Takeru tells Bee to give him some cover fire—but absolutely no fire or lightning, because they are not ruining perfectly good crab meat today. So, Bee lets out a sonic screech that stuns the giant crab, giving Takeru the chance to charge in and whack it on the head with his staff.
Unfortunately for him, this crab is built like a tank, and it smacks him across the face for his efforts. Still, Takeru refuses to back down. When the crab tries to stomp him flat, he rolls out of danger just in time. Seeing an opening, Bee freezes one of the crab’s legs.
That sparks an idea—Takeru forms several ice needles and fires them all at once, freezing the entire crab solid like a seafood popsicle.
Brolite is amazed at how effortlessly he defeated the monster. Klay, however, is furious. He immediately demands to know why Takeru fought that thing alone. Takeru sheepishly admits he got a little too excited—and also didn’t want Klay or Brolite ruining the meat with their “dirty weapons.”
Klay is horrified that Takeru actually plans to eat the demon crab, but more importantly, he reminds him that as his bodyguard, it’s his job to fight and protect him. Takeru realizes he has a point and apologizes, promising to rely on him more from now on.
Once the lecture is over, they drag the frozen crab away (dinner prep begins early in this party) and continue mining. They’ve already collected all the gems in the area, but Takeru thinks there might be an even bigger vein deeper inside.
The guide is beyond grateful—Takeru not only defeated the demon plaguing the mine but also uncovered a new ore vein. He has no idea how he’ll ever repay him.
Later, they all return to the castle, where Zeff receives the report about Takeru’s achievements.
The king is astonished by everything Zeff hears from Zambo, and to prove it, Zambo asks Takeru to show the king the giant crab he defeated. Takeru hesitates—because, well, it’s a massive seafood corpse—but the king really wants to see it.
So Takeru opens his item box and drops the enormous crab onto the floor like he’s showing off groceries. The king is stunned by its size and immediately declares that such an achievement deserves a reward.
Takeru’s request?
“Can I… keep the crab’s body?”
The king is confused (as any sane person would be), but he allows it.
A few minutes later, Takeru and the group walk out of the castle, and both Takeru and Bee are practically drooling at the thought of the feast awaiting them. Even better, the crab’s shell is perfect material for the custom scissors Takeru ordered, so this mission turned out to be a jackpot.
The next day, things get even better—Zeff rewards Brolite with a white Pegasus, since he heard she was searching for one. Though honestly… she didn’t exactly contribute much on this trip. Still, she’s thrilled.
The king also returns Klay’s repaired spear, and Klay is very happy with the result.
Brolite announces she has to return home with the Pegasus—it’s a gift for her sister—and she thanks Takeru over and over, promising to repay him someday… even if it takes her entire life. Takeru tries to say it’s no big deal, but she’s already emotionally locked in.
Later, Takeru and Klay return to the guild, where Ariana rushes over to greet them. She’s relieved to see Takeru safe—and shocked to see Klay too. So she asks whether they formed a party together.
Takeru is about to explain that they just bumped into each other, but Klay immediately cuts him off and proudly declares that they have formed a party.
Before Takeru can correct her, Ariana sprints away to inform the guild master—officially sealing Klay’s impulsive declaration.
Takaroo turns to Klay and asks why he would suddenly claim they’d formed a party, but Klay just shrugs and says it’s harmless. After all, he already knows Takaroo isn’t a normal human—and with how often Takaroo dives head-first into danger, someone responsible should probably keep an eye on him. As much as Takaroo doesn’t like being strong-armed, he admits that having Klay as a teammate doesn’t sound too bad. They talk it out and officially form the Black Azure Dragon party.
Afterward, Takeru heads to the smithing shop to deliver the materials he gathered. The moment the boss sees all the pure illite he brought, the man freezes like he just saw the heavens open. Takeru panics for a second, thinking he messed something up—he thought pure illite was better than normal ore, but now he’s doubting everything. He asks if they can still finish their project with the Ildrite ore, and both Ribble and Gases immediately burst into tears of joy, clutching the stones like babies. They never dreamed they’d ever touch such pure material.
