Chapter 77: Chapter 62: The Rhythm of the Wandering Scale-kins.

[“Ok, everybody, repeat after me,”] I said before taking a deep breath to sing. “Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do ♫”

“““Kro Kre Kri Scha Scho Sla Kri Kro!”””

Hmm, this seriously reminds me of the time I tried to sing when I just got [Humanize]… how nostalgic.

Another morning, another day in the rainforest of Belzac forest. Just like yesterday, our goal to escape hadn't changed, so we disembarked once dawn came, only stopping once the lizardmen became hungry.

Unlike yesterday’s dinner, we didn’t have any time to cook for our large group. The lizardmen would usually eat sun dried fish or fruits they picked up on the way, but now that I was around, we could modernise it a bit using my [Storage Magic]. Meaning, we cooked a second batch yesterday and we stored it in my spell, keeping it piping warm as if no time had passed.

I was glad everybody enjoyed the food, but all of this food was coming from my party’s pockets. We had to feed up to 50 people, not to mention how Saori and I could eat enough for five portions before we became satisfied. So the dent did worry me if it would last for winter.

Well, as long as we made it out of the Belzac forest in time, there would be nothing to worry about.

After our meal was over, the lizardmen decided to prolong today’s break for a bit longer. Most of the lizardmen I rescued during that mission seemed pretty exhausted after our strenuous march. Their body probably needed more time to rest.

As such, letting them rest a bit, the rest of us decided to form foraging and hunting parties to spend the time. Saori led Caszcur, Aksmias, and the other guards out to hunt, while Tasianna and I stayed with Apsala and the non-combatants to gather anything edible. Find as much as we could, then come back, in essence.

During this gathering session, some of the lizardmen kids asked me about the promise I made with them; that I would give them an idol concert. Even through [Telepathy], the kids couldn’t understand the meaning of an “idol,” both saddening me but also giving me slight hope that I really would be the first idol in this world.

At first, they thought I was a ritual dancer, somebody who sang and danced in reverence of the gods. They were egging me on to perform one of these dances for Marsven or Kargryxmor, but I had to immediately shoot that idea down to their disappointment.

I had to remind them how I sang two days ago at the feast, causing them to look with interest. They told me they couldn’t understand the lyrics, but they still found my voice really nice to listen to. They were especially curious how I could produce the sound of instruments with [Aerokinesis] alone.

I guess it was similar to how non-Koreans and non-Japanese still loved listening to anime and K-Pop songs if they couldn’t understand the words at all. All you needed was the rhythm to jump-start your heart, really.

Giving out a small demonstration — minus the dancing since I felt a bit embarrassed — I caused some of the kids to imitate how I sang. I offered to train them, but they really acted like kids, not taking it too seriously.

It was fine, though. They were clearly having fun singing; nothing bad about that. How often had I sang under the shower for no apparent reason? It was even worse when the song was stuck in my head, to the point I just couldn’t ignore it, even while studying for school.

Hmm, I’m up for a song, again.

“You guys are good kids ♫

Staying strong in this forest ♫

Picking yourself up, not crying aloud, despite the hardships ♫

You’re making them feel proud ♫

I bet they’re watching ♫

Just do you best, don’t let yourself down, and it’s gonna be all alright ♫

Don’t push yourself too much ♫

Just live on ♫

We can do it all ♫

Believe it ♫

Don’t you dare give it all up ♫

I’ll push you to your limits ♫

I can sympathize with you ♫

Trust me, we’re strong together ♫

Come on, stand up up ♫

Let’s go, let’s go oh oh ♫

Who do you think we are, eh? ♫

That’s right, scale-kins! ♫

Come on, stand up up ♫

Let’s go, let’s go oh oh ♫

I can see that light in your eyes ♫

We will never give up♫”

Playing and singing something that just came out of my head was quite fun but what made it even better was that the lizardmen kids just enjoyed it with me without thinking too much about what the lyrics meant. The quintuplet lizardmen kids who asked me to save their friends were overjoyed as they wagged their tails and bodies with the cheery beat.

Slazzaila, Nixliel, Asansda, Yonzecla, and Yutzallas, from oldest to youngest, those were their names. They couldn’t help themselves from dragging their exhausted friends over to listen to me. I was glad they were feeling better despite still grieving for their parents. In my opinion, kids really didn’t deserve such a sucky situation like this.

