Sleepy Again
……I'm sleepy again.
Lying on the turaka hide, I closed my eyes. It had been a month since the delegation left. Under the sunlight filtering in from under the roof, long shadows stretched across the two empty spots.
Lately, I'd been sleeping a lot more. I'd wake up, lie around for a while, then get sleepy again. Days seemed to slip away like that, but I didn't mind. I stretched long and hard, then stared blankly at the ceiling.
……Come to think of it, how much spice do I have left?
I sat up and opened my subspace. Spice box, dried fruit box, a few magical beasts I'd hunted. What had been packed full before the delegation left was now about half empty. The spices were going down visibly since I used them every day, and the dried fruits vanished quickly because Prostia took a handful every time she visited.
……Not much left.
I closed the subspace. As I lay back down on the hide and shut my eyes again, I felt a familiar mana from afar.
……Kar?
The mana rapidly drew closer. It was even denser than last time I'd seen him.
……He's gotten bigger?
Before I could even sit up, a large shadow fell over the nest entrance. Kar landed on the edge of the nest. The sound of wingbeats and scales scraping echoed inside simultaneously.
"M-Master……!"
His tail thumped against the nest floor.
He was bigger than when we'd met during the hunt. His scales were a deeper red, and even standing still, the air around him felt heavier. He'd clearly absorbed a good amount of the domain's mana in the meantime.
"It's been a while, Master!"
"Yeah. You did well?"
"Yes. The domain is settled, and my kin are stable."
"Good job."
A faint red glow seeped from between Kar's scales. He went to his spot and curled up. His scales settled softly. His tail drooped to the floor, then lifted again.
Watching him settle in made me curious about how the domain was doing. I stood up from my spot.
"Kar."
"Yes, Master."
"Shall we go check out the domain?"
Kar's eyes widened for a moment.
"……You're going there yourself, Master?"
"Yeah. Let's take a look."
Kar drew in a short breath.
"……I'll escort you!"
I released my polymorph, and my wings unfurled. Kar and I took off from the nest entrance together.
As we descended through the branches, Kar flew alongside me. I could feel the air being pushed harder with each flap of his wings compared to the Kar I'd met during the hunt. Leaf shadows danced over my wings.
We'd come quite a way down the World Tree and turned south when something brushed past the top of my head.
……Huh?
But when I looked, there was nothing. Come to think of it, it had happened before too.
……That thing again.
I focused back on flying. As we neared Kar's domain, the air grew warmer. Over the scent of beasts in the grasslands, Kar's mana lingered thickly. It was far denser than before. The energy spread out so vast that the plains seemed endless under the long sunlight. The grass had grown much thicker too.
I landed lightly on the grassland, grass brushing my talons. Wyverns inside the domain lifted their heads one by one. From afar, they recognized Kar and straightened their postures.
One, two, five, and more beyond. There had to be at least thirty wyverns settled in the domain.
As I approached, the wyverns that recognized me bowed their heads in unison. Big ones, small ones—they all lowered their scales and crouched.
……Oh.
Kar stepped forward in front of his kin.
"This is our master."
Kar's voice echoed through the domain. The wyverns bowed even deeper.
I lowered my posture and looked around the domain. There were traces of wyverns everywhere, and a bit farther off, small nests clustered together. At one end of the wyvern group, young hatchlings couldn't contain their curiosity and peeked out.
……Oh, babies.
One hatchling about half the size of an adult tilted its head and approached. Kar bristled his scales beside me but then settled them.
As one hatchling came close, the others followed. Two, three, five. The young ones gathered around my legs, pecking at my feathers.
……What's this.
One tried to nibble a feather but headbutted another hatchling and squawked. Another rubbed its head against my leg.
"……M-Master!"
Kar approached in a panic. I lightly blocked him with one wing.
"Caw."
(Leave them. They're cute.)
Kar froze. A red glow leaked from between his scales.
"……Thank you."
