Chapter 177: Wait and See

“Master Bright, we aren’t going to fight it now – only observe its status. Wait-and-see.”

Young Bright, seeming to have realized that he had remembered my orders incorrectly, scratched his cheek to hide his embarrassment.

Although Gramps had said that we had been producing ‘impressive results,’ from a practical standpoint, our levels had not even increased all that much.

NAME: ASLEY

TITLES: The Eternal Fool, The Polarizing, Hermit Candidate, Great Mage, High-class Alchemist, Staff Grandmaster, Six Archmages (Tentative), Honored Teacher, Rank S, Top Student, Papa, No Guts, SS Slayer, Guardian Mage (Tentative), The Strong, The Swift, Below Familiar, Ancient Slayer, Devil King (Tentative), Mad, Forbidding Breacher, Thousand Magician, Holy Warrior (Tentative)

LV: 168

HP: 17,225

MP: 130,634

EXP: 163,194,500

SPECIAL SKILLS:

NAME: POCHI

TITLES: Advanced Familiar, The Powerful, Avian, Intermediate Mage, One Who Requires Earplugs, Godparent, Sweet Tooth, The One Raised by the Fool, Wind Deity, The Strong, Ancient Slayer, Sweets (Tentative), Violet Phoenix, Holy Warrior’s Familiar (Tentative)

LV: 169

HP: 32,831

MP: 13,702

EXP: 176,022,409

SPECIAL SKILLS:

My prediction was that our previous battle had easily caught us up with Giorno and Lylia, but that turned out not to be the case.

If I remembered correctly, their levels were two-hundred-one and two-hundred, respectively – and their EXP values were over four-hundred million.

To raise our levels from this point on, we would have to kill quite a lot of monsters.

…Because, naturally, the higher the level, the slower it was to go up.

The difference between Pochi and I was solid proof of that – we were now just one level apart.

It wasn’t all bad, though; we had gotten ourselves more positive titles.

I had two more added to my list, and Pochi had one.

It felt like the wheels of fate had started to turn… not that they had to.

Because, if not, then Pochi and I probably could have moved on peacefully with our lives… as wishful as that might be.

“Come on, Leole. Let’s go.”

“Ooh?”

“That’s right, we’re going for a walk.”

I set Leon onto the baby carrier I carried – the variety that hung in front of me from my shoulders.

Some of Pochi’s old fur had been used as its padding; it should be quite comfortable.

I had never thought the day would come when the both of us would need to learn to use a needle, but we had managed to finish making it overnight – that success had emotionally moved us so much that we had jumped to hug each other.

“All right, Chappie! Into your nest, please!”

Chappie entered the small birdhouse that Pochi carried on her head.

Naturally, a carpet made of Pochi’s old fur had been put inside it.

It had been quite a breakthrough, really – we had just discovered that her fur, if shaved off while she was gigantified, did not return to its original size upon the form’s disengagement.

Young Bright looked on while we finished our preparations, his eyes suggesting some degree of shock.

What could he be so surprised about, though?

“Is something the matter, Master Bright?”

“Are we… bringing Leole and Chappie along?”

“Well, yes… what about them?”

“If we leave him here, it’ll take a day to apologize to him, another day to calm him down, and THEN another day to get him in a better mood!”

Pochi was referring mostly to Chappie by that; in truth, I would have preferred to leave Leon in Polco’s care.

But Leon just wouldn’t let himself be held by anyone else in the mansion – not even Polco himself.

Pochi and I were the only exceptions.

I still couldn’t figure out why, but Leon would have such a calm look on his face when he was around us.

Infants… Such mysterious beings…

At first, I had promised Polco to only partially take care of Leon, but due to the aforementioned points, now we were fully responsible for all of his needs.

Would the current Holy Emperor not be angry at this? He must have wanted the head of the Adams household to do it himself.

We went outside, then hopped on the gigantified Pochi, with Bright sitting behind me.

Pochi had originally allowed only two people to ride on her at once, but now it was four – but then again, she didn’t seem to care.

Well, she would probably apply that limitation to the people whom she wasn’t familiar with, though.

Ferris had wanted to come with us to the Blazing Dragons’ mountain as well, but Polco had stopped her, as one would expect.

As for why Bright was allowed to tag along, well, it was simple…

“Let us depart, Sir Poer.”

June said to us over her shoulder, her hand resting on the handle of the sword on her waist.

Yes, because he was accompanied by his guardian.

The day after the incident, June had visited the Adams mansion once again to apologize and explain the occurrence to Polco, much to the latter’s surprise.

After that, Polco had come to me and asked for the Teleportation spell’s secrets. I had refused to tell him anything, of course, but it was quite a surprise to see Polco so excited.

