It had been a while since we started hunting in the valley. Surprisingly, things were going smoothly for Bajiko.
“Eh, eiiyaaa~~!”
Gishaaa!?
Bajiko swung her black scythe, slashing through the lizardmen in a flashy manner.
She’s completely relying on brute force, but that’s fine.
“Skills will come with time. For now, just push through with your strength.”
“Y-yes! Take that, die, you lizards! I’m a dragon, a superior species, take that, take that!”
“Stop bragging about your species.”
She’s cute now, all nervous like this, but before her mental breakdown, she might’ve been a real piece of work.
Maybe that’s why she ended up ostracized by monsters from all directions when she lost her power.
“Well, whatever. Van, teach her how to extract materials.”
“Sure. Hey, listen up, girl. The value of a lizardman lies in its transparent skin. The cleaner you skin it, the more it’s worth.”
“Eek! A male other than His Majesty…!”
“What the hell’s your problem!?”
Several hours passed like this. As the sun began to set, Van said, “We should wrap it up.”
“Lizardmen show their true potential at night. It’s nearly impossible to spot them in their camouflage under the cover of darkness.”
“True. But Van, you’ve really studied up, haven’t you? Good job, I’ll give you a pat on the head.”
“I don’t need that!”
Hahaha. It’s good to see he’s been putting in effort to adapt to human society. Half-killing him was worth it.
“On the other hand, Bajiko still struggles with communicating with others.”
She couldn’t really interact with the young adventurers in the end.
“Bajiko was too scared, and they were too intimidated, so, well, whatever.”
For today, we’ll settle with her getting more used to fighting in her human form.
“Alright, let’s head back, Van. Time to gather the newcomers.”
“Yeah. By the way…”
Hmm? What is it?
“The pretty stone you got earlier… could you trade it with me? I’ve got some theater tickets I won from a raffle.”
“What’s so great about a pretty stone…?”
I’ve heard that intelligent animals like crows are attracted to shiny objects, but I really don’t get it…!
◆ ◇ ◆
The next day, I took Bajiko with me to the city center.
Van gave me those theater tickets yesterday.
“Awwawawawa…! There are so many humans in the city…!”
“Get used to it, Bajiko. You won’t be able to work properly otherwise.”
There are jobs where you don’t have to deal with people, but those are mostly knowledge-based roles.
For a dragon-brained Bajiko, who can barely read and write and struggles with basic arithmetic, that’s going to be tough.
“You need to become independent. Once you do, I’ll work hard too and build us a house.”
“Does His Majesty want a house? With your power, earning money should be easy, right?”
“No, no, no, Bajiko. We can’t just use dragon power to take over the human economy. Besides, there’s no sense of accomplishment in that.”
“Ugh, I don’t always understand what His Majesty is saying… but I do like pie!”
“Me too.”
As we chatted aimlessly, we eventually arrived at the theater.
“Whoa, it’s super crowded.”
Today, a famous troupe called “Moon Shadow” was performing, which drew a huge crowd, even in the Holy City.
“Theater is where humans reenact stories, right? What’s today’s play about?”
“Oh, it’s the famous tale ‘The Dark Dragon and the Knight Princess.’”
I explained to Bajiko.
It’s based on a true story from the Holy War fifteen years ago, where a princess disguised as a knight was saved by a dark dragon who sided with humans, and together they fought against a horde of monsters.
…Yeah.
“Bajiko.”
“Yes?”
“This is the story of when I half-killed you.”
“Piiiieeeeeeek!?”
“Nooo! I don’t want to see thaaaat!”
Bajiko screamed in protest. Yeah, I can’t blame her.
“To be honest, I’m not interested either. It’s been embellished by royal propaganda, but the real story was pretty lame. There was this knight trembling on the battlefield, and when I went to check, it turned out to be a princess. So, I had no choice but to carry her on my back while fighting. She didn’t help at all, just screamed the whole time.”
Honestly, I could’ve handled the monster army on my own.
But I let the knights join in to save face.
“Your Majesty, let’s just go home…! And, um, let’s mate!”
“We’re not mating. Hmm, what to do…?”
I looked at the massive line in front of the theater.
The play was super popular. Before long, I heard people shouting, “Tickets are sold out!?” and the staff yelling, “Please calm down! Don’t cause a disturbance, we’re in a residential area! If you don’t have tickets, please leave!”
“Wow, Van managed to snag some seriously rare tickets.”
What should I do? Should I give them to someone?
They’re group tickets, so a decent number of people could see the show.
But then again, that could lead to fights over the seats…
“If only a group of people would conveniently show up…”
Just as I was thinking that…
“Oh my, oh my, oh myyy?”
A bright but unsettling voice reached my ears.
“Are the tickets really gone? Even though these adorable little girls wanted to see the show?”
Ugh.
I turned towards the voice, and there stood a suspicious, voluptuous sister glaring at the theater staff.
“Bad, bad, bad. The only ones allowed to be bad are little brats. Shall I turn you into a little girl too?”
This was… Anemone, the Saint of Chaos.
One of the seven most dangerous beings in existence.
Even the terrifying dragon species would rather not get involved with her. She was now pestering the poor theater staff…
