Chapter 182: One Year After the Transfer

“Woof!”

“Woof! How was it, mother?”

“Weak! Still too weak! Ah, Master, when will the snacks be ready?!”

“When, father?!”

It’s your patience that’s weak, you two.

Chappie the Violet Phoenix – he had grown up quite a lot in these past eight months.

Now he was big enough to be considered an adult… pretty close to the size of back Shi’shichou when we’d first met the latter, even.

However, hearing Chappie’s voice become more and more throaty, I couldn’t help but feel that he’d never end up sounding like Shi’shichou.

Now I wonder if peacocks’ voices change again later in life.

And speaking of later in life… it’s almost been a whole year since we’d arrived here in the past.

“That can wait – it’s time to change Leole’s diaper. C’mon, any of you with free time.”

“I can’t, sir – it’s too difficult!”

“I don’t want to do THAT ever again.”

Cappie’s reluctance is… reasonable.

Because, well, the first time around, he’d tried to do it with his beak.

No matter how dull his sense of smell was, it was still hard to watch him subject himself to… that,

Pochi and I did try to stop him, but he got angry at us – and accused us of not believing that he’d already grown up – so we let him do it. In less than a second, he’d soared high into the sky, screaming “mental interference attack?!”

Leon had already started eating a wider variety of food, after all.

“All right, Shiro, you do it.”

“All right, Mister Poer, please stay still~~”

“Ah – uh-huh~~”

Damn it, and I’m stuck doing… whatever this is. Never had I seen this coming…

“Lift your arms up, like you’re pointing towards the future…”

We ARE aiming to travel five thousand years or so into the future, but goofing around and making poses definitely isn’t the way to do it…

And now Shiro and Chappie are giggling between themselves. Do your work and change Leon’s diaper, damn it.

“L-like this?”

“Ah, yes, very good. This is going to be epic!”

Blazing Dragon King, Goku’ryu, Hell Emperor, whatever it’s called – it’s been seven months since we had gone to seal its egg.

But then the volcano just up and activated, waking the thing up.

It happened one unassuming morning last month. I had hopped on Pochi and rushed to check it as fast as we could, but as one would expect, the seal had almost been broken through by then.

The Hell Emperor… its scales were metallic red, even shinier than those of the Lord Dragons.

Its fighting prowess was not to be trifled with. The very moment it hatched, its body was already the size of a fully-grown Blazing Dragon. Its intimidating aura was greater than those of the Rank SS monster we had fought; stronger than the Ogre King, sharper than the Chaos Lizard.

It had been wrapped in flames hotter than the volcano’s crater, and the murderous intent in its eyes was so intense that I still felt like it would come to get us at any moment.

Pochi and I had hit it with the ‘Anti-demon Mirror Shot,’ the magecraft we had invented during the seven months before then, to amplify the strongest attacks we’d had at the time.

Pochi’s was her Zenith Breath. Mine was the Pochi Pad Breath.

Then the Goku’ryu disappeared, almost as if it had evaporated away, before it could even get itself out of the crater; the power we had unleashed surprised even us ourselves.

Again, our attacks had been amplified with the Anti-demon Mirror Shot; by increasing the spells’ intensity with energy reflections, their attack power had been elevated by several levels.

I had a feeling that it could become quite an important asset in the battles to come.

If we were to use it right, it might even be effective against the Devil King himself… maybe.

The timing of it was quite difficult, however; despite how many years Pochi and I had fought together, we’d had to train quite a lot to make it work.

The important part was that every attack must hit the arcane energy lenses at the same time; otherwise, there won’t be any effect.

And then, one month passed.

Polco Adams… for my exploits, that man had said he’d erect a bronze statue of me in the village’s plaza, which had led me to doing this… ‘pointing towards the future’ pose, and Pochi and Chappie laughing at me.

This middle-aged sculptor guy seemed to be having quite a lot of fun, too. The process was to get the design down in a painting, then use that to work on the statue… But I’d sure prefer that he considered how… embarrassing it is to be posing in broad daylight. I’m already over five thousand years old, for God’s sake…

“Oh, please try putting your other hand on your hip!”

“Okay…”

“Bigger smile!”

“L-like this?”

“Cross your legs…”

“Mmmph!”

“Spin your head around-“

“I can’t do that!”

Pochi and Chappie kept on laughing, holding their stomachs… and by the time they were about to die from the lack of air, Bright came running to me.

