Reincarnated as a Dragon's Egg

“I heard the sound of magic. Came to investigate. Who are you?”

Shuen-dono says after alighting from the Rarag Wolf.

I quickly glance over the monkeys’ faces. Their aim seems to be to protect this forest from the Magic Beast King and the four-eyed beasts. In short, they’re the same as us.

“We’ve come to stop the Magic Beast King.”

Aro-dono says.

“Magic Beast King… That monster? Can you fight it?”

Shuen-dono gazes up in the direction of the Magic Beast King.

“Many of my subordinates have been eaten. None of our attacks work. We can’t wound it. Not even with Anego’s poison arrow.”

『Anego’s poison arrow…?』

Shuen-dono nods at my question.

“Using the pot of poison Anego left behind. It’s a deadly poison. But it did nothing even in its mouth. We’ve no ideas left.”

『I see…?』

I don’t really get it, but it seems like ‘Anego’ possesses some strong poison. The Magic Beast King probably has strong resistances, and its defence itself must be terribly high.

“Dragon-god-sama should arrive after a few days. He definitely wouldn’t lose to such a monster. Until then, I want to protect my hometown’s people from the Magic Beast King.”

Aro-dono says to Shuen-dono. He nods.

“I see, you’re from that tribe… I didn’t think there was anyone capable of defeating that monster. But, you’re much stronger than me. I also like dragons. I feel some sort of strange connection. I’ll believe you.”

Shuen-dono looks at the bucket in his hands with the draconic face carved on it.

『That draconic face is…?』

“That’s our boss. I’m acting as the Forest King in his stead. The boss never came back. But, he’s alive. I believe so. The boss taught us many things.”

With narrowed eyes, Shuen-dono strokes the draconic face on the bucket in his hands.

“We carved the boss’ face on our helmets. We find strength from remembering him once we wear them.”

At Shuen-dono’s words, the red monkeys following him remove their buckets, gazing at the draconic face with nostalgia.

“So those were helmets…”

Aro-dono whispers, drawing the glares of Shuen-dono and the monkeys.

“S-sorry, it just slipped…”

Aro-dono bows to them. I’m relieved that I didn’t have to speak up myself. I had some questions why exactly they’re wearing buckets.

“I have a favour to ask of Shuen-san. Please, protect the Lithovar tribe.”

Aro-dono requests. However, Shuen-dono shakes his head.

“We don’t have any leeway either. I can’t keep a promise like that. The four-eyes are very troublesome. The beasts of the forest are being eaten by the dozen.”

“Of course, it’s not without conditions on our end. We’ll reduce the number of four-eyed beasts further. But, I wish for your help in defending the Lithovar tribe from being attacked by any that slip past us.”

To protect the Lithovar tribe, we must continue to stop the four eyed beasts from consuming further. We also need to gather information about the Magic Beast King and hopefully find some method to slow it down. However, we can’t guard the Lithovar tribe ourselves while we’re doing that. Aro-dono wants to leave that role to Shuen-dono and the rest.

If they accept, it’ll definitely be much easier for us to move… We’ll be able to devote ourselves to dealing with the four-eyed beasts and the Magic Beast King without also having to worry about the Lithovar tribe’s base.

“…The boss, he liked humans. We want to respect the boss’ wishes. The Feared God is revered by them. It wouldn't be difficult for us to cooperate.”

“So then…!”

Shuen-dono shakes his head again.

“Killing the four-eyes is simply your objective, not ours. It’s not enough in exchange. I’m the Forest King. I’ll protect the forest. I can’t discard my duty to support the humans. The Feared God is of the same mind.”

Shuen-dono looks at the Rarag Wolf, who nods silently in response.

Their objective is purely to protect the forest. The Lithovar tribe is included in that, but it seems that they won’t prioritise protecting just them if it means exposing the countless other magic beasts in the forest.

Aro-dono bites her lip in silence. She has a bitter expression on her face.

It’s understandable. We’d thought help had arrived out of the blue, but the objectives of Shuen-dono and his party differ slightly from ours.

“Aoooh…”

One of his red monkey followers smacks Shuen-dono on his shoulder. It looks like he’s trying to persuade the boss that it should be fine to take our request. However, Shuen-dono doesn’t waver.

“You’ll reconsider if we can come up with something, right?”

Aro-dono asks pointedly.

“We’ll think about it. But, we don’t have any leeway, either. The beasts following us… The fate of the forest, we bear that on our backs. Those aren’t something we can take lightly.”

“If you can protect the Lithovar tribe for me… I’ll draw the Magic Beast King out of this forest. When that happens it won’t be able to consume here anymore, and the number of four-eyed beasts running rampant in the forest won’t increase, either.”

“What did you say…?”

Shuen-dono utters with wide open eyes.

Certainly, those four-eyed beasts should be born from the Magic Beast King. If the Magic Beast King itself leaves the forest, they’ll stop increasing in number. It should be a boon for Shuen-dono who’s protecting the forest.

But… But, it’s way too dangerous. She would be letting herself be chased by a Legendary rank monster. It’s true that with that gigantic body it doesn’t seem to have much speed, but…

“I’ll only do this once you give confirmation that you’ll protect the Lithovar tribe. If you can’t do that, then the only thing I can do is guard them as they relocate. With this, we should be able to strike a bargain.”

That’s right… with its current pace, the Magic Beast King will reach the Lithovar tribe’s base eventually. In order to protect the tribe, we either have to relocate the whole tribe and their possessions from this forest teeming with four-eyed beasts, or do something about the Magic Beast King.

If we go with the relocation plan, there’s bound to be plenty of deaths even with our protection. However, if she acts as a decoy to draw the Magic Beast King away, we might be able to reduce the number of victims. She definitely won’t come through it without a scratch though.

In the first place, we have too little information on the Magic Beast King. We can’t check our opponents’ information like master-dono. We’re not even sure if the Magic Beast King is something we can distract, run from, and buy time against.

『Aro-dono…』

It’s better to calm down first… Is what I’d like to say, but I can’t bring myself to. Some casualties would be unavoidable if we went with the relocation plan. On top of that, we wouldn’t have the help of Shuen-dono that way.

It’s dangerous, but we should be able to avoid having many casualties if she draws the attention of the Magic Beast King out of the forest. More than anything, if we go with the relocation plan, the ones that will die first are the noncombatants of the Lithovar tribe who have no skills to protect themselves with. Even if it’s been a while since she was with them, Aro-dono doesn’t seem likely to be able to accept a plan built off the sacrifices of the weak from her hometown.

I could tell her what I feel. That this plan is too rash and that it’s better to stop. That even if we don’t draw them out of the forest, Master-dono will come in a few days…

I do want to protect Aro-dono’s hometown, but protecting Aro-dono herself is much more important to me. However, if I look at it from Aro-dono’s viewpoint, there’s no way she would allow such sacrifices to be made.