Chapter 21 – God of Language

Before entering the house, I spoke to Fio and Shiro.

“A friend called Hippolius is inside. Hippolius is my familiar.”
“Hipo?”
“Yes. Hippolius is huge and strong, but not scary. So don’t worry.”
“Fio’s not scared.”

Fio and Shiro’s tails were sticking up proudly.

“Alright. I’m going to open the door. Don’t be too surprised, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Awoo.”

And so I slowly opened the door.
Air slowly drifted out of the house.

“Kyuun.”
“Kyuun.”

At the same time, Fio and Shiro jumped back, and their tails went between their legs.
And they were shaking uncontrollably.

Hippolius was a child, but also a high-ranking dragon.
And so it was no surprise that normal magic beasts would be scared.

However, I did not expect someone like Fio, who was a human, to be scared as well.
Perhaps it was because Fio had a good nose.

“Didn’t I tell you that you don’t have to be scared? Hippolius is a friend.”
“I know.”
“Woof.”
“Now, let’s go inside. Follow me.”

I walked inside, and though they continued to shake, Fio and Shiro followed me in.

“Pushuuu-shupiii…”
“…I don’t think Hippolius will wake up.”

Though, Hippolius was now in a different position from before.
It was sleeping on its back with its belly completely exposed.

“It has no sense of danger at all… Fio and Shiro. You can sleep on top of this blanket.”

I said, and then lay down on the blanket that was next to Hippolius.
It was a large blanket. So there was enough space for Fio and Shiro to sleep on it as well.

“Okay.”
“Woof.”

Fio and Shiro said, and then they lay down in a corner of the room.
I suppose they were still scared of Hippolius.

“Isn’t it cold on the floor?”
“I’m fine.”

That being said, I felt bad that they would be sleeping on the floor boards.
And so I took out a spare blanket from my magic bag and laid it down near Fio and Shiro.

“You can have this. Use it.”
“Really?”
“Sure.”
“Thank you.”

And then Fio and Shiro rolled up on the blanket.
They seemed restless at first, but after some time, they fell asleep.

They must have been very tired.
A child and a young demon wolf living alone.
Without enough food or a proper place to sleep.

As Fio and Shiro were sleeping, I decided to sleep next to Hippolius as well.

“…Still…”

When I had tried to tame Shiro, Fio charged into me.

No ordinary monster would have been able to catch me off guard like that.
I had gone through so many dangerous scenes of carnage through the years, and survived. I was sensitive to the presence of others.

And I had not let my guard down. And yet I was ambushed.

“Is it a special ability that Fio has…”
“…”

I looked at them.
Fio was sleeping as if being enveloped by Shiro.
Both of them were still cautious. They were not in a deep sleep.
They must have lived like this for a long time. Protecting each other.

“Pushuu…”

It was a stark contrast to Hippolius, who was in a deep sleep while rolled onto its back, with no sense of danger at all.
I thought as I petted Hippolius.

I tried to fall asleep too, but was now wide awake.
And so I decided to think a little.

Fio had been able to speak.
There were two possibilities that I could consider that would explain this.

The first was that Fio had been living with people up until recently.
The second was that it was because of the taming skill.

I thought that the second possibility was the most likely.
If you used the taming skill, it was possible to turn the will of a beast into actual words.
I had been able to understand the will of Hippolius before taming, and Shiro as well.

However, it required a very high taming skill level.
Even I had to work hard and raise the power of my tame level when turning their will into words.

(So maybe Fio really is a taming genius?)

It was a world where skills relied on talent.
If you worked hard, then it was possible to strengthen your skills.

However, if you had no talent, then no amount of effort would help you improve.
Skills were about people with talent who through blood, sweat and tears, strengthened what they had.

(Even for me, it wasn’t until I turned 20 that I was able to turn the thoughts of beasts into actual words.)

And yet it was still considered so fast that it would be recorded in history.
So perhaps Fio was that much more talented with taming than me.

(After all, Fio had tamed without chanting, or even being aware of doing it…)

Perhaps the skill was the reason that Fio was accepted into the Demon Wolf pack to begin with.
It would explain why Fio could talk, if she was communicating with the Demon Wolves the whole time.

While Demon Wolves couldn’t speak the language of humans, Fio was a human.
As long as Fio was human, if she turned the will of the Demon Wolves into words, they would be human words.
It was not directly related to whether or not Fio could speak.

And even if she couldn’t, the will of the beast would flow in with human words.
This was the great grace of the god of words.
By hearing the words, Fio must have learned to understand them.

The god of language was the strongest god in this world.
When a person used words, they were worshipping the god of language.

This meant that most people worshipped the god of language many times a day.
And the god turned their faith into power.
So it was no wonder that this god was so strong.

Business, politics, words of love, song, poetry and stories. All of them required words.
And so the gods of business, politics, love, song, poetry and stories were all servants of the god of language.
You could say that it was language that made people who they are.

In other words, the god of language was the chief god. The god of the people.
This included all races, humans, demons and people with beast ears and tails like Fio.
Even the devil god that the demons worshiped was a servant to the god of language.

(…The god of language really is great.)

And so I offered a prayer to it before falling asleep.