Chapter 383

Dragons

“Rather than that! Allen, Elena! I told you not to expose Kaiser’s race! You can’t say something like ‘great guess’ when talking about his race!”

“”Ah!””

“Gee~ exposing it this time won’t be a problem, but if it were anywhere else, there would be a huge uproar!”

“”Ehehe~””

“Make sure to be careful next time!”

“”Yess~””

It’s okay that this time, since we were in the flow of “Let’s talk about it…”, but it would be a problem if someone pointed out that “Is he a dragon?” and they said, “Correct” when they really shouldn’t have said it. That’s why I cautioned them properly.

“Tak.u.mi-kun, is this Kaiser really a dragon?”

“Yeah, well… he’s from dragon species.”

He’s from a species near the top of the dragon family.

“Like the other children, I’m amazed that you were able to contract him.”

Matthias-san looked impressed.

“Actually… Joule and the other kids were given to me by a friend, so I wasn’t really able to contract them because of my ability. Kaiser too, I was able to contract him only because he brought it up himself.”

“Eh, is that so?”

“Indeed.”

When I explained, I was slightly depressed because I was reminded that it wasn’t my ability.

The only contracts I have signed on my own so far… were the Pastel Rabbits.

“Uhm, so just to confirm, this Kaiser? Kaiser-dono? Ah! Geez! Can I talk normally!? Or should I be speaking politely!?”

Wald-san started to speak, but he didn’t know what kind of att.i.tude to take toward Kaiser, so he got confused.

Wald-san wondered if he should be friendly to Kaiser, who is my contracted beast, like the other children, or should be polite to him so that he would not be angered, since he was a dragon.

“Err, what do you think, Kaiser?”

“N? Just call me Kaiser, casually. No need to change the way you talk to me.”

I don’t know how Kaiser wants to be treated either, so I asked him (the dragon), and he said that they can treat him casually.

“That would be helpful. So, Kaiser had a contract with Tak.u.mi for a long time, right? But the fact that we’ve never met means that you’ve been going your separate ways. Why did you come all of a sudden? Were you doing some task that you finished, so you came back?”

“Umu. It’s simple. I just wanted to see Tak.u.mi!”

“O, ou… I see.”

Kaiser answers Wald-san’s question with his chest puffed out.

Perhaps because the response was unexpected, Wald-san was slightly dismayed.

“Well, whatever the case, if Kaiser is going to spend time in town, make sure he knows what the rules are over here. If something goes wrong, it will be your responsibility, no matter what, Tak.u.mi!”

“I understand. I’ll make sure to teach him well.”

“Umu. I don’t want to cause any trouble for Tak.u.mi either. I’ll be careful.”

Wald-san reminded us to be careful. Well, it was a reminder for me.

“It looks the discussion is settled. Let’s have dinner together then.”

After we all finished dinner, Rebecca-san prepared a guest room with two beds for Kaiser. I can only say that Rebecca-san’s arrangement to prepare double beds instead of a single one, antic.i.p.ating that I would not leave Kaiser alone on his first sleepover, was a good one.

“I’m Kiaser, the Leviathan. Pleased to meet you.”

Since Rosalie-san and the others were also present at the dining table, it was now time to introduce Kaiser to Joule and the others.

Everyone introduced themselves individually.

“Tak.u.mi’s contracted beasts are quite proper~ They’re still kids, so I’m looking forward to seeing their growth.”

“Ah, Kaiser. Joule, Feat, and Vector are small because of their skill, so it’s not like they are children.”

“Whut?”

I think they are adult animals according to their true body size… Come to think of it, I didn’t check with them properly. I’m sure they are young adults, right?

“Hey, how old does a contracted beast need to be, to be considered an adult…?”

“We are usually treated as adults after our first year. That being said, if you ask a real adult animal, they will still call us youngsters~”

Around a year? That’s a pretty early age to be treated as an adult animal.

But, well, I’m now sure that Joule and the others are all adults, in a sense.

“……”

“What is it, Kaiser?”

Kaiser, who had mistaken Joule and the others for children, suddenly fell silent.

“… Kaiser?”

“… Umu. I also have this Miniaturization skill.”

“Huh?”

After he fell into silence, he spilled something unexpected next.

… He can use the Miniaturization skill, too?

“Eh, then, can you turn smaller like Joule and others?”

“Umu. Probably.”

“……”

Here, a new shocking fact was revealed.

“I would like to see how small you can get, but I think you would have to go back to your original form once… so you can’t do it right now. Kaiser, you can try it when you get back to the ocean. So see how much smaller you can get.”

“Umu.”

“Depending on your size, you might be able to stay with us for a long time, just like Joule and others.”

“Oh, right! I will try it immediately upon my return!”

If he, who is as big as a large building could only get small as a small house, it would be indeed impossible to take him around with us, so we need to verify how small he can get first.

The ideal size to carry around with us would be the size to wrap around our necks like a scarf.

“Ah, and also check if it is possible to go from humanized form to the shrunken one directly.”

“Roger that.”

If he has to go back to his original size first, we will have to be careful.

“Still… today was a day full of surprises~”

“”Surprises~””

“So, Kaiser, we will be showing you around town tomorrow, is there anywhere you would like to go or do?”

“Let’s see~ I’m interested in people’s food. The food we were served earlier was quite good, but I would like to try more.”

“Is your usual diet raw meat?”

“Umu, monster meat. The best thing I have tested so far was a Sapphire Dragon.”

“”Dragon!””

The children’s eyes twinkled at the mention of dragon meat.

“Allen wants to eat it too!”

“Elena as well!”

“Mu? But Sapphire Dragons are quite difficult to find. It’s an occasional treat for me too. I’ll bring you a Blue Dragon as a present one of these days.”

“”Really?””

“Umu, I do not lie.”

“”Thank you! Looking forward to it!””

“You can count on me!”

I don’t know what’s going on, but it looks like I’m going to get my hands on some dragon meat.

“Kaiser, are Blue Dragons so easily found to make this promise so casually?”

“Blue Dragons are the lower cla.s.s of dragons. There are a lot of them.”

“Eh, lower-cla.s.s? All dragons have a high rank, don’t they?”

“From a human’s point of view, even a Blue Dragon would be a reasonably powerful being.”

According to Kaiser, there are different grades of dragons: lower, middle, and higher. In terms of Water Dragons, the lower rank is the Blue Dragon, the middle rank is the Water Dragon, and the higher rank is the Sapphire Dragon. And the one who stands at the top among Water Dragons is the Water Dragon King. That is Kaiser.

Even though they are the same Water Dragon species, they don’t have much camaraderie, and it doesn’t look like they are all friends or anything.

He apparently gets along well with some… or rather, they become his subordinates, while others are bloodthirsty and quarrelsome, who get beaten to the ground by him.

And so, the present he wants to bring back would be one of those beaten dragons.

“So, is there a Dragon King for each attribute, then?”

“I don’t think so. I have never met one, but the ocean is vast. It is possible that they exist somewhere.”

“I see~”

Incidentally, wyvern is a general term for dragons that fly in the sky, while non-flying dragons are called drakes. So, it turns out that the wyvern Charo that we know is actually a Brown Dragon in terms of race.

The scales of dragons are colored according to their attributes, so the Ochre-colored Charo is an Earth Dragon.

This means that the wyvern in the castle were actually of various races. There were reddish ones and greenish ones, too.

Next time I see wyverns at the castle, I will remember to appraise them.