Half-Dragon Slave Life Chapter 20

Chapter 20: Hero

Translated by Soyokaze Translations: soyokazetranslation . Com

With the matter settled for now, we returned to the troupe, which we found in quite the scene .

Everyone’s legs had given out or were collapsed, half of them wet themselves, and a very small portion even c.r.a.pped their pants (it’s Kevin) . Many are unconscious and foaming at the mouth .

When you think about it, that’s a normal reaction considering some girl and their traveling companion suddenly got into a fight, and even worse, a legendary disaster beast appeared and went on a rampage .

“Ummm… I’m back?”

“Y-yeah…”

The troupe leader reacts with a dazed response .

As I struggle to think of some way to smooth this over, a carefree voice joins in .

“h.e.l.lo again everyone, my name is Yig, and I’ve become lady Eir’s attendant as of now! Nice to meet you . ”

“Don’t call me that . ”

“Then I’ll go with ‘Master . ’”

“That should be used with Master Rimuru . I’m his slave, after all . ”

“Hum, then lady Eir will be Chief, and lord Rimuru will be Boss . ”

“How and why did you come up with those?!”

The absent-minded interruption suddenly turned into a comedy routine .

Quickest to return to his senses was, of course, the troupe leader . Even if his legs did give out, someone who has persisted in his craft for so long is made of different stuff .

“That… That girl, just a minute ago?”

“Mm, yup . ”

“I’m a Fafnir~ . Plus I’ve got a name, and am kin to a G.o.d~ . ”

“I-it can’t be the real thing…”

“Hrm, that’s so mean, doubting me like that!”

For some reason, it feels like this girl has lots of att.i.tudes to get on peoples’ good side?

But that could be because she’s acting out the part of a person .

“Ummm… So that being the case, we’re going to have another person tagging along . Will that be okay?”

“Uh, I know you’re asking me and all, but… I can’t exactly go against the will of Fafnir, can I?”

“Well, guess not . ”

“Don’t be silly . If Eir got serious, she’d kill me . ”

“Can’t . Don’t even think I could win again . ”

“Don’t be silly . That sucking it in like swish and then returning it like blam thing is something I don’t think I could stop . ”

“Ahh—…”

I wonder if we should spoil the gift to her?

She says she’s going to be tagging along anyway, so we probably can’t keep it quiet .

“So uh… Will this really be okay? I mean, I don’t doubt you or anything, but I’ve got my responsibilities to the troupe members after all . ”

“I get how you feel, but… Even if we told her no, I don’t think she’d listen . ”

“Guess ya got a point . ”

“Besides, Eir will take good care of her . ”

“Eh? Me?!”

This is the first I’m hearing about this, Master!

“What do you expect? n.o.body else can stand against her . ”

“Well… Yeah, but…”

“I’ll be in your hands, Chief!”

“You’re gonna keep calling me that, huh…”

I hang my head . I drew the short straw .

Translated by Soyokaze Translations: soyokazetranslation . Com

We didn’t go any further that day, and set up camp on the spot .

After all that happened, everyone’s willpower to keep moving was torn up by the roots .

I only noticed it later, but the battle on these plains caused enough damage to change the landscape .

So a lot of wild animals got caught up in the fight, which gave us a lot of meat to make our dinner a little more extravagant, so it wasn’t all bad I guess?

The next morning we move with the sunrise, and arrive at the next post town .

We’ll be here two days to perform before getting back to the trip .

Since we’re performing at every big stop, it seems like we should be behind on our itinerary, but a normal merchant caravan would have rest days tossed in too, so we weren’t really so behind .

In fact, with our large numbers to stabilize us, we might even get there ahead of schedule .

And so we reach the town in the morning .

When the theater troupe arrives at these post towns with so few pleasures to be had, they tend to have a welcoming mood, but that day there was an exaggerated atmosphere coming off the place .

“Seems kinda noisy around here . Something happen?”

The troupe leader engages the gatekeeper in small talk, and asks about it .

“Ah, you guys . Glad you’re safe . ”

“Safe?”

“Yesterday, just over in those plains, a dragon went on a rampage . ”

“Bufuh?!”

I-I can’t say it… That rampaging dragon is standing next to me smiling happily…

“What’s the matter young lady?”

“N-no, well, that thing yesterday, a dragon?”

This is as far as my feigning ignorance will go . Need help, Master .

At times like this it’s best to rely on Master’s good front and ability to spin his words .

“And even worse, it was apparently the disaster beast Fafnir . ”

“Aaah, that’s…”

Then Master looks at the source of the calamity, Yig, then at myself, who defeated her, and nods firmly two, three times .

“If you’re talking about the Fafnir, then it was beaten—”

“S-say what?!”

I feel utter shock at Master’s honest confession .

