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The Blue nobleman approached briskly, his abyssal eyes twisting into a sharp glare.

“The dragon king of Belmar is your father. As such he may feel sympathy for you, but we are different… Did you call it true love?! Do two idiots together turn four times idiotic?! It was your first time forming pairs and you both decided to just run from your groups! And in the end…”

He suddenly turned his face and glared at Lucella. His hand grasped her neck before she could even feel any fear.

“Aaggh!”
“Lucella!”

The nobleman wrapped his hand around Lucella’s thin neck and lifted her up. Lucella’s current body was closer to a dragon than a human in strength. But this man’s hand was unbelievably strong.

Lucella’s spine raised creaks and the word death passed her mind.

Shurei didn’t try to stop it and simply watched on.

“K-Kh…”
“Even Luja’s child died due to your negligence, and the world lost the proof of his existence. And then… What is this feeble thing? Is this supposed to be your daughter?! Stop fooling around!!”
“Aagh!”

Fortunately, the Blue nobleman tossed Lucella down in annoyance before she died.

She clumsily fell on her backside and started coughing violently while Kafal knelt and cuddled closer to her.

The Blue nobleman glared down coldly at the two.

“…Our groups are allied with each other. We cannot overlook the fact that humans are trying to hunt our allies. Even if that someone is you, doing so would stain our honor. Thus, we heeded the request of Belmar’s dragon king. However, that is only if you make up for what you have done. We cannot clean up after your foolish act!”
“What… do you want me to do?”
“Dispose of that pet of yours.”
“!!”

He looked at Lucella with nothing but scorn.

“After all, the reason why the Variants decreased on this mountain is that you fed them to that thing, is it not? Variants are ultimately mere beasts, but they are still our property related to us through flesh and blood. Asking us to hand those Variants over is the same as asking us to cut off our fingers and give them to you. It is not something we can do so wastefully.”

Lucella was dumbfounded by how he put it.

Even so, she couldn’t say it was a false accusation or an unreasonable demand.

Lucella didn’t plan to lower the Variants any further and Kafal thought the same, but the other party had no way of knowing that so his apprehensions were natural.

“Belmar’s dragon king also agreed to our conditions.”
“Father…!”
“It is unavoidable.”

Shurei also shook his head with no apparent regret.

“We cannot ask them to protect even your pet that you are raising as a pastime. You either abandon that one and protect the mountain, or you return to our group. You have those two choices. The expanse of our mountain is so great that allowing a small being such as her to dwell there would be a trifling affair… Assuming, of course, that she manages to survive there.”
“In that case, I… will not stay on this mountain. I will search for a place where I can live together with this child.”

Kafal hugged Lucella protectively and spoke without hesitation.

“What nonsense are you speaking…!”
“That would prove to be a life-threatening journey. Do you realize this?”

He looked at Kafal like she was an unreasonable child.

The lands that were governed by humans had weak power and were mostly unsuitable for dragons to live on.

Places like Mount Kuguse that were near human habitation… In other words, environments where dragons could live even away from their group’s sphere of control were precious.

And once she abandoned this mountain, it would most likely be occupied by Maltgartz and she wouldn’t be able to come back to it.

A wandering dragon that lost a place to return to was bound to either be hunted down by humans or grow weak and die.

—If that’s what it takes, I’d rather leave this mountain.

Lucella immediately thought so.

She wasn’t sure if the dragons would be convinced by that, but she thought it was worth negotiating at least.

Even if they parted ways, it’s not like they would never meet again. If Lucella left Kafal’s side while the current danger persisted, then someday…

“……Please wait.”
“Hm?”
“Hah?”

But before she knew it, Lucella’s mouth attempted to say something else.

The Blue Nobleman seemed bewildered, not expecting Lucella to even speak up.

Lucella raised her voice to be just short of violent and puffed out her chest.

“Were you not the one who said the Variants were your property that shared your flesh and blood? Then would it not stand to reason to make use of me who gained strength by devouring said variants? What is the reason behind wanting me disposed of?”
“Such insolence! Shut your mouth, human! We have an order that we must protect!”

The nobleman’s handsome face twisted in displeasure. The two surrounding him were similarly glaring at Lucella. They looked at Lucella like a dog barking at them.

