Baby DragonInside 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!」
Ritone retorts instinctively to the book.
「This is bad, the reason of why Ritone of the story had to put a slavery choker on the baby dragon, was this…」
Once again, he realizes how difficult is to raise a dragon.
「Then, without further due, let’s return the baby to the Mother Dragon」.
-During the few first decades of a dragon, it will recognize the first living being as the parent and will become emotionally attached. If you forcibly take it away from the foreign parent, it will become extremely sad to the point that it will weaken to its death.
「Are you kidding me? There is no other option?」
「There doesn’t seem to be another way, let’s send an emissary to inform the Mother Dragon.」
Eagle and Ritone didn’t have any other option than sigh at each other.
The next day, at the courtyard
「So, we are going to start magic practice.」
The proud Head maid, told Rin strictly. The maid is an expert in water type magic.
「I understand!」
「Kyuii!」
The dragon was responding energetically between Rin’s arms.
「Rin, I get that the dragon is cute, but, you should leave him…」
Ritone was trying to convince Rin, but was rejected with a tantrum.
「I don’t wanna. Milky and me became friends! Isn’t that right, Milky?」
「Kyui kyui!」
Before he realized, the maids have named the dragon Milky.
In that instant, the head maid walks determinedly to Rin’s side and pulls her ear.
「It hurtss!」
「Behave yourself! Don’t be conceited, just because you have some talent towards magic. I will personally coach you in the ways of magic, so stop being selfish!」
「… I understand…」
Rin handed over Milky to another maid, and started her magic lesson.
「Let’s start, shall we? if I’m not wrong, you can use the same darkness magic, can’t you?」
「Yes.」
「The darkness magic is also known as Spatial Magic. We have the ability interfere with the s.p.a.ce. Among dark magicians, our Shylock House excels with summoning magic, we can distort the s.p.a.ce and summon items and even living things. It is said that the founder of the Shylock House used the magic from demonic beast’s cores to summon money and support the hero.」
「So it was like that. It is quite convenient, isn’t it?」
Ritone is reflecting about it. He seems to have understood the mechanism behind RPG games, and why there are drops after a monster’s defeat.
「As your magic power increases, you will be able to summon any kind of living being. But what the magician can summon, depends on the person. Also, all the summons must be done with things that doesn’t have ownership over them; and even though you made it disappear, it won’t bring trouble to anyone. After the first generation, the G.o.ddess added this restriction over our family.」
「It’s natural, if it’s not, it could only be considered as robbery.」
Eagle nodded to Ritone’s observation.
「Then, let me show you my summoning magic. 」
As he waves his staff, he releases is a fierce amount of magic from his body. In an instant, something fell from the sky, and made a noisy DOKAAN sound.
「In-incredible. This is…」
At the courtyard, there is a rock with a diameter of one meter. Around it, there were pieces of rocks scattered all over the courtyard.
「I can summon rocks. Well, the rock itself doesn’t hold any value, but it can make some rude guys who haven’t paid their debts, pay obediently, by dropping a rock just in front of their noses.」
He then starts laughing eerie. Certainly, if you drop a big a.s.s rock in front of their noses, anyone will start to cower.
「It’s time for you to try, with all your soul, pray to the G.o.ddess. The first thing that you have in your mind will be fixed as your summoning object. In other words, it’s a contract with the G.o.ddess.」
Eagle handed over the family’s relic wand. Hearing the explanation, Ritone reflects.
(So, it has to be something that even if it disappears, it won’t affect anyone, and it also helpful. That’s it, Garbage from another world.)
Deciding what to summon, he waves the wand.
Suddenly, stuff that cannot be described appeared all over the courtyard.
「… This is… What is this?」
A cylindrical object rolled over his feet, Eagle looks at the thing and tilts his head in wonder. The object has some kind of drawing, and is somewhat transparent, and a bit dirty.
「It’s a success! This is a pet bottle.」
In Ritone’s face, after seeing success, showed a big smile all over his face.
「What’s a pet bottle?」
「In short words, it is a container to put liquid in it.」
「What!? A canteen that can be completely airtight? This is marvelous, being this small, it can be carried by soldiers one by one, reducing the supplying costs」.
It is natural that he’s this surprised. The game was designed after the Europe Middle ages as the base. At that time, water supplies were transported in water jugs or barrels, those weren’t airtight, were also heavy, and a ha.s.sle to transport.
「If you want such a thing, I can summon as many as you want.」
「It’s that true? Then, please give me those in a large quant.i.ty.」
Seeing Eagle happy, Ritone was happy too.
「Hahaha, this is amusing. This cane, is lot easier to use than my tree sc.r.a.ps wand, and it also reduces the magic consumption considerably to the point that the difference is discernible.」
「It’s natural. Normally, a wand is made from a tree that is showered by magic. Then, an artisan puts his soul into his work. A cane made by an amateur won’t be able to handle summoning magic.」
「So it was like that… Okay, then I will summon without rest, Eii!」
Ritone started to act c.o.c.ky and waved the cane. All of the sudden, a plastic bag with the words “Garbage Resources” appeared and inside of it there were empty cans.
