Pet Dog Barky (2)
Humans and monsters cannot speak to one another.
The gulf between language and the cries of beasts is not one easily closed. That much is only natural.
They can manage a crude sort of communication with their bodies, at least. The monstrous bird near the Abandoned Temple had understood nothing more than a gesture of my hand, and still it had granted my request.
But anything resembling a careful exchange of ideas is another matter. There is a gap in intelligence, and they do not even use the same parts of their bodies. Physical language has its limits.
Does that mean humans and monsters can never share a true understanding?
No.
There was, as it happened, a remarkably reliable method.
Violence.
A power that any living thing with instincts has no choice but to fear — or to enjoy. Fists and feet communicate more clearly than any language. Claws and fangs are a tongue so perfect they make howling sound like a joke.
And so, to reach an understanding with a monster, you first had to show it who stood on top. A sorting of the ranks, in other words.
"Analyze its movements for me."
Might as well go all out. Violence works best when the gap in power is overwhelming.
"Do you really need my help? It's already terrified."
The shock must have been considerable. Barky was trembling so hard its legs were shaking. I felt a pang of pity, but I had to be cold about this.
"I need to put it down for good, or it'll just bite me again."
"You used to at least make an effort to be a kind and gentle saintess! What in the world happened to you while I was asleep? May I take a peek at your memories? Ah — you said I couldn't. I'm just so terribly curious..."
There it went again, rattling on. I let the chatter slide in one ear and out the other as I closed in on Barky.
"Stay away!"
A massive maw, already flung wide, came rushing at me — ready to tear my head clean off. But those sharp teeth weren't particularly threatening. They could barely leave a scratch on me under ordinary circumstances.
The enormous jaws clamped down on my shoulder and shook me wildly. Barky strained with everything it had to rip the flesh free, but I was healing far faster than it could tear. Eventually it let go and scrambled away from me, whatever scrap of courage it had managed to wring out of itself vanishing all over again.
"Monster..."
And who exactly was calling whom a monster? Time to teach this thing some manners.
"You don't just go attacking people."
I drove my fist into the face of the retreating creature. That huge body crumpled in a single blow and slammed into the dirt. I'd expected it to take at least a few hits. It didn't live up to its size in the slightest.
"See? You didn't need me at all."
"Guess not."
I'd woken Gloria, but she wasn't much help in a fight. In most cases, I was more than enough on my own. Not that she was useless.
"Lady Clitia, I don't believe it's over. Please be careful."
Just as Gloria warned, something was off about Barky. Its body shuddered as if vibrating — and then, in an instant, it swelled to an even more enormous size. Its head rose. Its neck had grown so thick it looked painful. Its body had ballooned to at least ten times what it had been.
A flicker of anticipation rose in my chest. They do say a weight class is a thug in its own right.
"Don't look so pleased about it — be careful!"
"I know."
A gigantic forepaw came crashing down toward my head. It was a simple pressing motion, but given the sheer scale, it was a vicious attack. Taking that one would be dangerous.
I thrust both hands upward and forced my mana out, as if shoving it away.
Crimson Aura erupts outward
Red Aura engulfed the massive paw, swallowing it the way a tide swallows a stone. The movement stopped. Barky thrashed in panic, but that only made the Aura clamp down tighter. I twisted, hard.
The forepaw warped into a grotesque shape. A howl of agony echoed through the valley.
"Does that hurt?"
I leaped high and drove my fist into that enormous jaw — hard enough to send a jolt up my arm.
"So be more careful from now on."
The colossal body slowly listed to one side. Then it met the ground with a thunderous crash.
That had to be the end of it. I landed lightly and watched as Barky shrank back to its original size. It didn't look like it wanted to fight anymore. It had become a tiny puppy, sprawled limply on the ground, not moving a muscle.
"Disappointing."
I'd been hoping for a back-and-forth that would actually put me in danger. Instead, it had been pathetically frail. Still, I'd thoroughly instilled some manners. Now we could start communing in earnest, couldn't we?
"Lady Clitia? This is hardly the time for remarks like that."
"Why?"
"Look at it."
I glanced at Barky. Its body was trembling faintly. Was it about to transform again? I only understood the situation once I'd stepped closer.
"Hic... hhngh..."
Barky was sobbing. So wretchedly it almost made me feel guilty.
"...Did I mess this up?"
"Generally speaking, the one who made it cry is at fault."
It attacked me first. Not that being in the right did me any good. When you boiled it down, I'd just gotten into a brawl with a child.
"What do I do?"
"What do you think? Comfort it."
"I've never done that before."
"Then this is the perfect chance to learn. Come now, hurry."
Unable to withstand Gloria's prodding, I scooped Barky up into my arms.
"Did it hurt that much?"
I gently stroked its head. Fortunately, it didn't seem afraid of my touch.
"Don't cry."
I soothed it for a long while before the sniffling finally began to fade.
"Feeling better?"