In any case, some of the kids started to act like fans around me, as in they wanted me to continue singing to ditch out on their foraging duty. I sorta tried to make them into my followers after the System registered Caszcur as one yesterday.

Caszcur’s case was pretty simple, as he only told me he wanted to be my follower. It was strange, as it didn't tell me how it actually worked. If I wanted to have [The Light] grow in strength, I first had to find out how to trigger the follower System to work.

As a test, I told the kids I wanted them to become my “fans” bluntly without telling them any details, however, that failed. Most of the kids were receptive to the idea and wanted to become "fans" but it honestly seemed like they didn’t understand what the word meant.

I then had my parallel minds figure out what I believed to be requirements — adoration and trust. Before I renamed it, the description of [The Light] called it “followers,” right? If you want to follow someone, you have to be sure you trust this person or need something from them.

In Caszcur’s case, he seemed genuinely happy about me being here. Appreciative of me saving him and his friends, all while not demanding too much in return. It showed, as the moment I accepted him as my follower, the System message came for my “+1 follower” moment.

In a sense, it could be considered like a favor Quest for an NPC in a game. I had to help them or impress them to turn them in my followers, but at the same time Aurena did mention how she viewed me as an idol in her message. That I should shine bright. Doing individual favors might help out, but idols were random samaritans, they were entertainers.

Besides, I knew this couldn’t be the answer here. I helped the quintuplets with their “favor,” by rescuing their friends. If this was a game, I should be getting my reward at this very moment considering how much they seemed to adore me.

“Hestia, Hestia! Come here, we got mushrooms!” Slazzaila, the oldest, shouted after my whole singing was done. “Ooooh, Tasianna told me you love stew! One of the adults knows how to make an amazing stew with mushrooms! Let’s bring back a lot!”

“Hestia! Help!” two of the siblings called me over to a tree, only to see them stuck up there like cats. “Help! We got some fruits, but we can’t climb down with them.”

They were cute. They liked me. What else did I need to make them fans?

There is always that idol performance. I don’t know if Aurena knows about it, but she did imply something about my idol stuff, so maybe an idol concert might work?

Of course, that wouldn’t explain Caszcur nor the virigress family, but thinking about it was getting harder and harder. Since it wasn’t working right now, I thanked the kids for their help and resumed the foraging process. I could speak with Saori and Tasianna about it later.

After a while, the hunters eventually made it back with bags full of fish and other game. As the creatures around here were practically monsters, they also had mass to boot so that meant more meat!

Our foraging session also yielded a ton of herbs, spices, and also seeds, as Tasianna seemed to have become curious about my garden idea when I mentioned it off-handedly with the fulinoe plant seeds. It helped a lot Apsala was an alchemist, so she knew which plants were ingredients for curative potions or if they were good stuff to eat.

Speaking of alchemy, Apsala couldn’t exactly teach any of it to us as alchemy required specific instruments and tools for the process. Without them, anything you attempted would just fail. Saori’s money-hungry eyes died down when we asked her about it yesterday.

After packing everything in my storage we continued our march, trying to make some decent progress before stopping for the night. Once again, I could feel some of the detriments of being the only pack mule of the group, since putting in and taking out cost me Mana. Imagine taking out a whole camp worth of supplies and also equipment. Not fun, and I hoped Saori’s mana could grow larger in the future just for my convenience~

But I quickly recovered from losing over 10% of my mana in one go after Saori planned to make mushroom and meat stew for me tonight. Steeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew! Couldn’t let my mood be down with some steeeeeeeeeeeew! Warm, hearty, and so nutritious. What sorta dish type was better?

Once dinner finished, some of the lizardmen suggested doing more hunting and gathering during the night. As it seemed like the lizardmen still had the energy to do more for the day, we decided on sending only a small group out with Saori to guard them.

It was evening, after all, so moving away from light was in itself just foolish. If the party was small enough, then Saori could protect everybody easily using her spells and [Shadow Armament].

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In the meantime, Tasianna and I would hold down the fort to protect the camp. Also, I wanted to spend a bit more time with the kids, so I really didn’t want to go hunt right now. After all, those little buggers asked me to teach them how to sing after hearing my immaculate, angelic voice!

