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âI heard that you adopted a human.â
When Tiamat appeared, Luya thought that an inferno1Â had come. The atmosphere and sheer destructiveness of the elements was similar to the day that the Demonic World Eye appeared.
The red dragon shooed Luya into his lair, and Ludding was so scared that he hid in the corner of the cave holding the Shiba Inu. However Luya was not resigned to this fate, and she sneakily tiptoed back to the entrance of the cave, trying to eavesdrop on the conversation between Tiamat and the red dragon.
âFarus⊠I understand that youâre curious about humans, and I donât want to get in the way of your fun. But I need to remind you, humans are greedy and evil. Once they find it profitable, theyâll easily betray you. I trust that you arenât so misguided to divulge our secrets to themâŠâ
âGet to the point, Tiamat.â
The red dragon impatiently interrupted Tiamatâs warning, âHurry up and leave. Youâre scaring my little girl.â
âHave you really become such a fool, my friend? Are you still the great Farus from my memories who stands as Bahamutâs equalâŠ?â
âThatâs your own misunderstanding.â
âWhatever. I have no intention to become your enemy, and Iâm just here to remind you, Farus.â
Lighting and thunder were mixed in Tiamatâs voice. The magic dragon did not act aggressively, and it only stated its position to the red dragon calmly.
âThere were some witnesses that saw you. You brought that human into the Dark City DĂŒnbruck⊠they reported your behavior to Godot, the archbishop of the Demonic Eye Church.â
âGudius gave her permission.â The red dragon replied.
âDonât you understand? Even if the demon archduke permits it, that is not the will of the archbishop⊠the Demonic Eye Church is the symbol of the dark side. You canât, or at least you shouldnât, cross the line. It will affect our reputation.â Tiamat spoke slowly.
âI donât care about reputation.â
The red dragon stared at Tiamat. âYou should leave.â
âFine, if you really are this stubborn, my friend⊠I hope you donât continue to do stupid things. If Nidhogg comes looking for you, he wonât be as easy on you as I am.â
After leaving a warning behind, Tiamat departed from the lair. Once the dragonâs figure disappeared into the sea of clouds, the cyclone of rain and wind faded, and the sky started to clear.
Although Tiamatâs attitude wasnât friendly, Luya felt like the dragon had still warned Farus as a friend. Luya wasnât bothered by what they had said about her, but when the red dragon discovered that she had been eavesdropping, she still felt a little guilty.
âUmâŠâ
Luya couldnât help but try to explain herself, but the red dragon didnât give her the opportunity to speak. He immediately said, âYou donât have to worry about anything Tiamat says.â
âIâm not worried!â Luya hurriedly responded, âTo me, everyone aside from you is irrelevant. I donât care about anyone else, and I only worry about your thoughts and whether itâll cause you any troubleâŠâ
This was her guide for surviving in another world â Luya believed that she just needed to continue hugging the thigh of the person most important to her. She had faith that the red dragon was capable of protecting her, and furthermore was willing to protect her. Why should she care about other peoplesâ threats?
It was enough to please the red dragon and win his affection. Whatâs more, Luya had gradually started liking him. He was just like family, and she had become dependent on him without realizing it.
âYou donât need to concern yourself with that.â
The red dragon spoke indifferently, as if those were all trivial things.
âMhm, I believe you Farus!â
She spoke sweetly and rubbed the red dragonâs neck again. The red dragon was already accustomed to her intimate and cute behavior, and he seemed to be happy.
âWhat do you want to eat today?â He asked unexpectedly.
âMeat is fine.â Luya responded.
Now that Chef Ludding was here, dealing with ingredients wouldnât be a problem. Even if the red dragon brought back a bird monster, Ludding could surely turn it into a luxurious three-person banquet.
Not long after, the red dragon returned with a young pigman child.
???
Not this kind of meat!
Luya and Ludding stared at the trembling pigman child at a total loss. After the red dragon dropped it from the air, the pig gave up on struggling and laid on the ground waiting to die.
âIf you want to kill and eat me, then fine! Humans! Oink!â
After looking at the piglet a little more carefully, it didnât look that disgusting. In fact, it was just like a pet piglet. Itâs voice was sweet, it didnât smell that bad, and it looked rather cuteâŠ
After examining it twice over, Luya looked up blankly at the red dragon and asked, âThis isâŠ?â
âYouâre unhappy? I thought you would like it.â Farus stared at her.
ââŠâ
It wasnât a question of liking it or not liking it! Even though she was very happy to eat the braised pork, she wouldnât want to eat it if there were other choices!
Whatâs more, it was still a child, so that made eating it even worseâŠ
Ludding had never seen such a small pigman. The ones that he had seen in the human ranch were all ferocious adult pigmen who were strong, terrifying, and smelled disgusting.
Anyone would feel pity for the young of any animal. Although he hated the pigmen in the human ranch, it was difficult for him to raise his hand on such a helpless child.
