Third Kind Close Encounter
I let out a long sigh.
It had been four days since Domino Brewery started copying my beer. Unfortunately, nothing had been resolved. Plenty of adventurers had heard the rumors—that there was an original creator and that the product ignored basic business ethics—but it wasn’t making much of a dent. Domino Brewery had already become something of an unspoken taboo among adventurers, so the real damage was limited. No matter how many rumors spread in those circles, the vast majority of actual customers were ordinary people.
Still, my friends at the Adventurers’ Guild who knew my situation had been spreading the word on my behalf. At this point, pretty much anyone with even a passing interest in beer had heard the story. But that was as far as it went. In the modern world, controversial products still sold like crazy if they were good enough.
There wasn’t much I could do. All I could do was keep taking adventurer quests and grind through them.
“Are you alright?”
The receptionist asked, apparently noticing the worry written all over my face.
“Well… I’d be lying if I said I was fine,” I answered with a bitter smile.
“I guess the only option left is assassination…”
“Even as a joke, please don’t say things like that…”
Saying something so chilling with that completely blank expression. She really was on another level.
“Oh, right. We received a named request from Miss Sicaria. Would you like to take a look?”
“From Sicaria?”
I tilted my head in confusion. After all, I had already gone to her ranch and spent five grueling days wiping out every last hobgoblin there. It hadn’t even been a full week since then. Why was she suddenly sending another named request?
“Yes… According to the request, regular goblins have been causing a ruckus nearby.”
“Goblins?”
This was genuinely strange. Hobgoblins were an evolved species of goblin. Unlike regular goblins, they formed tribes and lived in groups. So if hobgoblins kept showing up in the same area, it was usually a dangerous sign—either a stronger creature had moved into their territory, or their numbers had grown so much they were venturing farther out in search of food.
But regular goblins were different. They tended to stay deep inside their caves, living only among their own kind. They rarely left their habitat, and they had an extremely strong instinct to protect their homes. They almost never went looking for new nesting grounds.
So for those same goblins to suddenly be spotted near the ranch? It was a truly bizarre phenomenon.
“That’s weird.”
“Is it?”
“Yeah, it is.”
The receptionist didn’t seem to share my concern.
“Well, goblins are weak. I’m sure someone like you could handle it easily, Bel.”
“I mean… that’s true. My experience isn’t just for show.”
“Then I’ll mark this as accepted.”
She stamped the request form with a green acceptance seal.
“I’ll be back later.”
“Take care.”
I left the guild, waving goodbye to the receptionist.
“Hmm…”
After arriving at Sicaria’s ranch and organizing my supplies, I headed into the forest nearby. The moment I stepped inside, several strange things immediately stood out.
The whispering forest birds that normally lived only at the edges of the woods were nowhere to be seen. Normally, their cries should have filled my ears the instant I entered the forest, but right now all I could hear was the quiet rustle of wind through the leaves and the faint sound of grass swaying.
“This feels seriously ominous,” I muttered to myself, trying to shake off the bad feeling as I pushed deeper into the woods.
“Hmm.”
No matter how I thought about it, something was off. I had been walking through the forest for ten minutes and still hadn’t seen a single goblin ear. And that wasn’t all—there wasn’t a trace of the normal monsters that were supposed to be far weaker than goblins. If it had just been monsters, maybe I could have brushed it off. But even ordinary animals had been missing for dozens of minutes. It was starting to drive me crazy.
“Is there a dragon around here or something?”
Just as that thought crossed my mind—
BOOM!
A massive explosion echoed from somewhere deep in the forest. I flinched and whipped my head toward the sound. When I looked up at the sky, I saw an enormous flock of birds fleeing from the direction of the blast. Worried it might be an accident, I started running toward it as fast as I could.
A short while later.
After running nonstop toward the explosion, I discovered a gigantic crater in the middle of the forest that looked completely out of place.
“Ow, hot!”
Not only that, the crater—clearly the result of something like a meteor impact—had completely shattered the surrounding terrain. A strange heat was radiating from it.
“With an explosion like this… there probably wouldn’t be any bodies left.”
Muttering to myself, I climbed up the ridge created by the blast and peered down into the crater.
“Huh?”
I had assumed there would be no one inside, but right in the center of the crater I spotted someone collapsed on the ground. A survivor? I immediately jumped down into the crater to help.
“Damn it! It’s hot!”
I dashed as quickly as possible toward the center, trying to escape the heat that was burning through my shoes. The closer I got to the middle, the hotter it became. As I finally approached the very center, the shape of what I thought was a survivor became clear.
It was a girl with brown skin and red hair.
When I got closer to help her, I couldn’t help but freeze.
“Why is she naked?”
I quickly took off my outer coat, wrapped it around her, and scrambled out of the crater as fast as I could.
“Agh! It’s burning!”
My feet were still on fire.
