CH 9

Chapter 9: The adopted1 dog is missing

Translator: yuzu

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By the fourth day of living with the red dragon, Luya was already used to waking up beside the dragon.

The red dragon never ate her, always brought food for her, and listened to her requests. This made Luya relax her guard around the red dragon quite a bit. When she greeted the red dragon this morning, she tried lightly touching the scales on its body.

The red dragon, who had been lying on the ground, turned its neck around and looked at Luya in surprise. Luya held her breath and met the dragon’s gaze. Hiding her nervousness, she pretended to be calm and spoke to the red dragon. “I’m just touching. Is it okay?”

“…”

The red dragon’s amber pupils stared at Luya, and some words in the dragon language came out of his mouth. Luya had no idea what it meant, but the red dragon didn’t seem to react poorly or dislike her actions, so Luya took that to be tacit acceptance. She happily withdrew her hand and went to drink some water.

Today’s task: contact with the red dragon (1/1) achieved.

She cheerfully walked out of the dragon’s lair, took a deep breath of fresh air, and then washed her face with hot spring water. A very satisfying amount of dew had collected overnight, and it seemed like drinking water would no longer be a problem. There was even enough to make soup, if only she had some seasoning.

Should she ask the red dragon to help her get some salt and sugar?

Luya was about to call the Shiba Inu to drink some water, but unexpectedly, the dog was nowhere to be found near the dragon’s lair.

Did it go for a walk? Or had it been taken away by the undead that appeared at night?

That should have been unlikely. Even if its soul had been claimed by the undead, a corpse would have been left behind. There was also no trace of fighting around the dragon’s lair, so maybe it had gone exploring.

Luya had various guesses, but she wanted to finish her breakfast before figuring out what had happened to the dog.

After drying for a night, the cooked slime had already hardened. Luya tore a thin and hard piece of slime off and sniffed it. 

It was quite transparent, and there weren’t many impurities. The fishy and earthy odor of the lake was much milder, and it smelled like natural algae, which wasn’t too unpleasant. If she cooked it into slime noodles, it should be palatable.

Therefore Luya washed a knife and carefully cut the dried slime into strips of even thickness. She had to be extremely delicate while cutting, because the dried slime was as brittle as dried rice noodles. It was very crispy and easy to break.

It took a lot of effort for Luya to finish cutting that piece of dried slime. She was not particularly talented with the knife, and she produced several crooked strips. In the end, she finally managed to slice them to a degree where they could be cooked. Then she scooped two cups of dew water and dumped it in a clay pot to heat. When the water started boiling, she threw the slime noodles in, and watched as they slowly softened. Finally, it turned into a bowl of translucent, crystal-clear turquoise noodles.

…Don’t judge, but it actually looked fairly appetizing.

It was a pity the dog wasn’t here, otherwise she would have fed it to the dog first before deciding whether to eat it. But right now, Luya was famished, so she fished the slime noodles out of the pot. She didn’t have any soup base, and had she known beforehand, she would have dried the tuna for boiling soup.

The cooked slime noodles were transparent and glossy. She picked one up with her chopsticks, mentally prepared herself, held her breath, and then slurped the slimy thing into her mouth.

The moment it entered her mouth, a unique flavor of fish and salt burst open on her taste buds. The slime was slippery and tender as she bit it, and its taste was exquisite.

Quite surprisingly, this monster dish wasn’t that bad.

The texture was chewy2, springy, and fairly supple. The ingredients themselves had a somewhat fishy3 flavor, but it wasn’t overwhelming. On the contrary, it conveyed a vague hint of the sea. Even though she didn’t have any good soup base, it was totally edible.

Although Luya resisted in her heart, she ate the entire bowl of slime noodles.

Then she burped.

This was a great food to fill the stomach. No wonder refugees often ate slimes in the wilderness. Sometimes they even squeezed oil from slimes to use as fuel for torches. But Luya didn’t know how to make slime oil, and making slime noodles was the extent of her knowledge.

After she ate and drank enough, she finally remembered the Shiba Inu.

Where had it gone? Why hadn’t it come back to eat?

Holding a bowl of food, she searched and shouting: “Doggie! Doggie! Where are you? It’s time to eat!”

However, the Shiba Inu never appeared. It made Luya feel a little uneasy.

In theory, monsters wouldn’t dare approach the dragon’s territory, and she hadn’t seen any near the dragon’s nest over the past few days. Luya suspected that the dog had gotten lost. If it ran too far from the dragon’s sphere of influence, then the dog was most likely dead4.

Even though she had only raised it for four days, and hadn’t developed any deep feelings, Luya already regarded it as her own dog. Also, it was lonely living in a post-apocalyptic world, and it was difficult to ward off those bouts of despair. She really needed a dog to accompany her, play frisbee with, and pat! Of course, cats were even better.

It didn’t matter if the dog wasn’t close with her right now. In a post-apocalyptic world, it wasn’t possible to survive without being vigilant, but Luya believed that she could get the dog to recognize her as a good master as long as she raised it for a long enough time. Then it’ll become affectionate!

So Luya ran back into the dragon’s lair, and started to mention this matter to the dragon.

“The dog that you gave me disappeared, and I’m worried that it’s lost. If it runs into a monster…”

She pretended to be extremely devastated. She didn’t know if acting cute5 with the dragon was effective, but she still gave it a try.

“Even though we haven’t spent that much time together, you two are already like family to me… Will you help me look for the dog?”

