleamed with rage and murderous intent. How long had it been since he'd suffered such pain and injury? Anger surged. Being the one to inflict wounds and mock others had to be his role.
Not being hit by vermin-like bastards like those!
-Guweeeek.
There was no need to show mercy anymore. The wolf vomited out what was contained in its stomach. Piles began pouring out in amounts so massive it was hard to believe they came from the wolf's body.
-Chuk. Chuk. Chuk.
Creaking, giant toy soldier dolls rose. Starting with huge tanks, human soldiers in military uniforms moved like zombies. Mages and dark mages, mutants who once gained fame but mysteriously disappeared, each displayed their abilities.
The countless forces the wolf had devoured until now. They filled the wide underground space, making it cramped.
"This, this can't be."
The ranger unit watching the situation while maintaining a safe distance was horrified.
"Those soldiers, from the shoulder insignia to the military uniforms. They're soldiers from the past Kingdom of Desant that collapsed due to civil war."
"That mage over there. He's the promising next-generation talent of Grand Cloister who went missing 15 years ago. He went outside Tirna for a commission and his whereabouts became unknown after that. Don't tell me he was eaten."
"I see other witches' familiars too."
The bigger problem was that such things were increasing in real-time.
'We have to stop it!'
Rotkäppchen pulled the trigger toward the wolf. But her bullets never reached the wolf.
Because the army that had already occupied the wolf's surroundings became a giant shield as if to protect him.
-Titing.
The giant holding the huge shield blocking the wolf's front stared at Rotkäppchen with an expressionless face.
"Request support!"
Cinderella also thought this wouldn't do and tried to retreat. It was Diolan who cut off those words.
"No. There's no need. Anyway, that army moves by the wolf's will. If we behead the head, the rest will all return to where they should be."
Diolan said this and stood up on two legs. His massive body contracted and transformed into human form.
The wolf watched with eyes flickering brightly.
He said nothing as he was still busy vomiting out what he had continuously swallowed. However, those eyes sparkled and captured Diolan's appearance without missing anything.
Diolan, who had been in the form of a giant black cat, returned to human form but there was a change. The jet-black muffler wrapped around his neck was proof of that.
On both arms and both legs, traces like those of a cat wavered like shadows. Cat ears stood tall above Diolan's head.
It was a new appearance where the monstrous cat and human form harmoniously mixed. Having summoned sufficient forces, the wolf stopped vomiting and shouted.
"Kehehe! What is that appearance! Neither this nor that, an incomplete form!"
He said that, but the wolf knew. That appearance was more dangerous than ever before. Nevertheless, he shouted like this to salvage his wounded pride and provoke his opponent.
"Even so, there's no way you can do anything about the army I've already summoned...!"
The wolf stopped shouting and widened his eyes. Diolan was slowly walking toward him. There was no sudden dash or leap. Just walking slowly, like a cat out for a stroll.
Had he gone mad? How many troops did he think were here? The wolf gave an order. To immediately tear that impudent cat to death.
The prey that had been subordinated to him from the moment they were swallowed by the wolf obeyed that command. All the troops' murderous intent turned toward Diolan alone. If they just poured attacks like this, Diolan would be left without even a trace.
"With just this much?"
Diolan muttered in a low voice. As his golden eyes widened, a giant form rose behind him.
It was a giant black cat.
-Shaaaaa!
When the cat bared its teeth and hissed, the soldiers reacted. The ones whose reason had been dominated without being able to resist began to scatter in all directions in confusion.
"What? What. What are you doing!"
The wolf gave orders in panic.
"Stop right now! Don't run away! I said kill that cat bastard!"
The wolf used his ability to convey a powerful will. But it was useless with the soldiers. As soon as they made eye contact with Diolan, they scattered in all directions, terrified.
Cinderella and Rotkäppchen were also watching that scene.
"My goodness. What on earth."
"That appearance, it's just like...watching mice paralyzed with fear."
Cinderella muttered. The appearance of the soldiers summoned by the wolf scattering resembled mice fleeing hastily after encountering a natural predator.
"This, this power is! Cat, you bastard!"
Only then did the wolf recognize what situation this was. The wolf widened his eyes and glared at Diolan.
The moment he made eye contact with Diolan, the wolf felt himself being degraded to an infinitely small existence. Conversely, Diolan grew larger and naturally looked down at him.
Right. This felt just like becoming a mouse in front of a cat.
But the wolf didn't run away. Befitting a familiar of Mother Goose, the wolf instantly figured out what Diolan had done.
"Is this your true power!"
"That's right."
The true power granted to Diolan as he was created by Mother Goose.
Witchcraft─[Mouse Before a Cat]
This ability, which could only be used in half-human half-beast form, did exactly as its name suggested—made opponents perceive Diolan as an object of fear.
No matter how many mice gathered, they were ultimately cowardly mice. The moment they faced their natural predator, the cat, they had no choice but to flee in terror. Even stupid mice without reason couldn't resist that instinct.
A bizarre power that changed an adversarial relationship into a predator-prey relationship filled with fear and despair. That was Diolan's true ability.
"You, you. Cunning cat bastaaaaard!"
The wolf's terrifying aspect was the countless troops created through endless predation. But now that those troops had been neutralized by Diolan, turning them into mice, all that remained for the wolf was his own body.
The wolf pulled out weapons from his mouth. The latest model steam suit was draped over his body, and weapons with massive firepower were held in both hands.
It was human weaponry that the wolf had mocked so much. Diolan observed the wolf's appearance carefully.
-Pashut.
He vanished faintly from his spot.
Diolan appeared right in front of the wolf's nose. The moment his jet-black fingers touched the wolf's chest, all the weapons the wolf had taken out crumbled into pieces as if finely sliced.
"Hey, hey. You're not trying to kill me, your brother, are you? Right? You have things to ask me, don't you?"
The wolf said, breaking out in cold sweat.
"I thought so at first. But I changed my mind."
"You, you."
"There's no cat that converses with mice, is there?"
"Are you abandoning Mother!"
"Mother is the one who abandoned me. And I have a separate family, you see."
The wolf's eyes rolled back as he lunged at Diolan but his snout never reached Diolan's body.
The wolf's head, severed clean at the neck, fell to the floor.
Though they were born from the same mother and were no different from brothers, they had no strong awareness of being brothers. It was the same for Diolan. To him now, his family was his comrades from Violet Fox. Everything else was nothing more than enemies to be defeated.
The wolf who should have formed a pack was alone against the cat who should have been aloof had made a family.
That difference alone was everything.