The kid was out of breath, too. But he was also smiling – something good must have happened… right?

“Instructor!”

Yup, before I’d realized it, I’d found myself being called just that instead of the usual ‘sir instructor.’

It was good and all that he’d started to address me less formally, but I still couldn’t quite get used to it.

“What is it, Master Bright?”

“I’ve finally obtained my sister’s permission to head to T’oued!”

“Oh! That’s splendid! I’ve never expected Lady June to let you go…”

“Yes! Now I can go on an adventure with you, Instructor!”

Well, I did put in a few good words for him yesterday, too.

He had gained quite a lot of levels over the past months, and the invasion of the Devil King’s army had been getting more and more aggressive.

That said, I had never actually seen the Devil King’s army before. We had moved farther and farther away from the place in which they were situated, so I suppose I shouldn’t blame myself or anyone for that.

But, well, it would also serve as a good opportunity for young Bright to go on a journey and be exposed to the outside world.

Such experiences were considered rare occasions among the aristocracy, at least according to June.

I had seen firsthand how rarely most actual aristocrats fought monsters personally; in most cases, they would have their bodyguard do the heavy lifting.

So, with all that in mind, we’ll be heading to T’oued soon.

And the reason for that was simple enough-

“Still, a title-erasing shamaness… do you think she actually exists, sir?”

“That’s what Master Polco told us, so it should be true, right?”

“Yes, Instructor. If you say so, then it must be true!”

While answering enthusiastically, Bright proceeded to start changing Leon’s diaper.

Seeing that, Chappie was taken aback.

“Uh, Bright, are you trying to die or something?”

“No – it’s alright, Chappie. I don’t plan on dying for another hundred years!”

“Now wait a sec – you two! You can’t just have Master Bright change Leole’s diaper like that!”

“But it’s so embarrassing, sir!”

“And it stinks!”

For such a deep voice, Chappie sure likes trying to sound cute…

“Now, Mister Poer, please don’t move around!”

“Ngh…”

It’s just impossible to have them on Leon’s diaper duty, I guess. Damn it…

We’d kept the knowledge of Leon’s identity away from Bright, but it seemed that June had already figured it out.

Perhaps it was because Bright had been telling June about how we’d had to take care of Leon.

Leon had started being less alert against Bright lately, so I suppose it wasn’t all bad.

“Hee-ah!”

His vocabulary had improved quite a bit, too.

That was in part because Pochi had been teaching him so much stuff; it’s good and all to have fun, but I do hope she hadn’t brought up anything strange.

Anyways… modeling for a painting sure is tough.

It’s not easy at all, having to stand still in a pose like this.

“So… are we taking Leole along with us, after all?”

“Master Polco will also be following us later on a separate mission, so taking Leole along shouldn’t be a problem… I suppose?”

I heaved a deep sigh; Bright chuckled.

“Is something the matter, Master Bright?”

“I just figured how it would be a disaster to leave Leole here, you see. Even Ferris was scared of dealing with him, after all.”

“Hahaha… is that so?”

A baby’s tears are the strongest around here… who would’ve thought?

So long as we can’t take him to the current Holy Emperor, we’ll have to make do with just four of us.

The Holy Emperor, being aware of how busy Polco was, had decided that it would be safer to leave the kid with him.

June is busy with her own things, too; no other option for us, I suppose.

Anyways, T’oued, the eastern Nation… I’d never been there myself, but their culture had had a good deal of influence all the way out here, so I couldn’t imagine it being a bad place, at least.

“You know, Leole’s actually learned to say my name just the other day! Now, try saying it, boy!”

“Ooh?”

“I’m Chappie. Chappie.”

“Ayy.”

“No?!”

While Chappie repeatedly tried to no avail to have Leon say his name, Pochi and Bright laughed at him at the top of their lungs.

For the time being, things are peaceful here.

How long this peace lasts, though, is another question…

Scratch that – not even this sense of tranquility is possible in Sodom now.

Speaking of which, apparently, June hadn’t been keeping up with Giorno and Lylia after I had split with them, either. We must get stronger and find them again soon…

While thinking about all those things, my hand that had been pointing toward the future changed into a fist toward the sky, because…

“What about Master? Leole, boy – he’s Poer. Poer. You got that?”

“…Ahh~juu~lee~~”

“…”

Damn it, Pochi! You can’t just teach him EVERYTHING just because he’s still a toddler!