NOVEL NEXT Chapter 67
Chapter 67 – Where Did the Damn Things Come From?
We got back to Mulg right before the sun went down.
When we got to my new house, Vi-Vi hurried into the bathroom, hopefully to get washed and changed quickly.
Femm and I just acted like nothing had happened. We just watched her run in without saying anything.
Moofy joined Vi-Vi. That cow really loved hot baths.
Later, Cruz and the other in the party as well as the chief came in.
They knew we went out on a search, so they had waited for us.
「Good work. How was the search you did?」
「Chief, thanks for coming. Sorry to say, but the search still isn’t over.」
「I see. I heard you found magic mice, so the villagers are a bit upset.」
Magic mice are a farmer’s greatest enemy. I know why the villagers would be upset.
I guess most of the quests beginning adventurers take are getting rid of them.
Commoners see them all the time, and the magic mice are rightly feared.
「What’re magic mice again?」
Cruz said with a questioning face.
An adventurer always starts off with killing at least one magic mouse.
But a hero like Cruz? She never started on that low of a rung.
Heroes don’t get any requests to kill off mice. I guess there was no reason to expect her to know what they were.
The chief opened his eyes wide in surprise.
「But, you’re an adventurer, so you know, right? Cruz?」
「Yes, Al and I went on a lot of adventures together!」
「An adventurer that doesn’t know what a magic mouse is?!」
「Huh? All the other adventurers know?」
Cruz looked around at the rest of us.
Yeah, we all knew exactly what they were…sorry, Cruz.
Cruz looked confused, so Luka explained.
「Let’s just say that Cruz is lacking some common sense, here and there.」
「Yeah, she’s still learning a lot.」
Yureena said while scruffing Cruz’ short hair.
Then Cruz looked over at me.
「Al’s taught me a lot about adventuring.」
「I see, so she’s still learning.」
The chief said, maybe misinterpreting that Cruz was a novice.
Since it was better he didn’t know who Cruz really was, I left it at that.
Since that conversation was over, I had something that I had to ask Luka.
「Luka. I brought you some of the corpses that I dealt with. Could you look at them?」
「Sure, I guess.」
「Thanks. There’s a lot, so let’s go outside.」
We left my house and I took the bodies out of my bag.
The chief jumped back when he saw the magic mice and goblins.
「There were this many mice and goblins?!」
「This is a part of them.」
「…oh, my!」
「Don’t worry. The goblins and mice aren’t worth sweating. Femm and the other wolves will tear them to shreds.」
「Ruff!」
Femm stuck his tail out proudly.
The chief turned to Femm and bowed deeply.
「Femm, thank you for defending us.」
「Wuff wuff!」
On the other hand, Luka was carefully checking through the dead bodies.
「They’re thin. But they look like normal magic mice and goblins.」
「I see.」
「Well, let me check them out.」
She quickly stowed away the mice and goblins into her own magic bag.
「Well, it’s not only goblins.」
「Then just dump them all out without making a big deal about it!」
「Okay.」
I took out the wyverns, earth dragons, basilisks, hydrae, and magic bears.
The chief fell on the floor, literally blown off his feet in shock.
「EEEP!」
「It’s fine. That’s why you hired me as guard.」
「…Al…thank you.」
The chief now bowed over and over deeply to me.
While he did, Luka silently looked over everything. And just like the academic she was,
「This is quite a haul.」
「Way too much for this ecosystem to handle. We found the remains of some kind of dragon feeding ground too.」
As I said that, I took out some of the bones I had found. They were the ones with dragon bit marks all over them.
Luka peered at them closely.
「Yeah, something did eat these bodies up. It’s not rare for bears, monkeys, mice and other magic animals to do this…but it’s rare for dragons.」
「Right?」
「I could write an essay on this.」
Luka said, again, like an academic.
「Well, you can write whatever you want.」
「I know that already. But I will check all this for you. You want to know where they ran from, or what they were running from, right?」
「Exactly.」
「Then I’ll try to find that out.」
「Thanks.」
She then put everything I had dumped into her own magic bag.
We all returned to the house.
「I have tomorrow off, so I’ll be looking at these in my room…don’t BUG ME, okay?」
「What? You have some lab there or something?」
I thought she would look them over at some capital research facility.
All she had in her room in my house was a bed and a desk.
「I brought my materials. Enough to figure this out.」
She said flatly. I had no idea she brought her stuff.
Now that I think of it, since she brought her magic bad, it wouldn’t be hard to lug all that stuff with her.
Maybe she was thinking of turning Mulg into a research site or something.
It was strange for her to do all this, but still helpful.
「Well, that’s about it!」
「Do you need my help, Luka?」
「No, Cruz.」
Luka refused, and Cruz looked a bit crestfallen.
Even though it was dinnertime, Luka didn’t leave her room.
Millet was about to bring Luka some dinner, but we stopped her.
「Is Luka okay? Does she really not want dinner?」
「She’s fine. She doesn’t want anyone to bug her.」
「But she’s going to get hungry.」
「She’s an adventurer. She’s got dried meat or something in her bag – she’ll be fine.」
「Millet, Luka’s the type that really focuses on what she’s doing. Even the best food means nothing to her now.」
If we call her and she doesn’t answer, it’s best to just leave her until she comes out of the room.
That’s the way the party’s always treated her.
Luka was a genius of a different type than Cruz.
「When she’s in that hyper-focused mode, she can get anything done that she needs to.」
「I see.」
Millet still seemed worried even after our explanation.
The next morning. Luka came to my doorway.
She had dark circles under her eyes from staying up all night.
「Here.」
「What’s this?」
Luka gave me several pages of paper.
「I wrote it in simple terms that even someone like Cruz could understand. Be happy I was here to write it for you.」
「Thanks.」
Theump.
And like that Luka flopped onto my bed.
「Hey, LUKA!」
「ZZZZZZzzzz」
「Ruff?」「Moo?」
She was already asleep.
Femm and Moofy were a bit surprised, as they both sniffed at her.