Chapter 553

Aftermath
“Here, Takumi, the wyvern meat the kids have been dreaming of! Collect it while it’s still fresh.”
“Dreaming o… well, I guess that’s true. Understood. I’ll hold onto it for now.”

Before the wyvern materials could deteriorate, I stored them in the Infinite Storage.
Well, it wouldn’t spoil that quickly, but when it comes to meat, freshness is everything!

“There doesn’t seem to be any damage to the surroundings from the battle…”
“Yeah, no problems.”

There were no heavily dented or burned areas, so it didn’t look like any special measures were needed.

“Can everyone in the ground unit still move?”
“The adventurers are fine.”
“The knights are also fine!”

Since the horses had already been sent back to the city, we would be walking on the way back.

“I’ll have the flying drake unit return first and report, so we’ll probably get horses or a carriage sent out right away. Shall we walk until then? Or do you want to rest here until they arrive?”
“I’ll go ask.”
“Please do.”

While the ground unit discussed it, I told the flying drake unit to head back first.
Then I asked them to report to Felix-sama, who was probably anxiously waiting in the city, that the wyverns had been successfully defeated, and to arrange transportation for us.

“Takumi, everyone says they don’t need a break.”
“Got it. Then we’ll withdraw.”

Everyone still had the energy to walk. As expected of people in physically demanding professions, they all had plenty of stamina.

“Takumi, I’m hungry.”
(Niichan, me too~)

As soon as we started walking, Rudolph-san and Vector complained about being hungry. This was clearly them hinting for food from me.

“Something we can eat while walking… what do we have?”
“For now, anything’s fine~ We’ll have you make something delicious once we’re back in the city.”
“You’re already assuming I’ll be the one cooking!”
“It’s fine, Takumi. I’ll help too.”

While I was thinking about what was in the Infinite Storage, Rudolph-san casually declared that I’d be cooking properly once we got back, and Natally-san chimed in as well.

“I can help with butchering the wyvern.”
(Sounds good, sounds good~ I’m looking forward to wyvern dishes!)
“……”

So… they really want me to cook wyvern meat, huh?

“Well… the kids will probably make a fuss about wanting to eat it right away, so as long as we can secure our share quickly…”
“Takumi, you should at least have the rights to one or two whole wyverns, don’t you think?”
“Huh? Even though this many people participated?”
“The reason it ended with almost no damage is largely because of you. You deserve that much.”

I figured we’d get at least a small share, but if we could get a whole one, that would be great.
I definitely needed to negotiate for it!

“Whether I cook wyvern dishes or not depends on how much we get. For now, is bread okay?”
“Yeah, that’s fine.”
(Yay~)
(Niisama, may I have some as well?)

Thinking savory bread would be better than sweet buns, I took out hot dogs.
I handed them out not only to Vector and Feat, but also to the adventurers and knights, everyone except Rudolph-san, and we walked along leisurely while eating.

By the time we finished eating, people with horses arrived, so we switched to riding. We managed to return before sunset, but…

“Eh!?”

When we got back to the city, well, technically outside the city where the kids were, I was left speechless.

“What is this!?”
“Allen defeated them!”
“Elena did too!”

A pile of monsters had been stacked up beside Felix-sama.

“Ah… well, you see…”

Felix-sama began explaining the situation with a wry smile.

“We heard something like the roar of wyverns.”
“Ah, yeah, they did roar.”

Right before the battle, all five wyverns had roared at once.

“After that, some time passed, and then several monsters, apparently frightened by the roar, came charging toward the city.”
“What!?”

So the roar had an effect.
Was this why they had left forces stationed around the city to handle irregular situations?

“Was there any damage?”
“No, we had deployed forces on all sides of the city, so we handled it without issue. However…”
“… However?”

The way Felix-sama trailed off was strangely ominous.

“Perhaps because this was the direction the wyverns came from, the number of monsters here was greater than in other areas.”

Since Felix-sama looked toward the pile of monsters, I naturally looked again as well. I hadn’t properly noticed before due to my shock, but there were even B-rank monsters mixed in!

“Umm… the monsters piled up here were defeated by everyone present, right?”
“……”

Felix-sama silently looked toward the children.
… This was giving me a very bad feeling.

“Allen defeated them!”
“Elena did too!”

The kids repeated the same lines they had said when I first returned.

“All of them!?”
“Your familiars helped, but… the children defeated them at such a pace that no one else even had the chance to step in.”

“……”

Even without seeing it myself, I could vividly imagine how it must have gone.

“Did they cause any trouble?”
“Trouble? Not at all! In fact, we feel sorry that, in a situation where adults should have acted, we could only stand by and watch the children fight.”
“I understand better than anyone that it was a situation where you couldn’t intervene.”

The moment monsters appeared, the kids must have dashed off before anyone could stop them, and by the time anyone reacted, the monsters were already defeated. That had to be exactly what happened!

“And also…”
“They didn’t do anything else, did they!?”
“No, not exactly. After the monster attack settled down, the children happily began dismantling the monsters.”
“What!? But I didn’t see any dismantled materials?”
“They put what they dismantled into a Magic Bag.”
“What!?”

If they stored the dismantled materials in a Magic Bag, then that meant they had defeated even more monsters than what was piled up here!?

“Wait, hold on! Allen, Elena, that’s not okay! If you fill the area with the smell of blood while we’re on alert, more monsters will gather!”
““It’s okay!””
(Oniichan, I froze the unnecessary organs right away. Also, we had Radian do his best and blow the smell away with wind!)
(Radian did his best! But I almost blew Mile Oneechan away!)
(That was strong wind! Radian’s control over magic still needs more practice!)
(Yeaaah~)
“……”

The ones who stayed behind had worked together to thoroughly eliminate anything I might scold them for.

“Um… Felix-sama, was there any damage from the strong wind?”
“There was no damage. At most, some hair was messed up.”

They had clearly been acting out of line, yet there was no damage and no inconvenience caused.
At this point, could I even scold them?

No, but… disrupting group coordination isn’t good either.
And come to think of it… I also tend to disrupt group coordination sometimes.

This time… maybe no lecture is needed.