A chandelier lit up the earl’s massive dining hall. He and his family, as well as Willem, were seated at the dining table, each with a hefty steak before them.
“So this is dragon meat,” the earl said. The hall’s acoustics made his voice seem to reverberate.
“Yes, it is,” I replied. “I decided to cook red dragon meat this time.”
A few seconds passed by.
Huh? Wait, why the awkward silence?
“Mukohda...?” The earl hesitated for a moment. “Did you just say that you decided to cook red dragon meat this time? Are you implying that you have other types of dragon meat as well?”
Hmm? Hold on. Did nobody ever tell him that we—or, well, Fel—killed two dragons, one red and one earth? I glanced at Willem, and found that he was wincing again. Wait, seriously? It must’ve been someone’s job to clue him in, right?!
“I, umm, have some from an earth dragon too,” I admitted.
“I never even considered the possibility,” the earl muttered. The way he was looking at me practically screamed, Why did I not already know about this?
Yeah, umm... I don’t know what to tell you, man. I don’t even know how to react to an earl being disappointed in me.
“I really do envy you, Sir Mukohda,” Oriane said. “Imagine having a fenrir and an ancient dragon supporting you! It’s no surprise at all that you’d accomplish so many great feats.”
Oh, thanks for the backup! Looks like Mrs. Langridge is the most put-together member of her family. Guess that’s something she and the queen have in common.
“It seems you understand very well how mighty I am,” Fel said. “Hunting a dragon is the simplest of tasks for one such as I.”
“And I! Any dragon that crosses my path is doomed to be feasted upon!” Gon added. He and Fel had both spoken up without wasting a moment.
“O-Oh? I see,” Oriane said.
“H-How about we get started? Eat up before it gets cold!” I cut in, turning everyone’s attention to the meal before anyone could say anything awkward again.
“Y-Yes! A very good idea,” the earl agreed. He nervously sliced a chunk off his dragon steak, then gracefully raised it to his mouth and took a bite, closing his eyes as he slowly, thoughtfully chewed. “So this is what dragon meat tastes like... It’s even more of a delicacy than I imagined.”
Oriane, Celeste, and Bastian quickly followed the earl’s example and sampled their steaks as well.
“My! How wonderful!” Oriane exclaimed.
“It’s delicious! I’ve never eaten meat this good before!” Celeste declared.
“Dragon meat really is as tasty as they say!” Bastian agreed.
I nodded with satisfaction. Right? Tell me about it!
“I didn’t think that I’d end up being part of this too...not that I’ll turn it down, of course,” said Willem, who was sitting next to me. He dug into his steak too, his eyes widening with surprise after his first bite. “I’ve heard all about how high-class dragon meat is, but I’ve gotta say, I wasn’t expecting it to live up to its reputation quite this well!”
Yup, I know the feeling. Dragon meat really is just that good.
“Yes, but what of our portions?”
“I’m terribly hungry, my liege!”
《Yeah, what they said! Bring it out already!》
《Sui’s super hungry too!》
Right on cue, the gluttonous quartet started kicking up a fuss.
“Oh, right! My bad, guys.” I quickly pulled out my familiars’ dragon steak bowls as well, and they started scarfing them down so quickly, you’d think I’d kept them waiting for hours.
“Ahh, yes. Dragon is truly the most scrumptious of meats!”
“Yes, indeed! I’ll have to make a point of seeking one out during our next hunt.”
《I could eat this stuff every single day and never get sick of it!》
《It’s really, really yummy!》
“Seconds!” all four of my familiars demanded in unison the instant they’d polished off their first helpings—which, by the way, had only taken an instant itself.
“Are you racing each other, or what?” I asked with a sigh. I was ready for them, though, and had their second servings ready in no time.
“Tell me, Mukohda, what are your familiars eating? It looks a little different from the dish you served us,” the earl asked, glancing curiously at Fel, Gon, Dora-chan, and Sui as they ate.
“Oh, those?” I said. “That’s a dish from my homeland. It’s dragon steak on top of a type of grain called ‘rice’ that’s a staple food where I come from. I wasn’t sure if it would suit your tastes since it’s not something people eat around here, so I made normal steaks for you instead.”
“I see,” the earl replied. “I do have to say, though, that what they are eating looks delectable as well.”
Oriane, Celeste, and Bastian quickly chimed in to agree.
Well, in that case... “Would you like to try it?”
“Certainly, if you’re willing!”
