CH 26

Chapter 26: Hostage Exchange

Translator: yuzu

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“Huh? You want to use me to exchange hostages with my father?! Oink!”

The young pigman was shocked by Luya’s thoughts. Sure enough, his mother had always told him to never listen to humans. They were cunning and scheming, and once you talked to them, you would fall into their traps… humans were seriously nasty!

“Okay, as long as you don’t kill me, I’ll cooperate with you. Oink.”

And thus the piglet replied extremely obediently.

What? As long as there was a chance he wouldn’t die, of course he would fight for it. He hadn’t asked to be caught by a dragon, and originally he thought he was dead for certain. He had assumed those humans absolutely wouldn’t let him go, so he fought to preserve the dignity of his people.

Of course, dignity was useless if you were dead. He still wanted to keep eating the delicious fruits and sprigs of the Devil’s Flower.

“You have a clear view of this situation. I admire you.”

Luya looked at the piglet in satisfaction, and then she and Ludding tied it up with the dog’s leash.

“Eldest Human Sister! Don’t worry, as long as I can go home safely, your friend will definitely be returned to you. Oink.”

The piglet seemed extremely eager to survive, and very cooperatively volunteered to write a letter and stamp his hoof print on it.

…Eldest Human Sister1, why did this name sound so unpleasant?

Luya’s mouth twitched, but she didn’t argue with him. She could not read the written language of the pigmen, so she looked at him suspiciously and said, “You didn’t write anything that shouldn’t be written, right?”

“Of course not! Oink! My life is in your hands, so how could I plan a devious plot? Only humans are that treacherous, oink!”

“Then that’s for the best.” Luya stared threateningly at the piglet. “If I find out that you’re lying, then I turn you into roast pork.”

“I wouldn’t dare! Oink!”

Thus Luya carefully collected the letter and asked the piglet where their camp was located, as well as various details about the composition of their tribe.

In truth, it was actually very interesting, and the information she gathered could be written into an anthropological thesis. Even though pigmen weren’t descended from humans and seemed to have evolved from pigs, they still had many habits similar to humans. It was unclear if they were reproductively isolated from other species. The piglet didn’t say anything, and Luya didn’t bother to ask.

…She didn’t want to know!

That said, pigmen were a species of beastmen, so no matter what happened, it wouldn’t be strange.

Since he was a glutton, this piglet had snuck out of camp after class. He had gone to the wetlands where the Devil’s Flowers were in full bloom, hoping to dig up some wetland crabs to eat.

Then while he was out hunting, the red dragon snatched him away.

Luya reflexively looked at the Shiba Inu at her feet.

…Lu Dahuang seemed to have a similar encounter on the first day. But since it was a really cute dog, she ended up adopting it.

“Let me think, aside from letting the human go, your family also needs to give me food and seeds.”

Luya looked at the piglet, calculating what she would be able to obtain, and then spoke after some consideration.

The piglet was very angry when he heard this, and he couldn’t help but protest. “What? You insatiable woman! Oink!”

“You are the son of a rancher. Of course I have to blackmail and extort the most value out of you. Oh, and I decided I also want a hundred pounds of sugar, a hundred pounds of rice, a hundred pounds of wheat flour, and honey. If your dad refuses to pay up, then I’ll turn you into bacon.”

“…”

The piglet looked at Luya dumbfounded, and then remembered what his mother had once told him.

Human beings are evil!

“Then Farus, could you please send this letter for me?”

Luya tied the letter to the corners of the red dragon’s wings. She looked at him seriously and made her request. “I have to watch this guy to make sure he doesn’t run away. Uncle Ludding and Lu Dahuang might not be able to handle it, so sorry for troubling you.”

The red dragon stared at Luya. It had never refused any of Luya’s requests, and of course it was no different this time. The only thing was that it considered this to be meaningless and a bit of a hassle.

“Well, if you wish.”

It agreed very simply, flapped its dragon wings, and then flew out of the lair.

Luya tied up the pigman child in an area where she could see him, and then asked the Shiba Inu to keep watch. Then she continued to discuss their current situation in the dragon’s lair with Ludding.

They had already planted the soybeans in the field, but it would take a long time before they were ready for harvest. In fact, Luya had no farming experience, but fortunately Chef Ludding was happy to take over this job.

The goblins had built the outer walls of the house over the past few days. The materials that they had salvaged from the abandoned mansion were unexpectedly decent. Once the construction was finished, they would just need to paint the walls and stick on some wallpaper, but there was no rush for these things. The food problem had to be resolved first.