「And this is?」
「As I thought, it is a type of canteen. The drink goes inside this tin can, and it’s sold this way. After drinking its contents, it will end up as garbage.」
「To think that they do some strange things…」
Even though he said that, he picks up the can and inspects, and in a moment his face’s complexion changed.
「Isn’t this light silver? And this one it’s steel. To think they will treat such a precious materials as junks, your previous world, what wasteful thing they are doing!」
「It is really that precious!?」
「Light silver is better known as mithril, and it’s known as the legendary metal that can store magic power and it’s mostly used to make legendary weapons. And the steel is known as the hardest metal, but the manufacturing process was lost over the time… And to think that these are treated as garbage. How deplorable! It is like dumping gold and silver.」
For quite some time, while holding the cans, Eagle was complaining about it.
「So, if we sell it to a merchant, can we sell it at a high price?」
「No, I cannot do such a stupid thing. This will be considered as top secret of our Shylock House. Using these, we can forge armours and swords and give them to our soldiers. With this, our army will become a lot stronger, and our House will flourish even more!」
Eagle made an evil grin and burst into laughter.
A few days later
Ritone was getting a little bit tired about his life as a n.o.ble. Starting from that point, Eagle treated Ritone as a treasure even more than before. He was okay at first but, to protect his secret from the world, Ritone was surrounded and heavily guarded by a squadron of maids 24/7.
「Little master, do you require my a.s.sistance?」
「You can order me anything」
「Little master, where to?」
「I’m just going to p.i.s.s!」
Even though I’m going to the toilet, the maid squad follows me one by one.
「Just where are you planning to follow me to…」
「To anywhere, anytime. Let me take care of your clothes.」
「You don’t have to!」
Ritone was as red as a tomato while rejecting their offer. The maids, continued even though at this point, it only looked as hara.s.sment.
「If you want me to, I can hold it for you.」
[Seventh: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)]
「It’s okay, just leave me alone!」
「We cannot do that. Your grandfather ordered us to be by your side all the times. I know it is difficult, but let’s train your mind and soul so that it doesn’t bother anymore.」
There were similar to this everyday, so Ritone’s privacy and personal s.p.a.ce was nowhere to be found.
(I don’t want this anymore, maybe he is spoiling me but, I cannot catch a break. Maybe the real Ritone’s personality began to warp in this environment.)
Running out his patience, Ritone went to his grandfather’s office.
「Oh, it’s about time that you showed up.」
Eagle showed a calmed face, even though Ritone’s face was full of anger.
「Grandfather, please stop this madness already! Every day, I can’t catch a break, because the maids are following me 24/7. They even follow me to the bathroom and then to the bed…」
「Isn’t it just fine? All the maids smell good, don’t they?.」
「Well… that’s true, but that’s not the point!!」
Ritone disclosed about his nonconformity regarding his privacy and personal time.
Hearing Ritone’s point to the end, Eagle brought out some files from the desk.
「Grandfather, this is!?」
There were few names written in the paper.
「These are all the guys who tried to a.s.sa.s.sinate you, or kidnap you. I have already taken care of them.」
「…!!!」
To suddenly realize, that a.s.sa.s.sins have already started to move, Ritone could only shiver.
「At some point, the opposite party won’t have any other option than to be docile. Let’s see how many more heads need to roll before they stay still.」
Eagle suddenly laughs with such a wicked tone. Kukuku… Ritone, feeling a cold breeze, reaffirmed the dark side of the aristocracy world.
「I understand, I’m sorry for throwing a tantrum.」
Seeing Ritone sulk, Eagle fl.u.s.tered made a follow up.
「We-Well, as a man, one would want to be free in the outside world, being raised in a confined placed could be hard, but you already lived in the outside world for such a long time. You should know that everything is not about freedom right? So, please hold on a little bit until everything calms down.」
「Yes, is there anything that I could do to help? Even though I have grandfather support, and you could suppress the opposite party, it’s just a temporary solution. After your death, who knows what would happen…」
After being told by his grandson, Eagle starts to think.
「You’re right. This current situation cannot continue for a long time. Putting aside the time I’m alive, if you are underestimated by our va.s.sals, it will lead to the ruin of the Shylock House.」
「Maybe you could hand me something to work on, something that I could handle… I know! I have the power to summon things from another world. Using my ability, maybe I could solve a problem of our land.」
Ritone, somehow, was trying hard to gain the approval of his va.s.sals, as the future master of the Shylock family.
「A problem, huh… As you said, even though our land is a prosperous one, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t problems. Inequality, poverty, hunger, slavery, monsters attacks to tribes and other n.o.bles whom are cooperating with us. I got it, I will lend you a hand so try to solve a problem. As long as you solve one of the problems of our land while I’m alive, you could increase your approval and authority over the va.s.sals.
「As you order!」
Having given a task, Ritone became cheerful again.
Ritone, to hold a stable position as the future head of the Shylock family, is starting to make plans to solve numerous internal affairs.