Yerna was greatly flustered by Luke’s cold expression.
Artificial breeding, now that she thought about it, Luke couldn’t possibly like such a thing!
For Luke, who had undergone human experimentation, artificial breeding must be a horrifying thing.
Yerna fidgeted, unsure of what to do.
Though not as much as Yerna, Ru’a was also equally troubled.
Well, the term ‘artificial breeding’ could evoke aversion in some children.
That couldn’t be blamed.
‘Should I have worded it differently?’
However, she thought that Luke, being smart, would certainly prefer a more accurate explanation…
Contrary to the worries of Ru’a and Yerna, Luke did not necessarily have negative thoughts about artificial breeding.
His complaints about artificial breeding were different from those of an ordinary person.
In fact, manipulating life was quite common in ancient magic.
After all, hadn’t he created a chimera himself?
Unlike today, where laws concerning life magic have been strengthened, 5000 years ago when such laws didn’t exist, for Luke, the notion of artificial breeding over a long period of time was, in fact, a terribly boring method.
‘The solution is too simple.’
He had been thinking of several complicated ways to create a small dog, only to arrive at the most mundane conclusion.
Thus, he couldn’t help but feel disappointed.
As a Mage, he couldn’t think it was bad to relate everything to magic.
Moreover, with such a simple solution, Luke found it hard to understand the benefits of making the dog small.
No matter how he looked at it, this little dog didn’t seem like it could survive in the wild.
It was ‘too’ obedient to humans and didn’t appear to be physically impressive.
That made it all the more puzzling.
It was cute, but wasn’t that all?
It wasn’t the creature’s will that it was born this way.
There must be some clear purpose behind it…
‘I really can’t fathom what advantage there is in making a dog small.’
Dogs were bred in the past for reasons like hunting, battle, tracking, and herding.
And they all had wild traits and were strong.
But what was this small, weak creature made for?
Luke squatted down and stroked Danny while murmuring.
“Ru’a, why on earth did you create such a small dog?”
His expression looked somewhat pitiful.
However, Ru’a, confronted with this gaze and remark from Luke, felt unjust.
“W-Well… I didn’t create it! I’m just raising it!”
“Is that so?”
At Ru’a’s desperate plea (?), Luke nodded.
After all, Ru’a didn’t seem to have any specific knowledge about artificial breeding.
Thinking it was about itself, Danny continued to pant and raised its front paw, playing cutely for Luke.
Luke lightly supported Danny and gently stroked its back.
“This little guy seems to love human touch too much…”
“Hehe, right? It’s a problem how much it loves people.”
As he did so, Luke suddenly felt a wave of academic curiosity.
If there were no growth restrictions and it wasn’t a chimera, it certainly went through a normal birth process to end up in its current form.
If so, how small could a normal puppy be to result in such a small dog?
Upon reflection, it was quite an interesting subject.
Luke tore his eyes away from Danny’s antics and looked at Ru’a to ask.
“If it’s this small, it must have been really tiny as a puppy. I’d like to see if there are any pictures from that time.”
Ru’a slightly stiffened her expression and shook her head.
“Well, you see, Danny was originally a stray dog. So there are no puppy pictures.”
“A stray dog?”
“Yes.”
Because no one took it, Ru’a Erasht scratched the back of her head while saying this. After observing her expression for a moment, Luke fell into thought.
“I see, was it abandoned by people?”
‘How tragic.’
It didn’t seem like it could survive in the wild.
It wasn’t strong, big, or fast.
Its only tricks were its small size and cuteness.
Yet, the fact that it had such a small and frail body was not Danny’s will.
It was the result of being bred by human hands.
Joining a food chain that had already eliminated it by others, it would only end up being tied and eaten.
But why create it like that and then abandon it?
Then why on earth did they make this small dog?
A waste of resources. Luke asked Ru’a with a puzzled expression.
“Then why are you raising Danny, who was already abandoned? Surely, you must have some purpose.”
Having relaxed her expression a little, Ru’a sighed and finally answered.
“What purpose? I’m just raising it. Isn’t it cute?”
“Just? Well, it is cute, but…”
Luke stroked Danny while deep in thought.
Rationally speaking, it didn’t seem to offer much benefit to raise it.
He had raised a cat once, but that was closer to an unavoidable ‘accident’ that arose from researching monsters rather than a desire to keep a cat…
‘Just raising it…’
Well, perhaps there are people like that in the world.
Thinking a little, wasn’t there someone like Yerna?
Luke suddenly locked eyes with Yerna.
———-
Danny was extraordinarily affectionate towards Luke.
It was quite a remarkable thing.
No matter how much it loved humans, typically one wouldn’t show such friendliness to a person they had just met.
It was as if it were welcoming a master who hadn’t returned home for a week.
In reality, Danny hadn’t approached him like that before.
It would come over wagging its tail a few times, and once petted, would only sniff his hand before turning away.
Yet, it was constantly rushing towards Luke, seeking affection. After all, Luke had some unknown charm.
Who wouldn’t like someone smart, polite, and kind?
Whether that applies to dogs too, he didn’t know.
