Operation Fruit Heist (2)
I kicked off the wall and vaulted onto the roof in a single bound. There I found an enormous lizard, a good sixty centimeters from nose to tail.
At first I couldn't be certain. Only after the creature scampered over, rubbed itself against me, and let out a familiar cry—
"Piiiik—"
—did it finally dawn on me. Lunchbox had doubled in size overnight.
I combed through the garden and turned up irrefutable evidence: a pale, translucent shed skin in the shape of a lizard, still curing atop the firestone. It was what Lunchbox had left behind after molting.
A full three sheets of it, no less.
The reason a creature that had been growing as stealthily as tree rings suddenly shot up had to be the flame giant's inner core it had swallowed. It wasn't as if it had been eating more, nor had any other growth-accelerating variable crept into the picture.
But how it had slipped past the barrier and wandered out of the garden at will, I couldn't say. The talismans anchoring the garden were far more powerful than the ones I'd used against the flame giant, and there were more of them. To shrug off that much power so cleanly...
An Awoken Ability.
Nothing else explained it. If it wasn't that, then my talisman arts were shoddy — and that possibility was decidedly out of the question.
From that day on, Lunchbox glued itself to my side wherever I went. Apparently the creature had decided I'd brought the inner core back for it to eat.
With things at this point, an odd guilt began to gnaw at me.
Beast or not, was it really right to spend all my time scheming to devour a creature that doted on me like this? How was I any different from the selfish Daoists my master had described — men who'd cram anything down their throats so long as someone called it good for the body?
Not that being terminally ill didn't give me some excuse...
It wasn't as if this thing were the only dragon in the world. Open any storybook and wicked dragons were a dime a dozen. Insisting on ripping out the heart of the one creature that actually liked me struck me as downright barbaric.
Once I started thinking that way, calling the poor thing "Lunchbox" began to feel a little awkward.
"You want to change Lunchbox's name?"
When she heard my story, Lily clapped her hands in delight.
"What a wonderful idea! Everyone's been embarrassed to call it that."
Judging by her reaction, I seemed to be the only person in the palace who had ever treated the creature as food.
"Do you have a good name in mind for it?"
"How about 'Ruby'?"
"Ruby?"
I liked the sound of it.
"Yes — I thought it was lovely, since its eyes are red like a ruby."
Hmm... it did seem fitting. Heaven knew I hadn't spent chump change on the creature.
"Done."
I stroked the lizard perched on my shoulder.
"From this moment on, you are Ruby."
"Piiiik—!"
Ruby shrilled at the top of its lungs, clearly pleased.
Ruby no longer kept to the barrier. It slept at my side, or sprawled lazily in whatever cool patch of shade it could find around the palace.
Good things came of that, too. The garden had been kept blazing hot at the staggering cost of six hundred thousand baht a year — an expense we no longer needed.
There were downsides as well. Having apparently acquired a taste for the flame giant's inner core, the creature now wouldn't so much as touch its regular meals.
So the entire palace rolled up its sleeves. Everyone threw themselves into figuring out what Ruby could actually eat.
"Ruby, here's that meat dish you love so much. Come and eat, there's a good creature."
The head cook worked through every recipe he knew, one after another, and every last attempt ended in miserable failure.
"How about a leaf of starlight?"
The gardener held out a treasured herb leaf. Considering how possessively the man usually guarded his trees and plants, it was a startling offer.
But Ruby only flicked its tongue, showing no interest whatsoever.
"It's not hungry enough yet. When that happens, you work the beast until it sweats it all out."
Vitten fitted Ruby with a leash and took it walking around the palace grounds. He ran the circuit without rest until dusk, but Ruby never tired in the slightest — the only one who collapsed was Vitten himself.
"Here. Food."
Just as everyone was groaning over the mystery, Thalia made her grand entrance.
"Eat."
What she had brought was a fifth-grade source of mana, supplied under contract with the guild.
An excellent call. Ruby was a spirit beast. Mana alone would give it all the nourishment it needed to grow. Why else would it have ballooned after swallowing that inner core?
With the vassals looking on, Ruby's jaws slowly parted.
And then...
"Piiiik—! Piik—!"
The creature shook its head side to side and pushed the mana source away.
"How perplexing. I was certain there was nothing else it could eat."
So had I.
What on earth was the problem? Should we fetch a higher grade of mana source?
Amid the general bewilderment, Lily stepped forward. She brought over one long fruit and held it to Ruby's mouth — and something remarkable happened. Ruby snapped it up and began to munch away contentedly.
"I'm so sorry."
She said, as if offering an excuse.
"That fruit was one I'd been saving for you, young master, so I was hoping to feed it anything else first."
"What is it?"
"It's a Sparklebay — one of the ones Lord Mabel sent. It won't touch Sparklebay from the market; only the ones Lord Mabel sends will do."
