Master of the Dragon Vein (3)
Garnet returned to the lair she had originally lived in, packed her belongings, and came back to the inn.
Whether her old lair had been quite far from here, or whether packing for the move had simply taken that long, she did not reappear at the inn until three full days after the day we first met.
"I'm Rain Garnet. I look forward to working with you."
Garnet… no, thinking of Grace's case, Rain must be the given name.
But still…
"…Why are you wearing a maid outfit?"
For reasons I could not begin to guess, Rain was dressed in the exact same maid uniform Grace wore.
"You seemed to like the look of Grace in this maid outfit. So I put one on."
Was the maid outfit my preference…?
I registered Rain as an employee while turning that thought over in my head. And just as I was about to assign her to the tavern as a matter of course—
"Let's put her on cleaning duty."
"Huh?"
Grace stepped in front of me with that proposal.
Ah…
She said she'd start her off scrubbing toilets. Looks like she really means to make her a cleaner.
If I assigned Rain to the tavern and leveled her up, there was a chance the quality of the drinks would improve. I had been looking forward to that—but it seemed that particular hope was going to have to wait.
I could ignore Grace's suggestion and station her at the tavern anyway, but…
"…What does 'improved cleaning quality' even mean, though?"
My own curiosity got the better of me, so I assigned Rain as a cleaner. Being a cleaner now didn't mean I couldn't move her to the tavern later, after all.
"By the way, you're being awfully respectful. I figured you'd have at least a few complaints."
"At present, I am nothing more than a guardian of the Dragon Vein. Loyalty to the Master of the Dragon Vein is only natural."
A thread of dissatisfaction ran through the emotions flowing from Rain, but I could also feel, just as clearly, that she had resigned herself to the situation. I had expected things to stay awkward between us for a while—yet here it was, already settled this easily…
"Sis Garnet."
"Call me Sis Rain. We're not going around advertising that we're Jewel Dragons, are we?"
"Alright. Then—Sis Rain?"
Start with the toilets.
"…Huh?"
"You're a cleaner, aren't you? You know about the master's ability."
"I know that, but… why toilets of all places?"
Grace pointed at herself in answer.
"I am the inn's manager."
Then she pointed at Rain.
"A mere cleaner."
"A mere…?!"
Being called a cleaner she could swallow. Being called a mere cleaner was another matter entirely. A vein stood out on Rain's forehead.
"Is there something incorrect about what I said?"
"Grrrr…"
Rain started to retort, then snuck a glance at me, let out a long sigh, and trudged off toward the bathroom. She was unhappy about it—but she had decided to submit all the same.
"…Come to think of it, Rain didn't bring anything back, did she?"
"Bring what?"
"She went to her lair to move. Shouldn't she have brought the treasures from her hoard the way you did last time?"
"About that…"
Sis Rain probably has them on her right now.
"Really? Does she have some kind of subspace?"
"Yes. The front pocket of her maid outfit is a subspace."
All of her treasures should be inside it.
"For the record, I used to have a subspace too—but the heroes wrecked it during their attack."
We were still talking when—
KRAASH…!
"?!"
"?!"
A thunderous crash shook the entire building.
"What was that?!"
"That's the direction of the bathroom Sis Rain went into!"
Grace was already sprinting toward the bathroom as she spoke. I followed hard on her heels—and there we found…
"Uh…"
A collapsed bathroom wall, and Rain standing awkwardly in front of it with her fist still extended toward the rubble.
"……"
"……"
"……"
The three of us locked eyes and fell silent. Whatever else might be said, the reason the bathroom wall had come down was painfully obvious.
"W-wait! I'm innocent!"
When Grace and I both turned our glares on her, Rain started waving her hands and explaining with genuine outrage. The raw sense of injustice pouring off her almost made me wonder if it really hadn't been her fault—but then—
"I just swung my fist to swat a bug! The wall collapsed on its own!"
"…Is that supposed to be an excuse, Sis Rain?"
"Haa…"
I left Rain to Grace's tender mercies and went to inspect the ruined wall.
Lumber — 0 / 10
Stone — 0 / 10
The floors, tables, and chairs the orcs had wrecked had repaired themselves over time—but this wall, it seemed, would only start mending once the required materials were supplied.
Or wait. Maybe the orc damage wasn't auto-repaired either—maybe it only fixed itself when the inn leveled up?
Either way, how was I supposed to get lumber and stone?
…Don't tell me I had to go chop trees and swing a pickaxe myself?
"What's the matter?"
By the time I looked up, Rain was already on her knees with both hands raised overhead—Grace's chosen form of punishment—and Grace herself had come over to ask.
"Look at this."
I stepped aside. Grace studied the interface floating in the air, then nodded in understanding.
"Was there a separate method for obtaining lumber and stone?"
"There wasn't."
"I see. Then we have no choice but to go procure them ourselves."
Yeah. That was probably the only way.
Grace, Rain, and I closed up the inn and stepped outside. Then Grace and Rain shifted into their dragon forms and took to the sky.
"…Whoa…!"
And at that moment, I was clinging to Grace's back as she soared through the air.
So this is the view a dragon gets while flying.