Ahh, I could really cry. Really glad they liked it that much, but better save those tears for after my first concert.

Explaining the basics I learned from my own vocal teacher, I quickly gave them a rundown on how our vocal cords worked. To learn how to sing properly, you had to know how to take care of them and how they worked with your breathing.

While I technically didn’t know if lizardmen vocal cords were the same as a human’s, I knew they could sing. That alone was enough for me to pass on some tips to them.

While the lizard kids were trying their best to follow my instructions, I also had Tasianna try to translate my new song. Using it as an opportunity for another language lecture, she insisted I help her with it while I was coordinating the kids. Thankfully, with my parallel minds, multi-tasking wasn’t too hard.

“Hestia, my voice is starting to hurt,” one of them complained, pointing a finger at their throat.

[“Ok, take a break and drink some water. Try not to speak and just rest,”] I advised him, handing him some room temperature water. Tea would have been also good, but it could dry your throat out.

“Hestia, my voice just made a weird sound. Did I do something wrong?” another said, massage their throat.

[“Oh, nothing wrong there. You just can’t reach that pitch yet,”] raising my own pitch to demonstrate how it should sound, I continued giving him tips after he knew nothing was wrong with his voice. [“It takes a while to go up, so keep training. This is something you can’t get better at without continuous practice.”]

The kids weren't terrible, apparently 'cause they had some practice before they became slaves, having sung during rituals and other ceremonies. Expectantly, as they never had to properly sing, their ability to keep up with the rhythm or even intonate their singing voice was amateurish.

We kept up with this until Saori’s group came back as we had to go to bed early for the next day. It was pretty uneventful as always, thankfully, so I had the kids just keep up with the singing practice until evening. If the whole trip could be so lax and simple, it would honestly make me happy I could spend this much time with the lizardmen.

Sadly, my luck wasn’t too good.

[“Woah, this is a massive swamp!”] Saori called out.

Urgh, this place is drenched in mana. Feels stuffy. I nodded with Saori, even grimacing as I felt an extreme difference in the available mana in this area compared to anywhere else.

We stared at the giant body of water we were standing in front of. It had the features you would expect from a swamp with countless vegetation ranging from water lilies to overgrown trees with roots submerged underwater. The green surface was only a cover for its depth that at first glance looked like the abyss, showing no signs of the ground.

The water was muddy so it might just be an exaggeration, but it felt like we would have to swim if we wanted to traverse it… all of us, even the tall lizardmen. You could say it was pretty worrying, after all, it would be large enough to accommodate a giant monster…

… like that crocodile-head.

"Little one, what do you want to do? All of us are pretty good swimmers so we would have no problem getting over here," Apsala asked me for my opinion on how to proceed.

[“No, no, let’s not. I think it would be better to just go around it, even if it means it takes longer,”] I replied.

“Huh? Why, though, fair-scaled one?” Aksmias asked.

“I don’t believe my intuition is completely correct but…,” Tasianna started, looking at us before continuing. “… I believe I can speak for the three of us. Any risks should be avoided, and this looks like the perfect place to ambush. For example, a giant beast could appear.”

“You mean that monster that attacked us about a week ago?” Caszcur mentioned. “But we’ve made so much progress up north now from that giant lake where we first saw it. You think it would follow us?”

[“Maybe but I agree with Tasianna and Hestia that we should try to avoid any risks,”] Saori prudently suggested. [“I believe that would be the wisest decision, especially considering that your group has seen their fair share of trouble, lately. Do not worry, our party wishes to hurry up, but we are not willing to put anybody in danger… right, Lady Hestia?”]

Yes, yes, I’m not gonna throw myself into the fire, again. Saori can you please not look like I am willing to jump into every single trouble I see? I told myself, instead, I simply nodded to reply to Saori’s question.

Honestly, I wasn't joking this time. If there was a chance we would meet that rank A monster again or not, then I hoped we could avoid that at all cost. I was only a little baby dragon here, and I didn’t want to die just yet!

“Well, if that is what you wish then we will-”

[“Stop! Quick, back into the forest, now!”] Saori shouted, before grabbing Tasianna and me.