While stroking Danny, Luke also seemed to not mind the creature’s antics, a smile forming on his lips.
Yerna felt quite pleased at that sight.
She usually smiled well, but somehow it felt like that smile was crafted.
As if it was a courtesy to smile.
So, even though Luke often smiled, this type of smile was not a sight one could see often.
As Luke stroked Danny, wearing a slight smile, he suddenly expressed a question.
“If it’s this small, it must have been really tiny as a puppy. I’d like to see if there are any pictures from that time.”
Luke’s voice expressing his desire to see pictures of Danny as a puppy was undeniably excited.
However, unfortunately, there were no pictures of the puppy that Luke wanted to see.
Because it was a stray dog.
Wasn’t that too similar to Luke?
Born from artificial breeding, and a victim of human experimentation.
Yerna didn’t want to think that way, but she couldn’t help but recall Luke when she saw Danny’s circumstances.
When she stopped her thoughts and hurriedly looked at Luke’s expression, she found that the smile that had naturally adorned Luke’s face had somehow disappeared, replaced by a calm and collected gaze looking at Danny.
And still, the little creature was panting and wagging its tail.
“I see, was it abandoned by people?”
Luke’s voice that slipped out was far calmer than Yerna had imagined.
How could this little one be so calm?
He had said he had no memories of that time, but after their incident in the forest, it seemed that most of his memories had returned and he had been talking non-stop about himself.
The tales of human experimentation, and the stories of his own body, but just by saying that, one could assume that most of his memories had already come back.
How hard must it have been for him until now.
Yet Luke hadn’t said a word about his circumstances to anyone.
He must have suffered tremendously as his memories returned, yet worried about others worrying for him.
Yerna suddenly felt her heart felt as if it was soaking in water.
If someone squeezed it even a little, she felt the water would burst out through her eyes, so she bit down hard on her lower lip to hold back those tears.
Her gaze seemed to lose focus, but it was okay.
She still wasn’t crying.
—
A blue flash, a noise that sounded like it was tearing apart, the traces of being scorched.
And then,
Pachik, Pachik-.
The black pillar that had been producing a sound like a radio mixed with noise finally fell.
Thud-.
The fallen thing stirred up a slight breeze that lifted the dust from the ground and convulsed, shaking as if it were having a seizure.
That was likely due to the residual currents left in its body.
Indeed, it wasn’t just a pillar; it was a distinct organism, no…
It had been a living creature.
Now that it had stopped its life activities, it was no longer a creature.
Expanding his field of vision, he saw that aside from this black thing that had just become non-living, there were quite a few other black things in the hallway.
And at the center of it all stood a man.
“Hah, hah.”
Overcome with extreme fatigue and the pain of the Circle, the man breathed heavily.
Then suddenly, he rummaged through his pockets, pulled out a pink pill, and poured it into his mouth, chewing it thoroughly before swallowing it down.
It was the easiest and fastest way for his body to absorb it.
It tasted horrendously bad, but that didn’t matter.
“Crrk…….”
As the drug took effect, his vision briefly darkened before returning.
Finally, color was added to his previously black-and-white vision.
The fact that his sight had normalized meant that the pain was diminishing and it was time for his mind to stabilize.
A sensation he didn’t want to become accustomed to but was familiar with.
As his elevated feelings gradually settled, the Circle ceased its rampage.
Yet, possibly due to the prolonged strain, though it wasn’t rampaging, the pain in his heart was difficult to endure.
“Damn it, it’s filthy.”
As his senses returned with the help of the drug, the dirtiness smeared all over his clothes felt distinctly apparent.
The stench was serious too.
Since the house had no running water, it might be better to wash up somewhere before returning.
Even in a world where you could create pure water with fancy magic, you still had to pay for the waterworks. What an amusing world.
‘Over here, I’m barely getting by, buying medicine and food.’
Just as he was internally grumbling and struggling to exit the building, he sensed a presence and stopped in his tracks, turning his body.
“Is there still something alive?”
Then came an outburst of laughter.
“Hah—. Hahaha, hahaha!”
“Are you crazy?”
Step, step.
Dragging his worn-out body from excessive use of magic, he finally reached the source of the laughter.
There, the man extended his fingers and gathered magic.
He gathered all the remaining magic as slim as a rat’s tail.
Then, at his fingertips, a blue flash began to gather with a crackling sound.
The man who had been laughing now looked at the blue magic gathering at his fingertips and laughed once more as if it were truly amusing.
“Crrk, crrk. You foolish ‘Circler’… Do you know who you just touched?”
“I don’t need to know that.”
“It’s the Proyton Family, you bastard……..”
Pachik–!
With one final surge of energy, he released lightning.
Even so, it was more than enough to take a life.
“The Proyton Family…?”
Hmmm. He should have listened to the whole thing, but it was already too late to cancel the casting.
If he had canceled it, he would have been the one to perish from the backlash of magic.
By the way, the commission details clearly didn’t mention that the owner of the building would be the ‘Proyton,’ did it?
Something had gone horribly wrong.
He had a terrible feeling that receiving a little extra commission wouldn’t be the end of this.