When they finally stop crying, they tell Takeru there’s no way they can afford to pay him properly for this much valuable ore. But Takeru waves it off—he doesn’t want money. All he wants is a custom pair of scissors made just for him. Before that, though, he wants them to use the illite to craft the best sword possible and win the sword-making contest.
Half a month later, Takeru is enjoying a quiet beer at the tavern when Wade barges in. Someone important is looking for him and left a formal letter. Klay takes one look and recognizes the crest of House Lucilv. Wade explains that it’s from the local lord. Takeru, of course, immediately assumes it’s going to be a massive hassle and starts plotting his escape, but Wade reassures him that this particular noble is actually pleasant. Reluctantly trusting Wade, Takeru opens the letter to see what’s inside.
The letter turns out to be a formal request for Takeru and Klay to visit the Lord’s manor so he can bestow honors upon them. Klay is surprised to see his own name included, but Wade explains that the Lord must have heard they formed a party and wanted to invite both members—very polite, very official, very troublesome in Takeru’s opinion.
The promise of receiving honors sounds nice, but Takeru can’t shake the suspicion that this is just a fancy way to drag him into something. Klay agrees and says the Lord probably wants to meet Bee, since baby dragons are practically celebrity material. That only makes Takeru panic harder; the last thing he wants is some noble trying to “adopt” Bee like a fancy pet.
Wade quickly reassures him that the Lord isn’t that kind of person—and even if he was, he legally can’t just snatch someone’s dragon. Still uneasy, Takeru reluctantly agrees to go.
So the two hop into the noble’s carriage and head toward the manor. On the way, Takeru notices lots of people staring, and immediately assumes something’s wrong with his face or hair. But Klay explains that being summoned by the Lord is incredibly rare—adventurers usually dream about this sort of career-boosting opportunity.
When they finally arrive, Takeru is stunned by the sheer size of the estate. It looks less like a house and more like a castle that ate another castle. At the entrance, they’re greeted by Raymond, the head butler, who politely welcomes them and escorts them inside, straight past the grand foyer.
Takeru finds a perfectly lined row of maids waiting to greet him, and he’s honestly impressed—they’re so synchronized they could form their own idol group. As they head toward the staircase, a man walks by, gives them the side-eye, and continues on like they’re pieces of furniture. Takeru decides not to bother; he’s met goblins with better manners.
A moment later, a little girl comes charging down the stairs and—without a hint of hesitation—demands that he hand over Bee because she wants him. Takeru, in full cold-and-flat mode, tells her that’s not happening. She looks genuinely shocked that he’s not instantly obeying her. She starts talking about how dragons are “noble creatures” and only someone like her deserves to have one… but the way she’s talking sounds suspiciously like someone handed her a script five minutes ago.
While she rambles, Takeru checks her status window. Her name is Tyrus, and she’s the Lord’s daughter. She doesn’t seem like a bad kid—just misinformed. So he kneels down and calmly asks her why she thinks she has the right to take Bee.
Tyrus gets flustered and explains that Bernard told her all adventurers are low-lives who must obey nobles. Suddenly everything makes sense. Someone’s been stuffing her head with nonsense. (Takeru, meanwhile, has no clue who this Bernard guy is, but he’s already on the mental “annoying people” list.)
He explains to Tyrus that Bee is part of his family, and there is absolutely no universe where he would hand him over. When she hears the word family, it finally clicks for her: asking him to give up Bee is like someone demanding she abandon her family. She immediately gets it.
Takeru gently asks why she wanted a dragon so badly. Tyrus says she wanted to show it to her mother because it’s one of her mother’s greatest wishes—and saying that makes her sad.
Just then, a man walks over, sees his daughter upset, and asks what’s wrong. Tyrus calls him “Father,” and Takeru realizes this is the Lord himself. He’s surprised—this man looks nothing like the stern, bald, pudgy noble he imagined.
The Lord introduces himself as Belminant, and after sitting down for tea with Takeru and Klay, he apologizes for his daughter’s behavior. Takeru brushes it off, and Klay asks why they were summoned.
Belminant explains that it concerns his wife, Muyeria.
