Chapter 20: Sheâs willing to do anything to eat tasty bread
Translator : yuzu
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Luya changed her mind about her dog. Aside from the fact that this dog didnât eat its own poop, this dog had several advantages.
For instance, when it was time to give it a bath, it wasnât afraid of the water, and it didnât try to resist or run away.
When she poured the shampoo on the dogâs body and started scrubbing, it stayed completely motionless, as if enjoying the luxury service of its pet owner1Â that it totally deserved. It even closed its eyes slightly, looking very pleased.
âŚThis dog was clearly born to do great things, although it was horrible with its own family.
Luya scrubbed the dog for a long time, picked out the muck, and cleaned out its ears. The dog was strangely resistant when she started washing its chrysanthemum2. It turned its head and glared, growling threateningly. It seemed to be a very principled straight male dog.
âŚAt least the area around its chrysanthemum was clean. If it didnât want to be washed, then fine.
This time she did not find any fleas. The dogâs hygiene was much better than before.
After she rinsed away the soap bubbles using hot spring water, she noticed that its fur felt a lot smoother. She wasnât sure if she imagined it, but its coat seemed brighter too.
It seemed worth a try.
This dog was very good at self-care. After the bath, it ran to the side and shook the water from its fur.
Luya took off her dirty clothes and started to wash her hair beside the hot spring. Her hair was practically knotted, and she hadnât dared to comb her head these past few days because she was afraid to lose large clumps of hair.
But a miracle happened. When she poured the shampoo onto her scalp, she felt a refreshing coolness seep into her hair. When she rubbed her head, her knotted hair seemed to unravel, and the unbearable itchiness in her scalp disappeared.
She scrubbed her head in excitement for more than ten minutes, feeling like she had discovered a miracle cure. Her scalp felt extremely cool, as if it could breath.
Finally when she rinsed the foam off with hot spring water, she was surprised to discover that not a single hair had fallen off!
Oh fuck!
What kind of godly shampoo was this?!
When she thought back to when she worked 80-hour weeks, she would always pull out large clumps of hair whenever she washed her hair. She was terribly close to becoming a bald girl at a young age. Of course, her colleagues werenât that much better, and they would all often go shopping together to buy shampoo. Not a single person in their entire department had thick hair.
She remembered that Old Berg sold it quite cheaply⌠about the price of human meat.
If this product existed in her original world, it would constantly sell out of stock. Her celebrity crush, Tom Hiddleston3, would no longer have receding hairline, and perhaps she could climb to the apex of the world by selling this shampoo. Then sheâd become one of Forbes richest people in the worldâŚ
But it was impossible to return to her original world, and she couldnât return to her original body. This was simply a wild dream.
Since this was a dual purpose shampoo, she scrubbed her body while she fantasized herself living the luxury lifestyle of a wealthy woman. Without even thinking, she scrubbed away the dead skin on her torso, and soon her entire body was pristine and clean.
After coming out of the hot spring and drying herself, she changed into a clean pair of clothes, then looked at herself in the mirror. Finally, she looked like a decent human being.
âŚIt was really impressive. This was the most comfortable bath she had ever taken.
Her entire body felt liberated!
âLu Dahuang, letâs sleep together tonight!â
If she could cuddle with this fluffy, soft, big dog that had just taken a bath, it would definitely feel heavenly.
Luya felt like her relationship with Lu Dahuang was ready to advance to the next stage, so after she finished drying her hair, she called out4Â to the Shiba Inu.
Shiba Inu: âŚ
However, this stinky dog was always an insensitive one. It ignored Luya, turned around, and walked away.
???
How could there be a dog that hated humans so much?! Was it secretly a cat?!
Fuck! No way!
But she already had a mattress now, so it was the stinky dogâs loss for not sleeping with her!
She finished todayâs work before nightfall.
She used the goblin chieftainâs head as a scarecrow to scare away birds, and inserted it in the middle of the pasture where she planted the seeds. Even though she had no idea what the goblinsâ âHoly Grassâ was, based on their reactions, it was likely as valuable as the Sun-Scorching Scepter. It was probably fairly precious.
She had already retrieved the Sun-Scorching Scepter, even though it was basically just an ordinary stick to her. It had no other use other than drying clothes.
To tell the truth, after she took the staff back, she stubbornly tried to use it for a long time. But reality was cruel, and she couldnât get it to discharge a single spark. She didnât know how the goblin chieftain had managed to create such a large fireball. Thinking about it carefully, perhaps not just anybody could equip a mageâs staffâŚ
After expressing her gratitude to the red dragon for bringing her food, Luya fell asleep on the soft black cedar mattress.
Luya finally stopped dreaming that night.
But the Shiba Inu seemed to continue having nightmares. It struggled and suffered through its fitful dreams and memories of when it used to be human.
The next day.
Luya had the best night of sleep since she had come here.
She woke up lively and full of energy. When she saw the Shiba Inu looking very haggard lying in the corner of the room, she couldnât help but feel smug.
Whose fault was it that it didnât want to sleep with her? It must have been very uncomfortable sleeping on the cave floor.
She hoped that it learned its lesson today. Perhaps it would learn to climb into bed with her in the future.