I carried the girl out of the crater and laid her down in the shade of a tree. I placed my hand on her forehead and felt she was running a high fever, so I soaked a handkerchief with water from my canteen and laid it across her brow. Her breathing seemed stable, so I left her for a moment and walked a full circle around the edge of the crater. Sadly, there were no other survivors.
In the end, I returned to her side and waited for her to wake up.
“At least I managed to save one person. That’s something.”
I sat down beside her and waited.
A little while later.
“Mmm…”
The girl lying in the tree’s shade let out a pained groan. I shook off my drowsiness and moved closer. As I approached, she frowned in discomfort, cracked her eyes open, and looked at me.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“...”
She stared at me silently. Then she opened her mouth.
“Human?”
The moment I heard her voice, goosebumps shot across my skin. It was a voice infused with magical power—something completely different from a human’s. A voice carrying magic meant one of two things: either she was a monster, or she was a demon.
I immediately sensed the magic in her voice and drew the knife from my belt. The girl looked at me with glowing red eyes and spoke again.
“Human… do you know who I—”
Gurgle.
A sudden stomach growl. The girl clutched her belly.
“Ugh…”
Before I could even react, she collapsed to the ground. Then came the next words out of her mouth, which hit me like a truck.
“I’m hungry…”
Even demons get hungry, huh.
“Human… what are you thinking, standing in front of a dragon?”
The demon girl who had introduced herself as a dragon. I handed her some of the emergency rations I had brought along. Even though she was clearly starving, she ate them ravenously while still eyeing me with deep suspicion. Just look at those eyes. One wrong move and she’d slice me in half. It was honestly terrifying.
Thankfully, her current appearance was that of a rather cute girl.
“Why would I be thinking anything? In front of a dragon…”
“I don’t trust humans. All humans are evil.”
This pattern kept repeating. She would mutter something to herself, I would answer, and then she would say she didn’t trust humans and go silent again. This loop had probably happened dozens of times by now.
“Strange human. You’re not afraid of me.”
Why would I be afraid? The one in front of me right now was the same person devouring my emergency rations like she’d been possessed by a hungry ghost.
“Um…”
“What?”
When I spoke first, the dragon immediately tensed up. Realizing conversation wasn’t going to work like this, I decided to show her I had no intention of attacking. How? Simple.
Brewing Complete!
“Here…”
I summoned a beer keg right beside me. The dragon girl grew even more wary. Maybe the sudden appearance of the keg had startled her.
“Grrrr…”
She was literally growling like a wild animal. I raised both hands and spoke to her calmly.
“Easy. I’m not going to hurt you.”
“How can I believe that?”
Hmm. No matter what excuse I gave, her distrust of humans ran too deep. Anything I said would probably sound like a lie. With that in mind, I placed an empty bottle under the keg and poured out some beer.
Glug glug glug…
The keg I had summoned was a vanilla stout. Because it was nitrogen-charged, it poured quietly with very little carbonation and had a smooth, silky texture. I hoped this beer would be one way to lower the dragon girl’s guard. If it didn’t work, I was dead anyway.
Creak.
Once the bottle was full, the dragon girl began showing interest, as if wondering what it was. I made a show of putting the bottle straight to my lips and drinking it down in big gulps so she could see it was safe.
Gulp!
The smooth dark beer slid down my throat. A sweet vanilla aroma tickled my nose while a bitter, coffee-like flavor danced across my tongue. After swallowing a mouthful, I showed her there was nothing wrong with it and handed her the bottle.
“…What is this, human?”
“It’s beer I made.”
“Beer?”
The girl tilted her head as if hearing the word for the first time. When I held out the bottle with one hand, she snatched it instantly and began inspecting it from every angle—sniffing it, turning it around, the works.
“…It’s not poisoned, is it, human?”
“You just saw me drink it, didn’t you?”
“…There are poisons that only work on dragons.”
Were there? I had no idea. Maybe. But the girl was still staring at me with eyes full of distrust.
Hmm… She hasn’t attacked me yet, so maybe she’s not entirely bad… and she can communicate…
…Screw it. All or nothing. It’s not like I can die twice.
With that thought, I pulled the sword from my belt and hurled it far into the distance. The dragon girl looked at me in shock.
“There. I have no weapons now. If you drink that and feel sick, you can kill me or cook me or do whatever you want!”
“...”
The dragon girl still watched me with sharp eyes, as if she couldn’t understand my actions. Then—
Slurp.
She slowly brought the bottle to her lips and licked the little bit of beer that had spilled onto the rim. Then—
Gulp.
She took a small sip. I watched her anxiously, wondering if the bitterness would taste like poison to her. If she said “It really was poisoned,” I’d have to come up with some excuse. I really didn’t want to die twice.
But the words that came out of her mouth were completely outside my expectations.
“Human…”
“Do you have any more?”
Huh? Suddenly?
I was completely thrown off by the girl’s abrupt demand.