Why Does the Punchline End Up Like That!?
“Woooow. This is my first time seeing a Fairy Wyvern.”
“Fu, fu, fu. Well, that’s only natural. They’re ultra-rare, after all. This little one’s called Chunchun.”
… Chunchun. Like a sparrow?
A Fairy Wyvern. It had “fairy” in the name, but it wasn’t a fairy. Likewise, while it was called a wyvern, it wasn’t actually a wyvern or a dragon-type monster.
It was simply a monster that looked somewhat like a wyvern and was extremely small, hence the name.
That said, it never attacked people and was a gentle species whose favorite food was fruit.
“So it’s about the size of a cat.”
“A bit slimmer than that. This little one can fly from Zenas to the royal capital in just two days.”
“Two days!? Even an express rider would take two weeks...”
That speed was absurd. With a Fairy Wyvern around, it really might be possible to exchange letters frequently.
The food and other supplies that Fitcher had arranged to arrive later finally showed up, along with what could only be called his trump card, the Fairy Wyvern.
Father immediately wrote a letter, attached it to the Fairy Wyvern, and sent it off.
“Sorry to make you work right after arriving. Once you get there, my old man’ll give ya plenty of delicious fruit.”
“Nyaaah!”
With a flap of its wings, it rose into the sky, made a motion as though gathering momentum…
… And the next instant, it shot off at incredible speed.
“Whoa.”
“Pretty amazing, right? Because Fairy Wyverns are so small, people say they evolved to specialize in flight speed so they wouldn’t get eaten by other monsters.”
“I see.”
Monsters were living creatures too. As living creatures, they had probably evolved in the most efficient ways possible to survive.
Just as we were about to head back inside after launching the Fairy Wyvern from the terrace, hurried footsteps echoed down the hallway.
My precious twin siblings.
“Aniue!”
“Niichama, is it true a dragon came!?”
So that was what they were after. Unfortunately, it had just flown away.
“Young Master, Young Lady. It wasn’t a dragon. It was a Fairy Wyvern.”
“Fairy...”
“Wyvern...?”
““That’s a dragon.””
The two spoke in perfect unison.
Once they learned that the Fairy Wyvern had already left, they were definitely going to make a huge fuss.
“Anyway, I’ll leave the rest to you.”
“Huh? D-Dermont-sama!?”
“You two, Fitcher is the Fairy Wyvern’s owner, so ask him whatever you want. I’ve got work to do.”
““Okaaay~””
Yep. Good kids. I left the manor and headed to the north side of the village.
There stood one small tent and two large tents. They belonged to Caro and the other Cat-roux.
Since they couldn’t return to their village until the bandits’ and the Saruji tribe’s hideout was located, Caro and the others ended up staying here.
There were about twenty of them. To be honest, we didn’t have much food to spare.
The roughly one hundred ten people originally living in Zenas had been joined by another hundred thirty or so from the baronial household.
The population had doubled in a land where self-sufficiency was already difficult.
Fitcher was bringing in food from elsewhere, but even then, we were barely scraping by through strict rationing.
And now twenty more people had been added on top of that, meaning we had to be even more frugal than before.
“Huh? Is Caro not here?”
“Ah, Lord’s son. Ojou is out hunting at the moment.”
“Hunting?”
There weren’t any forests around here, so where had she gone hunting?
As I wondered that…
“Ah, it seems they’ve returned.”
A Cat-roux woman pointed out toward the wasteland.
Oh, I see. So by hunting, she meant heading into the desert. If they were hunting in the desert, then their prey was probably monsters.
Hm? One of our knights was with them too?
“Wait, what is that!?”
“Ohh! A Mushroom Cancer!”
“M-Mushroom... ah, so that’s the crab everyone was talking about.”
What was being hauled on two flatbed carts was a gigantic crab.
It was so large that scorpions didn’t even compare.
“Nyaaaah. I’m tired, nya. On sand, you can just drag it on a sled, but carrying heavy things is so much harder when the ground’s firm, nya~”
“Ojou, you didn’t pull either the sled or the cart.”
“S-Shuddup nya!”
Caro peppered her attendant and guardian, Orman-san, with a barrage of childish little punches.
Looking at her like this, she was still very much a child.
But the fact that she was allowed to go hunting meant she was recognized as a full-fledged member of the tribe.
I was a little jealous.
“Dilmutt-sama. We found a Mushroom Cancer.”
Sir Robert approached, looking slightly pleased.
Had he been the one to kill it?
In his arms, Sir Robert carried something milky white.
“This is the mushroom. It’s quite tasty.”
“Huh? A mushroom!?”
“Yes. As I mentioned before, the cap contains poison, so once the creature is killed, we cut it off immediately.”
Otherwise, the poison would seep into the stem portion as well.
“I thought there’d be lots of normal-sized mushrooms growing on it...”
“No. Even five is considered a lot. They’re huge, after all. This one had three growing on it, so there should be enough for every villager.”
He spoke with obvious delight. Looks like tonight was going to be a mushroom party.
I informed the returning Caro that we had sent a request to the royal capital asking for an investigation.
“So now they can find the location of those guys’ hideout, nya?”
“Yes. Most likely.”
“Then we’ll be relying on you a little longer, nya. We’re good at hunting, so leave monster meat to us, nya. So, umm...”
A diet of only meat would be unbalanced.
“Yes, of course. We can only spare the minimum amount of wheat and vegetables, but we’ll share them with you.”
“Yay, nya~! Nyufufu. Tonight, we’ll treat everyone to some absolutely delicious crab dishes, nya!”
With Caro’s declaration, the Cat-roux ended up treating everyone to dinner.
We eagerly waited for nightfall, and once it arrived, all the villagers gathered for a grand crab feast.
Well, in the end, cooking for nearly three hundred people was a massive undertaking, so the village women and even our head chef ended up helping.
Still, it felt like the relationship between the Cat-roux and the villagers had improved.
That was a good thing in its own right.
As for the supposedly delicious crab dish…
“It looks kind of like a fresh spring roll... but it’s definitely not wrapped in rice paper.”
Inside the translucent skin was crab, and... what else?
The mushrooms that supposedly grew on the crab seemed to be in there too.
And some kind of green ingredient.
When I took a bite…
“Huh? This... tastes like shrimp!?”
“Nyahaha. That’s right, nya. Even though it’s a crab, it tastes like shrimp, nya~”
In the desert, scorpions tasted like crab, and crabs tasted like shrimp?
“Then what does desert shrimp taste like?”
For some reason, everyone around me suddenly turned to stare.
Eh... w-what?
“There’s no such thing as shrimp in the desert, nya.”
“There ain’t no shrimp out here.”
“Dermont-sama... surely not shrimp...”
W-What the heck!?
Why does the punchline end up like that!?
What do you think about this chapter?
