Chapter 15: Dragons, Caves, and Yakitori (2)

Aolus ate well.

I knew he would eat well since he was a dragon, much bigger than a human, but he really ate with gusto.

However-

Chomp! Chomp! Chomp!

“Hey, eat slowly! And don’t eat the skewers too!”

The way he ate was by shoving a whole skewer into his mouth and chewing, which was a bit much.

I wasn’t worried about the dragon eating splinters of wood, but eating the skewer itself was just odd.

Despite my warnings, Aolus paid no attention and kept devouring the skewers.

He had the look of someone mesmerized by something.

Seeing his expression, I decided not to say anything.

“Fine. Just eat.”

He must have been really hungry.

Without speaking, I kept grilling the skewers and putting them on the plate, and he ate every one that landed there.

Eventually, we ran out of skewers, and we just started grilling more meat, but neither of us really minded.

When the last of the chicken I brought was finished, Aolus stopped eating.

Then, he muttered.

“It’s good.”

“Is it? Glad to hear that.”

“I don’t understand why you put wood in the meat though.”

“That’s just to make it easier to pick up. I didn’t tell you to eat it.”

“Why go through the trouble? You could just eat it as it is.”

“Humans get hurt if they touch hot things with their bare hands.”

“Do you?”

“Yeah.”

“Pathetic.”

I chuckled quietly at his muttering.

Aolus stared at the empty plate and continued.

“So humans eat stuff like this.”

“Yeah. Not everyone, though.”

“My mom’s food doesn’t taste like anything.”

“It doesn’t taste like anything?”

“Yeah. She said they took out the taste because nutrition is what matters.”

“Do dragons live like that too?”

“My mom doesn’t even eat. She gets energy from sunlight.”

Animals live off photosynthesis? What is she, an alien?

His mumbling continued as if he wasn’t talking to anyone in particular.

“That’s why I was surprised when I ate that flower. It had a strange smell and weird taste, but at least it had flavor.”

“That’s why I kept eating it. It wasn’t really nutritious, but I just liked the sensation.”

“…Yeah.”

“But I couldn’t keep doing this forever, so I was thinking of eating all the flowers here and then going back…”

At those words, I remembered the two withered flowers near Aolus’s tail.

They were tiny flowers, the kind that a dragon would have crushed without meaning to, or perhaps intentionally.

But those flowers were still damaged just enough that their form was still recognizable.

It was as if he had been toying with them, turning them over and over in deep thought.

After pondering a bit longer, Aolus seemed to have finished his thoughts and lifted his head.

“I received tribute, so I should return the favor. Tell me what you want. I’ll grant it.”

“You’re going to?”

“Who else is here but me?”

“What can you even do?”

“What can I do?”

Aolus, with a blank expression, snapped his fingers.

Immediately, gold coins began to pour from the air.

Clink, clink, clink –

The gold coins kept pouring without stopping!

It wasn’t until the floor of the cave was entirely covered in gold that it stopped, and Aolus spoke in a neutral voice.

“Something like this.”

“…If I took all this, there’d be inflation in the kingdom.”

“Oh, you mean currency disruption? Don’t worry about that. I’ll just collect it back as much as it’s released.”

“Collect it back? You’re not planning to raid the royal palace, are you?”

“Why would I do that? I can just withdraw money from the royal bank.”

“You have an account at the royal bank?! But you’re a dragon?”

“Of course I do. The royal bank belongs to dragons.”

What…?

Was the economy of this kingdom really controlled by dragons?

As I trembled in fear, witnessing the kingdom’s hidden secret, Aolus calmly continued explaining.

“Anyway, you’re not going to release all this money at once, so I can adjust it subtly. You don’t have to worry. Nothing bad will happen, so relax.”

“…No… that’s not the problem…”

“What? Don’t like it? How about something like this?”

Aolus snapped his fingers again, and all kinds of precious artifacts began to fall with a clinking sound on top of the gold coins.

Among the items, there were some that seemed familiar to me.

“Isn’t that the sword? The legendary dwarf blacksmith who’s been dead for years made it!”

“That’s the numbered collection. I thought you wouldn’t know, but you do?”

“Of course I know! I met someone who had that sword! You didn’t…?”

“It’s a fake. This one is the real deal.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. It was given to me personally, so there’s no way it’s fake.”

It was given to him personally? Then it must be real.

I thought of the adventurer who used to boast about that sword to everyone and felt a little sorry for him.

“Guess he was scammed.”

