Morning Duty"c.o.c.k-a-doodle-doo!"
Sang a c.o.c.katrice at the crack of dawn, waking up the other monsters in the ranch.
Some immediately got up and started their daily routine right away, while others sluggishly opened their eyes and remained half-asleep until the sun woke them up.
Each monster has its own habits.
But even among them, one was particularly early.
"And today too, I’ll wake up Lord Raiz~ ♪ "
The harpy laid her wings on Raiz bedroom’s door in high spirits.
Harpies are winged predators who haunt crawling preys, and usually look like young girls.
Since Harpy was a bird, getting up in the morning was an easy task for her.
She was really excited to wake her master up and be the first one to greet him, so she left her own room in hurry.
But she wasn’t the only one.
"Stop right there! It’s my turn to wake up Lord Raiz!"
Green vines smacked the harpy’s wings.
"Ouch!"
Rising her perfect eyebrows, she turned her head to see who hit her.
"Dryad, that hurt!"
In front of her stood a beautiful girl wearing a skirt that was red like roses.
Or rather, more than "red like roses," it was actually made of roses.
The girl was a dryad, a plant spirit, and also another subordinate of Raiz.
"So what? You will forget about it as soon as you take three steps, anyway."
"That’s not true, it’s just a legend! It’s not like all bird monsters have bird brains, you know!"
Bird monsters aren’t really smart, but neither they are stupid as widely believed, even though they aren’t anything special.
"Oh, really? Anyway, I think you should get away from there."
"Eh?"
The instant later…
Whack!
The door suddenly opened and hit Harpy, blowing her away.
"See? I warned you."
Of course, Dryad did that.
As she kept Harpy busy, she made ivy descend from her skirt and made it get around Harpy to reach the door.
"Uhuh, I won for today. Masteeer~ rise and sh…"
"Hey, good morning."
Hearing his voice, Dryad froze in the doorway.
It wasn’t because she couldn’t wake him up herself…
But because Lamia was lying beside him.
"Oh, c’mon! Why are you even here if you can’t stand the morning’s cold?!"
"Becauth I thtayed up late latht night. Had thtuff to do, but had thome problems, tho I waited outhide the door all night."
As she yawned, she replied triumphant without controlling her lisp.
"I can’t believe you came up with such a plan! You can’t have understood my weak point!"
"Eheh~"
Lamia’s usual grace was nowhere to be found.
Sleepiness can change people.
"I swear that tonight I’ll lock the door from the inside with my ivy. You’ll see!"
As the dryad thought of a plan to win her next battle, Harpy swooped down on her and a.s.saulted the spirit with a powerful kick.
Her legs were also like a bird’s… claws included.
Being hit like that would have easily carved a deep gash in any common creature’s flesh.
"Have you lost your mind?! If I didn’t guard against that I would be disfigured now! Good heavens, learn some basic decency!"
The dryad whined angrily.
That was indeed a close call.
"Were you any better before?!"
"At least I do that every time!"
The two started to quarrel.
Yes, those sweet monsters always tried to steal each other’s turn to wake up their boss.
Males didn’t want to meddle in that war.
◆
"So, today too I’ll count on you. Lamia, for taking people on roofs, and Unicorn, for the usual…"
"No, I want to heal young girls, please! I don’t mind even being a baby-sitter!"
Shrugging off his complaints, Raiz kept reading the daily schedule.
"The others still don’t have anything to do. Well, I can’t even imagine what they could ask to Dragon… Treant, Dryad, you want to help the farmers with their fields, right?"
"Yes. We noticed that the vegetables planted in the fields don’t look really good, so we want to go check on them."
"Well, I guess that’s fine. But since it’s your first job, I’ll come with you."
Raiz had to be around when he made new monsters interact with humans.
Even though some of them could talk, who knows what could happen without him being present.
"If you’re ready, let’s go."
"Treant, Lord Raiz said we can go!"
Said Dryad while facing the doorway. Outside, a tree moved rustling.
"Yes!"
It said, slowly rising its roots and moving his branches like human arms.
Yes, that wasn’t a common tree, but an arboreal monster. A treant.
"If anything happens, call me. We will be at the fields."
"Alright."
After making sure that Lamia knew their location, just in case some trouble was to arise, they departed for their destination.