After the red dragon flew away, Ludding finally couldn’t help but speak up about the question he had never dared to ask.

“Eve… why is that dragon willing to help us? I think it’s incredible, and it even listens to you…”

“That’s nonsense. Why would the dragon listen to me?”

Luya stopped Ludding from continuing, and she gave him an exceptionally serious look. “You’re thinking about this all wrong. The red dragon likes me and he’s willing to help me. In order to gain the red dragon’s trust, you must trust in him wholeheartedly. Sincerity can only be exchanged for sincerity.”

“I know you’re right. Maybe I should control my fear better…”

Ludding sighed slightly. Even though the red dragon had never done anything to him, that fearsome and oppressive aura made him afraid to meet its eyes. Humans have a natural fear for giant monsters. No matter how they tried to calm themselves down, they couldn’t stop their instincts.

He didn’t know how Luya overcame all this, and he admired her a lot.

Perhaps without realizing it, that shy and timid girl had already grown up.

By the time the red dragon came back, Luya was harvesting the grapes that she had dried earlier.

The grapes had completely shriveled up, and they smelled delicious and sweet. She found a container with a lid and filled it up with raisins. This would serve as her winter sugar reserve.

The goblins also collected a considerable amount of fresh grapes. Luya debated whether to continue drying raisins, but Ludding was extremely excited and said that these fully ripe grapes could be used to make wine.

Before the apocalypse, drinking wine was such a luxurious thing! Even though the dragon had a considerable stock of fine wine, Ludding didn’t dare touch those bottles. More precisely, he didn’t want to touch anything that belonged to the dragon at all.

Fortunately, he was extremely good at making wine. He used to ferment his own barrels of wine in the restaurants that he used to run.

Seeing the red dragon, Luya hurriedly stopped her work and went over to greet the dragon happily.

“Welcome back!”

She looked at the red dragon brimming with anticipation and asked, “So how was it?”

“They agreed.”

The red dragon stared at Luya calmly, and then lowered a barrel that had been hitched to his body. He explained to Luya, “This is the deposit for a hundred pounds of honey.”

“Alright, I’ll give it a look!”

Luya was thrilled with eagerness, but after she opened the barrel, she quickly discovered that it was filled with entire beehives. A swarm of bees flew out at once, scaring her back several steps.

“Wasn’t it supposed to be honey? Why’d they give whole nests?!”

“Isn’t gnawing on honeycomb the right way to eat honey? It’s more nutritious to eat it with the bees. Only you humans extract and preserve the honey, oink. So weak.”

The piglet looked at Luya, his eyes filled with contempt for humans.

“What should I do?”

Luya felt a headache coming, but Ludding hurried over. He carefully picked up a bee’s nest, examined it, and then told Luya, “Don’t worry. The queen bee already ran away, so there aren’t too many bees left. We can smoke them out later, and then you can cut it apart for honey.”

“That’s great. I wouldn’t have known that at all.”

Luya breathed a sigh of relief. Sure enough, it was really nice to have someone with rich life experiences helping out. If she had to do these things herself, she would have been too reluctant to throw away the nest without extracting the honey, and she definitely would have been stung all over by bees.

“Then I can drink honey tonight?”

“It shouldn’t be a problem. I can use this honey to make apple jam.”

Ludding hung the beehives on a pole one by one, and then started to get to work.

Consequently, Luya started to ask the red dragon about the situation with the pigmen.

The red dragon told Luya what he had heard.

‘Even though he’s our eldest son, he’s stubborn, frivolous, incompetent, and ill-suited to inherit the ranch. We would rather not exchange him for so many resources, but we also don’t want to worsen the problem. We just hope that the red dragon will stop entering our territory… Of course we can give you that human livestock, as well as the food you requested. As for that idiot, you don’t have to send him back. Just dispose of him however you want.’

“…Why so ruthless? Even though it’s a bit different from what we expected, at least the outcome was favorable…”

Luya calmly relayed what the red dragon told her to the pigman child. She watched as the piglet’s face changed from triumphant to totally ashen. As if he couldn’t believe this, he screamed in shock.

“That’s impossible! Father wouldn’t treat me like this! I’m his own biological son! Oink!”

“Who knows? Maybe your dad found out that you actually came from the uncle next door2…”

Luya was going to play along with his words to tease him. But then she suddenly saw that the piglet’s eyes were filled with tears, as if he was about to cry.

“…Hey, don’t be like that.”

Luya’s head hurt a little. Somehow, she felt a bit sorry for this guy, so she comforted the piglet and said, “Alright, don’t cry. When the ranch releases our friend, we’ll send you back.”

