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“≪Heat Wave≫!”

Along with Lucella’s yell, bright red heat rays burst forth and scorched the stones on the dry riverbed while flicking them off and carving out a straight ditch.

It had already been a month since Kafal taught him magic. Lucella had done nothing but train spells since then.

It was because the ability to create flame would drastically improve his standard of living.

He could roast the meat and such on his own, and could warm himself up without relying on Kafal.

The ability to use fire at will in the mountain drew a thin line between living like an animal and living like a civilized human.

…That said, he was probably far beyond the level of “lifestyle flame” already.

Lucella was no magician. Probably. His memories were hazy, so he couldn’t swear on it, but he felt like he wasn’t.

However, he somehow had some knowledge of magic even so.

He managed to recreate some of those spells that he had simply heard about.

He had never learned the proper formula for them so his way of doing it was probably nonsensical, but for some reason, he could still do it.

“I guess I’ll call it a day with this.”

Lucella wiped the sweat off while looking at the burnt and devastated riverbed due to the recent training.

He was training magic near the river to not cause a forest fire.

Kafal also allowed Lucella to come to this riverbed that was close to the nest. In fact, it was too close to it and no monster approached it.

“Now, I think I’ll go around the other side on the way back today.”

Lucella took a big detour on the way back to the nest, inspecting the surroundings.

It was partly because he thought he had to get familiar with the mountain’s geography as soon as possible, but he had a bigger goal too.

As he made his way through the bushes, other colors started to mix in the verdant greenery around.

Red, orange, purple.

The trees around were filled with vibrant fruits of all colors and shapes, their beauty putting even blooming flowers to shame.

“Amazing. I wonder what fruit is this. Did even the vegetation mutate on top of monsters because of Kafal’s presence?”

The trees around Kafal’s nest bore abundant fruit that he had never seen before.

They were too small for Kafal to even consider as food, but for Lucella they were welcome blessings of the earth.

Lucella spread the extra pelt he had on hand on the ground. Then he nimbly jumped atop a thick branch and started to pluck off the fruit at random, and lightly threw them down on the pelt.

“Even if the birds and insects eat some, there’s still plenty for me too. Maybe I should just harvest everything before they overripe…”

The fruit piled up on the pelt in the blink of an eye.

Lucella decided it was enough and bit into the last fruit he grabbed.

“So good!”

The fruit filled with nectar was juicy and sweet. The freshly-plucked fruit was divinely tasty.

“I really ought to thank the mountain for its blessings.”

He jumped down to the ground, wrapped the fruits with the pelt, and carried it, which was far heavier than his current weight, on his back.

Kafal still only brought meat, but humans were omnivores, and as such, eating only meat was probably somewhat unhealthy.

Not to mention, it was autumn, the harvest season now.

He had to think of a way to store all these resources and prepare for the inevitable winter.

“I’m back”
“Groowl…”

When Lucella returned to the nest, Kafal bent herself forward from her sitting position and drew her face closer.

She rubbed her snout which was covered by rough scales on her for a while, but then she curled up like an animal getting ready for sleep.

While Lucella was out, she had her head raised high and watched over him while sitting.

There were about five pelts spread out near the nest that came from the monsters Kafal defeated recently, and above them were cut fruit that Lucella gathered.

“Good, they have dried well.”

The first batch she had lined up was already dry of moisture and all shrunk up.

—I’ve never made dried fruits before so I just did everything my way… It would definitely be hard to get over the winter with just meat.

Presently, Lucella was working on making preserved food along with his magic training.

For the present, he made the dried fruit using the abundant fruits all around. Then again, all he did was dry them under the sun.

He picked up one of them, which had turned smaller than he expected, and bit into it.

“Yeah, I think it came out well considering the lack of effort put into it.”

It had a strange elastic texture and rich, concentrated sweetness.

—If it’s just cold, I can pull through with magic and Kafal’s help, but it’s still hard to spend winter with only mountain food.

Agh, dammit. I don’t care whether it’s bread or rice, just give me something that can be preserved better than meat.

Wonder if I can go to the city for shopping. Like, if I sell these pelts, I could probably get more bread than I can eat, right?

Looking at the pelts of magic beasts that were wastefully used as carpets, Lucella started calculating the profit in his mind.

They could be sold off to some rich collector, and they should also be first-class ingredients for adventurer armor.

If he just took one of them to the city, he could probably buy everything necessary for winter. Rather, he could probably even build a house with it.

“I wonder how much of the human ecology Kafal really understands… She tried to feed me raw meat at first, so I don’t have much faith in that…”

The dragons were too strong. Even if they just lived on instincts, they could trample the world and rejoice in life.

But Lucella was a human. In order for him to live with a dragon in an unforgiving nature, he had to always prepare to a degree…

“Ruh.”

While Lucella was thinking, Kafal stretched her neck and drew closer. She started sniffing and poking the dried fruit Lucella was holding with her snout.

“Huh? What? You wanna eat this?
“Ruh.”
“Hmm… I feel like it’s too small to sate a dragon, but here you go.”

Maybe even dragons wanted to eat unusual things like dried fruits once in a while out of curiosity, Lucella thought.

He picked up a big pile of dried fruits with both hands and unloaded it in Kafal’s mouth through the space between her fangs.

Kafal chewed and swallowed them down, then suddenly pressed her head at Lucella with the force of a headbutt.

“Gruuhh….Ruuuhh…”
“Huh? You liked it that much?”

The amount he fed her was insignificant considering her giant size, but Kafal still looked unusually excited and rubbed her cheek at Lucella.

And then, she started licking him with her tongue which had a faint fruity fragrance.

“Oh… Did this feel like being treated to home cooking?”

Lucella suddenly realized it as he lay surprised.

A small being that she treated like her child had given her a meager present using her utmost, so it was no wonder that she was so happy.

“I see… it made you happy, huh…”

Perhaps he managed to pay her back a bit for saving his life by making her happy like this, Lucella thought to himself.