The hatchlings circled me for a while. The domain's atmosphere relaxed. After a bit, I nudged them toward the adults with my wing. The grown wyverns took them back to their spots.
……Nice.
I straightened up and spread my wings.
"Are you heading back now?"
"Caw caw."
(Yeah. You've settled in well. Let's go back together.)
"Yes!"
Back at the nest, the sun had slanted low. I recast polymorph and returned to human form. Kar curled up in his spot too.
I opened my subspace and pulled out a magical beast and the spice box. It was a big one with a whole slab of meat attached. I lit a thin flame at my fingertips and started butchering it.
Sizzle—!
Oil burst out, filling the nest with a familiar aroma. Kar's nostrils twitched.
"That smell."
"Spice the humans gave me. Makes the meat even tastier."
"……I see."
I placed a chunk of meat in front of Kar. He took a bite and chewed slowly. His chewing slowed, then stopped. He stayed like that for a while before swallowing it all at once.
"This is really delicious."
"Right?"
I put a piece of dried fruit in front of him too.
"Try this. For aftertaste."
Kar put a piece in his mouth and chewed slowly again.
"Humans bring things like this too."
"Yeah. I think we can get more."
Kar nodded and took another bite of meat. The nest felt lively for the first time in a while.
I took another bite and suddenly remembered something.
"Oh, right. Do you know about griffons?"
Kar stopped chewing again.
"……I do. If you go far west, there's a griffon territory."
"Oh. You know it."
Kar hesitated a moment before speaking.
"……But why griffons……."
"The strongest human in that delegation had a contract with a griffon."
Kar's tail stiffened.
"I ate one once long ago. Touching the feathers brought back memories."
Kar swallowed what was in his mouth and froze for a long time. His scales shivered once.
"M-Master……."
I just shrugged.
Kar fell silent again. His scales lowered further as his tail curled into a circle.
"What's up."
"……That human."
"Yeah?"
"Must have had a rough time."
Kar let out a short sigh.
"I'm glad you made it back safe. But that griffon surviving is even better. If it had been rude to you, it wouldn't have returned alive."
"Yeah?"
I didn't quite get what Kar meant. We finished off the remaining meat together. Kar stretched and his eyes started to droop.
"Master. May I sleep a bit?"
"Sure. Sleep well."
Kar buried his head in his spot and curled into a ball. I lay back down on the hide. Kar's steady breathing came from beside me. Sunlight stretched long through the leaves.
……Nice.
My eyelids grew heavy again.
Deep in the Valdenfelts Mansion, in a small conference room hidden from outsiders, Valter von Valdenfelts sat behind a desk. Across from him, a man knelt.
Black leather armor without insignia, face obscured by a deep hood. The head of the Valdenfelts family's intelligence division.
"Watch the Rosenbergs."
"……How far?"
"Inside the main house."
The division head's shoulders tensed.
"Use any means. Just don't get caught."
"……What information to prioritize."
"Mages' movements. Main house access logs. And any items brought in from outside."
"Understood."
"Report monthly, but immediately if anything suspicious turns up."
"As you command."
The division head bowed briefly and stood. The conference room door closed.
Valter leaned back deeply in his chair. He watched steam rise from his teacup in hand.
……I hope it was just my imagination.
He recalled the heavy mana he'd felt from the carriage procession. Short and faint, but unmistakable. But he couldn't have been wrong.
The fireplace flames flickered once.
At that moment, deep in the Rosenberg Main House basement. The outer runes of the magic circle were already complete. Mages were filling in the inner runes line by line.
The lines grew more precise toward the center, taking longer to draw each one. The lead mage stood at the circle's heart, overseeing the progress.
The runes on the chains wrapped in black cloth glowed more intensely through the fabric. The golden particles in the glass vial beside them flowed stronger toward the chains.
Just placing them nearby, the chains and the medium resonated with each other.
One mage finished a line and shuddered. The next took over.
The basement air grew heavier.