CH extra 43

While Shuraina helped Hestia adjust her eyesight to the light, Shuraina took a few bites of the bread. Then, she dusted off the bread crumbs on her mouth and lowered Hestia’s fist.

“Uh…… Huh? It was you, Shushu? S, sorry!”

“…..I always think this, but if you practiced the sword, you would’ve been an amazing swordsman.”

Shuraina said, complaining as she touched the part that Hestia had hit.

The magic lit the dark interior of the cave. Once the darkness was gone and Hestia was able to distinguish shapes, she wiped off the anxious expression on her face as her eyes grew wide. The sight in front of her was nigh incredible.

Once Shuraina lit the magic fire, the various insects on the ceiling absorbed the light and began to shine a variety of beautiful colors from their butts. Blue, sky blue, purple, and more, they warmly lit the interior of the space as they glowed.

The floor was made with very sturdy-looking glass and illuminated what was below. Below the glass were diamonds the size of a fist, rubies shaped into daffodils, a crown encrusted with sapphires, and more–it was a mountain of treasures. It seemed like the treasures had been abandoned for some time, though. Dust coated the top of them all, but they still hadn’t lost their shine.

“….my heart is pounding right now.”

Hestia, a normal, law-abiding citizen, had never seen such a sight like the one in front of her. She felt like she was committing a crime by crime by just being here. She put a hand on her chest to try and calm herself down.

If she was already feeling so out of control, how would Shuraina, someone more materialistic than her, feel? Shuraina explained that when she had first entered the room and was met with Noirelle’s treasure safe, she had grabbed the back of her neck and was about to pass out. From sheer joy.

Shuraina watched at Hestia stared with her eyes wide in shock and smiled, feeling the same.

“Noirelle! Noirelle!”

Shuraina grabbed Hestia’s hand as she was still entranced with the treasures and walked towards the entrance. Once they got out of Noirelle’s treasure room from within her lair, she was soon met with a blank space about the size of the training hall in the academy. A giant nest made of dry grass and branches was in the center of the space.

Within the nest was a mountain of monster bones and ripped skin.

Seeing how the green blood of the monster was still warm, it seemed like there had been a living being here until recently.

Shuraina turned her head left and right to look for Noirelle. She could only find the bodies of monsters for now, but she was assured that Noirelle was in here somewhere.

“Shuraina, let’s go back. I think it’s time. I do want to meet the dragon, but I don’t want to rob their house and be hated for it.”

“Shh. Stay here. I think they’re here somewhere.”

Shuraina, who was sensitive to others’ presences, stretched out her hand and lowered her waist. She felt the presence of someone else.

“Gya?”

A small voice sounded from behind the mountain of bodies. It sounded like a baby’s coo.

“Kyau kyau? Ukya?”

Huh? This wasn’t Noirelle’s voice.

Shuraina scrunched her brows at the sound and walked forwards. Hestia walked timidly next to Shuraina before she lost her fear and just walked towards the sound. The two of them passed the mountain of monster corpses before they were able to find the source of the sound.

“Uhehihi. Kya kya!”

The first thing they saw was black hair and broad shoulders. They looked a bit too big to be making cute baby sounds.

Shuraina and Hestia’s expressions went cold.

“Hylli……..?”

“He’s Hylli, right?”

They frowned as they saw a familiar shock of black hair, but it had been none other than Hylli Orde Ianess.

Hylli had been sitting in the nest with his back facing them when he had felt disapproving stares aimed towards him. He turned back. A handsome face with red eyes. The two of them hoped against hope that Hylli wasn’t the one making those weird noises, but ith ad been him.

“Oh! What are you guys doing here?”

Hylli twisted his head to look at them, eyes wide in curiosity. Seeing his innocent reaction made Shuraina hold Hestia’s hand and start shuffling backwards.

“That’s what….I want to know. What are you doing here?”

“Why are you making weird sounds by yourself…….?”

Hylli had just been about to stand up in joy from seeing his classmates after a while when he noticed that they were shooting him uncomfortable looks. He frowned. When he tried to figure out what was wrong with him, he turned around to check. Another weird sound came from Hylli again.

“Kyuu kyuu!”

Hestia and Shuraina held their hands and walked further away from Hylli. Why were they doing that?

Hylli belatedly figured out why they were reacting like that. His face burned a bright red as he shook his hands in front of him.

“N, no! I’m not the one talking!”

“You’re the only one here, who else would…..”

“No! I’m saying it’s not me!”

Hylli expressed with an aggrieved expression on his face. He soon turned around. Then, he carefully held the thing in his arms before lowering it in front of the two to see.

Hylli was holding on to none other than a dragon that was whiter than white. Unlike Noirelle, the tiny dragon had a snake-like body. The horns on their head were facing downwards. Their pupils were slit in the middle like other monsters and the whites of their eyes were darker than the white of their scales. Their eyes, however, were shining in various colors just like Swanhaden and Blanchielle’s. The only way to describe the dragon was ‘beautiful’.

Hylli complained as he brushed his hand across the sleeping dragon in his arms.

“This kid’s been eating for five hours total and just finished. They seem to be struggling to digest it all because they ate too much–they’re cooing a lot right now.”

“….keugh.”

The small dragon made a smacking noise with their mouth as they tried to appear smaller. Shuraina just blankly stared at the sight before she pulled the small dragon towards her and gently held it.

“Is this Blanchielle?”

“Apparently so, based on what Noirelle said. It hasn’t even been long since they woke up, but they’re still eating a bunch.

As soon as Blanchielle was pulled into a hug by Shuraina, they slipped out of her arms and wrapped themselves around her. Shuraina was surprised as she stiffened up and curled her shoulders inwards.

“Also, they wrap themselves around you because they’re hugging you, not because they’re threatening you. When Blanchielle first saw me, they wrapped themselves around me so tight that I couldn’t breathe.”

“…..kek.”

Shuraina’s body let out a loud crack before Blanchielle slid off of her and crawled back towards Hylli’s lap.

“Anyway, what are you doing here? The coronations almost soon. Why aren’t you at the capital?”

Hestia asked as she massaged Shuraina’s twisted shoulder thanks to Blanchielle. Hylli pat Blanchielle’s head before speaking.

“So the principal, no, Noirelle suddenly kidnapped me and showed me the newly hatched dragon and told me to introduce myself, right? And after that, I can’t remember it very much but when I woke up, I was already acting like another parent.”

Hylli wrapped a string around his shoulders and placed Blanchielle in a pocket that was held together by the string. Then, he took the bone Blanchielle had been eating, tossed it away, and gently patted her back and moved up and down.

He looked extremely familiar with the process.

“Hylli……..”

Shuraina watched as Hylli was used again, just like everywhere else, and called his name nervously.

He was always being used in one way or another–would he be able to do a good job as the emperor? But still, he was showing his followers and citizens the leader side to himself–that was good, right? He was just acting like this in front of us, right?

“Kyau kyau!”

No matter how pitifully Shuraina looked at him, Hylli focused on his work. He raised his hand to pat Blanchielle’s soft white fur when Blanchielle began to tap at Hylli’s stomach with their small hands.

“Okay, okay. You want to play airplane?”

Hylli asked carefully. Blanchielle nodded and snickered.

“Kki!”

As soon as Hylli heard the answer, he threw Blanchielle in the air. Blanchielle tried their best to fly for the few moments they shot upwards before they shot back down. He caught Blanchielle’s falling body and threw her back up.

Both Shuraina and Hestia, who had been watching the sight in front of them, began to follow Hylli’s example and began to play with Blanchielle. She used magic to mimic the feeling of flying, sat them down and took care of the jewels stuck on their soft feathers, and generally had a great time with them all.

But…..there was a problem.

Noirelle was busy looking for lairs for herself and Noirelle to be able to take care of Blanchielle too often. No matter how quickly she did a round trip of the continent, the room that Blanchielle was sleeping in flowed faster. Noirelle decided to use the innocent and stupidly kind future emperor as a nanny. They had originally been thinking of making their nanny Swanhaden as they were a direct descendant, but she couldn’t trust them at all.

But the second option of nanny, Hylli, was doing a better job than expected, so Noirelle didn’t have to worry about her travels.

Even now, she had done a round trip of the continent in search of monster-infested places to get more food for Blanchielle. She was ecstatic to go back to her lair.

“…..what’s with the chaos?”

Noirelle muttered, dusting the tree branches off of her clothes.

Her lair was burning.

Blanchielle was spitting out blue chunks of fire as they squealed, and Hylli, Shuraina, and Hestia were all rolling around as they tried to avoid the fire.

“Hylli Orde Ianess! So why is Blanchielle suddenly spitting out fire?”

“That’s! This is similar to when babies burp after eating! But it seem like it’s worse than normal!”

A lot of people had visited today, so Blanchielle was excited.

“Cooooo coooo!”

Then, another chunk of blue fire erupted from within Blanchielle’s mouth.

“Aaaaack! The nest is on fire!”

“Hestia, stay still! I’ll try and kill the fire!”

“Shuraina! Your left, carefuuuuuuuuuuulagh! Aaaack! Oh my god!”

The three humans rolled and yelled on the floor. Noirelle lowered the monsters she had caught onto the ground and scoffed at the sight in front of her.

Shuraina, who hadn’t visited in a while, was running as she held Hestia’s arm. Hylli was too busy using the monster bones to use against the flames.

“Hmmm…..”

Noirelle was about to use a spell to make Blachielle calm, but she shook her hands and released all of the magic.

She had thought about helping, but the sight in front of her was way too funny. Moreover, little Blanchielle was so excited that she was spitting fires. She didn’t want to cause a nuisance. Instead, Noirelle turned around to create a meal for the humans.