Chapter 244: Jumping Egg (44K)

After hearing that faint sound, Herbert's expression softened.

"Hehe, that's better."

He stopped pretending and spoke gently: "Come out. I won't harm you."

Maybe.

As if trusting Herbert's words a little, the ground trembled and swelled, as if something were about to emerge from beneath.

"Woo… woo…"

"Hm?"

Herbert turned his head at the anxious whining and glanced sideways at the dog trailing beside him—oh, no, not a dog, but an unusually massive Mist Ghost Wolf.

It was the leader he had selected from the current Mist Ghost Wolf pack, ranking just below him, whom he named "Aite."

It had a fierce, violent temperament, and its size dwarfed other ghost wolves—three times the bulk of an ordinary member of its kind—and was extremely combative.

Perhaps because it deeply admired Herbert's brutality, it was the most devoted and loyal Mist Ghost Wolf to him.

Because of this, when Herbert was away, command of the wolves fell to Aite—its spirit had been altered by Nie Nasha, leaving behind a special restriction.

Eldar Territory was Herbert's private domain, and its defense could not be neglected, divided into two main parts.

One part was entrusted to the Mist Ghost Wolves, who primarily guarded the mist-covered areas beyond Eldar Territory.

The other part was given to Sophieya, whose future duty would be leading the spirits to secure safety within Eldar Territory.

—This arrangement had originally been Herbert's brilliant idea.

But now, seeing Aite's nervous state, Herbert couldn't help shaking his head.

"Tsk. Even with numerical superiority, high-grade demons are still insufficient."

At this moment, Aite—the dog whose shoulder height matched Herbert's—acted like a newborn puppy.

Its body hunched low, tail tucked, trembling violently, emitting pitiful whimpers.

"Aowooo…"

It was utterly embarrassing.

Herbert shook his head and looked at the other Mist Ghost Wolves around him… damn, they were even worse than Aite.

Aite might look pathetic, but at least it hadn't collapsed or urinated—still somewhat dignified.

Every other wolf that had come along was flat on the ground, completely undignified!

Some covered their heads and shook uncontrollably, others fainted in silence, with warm fluid dripping from their groins.

Only Herbert's lingering terror from his previous brutal slaughters kept them from fleeing.

"Tsk."

Herbert clicked his tongue and waved his hand dismissively: "Go, all of you. Don't embarrass yourselves here."

"Leave. All of you. Drag away those who fainted."

Upon receiving Herbert's permission, the wolves became wildly excited, as if granted amnesty, dragging their companions and fleeing with astonishing speed, vanishing far away.

The reason for their humiliating retreat was not hard to guess—the wolves had sensed pressure.

Though Herbert couldn't feel it, the observer seemed to radiate an extraordinary aura.

The wolf pack scattered and fled, but Aite, though still trembling, clenched its teeth and stubbornly remained in place.

Indeed, character is revealed in comparison—even dogs.

Herbert had recently thought it a coward, but now it seemed to be a true tough guy.

He patted the wolf beside him, signaling it to stop enduring and leave with the others.

But Aite shook its head stubbornly in refusal.

It would not leave!

It would stay by the Wolf King's side to protect him!

"Oh?"

Herbert raised an eyebrow, studying Aite closely, and was surprised to find its trembling had noticeably lessened.

Growing stronger by adapting to the pressure… what a typical protagonist trait?

Herbert found it amusing and smiled, no longer caring: "Fine. If you don't want to leave, stay then."

Let's see how far this vicious dog can get on its own.

Herbert no longer paid attention to the wolves around him, focusing all his energy on the being about to appear before him.

Come on!

Let me see your true face!

Shush-shush-shush…

Amid the rustling of turned earth, the hidden observer slowly emerged from the ground.

A small mound rose from the soil, growing larger and larger—wait, it didn't grow anymore?

The ground hadn't even raised a "mound"—calling it a "bump" was already an exaggeration.

It emerged from the ground… hmm, something felt off.

"Probed"? Also inappropriate.

"Poked!"

Yes, that was the word.

In Herbert's puzzled gaze, a sharp point poked up from the ground… it was an eggshell!

Huh?

In Herbert's widening eyes, a giant egg, half his height, laboriously poked itself out of the earth.

An egg?

With such a big commotion, such a grand display, and this is what you're showing me?

Is this what I came to see?

No, buddy.

Why are you an egg!!?

Herbert had imagined many possibilities, rehearsing countless scenarios of their meeting in his mind.

Unknown monsters, deities, powerhouses… he had envisioned every kind of identity.

