248 Difficult Decision (2/2)

”Haha, oh man! I was able to watch something fun as well. That was truly amusing. Would you like to hear my recommendation? After all, I'm still his twin brother, and we actually have rather similar interests. If you listen to my advice, he probably won't be able to resist against you, you just have to do this…”

As expected of a resident of the Chaos Abyss. The ability to take advantage of someone while they were weak was basically an instinct to Karwenz. However, judging by how Reyne kept nodding, she was obviously taking Karwenz's words seriously. Yet if she really did follow his advice, perhaps the result wouldn't be as simple as a butt spanking anymore.

Perhaps, only Adam, who was doing his very best to reduce his presence as he felt the tense atmosphere around him and fireworks about to explode, was truly worried about his bro.

”Roland, for the time being, you definitely can't return! You'll die! You'll definitely die!”

”Ah, Little Red, Annie, thank you so much. If it weren't for you guys, I probably would have died for sure. Come, I'll treat you two tonight! Cheers!”

In a small bar that was quite well-known in the north of town, I was currently thanking my two saviors.

I was well aware that for Little Red, any words of thanks were meaningless, and couldn't compare to alcohol, which was far more practical and useful for her. This was why I instantly had the bar bring us their best alcohol the moment we arrived.

”…This beer tastes pretty good, and the grape wine is nice as well. Let's have another extra twenty barrels of each.”

Little Red wasn't using anything as small as a wine flagon, instead downing alcohol by the barrel. Even with alcohol continuously pouring down her throat, not a single drop landed on the ground; it all was sucked down by those lusciously red lips.

Even though she clearly had the figure of a thin and beautiful woman, the ”bold and forthright” manner in which she drank barrels at a time was so shocking that other customers in the bar kept cheering her on.

Meanwhile, sitting at another small table, Annie was pouting with her tiny mouth at the apple juice and milk set out before her.

”I'm not little anymore! Annie can drink alcohol as well…”

”Huh?” This was from Little Red, who had only ordered apple juice for Annie.

”What?” This was from me, who had only ordered milk for Annie.

Her two elders glanced sidelong at her and the mutual condescension that came from them without even prior arrangement caused Annie to helplessly lower her head and continue sipping on her apple juice.

It seemed that Annie still had a long way to go before she would be able to stand up tall in front of Roland and Little Red who had watched her grow up, even though she was already an incredible Underground Lord.

”Roland, I don't wish to bring up your affairs anymore. Humans are a rare type of creature that are capable of being in heat all year round, so it seems only natural for them to have rather chaotic relationships. That seems to be a tradition of your race. Just don't get my little Annie involved.”

The new Dragon Queen's first sentence to me was an immediate direct cannon attack, but I was unable to deny my own wrongdoings when faced with my old friend's mysterious dissatisfaction towards me. What else could I do besides smile wryly?

”…It's such a rare chance that we get to drink together; why don't we talk about something happy?”

”Alright, I've brought all the resources and people that you wanted, but you can't give me even one less gold piece than what you promised. You have to pay up first. Even if we're friends, you have to pay and be in the clear first. Nobody is allowed to owe a dragon money.”

Even though Little Red's tone was filled with dissatisfaction and even seemed to be complaining, I was still delighted to hear what she just said.

”Of course, I know about your difficulties. Even if you are the Dragon Queen, it's astonishing that you were able to do so much. As for the agreed upon price? Is gold fine? But if the quantity's too large, won't it be difficult to take with you?”

”Not at all. I brought many laborers with me, and they'll take it back for me.”

She pointed at the group of black-clothed red and black dragons, which were silently sitting in their human forms. Dragons had sharp hearing, and if they heard anyone else describing the venerable dragon race as laborers, it would definitely be a huge insult, but when they heard their master saying this, they all could only smile helplessly.

”…Forget it. I still have a few secret treasure vaults in the Underground World, accumulated from the previous generations. I'll give them to you and you can have others dig them up. If it's worth less than what I promised you, I'll give the difference to you next time. If it's worth more than what I promised you, just treat it as a free present. How about it?”

My request for her had been somewhat ridiculous to begin with, and it was already difficult for the dragons to not treat my request as an insult. Without Little Red applying pressure, this ridiculous request could never have been realized no matter how much of a price in gold I paid. I owed her significantly for this.

”That's more like it. Come, cheers.”

Little Red finally nodded in satisfaction after she heard me say this and followed this up by continually trying to get me to drink along with her.

For people with bodies like ours, unless we purposefully inhibited our own body's functions, it was quite difficult to become drunk. However, as I watched the forty barrels being delivered to us, I felt that before considering how much it would take to get drunk, we should first consider how much our stomachs were capable of holding.

There was a saying that meeting an old friend over drinks would make even a thousand cups seem short, and we were old drinking friends to begin with. When Little Red went all out with drinking, she ended only when she finished off all the alcohol reserves in this entire bar.

And, when we walked out of the bar, the moon and stars had already come out and were shining brightly. Little Red was in a great mood and even revealed her dragon wings and began dancing in the streets, while I had to take on the responsibility of the troubles she stirred up from this and try to look for a new bar for her.

Finally, after she finished all the alcohol reserves of the fourth bar we went to, Little Red was satisfied, and she seemingly casually mentioned her own objective as well.

”Do you still remember Molly?”

”Of course. She's the previous Dragon Queen. I heard that she's already come to the surface, and even caused a bunch of trouble, getting onto that messy and random Calamity Rankings or something.”

”Two days ago, I received a letter that actually came from her. Can you believe it? She, the Ancient Red Dragon Molly, actually asked me, the current Dragon Queen who drove her out, for help. It's probably because she's truly been forced to the brink.”

”…It wouldn't be a trap, would it?”

I couldn't help but begin worrying as I remembered that sly red dragon.

”This is where you're wrong because you don't know her well enough. Although she doesn't care at all about what tactics she'll stoop to, she was the one who taught me about the pride of dragons. For her to lower her head to me, that's even more difficult to accomplish than killing her.”

”Where is she right now?”

”The Kasomali area. Oh, I think you humans call it the Bar-something—right—the Bardi Empire.”

...

When I returned, the first thing I did was deal with a certain naughty child who would demolish the house if not spanked for three days. However, when I took off her skirt and began spanking her butt, I noticed that something was wrong about the situation.

Yep, this was our family's tradition, an especially effective punishment for naughty children—spanking the butt, which would give a sufficient amount of punishment without truly hurting them.

However, something was obviously different this time. Not only did I instantly catch Reyne so easily, her past wailing and crying and pretending to be pitiful were all gone, and the sounds of her reaction to the spanking became stranger and stranger, sounding more and more like the sounds that one would hear in a certain type of ”artistic video.”

Her watery and beautiful eyes kept looking back at me, and her breathing kept getting deeper and deeper instead of screaming about how much it hurt. Not only that, with her reddening all the way to the tips of her ears, as well as the strange sensation on my hand, I was unable to take it anymore before I even finished punishing her and had to stop early.

”…Do you still dare to play jokes on adults anymore?”

”I don't. I definitely won't do it again!”

A naughty child's promise was never trustworthy. Their promises were only good for as long as their butt hurt, but I was quite satisfied when I received her answer. However, when I asked about the others, I received an unexpected reply.

”Sister Amelia? She just left. She returned to the Mage Country. Apparently, the Cloud Tower was looking for her, saying it's an emergency. Originally, she had been ignoring them, but it seems like it can't wait anymore. Right, Sister Lilith went with her as well, and it seems to have something to do with the Bardi Empire.”

Note:

1. This is a Detective Conan reference.This is a Detective Conan reference.