Ch#65
Tie took a deep breath and swiftly thrust her hand into Berugon's inner pocket.
Finding the core inside wasn't all that difficult.
The moment she gripped the core in her hand and pulled away from Berugon, he immediately began screaming.
“No! That's—!”
Tie caught her breath while eyeing the wailing Berugon.
In the meantime, Berugon, who had shouted several more times, slowly closed his eyes.
Only after he had gone limp did Tie lower her gaze.
In her palm gleamed the shiny red Krazar's core.
The slightly cracked stone in her hand faintly shimmered, as if asking what had happened.
“Stole it?!”
At that moment, Lucarion approached Tie.
Turning her head, the red mist had vanished at some point.
Tie nodded with frightened eyes.
“Yeah. This......”
“Let me see.”
Lucarion narrowed his brow as he looked at the core in Tie's palm.
He rolled it around with his front paw and muttered.
“I can feel the condensed magic power. It seems stronger than before.”
“Condensed......?”
The moment she tilted her head.
Crack—
The core in Tie's hand began cracking again.
Dozens of fissures formed around the existing crack, freezing Tie in place.
Lucarion held his breath too.
But after a few seconds passed like that.
“Whirrr—”
The vibrating core let out a strange noise before splitting cleanly in half.
Tie parted her lips slightly at whatever emerged from within.
“Chirp! Chwee!”
Jet-black and round eyes.
A long trunk below them.
Even the tiny ears flapping feebly on either side.
“Egg......?”
At Tie's words, Lucarion scowled.
“What egg?”
Tie stared at Lucarion with creaking eyes.
“Wu, Wucawion. Fwom the egg. Fwom the egg......”
The child's pupils shook nonstop.
“A baby ewephant was born!”
The king of herbivores she'd seen over and over in savanna documentaries.
Tie's absolute favorite animal, more beloved than wolves, giraffes, or pandas.
An elephant had hatched from Krazar's core, of all things.
But what was even more unbelievable was,
“Chwee!”
“......It cawws Tie mothew!”
Not mom, but mother.
The fact that Tie could understand every peep from the baby elephant.
* * *
“Chwee, chwewoong, chwe-swat!”
“Ppuppu says it's a good son. So it wanted to give the food it saved for a long time to Tie.”
“Chwe-woong...... chwee.”
“It saved it for years, it says.”
“Kkweee......”
“Why save the food? It was saving it to hatch all at once in one go.”
A sigh escaped Lucarion's mouth.
Before his eyes sat Tie, side by side with the fist-sized monster.
The monster was kneeling politely toward Tie for some reason.
“Chwewoong! Chwe-woong! Chwee-chwee-wut.”
“But then it met Tie and got enough power to hatch without eating the food! So instead of eating it itself, it was chasing after to give it to me?”
Lucarion narrowed his eyes.
“No way that's the food?”
Tie hesitated and nodded along Lucarion's gaze.
Where Lucarion gestured lay Berugon, passed out spread-eagled.
“Hah.”
Lucarion swallowed a sigh and slowly blinked.
Then, with a serious expression, he stared at Astie and pointed his front paw at the bizarre-looking monster.
“Do you even know what that thing is?”
“......Chwee-pweet!”
The kneeling monster shot to its feet.
Standing on two legs, it began snapping back at Lucarion as if asking who he thought he was pointing at.
But Lucarion ignored the monster (already named Ppuppu by Astie) and continued.
“That's a magic beast.”
Tie's shoulders twitched.
“Whether it hatched or whatever, it absorbed your magic power to do it.”
“Chwee-chwee-chwee-wut-! Chwee-!”
The monster trotted over and poked Lucarion's paw with its trunk, thump thump.
But Lucarion continued without even glancing that way.
“The residual magic power in Krazar's core absorbed your magic and took on a substantial form as a magic beast, got it?”
Tie swallowed and avoided Lucarion's gaze.
But Lucarion pressed on in a grave voice.
“In other words, that magic beast is the one that trapped us here and just scared you with the delirium. You gonna let your guard down just 'cause its appearance changed? From what I sense, that thing has killed at least 200 people.”
“No!”
“Chweuk!”
The monster and Tie answered simultaneously.
The staggering monster even clutched the back of its neck with one foot before collapsing with a thud.
Tie rushed over, scooped the monster into her arms, and said,
“Its name isn't that, it's Ppuppu!”
Then she put on a profoundly sage expression.
“And Ppuppu says it can't remember well.”
“What?”
“It can't remember what it was doing before getting trapped in the egg.”
Lucarion blinked in absurdity.
“It also says it never harmed anyone. Ppuppu isn't a bad baby elephant like that!”
Lucarion swallowed heavily.
‘Never harmed anyone?’
Then how was he supposed to explain the blood scent wafting from that monster's magic power?
Killing intent, or bloodlust.
It was a unique odor emanating only from those who had committed ruthless slaughter.
“Nonsense.”
As he muttered, Astie fidgeted while staring at the monster.
The cheeky monster stood on Tie's palm, glaring at Lucarion.
Tie hesitantly spoke again.
“The thing about trapping Tie in the subspace...... well, it wasn't with bad intentions.”
“Then?”
“It was to make it easier for Factory Chief to eat......”
Tie, who had shut her mouth, awkwardly continued.
“It says it couldn't control well 'cause it's still a baby, so it accidentally made stuff that scares Tie. At first, it tried to let Tie go, but since it hadn't fully hatched, it used the mist to help. But Tie kept running away so it couldn't catch her.”
Lucarion let out a hollow laugh.
Then he soon glared fiercely at the monster.
“It says it never harmed anyone, but it tried to eat that human? Doesn't that contradict?”
“Chwee! Chwee-chwee-wut! Chwee! Chwee-woong-! Chwee-chwee!”
“Ppuppu eats not people, but hearts! Scary hearts!”
Tie jumped in to defend the monster hurriedly.
“It says it's a baby elephant that lives by eating scary hearts! So at first, it thought Tie had that too and tried to give it! But Tie told it properly!”
“......”
“Tie only eats rice and snacks and bread, so no need for scary hearts.”
Lucarion blankly shut his mouth.
Astie was holding out the monster toward him as if to show off.
“So, Bwackie. Isn't thewe some misundewstanding? Wook, Ppuppu is supew supew tiny.”
“......Chwee-woong.”
“Supew cute and keeps cawwing me mothew.”
“Chwee-chwee-woong!”
“Ppuppu wants to stay with Tie fowevew and evew. If Tie says no, it won't even do food activities!”
Lucarion unwittingly clutched his forehead.
“......That's 'cause even now, that thing's constantly absorbing your magic power to bulk up! It doesn't need food activities at all!”
Tie's eyes welled up with tears in an instant.
“But Tie wants to waise Ppuppu......?”
It was then that Lucarion held his breath at the absurd remark.
“Sovereign King?”
A hoarse voice came from behind.
Berugon, who had woken up before they knew it, was staring at Tie and Lucarion in disbelief.
