Level Eater

The next morning after a full day of walking around the department store, the two woke up unusually early, rubbing their sleepy eyes, despite the fact that they had been up until quite late the previous day, and headed first to the Adventurers' Guild.

“That former mayor said: "I'll pay you an express fee when you receive the request” but that's all gone now.” (Ai)

“If I remember correctly, I don't think he meant it in such a big way. …… Well, I guess deep down he wanted the bandits to kill us, so I guess there's no such thing." (Tatsuro)

“I see. I see… thinking about it, they were already after us from that moment on. It's disgusting when I think about it! It means they were manipulating us for their own good, right?” (Ai)

“I guess if we had just ignored the request and gone to the next town, a lot of things would have been different for us." (Tatsuro)

With this conversation between them, they arrived at the Adventurers' Guild and immediately took out the accomplished request form and handed it to the receptionist.

And when I received the five million cis as originally planned, the receptionist handed me another coin.

“What's this?" (Tatsuro)

“It is an Additional reward. I received this from the guild leader and was told to give it to you when the two of you arrived.”

“Yes. And I have a message for you. ‘I'm sorry’."

Tatsuro had heard that the guild leader was the one who captured Joel Wickham, the former mayor of the town, during his stay at the castle.

The guild leader seemed to be completely innocent, and the two of them accepted the coin with a fleeting thought of the ‘what-if possibility’ that just telling the guild leader here instead of listening to Iyaruki at that moment might have changed the story.

“Well, that's all I have to say. Would you like to take on another request?"

“No, that's okay. Well, we'll take it then." (Tatsuro)

“Yes. Well, good-bye."

“”Goodbye."” They chorused

Tatsuro thought that some extra procedure or conversation might be required because of the mayor's arrest or something like that, but they walked out easily without being asked anything else.

So this time, instead of heading in the direction of the inn, they went to the road that accompanied the outer wall to the main destination of the day.

After following the outer wall for a while, the road changed several times, and then switched to an artificially organized nature-rich section.

After passing a park full of greenery along the way and switching to a road that goes to the right, it finally came into view.

In a garden the size of a school playground, there was green field surrounded by a fence, a large house made of light brown metal like wood with dozens of long, vertical bars that stuck out in places like branches, and a green serpent lying down and staring at them just outside the gate to the grounds.

“Yorn's presence here seems to indicate that this is the place to be." (Tatsuro)

“It's not every day that a kid stands out like that. Hey, Yorn-kun!" (Ai)

Ai waved her hand at Yorn, who glared at her, sniffed, turned away, and then crawled sluggishly toward the house, knocking the door with the tip of his tail.

Then again, Yorn lay down on the ground and began to breathe heavily in his sleep.

As Tatsuro and his friends stood in front of the gate staring at such a scene, the door of the house was knocked on from inside.

It seemed that Yorn was being mean and blocking the door from opening with the tip of his tail.

Ah, I'm glad this boy is so honest. As the two of us were thinking about it, a huge red tiger jumped down from a large window above us.

“Ennio." (Ai)

“Yeah, it's Ennio." (Tatsuro)

As if he was feeling desolate at the sight of this perfect beast, Ennio brushed off Yorn's tail with a paw that had its claws retracted.

Then the door opened and Marikka, a fairy tribe whose identity is almost certain to be the next town mayor, was angry with Yorn, puffing out her cheeks. And Yorn ignored him, continuing his blatant pretense of sleep.

Marikka's cheeks were puffing up even more, but Ennio came up to her as if to say "Come on, give me a compliment!” she smiled and hugged him and stroked him all over.

Ennio looked happy about it and tried his best to put on a composed face, but it seemed he could not hide his tail spinning like a helicopter.

Tatsuro and Ai were choked up at the sight of such a happy Ennio, and with Marikka's permission, Tatsuro tried to open the unlocked gate, but it did not even jerk open.

Apparently it was not locked, but made of a terribly heavy material, and Tatsuro asked Ai to open the gate and enter the premises.

“Good morning. Marikka-san" (Tatsuro)

“Good morning. Marikka-san!" (Ai)

“Good morning. Tatsuro-kun, Ai-chan." (Marikka Shurjaniemi)

And so the main purpose of the day was made: visit to Ennio and Marikka.

“It's a pretty house." (Tatsuro)

“I like it myself because I put a lot of thought into it. But I really wanted to grow a big tree and hollow it out and make it into a house, but I couldn't do that because of the town ordinance.” (Marikka Shurjaniemi)

“Wow, so there is such a statute." (Ai)

As the two gazed admiringly at the shape of the house, which showed that it had been designed to be as close to a big tree as possible, they suddenly sensed someone's eyes on them.

When they both looked in the direction of his gaze at the same time, they saw a large red tiger staring at them with a strange expression on its face.

“Yes. Ennio, I have a present for you." (Tatsuro)

“Gawd! Gawd!" (Ennio)

“Hey, do you understand what a present is?" (Tatsuro)

“Hmmm… maybe he still remembers how happy he was when he were a person? I'm sure he must have been very happy." (Marikka Shurjaniemi)

The two of them looked on heartily at Tatsuro, who was held up by Ennio's thick paws and unable to move, as if determined to escape.

“No, help me!" (Tatsuro)

“Oops, that's right. Here, Ennio, he can't give it to you unless you let him go." (Ai)

“Gaw!" (Ennio)

Perhaps reacting to Ai's words about not being able to give it to him, he flipped Tatsuro off and let go.