The red dragon stared at Luya for a long time. Seeming to understand what she meant, it suddenly lowered its dragon wings to the ground, indicating for Luya to climb up.

!

She was just going to try it, but she didn’t think it would actually work?

Luya hurriedly climbed onto the red dragon’s back. After she laid flat and hugged the dragon’s neck, the red dragon crawled out of the nest, spread its vast wings, and flew into the air.

The dragon did not fly particularly high. It stayed somewhat close to the ground, and glided down the slope of the mountain. Luya anxiously scanned the ground as she shouted: “Doggie, Doggie!”

If she had known this was going to happen, she would have named the Shiba Inu. For now, she could only call for the doggie. She had taken such good care of it, giving it food and water in this post-apocalyptic world. She had even bathed it to get rid of fleas. Why would the dog run away? It was definitely lost! Luyu firmly believed in this.

There was only Luya’s echo on this mountain. After flying with the dragon for about ten minutes, she gradually began to see monsters that were common in the wild. There were slimes in the mountain, gray wolves that wore pants and walked like humans, fierce carnivorous rabbits with horns on their head, and huge walking stone golems. Luya even spotted some goblins carrying bows.

Luya was a little grateful that she did not venture down the mountain. If she had encountered these things, she would have been devoured until there was nothing left. But it also made her a little worried about the Shiba Inu. Was it still alive? Had it been taken by these monsters?

As the dragon flew overhead, the goblins scattered in terror. Some of them even dropped their weapons as they scrambled into the underbrush to hide.

Although there were other monsters on this dormant volcano6, they didn’t dare approach the dragon’s territory, so Luya’s living area was actually very safe. Apart from it being inconvenient to live, it was probably the safest place aside from the imperial capital with four layers of barriers.

She really didn’t understand why that stinky dog ran away.

Luya silently complained about the Shiba Inu, but she still let the dragon slow down to survey the situation on the ground.

Rather unexpectedly, she gradually saw green plants halfway down the mountain. The vegetation was very lush, and many unknown fruit trees grew together. She saw apples, a stream, and even an abandoned house.

It looked like a vacation home built by some rich family before the apocalypse, but now the roof had completely fallen in. The walls of the house were covered in vines, and it looked very sinister. Even without thinking, you could be sure that there were monsters living inside of it. It had most likely become a goblin’s lair.

The resources here were very plentiful, completely different from the barren land around the dragon’s nest. Luya immediately envied it.

She estimated the distance from the dragon’s nest. It would probably take thirty minutes to walk here, which wasn’t too far. If she could clean up the monsters around here, she could gather fruits and wild vegetables here every day…

But how could she do it? Even if the dragon used its fire, it would set the entire place ablaze. The fruits and vegetables would be gone, so even if the monsters died, it was pointless.

Luya wondered if there was any good way to approach this. It would be such a pity if she couldn’t use these resources, but she didn’t want to take too much of a risk. She had heard what monsters like goblins would do to their prisoners. The fate was worse than death.

Speaking of which, she hadn’t been able to understand the dragon’s speech this entire time and it was very inconvenient. She wondered if she could speak to the dragon about obtaining the pocket translator that the pighead had used in the monster’s market?

But at this moment, the red dragon seemed to hear something.

It spread out its bat-like7 dragon wings, and suddenly swerved in the air.

“Oh! Be careful!”　　

The sudden change in direction almost caused the distracted Luya to fall off the dragon’s back. She tightly hugged the dragon in a hurry, and regained her foothold with great difficulty.

It was so dangerous. As expected, it wasn’t like just anybody could become a dragon knight! That said, she was probably the first person in this world to ride a dragon…

The red dragon flew even deeper into the valley. It passed through a swamp, and then came to an abandoned ruin.

This place was teeming with golems. Those enchanted piles of rocks patrolled aimlessly around the ruins. Here, Luya heard the faint barking of a dog.

“Awoo—woof…”

“Stinky dog? Is that you?!”

Luya suddenly straightened her ears and promptly sat upright. She looked around below, and sure enough, near the intersection of the marshland and the ruins, the Shiba Inu was pinned to the ground by a purple-gray mud hand. It was unable to move, and it looked extremely painful.

Hearing Luya’s voice, it opened its eyes with difficulty and struggled to look at Luya. But it was still extremely stubborn, and it didn’t admit defeat or beg for help.

But Luya didn’t care about this. She laid on the dragon’s back and anxiously shouted at the Shiba Inu.

“Hold on, stinky dog!”

“Mommy is here to save you!”

Author’s notes:

The reason why the dog came here will be explained later, and there definitely is a reason.

It takes time to accumulate favorability points! There needs to be a reason for the crown prince to change his opinion of the heroine. Whether she is able to enter the imperial capital and return to human civilization depends entirely on this dog.

Our map is extremely vast. It covers the entire empire continent and the opposite religious continent.

Currently, the dragon’s favorability points are at LV2, so you can take a stroll riding it. After it levels up again, more interactions will be unlocked, and more things can be done.

To insta-level your favorability points, purchase the Krpyton 648 gift pack! The system will deliver a paralysis drug. When it is fed to the dog, you can rub it as much as you want.

Crown prince: Fuck you8

Translator’s notes:

Thank you to Briar and anyone else for helping fix the translation! I don’t have an editor, so I really appreciate all the help. If there is any line that sounds awkward or that you think could be improved, don’t be shy to point it out!