★
That night, before dinner time, Shouzou was psyching himself up.
Moonlight glinted off the naked blade closing in on him with incredible speed.
The overhead strike was dodged with only the thickness of a piece of paper to spare.
Just as the tip of the blade was about to bury itself into the ground, it bounced back, darting toward his flank.
This, too, he dodged with but the barest of movements.
Painting crescents of light in the air, the blade assaulted Shouzou again and again.
The dogged flurry of blows knew no end, raising gusts of wind with every swing, causing all of the air in the vicinity to buffet around chaotically.
But Shouzou made them look like nothing more than the most refreshing of breezes as he seemingly entrusted his body to them, not allowing even a single blow to make contact with him as he fluttered about lightly.
His opponent finally ran out of patience, resorting to committing to a powerful thrust from an unsteady stance.
With a mischievous smile, Shouzou caught the blade with two fingers.
“Are you freaking kidding me?!” shouted the young man toward the sky.
Despite having been unleashed half in desperation, behind that thrust lay enough power to completely pierce through a dragon’s sturdy scales.
But for that thrust to have been stopped so easily—with only 2 fingers no less!—then what face would he, as the Dragonslayer, have left?
Although his face was cute like that of a girl’s, the eyes directed toward Shouzou were sharp.
And on his forehead protruded two horns, the characteristic that identified him as someone of the dragonewt race.
The young man’s name was Sidorias Geolta.
As a Platinum-ranked adventurer, he was also known by the title of Dragonslayer, famed far and wide for his strength.
Previously, he had lost his memory after being caught off guard in the middle of a dragon subjugation. When he had been consequently taken advantage of by small-time ruffians, it was Shouzou who had saved him. After that, every once in a while he would drop by the Onigawara residence to ask for a spar. Today was one of those days.
“So, what did you think? How is my swordsmanship now?”
“As I keep saying every single time, I am no expert. With that in mind, if I am to give my personal opinion......”
Sidorias gulped audibly.
“The speed of your sword has gone up.”
“Is that so!” Sidorias’s face blossomed into a smile. He shot the quickest of looks to the side while clenching a fist in celebration.
The target of his look was a young girl who was making her way over.
“Dad, good work. You too, Sid.” It was none other than the eldest daughter of the Onigawara house, Yuna.
She handed a towel to Shouzou, her father, before also handing one over to Sidorias.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Th-Thank you very much!” Sidorias accepted the towel with a bright red face, then promptly began using it to roughly wipe his sweat off. The floral scent made him dizzy. However, he made an effort to drag back his consciousness just as it was about to fall off into the world of dreams.
“Y-Yuna-san. What did you think? Did you see anything strange in my movements?”
“Eh, I mean, even if you ask me what I think...... It was so fast that I couldn’t catch anything at all......”
“Is that so! I was fast, huh!”
Yuna was puzzled, unable to comprehend why he looked so happy even though she hadn’t complimented him.
“You’re staying for dinner, right? Today we’re having barbeque outside.”
“‘Bah-be-kiu’?”
“We will be roasting meat and vegetables and eating outside.”
“Roasting meat and vegetables... outside......” This time it was Sidorias’s turn to be puzzled, unable to comprehend why she was looking so happy about something that occurred as a matter of course whenever he was out adventuring.
However, just the sight of Yuna being so lively was already enough to bring a smile to Sidorias’s face.
“Let me help out!”
“Sure, thanks!” In high spirits, Sidorias was about to follow behind Yuna when suddenly, he felt Shouzou’s hand landing on his shoulder.
“By the way, Sidorias-kun.”
“Y-Yes... sir. What is it, sir?” Sidorias’s head turned around creakily, only to see the fearsome face seemingly zooming up on him.
“I am very thankful to you for reaching out a hand of friendship toward my daughters, who unfortunately are new to this land and have no acquaintances.”
“O-Oh......”
“As a parent, I have no intention whatsoever in interfering with my daughters’ friendships.”
“Uuuuu... aaa......”
“However, but however... Be very, very, very careful that you do not dirty any of them with lecherous eyes.”
“Yezzir......”
Shouzou grinned devilishly. “So then, let’s go get out the barbeque set, shall we? You said you’re helping out, yes? With me?”
“O-O-O-O-Of course......”
Moonlight shone on the happy, happy scene of a happy family enjoying barbeque together.
The sole exception was Sidorias, who ate like he was sitting on top of a chair of thorns.
Although that wasn’t exactly the reason per se—
Three days later, the water dragon subjugation ended in failure.
The Dragonslayer, who was in poor health, was unable to land even a single significant blow on the water dragon, which ended up successfully getting away.
The reason for Sidorias’s poor health—was because he got seasick.