Nice to Meet You
We ended up staying at the fort for another two days. There was the matter of the Poison Moth larvae, and we decided to leave the forest together with a young group of knights and magic users who had been injured.
Tomorrow, we'll go check to see whether the Poison Moth larvae were successfully exterminated.
Even if the larvae are burned, the magic stones remain, so we need to recover them. There were so many of them—it would be a waste not to collect the stones.
The Pulchee mother and daughter are part of the extermination team, but they aren’t taking part in the actual fighting.
Mother called out to Pulchee, saying, “We’re going to the extermination,” and now she’s riding on Mother’s shoulder without hiding her true form.
When I asked Mother about it, she said Pulchee is so light that she forgets she’s even there.
When Atre asked if she shouldn’t be hiding, Pulchee said it felt nice to go out without hiding once in a while—it’s refreshing and kind of fun.
The monsters we encountered yesterday—bears (black bears and brown bears), wolves (silver wolves and brown wolves), and snakes—were the same today. We arrived at the site where we had exterminated the Poison Moth larvae yesterday, but once again, the ground was crawling with larvae.
We exterminated them yesterday, didn’t we? Why are they here again?
“Meyer, what’s going on? Does this mean we didn’t actually wipe them out yesterday?”
“We’re breaking down the earthen wall that was used for the kiln yesterday. You’ll see.”
As it turned out, the Poison Moth larvae we exterminated yesterday had become magic stones. The ones currently here seem to be new.
We hurriedly built another earthen wall to contain the new batch of larvae. We soaked cloths in oil, wrapped them around dried branches, threw a bunch of them inside the earthen enclosure, and then used fire magic to ignite the inside.
We also sealed the top with more earthen wall to prevent them from escaping, though they seemed to have left a small space for the smoke to escape.
When I muttered, “What could have happened?” Meyer said that the heat from yesterday’s burning probably transferred to the ground and caused the eggs buried underground to hatch.
In this part of the forest, many trees have fallen, letting sunlight in during the day and making it warmer.
If Poison Moths laid eggs in the ground and the warmth from yesterday’s battle spread through the soil, then it’s plausible they all hatched at once.
Without knowing each magical beast’s biology, navigating the forest is really tough.
We collected the magic stones we could and planned to return again tomorrow to confirm the situation.
As we proceeded further in to investigate, we encountered a swarm of Poison Moths—around twenty of them. With so many, the larvae from earlier made more sense.
We all launched magic attacks at once. We couldn't afford to let them get close and spray us with their poison—it’s deadly unless you immediately take an antidote.
I defeated one with water magic. While Brother Gerald and the knights were handling the others, Mother took out three of them all by herself.
Mother really is strong!!
We recovered the Poison Moths’ poison sacs and magic stones. The rest were incinerated.
The poison, once diluted, will apparently be used to make antidotes.
We went further in but only encountered bears, wolves, and snakes, so we returned to the fort.
The next morning, we went to check and found no new Poison Moth larvae.
We recovered the magic stones and went further in, but there were no more Poison Moths either, so we returned to the fort and prepared to leave the forest with Elma and the rest of the young group.
The Pulchee mother and daughter were still riding on Mother’s shoulder.
What are they planning to do? Will they come with us?
When we had Atre ask, she said that after seeing Mother’s gallant figure yesterday, she had decided to follow her.
She also said that being with someone so strong meant safety, and that if there were a lot of humans around, it would be a good environment to train her daughter in stealth.
When we told Mother, she happily said, “Then I need to come up with names. What would be good?”
When we arrived at the fort in front of the forest, Father and Ciel—who was riding on Father’s shoulder—were waiting for us.
Well, we were three days past schedule, and word had probably gotten to him that there were injuries at the mid-fort.
Father looked like he was about to say something to Mother, but then noticed the Pulchee mother and daughter on her shoulder and fell silent.
Then he looked at us as if demanding an explanation.
Once we were in a room with just our family, Brother Gerald explained the circumstances—how we’d encountered the Poison Moths, the Ice Spiders, and how we met Pulchee.
“I’m just glad none of you were injured. The young group running into eight Ice Spiders was unfortunate, but this served as a lesson to not let their guard down in the forest.
So, are the Pulchee mother and daughter going to form a familiar contract with you, Vivi? Or are they just going to stay with us as they are?”
When Atre asked, Pulchee’s mother said she wanted to make a familiar contract.
Her daughter was still too inexperienced, but since they’d be staying together, they wanted to serve us as a pair.
“It’s fine. We’re not going to chase you off just because there’s no familiar contract. You can live with us as part of the family.” Father said to the Pulchee mother and daughter.
Then Mother added, “Even if there’s no contract, wouldn’t it be okay to give them names? It’s hard to call them otherwise.”
That’s true—calling the mother by name and the daughter just “Pulchee” does feel unbalanced.
Apparently, it was fine to name the daughter too. In fact, she said she really wanted a name.
“How about Luan for the mother and Lucia for the daughter?” Mother suggested.
The Pulchee mother and daughter seemed to like it, and a light sparkled around them and Mother.
“Having the whole family form familiar contracts is a blessing. But I wonder if there’s some kind of blessing or spell in that decorative knife… Or maybe it’s Hardt’s divine blessing.” Said Father.
“Father, it’s true that I’m curious, but pondering things we can’t understand won’t help. For now, let’s just be happy that the whole family has bonded through familiar contracts.”
“You’re right. With new members, things are going to get even livelier.
Ciel, Atre, Ripka—be sure to get along with Luan and Lucia too.”
What do you think about this chapter?
