Chapter 201

Returning the Favor (1)

I didn’t understand.

No matter how many times I thought it over, I simply couldn’t understand.

I had clearly heard that dragons treasured their young above all else.

In other words, they would never entrust their children to someone they didn’t trust.

If anything happened to the hatchling while it was here, I would face terrifying retaliation.

Moreover, this was the Forest of Four Seasons. Unless animals belonged to the same group, they were essentially enemies.

There was the kangaroo arena, which functioned as neutral territory, but that was an extremely rare exception founded upon an unspoken agreement.

The moment they left the neutral zone, they became enemies again. In other words, nowhere was truly safe.

"Pibiiii~"

"Kyuuu~ Kyu~"

So why had the dragon entrusted its hatchling to me?

The hatchling was currently running around and playing excitedly with Wonmo.

Whenever the hatchling took flight with a flap of its wings, Wonmo hopped up and down after it.

Watching the two adorable babies play together put my mind at ease, but that feeling didn’t last long.

"Mister."

"...."

"This is your first time seeing anything like this too, right? It’s my first time as well."

I had absolutely no idea how I was supposed to treat the hatchling.

Had the dragon genuinely mistaken this place for a daycare center and left its child with me, or was there some other reason?

Whatever the case, one thing was certain.

I had to protect the hatchling at all costs.

Only yesterday, it had crawled into the cave with wounds covering its entire body.

I didn’t know what had attacked it, but there was a high chance that threat was still nearby.

The dragon probably went to slaughter whatever did it.

Perhaps it had only entrusted the hatchling to me until that was done.

I released a long sigh and accepted reality.

I couldn’t drive the hatchling away, so we had no choice but to get along.

Fortunately, the hatchling seemed to like this place and played well with Wonmo.

"Kyuuuuu~"

"Piiii~"

Even now, they were using Largo’s neck as a slide.

Largo himself was sweating profusely as he nervously watched the hatchling’s every move.

Maybe this actually makes the shelter safer?

Dragons were terrifying.

And that fear seemed deeply engraved not only into humanity, but into all animals.

Just as Largo was doing now, most animals wouldn’t even consider laying a paw on the hatchling.

If so, the shelter might benefit from the same deterrent effect.

Of course, since this was the Forest of Four Seasons, there was no telling what sort of monstrous creature might appear.

It’s basically a living nuclear bomb.

That was genuinely how dragons were treated.

All-Father had once told me that a dragon heart alone possessed enough power to annihilate an entire city.

If even its heart held that much power, what about the creature carrying that heart?

There was no need to ask.

I silently watched the hatchling and Wonmo playing before accessing the Gallery.

I wanted to inform everyone about the current situation and, while I was at it, ask why the dragon might have left its hatchling with me.

Title: I opened a daycare center

Wild Grylls

(A photo of the hatchling playing with Wonmo)

(A video of the hatchling running around excitedly)

(A video of the hatchling struggling to drag Wonmo)

I don’t know why, but the dragon left its hatchling with me.

Does anyone know the reason? They originally left together, but then the dragon came back and dropped the hatchling off.

I thought dragons treasured their young. Does anyone know why it’s doing this?

└ Heavenly Demon: If it was willing to leave its young with you, it must trust you. In a way, that is only natural.

└ Wild Grylls: Why would it trust me?

└ Heavenly Demon: Did you not say dragons were as intelligent as humans? Moreover, unlike humans, beasts do not forget kindness or grudges.

└ Wild Grylls: Dumping a hatchling on me isn’t repaying a favor. It’s throwing a bomb at me;;

└ SwordMaster: Don’t look at it so negatively. In a sense, this means you have a dragon’s protection, doesn’t it?

└ A person under a dragon’s protection. Didn’t that appear in legends too?

└ Yeah, but that came from mythology. Those stories originated from when dragons ruled over humanity.

└ So the gods killed those dragons and liberated humanity?

└ That’s also true.

└ Why, though? To a kingdom protected by a dragon, wouldn’t the gods have seemed like invaders?

└ Starlight Princess: Because the dragons’ exploitation was so severe. That’s also where the legends about dragon lairs containing all manner of treasures originated.

└ Sounds like dragons had really shitty personalities, lol.

└ Starlight Princess: They weren’t particularly pleasant. There are even stories of them killing people with their breath whenever something displeased them. That dragon is relatively good-natured by comparison.

└ Aren’t you basically living on borrowed time, then?

