The Great Ancient Wizard, Contact with the Unknown (3)

Im sure that the Master can take care of this himself.

Its hard for any country to bury multiple dragons at once. What the hell do you think I am?

Well, the question hasnt even been answered in my mind yet

Maybell stared at Evan with a very suspicious look, but Evan couldnt help but feel hurt.

No, Ive been dealing with dragons one-on-one, but I havent dealt with multiple at once!

It seemed that a dragon was easy because he had hunted it rather quickly, but their power increased exponentially should he fight more than one at a time. The Great Ancient Wizard also hunted only in situations where only one dragon could be called out to fight in the game. All other situations were bad endings!

And the flow is important in this kind of thing.

The flow?

Yes.

The plan to wipe out the Demons with dragons was, in fact, just a more important step in preparation for the plan.

The plan is to co-destruct the dragons with the other dragons that crawled out of the Spirit Realm.

Oh, come to think of it, there are other dragons, too.

Yes, if they were allied with the Devil, theyd be in the North by now

Evan couldnt break the Norths barrier now. It wasnt because he thought the dragons would notice the barrier, but he intended to encourage the dragons rivalry with each other.

The Dragons are the ones who think of each other as doppelgngers. If the Demons in the South are swept away, it will naturally be reported to the Norths main camp. If the dragons of another world find out about it, they wont be able to survive without coming forward.

Of course, the plan was meaningful on the assumption that the dragons crawling out of the Spirit Realm had minimal cooperation with the Demons, but it probably wouldnt go that far. Well, even if things went wrong, Evan just needed to clean up the dragons consumed by the battle with the Demons and return.

Youre a good fighter, Master.

What you can do is simple. When the dragons show up, you just need to give a little boost to the instincts of the Demons. If you instigate the lower Demon Tribes, the upper Demons will be forced to enter the battle because they cannot control them.

Its the specialty of the Succubus if its instinctual.

And Fayna said

Evan smiled and told the operation to the angel of the Earth Mother, who had a frightened look on her face from the moment she was told that there was a dragon. Fayna seemed very unhappy with it, but she managed to convince herself that it was insurance if things went wrong. It made the plan perfect. The two dragon factions would never stop fighting until either side was wiped out!

And, of course, those who remained at the end of it would have been arranged in the hands of Evan and his party.

* * *

Evan wanted to move right away, but his decision proved to be postponed until the next day. Everyone looked forward to his return from the Demon Realm, and the Succubae wanted to move after taking his energy. To put it bluntly, there was a problem of establishing a home for the Arpeta family, and it was necessary to convey the primary education policy to Shimma Cattleya.

Whoa, its over now.

Good job, Zero.

After finishing what he had to do right away, the sun had already set after speaking briefly to the elves, humans, and Dwarves. It was enough time to realize how dependent they were on Evan, who they had just met.

So, what if Im gone?

Ugh.

Mirole pulled her sleeve tight at the casual remark. Evan smiled bitterly when he realized his slip of the tongue.

Sorry.

No, I know Zero isnt from here. But.

Her green eyes, emitting a brilliant light like an emerald, were shaking uneasily. She took a step closer with her hand on Evans sleeve, strengthening her grip.

I feel like its getting closer and closerthe time when Zero leaves us. As many things happen, and as I meet a lot of people, those thoughts consume me more and more.

Ive been thinking since the Demon Realm. Zero is motivated to do everythingit looks like its just to get everything done in a short time.

He couldnt refute it because it was true. It was also confirmed that Evans longing for Sherden was growing day by day. But he thought he was hiding it. Yet Mirole, who had been looking at him, seemed to have already seen through his innermost thoughts.

Zero is an alias, right? When the humans called you, they would often say words that I couldnt understand. Im sure they know more about Zero than I do.

She was probably referring to Leos party. To be honest, the lie of memory loss was more or less discovered, but Evan couldnt help but answer vaguely because he couldnt admit it on the surface.

WellI guess so.

I think sobut when they get back to where they were, Zero will go back, too, right?

He couldnt nod, so he didnt say anything and kept his mouth shut. Perhaps resigned, she tugged on Evans sleeve with a lonely look on her face and backed away.

Im sorry. Zero is already doing his best for us, but I was acting like a baby. I didnt mean to ask you. Its just that Im so lonely

Well

Ill try harder from now on so that I can help Zero do his job. So dont abandon me and just watch.

Mirole.

Evan made it clear that it was his mistake and caught Mirole trying to escape. But he couldnt make irresponsible remarks about staying here after everything was over, so he thought about what would be good to soothe her.

Lets have a cup of tea. I want to drink the Elven Tea that you make.

He had gotten the worst of it.

Would that be all right?

Huh, yeah?

