Chapter 171: A Meeting at the Mansion

I took out the magic tool.

It was the tool that we believed the dark ones used to get through the water dragon barrier.

“Philly, please look at this.”

“Oooh… It is made out of the Fool’s Stone… Hmm? Is this a tool to break through the barrier?”

“Very good. Exactly. But, it wasn’t the divine barrier, but the water dragons’ barrier.”

“Hmmm. How troublesome.

Philly muttered.

Tama looked at Philly with a worried expression and licked her hand.

“Groof.”

Grulf started to lick my hand, perhaps in imitation.

I turned to Shia and the others.

“Shia, Serulis and Nia. I heard you all did very well out there.”

Nia shook her head slowly.

“It is true that Serulis and Shia did a lot…but I was just running away.”

“That’s not true? I saw you fighting an arch vampire.”

“Oh, an arch? That is quite amazing.”

I said. Nia looked conflicted.

“That was…an accident.”

Nia said that she was desperately trying to escape the attacks of the automated magic machines.

It was all she could do to dodge them. She never had a chance to go on the attack.

But when she ran away, a vampire had appeared right in front of her with its back towards her.

“It had turned into mist so that it could attack a water dragon that was busy fighting a machine.”

“I see. And that’s how you did it.”

Nia was surprised at the sudden appearance and had swung her sword without thinking.

And then the arch vampires head had flown off.

“It was just a coincidence. I was running away.”

“I don’t think randomly swinging your sword without thinking usually results in an arch losing its head. It’s because of your daily training.”

Even if she hadn’t been thinking, her strength would have still mattered.

And so it was very impressive considering her age.

“Yes. You should be more proud of yourself!”

Serulis praised Nia with a pat on the head.

“If anything, it is I who barely did anything.”

“Yes, I let the water dragons take care of the magic machines…”

“Those machines are very strong, so it cannot be helped.”

And so I told them the general strategies that the dark ones liked to use.

About how they liked to turn into mist when the dragons were fighting with the machines.

Of course, they had probably noticed much of this already.

And there was one thing I could not forget.

“Lesser and arch vampires are one thing, but magic machines are much too dangerous.”

“…Are you suggesting that we shouldn’t help in defending the settlement?”

“Yes.”

They didn’t say anything. But their eyes were full of dissatisfaction.

“I know you did very well last night. But it’s getting to be too dangerous.”

“I understand what you are trying to say, Mister Locke, but…”

“You should know after yesterday. The machines are too dangerous.”

“Yes. So we will be very careful…”

“No.”

It’s not a matter of simply being more careful.

Serulis continued to argue, but Shia and Nia looked quiet.

“Yes… I did feel like it was too heavy a load for us… But I feel like the water dragons cannot defend it alone either.”

Shia was right.

If Shia and the others were not there, someone else must take their place.

But still, I could not take Shia and the others to a battlefield with those machines.

“…Still. It’s a no.”

“I’ll be so careful!”