He had even prepared for the worst — assuming the one spying in the shadows was that old bastard, the Archbishop.

But he never, ever expected that the true form of this peeper would actually be an egg.

An egg!!?

Dashing Bro?

What's going on ahhh!

Friend, shouldn't you be sitting tight getting hatched? Running around doing errands at such a young age?

Wait…

When the egg had fully burrowed out of the soil, Herbert noticed something — that egg had a tail!

A round head, with a tail trailing behind… honestly, buddy, this looks even weirder.

Are you a Poké Egg?

If I could pick a starter Pokémon, I'd still prefer Pikachu…

Of course, jokes aside, although Herbert was grumbling nonstop in his heart at this moment, on the surface he did not let his guard down.

He stared fixedly at the tail poking out of the egg, analyzing its species.

A scaly tail!

But it didn't look much like a dragon's tail — he had played… researched dragon tails many times, and was broadly familiar with their structure.

This slender, delicate feel looked more like a snake's tail.

Herbert analyzed in his mind, while on the surface he kept a smile and nodded at the egg.

"My friend, we… we finally meet." Even Herbert, usually so good at performing, could barely hold his expression together at this moment.

Can this really count as a meeting?

And faced with Herbert's goodwill, the peeper · egg did not take the hint, remaining silent.

"……"

"……Mm?"

Herbert waited a while, and only after the smile on his face had grown somewhat stiff did he tentatively continue: "Could it be that you can't speak?"

*Tap. *

The peeper · egg finally responded; its snake tail lightly patted the ground, conveying an affirmative meaning to Herbert.

Can't speak.

Why don't you just… tsk, an egg not being able to talk is indeed perfectly reasonable.

Herbert frowned in thought, and after pondering to no avail, he called upon the Ancestor of Pranks for help.

Ancestor, help me!

"Nie Nasha, how about it? Can you help me communicate with it?"

【"I can't."】

"Even you can't?"

Herbert listened to Nie Nasha's blunt answer, his eyes widening slightly.

【"It gives me a very strange feeling."】

Nie Nasha also found it somewhat strange, a deep sense of surprise seeping into her tone.

【"Honestly, I can't even sense its soul, so I have no way of communicating with it through the soul."】

In this world, all things, every living being, possesses its own soul.

Without a soul, having lost one's soul, that means utter annihilation.

And yet now, they were actually seeing a special existence that had no soul, yet could move on its own, and even communicate.

Or perhaps… it was only that Nie Nasha couldn't sense it, not that the other party truly had no soul?

The former would be an explosive discovery, while the latter… would be an explosive threat.

What kind of power would it take for even Nie Nasha to be unable to see through?

Just as Herbert was worrying, Nie Nasha dispelled his guess: 【"By the way, you can relax a little — its strength is far weaker than you'd expect."】

This answer let Herbert breathe a slight sigh of relief.

"So, it's it?"

【"If you mean the spying gaze you felt before, then yes, it was indeed it."】

So it really was it…

Herbert stroked his chin, feeling that the current development had somewhat exceeded his comprehension.

Truly strange.

After thinking for a moment, Herbert continued to ask: "Are you deliberately not speaking?"

The answer was — *tap tap*.

After a few simple questions, Herbert had mastered the way to communicate with the other party.

It could understand Herbert's words, but could not produce any sound by any means.

This seemed like a deadlock, but it was no challenge at all for the clever Herbert.

Herbert asked, and the other party only needed to indicate yes or no.

To indicate yes, the snake tail slapped once.

To indicate no, the snake tail slapped twice.

Very simple.

"Good. Since you're willing to cooperate, I have a few questions I want to ask you."

*Slap. *

The other party seemed to be in a good mood, gradually adapting to the conversation with Herbert.

"Are you a deity?"

*Slap slap. *

"Are you a dragon?"

*Slap slap. *

"Are you a monster?"

*Slap slap. *

"Are you a human?"

*Slap slap*

……

After asking for quite a while and getting nothing but negatives, Herbert narrowed his eyes and switched to a different question.

"Do you know your own identity?"

*Slap…… slap……*

This time, the slapping was not as quick as before — extremely slow and hesitant.

Clearly, the other party was also a bit confused about its own identity.

"……"

This was getting a little tricky.

Herbert wasn't worried about the other party having an organization or a plot; what worried him was this kind of situation where even it didn't know who it was.

"Then… why were you spying on me?"

After asking a few more questions unwillingly, Herbert's suspended heart was finally dead for good.