└ Not even that. His life is hanging by a thread.

└ A thread hanging from another thread, lmaooo.

└ Starlight Princess: You people are truly awful.

Most of them had reached the same conclusion as me.

Since I had protected its child, the dragon had judged this to be a safe place.

The problem was that dragons were generally ferocious by nature, so there was no telling when it might suddenly turn on me.

One way or another, it remained a ticking time bomb.

Ugh. I don’t know anymore.

I might as well eat. Worrying about it wouldn’t solve anything.

I would have to become as close to the hatchling as possible, making the dragon less willing to hurt me.

Before that, I decided to give it a name.

I couldn’t keep calling it "the hatchling" every time.

If I ask the Gallery, they’ll only suggest all kinds of ridiculous names.

From now on, I would choose the names myself.

As it happened, a suitable name had already come to mind.

A species that had once conquered Earth before going extinct after a great cataclysm.

And the most famous name associated with that species.

Recalling that name, I approached the hatchling.

Then I lifted the hatchling, which had been playing excitedly with Wonmo, and spoke.

"Tyranno."

"Pii?"

"Your name is Tyranno now. Got it?"

"Pii!"

Now that I had named it, it was time to put it down.

It would take some time for it to recognize its own name, but that was fine.

I was about to start preparing our meal when—

"...Tyranno?"

Ludwig asked with a slightly bewildered expression.

He apparently hadn’t imagined that I would go so far as to name it.

"Yes. We’ll probably be seeing a lot of it from now on, so it needs a name."

Ludwig nodded silently.

I was the owner of this place, so he seemed to respect my decision.

"I’m going upriver for now. Please stay here."

Carrying Fast Sloth on my back, I headed upriver and left Ludwig at the shelter.

Someone of Ludwig’s strength would be more than capable of defending it, and Kkobong was there too.

"By the way, weren’t you afraid of the dragon?"

I asked Fast Sloth as we made our way upstream.

Everyone else had been terrified by the dragon, but Fast Sloth had leisurely scratched his back.

I couldn’t tell whether he was brave or simply incapable of feeling fear.

Naturally, Fast Sloth didn’t answer me. As always, his expression remained relaxed.

I wished he could speak like the gorillas.

Did he even have vocal cords in the first place? Still, at least he could understand me, so it was fine.

Roooooar!

Perhaps because the rain had stopped some time ago, the river had returned to its normal level.

There weren’t any fish lying scattered around the riverbank either. The animals had probably carried them away.

I had originally planned to come upriver first thing in the morning, but the dragon’s sudden appearance had made that impossible.

I’ll just set the fish traps.

It hadn’t rained heavily yesterday, so there was no need to erect any stone barriers.

I quickly set the traps and returned to the shelter.

When I arrived, I was greeted by an amusing sight.

"Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!"

"Chirp! Chirp!"

While I was upriver, Ludwig seemed to have planted wheat seeds in the field.

The wheat soon began growing at a tremendous rate, naturally attracting a flock of birds.

Under normal circumstances, they would have stripped the entire field bare.

"Piiiiik!"

"Chiiiiirp!"

"Chirp, chirp, chirp!"

Flap-flap-flap!

But the instant Tyranno roared, the entire flock fled in a panic.

Despite being only a baby, he apparently possessed the natural intimidation of a dragon.

Thanks to him, Ludwig harvested the wheat without suffering any interference.

"Oh?"

That was unexpected.

If this continued, harvesting wheat would become much easier from now on.

Ludwig must have reached the same conclusion, because he looked at Tyranno with a peculiar expression.

Tyranno paid him no attention and immediately became absorbed in playing with Wonmo again.

"Come on, you two. Eat before you go back to playing."

First, we needed to eat.

As I had mentioned before, we still had some fish left.

The problem was that Tyranno could easily devour an entire fish by himself.

There were five of us: me, Ludwig, Wonmo, Kkobong, and Tyranno.

We consumed five whole fish with every meal.

Fortunately, Largo only ate grass. Otherwise, the situation would have been horrifying.

I’ll either have to install more traps or expand the fields.

There was something else that concerned me.

Would Wonmo and Tyranno become picky eaters?

Wonmo was a bear and therefore omnivorous, but Tyranno was most likely a carnivore.

Unless Tyranno’s mother started delivering meat to us, I would have to ration our food for the time being.

Plump—

Once we had finished eating, I noticed a slight change in Wonmo.