That legendary sword really didn’t seem all that impressive after all.

I realized once again that the being in front of me was someone who had lived through eons, far surpassing humans in time.

Although he was in human form now—

…Wait?

For a moment, I stopped.

Now that I looked at him, he looked strangely similar to someone I knew.

As I frowned and examined his face, Aolus seemed to realize and smirked.

“Ah, I see. You’re thinking of that, right? But that’s impossible. Dragons don’t have genders.”

“Didn’t you say you had a mother?”

“I just used the most appropriate human expression for the being that gave birth to and raised me. Calling them my creator and nurturer would be too long, right?”

That makes sense.

But that’s not the important part.

I asked the question I originally intended to ask.

“Did you make that face yourself?”

“Of course. I’m not human, I’m a dragon.”

“Did you create it yourself, or—”

“Well, I think I just mixed the faces of humans that left an impression on me. Why?”

Faces of humans that left an impression…?

It was only after hearing those words that I realized whose face Aolus resembled.

White hair and violet eyes.

It’s Isel’s characteristic.

“Enough, Kyle! You’ve already lost the will to fight!”

Yeah. It was Isel who stopped me from killing you that day.

The expression, impression, and build were completely different, so I hadn’t recognized it, but now that I looked carefully, it was unmistakable.

And the moment I confirmed it, I made up my mind.

This is the one Isel saved.

If that’s the case, I can’t let him leave satisfied with just this little bit of food.

I’ll make sure he sees more of the world, just as he wanted.

So he can live a life full of enjoyment and feel grateful to be alive.

“If you’re a life saved by Isel, then it’s worth it.”

Aolus, seemingly unaware of what I was thinking, continued to babble.

“Anyway, I can’t fulfill your desires in this form, but I can make a meat doll that looks just like me. But is that really okay? Will you use the dragon’s reward for something so insignificant?”

“I’ve made my decision.”

“Really? Humans are so unpredictable…”

“You, become a worker at my restaurant.”

“…Huh?”

At my words, Aolus blinked, then asked.

“Are you asking me to wear the restaurant worker uniform?”

“No, I’m telling you to become a worker at my restaurant.”

“Human, are you crazy?”

“I’m perfectly normal.”

Aolus, who looked stunned by my answer, twisted his face into all sorts of weird expressions and screamed.

“What kind of human wishes for a dragon to become a worker at their restaurant? You crazy monster!”

Where else could you find one? Right here.

I smiled and asked.

“So, you can’t do it?”

“Damn!”

At his answer, my smile only grew wider.

“…So, you really brought in a new worker?”

“Yep.”

“But are they really a dragon?”

“Yep.”

“The flying dragon that breathes fire?”

“Yeah.”

“The one that the old man said he defeated, the black dragon?”

“That’s right.”

“Ah.”

Selly weakly sat down in the chair at my words.

It was an “ah” filled with so much meaning.

Aolus, standing behind me with an expression full of dissatisfaction, looked around the shop and clicked his tongue.

“You want me to work as a clerk in a place like this? You should just take the gold coins and buy a fancy shop, then hire a hundred clerks.”

“Why, do you think the shop is too big to work in?”

“What’s big? It’s small enough that I’d burst out if I shapeshifted.”

“Well then, there’s no problem. You may not be used to the work, but Selly sitting over there will teach you well.”

“Me? A dragon?”

“Don’t think of him as a dragon, think of him as a new employee named Aolus. Oh, it’s a bit weird to use his real name. It would be better to give him a new one. Do you happen to have an alias or something?”

“Would I?”

“Really? Then let’s come up with one. Hmm… How about ‘Steren’?”

Steren is the name of Isel’s hometown village.

At my words, Aolus—no, Steren—just frowned and didn’t respond much.

It seemed like he wasn’t happy with the current situation.

I had no choice but to throw out a bait to increase his motivation to work.

“Don’t make that face. Working here will be a bit different from what you think.”

“What’s different?”

“The meals are different. I’ll be the one cooking all the staff meals at our restaurant. Have you ever heard of buttermilk chicken?”

At my words, Aolus… no, Steren reacted.

“What’s that?”

“It’s fried chicken, and it’s the best-selling item at our restaurant. It’s even better than the yakitori you were so impressed with.”

“What? It’s better than that?”

When I nodded, Steren glared at me with suspicious eyes and said.

“If that’s a lie, I’ll break the shop and run away.”

“Do as you wish.”

Alright, I’ve got his motivation up.

I smiled with satisfaction.