The other party didn't know its own identity, didn't know why it had appeared here, didn't know why it was staring at Herbert…

A little better than "ask three, know none" — only "knows two nothings" — doesn't know this, doesn't know that either.

Blood pressure's up, folks.

Herbert frowned tightly, and after quite a while finally shook his head and let out a long breath.

Hoo—

Forget it!

If he couldn't figure it out, he just wouldn't think about it.

Things had come to this point, so he'd shelve it for now.

Done.

Setting down his burden, Herbert asked the last — and most important — question.

"Do you — bear any ill will toward me?"

And the other party's response was very earnest.

*Slap! Slap! *

No ill will.

After confirming this point, Herbert slowly nodded and finally breathed a complete sigh of relief.

"I understand."

Although he couldn't see its expression or sense any soul fluctuation, Herbert was willing to temporarily believe it wasn't lying.

"Thank you for your cooperation."

The other party's obedient cooperation was truly beyond Herbert's expectations, leaving several contingency plans he'd prepared earlier with no use.

He really wanted to try the bit where he smashes a cup as a signal and axe-wielding guards rush in to the rescue… what a pity, it didn't give him the chance.

You don't hit a smiling face.

With the other party cooperating, Herbert couldn't keep a stern face either, and could only say helplessly:

"There's one more thing. Although you bear no ill will, being secretly spied on doesn't exactly make me happy."

"So, I hope you can stop the spying behavior."

When Herbert said this, he very clearly sensed the Peeping Egg's dejection.

It was like a child who'd been robbed of its fun, its tail listlessly slapping the ground.

*Slap slap slap slap…*

Herbert noticed this detail and spoke the following words: "And in exchange… would you be willing to come live in my territory?"

He said:

"My home is quite big, you're welcome to come visit, and if you get tired from playing you can just sleep here."

You're going to be watching anyway, so you might as well boldly and openly appear within my line of sight.

And faced with Herbert's warm invitation, the Peeping Egg first froze for a moment, then excitedly gave its response.

*Slap! *

The egg, which had been dejected, grew excited, using actions to express its agitation.

"Mm!?"

But just as it excitedly charged over in this direction, Herbert noticed another point that was truly worth complaining about…

This guy clearly had the tail of a serpent-type creature, but it… couldn't slither!

It couldn't even manage a caterpillar's "a little," "one," "a little" crawling style.

If it were only this, Herbert could still understand.

It's an egg anyway—at worst it could just roll a bit.

But this one wasn't like that.

The method it adopted was—bounce!

It propped its body up with its tail, then the tail exerted force, bouncing straight forward, and once it landed it repeated the previous motion to keep bouncing.

Bounce! Bounce! Bounce!

Duang~Duang~Duang~

It was like an egg fitted with a pogo stick beneath it, bouncing its way toward Herbert.

No!

Isn't it obvious that this method is even harder than the others?

Others are Tigger, bouncing zombies, so you… a bouncing egg?

Clang.

Herbert caught the egg that had been charging into his arms, and under the great force slid several meters, nearly coughing up a mouthful of old blood.

"Cough!"

???

Take Down?

Didn't you say it was much weaker?

【"Oh, that's relative to your expectations. Its actual strength only barely reaches Legendary, so it's quite weak."】

"…Fine then."

Okay.

I'm a noob, alright?

Herbert pursed his lips, looked down at the giant egg in his arms, and couldn't help laughing.

"One last question…"

He held the bouncing egg that was trembling with excitement like it had vibration mode on, and said slowly:

"Do you have a name? If not, would you like me to give you one?"

If you don't mind, I'd like to give you a great name—Zhang Pu Ai Ge!

……

……

"What on earth did Herbert go do?"

Fu Leimei idly stayed in Elda Territory, gazing in the direction Herbert had left.

"What could be so secretive that he insists on going without me? How strange."

Fu Leimei had wanted to go with Herbert at the time, but he had insisted on going alone; she couldn't win against him in the end and could only stay behind in Elda Territory.

Just as she was thinking this, her ears twitched slightly, and she heard familiar footsteps.

"Herbert! You're back… huh?"

Then, Fu Leimei's eyes went wide as she stared at the scene in disbelief.

The youth, cradling a giant egg in his arms, returned to the territory with a beaming smile.

This…

At this moment, Fu Leimei suddenly understood why Herbert hadn't wanted her to go along.

That size, that thing… it has to be a dragon egg, right!!?

You and Valentina, you two!

You…

How did you even lay an egg!!?

(End of this chapter)