When I Reincarnated, I Became Even More of a Gorilla - 18

The trip home was uneventful, with Elena explaining various things about the Capital City along the way, and before I knew it, we had arrived.

It seemed that I was more interested in this isekai city than I thought I was. I was just listening to her explain about the Capital, but I couldn’t stop my heart from pounding. Well, it may just be because I’m alive that it’s beating though.

Let me summarize some of the things I will be doing back home.

First and foremost, needless to say, is to investigate what I’m capable of. Understanding myself is important in the sense of grasping my own capabilities, but it’s even more crucial to comprehend what I can do as Elena’s familiar and what I’m capable of.

I was a big gorilla who used to live in the forest, but now, I’m a familiar that has my own social position. I must find some of the aspects where I can be of use to my master.

Eh? Don’t I look pretty strong already?

I suppose so. Even by the standards of this world, I’m apparently a rare monster called Goldback, and I believe my strength is comparable with my rarity. After the fight with that bear, Elena told me that at least in the Capital City, there’s no one who can fight me head on.

However, it seems that strength alone isn’t enough for a familiar.

When I was looking out from the carriage at the cityscape of the Capital City, I noticed something a little different from what Elena had told me.

That is, there’s a surprisingly large number of familiars around.

I had heard from Elena that there weren’t many familiars in the Capital City, but there were quite a few outside the window.

After all, the carriages merchants were riding were being pulled by beast-type familiars.

Even horses possess mana, and though their rank seems low, they do seem to have a subtle connection with their owners. I believe that’s evidently a familiar connection.

Thereupon, I thought of something. Perhaps, horses are just too closely connected to people’s lives that they became counted as familiars. And so, having that in mind, I asked Elena about it, and she told me that there were also monsters that were like that.

One of such monsters was the classic fantasy monster, Slimes.

Each household kept at least one Slime in their home, working to decompose waste and excrement. There are even some Slimes that eat stains from laundry, making them extremely helpful to people in various ways.

In other words, all the familiars I’ve learned about so far, even if they’re not widely known among people, serve some purpose or another.

Now then, I suppose it’s necessary to think about what I can do based on that. Well, even Slimes have a role to play. I think there must be something I can do too.

Let’s think about it after I get home and talk with Father and the others.

The next thing I need to do is to confirm my rank. This is related to my first question of what I can do, but it seems that there are other things that can be found on my Guild Card besides my rank. This would be explained later.

While I was thinking about this, the carriage stopped again, and the door was opened by the one who was serving as our coachman. Elena responded to this by exiting the carriage with me in her arms. It seems like we’ve arrived at the Frontier Count’s home.

＊＊＊

Me and Elena head straight for the office of the Frontier Count. I talked to Elena earlier, and she said it would be better for her guardian, her father, to be informed about it since I’m Elena’s familiar.

And so, we’re going to have Father look at my guild card.

[Father, excuse our intrusion.]

[Yeah, come in. I’ve been waiting for you.]

Elena knocked on the door, and her father elegantly gave his permission. It seemed that he had also been waiting for us.

When we entered the office, Father put away the document in his hand and led us to the reception couch. Father also came and sat down and quietly looked at Elena.

Realizing the meaning of his gaze, Elena takes my familiar card that she had just received and puts it on the table for everyone to see.

[Father. This is Gorimatsu’s familiar card. We had some trouble registering him, but as a result, we were able to complete his registration.]

[Unnn? What do you mean by trouble? We told them that Elena was going to register your familiar today, and they dared reject you?]

[No, it’s not like that. They had just suspected Gorimatsu’s species.]

Thereupon, Elena briefly told the whole story of what happened at the government office as it was, without any embellishments.

It seems that Father had informed them that we’re registering a rare monster as a familiar, so there shouldn’t have been any trouble, but it was unexpected that they would suspect the species of the familiar.

However, when he was told what had happened, it seemed like he understood what was going on.

[Fumu, come to think of it, I did hear such information from my subordinates in the Royal Capital. That for a while, it was talked about that a boy from a Ducal family had an Ancient Dragon as his familiar.]

[An Ancient Dragon huh. Even though they’re considered monsters, it’s hard to believe that Ancient Dragons would become a familiar. Does that mean it was false?]

[Yeah, the rest of the story is really quite commonplace. It seems that that boy’s boasting was overheard by the King from someone, so he wanted to see it, but it ended up being revealed to be a lie.]

It seems that Ancient Dragons are monsters that would pique the King’s interest, but why would someone officially report having them as their familiar?

[Oog oog? (Why did he cross such a dangerous bridge?)]

[Hmm? What is Gorimatsu-kun saying? I can’t understand.]

Come to think of it, Father doesn’t understand my words.

[Ahh, Gorimatsu was asking why would someone do something that stupid.]

[I see. Well, I guess you could say it’s the vanity of a noble, but more than that, it seems the boy lacks a good circle of friends.]

He seemed to know what was going on behind the scenes, so he told me in a simple way.

[Apparently, he had originally taken a Lizard Runner as a familiar, but it turned out to be a little too clever, so his cronies took advantage of that to win his favor. And so, feeling pressured by his peers, even though he hadn’t registered for a familiar before, he went ahead and falsely registered it. If he had just at least claimed his familiar’s something like a Flying Dragon, things wouldn’t have become this big of a deal.]

I wonder if he got in a good mood after being told all sorts of convenient things. Yeah, the cronies have some fault here, but the boy himself isn’t faultless either.

[I believe the boy’s a classmate of yours, Elena. Don’t know his name though. If I remember correctly, he’s someone from Cloud Duchy?]

[Yes, I think I know who you’re talking about. Well, I haven’t had much connection with him though.]

Elena didn’t seem particularly surprised, so I guess the boy had always been like that. It’s ironic how even though he’s surnamed Cloud, there’s a dark cloud hovering over him now.

[Come on, enough about him. Let’s just look at Gorimatsu’s familiar card.]

[You’re right!]

[Oogo♪ (Right♪)]

Prompted by Elena’s words, our gazes shifted to my familiar card on the table. Now, let’s take a look.

[Well then, let’s see it.]

When Elena showed it to us, we were surprised.

Gorimatsu (1) Male

Goldback – Rank 6

Sage of the Forest

Frontier Count’s Daughter’s Familiar

Offu…… My guild card’s amazing.

No, I knew my species and the other information, but my rank really is higher than Elena, and my age was lower. Rather, I’m a year old already huh. Hmmm, I wonder if it only counts the time I’m aware of my existence here?

Well, nevermind. I heard that the Guild Card has a few more functions, so I’m looking forward to the other things I could see here.

Unnn, I know Father and Elena are frozen seeing my rank, but I can now turn to the next page, right?