Chapter 4 (1/2)
Baby Dragon
Inside the treasury, several maids were neatly cleaning the vault. Among them, there was a little maid working as if her life depended on it.
「Huh? Rin?」
「Onii-chan!」
As she saw Ritone, Rin approached him with a big smile. In an instant, the chief maid who was in charge of supervising, reprimanded her.
「Hey! Miss Rin. Don’t get too familiar with Young Master Ritone by calling him Onii-chan, call him Ritone-sama.」
「Ye, Yes, sorry! Ritone-sama.」
Seeing Rin sulk, Ritone smiled wryly.
「It’s alright, call me Onii-chan.」
「But…」
「All of you, please forgive her. Rin is an existence equal to a real sister to me.」
As Ritone said so, the chief maid reluctantly withdrew.
「Haa~, there is no other way is there? That said, Rin, you should know your position. While you’re only a newcomer maid, Ritone-sama is the heir of the Shylock House.」
「I understand…」
Looking at Rin sulk once more, Ritone had no choice other than to sigh deeply within.
(This is not going well… If her awareness of our standings grows, it won’t be different from a slave. Then, the hero will take her away and…)
Ritone realizing that, pats Rin’s head and tells her.
「Rin, I’m new at being a master too, so let’s work hard together.」
「I got it, I’m going to work hard too and become a fine maid!」
After being consoled, a smile emerged on Rin’s face.
「… She’s a great child, isn’t she?」
Seeing Rin working hard, Shylock interrupted.
「Yes, if it was not for her, I wouldn’t be able to bear my painful childhood. 」
Ritone whispered to Eagle.
「Then, when she starts handling the job of a maid well, I will a.s.sign her as your exclusive maid.」
「Yes please, she’s my precious family, and also her fate is a heavy one to bear.」
While they were talking about it, Eagle showed him the treasury. Inside of it, aside from the vast amount of gold and silver, there were fine articles of art, legendary equipments and even some kind of magic artifacts.
「This is the collateral I took from the a.s.siah House: 「The Holy Maiden」」
The maiden was making a gesture as if she was pointing at herself with her finger.
「It looks like she was holding onto something like a jug while pouring something …」
「According to the legends, when you install the Sacred Water Jug, it will gush out copious amounts of water, enough to free the people from the suffering of a drought, but it seems that someone stole it.」
As I was hearing the explanation from Eagle, I remembered about that evil game.
(If I’m not wrong, you get the Sacred Water Jug after defeating the Demon Official Seren. It then leads to an event where you choose between the Sacred Water Jug and a Heroine. Well, right now it doesn’t have anything to do with me).
While having that thought, I found among the treasures a completely clear white egg.
「Gra-Grandfather, this is!?」
「Ooh, that one! One time, my father bought it from a certain adventurer after he begged my father to buy the egg from him. Because no one knows what species it belongs to, we just leave it as it is.」
(Hey hey hey… This is really bad! That’s the mother dragon’s egg!!!)
In the original tale, Ritone put a choker on the dragon’s neck and made it his pet, and was boasting about it at school. Then, the hero informed the Mother Dragon about it, and hearing of it, the Mother Dragon’s wrath fell upon and destroyed the entire castle of the Shylock House. With the pretext of rescuing the baby dragon, the hero and his heroines will march into the castle and take the baby, and while they’re at it, they will also take all the treasures that the Shylock House had acc.u.mulated over many years.
「Grandfather, that’s dangerous! Let’s return it immediately!」
With the abrupt interruption of Ritone, Shylock was astonished.
「What? Are you saying that this is dangerous?」
「That is the mother dragon’s egg. If we keep it this way the egg will hatch and …」
The moment Ritone told his grandfather, a crack appears in the egg.
「Nn? What happened?」
When Eagle turn his head to look, he discovers that the egg’s crack is getting bigger.
「Are you kidding me, No! Don’t hatch now! I beg you, please hold on a little bit longer!」
Panicking, Ritone tries to hold the egg together, but it is already too late.
「Kyuuuiii!」
The egg completely cracked, and a clear-white dragon was born that day.
Ritone and the dragon made eye contact.
「Kyuuii?」
「Hey, you are wrong! I’m not your father!」
Even though he was trying desperately to explain to the dragon, there is no way in h.e.l.l that a baby dragon will understand him.
「Kyuuiii!」
The baby dragon happily leaped into Ritone’s arms.
「Wow, it’s so cute!」
「This is truly cute, isn’t it? So this is a baby dragon」
Starting with Rin, all the Shylock House’s maids were taking turns to embrace the baby.
Although the baby was crying Kyui kyui, he stood still in front of all the maids.
「… It’s problematic isn’t it?」
「Yes, it is a mess.」
Nevermind the maids, even Eagle and Ritone were having a headache over this.
Who could have thought that the baby dragon, son of the mother dragon, that the prophecies were talking about would be born here. So they have no idea of what to do…
「Humm, there is no other choice. We will have to raise it as a pet and …」
「Grandfather, I think that’s not an appropriate decision.」
As Eagle was about to give up and accept everything, Ritone was still showing resistance.
「Why can’t we?」
「In few years, that baby will become the eye of the hurricane that will lead the Shylock House to its annihilation!」
Ritone explained that in six years, after hearing from the hero that her baby was abused by the Shylock house, the Mother Dragon, together with her army, will march to the castle and wreck it completely.
「Humm, this is a possible outcome. However, why do you know even the smallest details of it?」
「To tell you the truth, I have the memories of my past iteration. Following the G.o.ddess Verdandi’s orders, I was reincarnated into this world with the sole purpose of keeping the hero in check .」
Ritone explained to his grandpa everything he knew.
