Ch. 96
The one I pointed at was the wolf that seemed to be the boss of the pack.
Its fur looked exceptionally fluffy, as if it always took great care of its coat, and it had a magnificent mane around its neck.
“Undaine, you take that one down.”
The wolves all leapt at me at once, but I was still leisurely standing on the ogre’s back.
You know, there are those moments.
Like when swordsmen stare each other down, hesitating to attack, waiting for the other to make the first move.
The one who moves first gives their opponent a chance to strike.
That moment of pouncing is, in a way, like the prey walking right into your hands.
It was the perfect moment to strike.
“Yelp!”
“Whine!”
Seven bolts of lightning crashed down out of the clear sky.
The strong heat made the air ripple, and in the spots where lightning struck, not a single wolf corpse was left untouched.
Lightning was an incredibly effective weapon for instant kills.
It seemed Ador had lost control of his strength again, as the smell of burning was everywhere.
Even my hair…
“Ador, you did it again!”
[It wasn’t on purpose!]
Losing dinner was one thing, but burning my hair again was unforgivable.
Now there was an awkward layer on the side of my hair.
“Do you know how many times you’ve burned my hair!”
What a handful to deal with!
Even if I nagged Ador like this, he was still a spirit with terrifying lethality, and sometimes the aftereffects of that power reached me, too.
If you make him attack something too close, it doesn’t matter if you’re the master—you end up like this.
There’s a reason you splash water before an electric shock.
That also helped prevent fires.
I rubbed the singed tips of my hair and gestured to Undaine, who was devouring the wolves.
“Put out everything here.”
[Yes, Master.]
I had to make sure to kill every spark before leaving, so there wouldn’t be a fire in the mountains.
I watched Undaine carefully douse the scorched spots with water, then turned to look at the direction where the sun was setting.
The sky was glowing gold.
The forest was peaceful again today.
It was so impossibly beautiful and vast that I felt glad just to be breathing, full of such enormous vitality.
Aside from being the only human here, it was actually a pretty livable place.
Two weeks since being kidnapped.
I was, unintentionally, getting used to life in the forest.
—
Today’s hunt was successful in many ways.
I caught the ogre that Magicoss ordered, and I even got a rabbit for my dinner and a gift for Rai.
“Magicoss!”
As soon as I returned to the lair, I went looking for Magicoss.
If you don’t feed him on time, he gets crankier, so making sure he eats well is one of the secrets to a peaceful life here.
It’s absolutely not because I’m always making sure he’s full so he won’t eat me. Absolutely not.
Clang!
Kaang!
Magicoss was almost always in the same spot, so I followed the sound of hammering.
This ridiculously big cave had several smaller caves attached to it, mostly used as storage.
Like treasure vaults, a library, and even a freezer.
But there was one space you probably wouldn’t find in another dragon’s lair.
A forge.
Inside the cave turned smithy, a dwarf was hammering away—Magicoss himself.
Nickname: Magi.
“Magi, time to eat.”
Times like these made me feel like a nanny.
But even as I called, Magi didn’t notice, completely absorbed in hammering and quenching.
Magi really loved making weapons.
After watching him do nothing but that for about two weeks, I honestly wasn’t sure if he was a dragon or a dwarf anymore.
“Magi?”
Maybe he didn’t hear me because he was focused.
I thought about going in to call him, but the inside of the forge was sweltering, like a sauna.
Magi was a dragon, after all—he didn’t sweat a drop.
There were several furnaces inside, and the walls were packed with all sorts of weapons Magi had made.
And in one corner, piles of that precious mithril reached all the way to the ceiling.
The very same mithril stolen from the empire.
It was terrifying at the time, but now that I think all that came from the empire’s cursed treasure vault, it’s kind of satisfying.
[Master! You’ve come to rescue me!]
Rai, having spotted me, wagged his snake tail eagerly, so I gave him a short wave in return.
Rai was tied securely to Magi’s belt among tongs and picks, looking like just another tool.
Apparently, the special alloy Rai makes doesn’t melt easily, even in the furnace, so Magi needs Rai around to handle it.
Kind of like how diamonds are cut with diamonds.
[Ma-master? Master! Take me with you! Master!]
For now, I needed to eat.
[Master!]
—
Fortunately, Magi was so obsessed with sword-making that he wasn’t that interested in me.
