With Hibi and Baron on my back, I run across the forest.
Hibi is telling me where their village’s direction is using〖Mind Speak〗.

【“Past the river…… then, it’s just straight ahead.”】

I lightly jump over the river.
The moment I landed on the other side, the nearby smaller monsters quickly scattered away from me.
I think I saw a really large round mouse from among them, or was it a wolf. With a little more leveling up, Wight can probably handle those alone.

On the way, I’ve been feeling quite an eerie presence from behind.
I didn’t want to slow down, so I asked Partner to watch the front while I turned around to check.

In a faraway tree behind us, I saw five faint glowing dwarf-like creatures squatting on tree branches at the back.
They’re those guys from before, the things that Partner wanted to eat…… Ralan… right?
Their small sunk-in eyes are creepily staring at me.
You have no ill-intent, right? Will you just be watching us like that?
You’re kinda scaring me with those eyes of yours..

【“Tree. Gonna crash.”】

From Partner’s warning, I immediately turned my head around again and evaded the obstacle at the last second.

【“It would seem that the forest dwellers have taken a liking to Ryujin-sama’s status. They do not like the forest being trampled thoughtlessly after all.”】

It seems that Hibi read my mind and knew that the forest dweller’s gaze worried me, so she spoke to me using〖Mind Speak〗to relieve me.
I see now, so they hate conflicts spurring up in the forest.
So then, that information〖God’s Voice〗told me before, about the fact that they suck the life out of trees…… that kinda explains a few things.
Being the Guardian Deity of the Forest… the Dragon God is positively welcomed with open arms by the Ralan then.

Now I really need to be extra careful not to mess this up.
Creating Treants probably aren’t considered a bad thing, I think.
…… Hm, is it possible that they were already spying on me back when I started making Treants?
T-That’s not true, right? Were you really watching everything I did back at the Dragon God’s Shrine?

Baron is weirdly rubbing our back, and his hands are stroking us in a really weird way, and Partner’s thoughts are rushing like flood in my head now. Her urge to burn this man alive is steadily increasing.

【“I can’t handle dis guy. Let's fall 'im off.”】

Is that alright?
I mean, compared to making them our enemies, this isn’t that bad.
There was a time back when I ran with open arms to a human just to get a headpat, you know.

Partner sometimes get too irritated and she ends up turning around to look at Baron every now and then.
Even though she can’t move this body, but I guess she can still feel what I feel.

But still, her voice is rather male in my head.
Since I was told that this two-headed dragon is a hermaphrodite, I was expecting her to be female.
No, there are still some lines that are only affected by me.
Next time, I’ll try to turn into a human with both heads intact and see what happens.
If a human sees me in that form, they won’t mistake me from a monster, that’s for sure.

Now that I’ve run quite a considerable amount of distance, my〖Presence Sense〗is picking up lots of signals up ahead.
These are all humans. This means that I’m getting close to their village.
I start slowing my speed down and I’ll stop when I reach their wooden gate.

The gate was small for me, but I think I can still barely fit inside if I bend my head down.
It looks like their village is surrounded with stakes as their fences.

The fences are lightly stacked in places and it looks painful to climb over, so if someone escapes from the inside, they’ll have to past through the gates.
I guess I should also try to not fly over the fences and just enter through the gate so I don’t scare the villagers.
Since I’m their Guardian Deity now, I should also uphold proper manners.
During the panic that they find out this traveler is not human, I need something to block its escape route.
Then again, if the Manticore is trapped inside, then casualties might increase.

Beside the gate, there’s a man standing guard and holding a spear.
Most likely the gatekeeper.

“R-Ryujin-sama?! H-Hibi-sama! W-What is going on here……”

The gatekeeper drops his spear while looking up in awe at me and nervously approaches us.

“Ryujin-sama wishes to see the traveler. That is why we brought him with us.”

Concern or hostility……
It’s fine if this is just needless anxiety worrying me, but the timing of an injured traveler that got poisoned in the stomach is just too conspicuous, I can only think of the Manticore.
〖Human Transformation〗costs a lot of MP so I hope it really is just a human and not the Manticore, but…… no matter how you look at it, keeping up that skill this long is just too good to be true.
It probably has a skill whose details I don’t know yet. I can’t be rest assured unless I actually check it out myself.

I turn my neck around and look at Hibi.
Hibi can tell that there’s something I want to say, so she closed her eyes.

Hibi, where’s the traveler?
I’d rather not let that traveler sense my presence when I approach her, and I also want everyone near her to slowly be warned and stay away from her.
I have reason to believe that it’s a monster in the shape of a human.

【”…… I understand, then we must act with haste. We will make preparations soon. However, the traveler is currently in our treatment shelter, and to evacuate the other patients without falling suspicion will prove to be quite difficult.”】

She answered my question through〖Mind Speak〗.
After that, Hibi then jumped off my back.
She twisted her ankle to block the shock upon landing. She then lightly stomped the ground with her toe to check if her feet position before walking towards the gatekeeper.

“Goz, go to the treatment shelter and call as many people as you can to move all the patients to the meeting room. Don’t mention anything about Ryujin-sama to anyone, and make up any reason to convince them to help you. Whatever reason is fine, you can even use my name. But, tell the traveler that she can stay to sleep as long as she likes and let her remain there. If the traveler does anything suspicious, return here immediately and report to us.”

“U-Understood!”

So, the gatekeeper’s name is Goz, then.
He hurriedly picked up his spear and ran inside the village as fast as he could.

“Gru~a!”

Partner extended her neck and ate Baron’s head, then dragged him out of our back and dropped him on the ground.
Seeing Hibi and Goz talking, it seems that she judged that we don’t need to let Baron ride us any longer.

“U ~owa!”

When Baron fell down, dust scattered from his fall.
M-Maybe that was too much, Partner.

“Gru~ua”

When Partner lowered her head down and growled, light particles started gathering around Baron.
…… Oh, so you’re using〖Rest〗on him.

When I raised my head, I saw buildings lined up in the distance just past the village walls.
It looks like it’s made by piling up bricks one by one and it became that big, the shapes look like it’s a round pillar.

And, from the shadows of one of the buildings, there are children looking all scared at me.
Three of them cuddled up together in hiding.

For now, to remove my air of intimidation, I stoop my body over.
The three children’s faces got brightened up, and they started running towards me.

“It’s Ryujin-sama! It’s Ryujin-sama!”

“You really came back!”

…… umu, I guess the road to being a Guardian Deity is not that bad.
What do I do now? Maybe I should start living here permanently. Hee hee~