Strange Dragon – 107

Chapter 107 – Ravaged Field

---

I woke up to the familiar sensation of having my face licked.
Even when I opened my eyes, my vision was dark.

“…It’s morning.”
‘Play.’
“Wuff.”
‘Food.’

Kuro was on my face, covering my eyes.
His soft belly was against my nose.
And I felt something wet against my cheek.

“…Kuro…did you wet yourself?”
“Wuff-wuff-wuff!”

Kuro wagged his tail and moved around on my face.
Oh, well. This was Kuro, after all.

Roro was on my chest and licked my chin.
As for Ruru, she was above my head and chomping on my hair.

“Well, calm down.”

I moved them away so that I could sit up.
Then I lined the wolf cubs up and patted them on the head.

“…Where’s Hippolius?”
“Woo…”

Hippolius was a short distance away and sleeping on its back.
And Fio was petting Hippolius.

In the meantime, Shiro and Pii were playing together.

After that, I woke up Hippolius and we all went out to eat breakfast.
With Ije taking the lead, breakfast was made, and I prepared food for the wolf cubs.

We all enjoyed a pleasant meal, and then cleaned up. And then we continued the farm work from yesterday.

But before leaving the base, I confirmed something with Ije.

“Ije. Is this the right seed?”
“Yes. That fine. Thank you.”

It was the beans that we were going to plant.
The bean itself was the seed.
After taking them from Ije’s village, they had been stored in my magic bag.

And then we all took the farming tools and headed towards the field that Hippolius had plowed yesterday.
Hippolius became big, and walked with us happily.
Fio and I carried the wolf cubs in our arms.

“Ije. Is there anything that we should do before planting them?”
“No. Because field was finished properly yesterday.”

So saying, Ije petted Hippolius with a grateful look.

“Kyuo-kyuo!”

When we arrived in the field, Victor, the other Adventurers and Kelly were already there.
For some reason, they were looking at the field with severe expressions.

“What is it, Victor? Did something happen?”
“Ah, Mr. Theo, Ms. Ije. Please look.”
“Hmm?”
“Ah…”

The field that had been neatly plowed yesterday was ravaged.
Holes had been dug, and there were mounds everywhere.

“Holes! Bumps!”
“Wuff!”

Fio and Shiro were shocked as well.

“Kelly. What do you think this is? Animals? Magic beasts?”
“…Hmm. Wait one moment.”

Kelly had a serious expression as she examined the holes.
As this was the new continent, we had to consider the possibility that it was a new species, and could not rush to any conclusions.

“Do you know, Ije?”
“…Hmm. …Maybe, boars?”
“Boars, huh?”
“Yes. But might be very big boar.”

Hippolius had hunted quite a lot of boars.
In fact, most of the meat that we ate was from boars.

“But the fields should smell like Hippolius and Shiro.”
“Yes. Strange.”

Hippolius and Shiro’s scent would instill fear into animals and magic beasts.
Normally, they would not come close to this place.

“Ms. Ije. How big would this boar be?”
Victor asked.

“Look here.”
“Ah. Is this the hoof print?”
“Yes. Claws.”

Ije pointed to two thin and long marks in the ground.

“There are dewclaws, so probably boar.”

With deers, there would also be two thin and long hoof prints.
However, unlike deers, there would be marks from the dewclaws with boars.

“Ije. But this hoof print is half a meter in size?”
“It must be very, very big.”

A normal hoof print would be 0.05 or 0.1 meters.
Considering that, this one was very big.

The boars that Hippolius hunted were about three meters long.
Considering these hoofprints, it must be eight meters, no, over ten meters in length.
If it was that big, it was no ordinary boar. A Demon Boar.

“Ms. Ije. Are there many large boars in this area?”
“Ije has never seen or heard of one so big.”
“I see. If Ms. Ije has never heard of one, then perhaps it is a giant boar that wandered in from some other place.”

Victor said with a grim expression.
If there was going to be a demon boar hunt, then Victor and the humans would be the ones to do it.
And so he was probably thinking of how to fight it.

“But, if they are large boars, sometimes, they are smart and mild. Maybe you can talk to this boar.”
“Hmm?”
“Because smart. Maybe it stop if we ask it?”
“That’s very different from the boars that we know about.”

The boars that Hippolius hunted did not seem to be different from the regular ones.

“Only big ones are smart. And because this hoof is big, maybe…”

According to Ije, the ones that were larger were special, and it was possible that they could talk.
However, it seemed too early to expect such a thing.

In any case, we should prepare to deal with an ordinary boar, and consider the rest once we meet it.

“If it is that big, then the wooden fence I planned to build will not be very effective.”
“Indeed.”

Such a fence would only stop ordinary boars and deers.

“It is a good thing we didn’t plant anything yet…”
“Yes. And if we plant it today, it will just go to waste if it comes again.”

We should refrain from planting anything until the giant boar has been dealt with.

“…Still, what was the boar trying to do? Digging so many holes like this.”

When I said this, Ije and Victor considered it as well.

“Hmm. It doesn’t seem like it was hungry.”
“We haven’t planted anything, after all.”

If we had planted the beans, then we could assume that the boar did it in order to eat them.
However, we had not done anything yet.

“Besides, there is plenty of other food around here. It could have eaten that.”
“Kyuo.”

Hippolius seemed to agree.
The other day, Hippolius and I had gathered mountain vegetables together. There was a lot that you could eat.

“Boars like mud. Roll around.”
“Ahh. So it was having a mud bath.”
“Maybe. The plowed field was perfect for that.”
“…But we can’t let it turn our field into its bathtub…”

As we discussed what should be done…
“…These are not the hoofprints of a boar.”
Kelly suddenly said with a serious expression.

Next Chapter