Those words seemed to break the piglet’s last line of defense, and he burst into tears.

“I don’t care! I’m not crying! They don’t want me! Waaaaaah— I’m unloved! You should just turn me into roast pork! I don’t want to live anymore! Oink!”

His wails were especially loud, and he cried like a dying pig. Choking, sobbing, and bawling, he wailed, “I don’t believe it! My mom doesn’t want me! Waah… Mom… forget it, I’ll just die waaaah… Eldest Human Sister, after you kill me and eat me up, please send my bones back home. I want them to feel regret… tell my parents that they killed me through their inaction, waa…”

“Alright! Stop! We’re not going to eat you!”　

Luya had a headache from his wailing. Was he that simple-minded? As you might expect from a pigman… she had to order this guy to shut up. “When our companion comes back, hurry off the mountain and go wherever you want.”

“I don’t want to go anywhere. I’ll jump off the mountain and commit suicide!”

The piglet burst into tears and sniffled. He was practically out of breath from crying, and he looked so emotional that he was practically ready to jump off the cliff at any second.

Luya was also very surprised by this. She never imagined that the leader of this pigman clan was so ruthless that he’d even throw away his own son. Was each child less valuable because they gave birth to many babies in each litter3?

However, he was still an eldest son, yet they easily tossed him aside. This was astonishing even for Luya. They were willing to hand over the hostage and food only because they feared the red dragon’s might.

No one was dumb enough to pick a fight with a dragon. Even the demon archduke Gudius was willing to grant the red dragon an exception, so it was a no brainer with a mere pigman rancher.

To express their sincerity, they were even willing to sacrifice their son. ‘Lord Dragon, we will definitely satisfy your requests’ …It was just like a CEO inspecting a factory while remarking that the canned food here was good. Can you give me one? Of course anyone would immediately agree without objection!

Sigh, it seemed like this young pigman was just too young. He had no idea how cruel the world was…

“Alright, alright, if you don’t want to go back, just stay here for now. You can work for me.”

Luya pretended to be exasperated as she spoke. However, when she proposed this idea, the piglet immediately stopped sobbing. His eyes glimmered as he looked at Luya. “Really? Oink!”

He puffed up his chest angrily, his panting heavily. “Then I won’t go home for now. My mom will definitely regret this. At some point she’ll cry, send people to look for me, and apologize! Oink!”

“I don’t keep slackers here. You’ll have to earn your keep and work for your meals.”

She rolled her eyes in her heart, wondering if this was just a rowdy child that ran away from home.

Truthfully, she didn’t think that the pigmen genuinely didn’t want their son. Most likely, they had just said it to please the red dragon’s ears, but she never imagined this child would really be so upset…

…No, actually, anyone would be upset.

“Okay, Eldest Human Sister! I can do a lot of things and I have a great nose! I can tell which wild mushrooms are useful and I can find black truffles.” The piglet patted his chest and spoke.

“That’s great.”

Luya had seen many mushrooms on this unfortunate mountain, and she didn’t know which were edible. There was even a considerable amount of fungi near the dragon’s lair. She felt a little greedy seeing them every day, but she didn’t have the courage to try them.

If this piglet was telling the truth, she could put him to the test. Of course, she’d have to make him eat it first.

“By the way, what’s your name?”

Since she was going to let him stay temporarily, Luya decided to figure out what to call him. She had been calling him ‘Piglet’ this entire time, which seemed rather impolite.

“My name is Inu… Wait no, I’m abandoning my past! Say goodbye to my former self! Oink!”

…Please don’t be so chuuni4. This piglet was exactly like a human child, and he was a bit irritating.

“…You don’t mind if I call you Piglet?”

“Whatever! Call me anything you want! Oink!”

Piglet crossed his arms and turned his head to a side with a hmph, ignoring Luya.

“Fine, then this Eldest Human Sister will pick a name for you.”

Luya stared at him and announced, “You will be Cater(pig)ller5”

“Whatever!”

Piglet ran away angrily.

The pigman rancher agreed to send Matthew in three days, but for some reason, Luya felt very anxious and could hardly sleep all night.

Author’s notes:

Today is also a double update, so I’ve paid off the fertilizer I owe! Hehe

Translator’s notes:

Updates have been slowing down a bit, but they’re still going fairly steady for now. I usually provide updates on translation statuses on discord, so if you’re wondering when the next chapter is coming, you can check there.

I broke my 30-day translation daily translation yesterday since I didn’t make a post. xD It’s been a really long time since I’ve translated so consistently~