"Oh, look who it is, Toby!" Gerald turned to his new furry friend with a smile. In turn, Toby released a low growl and showed his teeth.
"Hey! No growling!" Gerald flicked the Warg on the ear. It didn't hurt much, but it was enough to get the point across. Acting aggressively without permission was not allowed.
"So, what brings you here?" he beamed at Tabbris who was currently showing a worried expression.
"Say, are you sure it's safe?" the guy asked in return.
"Maybe? Probably?" Gerald replied nonchalantly and then put a finger on his chin, "Hey, you know the Fire Rain spell? How strong is the spell scroll compared to the real thing?"
"Huh? What… Why would you ask that?" Tabbris said, appearing utterly confused. In what world had the Fire Rain spell anything to do with the current topic?!
"Oh, nothing much, I just suddenly remembered seeing one being sold for a few thousand gold… If it's not too hard to make we could get a few dozen and finish the war in a few days, right?"
Tabbris suddenly stumbled back and had to grab ahold of one of the bookshelves to stop himself from falling down. What madness had he just heard?! If they aren't too hard to make?! It takes years of careful preparation to make a scroll like that!
It's one of the most powerful weapons there is and requires the best materials and a skilled Mage that specializes in such things. Even then it's incredibly difficult to accurately draw hundreds if not thousands of runes with expensive and difficult to acquire blood of powerful creatures.
But then he suddenly remembered the lack of common sense in nearly everything Gerald did, so he took a deep breath and tried to calm his mind.
"As if! Just imagine the chaos if such a thing was possible! Well, let's just leave the difficulty of making such scrolls en mass… The problem is that even the best attempts at making one could barely reach a tenth of its power. Magic stored in a spell scroll is inherently weaker than the one actively used by a mage..."
As Tabbris kept explaining the differences and weaknesses, Gerald couldn't help but lift his eyebrows in surprise. "It is? Oh, I never noticed it before…"
As someone with superior theoretical knowledge, Tabbris gladly shared his wisdom, "That might be because there isn't much of a discrepancy in the power of weaker spells. It only comes to be clear when truly powerful magic is in play," he continued educating him.
"I see…" Gerald nodded seriously. "Anyway, why are you here? I'm sure it's not a random coincidence."
"Why am I here? Why are you here?! I don't know what you are doing with this beast, but you are scaring people. You have no idea how many people complained, bringing fear for their children as the main concern. It's actually weird you weren't already arrested…"
Perhaps he exaggerated a few words, but the general sentiment remained: He was disrupting the peace in the city, regardless of how little of it actually remained.
"Oh, that's what those guys wanted? Why didn't they say so!" Gerald exclaimed, remembering a group of guards that pestered him some time ago. "They should have said so instead of mincing their words. If I didn't know any better I would think they were shy girls trying to ask me out! Honestly…"
Tabbris felt like facepalming. Of course, something like that would happen. The only soldiers standing guard were those mostly incompetent and a few sons of nobles who pretended to care by sending their offspring into the army.
It looked good on the surface, but they clearly pulled some strings in the background to keep their sons safe. And such sheltered youngsters clearly didn't have the balls to arrest Gerald.
Even without the Warg by his side, the man alone could make children cry with a single look. Tabbris wasn't even surprised they failed. The man could literally slaughter Orcs like it was nothing, and he could fly! No way common folk dared to confront this seeming demigod.
"Well, could you consider how they are feeling, for my sake, please…" He pleaded while having a sour feeling in his heart. It was not exactly in his nature to do so.
"What?!" Gerald became overwhelmed by righteous fury, "This is discrimination! What about my feelings?! So many people are walking around with pets, hell, an army of them just entered the city and I didn't hear anyone complain! But I get one little Warg and everyone got a problem with it all of a sudden…"
He went on and on about his suffering and difficulties acquiring the Warg, the food expenses, and the arduous training the beast had to go through to become domesticated.
Tabbris grimaced just listening to him and had to intervene before Gerald would finish his tirade and possibly demand an unreasonable price to get rid of his beast.
"Okay, okay, let's forget about all that… Why are you here in the library anyway? Are you looking for something?"
"Oh," Gerald's mood cleared in an instant as he beamed, "I'm searching for a way to evolve Toby. Wouldn't it be cool if he became a Bloodhound?!"
Cough!
Tabbris almost choked as he tried swallowing his own tongue in shock. 'Oh god! It's worse! It's worse than we have ever imagined! Knowing this madman he'll really do it! I need to stop him!'
"Hehe, Gerald, my friend…" Tabbris hugged the man around the shoulders while chuckling nervously, "Hehe… Say, how about I try and convince His Majesty to allow you a peek into the Royal Library? You definitely won't find what you are looking for in there… This library here holds only basic information, it's definitely not worth your time."
Gerald was elated, "You would do that for me?! Thank you! Toby, say thank you to Tabbris, he's your great benefactor!"
The Warg didn't quite understand, but it tried to do its best impersonation of a cute 'Woof!' with its rough voice as it has seen other dogs do, and licked the man's face in happiness.
"…"