We put it to the test at once. We set the Sparklebay my brother had sent as a gift beside ordinary Sparklebay bought at the market.
Lily had spoken true. She held the market-bought fruit in her hand, and Ruby wouldn't spare that direction so much as a glance.
"What in the world is the difference? They look like the exact same fruit to me."
Lily said, baffled.
"Lord Mabel's fruit is a touch larger."
"Better sheen on it, too. And the color's richer."
Thalia and Vitten chimed in turn.
I examined my brother's Sparklebay more closely. Beyond its exceptional size and color, the real difference was this: a faint film of qi coated its surface.
Where had such a difference come from? All I knew for certain was that my brother's crops were grown with their growth accelerated by an Awoken Ability.
Did produce raised on Awoken Abilities carry some extraordinary quality? Was that why Ruby, a spirit beast, reacted to it so keenly?
"Where is my brother at the moment?"
"He is serving as acting lord at the ducal residence, in His Grace's stead."
I rose from my seat and shrugged on an outdoor coat.
"Then I'm off to the ducal residence. Have a carriage ready."
I visited the ducal residence to see my brother. Since it was a casual call, I brought no retinue.
"Young Lord Iden Esterji has arrived."
On arrival I was shown straight into my father's study. My brother sat in my father's chair, pressing my father's seal — the one carved with his name — onto documents one after another.
Nineteen this year, my eldest brother was a fine, dutiful young man: a sturdy frame forged by martial training and honest farm work, and a character respected by noble and commoner alike.
"Iden?"
My brother broke into a broad grin.
"Never thought I'd see you here. Don't tell me you've finally come needing your big brother's help?"
"You'd be exactly right."
"Then guess. I hear you founded a knight order recently — raising your own people is no easy business, is it?"
"That's part of it. From earning coin to drawing up training regimens, nothing in this world simply takes care of itself."
"I founded my personal knight order at fifteen. I thought that was fast — but you're always a step ahead of me, aren't you?"
Mabel smiled gently.
"A word of advice: don't be in such a rush. I know you've been having your troubles with Chris, but push matters forward with your heart racing, and mistakes you'd never otherwise make start crawling out of the woodwork."
"I'll keep that in mind."
"Well, then... you hardly came all this way for a lecture. What business does our youngest have with me?"
"The Sparklebay you sent me a while back. I was wondering if you might spare a few more."
Mabel smiled with obvious satisfaction.
"Did you like them that much?"
"The truth is, our lizard has stopped eating everything else. That's all it'll touch."
"A lizard — you mean that monster you're raising in your garden?"
"The very one. It's called Ruby now."
"Hmm."
All at once, Mabel's expression turned grave. From a man who was always smiling so warmly, even that small shift landed heavily.
"I'm sorry, but what I sent you was the last of this year's harvest."
"Then do you have any other fruit?"
"None. I'd gladly share if I had a surplus, but there isn't a single one left. My apologies."
I was caught off guard. Of all things, those few paltry fruits had to be the year's final harvest.
It wasn't as if I could beg for what didn't exist, so I rose from my seat and let the matter rest there.
And yet the moment I returned to the palace, Lily told me a very different story.
"That's strange."
"What is?"
"Lord Mabel owns the largest farm in the entire duchy. They say it's so vast it stretches across several counties."
"And my brother claims he hasn't a single fruit to spare?"
"That can't be right. He keeps his own trading company just to sell off the surplus every year — and Sparklebay season has only just begun."
Now that I thought about it, it made even less sense. The Mabel I knew wasn't petty enough to hoard a few fruits out of spite for his little brother.
I couldn't put my finger on it, but I had a feeling my brother was hiding something important from me.
Be that as it may, Ruby's meals were the urgent matter. Perhaps thanks to the flame giant's inner core, the creature was still full of vim and vigor — but the moment its food ran dry, there was no telling what kind of tantrum it might throw.
"Why don't we go to Lord Mabel's farm and pick a few fruits ourselves?"
Vitten asked.
"That's called stealing."
"The farm's enormous, you said so yourself. What's picking a few pieces of fruit?"
"No, but still..."
"Come off it. They're worth pennies anyway. Birds peck at the fruit and beasts sneak in to raid the rows all the time — you think a few lizard snacks will ruin the harvest? Besides, Lord Mabel is famous for his good character, isn't he? Once he heard the circumstances, he'd understand perfectly."
I found myself swayed by Vitten's minutes-long campaign of persuasion.
"...Fine. Going to have a look around couldn't hurt."
Ruby might like other fruits besides Sparklebay, and I was curious what a farm run by an Awoken Ability user actually looked like.
"Ruby!"
I snapped my fingers, and the lizard came pattering over at full speed, scrambling nimbly up onto my shoulder.
"Let's go. We're going window-shopping."