Chapter 146 – The smell of an incident!?

That night, after defeating the Giant Octopus.

We held a feast under the World Tree, in honor of our Earth Dragon guests.

“So this is how Giant Octopus tastes…it’s so soft…”

I couldn’t help but smile as I tasted the meat of Giant Octopus for the first time in my life.

I had expected it to have a tougher texture, similar to squid. But it was not the case.
There was no harsh smell either, and it was easy to eat.
Though, a lot of that could be attributed to Rienna’s skill with cooking.

After a while, I noticed that someone was sitting at the far corner of the table and eating quietly. It was Mappa.

He did not appear to be in his usual cheerful mood.
Perhaps he was embarrassed about his swift defeat after turning into a dragon earlier. After all, he had eaten the Dragon Transformation Stone without a second’s hesitation.

Well, Mappa’s magic energy really had been enormous at that moment.
I even wondered if he rivaled Elto.

Perhaps he could become much stronger if he learned to use magic.

And so I got up from my seat in order to encourage Mappa.

“Mappa… About earlier today… It wasn’t because you are weak.”

I said. But Mappa tilted his head to the side as if he had no idea what I was talking about.

Then his head turned to a certain Goblin girl.

It seemed like the Goblin girl was with a Goblin boy of about the same age. And they were enjoying the Giant Octopus together.

Mappa looked at them with tearful eyes.

Uh? He was just shocked and heart broken… I just wasted my time.

Mappa started to cry as he fled from the table. This time, he tried to latch onto Macha for comfort.
However, Macha rejected him, and went off to a certain Earth Dragon.

Mappa sniffed loudly and then started clinging to me.

“Well, uh, cheer up, Mappa.”

But then again, Mappa’s problem was that he was not loyal…
Ah, now he’s gone to the cave.

As for Elto, she was currently discussing the Elto continent with the other Earth Dragons.

At first, she would make loud exclamations every time she heard about the situation there. But she was more quiet now.

I had been listening to some of it from the side, and it was clear that the Elto continent really was a great wasteland where trees and grass no longer grew.

Still, if they could mine the Evergreen Stones, then it would be possible for them to return their lands to its past glory of being rich with nature.
Of course, it will be pointless if it all gets burned down. And so Elto would have to stop it.

“I wish there was more that I could do to help, but… Hmm, now that I think about it, those two aren’t here.”

I noticed that the Kobold brothers, Ashton and Haines were missing.

In fact, they were practically the food connoisseurs of the island.
Haines was always saying ‘this is amazing!’ when eating something delicious, and while Ashton always had a severe look on his face, he would relax his mouth and say, ‘it’s fairly good.’
They would have known about the Giant Octopus, and so it bothered me that they had not come.

And so I asked Baris, who was attending the feast.

“Baris. Are Ashton and Haines not back yet?”
“Hmm… Now that you mention it, I haven’t seen them. Perhaps that matter has not been settled.”
“That matter?”
“Yes. It was what kept me in the underground city during the day.”

Baris usually stayed on the surface, but he was underground when the Giant Octopus attacked.

And so Baris explained why he had been underground.

“What happened was…the slimes that were in the underground city…the ones that have now returned to being human. Some of them say that they cannot find their families.”
“You mean, families that they know are still alive?”
“Yes. They are likely somewhere with their souls still trapped inside of slimes… But there are many slimes who are working in the city who no longer have human souls in them. And we cannot tell such slimes apart. And while Shiel is instructing them, the slimes of the underground city are rather free spirited.”

According to Shiel, their ability to reason is weakened when they turn into slimes.

So there might even be some who lost all of their memories of when they were human, and became slimes entirely.

“We better find them quickly then…”
“Yes. And Ashton and Haines are in charge of public safety in this country.”
“So they want to solve this case, I suppose?”
“Yes. However, I think they may be working too hard.”

I understood why they would want to reunite these families as soon as possible. Perhaps it reminded them about how Ril had lost her mother at such an early age.

“Very well… I’ll go and take a look. Perhaps it’s due to the Chimeras that still remain there.”

And so I headed to the underground city.

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