Chapter 596: The Feeling of Herding Elementary Students on a Field Trip
Gumihou: Kind of repet.i.tive, will do my best to mitigate it
The next morning—
Yesterday, we had a very late lunch of Green Dragon Steaks, which was very delicious and well-received thanks to my skills, the ingredients and j.a.panese-made condiments. For dinner, at the Gluttonous Quartet’s clamorous request, we had Roasted Green Dragon.
For some reason, the High Elves were also present for dinner. Although I did think that they were awfully presumptuous, it was still nice to have an appreciative crowd during dinner time. In short, dinner was an enjoyable experience.
The Roasted Green Dragon was incredibly delicious. Once again I had to pat my 6-burner-stove-and-oven fondly as it bake four full-sized roasts at once.
Somehow, yesterday turned into ‘Green Dragon Meat Day’
An offshoot of the usual Meat, Meat, Meat Day that was pretty much my familiar’s default meal.
This morning, Fer’s greeting for me was ‘What’s for breakfast?’
It did not sound like an inquiry at all.
I looked around, saw the expectant look on Grandpa Gon, Sui and Dora-chan’s faces and sighed, “Yeah, yeah, I got it.”
To be honest, I had already expected this and was prepared. I made more than enough (yes, I was shocked by this too) Roasted Green Dragon last night and kept some for today’s morning meal.
Today’s breakfast menu is Roasted Green Dragon Don! Lots of sliced Roasted Green Dragon meat on fresh, piping hot rice drizzled with a sauce made by boiling down water, soy sauce, sugar, mirin and grated garlic.
This simple-to-make sauce levels up an already delicious roast beef and rice.
I layered so much of the thinly sliced meat that not a single grain of rice could be seen. However, when I was about to serve the Green Dragon Don, Fer stopped me with a loud ‘more!’.
What could I do but add more until the meat-on-rice dish turned into a rice-smothered-by-meat dish?
“Here you go, I said as I set down deep dishes of rice piled with a mountain of meat.
While my familiars stuffed themselves, I have to wonder, why do I see High Elves lined up neatly in front of me with hopeful smiles on their faces?
Fine, I know why, but… just… why?!!
Not knowing what else to do, I served them normal-sized bowls of Green Dragon Don with… twice the normal helping of meat. Not quite a mountain, but a decent amount nevertheless. I had half expected them to complain, but to my surprise, the High Elves ate their double-helping dragon meat on rice bowls with grateful tears streaming down their faces.
Since the day was so nice, I ended up serving breakfast outside, which ended up with me feeding the High Elves as well as my familiars.
Oh well.
As for myself, I had a decent, proper j.a.panese meal for breakfast.
There was no way I was going to eat like the Gluttonous Quartet. Just looking at those piles of meat churns my stomach.
“Hm? You’re all ready to go?”
It had only been less than an hour since breakfast, but the High Elves had all gathered in the middle of the clearing, ready to leave.
I was in the middle of a break with my special fruity Carelina tea, the one with the elegant peach fragrance. My familiars had expressed curiosity about this tea (Sui only actually), so I had steeped some, added sugar and chilled it before giving some to them. In fact, I found that this tea tasted so much better when chilled and sweetened that I kept a ready stock inside my [Item Box] for times when I wanted a nice, cold treat.
Back to the story at hand.
Six High Elves were standing in front of me, waiting with expectant faces, not a single luggage or even a satchel. Still, since they all have their own [Item Boxes] I should not be surprised. On the other hand, since they had been living here for the past couple of hundred years, I thought they would at least take a little longer to pack.
“Most of our stuff is kept inside the [Item Boxes].”
“Aside from things like bedding, which we don’t need to bring around.”
“All we needed are weapons, a couple of changes of clothes and that’s pretty much it.”
“Oh, and materials that could be exchanged for money we collected from this island.”
“Naturally, this includes the dragon materials we received from Mukouda yesterday!”
“For everything else, we could hunt, forage or purchase later.”
To anyone who may be interested, I gave the High Elves one fang and some blood. One fang for the party, not one fang each. It was the longest and largest fang, which Verde insisted he could make into two knives.
The rest were more interested in the blood, saying that they could use it to make some kind of ‘High Elf Secret Medicine’ with herbs or something.
[1] I might have been a little more interested in the special High Elf Medicine if it were not for my marvelous Sui, who could make actual elixirs with dragon liver and blood.
Anyway, I was glad they were so happy about the dragon blood.
“So, you’re sure you have everything?” I asked.
“YES~~”
I had to wonder if they were really ‘okay’, but they were all adults… not to mention, they did say they used to visit the human world quite often, so… Gah, why am I even worried for these centuries-old beings?
“Right, let’s return to Carelina. Grandpa Gon, since there are more of us travelling, I think it’s better to be a little bit bigger than usual,” I said.
Even though Grandpa Gon was at his fastest at his largest size, I don’t normally encourage him to grow that big because flying too fast makes me nervous. However, there was no helping that now since there were more pa.s.sengers.
“I understand, Master,” replied Grandpa Gon, and he proceeded to grow larger and larger…
…right in the middle of the High Elf Village.
[1] “Wait, stop-!”
However, it was too late. Several nearby houses had been crushed by the time he stopped.
“I- um,” I stammered nervously as I stared at the property damage.
“Woah!”
“Incredible!”
“An actual Ancient Dragon!”
“Can he grow bigger than this?”
“Yeah!! Woohoo! An Ancient Dragon!”
“… …” at least, they don’t seem upset by the damage. Since none of them were upset, I don’t have to apologise, right?
I got onto Fer’s back and turned to the High Elves, “Well, shall we?”
With a cheer, the High Elves elegantly flitted, summersault or leapt onto Grandpa Gon’s back. Well, at least it was a big difference from those who struggled to climb onto GG Airways. Fer did all the climbing with me clinging onto his back. Yeah, there was no way I was going to inch my way up and make myself look bad next to these super elegant High Elves.
Once on top, I patted Grandpa Gon and called out, “Right, let’s head for Carelina.”
“Umu!”
With a mighty flap of his wings (ah, a few of those half-squashed buildings just collapsed), we slowly rose to the air.
“Look, that’s our island!”
“So that’s how it looks from the air.”
“Woah, our island is so tiny!”
“We’re really in the sky!”
“This is my first time flying!”
“The saying is true, the longer you live, the more you experience.”
Before I knew it, all six High Elves were scampering up and down Grandpa Gon’s back.
“Oi, be careful you guys-” I started saying.
“Hey! The view here is awesome!”
I looked towards the voice and there was Jorgen, standing on top of Grandpa Gon’s head.
“… …”
The next thing I knew, all six High Elves were standing together on the Ancient Dragon’s head. How should I say this… since they were all very pretty, it looked like Grandpa Gon was wearing a colourful crown on his head…
“”Master, could I shake these pests off my head?””
“”Please don’t,”” I quickly thought back. “”Just, please don’t…””
There was nothing I could do but convince Grandpa Gon not to dislodge the ‘pest’ on his head. Ahh, is this what teachers who had to herd elementary students around during field trips felt like?
[Gumihou: Hmm, kind of filler-ish]
[1] Eh, might as well expand this scene
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