「Even if you explain it, it’s hard to take in so suddenly. That said, you knew that the egg was that of a Dragon. Hummph, so, who is this hero you speak of?」
「… In the game, you can name your character any way you want to, but the official one seems to be Abel. He is the king’s illegitimate child.」
「Why do you know that name!?」
「Grandfather, do you recognize him?」
「Yeah… It is the son of a certain troublesome woman. She is maintained by the Seijitsu Golden-Rank n.o.ble House. I’d always thought that it was weird that they treated her as a guest of honor. Now I get it, though; to think Abel was the illegitimate child of the king… That’s big news. If that guy were to awaken the powers of a hero, then who knows what that stupid woman will do.」
Eagle and Ritone, were troubled by this new information.
「… Well from what I heard, the oracle from the G.o.ddess that you speak of must be true. Even though the Demon King is revived at some point, eventually, the hero and his mates are going to defeat him isn’t it? So, there is nothing to worry about, right?」
「No, the ruin of the world begins after that.」
Ritone, without making any scandal of it, quietly tells Eagle about what the G.o.ddess Verdandi told him about the future: the events happening after the defeat of the Demon Emperor, and about the hero’s foolish despotic administration.
「Tyrannical rule!?」
「Yes, It is about when the hero and his lovers ascended to the throne. Because the hero and his heroines are all justice lover idiots, and hated the rich and the shark loans, that they forced the rich to pay a heavy tax and prosecuted them; while some idiots that were bearing a heavy debt asked the hero and company to help them with their loans, that lead to issuing the order of canceling all debts. Due to that, all the merchants fled from the kingdom and the the kingdom’s economy went bankrupt. This led to an agricultural-centered kingdom that based its ideology on self-sustaining. However, this caused a large scale of promotions, and gave power of the landlords.」
「Due to the destruction of markets, as a way to exchange of goods, people suffered even more than before. People who had low food resources were unable to exchange other goods for food.」
Ritone’s face began to cloud.
After that, everything went to a downhill. A dispute among all the individuals of Earth had begun. The landlords ignored the aristocrats and stopped paying the taxes, which led to the annihilation of the n.o.bles as a whole. And without the aristocrat, who held the knowledge of the world, all the landlords began to exploit their people even more to the point that they started to sue and question the hero. The hero, with his idiotic sense of justice, brought the landlords to prosecution. The farmers began to ignore the landlords and it became impossible to pay taxes. Without those taxes, all the retainers began to act on their own. Most of them fled to somewhere else, while the rest began to make new taxes, inviting wars to the kingdom.
Without any other choice, the hero began to solve the problems by force and with his poor judgment, started to use his force for his own convenience, and all the heroines seduce him to act for their own convenience. Everyone tried to fight against the hero, but with all his power, the hero became a ma.s.s murderer that was even worse than the Demon Emperor himself.
Quarrels between humans escalated, no crops ripened; cornered, humans began to hunt magic/demonic beast for food. Seeing the events piling one after another, the Mother Dragon rage reached the limit and took away the Divine Ability she gave to the hero, making him powerless, leading him to be beaten to the death by his va.s.sals.
Eagle, hearing all my story, seemed to believe my story and nodded.
「So, it’s like that. With that mommy’s king and that idiotic woman’s son is possible. Even if he’s the hero, leading a nation economically and politically is another matter. And also, if you have no strength to solve the problems peacefully and try to subjugate everyone by force, you will only be viewed as a tyrant ruler.」
「That’s why I will act as a strong ally of his, and manipulate him behind the scenes. While I netori (steal) hero’s b.i.t.c.hes, sorry, the heroines as many as possible.」
[Seventh:LOL]
Ritone was saying such dreadful things while he made a serious face.
「Now I get it, the reason of why you didn’t punish the village elder was because …」
「Yes, it’s because one of the heroines, the sis-dere Rin, is the village chief’s daughter. If it was not for her, I would have *** him and **** and *** him until he ****」
[Seventh: *Gasp*]
Ritone made a wry smile while looking at Rin. Rin, at the moment, is carrying the baby dragon while showing such an innocent smile.
「So a heroine, huh… Aside from Rin who else will seduce the hero.」
Following his grandfather inquiry, Ritone writes all the heroines names on a paper and gives it to him.
「I know some of these names, Puh, Nadya too!?」
「Yeah, Yandere Nadya. Even though she’s really cute, she’s really the jealous type and scary…」
「I got it, I will lend you a hand in your quest to conquer those heroines you speak of.」
[Seventh: Best Grandfather EVER!][Daily: Oh yeah da wingman UP TOP]
Showing a good natured old man smile, Ritone can’t relax because he gets a bad vibe about this.
At that moment, the chief maid appears.
「Sir, as ordered, I brought all the books regarding the way of raising a dragon.」
The book’s t.i.tle was “A gentle way to nurture your dragon” and it was written by the author the Hero Artemis.
「Let’s see」
Ritone, reading the book, found every small detail about the way of life of a dragon.
-A baby dragon is a extremely delicate being, treat it with care.
-Once in awhile, it will bite and try to chew your head, be patient.
-Parasites could settle in between and behind the scales, so it’s important to let the dragon sunbathe regularly.
「Oh, I see. Just because it’s cute, it doesn’t mean that it will be easy to raise it」.
-A dragon can live by absorbing the magic from the Earth. When a baby dragon reaches half a year old, it is an absolute necessity that the baby drinks its mother’s milk. If the baby haven’t drank the milk before six months, the dragon will become extremely violent to the point that it will require to wear a slave’s choker to prevent it from attacking other people.
「Hey!」