The camping grounds at the foot of the mountain were full of screams. Attacks like fireb.a.l.l.s and ice shards were being fired at the thick body of the giant, black and ash grey patterned, snake mutation. The snake continued to slither forward, while ignoring everything. Contrary to its appearance, it"s pretty fast – around the speed of a trotting horse.
If just a random beast, or a mutated beast, had appeared, then the teachers would have been able to take care of it, but when it came to such a strong opponent, the most they could do was get the students to safety.
"Don"t slow down! No matter what, don"t get separated from the group!"
“Those that can use magic will try to draw its attention while standing near the tents! Don’t let it get close to the carriages!”
Elmel and Rich.e.l.lo took some of the students who were capable of fighting to try and distract the snake, the two other instructors were working to connect the horses to the carriages, in order to evacuate the students.
“Calm down and aim firmly!”
Since the target is large, it should be easy for them to hit it with magic and projectiles, but since most of the trainees still aren’t used to a real fight, they feel disgust and fear when they see the giant snake’s body and face, because of that, their hit rate was bad.
Meanwhile, Lukabell, who had the most actual combat experience, was using a self made catapult to throw rocks at the snake.
“Lukabell, you’re the most cool headed among them. Come along, We’ll lead this disturbance toward the mountain!”
“Yes!”
While Lukabell was distracting it, Elmel went behind its back towards the tail, giving out orders to aim for its head. According to her memories, this type of snake doesn’t have any poison, but since it became mutated, she couldn’t be too sure of the logic she had, so they would need to be careful in a close combat battle.
“Nya~aa.”
“Kou? It’s dangerous, go take cover together with the other students.”
All of a sudden, the cat Kou had climbed up on Elmel’s shoulder, and focused his sight on the snake as if he was aiming at him.
“You what are yo- Could it be, you’re planning to posses it?”
“Nyaaa.”
It was a mystery how Kou possessed his targets, even now, but she had been told the basics of it through drawings. ‘If it’s that then’, Elmel joined the plan in order to get Kou close to its head.
Originally, she had planned to slow it down in the mountain, and then have everyone retreat to a safe location. Afterwards they would inform the adventurer’s society and have them send out their elites in order to kill it, but if Kou can posses it like the demon hound, then it’ll be safer that way.
“Elmel!”
“Rich.e.l.lo! Join the reinforcements, aim for the snake’s head!”
Rich.e.l.lo, who had seen Elmel making a reckless move, casted a support type movement spell, while coming closer.
“It’s too much! There is no chance of beating it with our equipment!”
“We don’t have to defeat it, we just have to make it powerless for a moment.”
“Powerless you say…… I see, Kou will posses that——”
“Nyaaa~a.”
To Rich.e.l.lo’s sign of understanding, the cat Kou, who was riding on Elmel’s shoulder, answered: ‘that’s right’. Since he felt an opening on the snake’s head he’ll be able to posses it, once he gets inside the range.
“I see, but if it’s like that, then you don’t have to get so dangerously close, do you? Isn’t it fine if you just throw the cat Kou on its head?’
Rich.e.l.lo pointed out that it wouldn’t be very difficult for a small cat to grab onto the giant head or body of the snake.
“…….. So we had a move like that.”
“Nya?”
The distraction team that was lead by Lukabell, was given commands from Rich.e.l.lo. When they had the snake’s head face their way, Elmel, who had ran behind it, threw the cat Kou towards the snake’s head with all her might.
Whether it sensed it or it was instinct, when the giant snake turned its neck, it felt ‘something’s presence’ coming at it with high speed, it opened its giant mouth that could even eat large animals in one gulp and swallowed the presented small animal in one go.
“Ah.”
“Ah.”
Elmel and Rich.e.l.lo both lost their voice at the same time, and became stiff.
“He got eatee~een!”
“K-Kouu~uuu!”
Elmel drew her sword without thinking and moved in to the rescue, but when the giant snake lowered its neck towards the ground, it opened its mouth and a cat came rolling out. Seeing no damage, nor traumas, the cat groomed its body and looked up while crying ‘Nya’ at the snake.
