"Hmm…"@@novelbin@@

That was the general reaction of the people who saw the Gryphon following me all the way back to Lutetia.

Though, I wasn’t entirely sure following was the right word. Sometimes, it would trot along behind the carriage, and other times, it would suddenly take off and soar into the distance, as if stretching its wings after being cooped up for too long.

Honestly, when it flew high into the sky, I felt a fleeting sense of relief. Yeah, just keep flying. Go back to your family and live a happy life~ I thought to myself. But just when I was about to solidify that thought into certainty, it would always come back.

And every time it returned, it was right when we were crossing a border.

Even in this world, moving animals across regions required some sort of declaration or permit. There weren’t any serious discussions about ecological destruction yet, but rare creatures were often considered a specialty of specific regions and usually got flagged at customs.

Monkeys, vibrantly colored tropical fish, parrots, reptiles… The creatures here often had familiar names but were wildly different from what I knew.

And as I’d mentioned before, the animals in this world were genuinely dangerous. Not just because they could bite people or spread disease—but because some of them could set things on fire with magic. In a world that relied heavily on gas, oil, and coal, a creature like that running wild could cause massive disasters. That’s why these inspections existed in the first place.

The problem was that the creature following me wasn’t just any animal.

…Actually, could I even call it an animal?

You wouldn’t classify a dragon as just an animal, would you?

In fantasy worlds, dragons were often portrayed as intelligent beings capable of speech. Even in settings where they were depicted more like massive winged reptiles, they were rarely reduced to the level of a mere beast.

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