He was trying so hard not to stand out, so what’s with this sudden turn?

The gatekeeper is astonished at hearing the Fafnir was chased off, and has his eyes wide open .

“—by Kevin here . ”

“Uhhhhh?!”

Master, you’re planning to pin it all on Kevin again . You fiend .

“Kevin! The guy who took down a disaster beast all by himself at Sokaris a little while back?!”

Just as they say, rumors travel faster than horses . His fame seems to have spread here already .

“It went just as you’d expect from someone with the nickname “Disaster Beast Slayer” . He scattered the breath with his large axe, cracked open those harder-than-iron scales…”

“Wh-whoa… Awesome . Woulda liked to see that . ”

“But that beast was of the highest cla.s.s . It was too tenacious, and he couldn’t deliver a finis.h.i.+ng blow, but he managed to drive it away . ”

Master weaves a whopper of a tale . Kevin, the subject of the tale, opens and closes his mouth, dumbfounded .

Yig seems to have grasped the situation . She takes something like a black board out, and shows it to the gatekeeper .

It looks to be about twenty centimeters in all directions . It’s rather thin, and has a sparkle to it .

“This is a scale from that dragon . Thin though it is, it’s sharper and harder than iron . An unbelievably good product . ”

“He-, wai-…?!”

“Hohoh, so that’s what this is!”

Yeah, I’m sure it is… That scale came from the person(?) herself, so it’s undoubtedly Fafnir’s .

With Yig backing up Master, Kevin further loses his head .

But he’s dealing with a demon dragon . Since he’s worried over weather he should counter or not, I guess he still has some of his senses remaining?

It backfires in this case though .

“Its solidity is as you see here… Hyah!”

Upon lightly swing the scale, Yig cuts straight through a portion of the fence surrounding the town .

“Whooooa?! No way!”

“Does this prove it to you?”

“Does this prove it to you?”

“Of course! This is definitely a dragon scale! S-sorry to ask, but could we have sir Kevin stop by the guild branch later to discuss this?”

“Naturally, that would be no problem . ”

The beautiful little girl smiles . I’m sure that behind her smile is the grin of a devil .

“Sorry for the trouble, we just gotta hear about the situation is all! Oh, sorry to hold you up here; you can go on through . ”

“G-great… Then we’ll be on our way . ”

The troupe leader’s jaw dropped at the way things unfolded, but he managed a reply and pa.s.sed through the gate .

After going a ways to where there weren’t so many people around, Kevin raises his voice .

“You little…!”

“Sorry, but that’s how it is . Counting on you, okay?”

“Don’t go pus.h.i.+n’ everything on me just because you don’t wanna stand out!”

“Well just consider it returning the favor . I saved your life, remember?”

“Kgh… Yeah, but…”

“This means your rank is going up too, so it’s not all bad, right?”

Devil number one grins .

“Yeah, yeah, just like Boss said . If any standard adventurers told tall tales about “defeating me,” I’d go burn them to a crisp . ”

Pointing that out while breathing oddly is devil number two .

“Yep, I’m a good person . At least compared to Master Rimuru . ”

“What are you talking about? You’re the root cause here . ”

“Yeah, yeah, if you hadn’t taken the treasure from the bas.e.m.e.nt in the first place, Chief, then it wouldn’t have come to this, you know?”

“Now that ya mention it, what’s this treasure? Somethin’ amazing?”

Urk, what do I do? Taking out all that stuff would normally be impossible .

Which means I would have to talk about “Dimensional Storage” to explain it .

“It’s the sword on Eir’s back . Quite the sharp sword, don’t you think?”

“Come to think of it, the thing has a nice edge . ”

“Ooh, the magic sword Gram . That takes me back . ”

“Magic sword Gram?”

“A looong time ago it was used by a knight called The One-Armed Holy Knight . I kinda knew him too . ”

I’m pretty sure that’s from the War of G.o.ds and Demons fairytale . If she’s acquainted with someone from that time… I’m gradually realizing just how ridiculous a creature this thing is .

The One-Armed Holy Knight, as the name implies, only had one arm, and yet he swung a two-handed sword around with it . He’s a legendary knight who fought together with the G.o.ds against the demon lord .

This sword is a priceless artifact used by such an amazing person . Burns had an ancestor like that, and yet he’s running a blacksmith… Who the heck is he?

“In any case, if Fafnir was spotted, then we need to keep our story in line with that, or this whole place will fall into confusion . You know that’s not good, right?”

“Well yeah, sure…”

“Then if you just take the hit, we’ll find a solution… Don’t you think so?”

“Well yeah, sure…”

“Then if you just take the hit, we’ll find a solution… Don’t you think so?”

“It doesn’t have to be me though! There’s a yellow rank party here!”

