Heroes and Their Qualifications (15)
What’s the most important thing to start a perfect day?
It’s breakfast.
A hearty breakfast is the foundation of a good day. If you don’t eat until after noon, you’ll suffer the painful pangs of hunger until then. To avoid discomfort during the most important hours of the morning, breakfast is essential. People often go to sleep wondering what delights the next morning will bring.
It’s like falling asleep in anticipation of a feast that will kick off the day.
And with a new place comes new flavors.
I, too, had fallen asleep the night before, looking forward to the next day’s meal.
The place I’m in now is no ordinary location, but a place where one can enjoy something special. It was the northern part of the Dragon Kingdom.
Despite staying here for several days, the freshness of a different menu each time is what defines the northern Dragon Kingdom.
Well, most of the time, it was a variety of flavorful fruits… But today was different. I had been hinted that today’s menu would be something else.
If Valkvogel wasn’t lying, then a new dish was indeed on the horizon.
With that thought, I opened my eyes to a sharp scent that tickled my nose.
A familiar yet somehow exotic aroma.
It was the smell of meat.
Turning away from the familiar wooden ceiling, I faced the feast revealed before me.
On an old… or rather, an antique-looking plate, was a delicacy praised as a gourmet treat.
Wyvern.
The meat of a wyvern, often traded at high prices in the Dragon Lord’s domain.
That was today’s breakfast.
Wyvern meat has a unique taste. If I had to find a comparison… it’s like a vague mix of chicken and beef. It’s a difficult flavor to describe.
In my lifetime, the only meats I’d known were pork, beef, and chicken. I never thought I’d eat anything else, nor had I ever considered it. After coming to this world, I had tasted a variety of meats, but at some point, the sight of raw meat not yet cooked made me queasy, so I had refrained as much as possible. Perhaps that’s why it’s hard to articulate the taste.
Well, enough of those trivial thoughts. It’s time to taste.
The appetizing brown sheen settled on the plate.
There were no utensils.
However, gourmet dining is about enjoying the true flavor of the ingredients. To truly appreciate the culinary arts, one must even forgo utensils that could affect the taste.
I grabbed the wyvern’s rib with my hands. Then took a bite of the perfectly grilled rib meat.
The slightly tough texture gave way to a salty yet spicy flavor that spread through my mouth…
“…Ah.”
It was adequate.
Not a bad taste, to be precise—a kind of taste that pleases the tongue. If the price was right, it would be satisfying enough. The problem was that I wasn’t in a situation to savor food.
Time was of the essence, and I couldn’t afford to waste it exploring flavors.
With that thought, my appetite waned.
I set down the meat I was eating. The salty residue left on my lips felt somewhat gritty.
I wiped the grease from my face with the back of my hand.
Then, with a somewhat empty heart, I turned my head.
What came into view was an old window frame and the monotonous scenery outside. Drifting clouds and a waterfall in the distance. Apart from the people walking the streets with horns and wings and the occasional black creature flying between the clouds, it was a landscape of a common countryside, hardly distinguishable as the northern part of the Dragon Kingdom.
So why am I sitting here, slicing wyvern meat?
What’s the pathetic reason for being here in the first place?
I should be delivering the letter as soon as possible and heading home.
The story takes us back several days.
* * *
Wyvern blood stains the ground.
The clearing had become silent before I knew it.
Neither the flapping of the wyvern’s wings nor anyone’s breathing resonated properly anymore. The wyvern’s tail, which had been subtly moving, had now lost its strength and hung limply.
An odd current flowed through the clearing, one that made it impossible to predict the next situation.
“……”
“……”
No one dared to speak first.
No one moved.
Bella scanned me and Valkvogel in turn. It was hard to tell whether she was assessing the situation or calculating the odds with her inscrutable expression. Valkvogel, as if wary of Bella, didn’t move an inch, her hand planted on the ground. Her posture suggested she was ready to spring into action at any moment, not to be taken by surprise as with Nicola.
I was prepared.
If Bella were to charge, I was ready to respond with the holy sword concealed within my cloak. And if she approached to speak… well, even if not amicably, I had a greeting ready to jump out in front of Valkvogel to defuse the tension.
But, resolving this through conversation seemed impossible.
Considering past precedents, the likelihood of the former was overwhelmingly high.
With the sound of armor clinking, Bella moved.
“Flan. It’s been a while.”
“Yeah… suppose it has.”
Bella was closing in on me.
I could naturally envision such a future.
Strength flowed into my right hand, gripping the holy sword.
And then,
“…That’s enough.”
With those words, Bella shifted her gaze.
Somewhat deflatingly, she ignored us and turned toward the girl. After fumbling in her clothing for a few seconds, Bella pulled out some bandages, herbs, and a water flask.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
“Um, th-thank you…”
The girl still seemed shaken from the wyvern’s attack. Bella appeared completely absorbed in wrapping the girl’s knee with bandages. The girl looked frightened by Bella’s blood-stained appearance, but… let’s not talk about that.
After tightening the bandage enough to turn the girl’s leg pale, Bella helped her to her feet.
“Get back to the village quickly. This area is crawling with wyverns. And don’t come back here for at least a week.”
