247 This and That
Steed beasts Grudos froze. Why?
"Hiie! Wait! Hey! What! Why? Next to me!?"
Because Chimera showed up. The Grudos were clearly relaxing before.
But they're now stopped dead on their tracks.
"W-w-w-w-wh! Why won't it go away?!"
Chimera lay low next to Minya's legs while yawning. Made worse with her not moving due to fear.
"Ah, looks like Chimera's been protecting you all this time, Minya. I'm guessing that's what it's doing now."
I approached Chimera and brushed it gratefully.
"Thanks about this. Ah, why don't you try giving it a good brush too, Minya. Listen, hear that purring? This indicates that it's in a good mood. It's been keeping you safe in the dark, so just regard it as your token of appreciation."
"Eh? Huh? Err... Umm..."
Minya timidly reached out to Chimera's back.
I moved my hand to Chimera's head to let Minya have that spot.
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"Ah, incredible... Its fur feels so smooth and nice to the touch..."
The bat wings are slightly in the way, but that doesn't stop Minya from getting entranced by Chimera's fur.
This surely will make her tolerate Chimera better.
Or rather, she's stuck on its back. Is she getting addicted now?
(Man this fluffy atmosphere belies the fact that five people had just been sent to hell.)
Minya forgot about her goal for a while before she eventually snapped back to reality and stood up in a hurry.
"That's not it! Just what's going on here!? This and that, everything! Aaah! I don't even know where to begin!"
She yelled out all of a sudden. Her mind must be a mess right now, everything was just unbelievable.
I reminded her our objective to calm her down.
"We've still got a long ways to go don't we? To that abandoned mine. This isn't the time to loaf around. There's five Grudos here and all. Let's put them to good use."
I'm totally not trying to avoid Minya's inquiry because it's a pain or anything.
I simply judged that there's no point in explaining.
Also, how am I even supposed to explain my power?
(Not even me myself understand this power. How could I expect other people to. Even attempting to is a complete waste of time.)
Minya looked dumbfounded for a moment before switching to an expression that fit the word 'Gununu...' well.
"I get it... I did say I wouldn't probe further earlier. You're right, I'm here to look for gramps. Let's go. We should be able to arrive at our destination before evening with Grudos."
Thankfully I managed to avoid the 'tragedy of blood' this time around. Had I slipped on piling grass on top of those guys, I wouldn't be able to eat meat for a while again.
To Minya, it must have looked like those fives got replaced by five heaps of grass.
Otherwise, she'd likely lose her mind and we'd have to postpone our departure.
I took reins of the five Grudos, unmoving due to Chimera's presence.
And thus we gained unexpected transports in steed beasts, but one huge problem also popped up.
"...I have zero experience in horse riding... Oh crap..."