Kelly’s eyes were bloodshot and she was breathing heavily. She seemed to be incredibly excited.
“I’m Kelly. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. If you ever need anything, just tell me. Hmm. Hmm.”
“Scary.”
“Woof…”
“Calm down, Kelly. You’re scaring them.”
“Ah, my apologies.”
When Kelly finally calmed down, I was able to ask her what I had wanted to ask.
“It’s about Shiro. Is it a new species?”
“Well, I will have to get a closer look. Fio. May I touch Shiro?”
The reason that she asked Fio for permission and not me, was because Fio had been the one to tame Shiro.
Fio turned to me.
“While Kelly is an odd one, she is not evil.”
I said and then smiled.
And then Fio slowly wrapped her arm around Shiro’s neck and said,
“…Okay.”
“Thank you.”
Kelly smiled and slowly moved closer to Shiro.
And then she stretched out her hand gently so that Shiro wouldn’t be scared.
And like that, she started to pet the wolf softly.
As Kelly was a monsterologist, she seemed to be good at handling beasts.
“Compared to the time you first met Hippolius…uh, you seem to be more considerate.”
“But I was being very considerate with Hippolius as well?”
“Bu-bo!”
A strange sound emitted from Hippolius.
In fact, Hippolius had tagged along the whole time while I was introducing Fio and Shiro to the others.
“Hippolius doesn’t seem to agree with you.”
“Really? But I don’t think that’s true.”
Kelly did not seem to care much about this, and continued to pet Shiro.
Perhaps it was because Hippolius was an incredibly rare type of dragon, that was also a high-ranking one. So even a monsterologist would lack experience when it came to them.
“Oh? Oh?”
As Kelly looked inside of Shiro’s mouth, she started to tousle the fur in an almost rough manner.
However, Shiro seemed to enjoy Kelly’s hands. And so Shiro remained calm.
“I think that Shiro is a young wolf. What do you think, Kelly?”
“Indeed. It’s as you say, Theo. This is a wolf pup.”
“I knew it.”
“Mmm. And Shiro must be a new species.”
“Yes. But I don’t think Shiro is a completely new one, like Hippolius.”
“Completely new?”
I had never heard of such a thing before. I suppose it was something that only monsterologists knew.
As I wondered about this, Kelly continued.
“There are no other similar species of sea hippos like Hippolius.”
“What about hippopotamuses?”
“They are completely different, aren’t they?”
“Well, I guess so…”
It was true that Hippolius’s face looked like that of a hippo.
However, the giant tail was completely different. And then there were the horns.
Besides, the whole living in the sea thing was also very different.
“Hippolius just has a face that resembles a hippo, but is really a dragon.”
“That’s right.”
“And no monsterologist up until now has ever seen a dragon that looks like a hippo.”
So there was no other species that resembled Hippolius.