Belminant explains that his wife has been bedridden for half a year, and he recently heard rumors about how Takeru healed a frail, sickly man overnight. So he’s hoping Takeru might be able to help his wife too. Takeru knows his magic can cure most illnesses… but the last time he did a full-body heal, Klay accidentally evolved into “Ultra-Klay™,” so he’s understandably terrified of turning Muyeria into a Pokémon evolution by accident.
Belminant goes on to explain why Tyrus tried to steal Bee earlier. In a few days, she has to return to school in the royal capital, and she wanted to leave something adorable—like Bee—by her mother’s side to cheer her up. She may be misguided, but deep down she’s a good kid. The story is so touching that Klay and Bee start crying like they’ve been stabbed with onion magic.
Moved by their sincerity, Takeru agrees to help—though he still worries this might bite him later.
Belminant is overjoyed and leads him to his wife’s room. He gently tells Muyeria that he’s brought someone who might be able to help her. Takeru scans her, and what appears on her status window nearly knocks him over. She has everything: severe cataracts, anemia, liver poisoning, kidney poisoning—and that’s just the opening act. Honestly, the fact she’s still alive is a medical miracle.
He can heal most of it, but there’s one problem. There’s something called “Ivor Poisoning,” and he’s never heard of it before. He doesn’t even know whether his magic can fix that. So he asks Belminant if he’s truly willing to entrust his wife’s life to him. Both Belminant and Muyeria place their full faith in him.
Klay asks if Takeru plans to use the same technique he used on him, but Takeru shakes his head—that method puts way too much strain on the body, and in Muyeria’s condition, it might do more harm than good.
He knows there’s no way she can handle anything too intense right now, so he decides to start with something simple—like making this cave-of-eternal-sadness look less depressing. Since all the windows are shut to protect Nulletia’s overly sensitive eyes, step one is fixing that problem.
He gently places his hand over her face and uses healing magic, being extra careful not to overdo it—because the last thing he wants is to “accidentally heal her to death.” When he’s done, he tells Nulletia to slowly open her eyes… and she freezes in shock: she can actually see again.
Takeru is thrilled. Since the darkness is no longer necessary, he whips out his staff, cleans up the dusty room with magic, and dramatically throws open the windows. Sunshine floods in, and Nulletia practically melts with happiness—finally able to enjoy sunlight without feeling like a vampire at a beach party. All thanks to Takeru.
As much as he wants to continue fixing her health problems, he has something urgent to discuss. He asks Belman to speak in private. Once alone, Takeru explains that Belman’s wife is suffering from ivor poisoning, caused by ingesting ivor toxin.
Belman starts to say there’s no way Nulletia would be careless enough to eat poison—but then it hits him like a flying brick: someone must have been poisoning her. And he feels awful for never noticing.
He asks if there’s anything he can do, but Takeru admits he has no cure; he doesn’t even fully understand how ivor toxin works. He asks about an antidote, but Belman says that’s impossible. Avert toxin is an ancient forbidden poison—long lost, and so is its antidote.
However, Belman does know one place to look for clues. He brings out dusty old record books written by former lords. They might contain something useful… except for one problem: they’re all written in an ancient language no one has been able to decode for decades. Because of course they are.
Thanks to Takeru’s translation skill, he can read the ancient text with zero effort—like it’s written in casual modern slang. But reading every book one by one for ivor-poison info would take an eternity… maybe two. He wishes he could just search for keywords like a magical Google.
Then it hits him: he can. He modifies his Search skill to detect which book contains info about ivor poison. And yes, technically, he could have used the same skill to find the poison directly, but… he didn’t think of that. He’s a genius, not a perfectionist.
He activates the skill, a single book lights up, and he flips through it until he finds what he needs. It’s the diary of a boy named Polola, who writes about stumbling upon a field of ivor flowers near a lake with a weird horse-shaped rock nearby.
Cray recognizes the place—he saw it during one of his travels to a village. He marks the location on the map and says the village is called Asth.
Belman realizes Asth is in the Venown region, outside the Luculvich territory. That means at least five days of travel. Hearing that, Takeru decides to leave immediately—no time to sit around reading ancient emo diaries.
As the horses are prepared, Bernard watches from the window with pure contempt—like a man who just discovered someone drank his last bottle of milk. Meanwhile, Takeru is at one of the castle walls placing down magic crystals. Belman approaches, confused, and asks what on earth he’s doing this time.
