Chapter 2 – Curry and Camping

 

 

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“I think it is still too early for Her Majesty.”

“You do? On the Lingaia Continent she’d have already done it a long time ago. Elise will teach her, so it’ll be fine.”

“Even if she were to cut her finger, Elise can immediately fix that with her healing magic.”

“Yeah, Ina is right.”

“Your Majesty….right now is time for you to go through an ordeal…”

“Isn’t she just going to cut vegetables with a knife? What’s the big deal?”

“It’s as Luise-san says. Lyra-san, you’re too much of a worrywart.

“That’s what you’d think, but…”

 

The inspection of the farm village had ended, but even if we had gone back to the city, we’d have had nothing to do. Accordingly, we decided to do some camping at a lake that was a slight distance away from the village.

And far from opposing that idea, the defense force members, who were guarding us, seemed to actually be in favor of it.

『This place is uninhabited, so we will immediately know if someone gets close. Guarding you in the city is much more difficult in comparison』

Given that demons are capable of suddenly firing magic while pretending to be ordinary passerby, it’s only logical that it’s easier to protect someone in a deserted place.

In this country they don’t have any larger anti-societal or anti-governmental movements. It goes so far that Wilma even said, 『Depending on how you think about them, the demon queen and her followers are the biggest anti-governmental force』.

For that reason, we anchored our airship on the lake and cooked at the shore while using the boat as a sleeping place. At first we were making curry, which is a standard menu for camping, but since the demon queen said that she wants to try cooking as well, my wives taught her how to use a kitchen knife.

Her guardian Lyra-san seemed worried, but with Elise present, there would be no need to worry about small injuries, I’m sure…

“Oh my, you are good at this,” Elise praised.

“You think so? The pieces don’t have the same size as yours, though.”

“Curry is going to be cooked for a while, so it will be okay. Rather than that, we need a lot of veggies.”

“I see. Please leave it to me.”

Because of the big number of people, we used a large pot for the curry. Erw, Mall and the other men caught the meat while the women were in charge of the vegetables. I was responsible for frying the onions until they’d become amber enough for putting them into the curry.

The onions being in such a state was such a perfect combination that you could call it indispensable, but frying onions for a long time was quite tiring. Accordingly I dealt with this using a secret trick.

“Earl Baumeister, frying the onions until they become amber is the only right way to go about this, okay?”

“Yep, yep!”

“The only thing we have an abundance of is time, so we won’t cut corners on that part.”

Hearing the demons say that they wouldn’t cut any corners when making curry since they had the time due to being unemployed…is just sad.

“Then let me ask you instead: why do you fry the onions until they turn amber?”

“We want to draw out the onions’ sweetness to the lit. Besides, by adding the onions’ aroma, the curry becomes even more delicious.”

As expected of demons with an advanced academic education. They answered with a theoretical reason as to why you’d add fried onions to curry.

But.

That theory has a loophole.

“In short, you just need to draw out the sweetness from the onions. Am I right, Mall?”

“If there’s a method to do that.”

“There is! Look at this!”

I spread hot water in a frying pan, cut off the ends of the onions before peeling them, and then boiled them. This was a certain way to shorten the time needed to extract the onions’ sweetness.

“Boiling allows for the sweetness to come out even faster. On the other hand, frying onions is a lot more hassle since it takes so long.”

“But, that method has a flaw.”

“What sort of flaw, Mall?”

“You add not only the sweetness but also the onions’ aroma to the curry by frying the onions, don’t you? You lose that aroma when you boil the onions.”

“I see. But, I think that theory doesn’t apply here.”

Ramul, you think I haven’t noticed this issue a long time ago?

“Why not, Earl Baumeister!?”

“It’s because the aroma of the fried onions will be drowned out by the curry’s fragrance! Therefore, we’re going to thoroughly saute the curry powder.”

The aroma of curry powder is strong, so you don’t need the aroma of onions.

“With cooking, it’s not just fine to add as many ingredients as possible. Sometimes it’s also necessary to not add unnecessary stuff.”

“However, although the fragrance will come out if you saute the curry powder, won’t it cause the individual aromas of the various spices to dissipate? What’s your take on that?”

Silas…good of you to have noticed that part. But, I’ve already predicted that this question would crop up.

“In such a case, you just have to slowly and carefully saute half of the powder used for the curry while adding the other half just like that. If you do it in such a way, you can enjoy a curry that contains a sweet aroma and the individual aromas of the spices contained in the curry powder at the same time.”

“””Oh, I get it!”””

How about this, guys? It’s a truly great idea, isn’t it?

This world shouldn’t have any curry pioneers who are superior to me. I’m banking on my previous life’s experience here after all.

“Somehow it looks like it’ll result in a great curry, so I’m starting to look forward to it very much.”

“Is the boar meat fine like this? I fried its outer part in boar grease first. It’s a trick to lock in the meat’s deliciousness.”

“Meaning it’s another technique to make things tastier. By the way, Ramul, we don’t have any potatoes. Aren’t those being cultivated in that village?”

“They are. They’ve been growing there normally. Why don’t we have any?”

“It’s weird, isn’t it? Silas, don’t forget stuff all the time.”

“It wasn’t me!”

Haah? Does Mall and his friends belong to the people who add potatoes to their curry? The other day, we didn’t add potatoes when we made curry while camping out, right?

“You don’t add potatoes to curry. It was the same the other day, wasn’t it?”

“At that time, we didn’t have any potatoes, so it was inevitable. But, usually you put potatoes into curry!”

“Yep! It’s as Mall says!”

“Curry and potatoes are a perfect match.”

“No, that’s not true.”

In the first place, if you add potatoes to curry and cook it too long, they potatoes will fall apart and the curry will become powdery, no? Potatoes are truly unnecessary when it comes to curry.

“It’s fine with just meat, onions, and carrots, isn’t it?”

This is the simple-is-best approach. It’s obviously better to leave potatoes out of it.

“Do you hate potatoes, Earl Baumeister?”

“”Are you a kid or what?””

“It’s not like I hate potatoes or anything like that. I’m simply saying that they don’t fit with curry.”

No matter how outstanding an ingredient is, its evaluation will drop quickly, if you mess up how you use it. Potatoes in curry is the perfect example for this.

“Wouldn’t it be better to make another dish like potato salad?”

In such a case, we can enjoy eating potatoes and adding another dish to the menu will improve the dining table, making the meal even better, right?

“Isn’t that way too bothersome!? Besides, I do like boiled and crumbled potatoes in my curry quite a bit.”

“No, no, no, that cannot be!”

“Earl Baumeister, Mall, you are boot fools…there exists a method to avoid the potatoes from getting over-boiled and crumble. You just need to fry them in oil first.”

“Ramul, that’s quite a hassle, isn’t it? If you cook the potatoes in the curry after boiling them with their skin first, it will be harder for them to fall apart.”

“Silas, you let the cat out of the bag, didn’t you? If you do something like that, you might as well make potato salad, no? Frying them in oil? Those are fried potatoes!”

It’s not that curry and fried potatoes don’t fit together, but that only because curry is too omnipotent. Besides, if you add fried potatoes to curry and cook them together, the fried potatoes’ oil will melt into the curry, spoiling the potatoes crispy exterior and soft as well as flaky interior.

“You just need to dish up the fried potatoes at the end, don’t you?”

“Eeeh!? I’ve never heard anything about a fried potato curry!”

In that case, you could turn the boar and deer meat into cutlets and enjoy them with the fries being the garnish, couldn’t you?

Sheesh. Demons and humans will never run out of topics to quarrel in this world.

“Let’s go with potato salad as an additional dish. As for mayonnaise, I got my own creation.”

I always store stuff like mayonnaise in my magic bag for times like these. As long as there’s mayonnaise, I can deal with most kinds of emergencies.

