Chapter 33: Chapter 33: The Dragon’s Egg

Translator: ShiroiKaze/Soyokaze Translations

Thunk. I placed as many leaves as I could carry, and the egg, on a table.

“With just this much, we should have enough for 4 people. Also, I left the wyvern’s corpse up there, so we can go collect it together later.”

“Yuuri…”

“I wonder which part of it is the most valuable. I’m getting so excited!”

“Hey…”

“By the way, where I left the wyvern is a secret! I made sure to freeze it and seal it away, so there’s no rush, okay?”

“What’s with the egg?”

“… Maybe it’s the reason the wyvern built that nest?”

Right, so in other words that wyvern probably put its nest near the city to breed.

The reason it never attacked the city is so it could keep an eye on its egg. And it attacked anyone who got close to protect the egg.

And also… when the egg hatches, this nearby city would be its food.

It was scheming to use this city of Rahon as a feed box.

“A feed box, huh. It would certainly require a small army to take down a wyvern after all.”

“With the country in its current state, it’s exactly like a feed box.”

“Really?”

Mister Kale and miss Bella nod as if they comprehend it.

Alec, I’m sure you’re tired… from inflated thinking.

“Right, so when it comes to wyverns, the fangs and horns make for good weapon materials, and I’ve heard they’re good magic catalysts too. You’ve got your pockets pretty full right now, so would you give us some of the materials?”

Mister Oreas made his offer. Hearing the contents of his request, my eyes swim around against my will.

“Uhh… when you say fangs and horns, you mean the ones on the head… right?”

“I can’t say I’ve heard many stories of them being somewhere else.”

“I’m sorry, they’re gone. I blew them away.”

“HUH?”

Mister Oreas, who’s usually the type to play it cool, put an unusually idiotic expression on his face.

“When I shot it at full power with Third Eye… its entire head was torn to pieces.”

“… … …what?”

“When it comes to Yuuri, you should just be glad the whole thing wasn’t vaporized.”

Alec, you’ve got some really inflated thoughts in that head of yours.

When it comes to wyverns, normally they’re protected by scales so tough that even swords don’t get through you know?

Moreover, with their strong resistance to fire, typical magic attacks like [Fireball] won’t even leave a scratch on those monsters.

“The wings, scales, and flesh were fine, so maybe you could do something with those…”

“W-well, what’s gone is gone, right?”

For some reason, cold sweat seems to be pouring off of mister Oreas.

You don’t have to be that scared, do you?

“HAH, a little shrimp like you took down a wyvern? You expect anyone to believe that?!”

Jumping into the conversation came a loud and hoarse voice. Uh oh, a rough looking character in leather armor came to give us a hard time.

The very definition of a hooligan-like adventurer.

Come to think of it, this is the inn’s dining room. There are a lot of people whose companions fell ill and are stuck here, so this is where they’re all crowded together.

And there are quite the number of people with their attention directed this way… I unconsciously held down my glasses.

“It’s probably a winged lizard’s egg that you picked up on the roadside, and you’re just trying to make it more valuable, aren’t you?”

Mister hooligan flung his arms wide to make his case.

Winged lizards inhabit the entire continent, and are a kind of lizard that grow to have a wingspan of roughly 50cm~1m. Special note: they’re delicious.

There’s no reason we need to deal with this guy. We lightly shrug our shoulders and continue our conversation.

“So, Yuuri, why did you bring the egg back with you? That’s dangerous.”

“Well uhh… just try touching it.”

“Hm?”

“You bitch… don’t you ignore me!”

Is something bothering you, mister easily excited hooligan? Seriously, what do you want?

Aggressively walking up behind me, he roughly puts a hand on my shoulder.

“Listen to—GUAH!”

“Don’t touch me…!”

I promptly invoke [Telekinesis] and force his extended right arm to drop away. It hits the table with a thud.

At the same time I activate [Body Reinforcement ? Strength], pull an iron arrow from the quiver on my back, and pin the shoulder pad of his leather armor to the table with it.

Oops, it went through the table too… oh well.

“Lemme go, the hell are you doi… GUAaaa!”

“Please quiet down.”

It’s afternoon right now. It hasn’t been that long since I hunted the wyvern, so I’m still in a pretty violent mood.

He’s still chirping, so I used [Telekinesis] to lightly squeeze his head.

[Telekinesis] uses magic power as the basis of its strength. My magic power is nothing to laugh at, so using that power to grab someone’s skull… I’m sure that’ll hurt, right?

“Butting into someone else’s conversation is bad manners, you know?”

“I-I got it! It was my bad, just…!”

He gave an apology, so I released his head. Do something about your shoulder on your own, please.

In the surroundings I can see what seem to be his companions with weapons drawn. Alec and mister Kale kept them in check.

Alec has a newly purchased bastard sword lowered at his waist.

“Shit, I can’t get it out! It’s all the way through the table?! What ridiculous strength!”

Mister hoodlum flails around at the table. Probably thinking it was a nuisance, Alec pulled out the arrow and shoved him back towards his companions.

“We’re in the middle of a very important discussion. I’ll have you refrain from adding any nonsense to it.”

“I don’t really mind going at it with someone though.”

“Leave off it, you probably just planned on giving me the leftovers anyway.”

In response to Alec’s threatening statement, mister Kale gave a vicious smile, and instead of thinking about where we are, mister Jack seems to be in a frenzy.

Seeing my companions so ready to go at it, all my motivation actually seemed to fall away.

“I don’t really mind, he didn’t intend on nabbing me from the side. Anyway Alec, touch the egg. Come on, come on!”

“Al-alright…?”