The earl’s whole family was all too happy to try the dragon steak bowls. I borrowed a few more of his very fancy dishes, piled up some rice—a relatively small amount, this time—on each of them, then topped it with sliced dragon steak and my usual garlic-flavored steak sauce. As I served everyone their dragon bowls, though, a thought crossed my mind: Could they really even eat that much? The earl was a grown man, so his stomach probably had room to spare, but would his wife and kids be able to finish their helpings?
As it turned out, it was silly of me to worry at all.
“The steak was delicious, of course,” the earl said, “but this is remarkable in its own right!”
“It is!” Oriane agreed. “The grains—I believe you called them ‘rice’?—pair wonderfully with the steak and its sauce.”
“It really is delicious!” Celeste said.
“Yeah! It’s great!” Bastian added.
Every one of them cleaned their plates, never letting their impeccable table manners slip for a second. I was pretty impressed with how much food they’d managed to put away, though I figured that they had to be stuffed now, at least. A single steak bowl had been plenty to fill me right up, personally. The gluttonous quartet, of course, hadn’t stopped eating and wouldn’t stop anytime soon. They demanded steak bowls using all four of the usual sauces—garlic, onion, grated daikon, and butter flavored—then asked for even more helpings of each of their favorites.
“I have to ask, Mukohda, do you always give dragon meat to your slime and your baby dragon as well?” the earl asked as he sipped a glass of wine. Dora-chan and Sui were still chowing down, which seemed to have piqued his curiosity.
“Of course,” I replied. “They’re my familiars too, after all. All of us always eat the same things. Oh, and by the way, he’s not a baby dragon. He’s a particular species called a pixie dragon, and he’s actually fully grown.”
“O-Oh, really?”
Yes, really. I can’t go letting people think that Dora-chan’s an infant. His dignity’s on the line!
“May I ask Mr. Mukohda a question too, father?” Bastian asked.
The earl glanced at me. “Would that be all right with you, Mukohda?”
“Of course,” I replied.
The earl gave Bastian a look, and Bastian turned to face me.
“Well, umm, the big dragon and the little dragons are both, well, dragons, aren’t they? Is it okay for them to eat dragon meat?”
Ooooh, yup. That sure does raise some questions, doesn’t it?
“Allow me to answer, if you would, my liege,” Gon said. “Have you heard the phrase ‘the strong prey upon the weak’? Well, it’s very true, and in our world, the strong literally consume those beneath them. The same is true of your human society in a broader sense, I’m sure. That’s all there is to it. The dragons that we hunted were weaker than us, and so we eat them. Nothing more, and nothing less.”
Dora-chan nodded in vigorous agreement. 《Not to mention that we’re not even the same species! It wouldn’t be real cannibalism unless I ate a pixie dragon, or Gon ate another ancient dragon. You just don’t survive in our world if you get hung up on junk like that.》
Oh, right. I remember Dora-chan saying something along those lines before. “So, umm, Dora-chan says that pixie dragons and ancient dragons aren’t exactly the same species as normal dragons, and it’s not taboo to eat other dragons as long as they’re not the same exact type as you. It’d be tough to get by as a dragon if the definition of cannibalism was that broad, apparently,” I relayed. Dora-chan couldn’t speak out loud, so he needed me to interpret for him.
“Oh, huh! I didn’t know,” Bastian said.
“Fascinating. The natural world is harsh indeed, I suppose,” said the earl, who’d been listening in to our exchange and seemed convinced by the dragons’ explanation.
“Can I ask another one?” the young boy then asked.
“Go ahead,” I said.
“This dragon meat tasted better than any other meat I’ve ever had before. Are there any other meats that are this good?” he asked. He seemed really keenly interested in the many meats I’d eaten.
“Other good meats, huh? Hmm... Maybe wyver—”
“We obtained a meat that could rival that of a dragon just recently,” Fel declared before I could even finish my sentence.
“Wha— Fel! What’re you—” I yelped, but this time Gon jumped in to cut me off.
“Ah, yes, indeed! The leviathan!”
Why’re you two making things more complicated again?!
“Bwhaugh!”
Agh, see?! The earl looked so elegant sipping his wine, and now he’s gone and choked on it! Kinda impressive that he managed not to spew it across the table, actually. And look, his wife and daughter are petrified! And Willam’s facepalming again—déjà vu! How do you expect me to pull us back from this?! I’m already dripping with cold sweat over here!
“A leviathan?! Oh, wooow! I wonder what those taste like?” Bastian said, cutting through the indescribably awkward atmosphere with pure, childish innocence.
You know, I think that kid might be going places in the future...