Saki

  He looked sheepish and said, "Well, after last time... I might have..." He pulled out a small rock and tapped it. Suddenly the sound of slams and bangs came from it, followed by "Tama is having so much fun! Come and get Tama, Jiggle!" He tapped the rock again and it went silent.

  At first, I was about to get upset. Then I remembered I had just been watching them on a map without their knowledge and closed my mouth.

  Lyran spoke anyway: "I know it's invasive and I do feel bad... but it's Tama! I needed to make sure she would be fine. That girl is..."

  "Tama," I said simply. He nodded seriously at me and I nodded back.

  There was a moment of silence as we watched more adventurers and guards rush by. I wondered how long until they stopped coming. Drestor truly was a border city, and the amount of adventurers proved to be way more than even I had considered.

  Then I realized why Alissa, to my shock, appeared in the group. Gone was the bubbly regent from before. In her place stood a fierce woman.

  She still looked exactly like Tama, but she held herself regally and raised her hand before shouting, "Adventurers, we must stop that boar and save Queen Tamaneko! Your regent commands you!"

  A blue wave pulsed outward and everyone started running faster. Lyran seemed to freeze for a second before smiling sadly at me and saying, "I gotta go."

  I could literally see the force overtaking him as he turned and left. I idly wondered why I wasn't affected. Then I remembered I was actually above Regent Alissa in the royal hierarchy as direct royal advisor to the Queen. Even if the Queen was Tama...

  I quickly ran to keep up with Lyran. I wasn't quite sure why—I could have easily just continued watching from the map. But... I... I don't know. I rushed quickly to catch up to him and grabbed his hand. He seemed surprised but smiled as we rushed quickly to the gate.

  I quickly pushed him away right as we exited the gate. I was just barely in time as Tama flew past us at an alarming speed. She hit the ground and went deep into the concrete and dirt, leaving a long line into a crater.

  For the briefest moment I felt fear. Then Tama burst out of the ground. She looked absolutely delighted, Serenity in hand as she blinked over to me and spoke: "Talia is super strong! Her and Jiggle knocked me out of the fight. But Tama is going back in!"

  Before I could respond, she vanished again and I sighed as I heard her sword clash against Talia's hammer. I heard Talia yell out, "Tama, stop playing and put the boar down!"

  Tama screeched back, "Never! Jiggle is Tama's pet!"

  More clashes of metal. It seems the adventurers were surrounding the fight but no one could keep up or knew what to do, so they just readied themselves and watched helplessly. The entire area looked like a war zone, even worse than when the undead had come knocking on Drestor's door.

  "I am coming, Empress!" Tera's voice cut through the crowd as she rushed past and jumped into the fray. Talia swung her hammer once and I sidestepped, and Tera was hit so hard she flew into the city wall, hit it, coughed up blood, then fell over not moving.

  I sighed and called out in the royal tone: "Tama's personal head of royal guard has been hurt, I command healers to heal her!" Tera was really stupid, but she was loyal to Tama, and we might need that very soon.

  Finally, Alissa reached the fight and raised her hand. I cut her off before she could speak: "Regent Alissa, as Royal Advisor of her royal highness, I command silence." Alissa's mouth shut and she looked very confused over at me. I beckoned her over and she smiled before happily skipping over to me. The regent literally... skipped... over to me.

  I had an idea. I opened my map and looked at the three dots as they fought. Jiggle was green, Tama was purple, and Talia was a light shade of purple, perhaps magenta?

  That meant Tama was pure royalty, Jiggle was considered a tamed beast, not a dangerous mob. Dangerous and enemies would be considered red. Curiously I tapped mentally on Jiggle and my eyes widened when I realized Tama was actually telling the truth.

  Name: Jiggle

  Nickname: The goodest boy

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  ? Species: Hyper Boar

  ? Level: 42

  ? Traits: Magical Immunity, Piercing Immunity

  ? Owner: Fuyuki Tamaneko

  ? Current Status: Playing with owner

  I facepalmed hard. I quickly tapped on Jiggle again and tried to get a command structure to come up. Instead, it just gave me a warning: 'Error: Attempting to command pet 'Jiggle' is not allowed. Attempting to do so will alert the owner of this pet of your actions.' I paused at that and for a moment wondered how Tama would react. Then quickly hit cancel and started my original strategy.

