“… …”
In front of me, Fer, Grandpa Gon, Dora-chan and Sui were lined up in an uncomfortable row.
Let’s recap what happened earlier.
As expected, the Gluttonous Quartet defeated the three long-necks with their overwhelming strength. This was not the problem. I can’t feel too sorry for them since they tried to attack us first.
Then, Fer said, “Hey, this guy’s meat is decent compared to the rest here.”
Grandpa Gon followed that outrageous remark with, “The meat is a little tough, but not bad.”
The end result of those two remarks was ‘Let’s hunt more of these!’
The next thing I knew, my familiars hunted down four more of these long-necks and I ended up looking at the huge corpses at my feet. “Oi! Why do you have to hunt so many of them? What would we do with seven of these? The meat may be decent, but it’s tough, right?”
Per usual, I activated [Appraisal] to check on their edible status. Maybe I could get a clue on how to cook them…
[Supersaurus]
Unique species created in the image of Earth’s dinosaurs. A fierce carnivore with the toughest skin on this land with a strong and powerful neck. Excels in killing its prey by swinging it with its long neck. It was the strongest creature in this forest.
Status-Extinct.
Wait.
Extinct?
We just saw seven of… them…
Hold on… ‘was’ the strongest? Extinct?
[1]
“Hey Fer, you and Grandpa Gon can do [Appraisals], right? Take a look at what you did to these monsters.”
“Umu?”
“Master?”
“Why don’t you two explain to Dora-chan and Sui what’s the status of this monster?”
“Master, the monster is one of the strongest creatures in this forest-”
“Was.”
“Hmm?”
“This monster was the strongest in the forest. Do you know why it was the strongest in this forest?”
“Ah, that is…”
“That’s because it’s extinct! It’s gone! That’s the last of it!! You understand?!”
““Wait, why are you angry?””
“”Aruji~ what is extinct~?””
“Hah! Why don’t you ask those two what it means!!?” I shrieked, pointing at Fer and Grandpa Gon.
“U-umu, it just means that we have hunted all the monsters here…”
“Th-that’s right,”
““So, what’s the big deal?”” asked Dora-chan.
“Is this a dungeon? How do you think monsters breed? Do you think they would just respawn once we leave? You have to have at least one male and one female monster to breed more monsters and now…”
“”Wait, what?!””
“How many of these Supersaurus do you think we have now?!”
““U-um, two?”” said Dora-chan hopefully.
“None! There’s none! Zero! There were only seven of them left in this forest and you’ve all hunted seven Supersaurus!!!”
““Eh, um, surely there are more elsewhere…”” stammered Dora-chan.
“Fer!” I shouted. “Tell Dora-chan what extinct means!”
“U-umu, it means… there are none left.”
“None?”
“None left in the world…”
“”No more big monster~~?”” asked Sui.
“No more, none, you will never see one of these alive ever again!”
This was something that Earth had encountered many times. Too many animals go extinct due to human activity. Don’t you know that apex predators are part of a delicate ecosystem? What do you think would happen to this forest now that they are all gone?!
“Y-you guys are always overdoing it!!”
Perhaps sensing that I was really upset, Fer, Grandpa Gon, Dora-chan and Sui fell silent.
“Dora-chan, Sui, these two are examples of bad adults, you should never imitate them!”
“”But I’m an adult?””
“Kuuuhh—”
“Oi, you’ve been nagging and making a lot of noise at us for a while now!”
“What? What’s this about being noisy?!” I couldn’t believe Fer just said that to me!
“Well, it can’t be helped since it already happened! So, get over it!”
Fer actually barred his teeth at me.
“The heck! Why are you angry at me?!” I shrieked, losing whatever common sense I had in myself by this stupid furball’s high-handed behaviour.
“Master, I know we were wrong, but there’s really no point scolding us since it would not fix anything.”
“Grandpa Gon is rebelling too!!?”
Indeed, even though Grandpa Gon’s tone was slightly more polite, the arrogance on the faces of these apex predators was unapologetically arrogant.
“Did you two even hear anything I said?! You guys never–!!!” I was shouting at them, but they only looked bored. Nothing I said was actually reaching them. My eyes fell upon the Supersaurus that had collapsed beside us and I felt nothing but emptiness…
“Haahhh… fine. No matter what, there’s no way to bring the Supersaurus back to life. The fact that it is now extinct would not change…”
I vaguely heard Fer and Grandpa Gon muttered ‘Finally’ under their breaths.
But, was it really?
No.
I could not let it end like this.
“That’s right, since we can’t change anything about the circumstances of the Supersaurus, I have no choice but to punish everyone.”
“Wh-what?”
“Punishment?”
““H-hey, what are you talking about?””
“”Bad thing~?””
“Anyway, let’s just go back to the Royal Capital.”
The Supersaurus was gone. I have no idea how it would affect this land populated by carnivorous dinosaurs that enjoyed devouring each other. Anyway, since they were created and watched over by Demiurgos-sama, surely they will be alright?
Surely.
Maybe.
Anyway.
After retrieving the fallen Supersaurus, we returned to the Royal Capital.
Grandpa Gon landed in front of the side gate where we had taken off earlier.
Guild Master Willem-san was already waiting for us with his arms folded. The Royal Capital must have spotted Grandpa Gon flying in from miles away and alerted the Guild.
What should I do?
Let’s greet him normally first.
“So, I’m back!” I said as cheerfully as possible.
“You know why I’m here, yes?”
“I-I’m sorry…”
“I told you this already, that you must make a report whenever you… go for one of your joyrides.”
“I-I’m really sorry. It’s just, my familiars dragged me away and… well, they were really excited about this hunting ground which was filled with unique monsters. I brought some souvenirs back for the Guild!” I was talking so fast that I hardly knew what I was saying.
“Souvenirs?”
“Yes, well, this time we went to a volcano. That is, it’s a dormant volcano’s caldera hidden deep in the mountains with all these strange trees with leaves that would close up and…”
I stopped speaking because Guild Master Willem-san suddenly turned pale.
“Y-y-you!!! You did it again!!” he howled.
I flinched back, my shoulders shaking from the impact of his voice.
“Th-th-this place! This place is described in the children’s book called the <<The Adventure’s of Hayden>>! A heroic tale of an Adventurer that even illiterate children know because the church would have reading sessions about it! What you described matched up with that story which people had long since believed was nothing but a fantastic land dreamed up by someone with an overactive imagination. Until now!!”
Here I thought it was a place that not many people know. It turned out that lots of people knew about it but thought that it was just a fantasy…
I have a feeling that things are going to become super complicated soon…
Shiver…
“We still have to make sure that it’s the real thing. The only way to do so is to consult my superiors. I’ll have to report to the Adventurer’s Guild. You must come with me and tell them everything you know.”
“A-alright…”
I was escorted to the Royal Capital like a criminal.
As for my familiars, they just followed after me as though this had nothing to do with them, even though they were the main culprit.
[Gumihou: Goodness, had to redo half of this chapter…]
[1] Redid the dialogue to reflect less ‘aaAAAhhhhh’ from Mukouda and more quiet teeth gritting rage.
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