But when she thought about how she was using dating simulator tactics to win favorability points with a dog, she felt somewhat ashamedâŚ
After washing her face and rinsing her mouth, she felt her own hair, which finally was no longer a greasy pile of dead grass. It was silky smooth, and it made Luya feel good about herself.
After eating the dried salmon from yesterday, she went outside and saw that those goblins had obediently moved a huge pile of bricks up the mountain. They each stood at attention, trembling as they looked at the red dragon behind Luya.
There was the reason why they were so docile.
Luya had threatened them with the might of the red dragon.
If any of them disobeyed, they would be roasted by the flames of the red dragon. If they slacked off, they would be burned to death. No matter where they hid, the red dragon would find them and set their homes ablaze. Their only chance to survive was to listen to Luyaâs orders and build her a house.
As such, Luya had gone and drawn a blueprint for her house overnight. She didnât expect the goblins to understand it, but she mainly intended to use it when surveying the site. In short, she marked the boundaries of the foundation, and under her command, they started working.
There were a total of eleven goblins, and five were responsible for building the house. Four were responsible for carrying materials up the mountain, and the remaining two were ordered by Luya to search for all varieties of wild vegetables.
She remembered that when she was searching for the dog atop the dragon, she once saw something like a radish, as well as plants that looked like wheat.
If that really was wheat, it would be a huge discovery. It would mean that she would be able to eat carbohydrates.
This was very important. People couldnât live with carbohydrates. It hadnât been long since she came here, and she already missed rice and bread.
God knows how badly she wants to eat bread!
Whatâs more, this body hadnât eaten bread in two years. During their first year, they could still eat hardtack and abandoned rations salvaged from the city supermarkets. But afterwards, it was all gone, and most of the time they ate slime, cactus pulp, and occasionally a little meat whenever they were fortunate enough to hunt something.
She remembered they had a good cook on their team, a fat middle-aged man named Ludding. Although he didnât have much fighting power, he used to be the head chef in a high-end restaurant before the apocalypse, and he could make the worst ingredients taste decent. The slime noodles could be sprinkled with green onion, mashed garlic, and chili oil. The taste was totally different after adding the sauce. Cactus pulp could also be prepared in a delicious manner, and it could even be fermented into wine.
Luya tried to search her memories for Luddingâs recipes. If she had wheat flour, she could make cakes and pasta in addition to bread. However, this required a stone mill in order to grind the wheat into flour.
These things were not easy to make, and she had too few tools with her. But since she had the red dragon now, perhaps she could ask the red dragon for a favor.
If the red dragon took her to some of those ruined cities, perhaps she could find a threshing and flour milling machine. If she used a backup generator to produce some electricity, it shouldnât be a problem to grind a few bags of wheat flour.
When the cities were attacked and its citizens fled, they took almost all the food, medicines, and tools that could be used. They led behind anything that wasnât practical. Those ruined cities have long since turned into monster nests. Indehar, a once bustling seaport, was now occupied by the Leech Queen. Even elite mercenaries didnât dare enter that place so casually.
But these dangerous places were now trivial for her.
She had a dragon.
As long as she rode the red dragon, if she entered any monster-infested city, they just needed to fry their leader and then clear up the area. Wouldnât she be able to safely start up some production inside?
Although right now there was another question.
Would the red dragon really be willing to fight for her?
Luya thought about this, and decided that maybe it was a bit much⌠she wasnât sure that the red dragon would really agree to her request.
After all, the monsters all had their own territories, and some areas were controlled by high-level demons. If they accidentally clashed, would it cause trouble for the red dragon? Perhaps it was a bad idea to get drawn into such whirlpoolsâŚ
But the red dragon didnât seem very interested in power politics. The seven dragons of the world were all very independent. They had immense power, and few monsters dared to provoke them.
So she decided to discuss this with the red dragon and listen to its opinions. If the red dragon wasnât willing, then she would change her plans.
Luya took the pocket translator and walked up to the red dragon to explain her situation. Today, it hadnât gone out hunting, and it had specifically stayed behind to monitor the goblins.
She looked at the red dragon somewhat nervously, her heart brimming with anxiety as she waited for its answer. However, the red dragon only pondered for a second, and then replied very simply.
ăOkay, when do you want to go?ă
ăOtherwise, we can go immediately.ă
Luya: ??!
For Farus the Red Dragon, fighting for his little girl⌠there was nothing wrong with it.
It was one hundred percent OK.
Authorâs notes :
Tomorrowâs update is a big fat chapter, and the day after will be 6000 words at once (thatâs double update!). On Sunday, the story will enter VIP, so there will be a triple update. Is everyone ready?!
Translatorâs notes :
Pet owner (é˛ĺąĺŽ) : The original raw has âpoop scooperâ here. It is a humorous term that jabs fun at how hooman owners are slaves for their pets. Chrysanthemum : Chinese slang for anus.Tom Hiddleston: A British actor, known for playin Loki in the Avengers movies.This can be taken as a sexual innuendo.
Translation updates will probably slow down moving forward, and they probably wonât be daily updates anymore. The next few chapters are longer than the prior ones, and I have a big meeting at work next week that I need to prepare for!