“And…”
Then she turned her gaze to us.
“What brings you to this place? Wyvern hunting?”
“Cutting to the chase, I came to meet you… but you seem a bit busy.”
“Hm, yes, that’s right. You don’t look injured.”
Bella looked at Valkvogel.
Valkvogel was still in a defensive stance, not yet relaxed.
“Good to see you’re unharmed. Escort this girl to the village. Since I live in the same place she does, I’ll follow later. We can deal with our business then.”
Bella said this without paying much mind to Valkvogel, who didn’t seem particularly threatening to her.
She was telling us to take the girl to the village.
Her tone was almost commanding.
It was the kind of tone that could start a fight with someone hearing it for the first time. It was as if she thought it was natural to order us around.
But to me, it sounded fine.
Taking a moment to regroup didn’t seem like a bad idea.
The suggestion to rest in a place safe from the threat of wyverns was welcomed.
I was tired of trekking through the forest. Tired of the constant threat of monsters that could appear at any moment. And with my current condition, pushing on without rest would be reckless.
It was okay to take a break.
Although urgent, a little rest wouldn’t hurt.
Building up some goodwill now might come in handy later.
After all, Bella would be returning to the village, wouldn’t she?
It would be a good opportunity to prepare my last resort there.
“Not bad at all. We were just thinking of setting up camp soon…”
I smiled with a hearty, affable laugh.
The signature Flan smile.
Then I nudged Valkvogel in the ribs with my elbow, subtly yet forcefully, at an angle the girl wouldn’t notice.
Valkvogel glanced at me for a moment, then scrunched up the corners of her mouth before finally speaking.
“…Yes, I think that would be best.”
Valkvogel’s expression remained as intimidating as ever, but the atmosphere seemed to soften slightly with her words.
And so, we followed the girl’s lead towards the village, leaving Bella behind as she dashed off, claiming there were still wyverns left to kill.
* * *
The village we arrived at was enchanting.
I had heard that the northern part of the Dragon Kingdom was poor, but from what I saw, the living standards were better than expected. And it would have been strange if a village hidden deep in the mountain valleys wasn’t mystical.
Having become somewhat of a celebrity during our stay in the village over the past few days, we were treated quite well.
It was akin to being animals in a zoo… but to them, who rarely saw humans, I must have seemed like a creature they’d never seen before.
But as a half-dragon, half-human, it would’ve seemed strange to see a human.
Of course, it wasn’t just my unusual appearance that earned me this treatment. This village wasn’t wealthy enough to offer wyvern meat to outsiders without expecting something in return.
This was thanks to Valkvogel hunting wyverns.
I was reaping the benefits because she was taking down wyverns in places Bella couldn’t reach.
Valkvogel could easily handle a small group of wyverns on her own.
Unlike Bella, who simply hunted wyverns and reported their location, Valkvogel brought back the carcasses.
She was popular in a different way than Bella, thanks to her unique charm.
And what was I doing?
Cheering enthusiastically.
It was uncomfortable to rest without doing anything directly… but since Valkvogel had forced me to stay and rest here, there wasn’t much else to do.
But doesn’t she feel pain when she’s away from me, even with that collar on?
Well, I’ll think about that later.
“…So when can I expect to deliver this?”
This lifestyle was sure to continue.
Until Bella showed up.
We came to this village to deliver a letter to Bella. Once the letter is handed over, there would be no reason to stay. If we just open the letter, we can return home.
But Bella hadn’t appeared in the village for several days.
Meaning we were trapped here.
Well, she’ll show up eventually.
She’ll have to come to report the location of the wyvern carcasses.
After enduring with that thought for several days, I’ve reached my limit. I’m sick of the fruit from the trees and even the wyvern meat. I want to meet Bella as soon as possible, open the letter, and return home. But for that to happen, Bella needs to show up in the village, and she hasn’t even shown the tip of her nose.
And until Bella arrives, I can’t do anything but be forced to rest.
It’s a tedious routine.
The only thing that can relieve the boredom in this desolate corner is checking the letters.
Staring at the sealed letters, wondering how much longer until these two will be opened, has become my daily ritual before falling asleep.
There’s really nothing else I can do.
“Bella… she hasn’t run away, has she…?”
Today, too, I placed the letters where the plate used to be.
There are a total of seven letters that have been opened, including mine.
One letter remains sealed.
Excluding Chloe’s and Bella’s letters, most are open.
I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve reorganized these meaningless letters. Seven opened letters, only two sealed. No matter how many times I look, nothing changes.
“…Two?”
Right, there should be two sealed letters──but there aren’t?
Something felt off.
The sealed letters should be Bella’s and Chloe’s. There should be two. An opened letter wouldn’t reseal itself, and a sealed letter wouldn’t open without any reason.
But there are seven opened letters.
Only one sealed letter.
Even after rubbing my eyes and looking again, there was only one sealed letter.
Excluding the deep red letter from Bella, all the other letters were open.
What this meant.
I hurriedly picked up the letters.
Digging through the pile of letters, what I grasped was a piece of paper emitting a pale green hue.
The letter written to Chloe.
It was open.
Suddenly.
Without any reason.
