06 Dryad
「Good grief, what"s up with that girl……」
Greed walked while pushing through the overgrown thickets.
Grumbling and cursing, his legs advanced forward on a pathless path without hesitation.
「What"s nice about this body is that it won"t corrode everything around me, but it"s too small and traveling around takes forever.」
Greed, whose true nature is a dragon, is about the same size as a small moving mountain. However, as if not to scare the tiny human girl, he had currently taken on a human form.
To him, humans were small. As well as very weak.
With just a few mistakes, they"ll easily die.
So he was perplexed.
Holding an interest in that white hair, he helped the girl that threw herself into the magma.
It was easy to think of accepting an unwanted life but, as far as Greed was concerned, there were a lot of things he didn"t know about taking care of someone so they wouldn"t die.
Furthermore, the girl had unexpectedly started to take off her clothes right before Greed"s eyes.
Long ago, Greed was taught by a human friend he had made.
Human beings are creatures that are embarra.s.sed of nudity.
Being publicly exposed is an unbearable shame above all else.
Because of that, Greed was extremely surprised by the girl"s behavior.
He was aware that he was intimidating, but there wasn"t any particular reason for him to want to humiliate the girl.
[ You should be reading this at Meira Eve Translations! ]
「As expected, I"m the only one troubled. You think so too right? Dryad. 」
Greed spoke toward the large tree in front of him.
The giant tree that had been living for hundreds of years extended it"s many lush branches into the air and thickened it"s leaves.
「Come out. Or I can start breathing out fire here too you know?」
said Greed. Even though there wasn"t any wind, the branches started to shake and small leaves rained down incessantly.
Then, a beautiful woman with green skin materialized in the green rain.
『Just when I think that it"s been a while since we"ve met, It"s the horrible dragon of greed. 』
The person steadily walked forward barefoot, nothing clad their green body.
However, Greed wasn"t disturbed like he was before.
The other person"s body had no s.e.xual characteristics and the texture of their smooth skin resembled something similar to fruit.
「I want to ask you to look after a human. Since you"re a dryad.」
Dryads were fairies that dwelt in trees.
They held beautiful appearances and occasionally used their figures to abduct people.
That was why Greed thought the dryads would be well informed about humans.
The fact that he had a human friend was a story of thousand of years ago. When he looked at the clothes of that girl named Eriana, he had no idea what or how much had changed since then.
『You"re asking me, the king of dryads, to look after a human?』
Disdain that couldn"t be hidden was mixed into his voice.
For dryads, humans were annoying neighbors who cut down trees, and to say the least they also used them as bait to draw in vitality.
「It doesn"t have to be you. I"m telling you to lend me a young sapling or something to be a maid.」
『A greedy dragon is requesting a dryad. Do you intend to support humans?』¹
Greed"s red scales materialized on his hands and face because of the ridiculing words of the other party.
Though it was small, it was a beautifully lethal weapon with sufficient killing power.
「It seems you don"t get the picture. I can immediately corrode this forest in it"s entirety.」
The branches of the giant tree swayed at Greed"s voice full of killing intent.
As if in fear, the surrounding trees started shaking.
『……I understand』
The King of Dryads who was silent for a moment, muttered in a groan.
Then, as if responding to that voice, a single young sapling grew out forcefully from the root of the huge tree. In the blink of an eye, the young sapling grew leaves and eventually became the same human like shape as the king.
『This is part of me. It"s strength is weak, but there won"t be any problems if it"s just taking care of a human. 』
Having said that, the king of dryads sullenly sucked back into the tree and disappeared.
Then just like that, the newborn youth opens his eyes.
「Please give me an order. Monarch of greed.」
Even toward the young dryad that knelt, Greed only humped.
Next > TL Note:
¹ [強欲の竜がドライアドに願い事とは。人に肩入れでもするつもりか？] > seeing the content of the line, the dryad using a mocking tone when saying this. And considering the fact that they consider themselves as a “higher beings”, supporting humans who are weak and considered as “lower beings”, can also mean that they"re degrading themselves, hence it was taken as “ridiculing”. (Well, the second half is all just my speculation after reading it so far {and a bit ahead})
Latte: Translation is technically “correct” in a literal sense, but I"m not familiar with j.a.panese enough to know if there"s a different meaning to what they"re saying. Kinda like how a literal translation of “hitting light” = sunbathing. So take what you will from it? ╮(╯▽╰)╭
Dear students, I wish you luck in your finals!