Chapter 135: The Culprit

Before me is a giant T-rex laying down with its chin on the ground like a dog.

This T-rex is a creature called Tiny Dragon which, while being intelligent, has not developed the ability to manipulate human speech, making it a sub-dragon instead of a true dragon. While it’s pretty large for having “tiny” in its name, a real dragon can reach considerably larger sizes and that’s not just a figure of speech as there have been dragons confirmed to be the size of a small mountain.

Well, enough about the size of dragons in this world for now. The problem here is the fact that this dragon seems to have submitted to me. Among magic beasts, species that have great confidence and pride in their own strength aren’t fond of humans. However, when shown displays of power, these beasts would recognize the said individual and they can become great companions.

And if the individual displayed overwhelming power during this, to the point of making the magic beast submit to them, the magic beast would recognize them as their master, making it possible to tame them. The magic beast will then become that individual’s loyal servant, their arms and legs, and the magic beast will do anything that is ordered to them, even if they’re ordered to die. Well, no, I’m definitely not going to do that though.

『Gururu……』 「Ah, no, it’s not that I hate you or anything. Don’t make that kind of depressed tone……」

As I was blankly wondering how exactly things ended up this way, the T-rex right in front of me made a low, depressed whine. I couldn’t help but rub its large snout to comfort it, but it’s much smoother to touch than what I imagined, it’s pretty nice. Since the T-rex is flat on the ground, its reptilian, almond-shaped, upturned eyes are staring at me with tears, which is actually somewhat adorable.

Even so, I’m currently living in the dorms. And even if I can keep this, I don’t have enough earnings to feed a pet this big nor do I have a large enough place. While the Iglesio manor’s backyard at Gateskeep should be wide enough for it to stay and even roam around in, I can’t really bring a large magic beast inside a town even if the manor is located in the outskirts.

『Lily, being distracted is fine and all, but isn’t it about time that you do something about that?』 「Hm? Oh, right.」

Hearing Arytte’s words, I was pulled back into reality and first went to get Urania down from the tree. Usually, Urania would be fully capable of jumping down on her own, but as her legs are still bound by magic, there’s a risk of her getting severely injured if she tries to jump down.

「Nn, thank you. You were cool.」 「Thank goodness you’re fine. That was scary, wasn’t it?」

After dispelling the magic and confirming that she has no injuries, I embraced Urania tight. While her feet have some light scratches, she doesn’t sustain any serious injuries, which is a relief. Even so, there was a chance that, with only one wrong step, she could’ve lost her life forever. Just thinking about that is making my blood boil all over.

「Arytte.」 『You don’t need to use such as scary tone. I cast a little barrier to enclose the area, so he’s still at the same place.』 「I see.」

Since the life essence I’ve felt disappeared in the middle of the battle, I thought that the owner of that life essence had escaped, but it seems like Arytte just trapped the individual inside a barrier. I tend to forget since the image of her always munching on snacks leaves a stronger impression, but despite how she seems, Arytte is a powerful high spirit that ranked 29th within the spirit community. Making a barrier that can isolate people shouldn’t be difficult for her.

I had Arytte release her barrier and immediately sensed its location. In the meantime, I had the culprit see a [Lewd Dream] to make sure that there’s no escaping.

「Wait! What just happened?」 「I saw it from afar, but what did you just do……」 「I knew you were abnormal, but to think that you’d even tame a dragon…… 」

As I was restraining the culprit’s mind, it looks like the other members of group A have noticed that the battle has ended and come to our location. Or rather, Sola! What do you mean by “abnormal”! I can’t even deny it, dammit!!

「I simply had it stay put.」 「You simply…… Do you even understand what you’re saying……」 「More importantly! What on earth happened here? You four didn’t actually steal this dragon egg, did you?」

Since everybody’s here, I asked them the details of this incident. An egg mysteriously left in the forest, a dragon that appeared almost like it was led here, and Urania having been tripped with “Bind”. At this point, it’s almost refreshing to hear. Looks like I don’t have to hold back on this.

「Everything happened so suddenly……」 「I’m the leader, yet I couldn’t do anything at all…… If not for Urania’s instructions, we would have been annihilated.」

Sola shook her head, seemingly unable to grasp the course of events while Tebby lamented over how he was unable to do anything. While it’s true that there was nothing they could do this time, it’d be great if they use this frustration as a stepping stone for their improvement. Both Sola and Tebby still have much more growth ahead of them after all.

「Nevertheless, whoever cast the binding spell on Miss Urania must be the culprit!」 「Were you unable to see the culprit, Urania?」 「Nn, there also wasn’t any scent at all. I didn’t even think that there was anyone else.」 「Ahh, that was because of a magical tool.」

Saying so, I approached the culprit and pulled off their cloak. This silver cloak that seems like it’s taken straight out of a certain school of wizardry is a magical tool that is installed with ocular and olfactory inhibition magic. As long as this is over one’s head, they’d be able to move from place to place without attracting any eyes.

The culprit used this magical tool to steal an egg from a dragon’s nest and leave it in the forest. After that, all that’s left was to lead the dragon when it noticed the disappearance of the egg. This is a bit too serious to merely call this a student’s prank.

The reason why it has olfactory inhibition might be because dragons and magic beasts have a strong sense of smell, but since this country has a lot of beast-kin in the first place, and most of them have an excellent sense of smell, this might have been added to counter that. Still, it doesn’t seem to have the ability to conceal life essence, and since it’s still a magical tool to begin with, as long as you have [magic sight], the unnatural clump of magic power is clearly visible, so it’s useless against Arytte and me.

「This is-!?」 「Glen…… To think that you would stoop so low……」

With the cloak pulled off, the culprit is now visible to the eye. The one revealed was the son of the blue peer that I had a mock battle with the other day, Glen.