Having access to that spell in this era was sure to give one a great deal of combat advantage and methods to create profit.

I wouldn’t mind cooperating with someone like Polco, but considering that this was the past, I couldn’t tell whether that would be the right thing to do.

Hmm… one way to go with it would be to keep its usage to only myself while connecting every town I come across, creating a travel network.

The spell’s formula shouldn’t respond to the Apostles of Despair, so it could work.

…Right, that approach ‘could’ be viable… Perhaps I should discuss it with Polco the next chance I get.

“Yes, Lady June. Master Bright, I will be using arcane energy to keep us from falling off, but please still hold on tight.”

“I understand, Sir Instructor!”

Young Bright put his hands around my waist and tightened his grip.

Oh, looks like his physical strength has improved quite a bit. Could this be the right time to introduce to him the Muscle Training Theater of Love?

…Yeah, no. I suppose I should teach him Irene’s Arcane Energy Circulation Optimizer before then.

I had modified it in my own style, allowing the user to keep their physical build and still grow up to a certain point.

If this handsome, young gentleman were to become a muscle monster like Tūs, June would surely faint, after all.

“All right, Shiro, let’s go!”

“AWOOOOO!!”

“Aah-ooh!”

“Chirp!”

Really, though, what was with this ragtag party of misfits?

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

Man, June really is amazing.

She had matched her speed with Pochi’s, running alongside us all the way to the crater.

The three others, protected by my arcane energy, seemed to have enjoyed being able to withstand Pochi’s super speed, too.

…Especially when Pochi had gotten hyped up and started doing somersaults.

And, well, she and June had been competing with each other on the way.

The latter had tried to show off her splendid jumping tricks, wanting to be praised by young Bright, but ended up disappointed that he hadn’t noticed her doing so.

“Can you see it, Sir Poer?”

June said while looking down the crater.

“No, milady, the smoke is obstructing the view… But I do feel powerful arcane energy coming from the bottom.”

“So do I… It seems that you were right, Sir Poer.”

“What shall we do now, Sir Instructor?”

Bright hopped down from Pochi, then looked up and asked me.

“I did say that we were coming here to just take a look, didn’t I? We won’t do anything for the time being. Incorrect handling of the crater and its contents could cause an eruption, you see.”

“He is right, Bright. You mustn’t forget our objective – and that is to simply observe.”

Besides, if we were to set out to destroy it, June wouldn’t have allowed him to come along in the first place.

“Well, I’d figured I would at least set up a trap as well.”

“So that was the plan you had mentioned earlier?”

“Rise, A-rise, A-rise! Sancta Boundary!”

The magecraft’s manifestation was expanded with additional arcane energy, covering the entire crater like a net.

…There we go.

This should buy us some more time until the Goku’ryu hatches.

Now to make it so that I will be informed when that happens – huh?!

Just as I was about to start casting the next spell, I felt strong arcane energy coming from high up in the sky.

But the first to notice that was in fact Pochi.

“Blazing Dragons approaching from above, sir!”

“Survivors?!”

I myself could see them as two pebble-sized shadows.

That means there are two of the Dragons – the shadows gradually became larger, accompanied by the sound of strong blowing wind.

But the next moment, I felt the arcane energy coming from one of them disappearing.

“…Whew.”

The reason for that was none other than June.

In less than the span of one breath, she had obliterated the head of one Blazing Dragon… with some kind of attack.

Didn’t even break a sweat – she’s incredible.

“This reminds me… this would mark the first time I see you in battle, wouldn’t it?”

June turned to me and asked.

And come to think of it, it was exactly as she’d said.

Although June had seen me teaching magic on a few occasions, she had never seen me in a real fight before.

That, and she had arrived after I was done with the Blazing Dragon army, too.

The remaining Dragon, realizing that its only companion had been killed in but an instant, stopped in midair for a moment.

Then, after looking at its companion’s body fall to the ground, it let out a wailing roar.

It was only a matter of time before that emotion turned into rage.

If it were to be logical under this situation, the Blazing Dragon would escape with its life… but it probably no longer saw that as an option.

Let’s evaluate our standing here – Pochi had taken the pellet drum from my pocket, and was now using it to play with Chappie in the birdhouse on her head.

Perhaps she had judged that we were in no danger, what with her witnessing the extent of June’s combat prowess. What a carefree dog…

Well… for now I’ll hurry to set the Craft Circle with a magic formula that informs me what the magecraft trap is sprung… and then make quick work of that Dragon.

“Excuse me!”

Or I would, if not for Bright’s statement…

“Sir Instructor! Please let me do it!”

The tentative Holy Warrior’s student declared his desire to eliminate the Blazing Dragon himself.