Does she hear something? I likewise focused on catching any sound I could and heard a low male voice coming from a building nearby. Noela and I quietly snuck over to one of its windows. Peeking in, we saw four men. One of them was carrying a leather bag with something inside that was thrashing about. Bingo. Griffy was probably inside of it, panicking.
“This’ll earn us a nice chunk of change,” one man said clearly.
“Did damn good, didn’t I?” another asked. “How ’bout five million?”
“You out of yer damn mind? That’s a rip-off!”
Crap. The old man really was trying to sell Griffy.
“Master!” Noela protested.
“Stay here,” I told her. “If we jump in, we aren’t certain to get Griffy back.”
If only my abilities weren’t limited to medicine making… There was no point dwelling on powers I didn’t have now, though. I dug through my bag. Was there a drugstore product I could use in a situation like this?
I had a monster potion in case something happened to Griffy, but I didn’t need that at the moment. I didn’t need Super Invisiblize to hide the griffin or Translator DX to communicate with it either.
Mina had gotten me to bring water purifier as she said we might not like the capital’s water. She also told us worriedly to bring stomach medicine. I was carrying super high strength adhesive too. Right. Mina put that in here in case we had to fix something ASAP. Man, we brought way too many products. In fact, I packed additional supplies as well, but I left them at the inn. Is there anything I can use here? Actually…
“Hurry, Master! Men steal Griffy!”
“I’ve got a plan, Noela.”
“Groo! Plan?! Beat bad guys?”
“Nope—but we’ll rescue Griffy safely!” Lowering my voice, I explained the strategy to my partner in crime.
“Groo! Gotcha.” Noela’s body shone brightly as she fully transformed into her wolf form. Meanwhile, I drank two of my products, preparing to execute my plan.
“Grooooooowrr!!!” Noela howled up at the sky and then smashed through the building’s window.
“Wh-what the hell?!”
“A dog?!”
A dog—a wolf, actually—had suddenly appeared in the room, causing panic.
“Awooooooo!!!” Noela howled. “Not dog! Werewolf! Grrrrr!!!”
Having drunk Translator DX a few moments earlier, I understood her in her animal form. She was mega upset. I scrutinized her. Sure, you could describe her as a big dog, I thought, but apparently being called that enraged her as much as “beastling.”
“Gawooooo! Grrraaarr!!!” Noela bared her fangs at the men.
The whole room was in chaos. The men backed away, raising their hands to calm her down. Two pulled out knives, but I doubted the blades would hurt a wolf like Noela.
“L-Let’s trounce this thing!”
“Gaaah!”
“I-It’s gonna bite me!!!”
Eventually, one man opened the door, trying to send Noela outside. “Go away! Go out there!”
Great. Just as I planned. I entered calmly through the door. No one had a chance to even notice me, and since I gulped down some Super Invisiblize beforehand, they wouldn’t detect me anytime soon as long as I was quiet.
I looked for the bag with Griffy and saw it on a shelf. The old man from the tavern had originally carried it on his person, but he set it down while shooing Noela away with a mop. I could tell Griffy was squirming frantically, but he was also still doing as I said—remaining as quiet as could be.
Nobody had noticed me yet. Perfect. I untied the bag. Checking inside, I found a tiny Griffy, just as I expected. “We’re here to save you, Griffy!” I whispered.
The tiny, chick-like Griffy tilted its head. “Master’s voice?”
“I’m invisible right now, so those guys can’t see me. We’re getting out of here. Stay quiet, okay?”
“Gotcha!”
Removing Griffy from the bag, I stealthily made my way to the exit. Noela, meanwhile, was still doing great—she bit the men’s behinds, dragged them around, and caused a great amount of general chaos.
Hmm… I’d told her to keep the men busy until I rescued Griffy, but at this point, I was willing to bet she was just mad and had completely forgotten the plan.
“How dare you, you darn mutt!”
“Not mutt!” Deftly dodging the man’s knife, Noela bit his arm.
“Gaaargh!!!”
“Arrooooo!!!”
Seriously—did she remember the plan at all? I was getting worried. For now, though, I focused on spreading tons of adhesive on the doorknob and doorframe in case one of the men touched either. The moment they did, their hand would temporarily stick to it.
“Flap your wings, Griffy!”
“Understood, Master!” Griffy began to flap its wings so Noela would notice the griffin’s scent and realize what stage of the plan we were in…theoretically.
“No dog! Werewolf!”
Ugh. This is bad. I decided to call her name once. “Noela!”
“Arrooroorrrooo!!! Groo…?”
Aha! She picked up on that! I had Griffy flap its wings once more. Noela sniffed the air and caught its scent at last. Now that she finally remembered the mission, she dashed out the door. We followed her.
“Where Master?” Noela demanded.
“Right here. Not that you can see me.”
“Can smell.” Noela peered upward, and we somehow managed eye contact.
“Griff’s right here, Instructor!” Griffy let out a “kyuu” and hopped onto Noela’s back.
Whoa. That’s, like, the opposite of how things normally go.
“Griffy okay?” Noela asked. “Thank goodness!”
“Griff was worried too.”
“Let’s book it!” As I urged them along, I heard the men’s voices inside the building.
“Where’d that mini-griffin go?!”
“Find it, now!”
“It must’ve run outside in the chaos!”
“Wait—the door’s not opening! G-gah…! My hand’s stuck!”
“What the hell are you doing, buffoon?!”
“I can’t get my hand off!”
“Urgh…! The hell’s going on?!”
Perfect. I stopped them in their tracks. They wouldn’t leave that building for a while yet. Meanwhile, Noela and I had reclaimed Griffy and gotten away unscathed.
“Griff was so scared.” Our little griffin cried softly.
Becoming visible again, I gently stroked Griffy’s tiny head. “I’m really sorry, buddy. This was our fault for not paying attention.”
Noela returned to her human form. “Focused on food,” she confessed. “Completely forgot Griffy.” She seemed to feel guilty about the way things went off the rails.
“You forgot Griff?” the tiny griffin echoed. “That hurts the most!”
Griffy let me check it over with a fine-toothed comb; luckily, it was completely uninjured. The men had been fairly gentle, since they planned to sell the mini-griffin. Still, I had Griffy drink a monster potion, just to be safe.
“The capital’s dangerous, huh?” I mused.
“Groo,” Noela agreed, her expression serious.
“Griff knew you’d come to my rescue.”
The creature really trusted me a lot. “Noela worked hard to save you too, pal,” I said.
“Yeah! Hate those men. Said awful things!”
She probably means the “dog” stuff… Noela seemed angrier about that than Griffy’s kidnapping.
I would’ve loved to teach those jerks a lasting lesson, but I was only capable of so much. Maybe Noela messing them up was plenty. At any rate, that guy who touched the door would be stuck to it for a while.
Once we safely got back to the inn, we bought some meat at the first-floor tavern to feed Griffy in our room. The inn Lord Valgas has booked us was fancy, so Griffy’s meal cost pretty much the same as Noela’s and mine combined. Griffy had been through a lot though, so I splurged.
“This is sure tasty!” Griffy pecked at the meat happily while Noela drooled nearby. She had quite a jealous look in her eyes.