“We should go with fried potatoes here!”

“The one having said that was Ramul, right? If we steam them ahead of time, they won’t crumble apart during the cooking!”

“Silas, what about the butter to add to the steamed potatoes?”

“””We don’t have any!”””

Our dispute continued without an end being in sight.

“Your Majesty, you mustn’t turn out like those useless men over there.”

“I know. A wise rule wouldn’t indulge in pointless arguments.”

“It is as you say.”

“”””……””””

Lyra-san…calling me a useless man…I’ve been working properly

Moreover, upon the request of the demon queen, potatoes, which had been chamfered by Lyra-san, were put into the curry at dinner.

 

＊　　　＊　　　＊

 

“Like this, Ina?”

“Yes, you’re doing great, Your Majesty.”

“But, teaching the demon queen how to change diapers…is she actually going to have any opportunity to put it in practice?”

“Katia, I plan to take care of my own children. I intend to become a new type of ruler, so I won’t leave everything to a wet nurse and servants. It’s important to find a balance between traditions that ought to be protected and reforms that ought to be introduced. My ancestors went under because they tended too much towards old traditions.”

“Hmm…”

“Katia, you didn’t understand even half of what the demon queen said, did you?”

“Big Sis, you know that I’m an idiot. Anyway, with this all diapers have been changed.

 

 

After dinner, we went into the magic airship floating on the lake to sleep. We had been told to give up on the idea of camping outdoors as it’d be too risky from a guard’s point of view. The demon queen said that she wants to take care of the babies, so my wives told her how to change diapers.

She seems to be a fairly apt girl, so she picked it up right away.

“Now I can give birth to children at any time as well.”

“””Bfft───”””

Doushi, Burkhart-san and Erwin spat out their wine when they heard the demon queen’s comment, which took them by surprise.

“Is it something so surprising?”

“Demon, you sure are calm about this.”

“Doushi, it is something like a child’s dream. A show of innocence. The majority of the demon children, with me being an exception, think that they want to get a job and marry in the future, but only half of them achieve that wish.”

At the end of Arnest’s line of sight sat Mall, Ramul, Silas, and Lumi, enjoying their after-meal mate tea and sweets. Lumi has found a job, but it’s true that marriage is still far off for her…though I’ve got no intention to deliberately spell it out.

“Therefore it bears no point to pay it that much attention. Her Majesty is studying all sorts of things for the sake of her future.”

 

 

“Those who rule cannot govern rightfully and fairly if they don’t grasp the lives of the lower classes. A royal family won’t persist unless their women give birth to children, and I’m the last direct descendant of the royal family.”

“Her Majesty is the last hope of the royal family. Therefore it is necessary for her to study how to be a new, good ruler.”

Studying to be a good ruler…aren’t they mistaking that for an education in sensibility? Especially when it comes to changing my babies’ diapers.

“Alright, all that’s left is for me to properly write down today’s events in my notes.”

The demon queen took out a notebook and started to write in it. She’s quite eager about it, but maybe she’ll get scolded by her teacher if she doesn’t hand it in?

“Come to think of it, you’ve been away from school for several days, but is that really okay, Your Majesty?”

“I’ve been doing self-study like this in exchange for not going to school. I’ll hand in this notebook to sensei afterwards. If I do it like that, it’s no problem.”

“Well, there’s quite some leeway in the curriculum of demon schools, so…”

Which reminds me, demons stretch out their time at school a lot to cover up the low employment rate of young demons. She probably won’t fall behind that much over being away for several days. However, it seems necessary for her to hand in a diary with illustrations in exchange for her absence.

“A sensei, huh…? I wonder what sort of sensei they are. Are they different from Seeckt-sensei of the adventurer prep school?”

Erw, an adventurer prep school is kind of like a considerably specialized vocational school. I think it’s different in various ways when compared to the elementary school attended by the demon queen.

“Francoise-sensei is very kind and she teaches me all sorts of things. She’s my master.”

“Yes, she has been worrying very much about Her Majesty after the previous demon king and his queen passed away. She will likely go down in history as Her Majesty’s first master.”

If you listen to Lyra-san, she’s a teacher who guides a young protagonist in a historical fiction work…if you use some famous example, you could get the impression they share a relationship like Luke Skywalker and Obi-wan Ben Kenobi or Harry Potter and Prof. Dumbledore, but in reality, I think they simply share a relationship of elementary school student and her homeroom teacher.

Since she’s been paying attention to the demon queen who has no parents, I’m sure she’s a nice teacher.

“Is that Francoise-sensei young? Beautiful?”

“She’s single, right? Or does she have a boyfriend?”

“Introduce me next time!”

“Francoise-sensei is young and pretty, but she’s already married. I’ve heard she’s married to another school teacher.

“Gahaaa!”

“My dreams and hopes have been shattered!”

“In the end, all the folks with good attributes end up married early on…”

“Juniors! Look at yourself right now! It’s not that you’ve got bad attributes. It’s just that your circumstances are slightly different from Francoise-sensei’s.”

It’s not like Mall’s group or Lumi don’t wish to marry. I remember times when I also wondered whether I’d be able to marry with my current lifestyle in my previous life, but since I easily married in this world (although it’s because of the course of events), circumstances might be quite important.

“Do you wish to marry that much? I cannot understand that mindset.”

In a certain sense, Arnest transcends other people. Demons and humans alike.

We spent the evening with random chatter and then decided to call in early since we planned to play a lot tomorrow as well.

 

＊　　　＊　　　＊

 

“Have a nice day, Dear.”

“I’m off. It’d be nice if we manage to catch something.”

“Wend, even if we don’t catch anything, we should cook lots of food.”

“How unreliable…”

“Well, if you look at Wend’s performance during the fishing out at the sea the other day…Ina-chan, you’re not the only one trusting him on this. Everyone else doesn’t have much faith in him either.”

“……”

 

We decided to go fishing upstream of a river that enters the lake. Since it’s a mountain stream with no paths leading to it, we can only take those with us who can use magic to fly. As such, Luise, Katharina, Lisa, Doushi, Burkhart-san, Arnest, Mall and his friends, Lumi, Lyra-san, the demon queen and I would be going.

I didn’t expect Arnest to accompany us at all, but it looks like he’s actually more social than I took him for. Maybe it’s because there will be a lot of his brethren with us.

Elise and the others will wait for our haul while making food and sweets. The catch should be quite plentiful with that many of us going, so even if they don’t trust in my ability to catch fish…saying it myself makes me quite sad, to be honest.

I’m going to definitely catch a bunch so as to show Ina and Luise how wrong they were.

“Folks, it’s going to be evening if we keep standing around here like that.”

“For heaven’s sake, what a waste of having so much mana.”

We could only take people capable of flying with us, but Arnest, Mall and his friends were extremely bad at Flight despite owning a lot of mana. Under the guidance of Doushi and Burkhart-san, the four male demons were unsteadily bobbing through the air.

“You suck so much at it although it’s super convenient to be able to fly.”

“Luise-san, that is not quite true.”

“Why, Lyra-san?”

“Nowadays demons will be arrested if they fly inside the city without permission…”

“Really!? Why!?!”

“It’s the same reason as with other offensive spells. If they lose control and crash, they could hit other demons, and in the worst case, it could lead to deaths.”

So that’s the reason, huh?

Certainly, if a demon loses control and falls down, it’ll result in a major accident if someone else is present at the crash site. Maybe such deadly accidents have happened before.

“Only the defense force and a small fraction of other organizations have been given special permission to use Flight in the city. Of course you’re free to practice it on private property, but since you can’t fly around as you want, it’s normal to practice the spell after entering the defense unit.”

It’s quite incredible that common demons don’t practice magic almost at all even though all of them possess mana. It probably shows just how convenient the magic tools are.

