King and Queen's Sanctuary Farm (2)
Rian's jaw dropped.
"You... ate them?"
"I meant to teach him farming, but the wretched thing only wrecked the fields. No matter how I scolded him, he was nothing but mischief and wouldn't work. Useless, so I ate him."
"Good god."
The woman went on, recalling yet another episode.
"After I ate the goblin, I fetched an orc."
"An o-orc..."
"I flew all the way to a distant orc village, picked out a decent-looking one, snatched him up in my claws, and brought him here."
Rian swallowed hard.
"That one was a failure too. Wouldn't learn farming, and his appetite was bottomless — he ate everything in the fields. More trouble than he was worth."
"S-so you ate him as well?"
"I'd no more use for him."
A chill crawled over Rian's skin. He coughed into his fist, pretending nothing was wrong.
The woman looked at him and continued.
"Having been through those two, I thought you might do. You seemed clever. When I woke this morning, I saw the clothes you'd used to wipe my blood. A rather admirable act — nothing I'd ever seen from a goblin or an orc. It pleased me. I decided to take you as my farmhand."
"So that's why..."
It finally made sense. Rian turned to look at the stained T-shirt lying in the corner of the room — the one soaked through with her blood.
If that T-shirt moved her so much, she could've at least dropped some treasure my way... A dragon's lair was supposed to be stuffed with gold and jewels. Farmhand? Farmhand? Tch. Fucking isekai.
Her cold voice cut in at his ear.
"Farming isn't to your liking, I take it? Then I've no choice. A pity, but you as well..."
"W-wait a second!"
Rian thrust out his forearm out of nowhere, flexing a biceps so modest it barely counted, and showed it off like a prize.
"My body's already itching to get started. What should I do first? Put me to work — right now."
He hated farming. But staying alive came first, no matter what.
"We'll start with the worst of it."
The woman who had appeared last night, wounded, still couldn't put her full weight on one leg. Leaning on a cane, she limped as she led Rian out to the vegetable patch.
Crops that looked rather like cucumbers were thriving there, plump and glossy — so fresh they practically begged to be eaten. Rian wasn't wearing shoes, but the soil was so fine and soft he could have run across it barefoot without a care.
"I haven't tended it in over a week, and the weeds have grown this thick. I'll go look over the other plots. You stay here and pull the weeds."
"That's easy enough. I'll yank them out like a madman. Don't you worry."
Rian rolled up his sleeves and puffed out his chest, and the woman laughed.
"Very well."
Once she had gone, Rian studied the cucumber(?) patch at length and let out a deep sigh. The field was vast enough to wring that sigh out of him, and the weeds were a goddamn mess besides, which was starting to get on his nerves. He hadn't done a lick of farm work in his entire life. What kind of misery was this?
"Not like I've got a choice. If I want to live, I work."
He squatted down and started pulling weeds. He had no tools to speak of — just the bloodstained T-shirt and a pair of underwear. The more he yanked at the weeds with his bare hands, the more his palms began to sting. Complaints spilled from his mouth without a pause.
"I don't wanna. I don't wanna. Ugh... I'm dying."
He wiped the sweat from his forehead and dropped onto the ground where he sat.
"Don't people who end up in another world usually start by learning swordsmanship?"
He stared blankly up at the blue sky.
"Do I really have to live here for the rest of my life... playing servant to a dragon..."
Self-pitying sighs kept spilling out of him without end. Before long, the woman's voice reached him.
"Human. Tired already?"
"Huh?"
Rian startled and looked back. Her horns and naked body caught the sunlight and shone even more dazzling than before.
"N-no! Not tired at all!"
He sprang to his feet and went back to pulling weeds. The woman looked over the pile he had already pulled and smiled, pleased.
"Humans really are better. No mischief."
He had grumbled the entire time, but the work itself was well done.
"You worked hard. Rest if you're tired."
Rian scratched his head and gave an awkward laugh.
"I'm not tired, exactly — just a little hungry. My stomach's been growling nonstop."
"Is that so?"
She nodded.