With a question mark floating above his head, he put his hand on the egg, and his expression immediately tightened up.

He probably noticed the constant drumming coming from inside the shell.

“Yuuri, isn’t this?!”

“Yes, it looks like it is going to hatch soon. That egg.”

“HeeEEY! Isn’t that thing really dangerous then?!”

Please don’t talk like you’re some kind of knight, Jack.

“Well it’s not like it has done anything wrong when it hasn’t even hatched. And I’ve heard that wyverns aren’t all the intelligent, so I was thinking maybe he’ll get emotionally attached to me…”

“Don’t bring back dangerous creatures just to satisfy your curiosity! How did you even get it through the gate?!”

“I flew over it.”

I gave him a thumbs up and a smile worthy of a shining sound effect.

“But is it really alright to bring something so dangerous here when mister Haster can’t do anything…?”

“Miss Bella… I’m the one following in his footsteps you know?”

“I’m very sorry, but you don’t look that way.”

“Ain’t that the truth!”

Isn’t this person being really disrespectful to me? And Alec’s agreement must mean he needs some punishment later.

Anyway, for now I protect the egg behind my back and refute miss Bella.

“Anyway, if this little one causes any trouble, then we’ll deal with it when—“

Crack

“What?”

“Agya?”

When I turned around, there were cute, round eyes there.

From the cracked egg, only the neck stuck out as it looked towards me, with a clearly reptilian face.

“I-it HAAAAAATCHED!”

“UWAAAAAAAA!!”

In response to my delighted scream, the inn’s customers rushed out like water from a broken dam.

Before us is what looks like a flooded doorway, which will seem humorous if I think back on it later.

But my only thought at that moment was—

—Oh, it’s a dine and dash.

As if this was just another ordinary day’s occurrence.

~*~

“And that’s what happened, master.”

“I see, so that’s what the winged lizard-like thing riding on your head is?”

When I went to the sickroom to nurse my master, I started by explaining the current situation.

He’s conscious again, but he can’t move his limbs, and it looks like the fever is giving him trouble.

“So, can I keep it?”

“No.”

“WHAAAAAT!”

“Is what I want to say, but you’re the ‘sage’ right now. If you take responsibility for raising him, nobody will complain.”

Just what I’d expect from my master, I understand what he’s saying.

I originally planned to domesticate it, but wyverns appear to have similar traits to birds. With me being the first person it saw, it imprinted me as its mother.

Its now completely attached to me, and is snoozing on top of my head.

It’s heavy… what will I do if I get any shorter than I already am?

“Well, there are stories of knights riding on the back of wyverns too. So then, shouldn’t you be going to dismantle the parent’s corpse?”

“I’m worn out for the day, so I will go tomorrow. I cast [Freeze] on it to keep it from rotting, and threw it in a cave.”

“Couldn’t someone snatch it away? It’s a valuable corpse.”

“I collapsed the cave’s entrance, baked it together, and cast [Toughness] on it, so I’m sure the only human being who can get in or out of it is me.”

I have experience taking down stuff like keratoses and bears and leaving them for a day. They end up being torn apart by wild dogs, or taken home by hunters in the area, so I made sure to cover that base perfectly.

But I made sure to spread the information that the wyvern was defeated, so right now everyone in town should be going to collect zipacna leaves.

“Your medicine is in the drying process right now, master, so it should be ready tomorrow.”

“Thanks.”

“And with that said, please open wide and say ‘aaah’.”

“Why has it come to this?”

In my lap right now is my master’s meal; porridge.

Since my master can’t move his limbs, I’m feeding him, so… there’s nothing wrong with that, right?

“But you can’t move your limbs yet, right? Taking care of meals is also an apprentice’s responsibility.”

“This is the only time you’ve been so ready to do so.”

“What’s that? You want it mouth-to-mouth? That’s really embarrassing. But if that’s what you want, master…”

“ALEC, HELP ME—!”

Too bad! I had Alec go take care of Marle. Because I’m a considerate older sister.

“Once you’re done eating, I’ll take care of your lower half too—. You’ve got a thick one, so it’ll be hard to get it in a urinary bottle.”

“Stop sexually harassing me?!”

“It’s your own fault for losing to this illness… fufufu.”

Actually I also handled that process yesterday.

I originally had one of them, and with my experiences at Lilith I wasn’t embarrassed, but touching someone else’s thing just feels weird.

And I think my face getting flushed is just something that happens. Is it going to bulge even more…?

“I’m begging you, please stop wiggling your hands around creepily, whatever you might be thinking about.”

“Whoops… anyway, if you don’t hurry and eat, your porridge is gonna get cold.”

“Very well.”

“And I do have to wipe down your body, so please be prepared for that?”

“What exactly do I need to be prepared for in a sponge bath?”

I pushed miss Bella into taking care of mister Bhav, so she won’t be coming this way.

By the way, it seems mister Bhav was first taken care of by mister Oreas, but instead of using a bottle, it looks like he stuck a catheter on him, and the next day he made a request in tears for a change.

When having mister Jack or mister Kale take care of him was suggested, he wholeheartedly refused, saying, “Don’t even joke, I’ll die!” So by process of elimination, miss Bella is now in charge.

“Maybe it would have been fine not to get the medicine—?”

“That’s disturbing, don’t say that.”

That was briskly muttered while I carried food to my master’s mouth.

It’s indiscreet, but I really do think it’s unfortunate that my monopolization of my master and his nursing is going to end in a few days.

This must be what it feels like when a child gets attached to a parent.

I’ve understood a little bit of how the wyvern hatchling on my head feels.

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Yuuri: “… I am not making a fried egg out of it.”

Master: “They’re pretty delicious you know?”