Chapter 103: Dragon Roar in the Dead of Night

Taming ordinary Tuma was easy enough.

What Keane was worried about was whether the beast pen had enough taming space. A level-two beast pen could only tame four at once, so he needed to run a few experiments first.

After spending several hours and capturing fifteen Tuma alive, he brought them back to the beast pen and tamed four of them first.

Once they had been successfully domesticated, he led those four Tuma out and took them to the house where Matru was temporarily staying.

“So fast? Where did these Tuma come from?” Matru was clearly astonished. Even going to the nearest village probably would not have taken so little time.

“Don’t worry about where they came from. It’s a bit difficult for me to hand them all over at once,” Keane said. “Just buy these four Tuma first, and I’ll get you the rest!”

Though puzzled, Matru still paid.

When Keane returned to the beast pen, he saw that the occupied space had indeed dropped to zero. In other words, mounts that had been tamed could be sold to other people.

Keane was delighted, and so he continued in four batches, taming the remaining eleven Tuma and selling them to Matru one group after another.

After a busy day, he finally had a moment to rest.

When he returned home, he found Tina and Perlin sitting by the stove, chatting as they worked on something.

“Tina, what are you two doing?” Keane asked curiously as he walked over. Spreading his arms wide, he wrapped his left arm around Tina’s shoulders and pulled Perlin into his embrace with his right.

“I’m drying honeyed wild fruit, and Perlin is helping me,” Tina said with a smile, turning back toward him. With her slender white fingers, she picked up a piece of fruit and held it out to him.

Keane opened his mouth and took the fruit together with Tina’s pale finger, then chuckled. “Delicious indeed!”

“You’re awful!” Tina hurriedly pulled her finger back and, blushing, punched him lightly in the chest.

Keane laughed smugly, then deliberately turned his head to look at Perlin.

Perlin tilted her head and stared back at him, expressionless.

Keane was rather frustrated. He had originally hoped Perlin would feed him a bite too, but it was obvious that the blue-haired girl would never understand his intentions. And her blank face was a real mood killer.

He chewed the fruit in his mouth and savored it carefully. It really was delicious.

“Not bad at all. It could be used as a snack.”

“Right?” Tina said happily. She picked up another piece and put it into her own mouth, not caring in the least that Keane’s saliva was still on her fingers. As she ate, she said thoughtfully, “My mother taught me how to make this. Back then, though, there was no honey, just ordinary dried wild fruit. I tried making it with honey too, and it tasted even better! When it’s done, I’m going to send some to Father and Mother as well.”

“Tina really is a dutiful daughter,” Keane said, lowering his head to kiss her porcelain-soft cheek.

“That goes without saying!” Tina turned and looked at him gently. “My parents went through so much hardship just to raise me.”

“Mm. I should thank my in-laws too, otherwise how could I have gotten such a lovely wife?” Keane said cheerfully. Releasing Perlin, he reached out and lifted Tina into his arms.

“Ah! Keane, what are you doing?”

“Tina, shall we have a dutiful child together too?” Keane said with a laugh as he carried her into the bedroom and tossed her straight onto the bed.

“Keane~” Tina’s sapphire eyes shimmered brilliantly.

“Tina!” Keane could hardly wait as he began stripping and climbed onto the bed.

Just as they slipped beneath the covers and the husband and wife embraced each other in complete honesty, the blanket was suddenly lifted at one corner, and a blue-haired少女 burrowed in.

Awkwardness. The entire atmosphere was shattered in an instant.

“Perlin, what are you doing?” Keane asked in frustration, turning his head to look at her. “We’re busy here. Can’t you see that?”

Tina blushed but said nothing, though her gaze also shifted to Perlin.

Perlin looked at Tina and Keane with her usual expressionless face. No reaction.

“The most ruinous woman in history...” Keane did not know whether to laugh or cry. “Forget it. Let’s just pretend she doesn’t exist!”

But how could he really pretend Perlin was not there? So when Tina grew a little tired, it was Perlin’s turn to sing at full volume...

To be honest, without the miraculous effects of that magical fruit, keeping two women satisfied through the night was still somewhat exhausting.

After all the tenderness was over, Keane slept soundly with one warm, light body on each side.

In the middle of the night, a thunderous roar suddenly jolted him awake.

Not only Keane, but Tina and Perlin also hurriedly got up, dressed, and followed him onto the balcony.

“Awooo!!”

The sound came from the night sky, and calling it thunder was no exaggeration.

Not just Keane, but almost everyone in the entire city opened their windows and looked up curiously.

“Huff... huff...”

Against the beautiful starry sky, an extraordinarily massive otherworldly creature flapped its wings as it flew past. Although it was extremely far from the city, soaring at a height nearly swallowed by clouds and mist, it was still vast to the naked eye, and its roar shook everyone to the core like rolling thunder.

“A dragon! It’s a dragon!!” a villager shouted in terror.

“My God! It really is a dragon!”

“I can’t believe it! What am I seeing?”

“A species that only exists in myths?”

“It seems to have flown deep into the Monster Forest!”

“By the God of War, we’re actually neighbors with a dragon!”

“Run! We’re all going to be eaten by it!”

“Pack your bags, quickly!”

“It’s nighttime. Where are we supposed to run to?”

“Forget that! It’s a dragon! A dragon!”

“If we leave the city now, the monsters in the Monster Forest will eat us!”

“If we stay, we might get eaten by the dragon too!”

The whole city suddenly erupted into chaos. All the villagers began shouting in panic, and many had already started packing their belongings.

Keane was a little stunned himself. He had no idea that a Western dragon actually existed in the Monster Forest.

What had just flown overhead was clearly the giant dragon found only in Western legends, whether in its size, its voice, its enormous wings, or its tail...

“Keane!” Tina was trembling in fear, gripping his hand tightly.

Even Perlin, who was always expressionless, now clung to his right arm. Though her face still showed no emotion, the strength of her grip betrayed her fear.

“Calm down! Everyone, calm down!” Recovering himself, Keane immediately shouted for Wolfe and Buddy, ordering them to lead the town guards and kobolds to gather all the villagers in the city, along with the town guards, the kobolds, and the bards, merchant caravans, and mercenary bands that were temporarily staying there.

He came to the open square and shouted at the panicked crowd, “Be quiet and don’t panic! Yes, that was a dragon, but it did not land near our city. To a dragon, we are nothing but tiny specks—something not worth its attention! Don’t throw yourselves into confusion. We are safe for now! But if you keep shouting like this, the noise may attract nearby beasts, and it could even alert that dragon! I know everyone is afraid, but please rest assured, we are absolutely safe right now! Everyone, return to your houses at once and go to sleep. Tomorrow I will personally lead a team to investigate what happened!”