Ankoku Kishi Monogatari ~Yuusha wo Taosu Tameni Maou ni Shoukansaremashita~-Novel

Chapter 77.3: Underground Waterway is Kingdom of Dream

I patted Kuna’s silver hair as I enjoyed the beautiful scenery.

There was an extremely adorable girl sleeping with her head resting on my lap, there was no way I wouldn’t be happy.

「Guhehehehe.」

I ended up letting out a pervy smile on my face upon seeing Kuna’s sleeping face.

Whoops, calm down little guy.

I drank my tea, enjoying its nice aroma to calm my mind.

Glorious brought its head closer when I drank my tea.

「You’re also such an adorable child, Glorious.」

I patted Glorious’ nose. Glorious seemed to be really happy when I did that to them.

After that, Glorious laid their huge body beside us.

「Maybe I should take a short nap too.」

Thus, I leaned my back against Glorious’ body.

By doing so, my eyes were looking at the forest ahead of me.

The reason I did this was because I realized that there was a shadow of a person looking toward us from the shadows in the tree for a while now.

It was a light presence. At first I thought it was a goblin or two, but this area was pretty sunny, the condition hated the most by the goblins. Thus, goblins wouldn’t come close to this area around this time. In that case, it must be another creature.

Though Kuna might have felt their presence too, she seemed to ignore them.

From what I felt, they’re not powerful creatures. That’s why I think it would be safe to ignore them.

I mean, Kuna laid her head on my lap, sleeping without care, as if the ones who observed us pose no problem to us at all.

Thus, I thought that I should try to talk to them.

「Hey, won’t you come out from your hiding place?」

I called out to our peeper. I called them since they didn’t seem to be a hostile force.

I couldn’t help but be curious about what kind of people they are, but well, it really couldn’t be helped if they left.

But, if they had a business with us, I would at least lend my ears.

As if responding to my call, the one who came out from the shadow of the tree was a little girl and a foal.

Seeing their appearance, I couldn’t help but become even more curious about them.

The little girl was human no matter how you look at it.

The humans in this world normally live in groups since most of them are too weak to fend off the monsters by themself.

There was no human country around this area. Thus, I was curious about the reason for that little human girl to appear in this forest. Why did she appear in this secluded, out of nowhere, place?

I mean, she might have been eaten by a monster if she was alone.

Thus, her guardian should be nearby.

And yet, why did that guardian didn’t show themselves?

When the little girl and the foal drew near toward me, I saw a small shadow moving behind them.

It was a dwarf. I mean, there should be no other race with such a young appearance and bushy beard aside from them right?

Dwarf appearance would become like a middle aged human eight years after their birth. After that, they would stay like that for their entire life.

For that reason, it was hard to grasp the age of a dwarf.

The little girl and foal approached us with a light run.

The little girl’s eyes weren’t looking at Glorious, a giant dragon, nor she was looking at Kuna, a sleeping beauty, she was looking at the sweets we ate.

If she could see the sweets from that distance, I guess she has extremely good eyesight.

「Are you curious about their taste?」

The girl replied with a nod.

Thus, I took one cookie and presented it to the little girl. Since Kuna and co ended up making too much of them, there was so much left over even from our portion.

「There you go. It’s delicious.」

But the little girl didn’t accept the cookie.

「… My little sister too.」

The little girl spoke while looking at the foal.

I was rather curious as to the reason why she called a foal as her “Little sister,” but I gave another cookie for the foal too.

After taking the two cookies, the little girl fed one into the foal’s mouth and ate the other one herself.

After the little girl ate the cookie, the dwarf finally approached.

「Thank you. O Great Dragon Tamer. Thank you for sharing your cookie with this little girl. Efa, Pona. Come on and say thank this gentleman.」

The dwarf bowed their head as they said their gratitude. I knew from that trembling voice that they were still scared of me.

Well that’s only natural since no normal person could approach a dragon without being scared of them.

If the little girl and foal didn’t come out to ask for cookies, this dwarf might not approach us either.

「Thank you very much, uncle.」

「Hihiiin!!」

The little girl called Efa and the foal called Pona bowed to me.

Though I was really shocked when she called me uncle, I’m not a petty person to be angry at something as trivial as that. What surprised me the most was the fact that the foal thanked me too.

「Are you living around this area?」

I asked the dwarf.

I’m curious about the relationship between the little girl, the foal, and the dwarf.

「Yes, my name is Ulim. As you can see, I’m a dwarf. We’re living in this forest.」

Different from humans, the dwarves were hardly attacked by monsters. For that reason, they could live with ease even in this monster-infested forest.

The story about seven dwarves who live in the forest protecting the princess who ran away from her cruel stepmother was really famous back in my home world.

Maybe this Ulim was a hunter and lumberjack. I mean, they were carrying a big axe on their back and a crossbow called Gastraphetes in their hand.

The one who invented the crossbow was the orc tribe who lived in Nargol.

Dwarves have short limbs similar to orcs, and they couldn’t use a bow thanks to their natural bulging stomach. That’s why dwarves use a crossbow instead of a bow.

Though crossbows couldn’t be fired rapidly like a bow, it was easier to use than a bow, and had high penetration power even if it was fired by someone with weak arm strength.

「It’s nice to meet you Ulim-dono. May I know if this child is your daughter?」

Ulim shook their head when I asked them that question.

「No, they’re a lost child. When I picked her up, she’s already together with the foal called Pona.」

Ulim spoe while looking at Efa. Maybe they remembered the memories of when they found the two.

Ulim then retold the story when they met Pona and Efa for the first time.