So, Takaru explains that he was just setting up a small safeguard in case someone tries to harm Mulletia while he’s gone. Just then, Tiaris comes running over, out of breath and clearly embarrassed, because she wants to apologize for how she acted earlier. He came all the way here to save her mother, yet she treated him like a walking pet-dispenser. She feels awful about it now.
But Takaru gently tells her that what matters is recognizing when you’re wrong and fixing it—a life skill far more valuable than memorizing noble etiquette lines from Bernard’s sketchy “wisdom.” Hearing this, Tiaris perks up, and he tells her to think for herself before acting next time. She promises she won’t repeat the same mistake.
Before leaving, Takaru gives her one last piece of advice: someone might try to convince her that he’s an enemy or a fraud. If that happens, she shouldn’t answer immediately—she should talk to her father first. Tiaris nods seriously, promising to remember.
With that settled, Takaru and Cray head out. To save time, Takaru casts a speed-boosting spell on the horses, turning the journey into a magical version of “fast-travel.” After several days, they reach the village of Ashth, only to find a barren wasteland. The last time Cray visited, it was a lush farming village; now it looks like someone hit the area with a “no-rain” cheat code.
Takaru starts to worry that the lake mentioned in the old diary might have dried up. Cray reassures him—lakes don’t vanish that fast. And he’s right… sort of. The lake is still there, but the water looks funky—like someone mixed it with swamp soup. Takaru inspects it and immediately senses intentional contamination.
Before they can investigate further, a group of sickly villagers surrounds them, determined to protect what remains of their home. They demand to know why Takaru and Cray have come here.
Takaru realizes the villagers aren’t actually threatening them—they’re just desperate people protecting what little they have left. So he calmly explains that he and Cray are adventurers from Belminant’s territory and that they’ve come on a mission to collect a rare material.
The villagers look doubtful, so they demand proof. Cray flashes his A-rank armband like he’s showing off VIP access at a concert. That convinces them, and the villagers lower their improvised weapons.
Just as Takaru starts asking if they know anything useful, one boy suddenly collapses. When Takaru lifts him, he notices something alarming—the kid is way too light, practically featherweight. Turning to the adults, he asks if they’ve been getting enough to eat. Their expressions say it all.
Then they explain the situation: about ten months ago, their lake water suddenly became cursed, and even their well turned undrinkable. With no clean water for crops or drinking, starvation slowly set in.
Then a merchant named Ingach showed up, claiming he could help. He wanted a special flower that only grows near the lake—a village secret. Desperate, they agreed to trade one flower per month for 60 barrels of water. But that wasn’t nearly enough for both drinking and farming, so they’ve been suffering ever since.
After hearing everything, Takaru is certain of one thing: this Ingach guy isn’t just suspicious—he’s 100% certified villain material.
The villagers are stunned—they genuinely believed Ingach was helping them. But Takaru explains that when he inspected the lake earlier, he found clear signs of deliberate contamination. And it’s just a little too convenient that Ingach strolled into town right after the water turned deadly. Even if that were pure coincidence, anyone who demands payment in the form of a dangerous toxin is waving more red flags than a parade.
The village chief is horrified to realize they’ve been tricked this whole time. Meanwhile, Takaru is furious—this merchant didn’t just poison Mulletia, he also crippled an entire village and left innocent children starving, just to get his hands on Ivor.
Takaru vows he won’t let Ingach get away with any of this. But first, he needs to help the villagers.
He turns to Bee, asking him to fly up and use spirit magic. Bee immediately understands the plan, so he takes off and summons thick rainclouds over the entire village. Within moments, refreshing rain pours down, giving everyone clean water at last.
But Takaru isn’t stopping there. He casts a massive Clean spell on the villagers—because after months without a bath, even the trees were judging them. Then he uses Repair magic to fix their crumbling homes.
Finally, he pulls out a giant pot and whips up a warm meal for everyone. The villagers are beyond grateful, especially the chief. The children, who have instantly become Takaru’s biggest fans, happily offer to show him their secret hideout in the woods.