It moved towards the only undamaged tent, and began to seriously groom himself. Elmel and the others got confused by the sudden peaceful scene. If the cat was currently grooming itself, then that meant Kou wasn’t inside the cat. She turned around to the snake that stopped moving.
“……..Is it Kou?’
Towards the question that was asked, the snake showed a green stone on its head as confirmation.
After that, the Adventurer’s Society branch in the town of Bara.s.s got informed of the situation, and the reinforcement they had sent out, arrived just now. It wasn’t the elites or monster hunting experts who had come, but it was Gashe and the defense corps that had arrived along with a large cage, made in order to lock up large size beasts.
“Well this is…….. You’ve certainly cla.s.s changed yourself into a big one this time, haven’t you? Kou my man.”
“Hississ~ss Hiss.” [Gashe, long time no see~e.]
TL note: The snake is hissing, I hope it’s clear like this. -Tensaiz
On the ground where the injured were getting treated, Gashe was secretly talking with the snake Kou, while avoiding his subordinates’ eyes.
The ones that know that Kou is a special existence that can take over other animals, are the spiritualist Rindora, the one who spoke to him directly, the ones who have been living with Kou, Elmel and Rich.e.l.lo, Gashe, and the trainees Lukabell and Nina who have heard it from them.
After the event with the Gauki squad, there haven’t been monsters like the ‘demon hound Kou’, so it is now known that he was a ‘different conscious existence than the collective conscious’, and it has been recognized that he had been eliminated.
“As expected, we’re gonna keep quiet about Kou, right?”
“Yeah, in the first place, there isn’t much to tell about.”
“It’s over once the guys at the top hear of this, a lot of troublesome things are gonna come to Kou.”
Elmel and the others were thinking about the citizens, and the top bra.s.s of the Adventurer’s Society that abandoned Kou. The society would probably bother Kou with another bounty on his head or something else, so they reported that they used a magic item in order to capture the snake.
As expected Kou had hidden the stone on its forehead, so that they wouldn’t find out his ident.i.ty.
“Captain! We’ve finished the cage’s preparations!”
“Yeah, I understand.”
Gashe, who had answered his subordinates that were loading the cage onto the carriage, went towards the snake’s cage, and Elmel went after him. Rich.e.l.lo said he’d help heal the injured, so he headed towards the tent.
“Let’s go, Kou.”
“Hissss.” [Yeah.]
The snake mutation was about 12 ruuka. In the metric system that Kou knows, it’s about 18 meters. Since it’s too big and can’t be moved very well, they were only able to somehow move forward when Elmel was carrying its head.
If it was seen from another perspective, it looked as if Elmel was moving forward while petting the snake’s head.
‘The snake which was subdued by Ms. Elmel’, some of the students who saw this, agreed while nodding ‘un un’.
“As expected, something like that is natural.”
“Honestly, I thought the cat didn’t fit her, but a snake would be perfect.”
“That’s truly Elmel sensei.”
“…..You guys.”
*Rattle* *Rattle*
The snake Kou was coiling around the cage. The results of the discussions about how to treat the snake were that the snake was to be kept under the Adventurer’s Society’s surveillance. The snake that had the feeling ‘as if it would prey on someone’, would make a good attraction.
“There’s an arena that isn’t used anymore, right? It seems like they’re making it a stage to present the snake.”
“Like always, the Society acts quickly when it’s about making money.”
Having heard the details from the guard corps through a transmission device in the afternoon, Elmel, who had half given up because of their speed, heard that they already have prepared a stage for it.
“However, is a cage like this alright? If the snake goes berserk, I don’t think the cage will be able to stop it.”
“Right, I also never thought it would be this gigantic.”
“Hisss?”
Since it’d be bad if it went berserk while removing it from the cage onto the breeding ground, Kou had kept possessing the snake, that helped them out a lot, Kou also acknowledged that. They’ll go to the town immediately, but if he’s lucky, he’ll be able to possess a bird and fly back here.
Because of that, the next morning, the guard corps were carrying over the snake on a specialized carriage and returned together with those who took the training camp to town, after that had left the camping grounds. On the way they had pa.s.sed the gate and the giant snake that was loaded on the carriage, it had surprised many of the adventurers, causing them to look back at it, it was great promotion.