It seems that the meeting happened around two years ago. On a certain day, Ulim found an emaciated little girl and a foal in the middle of foraging for mushrooms in the mountain. Since they couldn’t find their parents near the two, Ulim thought that the two might get attacked by monsters anytime soon. Thus, Ulim, a lonely hermit, decided to bring the two into their abode.

The three of them, two people and an animal, have been living together ever since then.

「Have you tried to find their parent?」

Ulim shook their head again when I asked that question.

「When I found them, they were holding onto a blood stained centaurs’ bow. Their father might be a centaur. Since there’s no centaur packs around this area, I tried to ask about their mother. But, though they know that their mother is living in nearby country, they don’t know who their mother is.」

「I see…」

Centaurs’ bow was what is widely known as a composite bow in my home world. It was an “m” shaped bow made with several combination materials such as monster’s bones or wood.

Though a centaur’s bow was smaller than the elf’s long bow, it was far more powerful. But, it was rarely used amongst humans due to its troublesome manufacturing process.

But, centaurs love to use this composite bow the most.

From the bow in their possession, Ulim judged that the two might be the children of centaurs.

Moreover, I had to agree with Ulim in the fact that the two were centaurs’ children since the little girl called the foal as her little sister.

Reason being if a girl was born between a centaurs father and human mother, the child would be a human girl and if it was foal, meaning that the little sister’s mother was a horse.

Thus, resulting in the creation of step sisters of different races. In addition, the reason for their mutual understanding might be due to their blood relationship.

But, I heard that centaurs prefer to mate with beautiful female humans.

There was even a story about a centaur who kidnapped the wife of a human couple who was troubled since they couldn’t cross the river. That centaur was then killed by the husband’s poisoned arrow.

Efa’s centaur parent might have been killed by the humans.

Considering such possibilities, Ulim took Efa under his protection.

Efa and Pona ate the sweets with a delighted look on their faces.

It seems they had their own way to convey their feelings to each other.

「Allow me to thank you again. I’m not skilled enough to bake sweets for them after all.」

Ulim thanked me again for the cookies.

Though they could make superior armaments, dwarves were apparently unskilled when it came to cooking. That’s why this was actually the first time Efa and Pona ate sweets.

So yeah, the reason they approached us was definitely because of the aroma of the sweets.

「Don’t worry, I’m glad that they like it. By the way, actually I’m in the middle of looking for a certain daemon, did you happen to meet such daemon in this area?」

I tried to ask, fully aware that the other party might not have even seen the shadow of the said daemon.

「Daemon? U~hm… honestly I don’t know about it. But, there’s a witch who lives by herself near our home.」

「A witch? In this area?」

Ulim nodded to me.

Speaking about witches, they’re women who tied a covenant with an evil god or demon race to gain magical power, or girls who are born from their relationship.

Though some male humans tied a covenant with a female evil god or female demon race, in most cases, it was the opposite.

The reason why the number of male demon races who tied a covenant was bigger than female demon races was because most of them were lesser daemon such as Zeal.

By the way, the probability of a child born from a race with low magical power was quite high.

For example, when an elf mates with a human, the probability of their children being born as human was higher than as an elf.

Since the demon race’s magical power was far higher than human, the majority of the witch gave birth to human children.

In addition, tying a covenant with the demon race was considered a grave sin in Faeria’s faith. Since the influence of Faeria’s faith has rooted so deeply in this world, the witches became the target for persecution.

For that reason, the majority of which either never revealed their identity in the public, or simply lived in seclusion.

And the latter seems to be living around this area.

「Yes. That grandma might know a lot of thing about daemon.」

「I see, I guess I have to try to ask her.」

I replied while brushing Kuna’s silky smooth hair.

Though it might turn out to be just a waste of time, there was nothing wrong with a short visit.

◆Dwarf’s Forest Guard, Ulim

Honestly, I thought that I would die for real this time.

I was still scared sh*tless, a chill running down my spine even after I parted ways with the youth who led that giant dragon.

It happened when we’re in the middle of foraging for mushrooms.

When I turned around, I found that Pona and Efa weren’t by my side anymore.

When I went looking for them, I found them hiding in the woods near the fountain, looking at something.

When I turned toward the place they were looking at, honestly, I never felt so surprised like this before in my entire life to the point that my waist gave out.

I mean, the one they’re looking at was a huge… sleeping dragon.

Though I tried to take her away from this dangerous place, Efa didn’t budge at all.

When I took a closer look at the dragon, I found something like tea utensils lying right beside the sleeping dragon.

And then, a youth who drank the tea while leaning on the body of that dragon called out to Efa.

「Efa. Aren’t you scared? I mean look at me, I just barely stood on my own feet.」

I asked Efa who was walking by my side.

「Uuuhm, there’s nothing scary about him, uncle Ulim. I mean, Pona said that they’re not scary at all.」

Efa replied to me while brushing Pona the foal.

I couldn’t have a conversation with Pona. But, Efa seems to be able to have a mutual understanding with Pona.

「I see… well, if Pona said so.」

Pona the foal could feel a dangerous presence to some extent. It was mainly thanks to Pona’s power that she and Efa survived in that forest.

In addition, Pona said that the youth and the dragon weren’t dangerous at all.

「He’s such a nice person right, Pona?」

Efa was smiling delightfully.

「Nice person, huh…」

I recalled again the moment when I spoke to that youth. Was he even a human?

Though his outer appearance might be that of a human, honestly, I couldn’t regard him as human at all.

Moreover, my instinct kept telling me that youth was far more dangerous than that giant dragon.

Dragons were gentle beings by nature. But, they would transform into the embodiment of calamity once someone dared to provoke their wrath.

Could it be that youth was the same as dragon, gentle yet extremely terrifying once he pissed off?

Though Efa was laughing happily, I reminded myself to get as far away as possible from that youth.