Takaru follows the children to their “secret base,” which turns out to be an old storage shed overflowing with Lita fruit. He’s confused—how could the village be starving with this much food lying around? The kids explain that the fruit is so salty it could probably pickle a dragon, and since they had no water to dilute it, it was basically useless.
Curious, Takaru bravely tastes one. His eyes sparkle instantly—sure, it’s not edible in its current form, but this could absolutely be turned into soy sauce. Priorities.
Meanwhile, back at the mansion, a loud alarm suddenly rings through the halls. Tiaris immediately sprints toward her mother’s room—because before leaving, Takaru set up a barrier around Mulletia, warning that it would activate only if someone approached with malicious intent. Meaning someone is trying to kill her mother right now.
She rushes to the room and finds Bernard lingering at the door. Everything clicks at once.
Now, a normal person would run for help—Tiaris, however, chooses the “confront the possibly murderous suspect head-on” route. She asks if he really intends to harm her mother.
Bernard denies everything, acting insulted, but Tiaris points out that the barrier only reacts to malicious intent—so he must have been planning something awful. Cornered, Bernard tries to paint Takaru as some greedy adventurer scamming their family for money, but Tiaris refuses to be fooled again. She’s learned her lesson.
Belminant soon arrives and immediately understands the situation. But since Bernard keeps insisting he’s “totally innocent,” Belminant decides to give him a fair trial—well, as fair as you can be when the suspect is standing outside a poisoned woman’s door like a cartoon villain.
Bernard’s excuse is that Takaru must have lied about the barrier detecting malicious intent. Belminant isn’t convinced, especially since Takaru healed Mulletia’s eyes faster than most people can boil water. Still, if Bernard claims he had no ill intent, he can prove it by drinking the “special water” he planned to give Mulletia.
Bernard immediately panics. Since the water is laced with Ivor poison, drinking it would be… very fatal. His terrified expression confirms everything Belminant suspected. So Belminant tosses the water right into Bernard’s face. Bernard screams like he’s melting, only for Belminant to sigh and inform him it’s just normal water—he swapped the poison beforehand.
So, Bernard isn’t dying… but he is going to prison for a long, long time.
After dragging him away, the staff search Bernard’s room and find a mysterious letter. Raymond brings it to Belminant, and whatever’s written there shocks him to the core.
Meanwhile, back in the ruined village, Ingach shows up to collect another batch of Ivor flowers. But the village chief is nowhere to be seen. A local tells him the chief went to guide the adventurers—oh, and by the way, the villagers have learned that the precious Ivor flowers were being used to make poison. So they won’t be selling any more.
Ingach realizes his scam is officially over… and his face drops faster than a merchant’s profit margin during a clearance sale.
Ing decides that if the villagers won’t hand over any more ivor, he’ll just burn the entire village down and take what he wants like a full-time arsonist, part-time scammer. Meanwhile, Bernard, on his way to prison, starts smiling to himself—because of course he thinks this story still revolves around him.
Over by the lake, Takaru scans the ivor flowers and learns they supposedly grow from the tears of a sacred beast. Curious, he asks the chief, who explains that long ago Lord Hoof Falpner, a sacred beast, saved their ancestors from a lake demon. Ever since then, the flowers have kept growing. Takaru hesitates, worried about taking something so meaningful, but the chief assures him that, after saving their village, he’s welcome to take as many as he likes.
Just as Takaru bends down to happily pluck a flower and celebrate his mission, a villager comes sprinting toward them, shouting that something terrible has happened. They rush back to find the village completely engulfed in flames. Takaru doesn’t know the culprit yet, but first things first—put out the fire. He tells Be to summon more rain while he and Clay rescue the villagers. Thankfully, no one is seriously hurt.
When they ask what happened, a villager explains that Inga showed up demanding more ivor. But now that they know it’s poisonous, they refused—and Inga threw a tantrum so big he practically exploded into chaos and fire. Takaru can’t believe he’d stoop this low.
Things get even worse: the chief discovers Gonza is missing. An elderly woman claims she saw Inga dragging him away to force him to reveal the location of the ivor flowers. Furious, Takaru immediately uses Search magic and locates Gonza and Inga hiding in a fort near the lake.
