Chapter 16 – The Evil Dragon Drops 【Light】 from the Castle in the Sky 【Part 2】

After parting ways with Chequita, Ryuuji and Sheila set off on a quest.

Their destination was the forest where he had gone to gather herbs with his mother before.

…

“Ryuuji-kun? Is something wrong?”

Sheila, who was trotting along behind him, cast a worried glance his way.

“Huh? What?”

“You were making a serious face. Like this, with your eyes all scrunched up.”

Sheila used both hands to pull her eyes up at the corners.

“Was I making a face like that?”

“You were. Did something happen? Are you feeling sick?”

To Sheila’s concerned question, Ryuuji replied that he was fine.

(That being said…)

(Ryuuji was thinking about his mother.)

(After they had returned from the Sky Castle.)

(His mother had become dejected and shut herself away in the house.)

(Ryuuji felt bad about it, but he had come out to work anyway.)

“This time… I’ll prove that I can handle things on my own!”

Ryuuji’s current equipment was just ordinary gear, without any enchantments.

He was un-enhanced Ryuuji, with no stat boosts from his meals.

Still, for adventurers in the double-digits level-wise, they weren’t about to be bested by mere goblins.

And so, the Guild had assigned Ryuuji and his party a goblin subjugation quest.

After a short while, they arrived at the forest.

“Let’s do our best!”

“Yes, let’s!”

Ryuuji walked in the lead, with Sheila following behind him.

They proceeded while keeping a lookout… and eventually spotted a goblin on the other side of a thicket.

“…There’s one.”

“…The quest is to subjugate five goblins.”

The goblins were having a campfire.

They were sitting in a circle around the flames.

There were four of them.

(The report said five were spotted around here…)

Just then.

“GUGAGOOOOOOH!!!”

“Wha-?!”

Ryuuji was hiding in the bushes. A goblin had been hiding right behind him.

“Look out! Ryuuji-kun!”

He’d been caught by surprise.

The goblin held a wooden club in its hand.

Ryuuji had forgotten that while goblins may be weak, they make up for it with cunning.

(…In other words, the goblins by the fire were a decoy. The plan was likely to lure us adventurers in, then attack from behind.)

(I’m done for…!) he thought, and in that very moment.

Zing…!

Something fell from the sky at incredible speed.

And then,

KABOOOOOOOM!!!

An explosive roar.

Ryuuji and Sheila were sent tumbling.

“Gigi?” “Gugigigi?” “Gugogogo!”

The goblins who had been surrounding the fire noticed Ryuuji and his companion.

They stood up, clubs in hand, but—

Zing, zing, zing, zing…!

KABOOM! BA-BOOM! KRA-KABOOOOM!!

The things that looked like【Light】rained down from the sky, striking the goblins and blowing them to smithereens.

All that was left behind were their magic crystal drop items.

“Wh-what was that…?”

Sheila, sprawled out on the ground, looked up at the sky and asked.

“I-I have no idea.”

Prompted by Sheila, Ryuuji also gazed upward.

There was nothing there, just an expanse of blue sky.

(…Or so he thought.)

Fwhoosh! THWAAAAAAACK!!!

Something plummeted from high up in the sky at a tremendous speed.

The next instant, just as he wondered what it was—

“Ryu-kuuuuuuuuuuuun!!”

From the spot where the object had landed, his mother, Karma, came running toward him with tears in her eyes.

Karma immediately crushed Ryuuji in a fervent hug.

“Oh, Ryu-kun, are you alright?! Those filthy little goblins didn’t do anything awful to you, did they?!”

Squeeeeeeeze

Ryuuji was being held tight.

“I-I’m fine. Totally fine…”

As he answered, something occurred to Ryuuji.

“Mom, you just said ‘those little goblins’… And that light from before, could it be…”

Furthermore, he was bothered by the fact that his mother had dropped out of the sky with what seemed like perfect timing.

(Don’t tell me…)

“Yes, it was all Mom’s doing!”

His mother huffed proudly through her nose.

“…Explain what happened.”

His mother released Ryuuji.

Standing before the two of them, she explained the recent events.

“Mom was watching the two of you in your moment of crisis from above.”

“From above?”

Karma nodded.

“I had the Sky Castle deployed far up in the sky.”

“Huh? Wait? What does that mean?”

According to his mom.

She had been monitoring Ryuuji and Sheila’s movements from the Sky Castle.

And when they were about to be attacked, she fired a【Beam】at them.

“But I wasn’t the one who fired it. I installed an automatic interception system in the Sky Castle. It monitors Ryu-kun 24 hours a day, and when danger approaches, it automatically fires a beam to annihilate the enemy.”

Apparently, she had created it by combining Light Magic with a non-elemental magic called【Behavioral Input Programming】.

The non-elemental magic【Behavioral Input】is a spell that allows one to input an action into an object, so that it performs said action when a certain condition is met.

It seemed to be programmed to fire magic based on the condition, “if Ryuuji is in danger.”

“This is the【Absolute Son Safety Monitoring System】I developed!”

(…Mom’s at it again.)

(It looked like she was on another unbelievable rampage.)

“Haaaaah…”

“Hee hee, now Ryu-kun will be safe and sound at all times!”

“Mom…”

He had so, so many things he wanted to say, complaints he wanted to make.

But… before all that, Ryuuji said.

“Thanks for saving me…”

In response, Karma became absurdly happy. “Whooohooo! I got praised! I’m so happy!”

Unaware of her son’s true feelings, his mother rejoiced innocently, and Ryuuji let out a deep sigh.

(No, he was grateful. But more than that… how should he put it… haaah…)

Well, whatever the case, Ryuuji was just glad his mother wasn’t too depressed and was back to her energetic self.