Nateaser: Reborn As My Love Interest

Dio - Ch. 118

"There is something ahead."

"This is the third time today." I suppressed a yawn and raised an eyebrow at Hakim's claim. I struggled to breathe up here, getting bored and skeptical. "You quickly changed your mind with the previous two. And we can't fly any further than this."

"No, this is the real deal, trust me, Dio. No false alarms this time." He patted my shoulder, pointing straight ahead, beyond the northeastern edge of the highlands. I hadn't flown on a wyvern for a long while and felt all kinds of tired. "In that large forest, it's the strongest signal I have felt after your Demon Lord. They must be hiding beneath the trees."

Whenever he was full of himself, he dropped my rank and fell back on my nickname, but I needed more proof than his ego this time. Not that this was any worse than hunting the individual tribes on the ground, but the Demon Lord was losing his patience fast, especially considering this was a human's solo endeavor, who wasn't officially enlisted yet.

"So you're saying the Elder hid her pawns in the furthest possible place within Midgard?" It made sense. Our supply trains were overstretched already, and we needed a quick victory. This forest was at least a week's march from our closest positions though, leading through multiple tribe's territories. It didn't matter how I strained my remaining eye, I couldn't see signs of movement or a camp down there.

"That seems to be the smartest. She doesn't need to fight us head-on, maybe she lacks the manpower for that too." He pondered as the majestic beast drew a large circle over the woods. "It was the right call to hide their green skins inside a forest if she expected our scouts. It's not their regular settlement, we won't find buildings or smoke, I bet she even moves them around daily. We must be lucky to find them."

"So what can you feel exactly?" I interrogated him during our second circle overhead. "Their numbers, shamans, how many domination stones or what have you is down there? I need to report to the Demon Lord."

"One strong source below us, and a few faint signals that could be their shamans." He closed his eyes to concentrate better. "But now that we came this close, there are two more points with dense mana to the east and west. Those overshadow the weaker signals, so I can't say much."

"Is it even possible to control three large tribes at once?" I pondered, slowly descending, but he tapped my shoulders, pointing at the trees below us. We were still thousands of feet high and saw only the canopy.

"I wouldn't fly too close, you never know what long-range spells they have, and I heard about those pterosaurs too," Hakim warned me, the last person I expected. "Just fly in a large circle and alert your Demon Lord. Maybe send someone to track them once they move, but now we should just kick back and relax."

He must have felt his recon mission was over, but his word for it alone wasn't enough for me. I needed more proof, and to curb his ego a bit.

"You can make us invisible, right? Why don't we take a closer look, and then I can give an actual report." I suggested, suppressing a grin. His smile turned into a frown, and his eyes rolled back as he scratched his head. "What's the matter, did you think your vague claim would be enough to convince me after we flew around for days?"

"It's not that. I can turn ourselves invisible, but with that many shamans down there, they could still detect the spell itself." He noted reluctantly, making me raise an eyebrow. Until now, he firmly claimed he could make our troop movements disappear, no matter what enemy we faced, and while it worked so far, his hesitation surprised me.

"That's not how you sold your skills until now." I reminded him but kept the wyvern in a safe distance. "You said you can make us invisible any time and are extremely useful."