"Then wait a moment. I'll be out for a bit. I'm hungry myself, as it happens."
"Bring back something tasty! Oh, and my name isn't Human — it's Rian!"
"Rian? I'm to call you that?"
"It's Kim Rian with the family name, but please just call me Rian."
"Very well."
"Um. I... uh. What should I call you?"
"Me?"
"Yes. Should I call you Teacher? Master? Captain, maybe? What would you prefer?"
"Call me as you like. My name is Audria."
"As expected of my lady. That's a truly beautiful name."
Rian gave her a thumbs-up, laying it on thick.
"I'll call you Lady Audria from now on."
"As you wish."
Audria transformed at once into a colossal white dragon and took off into the sky. The sight was so magnificent he wanted to film it and watch it on repeat.
Still gasping in wonder where he stood, Rian watched her wheel through the air and muttered,
"That'd get three hundred million views on YouTube, easy..."
The thought of earning her praise when she returned put fresh fire in him, and he went back to pulling weeds with even more vigor.
When she used Polymorph to take human form, she looked younger than me. I wonder how old she actually is.
He had been at the weeds for some time when the vegetable patch suddenly thrashed in a violent wind. He looked up. The dragon was descending, wings beating. A carcass hung from her jaws — a beast with four short legs and a tail, something like a crocodile.
She seemed injured, but she sure can hunt.
Rian put on a bright smile and went to greet her.
"Is your leg all right? You didn't overdo it, did you?"
"What do you take me for?"
She answered frostily as she set the carcass down on the ground.
I was just asking. Why's she snapping at me? Tch.
Rian changed the subject at once.
"What's this one called? I've never seen a beast like it."
"A creature called a Bilvio Alligator. Lives in the swamps."
Audria shifted back in an instant to the form of a young woman with horns. Rian sidled closer, wagging a tail he didn't even have.
"To bring down something this big and fierce while you're still hurt — that's incredible! You're the best! The absolute best!"
She laughed.
"Humans do make a fuss over the smallest things."
Rian looked around, then cocked his head.
"But where's my food? You didn't stop by the market?"
"It's right here."
"Here?"
"Are you pretending not to see it?"
Leaning on the cane she had set aside, she pointed at the Bilvio Alligator's carcass. Rian's eyes went wide.
"You want me to eat that?"
"You don't want it?"
"Y-you're joking, right? No cow? No pig?"
Audria's face went flat.
"I went to the trouble of catching you a delicacy among delicacies, thinking of you specially, and it isn't to your liking?"
Rian blinked blankly. How am I supposed to eat that? I've never even tried one.
Outwardly, he put on a bright smile.
"No, no. Looks insanely delicious, actually. How do I eat it?"
"Do as you please. Tear into the raw flesh if you want, or cook it if you must."
"I'll cook it. Could you light a fire for me?"
Audria breathed out a puff of air, and the firewood stacked in the yard caught flame. Rian stared, fascinated.
"Was that a 'small' Breath?"
"Small?"
Like ordering the small size of sweet and sour pork...
"Ah! I mean, did you fire a weak Breath?"
"It's magic, actually."
"It came out of your mouth, though. You can cast magic with your mouth too?"
"This is my Breath."
She picked up a log meant for firewood and breathed out.
A blast of frigid air poured from her lips.
The log froze solid in an instant.
⟨ Ice Breath ⟩
Rian clapped.
"Ice Breath...!"
"You know it well. My Breath freezes all things."
She smiled, leaned on her cane, and wandered off somewhere. Left alone, Rian went a little pale and swore his loyalty to her all over again.
"I must never, ever make her angry... If I get on her bad side, I could freeze to death..."
Using the kitchen knife Audria had given him, Rian split the Bilvio Alligator's hide and carved the flesh into pieces for roasting. The blade was so sharp it looked ready to slice light itself.
Figures a dragon would have one. Even her kitchen knife looks like a masterpiece.
He set the cut pieces over the campfire and started roasting them. Then the smell hit him — beyond anything he had imagined. Far from looking appetizing, the gamey stench made him want to throw up.
