Ep 36. Do You Know My Name? (2)

  Serenis arrived home as night settled in. The sun had pletely set by the time she opehe front door, and she was expeg another series of scolding from Patrick who likely would’ve e home after work much earlier than her.

  Parts of her suspi were proven correct: Patrick had indeed arrived home a while earlier. But work was ruly over for him, which Serenis hadn’t known up until this point.

  “Patrick. I’m ba-”

  “Woah! Oh hey, wele back. Uh, sorry, I gotta head out again, I’ll probably see you tomorrow.”

  “This te? Where to?”

  “Dunno, something about monsters appearing in the sewage system? The entire sector’s being called in, we’re reguting all the underground tunnels. I’ll be back!”

  “Wait, I-“

  Before Serenis could respond with anything meaningful, Patrick rushed past his sibling and smmed the door behind his exit, leaving the dragonlord awkwardly standing alone in the empty living space.

  She stared at the door that had just closed, shoulders sagged in disappoi.

  ‘…I was hoping that you’d apao those tunnels.’

  ? ? ?

  “Iris!”

  “Oh, good. You’re here, Patrick.”

  The blue-haired mage had arrived at one of the rger entrao the city’s sewers beh a stone bridge, now guarded by several of the sector’s agents. A gate of criss-crossed iron rods hung above his head, and no civilians occupied the nearby streets.

  “I mean, I came as soon as I could. Looks like regution’s already in pce? What’s going oly?”

  “…What I tell yht now is that beasts are appearing from the sewers throughout the ey. Their reported appearances are wildly varying, but they all seem to have white scales c a major portion of their bodies, and all of them seem to have random animalistic features. Some have even beeed to wield an ability simir to light magic.”

  “A monster breakout then? How’s the regution status?”

  “Somewhat. All reported beasts iy have been eliminated, and the sector’s beguing every entrance leading into the sewers to guarantee civilian safety. The problem is, there’re way too many gates iy, and we barely have persoo spare for an iigation i’ll just be you and me going in.”

  “Nothing new. I’m used to having low headt anyways.”

  “Fair enough. Hey, you there!”

  As Iris called out to one of the agents by the gate, he hurriedly made his way to the enforcer’s side.

  “Yes, ma’am!”

  “tinue reguting the gates. If additional beast sightings are reported withiy, prioritize eliminating them first. Focus on civilian safety – we do not have to capture them. I’m heading into the tunnels with Patrick.”

  “Yes ma’am!”

  Iris briefly owards the agent and looked to the blue-haired mage beside her. Her work expression was as stern as ever as she beed her coworker to follow.

  “Let’s head in.”

  “…Here we go again.”

  The two enforcers dashed into the open iron gate. Patrick pulled out his wooden staff from his back, swinging it in a small circle around the air.

  “Lumen.”

  Following the short phrase, the tip of his staff began to emit a faint yellow light, illuminating the path ahead. Fortunately, the als seemed empty as far as the eye could see.

  “Huh. Looks pretty for a monster outbreak?”

  “It’ll probably be different the deeper we go. Also…this isn’t a monster outbreak. These beasts aren’t monsters.”

  “Wait, they aren’t? What are they then?”

  “…Two. To your left.”

  “Hmph.”

  As his coworker threw out a seemingly ued reply, Patriced towards the tuo the left. Two beasts were rabidly running towards them, the tunnels eg in what sounded like rabid barks.

  Patrick skidded to a halt, smming his staff down onto the ground. The sewer’s flhtly trembled, rumbling in sounds of g wood.

  Just as the beasts luowards the mage, a pair of thick, spike-like tree roots shot out of the grouh, ly skewering the attag creatures to hold them midair. The beasts rabidly struggled to break free, but after a few short whimpers, their bodies became limp as streaks of blood wet the wood pierg them.

  Patrick wi the sight of blood. He hadn’t actually expected this oute.

  “…Huh. They really aren’t monsters after all.

  “Apparently not. I thought so as well at first, but they seem to be closer to artificial animals.”

  The term ‘monster’ was only passed around as a general term to describe terrifying creatures of all sorts. However, its accurate, biological meaning was limited to a very specific subset of life.

  Monsters, by definition, were a natural phenomenon where an enviro’s mana would sometimes inexplicably clump together to form a lifelike entity; upoh, these entities were simply reduced bato the mana that formed them, only leaving behind occasional mana crystals. As such, monsters did not bleed, much less leave a corpse.

  In other words, the limp, bleeding bodies sighat these creatures weren’t monsters created from thin air, but actual liviies.

  Patrick grimaced at the sight of their unnatural figures once more. As his spell faded away, the two beasts fell powerlessly into the sewer’s stone floors, their blood spilling into the sewer’s stream.

  “Artificial animals…? What kind of insane person would…”

  “A few years ago, there was a stist that went missing. Ulberk Eizenhoff. Do you remember him?”

  “…Yeah, that was the runaway we never caught. But weren’t his experiments about indug mana evolution to make artificial halves? He failed because of the patibility issue.”

  “Maybe he opted for a different route. If you think about it, a half…doesn’t necessarily have to mean half animal and half human.”

  “…Are you saying these things are animal-animal halves? Isn’t that just a crossbreed?”

  Iris didn’t reply to her friend’s question. She instead examihe beasts’ corpses closer, running her hand against their scaled bodies.

  ‘Judging by the sizes of their scales and other oures, the mix likely tains an alligatiant lizard. Or…’

  A monstrous screech echoed throughout the als as a creature resembling a flying lizard came into view. It resembled the other beasts, with the exception of its much more developed wings – scaled wings that were actually carrying it across the air. A fanged maw was readily open to p down on the enforcers’ heads as their distance closed.

  Patrick wove his staff once more as a wall of giant bubbles took shape between them and the approag beast. When one of the bubbles caught the creature within, the beast became trapped in the spell, uo break free.

  Iris summoned a translut mana gun into her hand, shooting several times at the screeg creature. The magic bullets ly burst the bubble as well as the creature within, its body dropping dead onto the floor.

  The two enforcers studied the body, specifically the wings that had allowed its flight. Its ck of feathers first remihem of a bat, but the white scales c the opposing side suggested otherwise.

  Numerous fangs. A lengthy jaw. Hard scales. Cws. And scaled wings.

  Iris turned away from the sight, noting the features it had carried. She couldn’t shake off the dreadful thought that guing her mind – especially after hearing the reports of some of these creatures possessing magic-like abilities.

  ‘Alligator. Lizard. Or…a dragon.’