CH 3

Chapter 3: Where can I find food?

Translator: yuzu

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Luya had a sweet dream.

She dreamed that her design proposal was approved, and that her boss gave her a huge bonus. She used the money to invite her friends over to eat spicy hot pot1, and also bought her favorite strawberry smoothie2. All of these were things that might have happened if she hadn’t transmigrated into this post-apocalyptic world.

But she was abruptly awakened by the tractor-like sound of heavy breathing in her ear. When she opened her eyes, she saw that the red dragon already returned. It was sitting in front of her and staring with immense interest.

Uh, how long did she sleep?

The sky wasn’t dark yet, so it shouldn’t have been that long.

“Um… hello.”

Luya wiped the drool from her mouth, and stiffly greeted the red dragon.

The red dragon didn’t respond. Even if it had, Luya couldn’t understand the dragon language. She simply noted that the red dragon still didn’t seem interested in eating her, and it continued to stare at her with those intimidating dragon eyes.

Luya didn’t know what the dragon was thinking, and her heart thumped very fast. When dealing with unknown giant creatures, it was important to avoid enraging it. If she kept the dragon in a good mood, perhaps she could live longer? Thinking about it carefully, the dragon probably wouldn’t have brought her back to its den if it intended to eat her straight away. So perhaps there was a chance she could please3 the dragon…?

Maybe? Maybe not?

She was taken aback by the direction of her own thoughts. But before she could consider whether it was actually feasible, the red dragon suddenly opened its terrifying jaws that were lined with razor-sharp teeth. With a cough, it spat a half-dead animal out of its mouth.

Luya backed away a step in fright. The animal had yellow fur, and it was drenched in the dragon’s saliva. It struggled to get up from the ground, and it shook its fur miserably. Luya then recognized what is was—

It was a big yellow dog! Or perhaps a Shiba Inu4…

What a surprise!

Luya looked up at the red dragon in amazement. Where did it catch a dog? In the memories of her original body, nearly all wild animals developed mutations ever since the apocalypse happened. Outside of the protective barrier of the cities, there weren’t any ordinary wildlife. So where the heck did the red dragon find such an ordinary dog? And why did it catch a dog for her in the first place?

In spite of Luya’s surprise, the red dragon split open a dead tree with its tail. It spewed fire at the tree trunk, which burst up in flames. It glanced at the dog, and then gave a happy and accomplished look at Luya, as if it was expecting a thank you.

…Fuck.

Luya finally understood what the red dragon meant.

When it realized that she was hungry earlier, it must have gone to find something for her to eat… so it wanted her to roast this dog for food?!

“I… I can’t!”

Luya frightfully waved her hands in front of the dragon. “No eating dogs! I won’t eat them even if I’m starving! Dogs are friends, not food!”

“…”

The red dragon suddenly seemed disappointed, but it didn’t force Luya either. It regretfully glanced at the shivering and frightened Shiba Inu, and once again flew off the cliff.

When the dragon flew away, the dog finally seemed to sigh of relief. It immediately ran far away from Luya and hid.

“I won’t eat you, so why are you afraid of me?”

Luya helplessly extended a hand towards the cautious dog.

It would be nice to have a dog in a place like this. In the past, she had always wanted a Shiba Inu like this one, but she had always been too busy with her job to take care of one. This dog seemed traumatized, and it continued to bark from behind a rock. She didn’t have any treats to lure it over.

Thinking carefully, she didn’t even have any food to feed a dog. She couldn’t even protect herself, so how could she raise a dog?

Not knowing why the dragon flew away again, Luya was well aware that her body was reaching its limit. It wouldn’t be long before she starved to death. She laughed bitterly, and slowly approached the dog that was hiding from her. She apologized quietly: “I’m sorry, I don’t have any food for you, so I can’t take care of you.”

This Shiba Inu seemed extremely alert. It stared at Luya, and gave a sort of threatening whine as Luya got closer. Luya knew that this was a sort of stress reaction in animals. It didn’t matter if the dog understood her, but she continued to talk to it sadly. “It’s so painful to be born in this era, right? Humans are finally no longer at the top of the food chain. It’s equally pitiful to be a human or a dog. I probably won’t live for much longer, and I don’t know how long you’ll live. Even if I can’t become your owner, if I die first, I’ll allow you to eat my… uh, corpse.”

Luya wiped away the tears, practically moved by her own words. The dog stopped barking after hearing her speech. But it did not drop its guard, nor did it approach Luya after her emotional appeal. Rather, there was a baffled look of zero comprehension on the Shiba Inu’s face — or well, something like that.

???

After discovering that the dog was adamant on ignoring her, Luya started staring at the colorful fungus growing in the cracks of the rock. She couldn’t help but wonder, were wild mushrooms in another world poisonous? Were there edible fungi? She was starving to death, so it didn’t matter if it was poisonous right? Maybe she’d start seeing rainbow-colored fairies if she ate those mushrooms…

Fortunately, while Luya debated whether to try her luck eating mushrooms, the dragon flew back. This time, it brought back a bird’s egg about the size of an ostrich’s egg, and gingerly placed it in front of Luya.

…

Luya was stunned. She stared at the enormous egg in disbelief, and lifted her head towards the red dragon: “For me?”