How am I supposed to eat this?!
Audria, on the other hand, was standing in front of the sizzling meat with a look of pure bliss on her face.
"Humans seem to prefer it roasted. It tastes better raw."
"Um, Lady Audria?"
"Mm?"
"Does it look good?"
"So fragrant it makes my mouth water. I want to eat it already."
"Ah. Right."
Rian finished roasting the meat, fighting down the urge to flee the smell with everything he had. You're supposed to drain the blood for a long time if you don't want that gamey stench... maybe it's because I just rinsed it with water and threw it on the fire...
He really, truly, fucking did not want to eat it.
While he was thinking that, Audria came back out of the hut carrying plates, a table knife, and a spoon — a set for herself and a set for him. All of it was silver, and Rian marveled inwardly.
"Did you buy these yourself?"
"They were my parents'."
"They both must have been huge. They used these dinky little utensils?"
"Every day."
"Wait — every day?"
A dragon using a spoon... The thought puzzled him, but he was too hungry to dwell on it. He was starving.
In any case, the food was laid out and the meal began. But when Rian sat in front of the table and hesitated for a long while, the face of Audria — who had already started eating — went stiff.
"You don't want to eat?"
"No."
"Why aren't you eating?"
"Who says I'm not? My stomach's throwing a fit in there, screaming at me to hurry up."
Rian used the knife and spoon to cut a piece of the roasted meat and tossed it into his mouth. He promptly tasted hell.
This is goddamn awful!
He chewed with his whole face crumpled, and Audria stared straight through him — her own face equally sour.
"It doesn't taste good?"
"It tastes great."
"Your face says otherwise."
"My teeth hurt."
"Why would your teeth hurt?"
"I think I bit a bone."
"Spit it out."
"Huh?"
The moment he became aware of her naked breasts swaying right in front of his eyes, her hand was already gripping his jaw, the other fishing the food out of his mouth.
"Urgh."
"Hold still."
Audria pulled out every last bit of the barely chewed food and peered into his mouth with care. She touched his teeth, wiggled them, and frowned.
"You lied."
Rian winced inwardly, but kept his face even.
"It was a white lie."
"There's no such thing as a good lie."
"I was afraid you'd be sad if I said it didn't taste good."
"Why would I be sad?"
"Honestly, this meat isn't to my taste. It's not the kind of meat I usually eat."
Audria stood over him and looked down with a cold stare.
"You agreed to live with me, and then you lie like this. How am I to trust you from now on?"
"Compared to you, Lady Audria, I'm nothing but a powerless human. Every word you say scares me. I can't help but scramble."
"Why are you afraid?"
"If I get on your bad side, you could kill me whenever you wanted."
"If you obey, I won't eat you."
"See? You just said you won't kill me as long as I listen — which is exactly why I can't be honest, like just now. I end up calling the good things bad and the bad things good."
"...!"
Audria had assumed human intelligence was low, and had meant to press him and teach him a lesson. Thinking it over, though, his argument had a point. Dragon pride would not let her admit he was right, however, so she ended the conversation with a prim look.
"Coward."
She went back to her seat and resumed eating.
"I've no mind to indulge your whining. If you want to live healthy, you'd best get used to this taste."
Rian had already been telling himself to accept reality anyway. All the meat in this world probably tastes like this. Even what a king eats would reek of game. If this world's anything like medieval Europe, that's how it is.
He picked up a piece of the roasted meat with his fingers. It had gone cold while they talked.
"I'll do my best to eat it."
He forced the furiously gamey meat into his mouth. As he ate with his face still crumpled, she spoke.
"I'll start teaching you farm work in earnest tomorrow. Be ready."
Rian cocked his head and looked at her.
"You're just going to hand over your secret methods like that?"
"Why?"
"People don't usually teach the secret tricks only they know."
"If I teach you, my own body has that much less to do. What's the problem?"
"Ah. So you're teaching me so you can work me like a dog."
A bitter taste rose through the gamey meat.
Looks like I'm stuck here till I rot, no two ways about it.