In front of the special facility the Adventurer’s Society had prepared, there were people everywhere, and when the snake Kou looked to the right it was ‘Kyaaa’ when he looked to the left it was ‘Woah’ and when he looked to the front it was ‘Oooh’, so it had become a great uproar.
The snake was released in the specially designed arena. The surrounding walls were spiked in order to prevent the snake from escaping. After raising its body in order to peek over the wall, it saw a lot of stairs that seemed to be the spectators’ seats.
[Well then, what will I do from here on out.]
Kou, who had the snake’s body sway from standing up straight, found a small dog and stretched his body into that direction. The caretakers seemed to be clamoring about something, but ignoring them, he brought his head close to the small dog’s head and Kou possessed that small dog.
[Alright, with this I’ll be able to freely move around the town.]
The snake, that was released from the possession, was looking around the area as if it was saying ‘where the heck is this?’ and he began to move around inside it.
Having seen the snake that was docile at first suddenly coming close, the caretakers thought that the magic item’s effect had probably worn off. They had braced themselves not to come close to it anymore.
Meanwhile, Kou, who had managed to possess a small dog, had left the arena which was in the middle of becoming the stage for the ‘Giant Snake predation show’, and was now aimlessly wandering outside the gate. This small dog had a ribbon on his head, a scarf around its neck, and his fur was well maintained.
From what he can feel from the small dog’s consciousness, he knew that he had an owner. Kou, who thought that it would be bad if he were to keep possessing someone else’s pet, went around to look for a replacement—-
“So this is where you were Fausta, have I finally found you?”
—– Then, he got lifted up from behind by a young girl, who had called out the small dog’s name. From what he can see, her age is about the same as Nina and the others, but she had fluffy blond hair and beautiful blue eyes, wearing an expensive looking dress, her features which were young, seemed a little grown up.
“Seriously, it’s bad if you go somewhere on your own, isn’t it?”
“Alice? We’re leaving now, alright?”
“Yes mother. I’ll be right there.”
A modest voice resounded from within the high-cla.s.s carriage lined up on the street, the girl called Alice began to walk towards the carriage with the small dog in her hands.
“Well then, let’s go.”
It seems like she was the daughter of some kind of aristocrat from another town, the carriage the girl was riding on pa.s.sed the town’s gate and left the town just like that. Since there weren’t any other animals in the vicinity, the small dog Kou left the town together with them.
[Yeah, I’m in trouble……. if I suddenly leave without telling Elmel and the others, it’ll make them worry.]
At the west gate of the town of Bara.s.s, the remaining guard corps that were returning from the training camp’s grounds, were jeering outside the gate. Since the n.o.bles, whom the town’s ruler was friendly with, were pa.s.sing through, the others had to move out of the way because the n.o.bles’ carriage had the priority to pa.s.s the road.
“Seriously, even though we just returned from a job well-done.”
“Well, there’s no helping it, is there? It seems like the other party is a prestigious, n.o.ble lord.”
After a while, a row of black high cla.s.s luxury carriages came pa.s.sing through. While showing off the fine design that was casually decorating the surface, the horses that could be seen, were from fine upbringing and a good breed.
Just how much would all of that be worth, is the merchant-like topic, Gashe and his subordinates were discussing with each other. Then he heard the resounding sound of a dog’s barking. It certainly came from the first cla.s.s luxurious carriage, outside of the window a small dog’s face could be seen, which made Gashe involuntarily widen his eyes.
Having seen Gashe and his subordinates from around the time they pa.s.sed the gate, the small dog Kou immediately showed his face outside the window and barked. ‘Hm?’ and when he saw that Gashe could clearly see him, a small stone appeared on the small dog’s forehead.
“Ah.”
After confirming Gashe’s expression, he was certain that he would tell Elmel and the others about it, Kou, together with his new host, the small dog Fausta, his owner, lady Alice, and the others, left the town of Bara.s.s like that.
TL note: Everyone in the header/pic has finally made their appearance now~!