The red dragon exhaled some hot air, and nodded.

“Wow… I don’t know what to say.”

Luya was immediately touched. So the red dragon really wasn’t going to eat her today, and it had even brought her food. She didn’t care if it intended to fatten her up for later, because she had this egg now! She wouldn’t die once she ate this egg!

“Thank you, red dragon!”

She happily hugged the heavy bird egg to her chest as she waved her hands in gratitude.

The red dragon gave Luya a long stare. He turned around with his huge body, and crawled back into his lair in the cave.

Luya kept watching the red dragon until it returned to its nest. Then she looked at the dog that still distrusted her, and it seemed hungry as well. After the dragon brought the egg back, the Shiba Inu had been staring at the egg the whole time, and it looked very conflicted.

Luya looked at the Shina Inu and smiled. She knelt down with the egg in her arms, and invited him nicely. “Hey, should we eat this together?”

Sure enough, having food on hand was more useful than anything else. The Shiba Inu finally came out from behind the rock, although he still kept his distance from Luya.

It was seriously the most distrusting dog Luya had ever met. She wondered if it had been abused by humans in the past. However, Luya believed that if she succeeded at feeding it once, the Shiba Inu would gradually get closer to her, and eventually become her own dog.

But very quickly there was an apparent problem.

How the heck do you eat this egg?!

Eating it raw was definitely not okay, and it would taste horrible. Aside from the sterilized egg yolks that were used as a dipping sauce in sukiyaki5 hot pot, Luya couldn’t tolerate raw eggs. Moreover, this was a monster bird’s egg, so getting diarrhea was a risk. In this sort of situation, bacterial infections could be fatal without antibiotics. It was better to find some way to cook the egg.

She looked at the hot water flowing out of the rocky volcanic crevices. There weren’t many resources on this volcano, but there were plenty of hot springs. At its source, the temperature of the water was probably high enough to boil eggs. Therefore, making Onsen tamago6 from the monster eggs seemed like a good plan.

That is… if she could figure out a way to trap the hot spring water before it flowed away!

After thinking for a bit, she decided to make a DIY small stove. As such, she found a dribbling natural spring and moved several stones until it enclosed the hot spring.

The Shiba Inu watched her shuffling around, and tilted its head like it had no idea what she was doing. When Luya laboriously finished a section, she sat down on the ground panting with exhaustion. She wiped the sweat from her face and said to the Shiba Inu: “Wait just a bit longer!”

A short while later, the hot spring water that bubbled out formed a small pond.

Luya very carefully placed the egg inside it, and stared in a daze as the egg tumbled around in the gushing water.

Even though it might not be fully cooked, at the very least it could be soft-boiled as a poached egg7. Seeing how big this egg is, it might have to cook for a while longer.

Around an hour later, Luya figured that it had gone on for long enough. She impatiently used some tree branches to push the black monster egg out of the sulfur spring.

It’s time to eat!

Luya rubbed her hands together in excitement, and found a hefty stone to smash open the eggshell.

The egg white inside had already hardened and turned gelatinous. While it was still piping hot, Luya broke off a piece of the egg white and put it in her mouth to test the flavor. She felt like she was going to heaven.

It was deliiiiicious! Who knew that monster eggs could be so tasty!

“Hey little puppy! Come over here!”

Luya swallowed that bite of egg white, and quickly waved at the Shiba Inu who was still keeping its distance. The dog seemed mortified to be called a “little puppy”, and it looked at Luya in stupefaction. However, the temptation of the protein in Luya’s hand was too much to resist. After hesitating back and forth, it finally seemed to make a very difficult decision. It bounded over, bit the piece of egg that Luya had thrown, and swallowed it hungrily.

Due to their hunger, the girl and the dog rapidly devoured that bird egg. Afterwards, she sprawled out on the ground, massaging her full stomach.

They were saved. In other words, she could live one more day in this strange post-apocalyptic world.

Luya rubbed the dog that had finally settled down next to her. She started to wonder what she should do next. If she ran away with the dog, they would probably get eaten by some monsters before they even got off the mountain. Besides, where could they go? The imperial capital wasn’t accepting any more refugees. If the dragon wasn’t going to eat her, and furthermore even gave her food, why shouldn’t she cling to the dragon’s legs8?

As she contemplated becoming a parasite leeching off the dragon, the back of her hand suddenly stung. Luya jumped and quickly retracted her hand. She saw that there was some kind of bug bite on her hand.

“…”

Huh? Did I get stung by something?

Just as Luya started to examine the bite mark, that area of skin suddenly grew itchy and unbearable. Then she saw the Shiba Inu beside her scratching itself with its hind leg, and she immediately came to a realization.

Oh my god! This dog has fleas!!

Author’s notes:

The heroine is a little bit of an innocent angel, not eating dogs… just saying it ahead of time!

In truth I was just imagining myself. If you asked me to kill a dog I wouldn’t… not even if I had to starve to death!

The heroine will grow stronger in the future!

This story is actually quite optimistic and cheerful in the worst situations, so don’t be afraid! You won’t drown from angst!

Thank you everyone for the fertilizer and the votes! I’ll have new chapters when I’m back from Thailand — thank you!

Translator’s notes: