Mari
"....No matter how I think about it, this is weird."
Sepheer grumbled, her cheeks puffed out like a sulky chipmunk.
"Kyuu?"
"Hm...? What's weird?"
The hatchling and I both tilted our heads at her in unison.
Apparently that only made her angrier. Sepheer squeezed her eyes shut and screeched at the top of her lungs.
"How can you succeed when I failed?! Does that even make sense?!"
"Uh..."
"This is absolutely impossible!! Some kind of trickery must be going on here."
"Umm...."
"Wait—maybe the charm I cast just activated late? Yeah... that would actually explain it... Right... There's no way I could fail... Heh heh..."
"....."
The way she muttered to herself with all reason drained from her eyes was starting to give off a genuinely unsettling vibe.
Beside her, Athena stood lost in thought, staring at something intently.
Leaving the half-broken Sepheer alone for a moment, I shifted my gaze to Athena.
"Athena, what are you thinking about..?"
".....Nothing."
After watching the hatchling in silence for a long while, Athena let out a deep sigh and reached over to stroke my hair.
"Anyway, congratulations, Hera. You've become the first being across every race to ever tame a dragon."
"I-Is that so?"
Truthfully, even I still hadn't fully wrapped my head around the situation.
Me?
A dragon?
Someone who couldn't even use mana properly had tamed a dragon. It was impossible to believe.
Besides, there was no way a dragon would be seduced by something as ridiculous as a little hand-kiss.
Or maybe... she's just being nice because she thinks I'm funny..?
Maybe she hadn't been tamed at all. Maybe she'd just looked at me blowing kisses at my own hand and thought, What is this creature...? How novel! and latched onto me out of pure curiosity.
....But if that were the case, it would hurt my feelings a little.
..Still, having a dragon show me goodwill couldn't be a bad thing—even if that goodwill was roughly the same kind you'd give a court jester.
"Kyuuu.."
While I stood there fretting in silence, the hatchling rubbed her head against me as if demanding attention.
"Mm.. Are you bored?"
"Kyuu!!"
She answered with the cutest little reaction, almost as if she truly understood the question.
Oh my god. She's way too adorable..
For some reason, the look Athena was giving the hatchling grew even sharper.
"Shall we head back soon..?"
I carefully asked Athena, who was wearing a distinctly chilly expression. She sighed and finally tore her gaze away from the hatchling.
"....Fine."
And so, dragging along a still-muttering, completely checked-out Sepheer, we returned to the inn with our brand-new pet in tow.
The pink-haired succubus made a suggestion.
"How about Poppy?"
"Grrrr....."
"....Hiiing."
The hatchling let out a low growl of clear disapproval.
The three of us were currently sitting around the inn bed, trying to come up with a name for her.
We couldn't keep calling her "hatchling" forever, so we'd decided it would be better to give her a proper name.
Sepheer's eyes lit up as if another brilliant idea had struck her, and she tried again.
"What about Bluey!! It matches her blue scales perfectly!"
"Grrrrrrr..."
"......Never mind, then.."
Rejected by the hatchling once more.
Apparently naming sense was simply not one of Sepheer's talents.
Athena, looking thoroughly uninterested, simply stroked my hair as she spoke.
"Hera. You name her."
"Huh? Me..?"
"You're her master now. The least you can do is give her a name."
At Athena's words, the little blue hatchling turned to me with sparkling eyes.
The expectant look on her face made my heart ache.
So cute....
How could anything be this adorable?
If it were up to me, I would have kept her and raised her for the rest of my life.
When I held out my hand, she immediately scrambled up my arm and settled onto my shoulder.
I gently stroked the top of her head.
"Kyuuung..."
Looking thoroughly content, the hatchling closed her eyes halfway and leaned her whole weight against me.
A name, though.
I wasn't exactly great at naming things either...
I'd barely ever named anything in my life.
Aside from calling the hamster I had as a kid "Pocchi," I had zero experience.
Still, Athena was right. I was the one who'd tamed her, and I was going to be the one taking care of her from now on, so giving her a name myself felt right.
I wanted something connected to the color blue...
Those beautiful blue scales wrapping around her body. I wanted to capture that feature in her name if I could.
Come to think of it... her scale color is exactly the same as aquamarine.
That bright, luminous blue gemstone. She looked just like one.
"..How about Mari?"
Athena raised one eyebrow at my suggestion.
"Mari?"
"Yeah. Her scales are the exact same color as aquamarine.. so I pulled it from that."
"Not bad. It rolls off the tongue nicely, too."
Athena's answer was positive.
"Kyuuu!♡"
The hatchling must have liked the name as well, because she started bouncing up and down and licking my face.
"Eek!! Th-That tickles!!"
And just like that, we gave her a name that made everyone happy.
Everyone except one person.
Sepheer sat off to the side wearing a distinctly sulky expression.
"..Isn't Poppy cuter than Mari, though?"
"Grrrr...."
"I-I was just saying..!"
"Grrrrrr.."
"Ahem... Right. I actually had something I needed to say."
Still looking thoroughly pouty, Sepheer drew everyone's attention.
"I think I need to head back to the Demon Realm."
"Huh?"
Back to the Demon Realm?
"My subordinates have been trying to contact me for a while now. I've been ignoring them so far, but any longer and people are going to get suspicious."
I supposed that was only natural for a corps commander.
As ditzy as Sepheer sometimes seemed, she was still one of the Demon King's commanders. Her prolonged absence would send serious ripples through the Demon Realm.
I carefully looked at her and asked,
"Sepheer... you're... on our side... right...?"
I'd grown attached to her before I even realized it.
If she went back to the Demon King's army and we ended up facing each other as enemies someday, my feelings would get very complicated.
But Sepheer just beamed at me, as if telling me not to worry.