“Fortunately, the previous demon king and his wife left behind a house with a garden, so I was able to teach Her Majesty how to fly.”

Compared to the male demons, the demon queen and Lyra-san were flying quite skilfully. They probably learned it because it wouldn’t speak for a demon queen and her prime minister to be incapable of flying.

“It sure feels nice if you fly freely outside.”

“Your Majesty, you do have a talent for it. You guys should take an example of her.”

You could say it’s just as expected of a demon queen. Burkhart-san praised the young girl for her swiftness in learning magic. And since his praise was honest, she must have quite a talent indeed.

Though it’d be troublesome in various ways if that wasn’t normal, seeing how she’s the demon queen.

On the other hand, Mall and the other guys got scolded for not getting their flying fixed.

“I mean, we never needed this in our life so far. Her Majesty owns a house with a garden as an inheritance of her parents, but my place and my parents’ home is on rent!”

“Right! Even if you write in your resume that you can use Flight, it won’t bring you an advantage in getting hired! On the contrary, you’ll be treated as a dangerous person because you bear the potential risk of causing an accident, so it actually turns into a disadvantage! Likewise, being able to use offensive magic makes people think that you’re suspicious and companies will even reject your application!”

“Even the defense force members only learn Flight in training courses after entering the force. Most of the ordinary demons aren’t able to fly decently either! Burkhart-san, you should praise us for having become able to fly this well in such a short period of time!”

“You’re at least good at running your mouths… Well, I guess you could improve if you train a bit more. But still, it’s quite a waste when you see how much talent demons have in magic.”

If the people on the Lingaia Continent had the magic talent of average demons, they’d doubtlessly train magic with great delight. From the eyes of Burkhart-san, who trained many magicians, the demons are clearly wasting their talents.

“It’s necessary to levitate with magic at times, even while knowing the illegality of it, for the sake of catching a scoop.”

“I’m not going to comment on that.”

Unexpectedly, Lumi was quite good at Flight. Flying for catching news feels profit…illegal, but maybe that’s a gray zone. Burkhart-san deliberately didn’t comment there because the other party was a young woman.

“You too, demon!”

“Humans and demons will always try to eagerly learn what they deem necessary. Human, you have too little patience.”

Arnest possesses a tremendous talent in magic, but even he hasn’t practiced flying overly much because he didn’t need it. In the eyes of Doushi, that was outrageous.

But. no matter what he was told by Doushi, Arnest handled things at his own pace, which soured Doushi’s mood all the more.

“We have arrived.”

“Katharina, you’re oddly pumped about this, aren’t you?”

“Please leave the fish in mountain streams like this one here to me, okay? During my time at the adventurer prep school, I’ve often caught fish from streams located in the mountains.”

Trout types that closely resemble masu salmon and chars inhabit steep, remote mountain streams on the Lingaia Continent too. Since you can sell them for a lot of money, a fixed number of adventurers and students will go catch them.

Because Katharina has been earning money in such a way as well, she probably wants to tell us that she knows all about mountain stream fish.

“But you see, today we’re going to angle. Things might not be so easy without Wilma here.”

“Be it angling or magic, you can count on me when it comes to places with fish.”

Katharina sounds strangely confident.

Everyone had safely reached the mountain stream and after casting our fishing rods, we started to angle together.

“Ah, I got a bite.”

“Bah! That’s way too fast!”

Suddenly Luise pulled in a fish, and as expected, it was a trout-like fish. Its skin patterns didn’t resemble chars or trouts, but its shape was close to those.

“The river is full of fish because no one has been here in ages.”

The fish are probably not very wary towards people and fishing rods they haven’t seen so far.

“I got one!”

“Caught one.”

“If you always had such rivers available, adventurers would have an easy life.”

“You can catch a good amount here!”

Given that it’s basically an untouched mountain stream, the fish bit like mad once you put the bait into the water.

“Lyra, I got one more.”

“Nothing less of you, Your Majesty.”

The demon queen enjoyed angling from the bottom of her heart. Lyra-san exclusively supported her by dismantling the caught fish and throwing feed into the river.

“Can’t you become a professional angler?”

“And how would you earn money?”

“Even if you sell these fish, they’re nothing special and coming all the way out here is lots of work.”

Are Mall and his friends planning to run a company?

“I see. The patterns of these fish are slightly different compared to fish of the same species you can catch in other mountain streams. This stream and the lake are not connected to any other water sources, so because the fish here have not crossbred with any other species, it is possible that they were able to maintain their original patterns.”

“In short, you’re saying it’s very likely for the fish here to be endemic species who only live in this stream?”

“You are unexpectedly well-informed.”

“The unexpectedly is unnecessary!”

Scholars tend to belittle the comprehensive capabilities of laymen, don’t they…?

“Okay, this will serve as a great subject.”

The demon queen immediately flipped her notebook open and wrote down the theory Arnest had mentioned in her diary. Then she started to draw a picture of a fish she caught.

I think it’s a fairly challenging subject for the self-study of an elementary schooler, but maybe it flies because she’s the demon queen?

“Studying at school is different but also useful, isn’t it?”

“Learning and playing well is for the sake of becoming a good ruler.”

“It’s as Lyra says.”

Lyra-san seems to be suited as a school teacher. I have been worrying that she might be teaching the demon queen anachronistic stuff because she was talking about studying how to be a good ruler, but it’s good to see that it’s common school knowledge.

“Earl-sama, we’ve got enough already, don’t we?”

“We caught a lot!”

“Wend, let’s go back.”

“No, wait! Not yet!”

“Eehh!? Why? Didn’t we catch a bunch!?”

I was the only one opposing an end of the angling, but there was a deep reason for that. After all…

“Only I haven’t caught a single fish.”

“Really? Katharina.”

“Now that he mentions it, Wendelin-san hasn’t caught a single fish.”

“With the density of fish so high…maybe he got some sort of curse?”

“……”

I sure hope I didn’t have a curse that hinders me from catching fish, as Lisa suggests. Even if the worlds might be different, something like that shouldn’t be possible…right?

“Wend, it’s already late, so let’s go back.”

“We have enough fish by now. Wendelin-san, you just need to catch something on the next occasion.”

“And when is that going to be? I’m busy…”

“Dear husband, Elise-san and the others are preparing our food, so we need to go back quickly.”

“Just wait a bit! Only five more minutes!”

I’m the only one without a single catch. I want to go back after fixing that!

“Earl Baumeister, being unable to let go of things is disgraceful for a man!”

“Doushi, I won’t go back!”

“No choice then!”

“Doushi, let go of me! Bfft! Your muscles are hard!”

Just one fish!

My prayers were in vain. While I was surrounded by Doushi’s tough muscles, we headed back to Elise and the others.

 

＊　　　＊　　　＊

 

 

 

“Oh my, you caught so many fish. How should we prepare them?”

“Of course, we’re going to grill and eat them.”

“Wend, I’m glad to see you cheered up after having sulked all the time because you were the only one to not catch a single fish.”

“Luise-kun, one shouldn’t pry open the past wounds of others…”

 

When we got back to Elise and the others, they had already completed a multitude of dishes, but now they’d be able to add another menu. We managed to catch fish similar to salmon and chars at long last, so it’d be only proper to eat them after charcoal grilling them.

“First you cut open the fish’s belly and remove the gills and viscera. There’s a red lump along the backbone, but since that will become a source of bad smell, scrape it out with your fingers and wash it thoroughly with water.”

“I see.”

The demon queen also processed a fish while following my instructions. Moreover, she doesn’t forget to note it down in her diary either. The demon queen is a good girl who properly does what her teacher tells her to do.

“Next, you draw out the fish’s moisture and sprinkle it evenly with salt. Make sure to not forget to sprinkle salt into the opened belly as well.”

“Okay.”

She eagerly wrote down everything while doing the work.

“And don’t forget to cover the fin part with plenty of salt.”

I added plenty of salt to the fin. Restaurants specialized on grilled mountain fish always smeared lots of salt on the fins. If you don’t do it, the fins will get scorched and fall off during the grilling, spoiling the appearance of the dish.

“The fin won’t be eaten, but appearance also matters with food.”

“It’s rare, grilled mountain fish after all. That’s a dish appropriate to be added to a ruler’s dining table, don’t you think?”

In reality, many restaurants in Japan sell this, though.

“Next, the way how to grill it. Wilma!”

“Ready. Have raised the heating power.”

“As expected of you.”

“Accustomed to this sort of work.”

With the preparatory work finished, the fish would be grilled over charcoal, but Wilma took care of preparing the grill since she’s good at this part. Also, the charcoal is high.class stuff from Mizuho.

“The point is to initially grill fish at a distance with a high heat. You need to be carefull with the distance to not burn the fish…and you bring the fish close to the charcoal fire with its back first. Once the moisture has escaped, you flip it over, grilling its exterior so that it becomes crispy.”

“I see. That’s very informative.”

“Once you’ve grilled the fish exterior, you lower the heat of the charcoal so that they become glowing charcoals and slowly cook the fish inside.”

“Why have you split this in two stages, Earl Baumeister?”

“You see, cooking for a long time so that even the interior becomes well-cooked results in the small bones becoming soft, making it easier to eat the fish. Moreover, the fish smell is directly connected to the excess moisture inside the fish, so you can remove that moisture by heating the fish for as long as possible. Lowering the moisture also leads to a concentration of the meat’s deliciousness. Once the moisture has escaped the belly side, it’s done.”

“I’m going to immediately sink my teeth into it! …Oh it tastes great!”

“Wow, the meat is soft, flaky and very tasty. The small bones aren’t that much of a problem either.

The demon queen seemed to like grilled fish.

“It tastes great, Dear.”

“It’s still too early for the babies to eat this, though…”

I’m sure my children will be as delighted as the demon queen once I treat them to this after they grow up a bit more. As I watched her happily stuffing her cheeks, I judged this to be a good rehearsal for the future.

“As always, you’re well-informed about the strangest shit.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever, Erw. It’s useful, so why not.”

“I might not have been able to take it this far when I was still active as an adventurer.”

“Ah, Burkhart-san, please give me the head and backbone.”

“Sure, but what are you going to do with those?”

“I will make 『Bone Sake』 out of them.”

I thoroughly grilled the left-over fish heads and backbones on the net, put them into a glass, and poured piping hot Mizuho sake into it. This finished the Bone Sake.

“This is pretty neat! Awesome!”

Burkhart-san was very satisfied with the Bone Sake.

“Earl Baumeister, me too!”

“Doushi, what about the fish heads and backbones?”

“I ate all of them!”

“…”

In this world, people who eat grilled fish whole…my grandfather, who should still be doing fine, was the same, but I guess it’s just what you’d expect of Doushi…

I used my own share of fish heads and backbones to make Bone Sake for him.

“Sorry! Oh, this has a good flavor!”

“Pheeewww! Every once in a while sake is nice as well.”

“Sake you drink without having done any work sure is sweet.”

“This feeling of corruption rocks!”

“It’s been quite a while since I last drank sake. If I did so at home, my family would just look at me as if cursing me for doing it despite being unemployed.”

The demons…have it tough in various ways. They enjoyed the Bone Sake, though.

“Pheeww! It definitely penetrates your whole body!”

“Even though you are my student…”

“That’s the reason why senpai isn’t popular.”

“Yep, yep, you must take an example of the demon queen and Earl Baumeister’s wives.”

“You lack any hint of elegance, really…”

Arnest and Mall’s group flooded Lumi, who drank the sake totally like an old man, with their frank, unfiltered opinions. Though Erw and I actually agreed with them there.

“Usually I’ve got to deal with lots of stress! I must take on my old-fashioned, shitty bosses! Their thinking is completely outdated!”

“You sure don’t hold back here…”

That does remind me of a certain company…

Because I could fully understand her feelings on this, I secretly topped up Lumi’s cup with heated Mizuho sake.

“Your Majesty, I believe you will also encounter opportunities where you will drink sake after becoming an adult, but I urge you to keep it moderate.”

“Is sake that delicious? All the adults drink it. Well, Elise and the other women don’t do it.”

I don’t drink alcohol every day, so my wives don’t drink either outside of special occasions. Wilma hates alcohol and although Lisa can drink quite a lot, she never drank it because she likes alcohol.

The majority of the alcohol we obtained is used for gift exchanges or vanishes in Doushi and Burkhart-san’s stomachs.

“I have drunk quite a bit in the past as well. I had stress every day as a duchess.”

“Is that so? That sounds quite terrible.”

Therese drank alcohol everyday during her time as Duchess Philip. The amount wasn’t that high, but maybe she couldn’t keep up without drinking everyday.

“Nowadays it’s no particular problem even if I don’t drink at all, though.”

Just like Elise and my other wives, she stays clear of alcohol these days. I guess it’s because she isn’t under stress any longer.

“I’m quite stressed as well.”

“Wendelin, you eat instead of drinking, don’t you?”

“You got a point there.”

“I understand…so you’re saying adults will often drink alcohol if they’re under stress.”

“How is your teacher going to assess that if she reads this in your diary?”

“Who knows…”

She might judge it as a bad influence for the demon queen’s education, or she could unexpectedly praise her for the good observation.

The evening of the second day passed just like that.

 

＊　　　＊　　　＊

 

“Earl Baumeister, look at this!”

“Her Majesty discovered it during her morning stroll. It was halfway buried in the sand of the lake shore.”

“A box?”

“It looks like an old box, but maybe it holds a treasure.”

 

On the third day of our camping, the demon queen showed us something similar to an old treasure chest that could be carried under the arm while we were having breakfast.

“Professor Arnest, what do you think?”

“Even if it is old, it is something from 1,500 years ago. I heard that this land had been abandoned in a past lying much further back than the farm village Your Majesty is trying to revive. It is probably a relic left behind by those who lived around here at that time.”

Isn’t it quite rare in that case? In the eyes of a human, 1,500 years ago is old, but you can’t call it that for a demon.

“Still, this looks kind of like a treasure chest. Maybe it contains riches that could become funds for the revival of the kingdom.”

“You think something so convenient is going to happen?”

Erw voiced his doubt, but even if it’s no incredible treasure, it might contain a small treasure. I feel like this way of thinking is a lot more visionary.

“We just need to open it and actually take a look!”

“That’s true.”

Doushi and Luise wanted to peek into the box as fast as possible.

“There is value in looking at the contents of a box! Very well, let us get this opened then!”

“Wait, Doushi!”

“Burkhart-dono?”

Burkhart-san stopped Doushi just as he was about to open the box.

“Isn’t it common sense for any adventurer to suspect that a treasure chest might be trapped?”

Burkhart-san snatched the box out of Doushi’s hands and started to check the box for traps with Detection.

“How is it, Burkhart-san?”

“There are no traps, but there’s no key to open the lock of this box.”

“In such a case, it is a custom to pry it open!”

“Wait a moment, please!”

This time Arnest stopped Doushi who was about to force the box open.

“This is why I hate to deal with uncivilized humans. The shape of this box’s keyhole is slightly special. Even if it might be only 1,500 years ago, it could still be a precious, cultural asset.Opening it without breaking it apart will allow us to leave it behind for future generations.”

From Arnest’s point of view as archaeologist, forcing the box open was probably on the same level as committing a crime. He immediately drew the box to himself.”

“There is no key! Hence, you just need to make a key or unlock it by using thin, metallic needles!”

“I do not possess any such skills!”

“Don’t say that while acting all proud about it!”

“I am an archaeologist, not a locksmith.”

“You have a comeback for everything, don’t you!?”

Arnest’s argumentation was valid, but it was obvious that Doushi didn’t like it very much. He stamped his feet in anger for a rare change.

“Pardon me, but couldn’t you open this, Katharina?”

I recalled how she had skilfully used an unlocking spell in the Demon Forest’s underground ruin.

“Wend-sama, well done to remember this.”

“You’re praising me? For this?”

Everyone, you should have properly kept it in mind…

Sure, Katharina occasionally fades away in the background.

“Katharina, how about it?”

“If it’s something of this level, it will be alright. It’s simple.”

Katharina inserted a cluster of her mana into the box’s keyhole and after waiting for a few seconds, the box opened with a click. Just as before, it’s a pretty neat application of magic. In the end, I was never able to learn this unlocking magic, was I…?

“Incredible. I can’t use magic to open locks.”

“Me neither!”

Burkhart-san highly praised Katharina’s unlocking spell. For Doushi…this is the type of magic that suits him the worst. I mean he tried to wrench open the box earlier, saying that it’d be faster to break it with his superhuman strength.

“Earl Baumeister, what is inside?”

So what’s inside the old box with the lock? I think it’s only natural for the demon queen as a child to be excited about this.

“Gold coins!”

“Gems!”

“Anything’s fine as long as it’s gold!”

On the other hand, the scummy, unemployed adult totally exposed their greed like with the whole dragon drool incense from the other day. In a certain sense, they’re very demonic…not. They’re more like humans.

“Wendelin-san, only one parchment is inside this box.”

Katharina placed the parchment on the table. Considering it had been buried in sand that would get wet for a long time, the box must have been hermetically sealed for the parchment inside to not get wet.

“I expected as much. Her Majesty was able to carry it normally because it’s light.”

Just as Katia says, gems and gold would have made the box heavy.

“But, it might be a treasure map.”

“Lisa, nothing is written on it.”

Therese checked the parchment, but nothing was written on either side.

“Wend, what do you think?”

“With these sorts of things, won’t something appear if you heat the parchment or some such?”

“That sounds like it comes straight out of a story.”

“Erw, you asked for my opinion, didn’t you!? Let’s give it a try!”

I released a flame from my fingertip, heating the parchment, but unfortunately nothing surfaced.

“No good, huh…? Is it a method other than fire? Maybe you have to soak it in some sort of solution?”

Going by the circumstances we found the box in, I really don’t think that it’s just a plain old parchment…it should hide some sort of trick.

“Arnest, what’s your take on this?”

“Let me see. This sort of box had been often built around 1,500 years ago and it was used to store away valuables. It is a container that prevents its contents to get wet. It is resistant against fire, and it has a lock.”

“””””””””””That’s not the point!”””””””””””

We reflexively retorted at Arnest who had started to give an explanation about the box for some reason, although I had asked about the parchment.

“The parchment? Just let some mana flow through it.”

“Mana?”

“That is right. If you charge it with a certain amount of mana, it will reveal the text written on the parchment. It is a trick that has been regularly used in the past.”

Letting mana flow through it, huh…? For this parchment to hide such a trick…

“However, you must let pure mana flow through it.”

That makes sense. If you were to blunder and activate some spell, the parchment could go up in flames, freeze over, or get torn to shreds.

“Earl Baumeister, I will handle this,” the demon queen offered.

“Here you go.”

Having said that, it’s not that difficult to make mana directly flow through something. If the demon queen says she wants to do it, I have no problem with letting her do it.

“Mmmmhh! Oooh! Something appeared!”

Right after the demon queen took hold of the parchment, something surfaced on the parchment. This speed…no wonder she’s called the demon queen…it’s clear proof of her possessing an abnormal amount of mana.

“It looks like a map.”

“I’d say it’s a map.”

Not only Elise and I, but everyone else also grasped that a map had appeared on the parchment.

“This part represents the lake here, and there’s a symbol on the summit of the nearby mountain. Isn’t that the mountain where we’ve been fishing yesterday?”

“It looked like an untrodden mountain, but I guess some sort of treasure is hidden on the summit.”

Maybe someone climbed that mountain often in the past?

“To the treasure on the summit of that mountain!”

“I wonder what I’m going to buy with all the riches?”

“It’s so hard to decide, yep.”

“You people…”

I feel extremely sorry to get in the way of their excitement, but there’s something I want to tell Mall and his friends.

“The one who found this map is Her Majesty, so I don’t think you have any claims on a potential treasure. Also, isn’t this area treated as state-owned land?”

It’s abandoned land, but that doesn’t change it being part of the Zontark Republic. Very likely the country owns that mountain, and even if not, another owner might exist.

“Won’t the rights of ownership become quite a bother when it comes to buried valuables and artifacts?”

In the case of the Lingaia continent, one has to pay a fixed tax sum from a treasure’s proceeds to the noble or country owning the land where the treasure was found, but once the laws advance to the level of the Zontark Republic, the whole issue should become quite a hassle, if there’s someone making a strong claim.

“It is not necessary to consider things so strictly. It is abandoned land anyway. So the government would not be able to tell…what sort of treasure was found buried there.”

Arnest that bum seems to have a track record of having arbitrarily dug for ruins on abandoned land in the past. If he hadn’t done that, he wouldn’t have been able to really work on excavation, though.

But, currently members of the defense force are with us. I think it’d be hard to hide the discovery of a treasure.

“I suspect that half the rights will belong to the country, but we can take the other half. We will take the liberty of allocating it as activity funds for the nonprofit organization that is currently managing this area.

“I agree with that. This will also allow us to call a lot more young demons to the village.”

“Lyra-san, Your Majesty, that’s an admirable idea. Compared to that, you guys should be old enough…”

“Guuwhaaa! Please don’t say it!”

“This is yet another negative effect of not having a job!”

“Society is at fault for not giving us enough financial leeway that would allow us to be so generous!”

Burkhart-san admonished Mall and his two friends for only thinking about themselves, unlike the demon queen. They shouted their protest while making it obvious that a guilty conscience was plaguing them.

“Maybe it’s a treasure that used to be valuable in the past, but has now lost most of its value.”

“It’d be the quickest method to simply check things out.”

“That makes sense. Earl-sama, Katharina-jou-chan, let’s go.”

“Of course I will be going as well.”

“I shall accompany you, Your Majesty.”

According to the map, it’s actually inside a dungeon within the mountain…or something like that doesn’t seem to be the case here.We headed to the summit with the treasure, using Flight.

 

＊　　　＊　　　＊

 

“Three round stones have been set up on the summit and the treasure seems to be buried in the middle.

“That’s a fairly simple hiding place, isn’t it?”

“It probably means that it’s not that valuable as a treasure.”

 

We arrived on the summit of the mountain said to hide the treasure. At one we began looking for the three stones recorded on the map, but…

“You can’t really tell because of all the undergrowth.”

“No choice but to prune it away, I suppose.”

Once I cut away the rampant weeds and grasses with Wind Cutters, we spotted three round stones halfway buried in the central part of the summit.

“The treasure is buried beneath the middle of these three stones according to the map, huh?”

“That’s how it is.”

“Then we have to dig.”

Of course, we used magic to dig since it’d be too much work to do it with our own hands. As Burkhart-san, Katharina, and I dug, we eventually hit upon the same type of box as the one containing the map at a depth of around five meters.

“Katharina-sensei, it is all yours.”

“Wendelin-san, what’s with that weird way of calling me all of a sudden…? Oh well, only I can open the lock of this box…”

Katharina opened the box with her unlocking spell. Once we checked its content…

“That’s a big egg, isn’t it?”

“Right. But, an egg for what?”

An egg filled out the box almost to its limits.

“Burkhart-san, do you know what kind of egg this could be?”

“I wonder. Or rather, it seems like its insides are rotten.”

It’s an egg that has been buried deep in the ground for at least 1,500 years, so it’s not unusual for its contents to be rotten by now.

“I guess we’ve got no choice but to show it to Arnest.”

“So it seems.”

Since he’s the one with the broadest knowledge in this area among us, we decided to show it to him at once. We headed back to the campsite, carrying the egg.

“How many portions of omelets can you make out of this?”

“Katia, this egg is 1,500 years old. And you’re going to eat it?”

“Big Sis, I just tried saying this. Maybe the shell is precious as material?”

Everyone rambled on about random stuff while looking at the big egg, but only Arnest was carefully scrutinizing the eggshell’s surface with his magnifying glass.

“This is…a dragon’s egg, and moreover that of a fairly mighty specimen.”

“Eh? A dragon’s egg?”

“In the past I excavated the shell of a dragon’s egg.”

As might be expected of an archaeologist. He’s already seen a dragon’s egg.

“A dragon, huh? But, this region is no monster domain, is it?”

“A place will not turn back into a monster domain after being abandoned for just 1,500 years.”

“That’s kinda weird, isn’t it? The Savage Land on the Baumeister Earldom has been abandoned for close to 10,000 years, but it has never been eroded by the adjacent Demon Forest. I wonder what’s different between the Savage Land and this subcontinent?”

“In the distant past, the whole subcontinent used to be a demon domain. The demons cleared patches of land for their respective clans. The different clans fought each other, but eventually merged. As those mergers continued, soon a country was born, marking the birth of the Zontark Kingdom.”

The demons had reclaimed the entire subcontinent thanks to their high combat power and belligerent personalities.

“However, as technology advanced, the demons’ numbers grew, but talks about it being inefficient to live all over the subcontinent started to come up. Besides, over the last few hundred years, the population decline has been conclusive.”

In the end, they abandoned most of the land they cleared. I guess depending on the location, the land will return to being monster domains after many, many years pass.

“Even on the Lingaia Continent you will encounter the same phenomenon, if you wait for tens of thousands years.”

“I guess it’s too early right now then.”

At present it’s unthinkable for us humans to abandon the land we reclaimed at great pains, so we simply didn’t know that the former monster domains we cleared with our hands would return to being monster domains once more.

“If I remember correctly, this area used to also be a monster domain in the past. The dragon’s egg…as long as it remains as an egg, we can freely take it with us. I suppose it might have been buried over there seal it away.”

“I see.”

Arnest seems not only knowledgeable about archeology, but also dragons.

“So, is this thing still alive?” Luise asked.

“Of course it is. It is normal for the eggs of higher ranking dragons to take several hundred years to hatch. Probably because of that, it is possible for it to survive for an eternity as long as it stays in egg form.”

“Those statements contradict each other, don’t they? How can a dragon’s egg, which hatches for several hundred years, live on for an eternity while being in egg form?”

For a change, Erw had noticed the contradictions in Arnest’s explanation, now pointing them out.

“That’s a fairly smart observation to make for someone like you, Erw.”

“Luise…you’re hurting my feelings here…anyway, how about it?”

“As for that, there exist conditions other than time for a dragon to hatch successfully.”

“Conditions?”

“The high-ranking dragon parents inject a big amount of mana into the egg while heating it. Or if you turn it around, an egg that doesn’t receive a large amount of mana will not hatch, no matter how long you warm it. In exchange, it is possible for the dragon inside the egg to survive for a very long time.”

So that’s why the egg inside the box could survive for such a long time.

“You sure know a lot about this.”

“It is not my field of expertise, but I have found this information written in old documents.”

“We don’t know anything about the way elemental dragons live in the Helmut Kingdom.”

I think that’s natural since anyone trying to get close in order to investigate it would get killed. It’d be impossible for scholars to head into the deepest parts of a monster domain to observe an elemental dragon over an extended period of time. It’s knowledge he could obtain because he’s a demon.

“That means this egg won’t hatch anymore, right? I feel slightly sad for it.”

Elise is a gentle girl, so she felt pity for the dragon’s egg. But, given that it’d come with various troubles if this egg hatched, I think it’d be fine for it to stay like that.

 

 

“You’re not going to put it back where you took it from?”

“Will you be selling this?”

“Who would buy something like this anyway!?”

“Universities or some such?”

“At the moment, universities do not have the necessary budget for such a purchase. They are already scraping by as it is.”

“No way…”

Mall suggested selling the egg to a university to make at least some money out of it, but Arnest immediately thwarted that plan. According to him, the universities are running low on money.

“You cannot sell this to them, Arnest-san?”

“Milady, all universities have plenty of documents about these creatures.”

“Really?”

Does that mean universities and research facilities possess lots of high-ranking dragon eggs? I thought it’s a precious item, but maybe I was wrong?

“The old leaders of militant demon clans, powerful families, and the rulers of smaller countries made dragons obey and kept them as pets to flaunt their own power.”

“This definitely sounds like what you’d expect of demons.”

All humans would immediately agree here with Burkhart-san’s comment. I mean, that’s the sort of image they have of demons.

“Because lower flying dragons and wyverns were easy targets even for soldiers and retainers who commanded troops, the demon chieftains and leaders invaded deep into monster domains. That is where you usually find high-ranking dragons, or what you call elemental dragons on the Lingaia Continent. They stole the eggs, made them hatch by injecting huge amounts of mana, subdued the baby dragons as their servants, and later appeared on battlefields while riding the grown dragons.”

It’s easy to imagine that scene. A king swooping down on the battlefield riding an elemental dragon with his subordinates riding wyverns and other lower flying dragons. If you were to reproduce that in an anime or movie, it’d look pretty nifty, I’m sure.

“Because of that, you will unexpectedly excavate many egg shells of high-ranking dragons during archaeological excavations. Hence, all universities have quite a few of those, and even if you get them to buy it off you, they will not pay much for it.”

I guess you can’t call them worthless in regards to their scientific value since they’re old, but they won’t earn you any big money because they exist in bigger numbers.

“But, sensei, this egg is alive.”

“That does not change anything. Given that it will get dangerous if the egg hatches because of some mistake, it is common sense to open up a hole in the egg and let the content flow out.”

Even though Silas hung on, looking for arguments why it could be worth something after all, Arnest shot him down since the dragon inside the egg would be removed either way.

“Sensei, how much would this be worth?”

“At most twenty or thirty thousand En.”

“If you consider the time and effort…”

“Even before that, you don’t have any say in this, you know?”

“””Uuuuugghhh!”””

That’s why I’ve been telling you so from the start.

“Earl Baumeister, will the baby inside this egg end up dead?”

“Umm…we haven’t made a decision on that as of yet…”

The demon queen had silently listened to our conversation, but because Arnest had mentioned draining the insides of the egg, she asked me with tears in her eyes. If I’m being questioned by a cute girl with such an expression…I…

“I can’t really tell since I’m no expert on this field. I’m sure Arnest can tell you.”

Since I hated the idea of earning the grudge of the demon queen, I pushed the decision on Arnest who brought this topic up in the first place.

“Earl Baumeister…you are terrible.”

“You mentioned it first. Besides, I even taught Her Majesty a fine example of the ones standing on top forming their opinion while listening to experts.”

“Professor Arnest, will this child be killed?” The demon queen asked Arnest with teary eyes.

“Uuhh…that is…”

I found an unexpected weak point of Arnest. For him to be bad with the tears of children…I’m sure he’s bad with pure children because he’s such a filthy, corrupted adult.

“Ultimately it has been a method applied by universities and research facilities when dealing with their eggs as material, so the child inside this egg will not be killed.”

“That’s great news,” said the demon queen with relief coloring her face.

And as if being lured by that, Arnest looked at us with an expression as if he just got saved.

“So? What are we going to do with this egg?” Erw asked.

“I will turn this child into my servant. As someone aiming to become a demon queen as they lived in the good old days, I must have a high-ranking dragon obey me.”

I strongly feel an urge to tease her that she wants to keep a baby dragon as a pet rather than reigning while having a dragon obey her.

“In short, you want to have a pet, right?”

“No! I’ll raise this child into a marvelous servant dragon to make my dignity as ruler known to the world! It’s definitely not like I want to dote on some pet here!”

“I see…”

The demon queen insistently objected to Erw, causing him to become confused. He probably thought that it should be quite impossible for a little girl like her to demand much dignity. Everyone except for her saw this as a child wanting to have an unusual pet.

“However, it will be impossible to raise it if the egg does not hatch!”

It’s just as Doushi says. so, when is that egg going to hatch? I don’t really have any knowledge about stuff concerning this.”

“Eh? Are you going to make this egg hatch?”

Doushi and Burkhart-san started to say some crazy stuff.

“Would that be wrong, Earl Baumeister?”

“I wouldn’t say it’s wrong, but…ah, it might be wrong after all. After all, that’s the egg of a dragon, and not some cute dog or cat.

“Is it okay to raise dragons in the demon country? I mean, legally.”

On the Lingaia Continent we don’t have any laws prohibiting the keeping of monsters or dragons. The biggest reason is the lack of advanced law systems as it’s in place over here, but since those are dangerous creatures, it also plays a big role that no one would keep such creatures to begin with.

Among the nobles there should be some people who wish to try keeping them out of vanity, but I think it’d be difficult to put into practice.

“I’ve been wanting that. A ruler and a dragon – that’s the best combination, isn’t it? The people would be surprised as well.”

“But, you could be arrested for doing something illegal. You’d get scolded by your school teacher.”

It’ll be fine for the demon queen to do as she pleases once she’s established her own country, but right now she’s in a position where she must abide by the laws of the Zontark Republic.

“That would be a problem. So how is it?”

“It isn’t against the law in particular.”

Since it’s a matter of law, Arnest would be the wrong person to speak to since that guy fled the country after breaking the law. Lyra-san answered in his stead.

“So it’s not illegal, huh?”

“Rather, it’s more proper to say that they don’t assume anyone will raise dragons.”

“You said that the kings of old had hatched dragons and subdued them, didn’t you?”

“Earl Baumeister, ultimately that only refers to demon kings of a distant past.”

After the long, bloody wars came to an end, the reign of the Zontark Kingdom started. As it continued, the kings and nobles gradually stopped subduing dragons.

“The times entered an era of peace, and on top of that, the era of the Zontark Kingdom didn’t last over long but not very short either. Since it required time and effort for the king to collect the egg of his own dragon and make it hatch and because it also cost quite a bit of money to raise a dragon…umm…it seems like the kingdom also went through economic difficulties…”

Given the stability of the kingdom’s rule, the necessity to coerce enemy forces into submission with a dragon had disappeared. The cost-effectiveness dramatically worsened and as the kingdom’s finances were deep in the red, I guess it became something like a disarmament…

“The demons haven’t subdued dragons for many years. Therefore the laws of the republic don’t assume the raising of a dragon either.”

“I see.”

I suppose the Lingaia Continent and the Zontark Republic are similar in that regard.

“It would be fine to put the egg back, but could you properly take care of it?”

“Elise?”

“It is unfortunate, but there are a lot of irresponsible people in the Helmut Kingdom. The church has been concerned about that as well.”

This seems to be a story connected to keeping pets, but a certain number of people, regardless of their social standing, immediately get tired of their pets and then abandon them. The issue of abandoned pets has become quite a problem in the Helmut Kingdom.

And certainly, I’ve often caught sight of stray dogs and cats in the capital.

“Once they start raising it, a pet owner must see it through to the end. Your Majesty, do you have that resolve?”

“Resolve?”

“Yes. The resolve to definitely take care of it, no matter what happens,” Elise asked the demon queen with an unusually compelling tone.

Because she’s been going out into the city to do the church’s volunteer work, she must have seen heaps of abandoned pets that had been deserted by their irresponsible owners.

“Even more so, seeing how this is a dragon’s egg. I think it will be much more challenging to raise than a dog or cat.”

“Sounds like it eats lots.”

A very Wilmaesque comment.

Leaving aside the time when it’s still a baby, I think it’ll eat quite a lot once the dragon grows big. It’ll also be a problem if the place for keeping it isn’t quite spacious. It looks like the costs for keeping a single dragon will be much higher than paying for some average zoo.

“If you abandon a dragon, the damage it’ll cause will be quit devastating…”

Erw, someone abandoning a dragon wouldn’t…no, I guess there’s no guarantee that you won’t find anyone like that.

“I would assume that it’s a crime to abandon a dragon.”

“If you abandon a dragon, the law pertaining to animal desertion would apply. It would result in a fine.”

You’d have an issue with animal protection laws, but it doesn’t sound like they treat it as that much of a felony either… They probably pray…no, they simply don’t expect an abandoned dragon to run around through a city.

“But, Elise-jou-chan, you can only take care of a dragon’s growth for as long as you live, can’t you? I mean, dragons live for tens of thousands of years.”

“Raising dragons is impossible for humans, correct?”

As far as examples are concerned, I can only think of a certain idiot duke who caught a dragon and tried to make it fight in a duel. But, that dragon had been a lower ranking flying dragon, and I doubt he planned to raise it properly.

“That’s right. We have never seen any dragon’s eggs, let alone the way elemental dragons live. I couldn’t even imagine the idea of raising a dragon.”

Now that he mentions it, we certainly have only ever seen grown elemental dragons… I never saw a dragon’s egg or a baby dragon. Nor did I think about a dragon’s way of life.

“Leaving aside wyverns and other lower flying dragons, high-ranking species, which you humans call elemental dragons, should not have laid any eggs, let alone raised any children, on the Lingaia Continent yet. After all, the high-ranking specimens living on that continent have migrated there from other continents after the great disaster ten thousand years ago.”

“You’re saying they’re not old enough to lay eggs yet?”

“Humans treat dragons, who have merely lived for a few thousand years, as 『Elder Dragons』, but that is a great misunderstanding.”

“Is that so?”

The one defeated by Burkhart-san’s party supposedly was an elder fire dragon, wasn’t it…? Arnest’s words imply that it hadn’t been old at all.

“Okay, in that case, just how many years would the dragon in this egg live after it hatches? I doubt anyone would live long enough to bear responsibility for it, right?”

Just as Erw says, even demons wouldn’t be able to keep a dragon and take charge of it until it dies since they only live thrice as long as humans.”

“Hey, wouldn’t it be much safer to bury this thing once more?” Ina asked.

“Before doing that, just when is this thing going to hatch? Her Majesty might turn into a granny during the times it takes to heat the egg,” added Luise.

“You cannot hatch a high-ranking dragon egg by merely keeping the egg warm. It depends on how much mana you pump into it. You must substitute the mother dragon after all.”

In that case, I think it’ll be difficult for anyone but demons to do this…

Even if a human with a big amount of mana tried to hatch a dragon egg, they’d die before they poured enough of mana into it.

“According to ancient documents, demon kings risked their lives on hatching a high ranking dragon’s egg.”

“Their lives!?”

“Sometimes even that was not enough, forcing the king’s children to hatch it.”

