Hen na Ryu to Moto Yuusha Party Zatsuyougakari, Shintairiku de Nonbiri Slow Life.

Chapter 72 – Hippolius became smaller

I looked at the sleeping children and thought.
Hippolius was still young, in spite of being so big.
And so perhaps there should be more time for Hippolius to play.

“Maybe I will find some time tomorrow, so that we can go to the hot spring together.”
“…Kyuo…kyuo…”

I watched as Hippolius slept peacefully, and then I fell asleep as well.

The morning of the next day. I woke up to the feeling of something licking my face.
There were lots of little creatures on top of my chest and around my face.

“Kuun-kuun.”
“Kyuuun.”
“Kyuo-Kyuo!”
“Kuro, Roro, Ruru. Did you wake me up… Huh?”
“Kyuo?”

Aside from the wolf cubs, there was a creature licking my face that I had never seen before.
Without its tail, it was about half a meter long, just like a medium-sized dog.
Similar to Kuro and the others.
And it looked exactly like Hippolius.

“…Umm…”
“Kyu?”
“Could it be, Hippolius…that you have shrunk?”
‘I did!’
“How did you do that?”
‘I don’t know! Kyuo!’

And then Hippolius started to lick my face happily.

“…Hmm?”

While rare, there were magic beasts that are capable of changing their size.
So this must mean that Hippolius had this ability as well.

‘Kyuo! Always together!’

Hippolius said as it wagged its tail.
Yesterday, I had said something about how Hippolius could be with me all of the time if it were smaller.

Being able to change your size was like a skill. In other words, a congenital ability.
And so just like skills, sometimes the person might not even know that they have it.
And likewise, you never knew when one might awaken to that ability.

“Hippolius, did you just shrink while you were sleeping, and you didn’t even notice?”
‘Mmm… Hippolius wanted to become smaller!’
“Hmm. So you strongly willed it, and it happened when you woke up.”
‘Yes!’
“Hippolius. Can you become bigger as well?”
‘Yes! Hippolius will try!’

So saying, Hippolius tried to enlarge.

“Wait a minute. If you do that now, you’ll crush me.”
‘That’s right!’
“Just move away a little before doing it.”
‘Okay!’

Hippolius then moved away and squeaked, ‘Kyuooooo!’ and then returned to its original size.

“Woah. That’s amazing.”
“Wuff. Wow.”
“Wou!”

Fio and Shiro were also impressed.

“Kyuooo!”

Hippolius quickly became small again and then climbed onto my body and started to lick my face.
Hippolius must have really wanted to play with me.
Due to its size, I was never able to pick up Hippolius before.

“There, there.”
“Kyuu-kyuu.”

I petted Hippolius’s whole body, and then Hippolius wagged its tail happily and squeaked.
Hippolius then opened its mouth and I put my hand inside.
Just like a hippopotamus, sea hippos like to be petted inside of their mouths as well.

After playing with Hippolius for some time, Kuro and the other cubs began to bark, ‘we’re hungry!’
And so we decided to all go out and eat breakfast.

As we started to walk to the cooking area, the Adventurers looked at us in surprise.

“Ohh!? Is that Hippolius?”
“I heard that Hippolius was a dragon, but I didn’t know it could become smaller.”

They were astonished to see that I was carrying a shrunken down Hippolius.

“Hi-Hippolius! You became small!”

Said monsterologist Kelly, as she rushed towards us at a great speed.

“Ca-can I touch you?”
“Kyu?”

Kelly began to touch Hippolius without waiting for an answer.

“Hmm, hmm? Hmm-hmm…”
“Kyuooo!”

Hippolius let out a relaxed squeak.
Apparently, Kelly was good when it came to petting beasts.

After we had all eaten breakfast together, I went to go and see how Victor and the others were doing.
I was carrying Hippolius in my arms, and the demon wolf cubs followed after me.
As expected, the others were surprised to see Hippolius.

I gave a brief explanation and then asked them about their symptoms.
Apparently, they were all making good progress on their recovery.
Victor had recovered the most, and said he should be able to get back to work tomorrow.

After our visit to the infirmary, we headed towards the kitchens.
This was so I could give the Adventurers the mountain plants we had gathered yesterday.

“I gathered some edible plants yesterday, while searching for metal ore.”
“Oh? That’s wonderful!”

The eyes of the Adventurers’ shined.
As they had been eating only meat recently, they were craving some vegetables as well.

“…While I don’t know about the taste, they are not poisonous.”
“Even if they don’t taste good, it’s still better than dying of starvation.”
“Damn right!”
“Gahahaha!”

The Adventurers said with a laugh, and then began to discuss it with each other.
They were apparently testing different methods to see if they can make the mountain vegetables taste good.

“Sorry. And thank you.”
“No, not at all. It is for us as well!”
“Aye, there is no reason for you to thank us, Mr. Theo!”
“We should be thanking you!”

They said.
And so I left the cooking of the plants to the Adventurers, and decided to go about installing toilets in all of the houses.