Tatsuro rolled about three meters on a carpet of soft green vegetation and then stopped on his back.

“Hey, W-Why did he do this to you ……I'm sorry." (Marikka Shurjaniemi)

“Hmmm… Ennio seems to be having a good time." (Ai)

“That's right." (Tatsuro)

Ai held out her hand to Tatsuro, who lay there squinting in the bright sun, and when she pulled him up and turned to face Ennio, his tail was wagging wildly and the corners of his mouth were turned up, as if he were laughing.

“Well, I looked around in the department stores for something good, but I couldn't find anything, so I thought I'd try this." (Tatsuro)

“Gagaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawww!" (Ennio)

“Ennio! Sit down!" (Marikka Shurjaniemi)

“Gau!" (Ennio)

When he was about to jump on Tatsuro, who had put out about a hundred kilos of dragon meat, Marikka forced him under contract and made him quiet for a moment.

And Tatsuro, patting his chest that he had not been jumped by that huge body, looked at Ennio, who was drooling like a lazy waterfall, and put his upturned body back on its feet.

“This is dragon meat, isn't it? Are you sure, this is much?" (Marikka Shurjaniemi)

“It's totally fine. We have more than we can eat." (Tatsuro)

"Well, why don't you just sell it – you don't seem to be hurting for money." (Marikka Shurjaniemi)

“Yeah, well. I've had some extra income since I've been here." (Tatsuro)

When the three of them started to have a wellness meeting like that, Ennio signaled to them, "Are we there yet? Is it still not good enough?” Ennio was shaking his body as if to say, "Are we there yet?

The three of them thought it was cute to see such a sight, and after a short distance from the meat, they sat down.

Then Ennio rushed over so fast that he seemed to have disappeared in the eyes of Tatsuro and Marikka, devouring a hundred kilograms of dragon meat and yelping with each bite.

“I know it's good, but you've got to eat more quietly or you'll be a nuisance to the neighbors!" (Marikka Shurjaniemi)

"Gah-gah-gah-gah." (Ennio)

“I don't think he heard me.” (Marikka Shurjaniemi)

“Well, I'm glad he is that happy.” (Ai)

As the three of them watched him eat without saying anything as he gnawed on it like an innocent child, I suddenly noticed Yorn lying down, seemingly uninterested.

“Yorn-kun, don't you want some dragon meat?” (Ai)

“Yorn? Yeah, he looks like that, but he's a herbivore, he's not interested in meat." (Marikka Shurjaniemi)

"Vegetarian Snake …” (Ai)

Ennio, who had finished eating the meat, looked happy and squealed with satisfaction.

“Looks like you're done eating." (Marikka Shurjaniemi)

“I guess so. Well then, let's play with Ai-chan till you are satisfied!" (Ai)

“Gahwah!" (Ennio)

“Don't get too excited and break things!" (Marikka Shurjaniemi)

“I know! (Ai)

Saying this, Ai ran toward Ennio and began to play chase with him in the garden.

Seeing that, Yorn, his brow wrinkled in annoyance, crawled to the corner and fell asleep again.

“Yorn-kun is usually like that." (Tatsuro)

“I'm in a duller mode than usual because I worked so hard the other day.” (Marikka Shurjaniemi)

“I see." (Tatsuro)

"Yeah." (Marikka Shurjaniemi)

"……………………" (Tatsuro)

After that, there was no particular topic of conversation, and as Tatsuro stared at Ennio playing with Ai, Marikka spoke to him as if muttering.

“You shouldn't worry about it too much." (Marikka Shurjaniemi)

“Huh? What?" (Tatsuro)

“’What if I hadn't taken him there’ ……. you looked like you were thinking of it." (Marikka Shurjaniemi)

"Such a face ……" (Tatsuro)

Tatsuro couldn’t even say that he hadn't. Certainly somewhere in the back of his mind, he still regretted the fact that Ennio had turned into a complete beast.

‘If only I had noticed it earlier, if only I had moved more carefully, if only I hadn't taken him to that place’ Tatsuro suddenly thought about that.

“I don't mean to put it all in one word, but the original cause was Gregory. It was unimaginable that he would try to alter such a person without thinking of him as a human being, and since Tatsuro and the Ai are not gods, it is arrogant to say that everything is your fault because you did not do this.” (Marikka Shurjaniemi)

“…arrogant?" (Tatsuro)

“No matter how good you are, there are always things that can't be helped in this world. But that doesn't mean you can't move forward if you keep feeling sorry for what he have become. I will make Ennio happy. I will love Ennio so much that you will think it was a blessing that he was born. If you feel too sorry for him, I will feel sorry for him. (Marikka Shurjaniemi)

“I see…" (Tatsuro)

“Yes. See, he's having such a good time now." (Marikka Shurjaniemi)

When I turned my downcast gaze upward to see Ai jumping around on a stick that resembled a tree branch sticking out from the house, enjoying chasing Ennio in all directions.

Just as Tatsuro's mouth naturally relaxed at such a sight, one of the sticks Ai stepped on snapped.

“”Ah!"”

“Aaaaahhhhhh! I broke it!!!!" (Ai)

The somber air had flown far into the sky, and Marikka had seized them and lectured them for three hours, while Ennio slept in the garden with an air of ignorance, and Yorn curled up with an absentminded smile.

—-

T/N: I don’t know when we may have the opportunity to meet Ennio in the upcoming chapters but I really wish him well, his whole life has been distorted by the dead Gregory, so he deserves a happy ending.

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