Hen na Ryu to Moto Yuusha Party Zatsuyougakari, Shintairiku de Nonbiri Slow Life. - Chapter 16

Chapter 16 – Demon Wolf and the Mysterious Creature

There was a new moon that night. And so it was almost completely dark outside.
I had to scan the area outside of the window while relying entirely on the starlight.

Just as I initially thought, there were only two shadows there.
And one of them was immediately recognizable to me.
A wolf that was filled with magic energy. In other words, magic beast known as a demon wolf.

They existed on both the human and demon continent.
And while they were already quite strong when alone, their combat ability shot up when they were in packs.
A demon wolf pack with a particularly good boss could even wipe out an A-rank party.

(But even if I recognize the wolf…I can’t tell what the other one is.)

At first, I thought that it was a demon wolf as well.
This was because it also had wolf-like ears and tail. However, the shape of its body was clearly different.
And its arms and legs seemed to have gone bald.

(Maybe it’s a wolf that has some kind of disease?)

The mysterious creature was quite a bit smaller than the demon wolf.
That made me wonder if it was a cub, but that too seemed unlikely.

The demon wolf was about 0.8 meters tall, and 1.5 meters long.
A large wolf. However, it would be the size of a very young demon wolf.
Because demon wolves were known to become several times larger than ordinary wolves.

In other words, this demon wolf was not old enough to have cubs.
Of course, perhaps it was a type of wolf that was unique to this continent.
I would have to ask Kelly about it later.

(It could also be a younger brother or sister wolf.)

However, it was unthinkable for young wolves to act alone.
Well, there were two of them. But the ones that traveled away from packs were the ones that had been driven out.
And it was unlikely that cubs would be driven out.

(…Perhaps the rest of the pack were killed?)

That was certainly a possibility.
And if it was the case, it meant that there was something out there that could destroy a demon wolf pack.
We would have to be careful.

(Anyway, I should try asking them.)

I had the taming skill.
As long as the monster had a certain degree of intelligence, we could communicate even if we didn’t share a language.

And so I left Hippolius, who was still breathing loudly, and exited the house.
Then I erased my presence and approached the strangers without making a sound.

As I was a non-combatant within the Hero’s party, I was good at erasing my presence.
This was because I had to do it often when they fought against strong enemies, or I might get in their way.

But demon wolves were especially good at detecting people.
Though, not as good as Arch Demons and Undead Kings.
And so I remained concealed as I moved closer to them.

“Gabu-gabu-gabu.”
“Hamu-hamu-hamu.”

The two were single-mindedly eating our leftovers.
Well, it was more like garbage, than leftovers.
As it was mostly bones and guts. Also, the pieces of burnt meat that were carved off.

They must have been very hungry.
The smell of good food had probably attracted them.

It was our fault for not being more careful when dealing with the leftovers.
Everyone had become too drunk, and not much thought was put into cleaning up.
This was a big mistake for Adventurers to make.

I activated the taming skill and tried to talk to the two who were eating.

‘I’m not an enemy.’

I said to them telepathically.
The taming skill allowed you to do such things.

The reason that I did this, was that I didn’t want to wake up Hippolius or the other Adventurers.
Especially, Hippolius, who would likely scare the wolves.

And yet the demon wolf still let out a scared yelp, and jumped back before falling to a low posture.
It looked at me with a scared expression.

However, the mysterious other creature just looked at the demon wolf as if it didn’t understand.
It wasn’t scared at all.

It was quite brave for being so small. Just as I thought this…

“…Ga-gya-gya!”
It’s gaze followed the demon wolf’s and as soon as it caught sight of me, it ran away.
The demon wolf started to run after it.

‘Hey, please wait.’
“…Graa.”

When I called after them, the demon wolf stopped.
However, the mysterious creature continued to run.

(What?)

I was quite surprised.
The reason that the demon wolf stopped was due to the force of the taming skill.
My taming skill had the ability to force someone to talk.
It didn’t work on high-ranking dragons, but it worked on ordinary monsters.
Of course, by ‘force’ I just meant making them stop for a short time and calm them down.
It wasn’t possible to make them work.

(It isn’t as strong as a high-level dragon, but…)

That being said, it hadn’t worked at all on the other creature.
It had run away.
And so I tried to talk to the demon wolf instead.

‘I have no intention of harming you.’
“…”

I had to show that I was not an enemy while it was still under my spell.
Otherwise, it would just run away again as soon as it deactivated.

‘I won’t harm you or your friend.’

I said again, just to make sure. I had to repeat it until it understood.
Showing that you were not hostile was one of the most important parts of taming.

After repeating it several times, I could tell that the demon wolf understood me.