Carrying me under her arm, Saori continued shouting “follow me!” as she delved deeper into the forest. Not understanding what was going on but knowing it would be better to stick together, the lizardmen also hurried to keep up with Saori’s high movement speed.

Once we regrouped the lizardmen naturally wanted to ask what was happening, but they were quickly silenced with a fat “shush!” from Saori. The tone of her voice and the fact her red mist was covering her eyes agitated me into action, realizing she was sensing a threat.

To further show that something was wrong, Saori was snarling, blemishing her beautiful face with a show of ferocity by baring her fangs like a wolf. While she loosened her grip on us two, she still hadn’t completely let us go, only allowing me enough wriggle room to stand on the ground.

After a couple of seconds of intense concentration, trying to find what was making Saori so anxious, I quickly found out what it was.

Scheiße, how?!

My [Detection Sensor] was finally able to pick up the signals of three individuals entering my detection area at a high speed. They were separated, moving in a fashion similar to a search.

[“Everybody, huddle up in a corner! Please, I know I am worrying you, but please trust me on this!”] Saori pleaded to everybody, prompting to nod and quickly move behind some thick foliage. [“Hestia.”]

I gave her a thumbs up, understanding what she wanted and cast [Air Shield] around us. We didn’t know who they were, so we had to stop sound and smell from giving us away. Technically, you could theoretically “sense” the flow of mana, as I had become more sensitive to the mana around me, but it wasn’t like I knew how to stop that.

With the looming terrors continuing their search, our group could only silently wait, anxiously wishing they would just disappear. The signals started to disperse even more, with only a single one moving towards our location.

It was still not a straight line though, as the signal moved around and even stopped twice. All of the lizardmen had [Stealth], so they immediately activated the skill with us to keep quiet.

As seconds passed us by, I was also able to see leaves falling down, followed by a strong gust of wind. I looked through the foliage, widening my eyes I saw a giant white-scaled reptile with four limbs, with two of them being wings.

Verdammt, are they really the same ones?!

It was a wyvern.

With the confirmation that something was flying above us, some of the kids and non-combatants began to shiver as they held onto whatever tools they were carrying. It might not be worth anything as actual weapons but gripping them seemed to give them some sense of safety.

Seeing this, Apsala decided it would be best to start praying. Putting her hands together, Apsala quietly mumbled, so slowly and quietly, it was pretty inconspicuous to everybody else. Saori and I weren’t really focused on it, leaving her to calm herself. We had to react to the wyvern in case it turned around.

… Which meant it was too late when I finally realized why she shouldn’t be praying right now.

[“Miss Apsala, stop! You can’t pray!”] Tasianna, slipping through Saori’s hand, quickly flew to stop Apsala from praying.

Hearing the loud sound of Tasianna’s voice resounding through her head, Apsala jerked up and stopped her prayer. She stared at the frantic Tasianna as if she was crazy, however, she did it for one good reason. Something Aurena had mentioned.

Praying created a connection between a mortal and a god, and these gods could look through our eyes. Apsala was a follower of Kargryxmor. Wyverns were dragonkin, meaning they were connected to Kargryxmor.

“Look!”

All of us snapped our heads around as a lizardman noticed the canopy above us rustling, only for a giant reptilian head to poke out of it. It stretched its long neck around, before it stopped in my direction and let out a deep snort.

No!

“E-Enemy!”

““““W-Wyvern!””””

Unable to hold it back anymore now that we were detected, the lizardmen jumped out of our cover. The wyvern pushed itself through the leaves, revealing its full, beautiful body to all of us to witness.

As it began to open its mouth, a chill ran down my spine as I stared at its snow-white scales with some hints of blue highlights. A white, cold mist escaped through its jaw before it rattled its winged forearms, wobbling its elastic, but thick flying membranes.

As more of its body came into view, I was also able to identify two dorsal fins, one situated like a crest on its head and another on its back. The last part that came into view was its tail, which had webbing resembling the tail fin of a whale and the ability to retract it like a fan.

Stop! I took down my [Air Shield].

“Kriiii—” The wyvern was about to shout!

[“Don’t let it roar!”]

Freeing myself from Saori’s grip, I spread my wings and blasted myself towards the creature with [Wind Blast]. All in my hopes to get all the lizardmen away from the winged terrors.