Why was she asking if it would be okay? Evan became a little nervous when he realized that the atmosphere had changed. Mirole came back and grabbed his sleeve again. She held it a little more complicated than before.

Are you sure itll be okay?

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh?

I never thought Id get a chance so soonand hes a great

Mirole?

He tried to pull away from his arm lightly, but she didnt budge. Evan realized that the new Mirole had become very strong in the days she spent in the Demon Realm.

Come on, lets go drink.

Mirole?

Ill make it smell good, so lets go drink.

It was weird. Mirole, who had been covered in a sad atmosphere a while ago, seemed to have a spirit that was hard to recognize now.

Im sure itll be very delicious.

Uh, but

A smile that was endlessly bright and attractive but with some shadows. Her smile stripped all power to resist.

So, youll drink the tea?

Sure.

Eventually, Evan had no choice but to be dragged away by her without hesitation. The Mother Tree stretched out its branches as if curious about their conversation, but it couldnt get into its daughters room.

* * *

Early in the morning, Evan called out to Cattleya. Cattleya had a very vivid look after a good nights sleep, perhaps because she escaped from the world of persecution she was born into. Yes, it was the opposite of Evan, who had been dogged by the forest fairys persistent courtship all night.

Why do you look so tired?

I fought to protect my innocence last night.

Innocence?

Theres something like that. Youll find out when you grow up.

Evan, whose condition was ruined, replied with a yawn because he had to play a thrilling game where he would lose if he took even a single step back. However, Cattleya rumbled with her cat ears pointed up because she didnt like those words.

Stop pretending to be an adult with all those difficult words.

He didnt mean to. But if he explained in detail, Evan would become a sexual harasser, so he decided to do as she wanted.

Yes, lets say Im a child.

Hmph!

However, his response seemed to have made Cattleya feel even angrier. Evan continued, ignoring her trembling body.

I originally tried to educate you by looking at you for a few days, but the damn thing that I drank made me so radical that I couldnt afford it. So, Ill just give you basic training.

Basic Training?

Lets find out your aptitude.

Aptitude?

Evan laid out all the weapons he had prepared on the floor. It was a waste of time to explain what an aptitude was.

You can choose the one you want the most.

You want me to use a weapon? Dont be ridiculous. I became a demon because of this vast magic.

So, you know how to use magic?

At this, Cattleya shut up immediately. He supposed so. The moment he saw her, he knew she was in a tribe that could handle magic. Perhaps Cattleyas growth had been low all this time because she struggled to use magic that didnt even work for her. Yeah, like Evan from the original Yo-Ma Great War 3 game.

Youre a close-knit cat. So, take your weapons. If you dont have any sense of the weapon, youll learn to fight.

You want me to sweat?

Then die if you dont like it.

At Evans cold words, she began to choose her weapon. However, she didnt react to the weapons enough.

What do you feel about this? You just wanted to wake up someone whos been sleeping well for a long time and bother them?

All right, all right, its not bad that youre ignorant.

But really, she didnt catch a reaction from any weapon. It wasnt on purpose; she just didnt feel anything. Then there was the only reaction when she touched a Gauntlet, a defensive tool, not a weapon.

Hold on

At that moment, Evan had a clue. A half-human, half-beast Demon Tribe with a cats ears. The faint aptitude with the gauntlet. Then there was only one answer.

Is it your claws!

A claw. It was a weapon that had been made by mimicking an animals claws. There was something that was made to be worn on her hand so that she could swing her nails, and Evan intuitively felt that she might have that aptitude.

I have one more favor to ask of the Dwarves.

A claw was a weapon not found in Yo-Ma Great War. So was this aptitude officially nonexistent? Surprisingly not. Some DLCs released in the early days of Yo-Ma Great War 4 had content in tiger form! There, the tigers skill required the claw aptitude. Of course, it wasnt disclosed, but later, a connoisseur looked at the programs source and found out.

Fans of the Yo-Ma Great War series, who wanted to swing the claws around, constantly suggested to the production team that they should make Claw aptitude for humans. Still, the production teams answer was consistently this: Its not an aptitude that humans can have. It ended up in a Demon!

You should be grateful to me.

Evan looked so proud that he showed off to Cattleya.

Im the only one in the world who knows how to train that aptitude.

Although Yo-Ma Great War 4 wasnt much liked Yo-Ma great War 3, he was proud of himself for remembering the training method because he liked the tiger that used Claw combat. Just because others knew the aptitudes didnt necessarily mean that they knew how to train as efficiently as Evan!

This man is so bad

Cattleya looked at Evan with a fierce look and began to grumble. Next to her, the little cats, Meow-one and Meow-two, were crying in a good mood. Evan saw them and realized something like a bolt of lightning in his mind.

And thus, the number of trainees in Claw combat skills increased to three.