As long as I handed him Rai, he’d be as happy as a kid and content with that—a simple dragon.
Thanks to that, my main job was supplying Rai with mana, and the only other thing I did was preparing meals for Magi under the pretense of going out.
Well, “meal prep” was really just monster hunting.
Basically, if you summed it up, it meant I had disgustingly little to do.
Mana drains on its own if I sit still, and I wasn’t some twisted noble who gets a thrill from hunting.
I was bored out of my mind for the first time in my life.
“Hmm, should I go with this one today?”
I was so desperate I started digging through Magi’s treasure storage to find something to read.
It was a book on magic theory, written in an ancient language.
It’s absolutely not because I was interested in magic.
I was just so bored I was willing to read anything.
Besides, all the books Magi had were about magic, so there wasn’t much choice.
I grumbled as I flipped through the pages.
“If you’re going to kidnap and lock someone up, you should at least provide something to pass the time. There’s nothing to do. Nothing.”
Then, suddenly, an unpleasant realization dawned on me.
Normally, they don’t bother because they don’t let you live long enough for that to matter.
Yeah, I was nothing but a powerless human in front of a dragon.
I swallowed my complaints and rummaged a bit more through the storage.
The treasure room full of gems was separate, so this one was crammed with all sorts of miscellaneous stuff.
The clothes I was wearing now were also dug up from this place. I’m not a traditional Mage, so I can’t say for sure, but I’m positive they had some high-level magic on them.
No matter what I did, they never got dirty, always kept me comfortable, and maintained a perfect temperature.
“What’s this?”
The storage was full of all sorts of things, from clothes whose origin I couldn’t guess, to books and artworks I couldn’t even identify.
There were also some familiar human items.
Statues, full suits of armor, animal pelts, things like that. And I was pretty sure I knew exactly how they’d been acquired.
No doubt—just stolen during raids.
Dragons must have a bizarre, but to them, refined sense of collecting.
“Oh, these boots look nice.”
I tried on a pair of light brown boots I found under a pelt.
I liked the pattern, though they didn’t fit at first.
But after a few steps toward the mirror, they shrank to fit my feet perfectly.
Definitely a dragon’s lair.
Whatever you pick up is a treasure.
It was just a shame there weren’t any items related to spirits.
—
It had been two weeks since I was stranded in the depths of this remote dragon’s lair. I’d picked up a few new skills, and one of them was handling raw meat.
It’s not exactly an essential skill for a lady, but I could now skin and gut rabbits or squirrels and roast them over a fire.
In the forest, instead of thinking ‘Oh, how cute!’ when I saw a squirrel, my eyes would light up with ‘You’re dinner tonight!’
There’s nothing you won’t do when you’re hungry. That was exactly my case.
Since Magi said I could use anything in the treasure storage, I chose a book to read and a pair of new shoes, and headed cheerfully to the campfire.
The rabbit I’d dressed earlier should be almost done roasting by now.
“It’s starting to smell pretty good, actually.”
At first, I kept burning it, but now I’d gotten the hang of it and the delicious smell was wafting through the air.
I crouched carelessly in front of the fire and moved the juicy, glistening whole roast rabbit onto a big steel plate.
Ah, that plate was originally a shield.
I hadn’t found a proper dish in the storage, so that had become my personal plate after a few days.
It was a lavishly crafted shield, but there were so many like it in Magi’s storage that you couldn’t help but get desensitized to their value.
“Haa, hot, so hot.”
I tore off a steaming piece of rabbit and tasted it.
It was perfect.
Freshly roasted meat can never taste bad.
It was such a satisfying warmth. I bit into a hind leg and opened the book on magic theory that I’d brought as a dining companion.
I was just about to start eating in peace.
When, out of the darkness, Magi walked out without a sound.
His glowing eyes, rubbing his belly with one hand, looked ferocious as he stared at me. It was exactly the gaze of a carnivore—I almost dropped the rabbit I was holding.
“Geenie…”
“Mm?”
“I’m hungry.”
“There’s an ogre over there!”
I quickly pointed to where the food was, for the sake of survival.
Magi scampered off in that direction, and just as I relaxed, a completely blackened snake slithered up to my feet.
It was Rai, looking sulky, who’d been overworked by Magi lately.
