| Author: Kisasaki Suzume | Original Source: Syosetu |
| Translator: Mui | English Source: Re:Library |
| Editor(s): Deximus-Maximus | |
The sun had long set on Mount Kuguse.
Before Kafal’s house, which was like a snow hut made of boulders, a bonfire was burning magnificently.
Meat skewered on branches and iron spits were set against it and dropped oils with a fragrant aroma.
“Can we really eat all this?”
“Of course! You’re my party members now and my mom’s lifesavers, after all.”
What they were being offered was the smoked food that Lucella had painstakingly saved up.
Maltgartz’s army was repelled but it would be too dangerous for humans to descend the mountain after sunset.
Thus, Kafal instead invited the Golden Helmet members into her nest to spend a night there.
Viola was moved at the sight of the grilling meat, readjusting her glasses.
“Oh boy! I never thought I’d get to experience the luxury of comparing the tastes of the Variants! I have to write down all the flavors and pass them down to the next generation!”
“What would passing them down even achieve…?”
“Your thinking is too sweet1, Wein. You never know which study has worth until the end of the world, so one must research anything and everything.”
Tim stripped well-heated meat off the skewers and placed them on portable plates, and seasoned them with the spices from their luggage.
Lucella took a bite of the meat she was offered and couldn’t help but widen her eyes in shock.
The perfect saltiness enhanced the umami of the meat and the sweetness of its oil, while the punchy herbal flavor added to the aftertaste.
“I can’t believe it, it’s completely different. I used to just roast them as is, so this is a new experience…”
“We have a bunch of spices here. You can try everything. During adventures, we sometimes end up subsisting on just the portable food provided by the guild for a whole month, so we keep the spices to add some variety to it.”
“Speaking of which, I wonder what mysterious meat is in that portable food or how they even make it.”
“There’s even rumors that everyone who found out is erased by the guild’s covert undercover unit.”
The adventurers started devouring the meat with unbelievable vigor while entertaining themselves with a silly topic.
Lucella was also eating well considering how hard she had worked out… or so she planned to, but there was a limit to how much food a little girl’s body could fit. They were eating incomparably refreshingly compared to that.
“…I wish we had alcohol.”
“Yeah, we haven’t brought it as expected…”
“I can cast the ≪Moonshine2≫ spell on you if you want.”
“No thanks. No point if I don’t actually drink.”
Lucella suddenly wondered if Kafal drank alcohol.
Dragons with water attributes loved not just treasures but even alcohol, so much so that she had even heard of a mythical anecdote about an ancient evil dragon that loved to drink so much it fell into a trap and was slain while it was dead drunk.
“Errr…”
Lucella picked up well-grilled meat and took it where Kafal was.
Her main body was crouched inside the hut-like house to rest her wounded body, but her clone was near the bonfire like everyone else.
Lucella recalled the sensation she felt when using Giselle’s ring to converse in Dragonian before and spoke.
“Meat. Your share… mom.”
“Oh, XXXXX ***. But I already ate XX XXXX two days ago, and we XXXXXXX want everyone’s XXXXX to lack, right?”
Kafal also responded using Dragonian.
A torrent of meaning that had a completely different level of denseness that human words couldn’t achieve assaulted Lucella all at once.
She repeated the words she heard in her mind and finally understood about half of what Kafal said.
“But… eating… together… important.”
“Oh my…!”
Kafal hugged Lucella with a lovestruck smile.
“That looks so heartwarming.”
“You said it.”
The adventurers watched them with gentle smiles.
“But we can only rest for a moment. As much as I’d hope for Maltgartz to give up with this…”
“We’ll make them give up. We have to make them give up the idea of attacking. For that, we first…!”
“Everyone, XX XXXXXXX! Something is approaching!”
It happened suddenly.
Kafal’s clone looked up at the night sky, while her main body also quickly raised its head and groaned with a sharp, vigilant voice.
“What?”
“Mom said something’s approaching…”
A little after Kafal’s warning, Lucella also noticed it.
The night sky raised a scream.
—What… is this sensation…! It’s like the atmosphere turned heavy…
A strong pressure came from the sky.
The real nature of it soon became clear.
The sound of winds, which were not quite on a dragon’s level but still plenty overbearing, cut the night wind.
Lucella had good night vision. She could clearly see it clearly. A pterosaur with a sharp form dancing in the sky as it approached them. As well as the silhouette riding on its back.
“A minor dragon Variant?”
Minor dragons—they were pseudo-dragon monsters that have inherited a fragment of a dragon’s power.
It was said that in the distant past, they were made either by dragons themselves as manservants or products of a mad alchemist.
No one was sure nowadays, but even if they were not on the level of genuine dragons, they were still in a different league compared to ordinary monsters. A Variant of a minor dragon would be expected to be frighteningly strong.
And who could the rider on its back be? The pressure that seemed to be distorting the world was being released by that rider.
The pterosaur made a sharp glide. They thought it would just attack as is, but once it neared the ground, the rider jumped off its back while it ascended.
Lucella imagined a shockwave forming with his landing that would crack the ground. But in reality, his landing was as light as a dancing flame. It was an old man with a stern face.
Though he was bald, his hermit-like robe and long beard were both red like flames.
His body was like a thick rope knitted with steel, and his gaze penetrating like the flames of a smelting furnace.
“It appears that a disturbance has occurred, yet it has been successfully resolved. Excellent. However, it seems that the number of humans present exceeds the information that was conveyed to me.”
He opened his hands magnanimously and addressed Kafal.
“Ah, would *** prefer if I XXXXX in the XXXXXX of the dragons?”
“Father!”
“Huuuh?!”