Holding the kitchen knife in one hand, he struggled for a long time. Finally, he shook his head at Luya.
âSorry⊠Eve, I canât do it.â
âDonât worry Uncle Ludding, I understand you. This is what makes us different from those monsters. We have compassion and a conscience, and thatâs what makes us human.â
Luya sighed. Compared to facing a life-threatening opponent where it was easy to finish off the enemy without any hesitation, this helpless little thing in front of her even looked cute. It really made her unwilling to harm it.
Just like in foreign films and American dramas, even the most ruthless killers rarely killed children and dogs directly.
âBah! You think you humans are the good ones? Youâre not so innocent! Humans eat everything and destroy everything! Itâs humanityâs punishment that the world became like this! Oink!â
The piglet child had originally ignored Luya and the others, but after hearing her conversation with Ludding, he suddenly became angry.
âShut up, if you make another noise, Iâll bake you.â Luyaâs face immediately contorted, and she turned around to stare at the piglet threateningly.
âFine! Bake me or fry me, do what you want! Oink!â
The piglet did not show any weakness or beg for mercy. He closed his eyes and seemed to accept his fate.
Luyaâs head hurt a little. The pigmen had intelligence close to humans, and they were totally different from domestic pigs2! Conflicted, she struggled with herself for a while and then spoke: âHey kid, have you eaten human meat before?â
âI donât want to eat filthy human meat! Oink!â
He glared at Luya angrily, âIf I survive, once I grow up, Iâm going to take over my dadâs ranch and catch bad humans like you! I wonât feed you at all! Oink!â
âHah you think youâll grow up? Oh dear, I think youâre dreamingâŠâ
Luya was about to laugh at the piglet, and she continued to threaten to butcher him3. However, she suddenly caught a key word in his sentence and froze.
âWait, you said your dad is a rancher?â
âThatâs right! My dad is responsible for raising humans. Thanks to him, you humans have a place to live and things to eat in this post-apocalyptic world. You humans donât know how to be grateful at all. Oink.â The piglet spoke smugly.
âWhat number ranch is your dadâs?â Luya stared at him curiously and asked.
âWhy would I tell you?! Oink!â
âItâs D37, right?â
âSo what if it is?!â
Ludding didnât know what Luya was planning with these series of questions, and he looked at her a bit bewildered.
After Luya considered it for a while, she suddenly grabbed the piglet by the back of his neck and lifted him up. She declared excitedly, âItâs decided! This kid will be our hostage!â
âHah?â
Ludding couldnât help but be stunned, and he didnât follow Luyaâs train of thought.
âLetâs trade this bastard for Matthew.â
âYou meanâŠ?!â Luddingâs eyes lit up, and his heartbeat accelerated.
âRight, and it should work.â
Luya looked at Ludding with one hundred percent seriousness. âI know that youâve been blaming yourself about Mathew, Uncle Ludding. I hear you sleeptalking at night, and I see you waking up from your nightmares⊠Matthew is a good man. If thereâs a chance to save him, letâs not waste it.â
Luya wasnât so audacious to ask the red dragon to destroy a human ranch in order to rescue the people inside. The human ranches were a food basket for monsters. If one of them were destroyed, it would be equivalent to a declaration of war. There would be immeasurable consequences for making the entire demon race their enemy, and she wasnât so foolish to disregard that.
And even if she managed to rescue those humans, she had no idea where to put them.
Not counting those who had their souls stolen by the necromancer, humans who had been fed for more than a year in the human ranches had slow reactions, decayed brains, and they basically lost the ability to think for themselves. They didnât know how to resist, and they could only act by instinct.
Even if those people left the ranch, they would quickly be killed and become food for monsters.
She wasnât cut out to save the world. In this kind of difficult universe, it was already difficult enough to protect herself.
But if you could exchange a hostage, the situation was far more manageable. Nobody would care if one or two pigmen were killed.
Luya felt like Matthew was a kind, upright, and excellent archer. Most importantly, he was also really handsome.
When the time comes, he could help them with hunting or defense, and then sheâd have more time to slack off and live a leisurely life.
Authorâs notes :
Remember Matthew? Heâs the archer in the heroineâs memories who jumped out and stood in front of Luya when the adventurers wanted to sacrifice her to save their captain.
Without Matthew, the heroine would already have to put in the GG.
He also sacrificed himself to let the cook escape, so heâs a rare good man in this post-apocalyptic world.
This will be one chapter for now. Tomorrow morning at six, Iâll pay off the remaining fertilizer.
Thank you holy lurkers for the bombs!
Translatorâs notes :
Inferno : Literally, âLuya thought that it had brought destructionâ. Domestic pig : Literally, âpig roastâ. Butcher him : Literally, âturn him into pig roastâ.
Sorry about the slower updates~ This was a busy week and I have a wedding Iâm going to tomorrow~