He had visibly put on weight.

It wasn’t just his stomach that had become rounder; his overall size had increased.

That probably meant winter would arrive soon.

We had already prepared for it, but what would happen to Tyranno?

Would his mother take him away herself, or would she continue leaving him here?

"Kyuuuuu."

Now that his belly was full, Wonmo toddled into the cave for a nap.

Tyranno blocked his path, apparently wanting to continue playing, but the difference in their sizes was too great.

Even when Tyranno blocked him with his body and tried pulling him back with his mouth, Wonmo didn’t budge.

"Piiiiing...."

When Wonmo eventually settled down for his nap, Tyranno looked heartbroken.

As if asking why Wonmo was sleeping when they could still play, he repeatedly pressed down on him with his forepaws.

But Wonmo had already departed for dreamland.

There was no waking him now.

Doesn’t this one sleep?

As far as I knew, most baby animals spent more than half the day asleep.

Dragons must have been an exception, because Tyranno was still brimming with energy.

I watched the dejected Tyranno before casually asking,

"Tyranno, do you want to play with me?"

"Pii?"

Flap! Flap!

Did he understand human speech too?

The moment I spoke to him, he began flapping his tiny wings.

Even his large eyes sparkled with excitement. Apparently, he was desperate to play.

Come to think of it, don’t dragons like shiny things?

I asked Tyranno to wait for a moment and opened a box.

Inside was the mithril left over from the incident involving Ludwig’s prosthetic leg.

Mithril was a material that glowed green, so perhaps Tyranno would like it.

I’ll roll it around for him to chase.

I took out a fist-sized piece of mithril shaped like a ball.

When I showed it to Tyranno, his expression immediately filled with curiosity.

Just as expected, dragons loved shiny things—

"Chomp!"

"...?"

Crunch! Crack! Crunch!

—though perhaps he loved them in a different sense.

Tyranno swallowed the mithril in one bite and chewed it with great relish.

Mithril was renowned for being as hard as steel, yet he was eating it like a cracker.

Gulp!

"Piiii~"

"Was it tasty?"

"Pii!"

As long as he enjoyed it, I supposed it was fine.

***

Dragons were widely known as the strongest living creatures on earth.

They possessed immense strength born from their overwhelming size.

They had minds intelligent enough to wield magic like humans.

They had wings that allowed them to soar freely through the sky.

Finally, they possessed breath attacks capable of melting everything in their path.

Very few beings could fight such creatures on equal footing.

That was why humans and most animals feared incurring a dragon’s wrath.

Most creatures ignored hatchlings as though they didn’t even exist. If anyone harmed one, that individual would be exiled from their group.

Expelling one member was preferable to having the entire group annihilated for the offense.

But that only applied outside the Forest of Four Seasons.

The Forest of Four Seasons was home to monsters every bit as terrifying as dragons.

There were already creatures that seemed to belong in a kaiju film, like the giant crab and giant crayfish Grylls had encountered at the lake.

In other words, monsters comparable to dragons in both size and strength existed here.

"Grrrrrr."

The gray dragon released a terrifying growl as it glared ahead.

Its expression was murderous, as though it intended to tear apart the creature before it at any moment.

The dragon was currently inside none other than its own lair—its home.

Under normal circumstances, it would have rested there, but something prevented it from doing so.

Rustle—

An enormous white serpent had brazenly occupied the lair.

It radiated a different kind of oppressive presence from the dragon, while its flickering tongue seemed to be taunting its opponent.

The monster was more than twice the dragon’s length.

Its bulk was equally astounding. If it opened its jaws wide, it looked capable of swallowing the dragon whole.

It wasn’t one of the imoogi commonly found in the Central Plains.

It appeared to be a far superior creature.

"Shaaaaa...!"

When the enormous white serpent opened its mouth, a pair of razor-sharp venomous fangs came into view.

Purple liquid dripped from them toward the ground.

Sssssss!

No—it didn’t seep into the ground.

Even solid rock melted the instant the venom touched it.

This monster was the reason the dragon had been forced to leave its hatchling unattended.

It was also the reason the dragon had no choice but to entrust its hatchling to Grylls for a time.

Like the sky whale, it was a monstrous creature that should only have existed during the Mythological Age.

"Graaaaaaaaah!"

"Shaaaaaaaaa!"

In one corner of the Forest of Four Seasons, a life-or-death struggle began.