Wayne then encouraged her to settle down and drink her tea. Lacey took a melancholy sip. Just then, Tee and the boar charged over toward her.
“Kyew kyew kyew kyew kyew-wee!!!”
“Grr-oink-oink grr-oink-oink grr-oink-oink-oink!!!”
She nearly spit out her tea. “Wh-What’s the matter with you two guys?”
Ignoring Wayne’s grumble of “Not two guys, two animals” for the moment, Lacey stood up in surprise and ran over to the two alarmed pets. Then she noticed that there was a monster buried in the fur of the boar’s back. Tee looked in one direction and frantically waved its wings in another as it cried, “Kwee kwee.” It was looking toward the field, so Lacey could generally gather that Tee had found it there, called over the boar, and had brought it to her.
The small monster lying limp on the boar’s back seemed to be unconscious. It didn’t have any conspicuous wounds, but it was probably exhausted.
“This little thing...” Lacey knit her brows as she peered at the boar’s back. Behind her, Wayne bent his tall body over and poked his head out. Just like Lacey, Wayne was also at a loss. After all, this was the very kind of monster they’d just been talking about.
“No doubt about it. It’s a mini-dragon.”
The dragon’s nostrils flared as if in response.
At the time, nobody could have known that this would be the first encounter in a long relationship between Lacey and this one tiny monster.
∗ ∗ ∗
“Pyuu-ee pyu pyu pyu, pyu pyu pyu pyewww!”
The reenergized mini-dragon was gobbling up a pile of crunchy raw carrots. The plentiful medicinal herb garden in the backyard of Lacey’s mansion was like a feast to monsters.
The mini-dragon had started out by eating the herbs it had been given out of charity. After that, its stomach had rumbled, it looked all around, and then it charged at the crate of carrots Lacey had been planning to bring into the house.
Its head had gotten stuck and its tiny body couldn’t get any farther in, so instead it writhed around in panic. Lacey had been confused about what it was trying to do, but she’d managed to get it out. After that, she’d brought it in the house and gave it carrots on a plate, thus leading to now.
“Wayne, this is definitely a mini-dragon, right?”
“Yeah. But it seems a bit smaller than an adult. This one might be a juvenile.”
Lacey observed the mini-dragon as she sat in the mansion’s kitchen.
Tee and the boar had at first worried over the mini-dragon’s voracious appetite. As if wondering “Won’t eating all that give it an upset stomach? Is it okay?” they paced around restlessly. But eventually, they realized that it was their own lunchtime, and they were now gorging down a salad of healing herbs and vegetables on the sidelines. Lacey wished they would slow down a little. Nobody was going to steal it from them.
“Buuurp.” The mini-dragon seemed to be satiated at last. It rolled over on the floor, exposing its swelled tummy.
The mini-dragon was a little bigger than Tee, but considering that Tee was also still growing, they might have ended up around the same size as adults. It had glossy dark green scales, and its eyes—contentedly cast downward at the moment—were round, black, and large. On its back, it had wings as large as the rest of its body. It seemed strange that it could lie down without the wings getting in the way, but they seemed to deftly adjust to a convenient angle.
Wriggle, wriggle, flop, flop. The mini-dragon twisted around on the floor.
“It’s getting really comfortable.”
“Yeah...”
Lacey met Wayne’s gaze and nodded. The mini-dragon seemed too incautious. Either that or it maybe was trying to do something about parts that the healing herbs couldn’t restore, given that it had been very worn out when it arrived.
“Hey, can I ask where you came from? Do you know where your home is?”
“Pyu-whoaaa...”
“Guess that won’t work... Well, it’s safe to say that it’s a lost dragon. Let’s send a letter of inquiry to the tamer guild. If this is a postal dragon, then they’ll be able to find its owner right away.”
“Okay. Thank you. Please do that.”
She had put her trust in him. Once Wayne got Lacey’s approval, he stood up and whistled outside the window. Wayne’s exclusive postal service promptly arrived. He handed over a letter he’d written and requested express delivery. A response arrived the next day.
At this rate, they could get this resolved before Wayne ran out of time off and had to return to the capital. Relieved, they unsealed the response envelope, but...
There are currently no reports of any missing mini-dragons.
Lacey and Wayne both gripped the letter and grimaced. From behind them came “kwee kwee” and “grr-oink” sounds as the three creatures happily played together.
∗ ∗ ∗
All right, recruit! Allow me to explain our mission! Tee spread its wings sternly and screeched, “Nnn-kweeeeee!”
The mini-dragon sitting squatly at the edge of the field inclined its head. “Pyuu?”
Tee believed itself to have saved the collapsed mini-dragon from its predicament, which made the mini-dragon inferior to it. It felt the need to assert itself as the other monster’s senior. The boar oinked and benevolently watched over Tee.
“Kwee kwee kyeeew-wee!” Eliminate! Any enemies! That target! Lacey’s field! Tee slapped its wings out and struck a pose.
Lacey’s field was extremely attractive to monsters. Although she wasn’t aware of it, permeating the soil with her rich mana had caused the medicinal herbs to mutate. The more herbs that monsters ate, the stronger they grew. There was no end to the monsters who wanted some for themselves, and while there hadn’t been any yet, it was possible that humans might become enemies as well. That was why it was crucial to be vigilant every day and snack on medicinal herbs in order to build up strength.