"...I'm sorry."
So it wasn't rotten down to its nature. It actually apologized, just like that.
"It hurt when you bit me, you know."
"It didn't hurt."
Compared to the bombardment Riella had unleashed on me, those sharp teeth had been little more than a stinging massage.
"I was just so scared of you. I couldn't help it."
"It's fine. Just don't do it again, okay?"
"Okay."
It had been a little sideways, but we'd communicated. And I'd taught it manners on top of that. Couldn't ask for better.
"You're... actually a pretty nice person."
Barky burrowed deeper into my arms. Its wariness had melted away completely — it even started yawning.
Cute.
I was the one in the wrong for hitting a kid like this so hard.
That said, how had Riella ended up raising this thing? Monsters were unconditionally subject to subjugation. Keeping one was illegal. And most monsters with actual intelligence belonged to the Demon King's army. Even a young one capable of reasoned judgment could be treated as an officer.
A creature of Barky's caliber having deep ties to the Demon King's army wouldn't be strange at all. It made more sense than it being raised as a pet, at any rate. There was clearly a complicated story tangled up in this.
"How did you meet Riella?"
Barky tilted its head at my question, then answered brightly.
"I don't know!"
Cheerfulness and knowledge, as it turned out, had absolutely nothing to do with each other.
"Try to remember the first time you met."
"I can't remember anything."
"Nothing at all?"
"Nope. Everything from before I met Riella is completely black. I can't see any of it."
A blacked-out memory. Something about that sat wrong with me. It wasn't a natural phenomenon.
Had it been hit with a memory-alteration spell? A tricky type of magic to handle, but Riella would have had no trouble pulling it off. It was the most plausible theory I had for now.
What I couldn't figure out was the purpose. I turned it over in my head, but in the end I concluded I'd have to pry it out of the person herself. There probably wasn't anything truly shady going on. If there were, she never would have left Barky with me.
"Riella's nice, right?"
"Yeah. She always gives me tasty food and plays with me."
"I figured."
If it turned out Riella belonged to the Demon King's army, I was fully prepared to attack her without a second thought. The same way she'd bombarded me.
I lay on the wooden platform, staring blankly up at a sky glittering with stars and moonlight.
It wasn't as beautiful as the night sky I'd seen in Serda. But it was still a vista well worth taking in.
No matter how I thought about it, magic was far too useful compared to Aura. Magic was useful in every direction imaginable, while Aura was only good for cutting things and breaking things. They were both powers that used the same mana, and yet the gap was this wide. It stung all the more because I hadn't been able to learn magic — I simply didn't have the talent.
"I'm back."
A door opened in midair, and Riella walked through it, her face heavy with exhaustion.
"Where's Barky?"
"Here."
Barky was fast asleep, using my thigh as a pillow. So much for being terrified of me. Now it followed me around everywhere I went.
"You're already close? Even the Vice Tower Master still hasn't managed to get along with it."
"It just kind of happened."
"Wonders never cease."
I casually tossed a question at Riella, who was gazing at Barky with a fond smile.
"Where'd you pick this one up?"
"......"
The smile melted away. That change of expression turned my suspicion that she was hiding something into certainty.
"Spit it out."
Riella kept her mouth shut and stared at me, her gaze dark, as if she had no desire to speak.
"Don't want to answer?"
I concentrated the mana in my body into my right hand.
"You will."
Violence is a shortcut to the truth. I twisted my waist, ready to extend the all-natural truth serum known as a fist — and Riella placed a hand on my shoulder.
"What's so funny?"
Now that I looked, Riella was holding back a laugh.
"As if I'd ever set foot in some den of evil like the Demon King's army."
"Then what?"
"You were so desperate to find them, so I arranged a meeting. Don't tell me you still haven't figured it out?"
A single possibility flashed through my mind.
"Don't tell me this thing is the Sage?"
"You idiot. Why else do you think I suddenly asked you to look after it?"
A magically super-genius dog-monster Sage. It was confusion at its absolute peak. No wonder I'd been so late to catch on.
"O gentle sun... I know ability is what matters, but a monster as the Sage is a bit..."
"It's not a monster."
Riella smiled meaningfully and gave Barky a gentle shake to wake it.
"Nnnn. Wanna keep sleeping."
"It's me. Wake up for a second."
"Oh, Riella! Are you done with work?"
"You haven't shown this one your true form yet, have you? Go on. Show them."
Barky nodded vigorously.
"Okay! I can trust this person!"
And then it leaped into the sky.
No — it flew. On wings that had sprouted from its back.
Its body grew. Not merely in size, the way it had before — its very appearance changed.
Golden scales. A great pair of wings. A body like a lizard's. The form of a race commonly known as the people of magic.
"I told you. A super-genius."
Riella's lips curved into a delighted smile, clearly pleased by my stunned reaction.
"Well? Surprised?"
"...Yeah. You brat."
Barky was a dragon.