Nateaser: Reborn As My Love Interest

Dio - Chapter Fifty Five

These were the best draft animals in existence.

Period. Once you got past their gaunt looks they were truly majestic. But they were called Nightmares for a reason. Fortunately, they wouldn't make us hallucinate again. I was still unsure if it was because of Fang's skills in taming, the spirits, or if they simply started to trust us after we had fought the hellhounds together. Their stallion sure was friendly.

"Would you look at that, Sir Dioneras!" The dwarf smith yelled. We towed that large wagon back to his shop, and he packed everything that wasn't nailed down. He convinced the two adult equines to pull it for him, and they did it effortlessly as if it was empty.

"You got what you wanted," I noted as my wounds were treated.

"It's all thanks to you, Champions." He kept bowing his head. They had hellish strength, and wouldn't get tired at all. The wheels were crackling though, at least three tons resting on them.

Gomel had to reinforce the structure with steel bands and made plans with the dogs that we defeated. But it didn't seem healthy to use their corpses. Those abyssal monsters were already rotting alive.

"Just burn them." I requested. "I don't even want other animals to find these bodies. They might spread disease or something."

"No, we must not be wasteful." The smith was adamant. "You risked so much to fight them, the bare minimum is that I take their skin, and make sure to give you something useful as a reward."

We all agreed that eating their meat was out of the question, but their hide had interesting properties. It smelled terrible at first, but it was in a state where we didn't need to tan it.

At least according to Gomel. He put it into a barrel of alcohol to soak overnight, even though we protested, but he assured us it was poisonous from the start. He had plenty of barrels that he offered us instead. Beer, wine, and even stronger drinks he scavenged.

"What kind of dwarf would I be... I'd never waste a drinkable drop." He took our foolish charges personally. He already drunk a lot by that point, but he barely showed signs of being intoxicated. Dwarves were built differently, I guess. If anything, his strength only increased from it.

He treated the leather with some oil and herbs, and it was ready to be used the next day. He made belts, straps, and even saddles for the colts. He knew some leatherwork too, not just smithing. Most importantly, he made me an eyepatch.

Fang loved the idea. He was plenty drunk himself, but he took it once the dwarf was done stitching, and put it over my head.

"Heeer, for teh pirate captain, arrr!" The beastkin joked, fumbling with it for a while. "Iss onely fairr... The Captain of teh Twelve Champinos... Chamiponos... Would wear sumfin' made of the hellhound's hide... That he had slain himself. Am I right, Dio? Amazing, isn't it?"

"Probably not many goblins can claim that they fought and defeated abyssal monsters," Gomel added, proud of his work, but at the same time he kept blaming himself for the incident. "If only I didn't force this stupid idea to have you tame Nightmares for me. What was I thinking?"

His mood swings were quite amusing. It was unfathomable, how they didn't affect his work at all. Everything he made us was excellent.

"You make it sound like I fought them on my own..." I laughed, properly drunk as well. While I couldn't hope to keep up with Gomel in drinking, I held my own against Fang, and... Well, Bastion was already out cold after a few sips. "It's not how we planned but it is what it is. I can tell, it was worth the hassle. These are fine animals."

"Aye-aye Captain, arrr!" Fang contributed, before passing out for a while too. That meant I became the most fierce warrior for a brief moment. And I was severely injured as well...