This was a message that appeared only when an Elite Monster of A-rank or higher was exterminated.

’Don’t tell me...’

Currently, there was no A-rank monster with officially confirmed activity in New York. If you excluded the Bone Drake that had suddenly appeared a moment ago.

As Jonah’s eyes wavered.

An additional notification message appeared.

-----

[Target]: Bone Drake

[Type]: Elite / Young Dragon

[Rank]: A

[Exterminator]: Walfred

[Contribution]: 100% (solo)

-----

And in that moment.

A soundless astonishment swept through the place.

"...What?"

Walfred had exterminated the Bone Drake.

And by himself, no less.

At the unbelievable news, Jonah, of course, and everyone present couldn’t close their mouths.

---

Meanwhile, around that time.

Walfred opened his eyes with a low groan.

"Where is this...?"

A space covered all over in ice.

The surroundings were quiet. When he calmly looked around, he saw the traces of the fierce battle.

Shattered ice walls, a floor gouged with craters.

Bone fragments large and small too. Seeing them, the things he’d gone through before passing out came back to him.

’Right. I fought the Bone Drake.’

And won.

Recalling those memories, Walfred felt the tension drain out of him again and let out a sigh.

’Any injuries...’

There wasn’t a single one.

It was surely because the [Rune of Healing] granted by the [Frost Domain] had activated and healed his wounds. As Walfred felt relieved, he soon noticed a strange emptiness.

A moment later, when he realized that the inside of his cold-weather gear was empty, he understood the reason for the emptiness.

The baby dragon was nowhere to be seen.

"What? Don’t tell me it ran off?"

No, that was unlikely.

There was no way the thing, which had called him papa and followed him, would suddenly vanish like this.

So as he was glancing around.

Crunch!

He heard the sound of snow being stepped on.

Walfred turned his head.

And.

"Papa!"

He heard the baby dragon’s voice.

But Walfred couldn’t respond to the baby dragon’s cheerful voice. Because the baby dragon’s appearance was completely different from what he’d seen before passing out.

"...!"

The figure that ran over to Walfred in a single dash.

The being that approached along with the baby dragon’s voice was clearly a person. A girl of about ten with silver hair.

"Are you okay? Does it not hurt anymore?"

"Y-you..."

Walfred couldn’t quite continue his words.

He couldn’t help it.

Because the child’s face reflected in his eyes was a face so dearly missed and familiar to him.

"That face! H-how on earth...?"

Walfred’s niece, Jenna.

The baby dragon’s face was the spitting image of Jenna at ten years old. The only differences were the silver hair and the blue eyes.

Otherwise, every feature was exactly the same.

"Because I wanted to look like papa."

Meanwhile, the baby dragon smiled brightly.

And revealed the truth.

"So I borrowed the appearance of the person with the strongest presence in papa’s memories."

"...Ah."

At those words, Walfred understood.

The resonance. He wasn’t the only one who had seen the other’s memories during that process. The baby dragon, too, had seen Walfred’s memories.

And it had taken on the form of Jenna, the being that occupied the largest part of those memories.

"I see. So that’s why..."

That’s why it appeared in this form.

Walfred looked at the child with trembling eyes.

She wasn’t the real Jenna, but seeing this after so long, a longing he couldn’t quite name surged up in him.

A while after that.

Having collected his emotions, Walfred opened his mouth.

"By the way."

He voiced the question he’d felt ever since the baby dragon woke from its sleep.

"Why do you call me papa?"

"Because you’re my papa!"

"No, on what basis exactly?"

To begin with, they weren’t even the same species.

There was the thing commonly called an imprinting effect, but it didn’t seem to be only because of that. The strong conviction in the baby dragon’s voice was the proof.

In the meantime, the child, who had been looking at Walfred, abruptly buried her nose in his chest and sniffed.

"You smell the same as me!"

"...Smell?"

"Yeah! Only family smells the same!"

Walfred lifted his arm and took a sniff.

Whether because his nose was frozen from the cold weather, he couldn’t smell anything at all. Giving up on smelling, Walfred quietly looked at the child.

’What should I do from here?’

Right now, he had two choices.

Leave the baby dragon here, or go out together. Back when he first ran into the baby dragon, he hadn’t intended to travel with it.

Because moving around in the form of a Frost Dragon carried too great a risk of being attacked by other hunters.

’But...’

His thinking had changed a little now.

With the baby dragon turning human, the very risk of being attacked by hunters had vanished.

On top of that, perhaps because she wore young Jenna’s face, his resolve had softened.

And one more thing.

There was a reason his thinking had changed.

’...The buffs are too good.’

[Blessing of the Frost Dragon] and [Frost Dragon’s Roar].

The two skills, one strengthening allies and the other weakening enemies, were far too appealing as conditions.

As he kept mulling it over for a while.

"Oh, that’s right!"

The baby dragon, who had been cradled in his arms, suddenly hopped down onto the ice. Then she ran over to a nearby ice wall and brought back something.

"I gathered it up to give to papa!"

"This is..."

A mound of snow shimmering with a blue glow.

It was the snow of pure mana that had given him a massive amount of experience. Walfred asked back in a puzzled tone.

"Why are you giving this to me...?"

"Papa’s hurt. If you eat this, you’ll get better."

The baby dragon, smiling brightly, packed the snow with hands as small as fern fronds and held it out. There was no ulterior motive, no pretense to be found in the gesture.

It meant she had brought the snow out of pure worry for Walfred. Facing that act, Walfred ended his long deliberation and made his decision.

’All right, let’s take her along.’

Was it because she believed Walfred was her papa?

The baby dragon’s behavior toward him was extremely affectionate. And Walfred didn’t want to betray that affection and that trust.

Having firmed up his resolve.

Walfred took the snowball and grinned.

"Thanks. I’ll enjoy it."

"Yeah! Eat lots."

With the child’s reply as the last word.

Walfred munched down the snow.

Along with a pleasant texture, the fatigue throughout his body felt like it cleanly washed away.

And.

[Level up!]

[You’ve reached Level 48.]

"...Huh?"

What? What’s wrong with my level?

Walfred wore a blank expression.