Takaru and Klay mount their horses and head straight for the fort. The chief tries to warn them that confronting Inga alone is too dangerous, but Takaru assures him there’s nothing to worry about—he has a strong A-rank adventurer with him, so rescuing Gonza will be a piece of cake.
When they reach the fort, Be scouts ahead and reports back that Inga and his men are… throwing a party.
Klay is furious. The idea that they can burn down a village, kidnap a child, and then celebrate sends him over the edge, and he begins to transform from pure rage. But Takaru quickly tells him to calm down—charging in recklessly will only put Gonza in danger.
Klay realizes Takaru is right and apologizes. Then he asks the obvious question: How are they supposed to infiltrate the fort without being spotted?
Takaru thinks for a moment and decides to use an invisibility spell, which works perfectly—nobody notices them as they slip inside. They search the fort quietly, but Gonza is nowhere to be found. So Klay suggests they track down Inga directly since he’s guaranteed to know where the boy is.
Eventually, they locate the room where Inga’s men are still partying. The thugs are bragging loudly about burning the village down, saying the villagers deserved it for “daring to defy Inga.” They also complain that the kidnapped boy still hasn’t revealed the location of the ivor flowers, but they’re confident they’ll beat the truth out of him sooner or later. It’s the last step in their plan to inflate the market price of ivor.
Their scheme is simple: once Multia dies—and the world learns that even the greatest healers couldn’t save her—the value of ivor poison will skyrocket, making them rich.
Takaru and Klay overhear everything from right outside the door… and now Klay is angrier than ever.
Takaru tells Klay that he’s free to charge in and crack a few skulls—as long as he doesn’t kill anyone. And that’s all Klay needed to hear. He bursts through the door like an outraged gorilla and starts yeeting bandits across the room.
One bandit flies past Inga, and that’s when the merchant finally realizes he is in deep trouble. Panicking, he orders one of his men to “release the thing.” The henchman nervously reminds him that they still can’t control it, but Inga doesn’t care. He wants chaos, right now.
Meanwhile, still invisible, Takaru strolls up beside Inga and casually asks where the kidnapped kid is. Inga, overwhelmed and not paying attention, accidentally blurts out that Gonza is in the other building.
Takaru heads outside and spots the building, but there’s a guard blocking the door.
No problem—Be volunteers. He launches himself straight into the guard with a headbutt so powerful it sends the poor guy through the wall like a cartoon character.
Inside, Takaru finds Gonza locked in a cell. He smashes the lock with his bare hand, and the boy nearly bursts into tears of relief. But just as they start heading out, a massive crash shakes the fort. Bandits sprint past them shrieking because a tentacle monster has been unleashed.
Takaru squints.
Klay definitely didn’t have tentacles last time I checked…
He stops one of the fleeing bandits to ask what’s going on, and the guy screams that it’s the Lake Demon, so they all need to run for their lives.
Takaru knows Klay is still in his transformed form, so he should be fine—should. But depending on the demon’s abilities, he might still need backup.
He tells Gonza to hop off so he can join the fight, but the kid clings to him like a koala. The boy is terrified, so Takaru decides to bring him along. He sets up a protective barrier around Gonza and sprints toward the chaos.
When they reach the main hall, they find Klay locked in combat with the Lake Demon. And while Takaru expected some terrifying, nightmare-inducing creature… the monster is basically just a giant, oversized animal with attitude.
Takaru scans the creature to see what it can do, and the “start-up screen” basically tells him: Regenerates instantly, grows poison-tipped tentacles, and exists solely to ruin your day. It also states that the demon was summoned by Inga, who—ironically—is already lying on the floor nearby because the monster smacked him around.
Inga begs Takaru to save him, but Takaru doesn’t see much point in rescuing a guy who has caused nothing but suffering. Still… he can’t let the man die before he faces justice. So when the Anemone Demon goes in for the finishing blow, Takaru throws up a light barrier around Inga. The impact still knocks him unconscious, but at least he’s alive—and unfortunately for him, that means he still gets arrested later.