"Of course I am! If you die, I die too, remember? Besides, I only joined the Demon King's army for mutual benefit. There's no deep sense of camaraderie or anything like that."
"...I'm glad."
"Heh heh.. What's this? Are you happy? Because I'm on your side?"
She looked at me with a playful little smile.
I told her exactly how I felt.
"Yeah. I hope you'll always be on my side, Sepheer."
"Eut?!"
Sepheer's face went blank with shock. A faint flush even seemed to rise in her cheeks.
"I-Is that so? Ho-Hoho.. Th-Then I suppose I have no choice. Th-This body shall remain on your side...!"
Her voice trembled as she forced the words out.
I gave her my brightest smile and thanked her from the heart.
"Thank you, Sepheer..!"
"Euut...!"
Sepheer's face turned tomato-red in real time, flushing deeper by the second.
Hmm.. Did she catch a cold...?
Wait, can demons even catch colds?
Beside the flustered Sepheer, Athena quietly muttered under her breath.
".....Fallen from the heavens.."
".....Kyuuu.."
Hm?
What was that, Mari?
.
.
.
Playing with Mari ate up the hours, and before I knew it, night had fallen.
Sepheer left for the Demon Realm once more.
She said she'd settle her affairs as a corps commander and come back, so we should wait for her.
Judging by the way she talked, though, it didn't sound like she'd be returning anytime soon.
Well, given how high her rank was, she couldn't exactly just walk away from it overnight.
But if Sepheer steps down from her position as corps commander.. who would take her place?
The four corps commanders said to be the strongest in the Demon Realm after the Demon King himself.
First Corps Commander: the Dark Knight, Tyros.
Second Corps Commander: the Battle Maniac, Lycan.
Third Corps Commander: the Immortal King, Melum.
Fourth Corps Commander: the Goddess of Lust, Sepheer.
In a world of pure survival of the fittest, where strength was power, these four had never once stepped down from their thrones—and every day they struck terror into the Empire.
But now, one of them was on our side.
That alone would deal a massive blow to the Demon King's army.
Maybe we could even reach a happy ending much faster than in the original story.
Hang in there, protagonist.. I'm working so hard over here..
Not that I'd intended any of this, of course.
Anyway, I just hoped time would pass quickly and Robin would defeat the Demon King already.
Then I could finally live without a single worry in the world.
No more fretting over this and that...
"Hera, are you sleepy?"
Athena called out to me, apparently having noticed me zoning out.
Only then did I snap out of my thoughts.
"Mmm... I am feeling a little drowsy."
We'd spent the whole day searching for Mari, so exhaustion had settled deep into my body.
"Go to sleep first. We're heading back to the mansion tomorrow, so keep that in mind."
"...Okay."
My mood sank a little.
During the time Athena and I had spent in Karman, I'd enjoyed a freedom far greater than anything I'd felt back at the mansion.
Probably because there was no one here who hated me.
The thought of returning to those pitying stares from the maids made it a little hard to breathe.
It's okay.. Athena will be there..
And now I had adorable little Mari, who already adored me so deeply.
I wouldn't be as lonely as before.
Besides, people always said humans were creatures of adaptation.
Even if things were hard and painful right now—
someday, I believed I would be able to smile and live happily even at the mansion.
"Kyuuu..?"
As if sensing my mood, Mari wriggled into my arms and rubbed herself against me this way and that.
"..Are you trying to comfort me?"
"Kyuu."
Her gentle little comfort nearly brought tears to my eyes.
Right. Even a hatchling this young was trying to cheer me up. I couldn't let myself stay this gloomy.
I wrapped both arms around Mari and lifted her up into the air.
"Kyuuu?!"
"Hehe. Then how about our Mari takes a bath with Unnie?"
"Kyuu?"
"..What?"
Mari and Athena spoke at the exact same time.
"You're bathing with her?"
Athena frowned, clearly not pleased.
"Mm.. I was going to wash her anyway. Mari's body looks a little dirty."
It was hard to see clearly, but bits of grime were nestled here and there between her scales.
She'd been living in a cave this whole time, so of course she wouldn't have had any way to clean herself.
I really needed to give her a proper bath.
"Kyuu! Kyuu!"
Mari seemed to love the idea. She started bouncing up and down with pure excitement.
"No."
"H-Huh?"
"I will not allow the two of you to go into the bathroom alone."
"Mm..? Why not?"
"....If I say no, then it's no."
For reasons I couldn't begin to guess, Athena shut it down completely.
"....Grrrr.."
Mari let out a low growl at Athena's words.
"...Oh? Is that so?"
Athena raised one eyebrow, and a strange current of tension began crackling between the two of them.
..Why wouldn't she allow it?
I couldn't understand why she was so determined to keep Mari and me apart.
Could she be jealous..?
Maybe she didn't like the idea of Mari and me getting closer.
Lily used to be the same way.
Whenever Dania and I had a day to bathe together, Lily would throw a fit without fail, insisting she had to join us too.
".....Just the two of you and Unnie... I'll stop you...."
She'd probably hated the feeling of being left out while the two of us got closer without her.
Maybe Athena felt the same. Of course, Mari was a dragon and not a person, but still.....
Mmm... It should be fine, right?
It would be a little cramped, but I didn't think it would matter.
The space here was fairly large as it was.
I gently took Athena's hand—the same hand that was currently giving Mari a very complicated look.
Athena sighed and shook her head.
"Hera, this is genuinely not happening."
"Hm? No.. that's not what I meant."
If she was jealous of the two of us getting closer... then why not make it the three of us?
I carefully made my suggestion to the woman staring at me in confusion.
"Do you... want to bathe with us too?"
"........What?"
Athena's pupils began to tremble as if an earthquake had struck.