  I turned to face Alissa who had just been standing there for a minute. She was moving from foot to foot and whistling a song to herself as she watched the fight.

  The fact that I commanded her to silence and she was whistling meant two things. Royal compulsions, as I had learned earlier, worked with the mind.

  But that also meant it was reliant on the mind. Alissa most likely thought that whistling didn't count as sound. Which was blatantly false, but it turns out, the royal system didn't care. It made sure the compulsion went through for how the person being compelled understood it.

  I smiled and said, "Regent Alissa, I have wonderful news! Cookies are available at the guild hall! They said they need your expertise!" My ears twitched and my tail wagged slightly. Alissa's eyes lit up and without a word, she turned and ran back into Drestor.

  Sometimes, I wonder how royalty like her lived as long as she had. With her out of harm's way, I moved to my next step. I called out loudly, "All adventurers are hereby ordered to return to the city and start the cleanup process!"

  The wave pulsed out and I heard grumbling as all the nearby adventurers began putting away their weapons and walking towards the gate. They threw me dirty looks. I didn't care—this next part was extremely important.

  I ducked as a wave of force so strong it created a wind current that, if I had held still, would have cut me in half and then slammed into the city walls, causing that part of the wall to just collapse. I paled as I stepped forward. I needed to be quick or I would be dead soon.

  I braced myself as I did something I really didn’t want to do. I manipulated Tama to get her to stop. “Tama! You are destroying the city with your actions! You need to send Jiggle away or we could all die!” I called it out, the wind having been whipped up by the sheer force of combat.

  For a moment, nothing seemed to change. Then both Tama and Talia appeared around thirty feet apart, both were panting heavily and it looked like neither was unscathed. Tama was not smiling, she had her teeth clenched and her legs were shaking.

  Jiggle tried to charge but both Tama and Talia moved in sync and punched the boar. Jiggle went flying into the distance and then there was silence.

  I coughed loudly, neither turned to look at me. They stared at each other and for a long moment I feared they would start again. Then Talia spoke and she sounded exasperated. “Void below Tama! That thing is your pet! You almost killed half the city! You need to put that thing on a leash!”

  Tama growled back “Jiggle is the goodest boy! Jiggle did nothing wrong! People just don’t like him!”

  Talia’s eyes twitched and she stood, her legs also shook slightly. She spoke in a somewhat calm, if dangerous tone. “Tama, When Jiggle comes back, I expect that pig to be on an enchanted leash that can hold that monstrosity. Do you understand me?” Her tail lashed back and forth and her ears flattened even as she spoke. Talia was not messing around.

  Tama opened her mouth to speak but I was quicker. “Yes Matriarch Talia, we will make sure Jiggle has a leash the next time he is in or near the town.”

  Talia turned and her glare almost killed me on the spot. Luckily, Tama stayed silent and after a long moment, Talia turned, and after putting her hammer on her back, walked back into the city.

  I sighed and went to turn to Tama when another voice came from the city. “I’m coming, Jiggle! Our fights will be legendary!!!” David rushed past me so fast I felt the air buffet me as he made a beeline towards where Jiggle had been thrown. Wasn’t he an adventurer? Or did he consider himself a crafter first?

  “Jiggle did nothing wrong!” Tama cried out at me, her hands waving in the air as her tail lashed angrily back and forth.

  I sighed and shook my head. “Tama, he destroyed a decent part of the city including the inn we were staying at, he put possibly thousands of lives in danger and worse, he made a spectacle when you really didn’t need one. So yes Tama, Jiggle did in fact, do something wrong.” My voice came out meaner than I meant to, but I was just so exasperated with the whole thing.

  Tama paused and she looked contemplative for a moment. Then she said “But Jiggle has never hurt Tama before!”

  I rolled my eyes at the insanity of that statement “Tama, I could literally stab you with all nine of my tails covered in spikes at the same time and you wouldn’t even flinch. Most people are not you!

  Tama went silent and looked ashamed.

  She turned away and looked off into the distance where they had launched Jiggle. After a long quiet moment Tama said “Tama will go get the goblins to make Jiggle a new no-no cage then.”

  I paused at her words before asking the obvious question. “His… no-no cage?”

  Chapter 105: Jiggle’s No-No Cage