Humans were in fact no more than garbage in the dragons’ eyes. But what if those words contained some truth?

“The Variants are but loyal guard dogs, but I have wisdom too. And if it’s for mom… No, if it’s for surviving together, I am resolved to fight to the bitter end. If we are to protect this mountain and mother from humans, getting rid of me would serve no purpose! If disposing of me is something inevitable, it wouldn’t be late to do it afterward!”

Lucella answered back without retreating a single step.

—I have to push here! Unlike the blue dragons, the red dragon king seems somewhat interested in me. Then he may accept me with one more push!

Besides, blue dragons probably just want to punish mom and calm down their relatives by killing me. They are just pushing the point with sophism, so I’ll just crush them with logic!

Negotiation was something adventurer managers were masters of. Even if the other party were mighty dragons, it should’ve still had some effect.

The scale of their thinking was certainly bigger than that of humans, but it wasn’t something Lucella couldn’t comprehend.

“You sure are eloquent…”
“If…” Lucella put a hand on her flat chest and yelled. “If you doubt my strength and resolve, please test me as you wish. I certainly can’t come close to you dragons, but do I really have no worth at all?!”

Half of that was the logical conclusion from Lucella’s standpoint. The other half was her stubbornness speaking. She couldn’t endure being treated as worthless. She couldn’t allow herself to consent with such standing.

She was formerly a human, but she decided to become Kafal’s daughter. She had to act impudent here. Unless she tried to appear at least somewhat equal to them, she’d remain as nothing but a pet in their eyes.

Lucella’s heated speech had the blue dragons at a loss for words.

Their expressions were dyed in the colors of shock, exasperation, anger, and humiliation from the fact that someone as small and insignificant as Lucella dared to talk back.

But the red dragon king was the first to break the silence.

“…You bark well.”

Shurei was finally looking at her. Lucella thought so for some reason.

He had a broad smile. But his gaze directed at Lucella was menacing enough that it made her shiver. A lion that would toss its child in the bottomless ravine would’ve surely made that kind of face.

She felt something far more frightening from him compared to before.

“What do you think, Blue ones? I myself think her words hold some truth.”
“You support her?!”
“Do it in consideration for me. Though I cannot ask the same for your anger.”

Shurei accepted the proposal surprisingly easily. The blue noblemen had a hard time believing it.

“Thank you very much!”
“Don’t thank me so soon, little one.”

Lucella reflexively thanked him, but Shurei was looking at her with frighteningly sharp eyes. It made her flinch back.

“I am incurring a debt with this, and my honor is not to be taken lightly. You must display sufficient nobility to earn it… Kafal, I shall be borrowing this mountain.”
“Y-Yes!”
“Within a span of seven days, I shall make ready the location for you. And subsequently, you shall be put to the test. I pray you will not only persuade me, but also them.”

That day, Lucella learned that there existed a smile far scarier than a glare.

Perhaps due to the sudden change of their plans, the dragons decided to pull back for the night.

“…I thought I would wet myself.”
“That would still be the better outcome. I was on the verge of spitting out my internal organs.”
“The dragon aura was dizzyingly strong indeed. If we drank alcohol we would’ve spat everything out. Even I was in a pinch there.”

Ace-level adventurers they made be, Golden Helmet members could do nothing but watch from the sidelines. They only regained enough composure to speak up once the dragons left.

Kafal, who sat on her main body’s tail in place of a chair, had Lucella on her lap.

“Lucella… I’m sorry. I ended up involving you in my circumstances…”
“…Don’t worry. I… I was just a little surprised.”
“I was happy when you spoke like that.”

Kafal was very depressed and hugged Lucella. She seemed like she hoped to never let go.

“Would you listen to my story? Of what took place, and what I have done…”

With that, Kafal started to narrate. About how she fell in love with a blue dragon. How they each fled from their groups and settled near a human world. How she finally laid an egg. How her pair, the blue dragon, had gotten killed by humans the very next moment. And how she failed to incubate the egg…

Before they knew it the bonfire disappeared and the black of night covered the surroundings.

The grilled smoked meat grew cold without any of them touching it.