Old demons apparently went quite far to hatch dragons to obey them. Given that dragons are easily recognizable symbols of power, they probably followed the ideology that at least their successors would be able to enslave the dragon, even if they didn’t manage to do it in the end.

“Demon, you are oddly well-informed about this,” Doushi snapped back.

“It is important for humans and demons alive to always strive for more knowledge. But that is probably nothing certain muscleheads can comprehend.”

“Grrr…I cannot believe that a dragon would get that attached to a human!”

“The instant of the egg hatching is the most crucial. The baby dragon will regard the first person it sees as its parent. Therefore, the eggs have been stolen from the parent dragons right before their hatching. The ancient documents state that many demons lost their lives during such raids.”

So they obtained the dragon eggs while risking their lives, hatched it with huge amounts of mana over many years, and made the baby dragon submit to them, huh?

“That doesn’t fit with the current set of values among demons, right?”

“Indeed.”

Me, a human noble, and Arnest, a demon scholar; our way to look at this aligned right away since this would become no more than a seed of trouble.

“Lyra-san, it’d be better to seal this away.”

“You’re right…it goes beyond our current capabilities, I think.”

“You will also have the option to dig it back out and hatch it, whenever a time arrives where it looks like you could actually succeed. After making sure that you’ll be able to properly keep it, that is…”

“Elise, you are quite insistent on that part, aren’t you?”

“Dear, it is wrong to be irresponsible.”

“It’d also turn into a huge uproar, if you discarded a dragon’s child because you can’t raise it.”

“The handling of a dragon hatched by a human would be difficult.”

All of us agreed on burying the dragon’s egg for now. And once they’d have the necessary leeway to hatch the dragon properly…though I don’t know whether such a time will ever come. Although it might not happen within the demon queen’s lifetime…we concluded that it’d be better to handle it like that for now.

“With that out of the way, Your Majesty, you must endure for now, so…Your Majesty?”

“Ooohhh, when I sent some mana into the egg as a test while all of you were talking about this and that, cracks formed on the shell. I’m sure looking forward to the baby dragon.”

“”””””””””…””””””””””

“Hey! Mall!” I complained to Mall, asking him why he didn’t stop her.

He and his friend should have read the mood and kept a close eye on her.

“Me? Silas and Ramul haven’t been told to watch Her Majesty so that she wouldn’t hatch the dragon’s egg either.”

“Yeah, our job is ultimately limited to helping you out, Earl Baumeister.”

“You’re expecting too much from temporary employees. This isn’t a black company either.”

“Ugh…”

They really got a comeback for just about everything. So these are students who have been educated under a pressure-free system…

The fact I’m indulging in such thoughts might be a clear sign of me being a lost case.

Anyway, right now the dragon’s egg matters!

“Arnest, did you say that it’d take time for it to hatch?”

“I can come up with a simple conjecture here. It was necessary to lock away the egg in a box and bury it underground because of some special circumstances. It means that this egg had been on the verge of hatching all along.”

It was such a minuscule amount of mana required to hatch it that we didn’t even realize the demon queen pouring it into the egg.

“It’s hatched at last.”

Once it came to this, the rest happened quickly. The top part of the cracked egg opened up and a baby dragon peeked out from there. It was wrapped up in a pink, wet down and its eyes were still closed.

“Wend, it’s cute, isn’t it?”

“Sure, but…”

Is this really going to turn into an old fire dragon or that Grade Grand? The hatched baby dragon was so cute that it made me doubt this.

Its size was at most fifty centimeters.

“Myuu myuu.”

“Its crying is adorable!”

I thought that Doushi might twist the baby dragon’s head to save himself some future trouble, but it looks like even he found it hard to do something like that to such a cute creature.

“Hubby, it’s no different from wyvern children while it’s so small.”

“It has a pink color though. What kind of elemental dragons is this?”

“I think it’s very likely a fire dragon.”

“So it’s pink because it’s too young for having a perfect red color yet?”

“That’s what I think…its mana response resembles the one of the old fire dragon I killed before.”

Burkhart-san excels at mana detection, so his theory sounds rather persuasive.

In other words, this pink, cute baby dragon is going to transform into a crimson fire dragon, huh?

“Wend-sama, its eyes are closed.”

“I think they’ll open soon? …Oh, see! What did I tell you?”

The baby dragon groomed its wet down for a while, but once it finished that, it opened its eyes. And right in front of it…the demon queen was staring at the baby dragon full of curiosity.

“Myuu, myuu.”

“Cute. You shall be my retainer.”

“Myuumyuu!”

Apparently understanding the demon queen, the baby dragon flapped its wings, happily flying around her, despite having been born just moments ago, and then settled down inside her arms.

“Myuumyuu.”

“Hey, don’t lick my face so much. It tickles, you know?”

The baby dragon continued to lick her face.

“Say, Arnest, this means…”

A chick considers the first creature it sees after being born as its parent. That was a piece of trivia you would hear relatively often in Japan.

“It is just as you suspect. As I have explained earlier, the baby dragon thinks of Her Majesty as its parent now that it saw her first.”

“I see…that makes sense, I guess…”

We can’t get rid of this baby dragon because it’d be pitiable. Above all, its cuteness makes it hard to believe that this could become an elemental dragon in the future.

Even Elise, who had cautioned rather harshly before, was looking at the pink, fluffy baby dragon with sparkling eyes.

“Dear, this baby dragon is very adorable.”

“Elise, it’s very soft if you hold it in your arms.”

“May I, Your Majesty?”

“You may.”

The demon queen passed the baby dragon to Elise. My wife immediately started to dote on the baby dragon as if having forgotten what she said earlier.

“Elise, I’m next.”

“Me too!”

“Cute, want to hug!”

Still, I think this cuteness is a foul.

Ina, Luise, Wilma, and all the other women enjoyed holding the baby dragon in turns.

“It soothes your heart, doesn’t it?”

“Indeed. It’d be great if it always stayed so small, though.”

“Wend-kun, I remember you were as cute back when you were small, too.”

“How lovely. Look, Big Sis.”

“Lumi-san, here you go.”

“This cuteness is against the rules, really.”

“Erw-san, this child is very adorable.”

Everyone held the dragon in turn, but for some reason it stayed very calm about this. Does it like women or something?

 

 

“A demon queen who holds a baby dragon…”

“Truly nice.”

“Exalted…”

“I see. I think that’s proof of my majesty having come out as one being obeyed by a dragon.”

Demon queen, I don’t think that’s what Mall and his friends are talking about.

The combination of a beautiful girl and pink, fluffy, small dragon triggered the ones who have a fetish for this kind of stuff. At the very least, I doubt she has any majesty going for her.

“Cream Puff! Together, you and I as your master shall revive the old Zontark Kingdom in a new splendor!”

“Myuumyuu.”

Did it understand what the demon queen was saying? The baby dragon cried, reacting to her declaration.

I think it’s just a coincidence, but…something else bothers me beyond that.

“Your Majesty, is Cream Puff possibly the name of this baby dragon?”

“Yes. I love cream puffs, so it carries my wish of wanting to love this child in the same way. Even if it might be my retainer, I plan to love this child. Cream Puff, what do you like to eat? We must prepare your food.”

“(Cream Puff…that naming sense…)”

“(Erw, psst───!)”

Everyone had noticed the demon queen’s questionable taste in names. But, since I felt bad about pointing that out, we mustn’t do it no matter what.

Besides, the baby dragon itself doesn’t seem to be unhappy about that name. It carefreely resumed grooming itself.

 

＊

 

Thereafter, the baby dragon slowly turned into the demon queen’s retainer (pet), and thinking back on it now, it turned into a huge uproar afterwards, but at that time it was already too late. There was no way to take the baby dragon away from the demon queen, and Cream Puff started to be gradually regarded as the demon queen’s pet.

 

 

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