317: Black Dogs and Dragons
As I walked down the sand dune with Liz, the Barghests gathered and lined up.
I stroked the head of one of them as I walked, and their tails all wagged in unison.
“…Hmm?” I stopped and turned around.
“—What is it?” Liz looked at me, her expression composed.
“No, the presence of a Barghest…? It’s still a little far, but… it’s heading this way… I think…”
“Is there a problem? The ones who are searching for the dragons sometimes rendezvous and then separate, don’t they?”
As she had said, the search for the dragons was a joint operation with Lital-sama, and they were mostly acting on their own. The official entry in the mission log was ‘Providing Black Hound Barghests to the First Army for the purpose of searching for dragons in enemy-controlled territory.’ In more casual terms, it was ‘having the Barghests listen to Lital-sama and search for dragons.’
In truth, I didn’t have an accurate count of the Barghests. I had twelve hidden in my robe, a manageable number for a bodyguard, and about a hundred more with me. The hundred or so that had been with the field operative units had been split between me and Lital-sama. My group had rendezvoused with the field operative units from other regions, and they had also been increasing in number by eating the enemy. Since the ‘prey’ was abundant, they were increasing, but since they were mostly being sent to the death knights, the increase wasn’t dramatic.
The Black Hound Barghests that were not with me were about fifty, operating under Lital-sama’s command.
That was what it should have been.
“…The number is… large.”
“The number? —They’re on our side, aren’t they?”
“That’s for sure.” That was for sure. That was for sure.
But Barghests were not a numerous magical beast. In the wild, they were usually in small groups of two or three, with five or six being the norm, and at most, about ten. The same was true for a pack of wolves. If there were too many, they wouldn’t be able to feed themselves, and they would have to take the territory of other creatures. To protect their own territory was the basic rule of the wild, a principle to avoid unnecessary conflict.
Therefore, a huge pack was rarely formed. The largest pack was with me. The pack of over fifty that I had directly incorporated was one of the largest in the wild. So, there shouldn’t have been a wild pack of this size.
But, how should I put it…
“A hundred? …Two hundred?”
“What did you say?”
Black Hound Barghests were a hive-mind-type magical beast. They didn’t have a strict individual distinction. Since they didn’t indiscriminately merge and divide, they did have a concept of number. But the boundaries between each individual were ambiguous and faint. I was (by circumstance) the alpha of the pack, but as for the number, I was a failure of a leader, with only a vague sense of how many were nearby.
And Liz’s face lit up.
“This sound…?”
I was about to ask what was wrong, but I saw that she was listening intently, and I closed my mouth.
“…It seems the Barghests who were searching for the dragons under Lital-sama’s command have returned.”
“I don’t mean to doubt you, Liz, but what’s your basis?”
“She’s here, too.”
It was as if a star had been added to the night sky. A dragon with silver scales, shining brightly in the moonlight, was leading a formation of dragons, flying slowly towards us. And as if following the stars in the sky, a black carpet was gliding across the ground, undeterred by the sandy terrain.
“Wait, one, two…”
“What’s wrong? Are you pregnant all of a sudden?”
“No, this is how we count in my homeland… ah! I’ve lost count…” I had been ‘tokisoba’d.’
“Including Lital-sama, there are forty-five.”
“What did you say?”
It should have been only about half of the small nations and Rank Kingdom. No, it was true that about a hundred dragons had been freed from the Dragon Knights’ control and had gone missing, so it wasn’t that strange.
“Hey! What happened?!” Rebecca, with Harken, Samarkand, and most of the death knights, came over to me.
“No, I don’t really know either.”
Liz answered for me, who had shaken my head.
“It seems Lital-sama has returned. With the dragons, and the Barghests.”
“…Is it a requirement to be insane to be a supreme commander…?”
“I can’t deny that.”
Rebecca and Liz nodded at each other and sighed in unison.
“But we should welcome them. Even if we can’t count the dragons as part of our forces, the increase in the number of Barghests is a blessing. Next—is the imperial capital.”
The imperial capital of the Perte Empire, Gazvir. With its desert geography and its strong soldiers, it was no wonder that the city was described as impregnable. Even now, with their main forces away, I was very worried about our own forces.
The dragons began to circle overhead, and one of them, a silver dragon, broke away from the circle and headed for the ground. It landed a short distance away, and it was surrounded by a hundred—no, well over two hundred—Black Hound Barghests. I petted them as they swarmed around me, and their tails all wagged, very happily.
A dream of having many pets… or maybe a little too many. If they were normal dogs, I would have gone bankrupt from the food bill.
The golden eyes of the silver dragon looked at me as I approached.
“It has been a while. It should not have been so long… but it feels as if we have not met in a long time.”
“Lital-sama, you’re safe! And, well… it seems things are going well.”
“Yes. Your Black Hound Barghests have worked well. We have finished searching most of the small nations and about half of Rank Kingdom.”
“Yes. By the way… why have the Black Hound Barghests increased so much?”
“Because we have wiped out the settlements along the way. …And, we have also shared a little of our mana with them.”
“Huh?! …From a dragon?”
A dragon was a mass of mana. While a young dragon’s scales were soft and its bones were delicate, as it grew, its scales became hard, its bones thick and sturdy, and its muscle mass increased. Of course, by the laws of physics, it shouldn’t be able to fly, and the burden on its body would increase, but it compensated for all of that by constantly activating various enhancement spells with its ever-increasing mana… in a word, it was a broken race.
While its fuel economy in battle was poor, its fuel economy outside of battle was good. A little mana supply for the Barghests probably wouldn’t be much of a burden.
“You guys… you…”
“They came to us without any fear. It was a pleasant feeling. I can understand why you often bury your face in their fur.”
“…Wait, when did you see that?” I shouldn’t have done that in front of Lital-sama.
“From the sky, I suppose.”
…I see. I had underestimated a dragon’s eyesight.
“Let us accompany you for a while. Along with Aithys and Leaf, we will serve as your scouts. It is easy to lose your way in the desert.”
“…Did you… come here for that?”
“Well… yes.”
“Thank you.”
“Do not mention it. I, along with those who follow me, have sworn to live as the wings of Listrea. And since we are of the same rank, you and I.”
Well, that was the official story. In terms of position and years of service, it was a little questionable whether that was really true—but it was nice of her to say so.
“For now, we will take the night watch. You may sleep in peace. And you, knights, may also relax.”
Anyone who couldn’t sleep in a camp protected by a dragon, worried about an enemy attack, was a paranoid fool.
As Lital-sama had said, the undead didn’t need to sleep, but it seemed that being on alert was tiring. They had been fighting until near dawn today, and if they could relax a little, it would be a relief.
We decided to take her up on her offer.