It was more than a little terrifying. Grace had layered various protective magics over me so I wouldn't fall or freeze—but none of those spells were visible to my eyes. There was nothing useful to hold onto on her back, either. If she dropped the magic for even a second, I was absolutely certain I would plummet straight down.
"We're descending."
Fortunately, no such mutiny occurred. Grace and Rain flew up above the canyon that housed our inn, then touched down in a clearing with relatively few trees.
"Hup!"
Once I was safely on the ground, Grace and Rain shifted back into human form.
"How did the Dragon Canyon look from my back?"
I decided to give her an honest answer.
"I finally understand why they call it the Dragon Canyon."
The massive wall you saw the moment you stepped out of the inn—that sheer cliff face. Climbing above it made the name hit home in a way nothing else could.
And…
Whether they sensed these two's presence or not, a whole flock of things called wyverns bolted out of the forest atop the cliff like their lives depended on it.
Since wyverns could fly, I watched them vanish over the treetops. Odds were good that, out of sight beneath the canopy, countless other monsters had been fleeing just as hard.
"One moment…"
Rain, who had been scanning the surroundings, walked up to a particular tree.
BANG!
"?!"
And kicked it.
I was just starting to wonder what on earth she thought she was doing when—
"KYAAAAAAH?!"
"?!"
A scream tore out of the tree.
"Did you really think a mere treant could sit there quietly and go unnoticed? If you saw us, you should have greeted us at once!"
…Rain kept kicking the tree—no, the treant—as if working out every scrap of humiliation Grace had put her through.
"I'm sorry! I'll correct it!"
"Correct? Correct what, exactly?"
"If I see any dragons, I'll greet them first thing!"
"You think something like you deserves to face me directly?"
"……"
The treant went silent. It must have figured it out—no matter what it said or did, Rain was going to keep kicking it.
"Sis Rain. Don't we have something more important to do first?"
"Ah, right. Hey. You."
"Y-yes…!"
"Hand over your branches."
"M-my branches, you say?"
"Don't want to? Then…"
"I'll give them!"
The moment the treant spoke, the thickest of its branches dropped clean off. The cut surface was smooth as if someone had sawed it—except no one had.
"Master. Would this be enough?"
"……"
According to the knowledge Grace and Rain had shared with me, lumber harvested from high-class monsters like treants was considered premium material—exceptionally sturdy and slow to rot.
…I thought I'd have to chop trees down myself. Never figured we'd just shake down a monster for it.
With that thought, I took hold of the treant's branch.
Fwoosh…!
"Huh?"
Light flared from the branch in my hand—and then—
Thud…
It transformed into a neatly processed length of lumber, ready for use.
"……"
"…That's one."
"…Yeah."
"We needed ten pieces of lumber, didn't we?"
"…We did."
Grace and Rain both turned their heads toward the treant.
"If you have any sense at all…"
"You already know we need nine more branches, right?"
"…Eeeek…!"
And so the pitiful treant was only released after offering up a full nine additional branches.
"Just out of curiosity—are we getting the stone the same way?"
"Yes. The rock that makes up a stone golem's body works very well as building stone."
"If we're going to use materials anyway, we might as well use good ones, don't you think?"
"……"
I silently paid my respects to the stone golem that was about to meet these two. We did need the stone, so I had no intention of stopping them.
"Huff… huff…! Is everyone alright?!"
"We're fine!"
"What about Sister?!"
"The thief protected me—I'm alright!"
Having finished one round of combat and confirmed no more monsters were nearby, the party collapsed where they stood in relief.
"As expected of the Dragon Canyon… this was never something you walk into lightly."
"No, even so—a whole pack of Rage Boars and wyverns diving out of the sky is a bit much, don't you think…?"
"Doesn't something feel off? There were some that completely ignored us, like they were running from something else."
"I'm sorry… I never should have made this request…"
The nun apologized to the rest of the party. The reason they had entered the Dragon Canyon at all was her commission: a request to escort her to a place of oracle somewhere within the canyon.
"Please don't apologize. We're being paid well enough for the work."
"…If the church's finances were better, we could have offered more and hired a larger group…"
"Hey now. That's not a good idea."
The warrior leading the party cut in at the nun's self-reproach.
"The Dragon Canyon is best cleared by a small elite force. That's how you draw as little monster attention as possible."
"Right. Four people is nerve-wracking, but it's the sweet spot."
At the archer's follow-up, the thief seemed to remember something.
"Come to think of it—didn't a whole company of orcs head into the Dragon Canyon a few days ago, saying they were going back to the Demon King's Territory?"
"That mercenary company is a pack of monsters."
The warrior muttered, recalling the orc mercenaries.
"Every last one of those orcs is a beast on par with a Sword Master. For ordinary people like us, this is the right way to do it."
Anyway.
"For now, let's rest in that crevice over there, then move on."
"What, leader? You spotted something that hard to see pretty well. Even I only just noticed it, and I've got good eyes."
"I got a tip from an old wyvern hunter about the best rest spots in the Dragon Canyon. He said that one doesn't get discovered easily."
And so, following the warrior's lead, the party advanced slowly deeper into the Dragon Canyon—resting at good spots along the way as they went.