With Inga “safely” knocked out, Takaru rushes back to Klay, who admits he’s having trouble because the monster keeps regenerating every tentacle he slices off. Takaru figures that if the thing keeps regrowing parts, the answer is simple: freeze everything at once. He fires off an ice spell, freezing the tentacles and slowing the monster down.
But it isn’t enough.
So Takaru yells to Klay that the only way to kill it for good is to crush the brain. Klay nods, charges forward, and punches the monster square in the face. It works—but it also makes the creature spaz out violently, launching Takaru straight out of the fort like a rag doll.
As he’s flung into the air, he manages to toss Gonza upward to Be for safety. Unfortunately, he can’t throw himself, so he plummets straight into the poisoned lake.
Even with all his abilities, swimming in toxic demon soup is a terrible survival plan. His life starts flashing before his eyes—mostly embarrassing moments he’d rather forget—when suddenly he’s yanked out of the water by a talking horse.
The horse introduces herself as Hofvalpnir, and Takaru immediately realizes she must be the sacred beast the villagers talked about.
Takaru apologizes for falling into the lake, but Hofvalpnir immediately tells him there’s nothing to apologize for—he actually purified her land. She explains that long ago the area was overflowing with stagnant mana, so she used her remaining power to create ivor flowers infused with purification magic to keep everything clean. But after exhausting her strength, she turned into a statue.
The ivor flowers would’ve protected the land forever… until some “evil humans with the morals of wet socks” came along and poisoned the waters, turning the whole region into a wasteland. But because Takaru absorbed all the toxins, the lake is purified again, and Hofvalpnir has finally regained her strength. She’s genuinely grateful.
Takaru, meanwhile, still doesn’t understand how falling face-first into poison equals purification, but hey—if it helped her, he’ll take the compliment.
She gently drops him off near the cliff where Klay and Gonza are waiting. They’re shocked to see him alive and immediately ask how he survived. When he says “the lake god saved me,” they stare at him like he inhaled too many mana fumes—because they can’t see Hofvalpnir at all.
The sacred beast turns to Takaru once more and says she will always come to his aid if he ever needs help. Then she vanishes like a dramatic stage performer.
Takaru returns to the village to reunite Gonza with his family before heading back to the mansion. Traveling by horse would take forever, so he decides to try out a new spell he invented. He arranges magic stones in a circle, tells everyone to stand inside, and activates a gate spell—instantly teleporting the whole group home. Very convenient. Slightly terrifying.
Once back at the mansion, Takaru synthesizes an antidote using the ivor he collected. After giving it to Mulletia, her ivor poisoning is completely cured. She still needs time to recover from other symptoms, but the hardest part is over, and Tiaris couldn’t be happier.
With the main crisis resolved, Takaru heads back to the village to help rebuild the homes destroyed by the fire. While assisting, he proposes an idea to the village chief. Earlier, he found some Littis fruit that tasted suspiciously like soy sauce. But when he tries to explain the wonders of soy sauce to the villagers… they stare at him like he’s speaking ancient dragon dialect.
So Takaroo prepares a plate of baked potatoes with soy sauce for the village chief to try — and the man absolutely falls in love with it. His proposal is simple: he wants the chief to sell the village’s entire stock of La’s Fruits, so he can turn them into soy sauce and sell it back in Belcane. If things go well, soy sauce could even become the village’s specialty, finally pulling them out of poverty.
The chief happily agrees to Takaroo’s deal. With business wrapped up, Takaroo gets ready to head back to Belam. But before he can take a single step, a bright light flashes in the sky — and Hoff Falner appears right in front of him again. This time, Klay also sees her, and he’s just as stunned as Takaroo. After all, no one expects to casually see a sacred beast on a Tuesday afternoon.
Takaroo asks Hoff Falner why she’s here, and she explains that she got bored living by that lake for so many years. Since Takaroo seems like an “interesting” human (which is a polite way of saying chaos magnet), she decides to accompany him on his journey.
Then — with the confidence of someone who knows they’re the main character — she transforms into a beautiful woman. She proudly announces that Takaroo is free to ride her anytime he wants, because she is the greatest steed in the entire world.
She can’t wait to see what he does next.
Takaroo, meanwhile, has a sinking feeling that having Hoff Falner around is going to turn into a massive headache.