“D-don’t even joke about that! There’s no way we could take down a monster like that! Our rank being high means our abilities are pretty much known . ”

“Then the orange party…”

“That isn’t gonna work . We’ve teamed up with other parties before, so our strength is out in the open . ”

Building up experience and contributing to the guild means their talents are more or less known, so there’s a limit to what we can attribute to them .

On that point, with the lower rank Kevin only ever having done lumber transport, his strength was an unknown factor .

Plus, even though he was a novice, he’d had results taking down monsters called goblins .

Of course, that’s obviously nothing compared to Fafnir, but if we just say he’s grown, then it could, just maybe, be convincing .

“—Right?”

“What?! No!”

“Now, now, calm down . Let’s say we honestly tell them Eir defeated it . What then? They’ll obviously trace things back and dig up the grand hedgehog incident . ”

“Ergh, gh…”

“If that happens, they’ll say you tricked the guild and stole the achievements of someone else . They might even expel you… don’t you think?”

“Y-you… You got me trapped, huh?”

“It’s your own fault for not denying it from the beginning . Though we got our stories arranged with Gosun, so n.o.body would have believed you even if you did deny it of course .  Fufufu . ”

Master, so wicked…

“It’ll allll be fine, juuuust fine! If it comes down to it, I’ll testify on your behalf, so n.o.body will find out . After all, I’m the one who was taken down!”

Yig beats her chest and agrees to back him up .

“If you’d like, we could even stage a play where I come back for revenge and get chased away by Kevin . Wanna?”

“If you want a play, leave it to me—!”

“Quiet down, would you troupe leader?!”

Morgan got excited upon hearing about a play, and gets rebuffed by Kevin .

Looks like the whole employer-employee relations.h.i.+p has completely left their minds .

“If you get some annoying request that you just can’t refuse, you can just hire us on as a.s.sistants . Just think of it as helping out . ”

“Rimuru, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d… Is this payback for when I gave you a tough time at first?”

“Well now, who knows?”

Master brazenly whistles and plays dumb .

Well, maybe this is one type of wire-puller? It’s not all demerits, so I’d like it to be pardoned .

With his shoulders slumped, Kevin builds the cover story up with Master . I felt just a bit of sympathy .

Translated by Soyokaze Translations: soyokazetranslation . Com

When Kevin showed up at the guild later, he was promoted again, up to blue rank .

They extolled him for repelling the Fafnir attacking the town . Even though they weren’t attacked .

As a bonus, Mister Morgan planned on a play of Kevin repelling Fafnir, which Kevin was in tears trying to stop, and naturally he felt sorry .

Chapter 20: Hero.

Translated by Soyokaze Translations: soyokazetranslation . Com.

With the matter settled for now, we returned to the troupe, which we found in quite the scene

Everyone’s legs had given out or were collapsed, half of them wet themselves, and a very small portion even c.r.a.pped their pants (it’s Kevin) . Many are unconscious and foaming at the mouth

When you think about it, that’s a normal reaction considering some girl and their traveling companion suddenly got into a fight, and even worse, a legendary disaster beast appeared and went on a rampage

 .

“Ummm… I’m back?”.

“Y-yeah…”.

 .

The troupe leader reacts with a dazed response

As I struggle to think of some way to smooth this over, a carefree voice joins in

 .

“h.e.l.lo again everyone, my name is Yig, and I’ve become lady Eir’s attendant as of now! Nice to meet you . ”.

“Don’t call me that . ”.

“Then I’ll go with ‘Master . ’”.

“That should be used with Master Rimuru . I’m his slave, after all . ”.

“Hum, then lady Eir will be Chief, and lord Rimuru will be Boss . ”.

“How and why did you come up with those?!”.

 .

The absent-minded interruption suddenly turned into a comedy routine

Quickest to return to his senses was, of course, the troupe leader . Even if his legs did give out, someone who has persisted in his craft for so long is made of different stuff

 .

“That… That girl, just a minute ago?”.

“Mm, yup . ”.

“I’m a Fafnir~ . Plus I’ve got a name, and am kin to a G.o.d~ . ”.

“I-it can’t be the real thing…”.

“Hrm, that’s so mean, doubting me like that!”.

 .

For some reason, it feels like this girl has lots of att.i.tudes to get on peoples’ good side?.

But that could be because she’s acting out the part of a person

 .

“Ummm… So that being the case, we’re going to have another person tagging along . Will that be okay?”.

“Uh, I know you’re asking me and all, but… I can’t exactly go against the will of Fafnir, can I?”.

“Well, guess not . ”.

“Don’t be silly . If Eir got serious, she’d kill me . ”.

“Can’t . Don’t even think I could win again . ”.

“Don’t be silly . That sucking it in like swish and then returning it like blam thing is something I don’t think I could stop . ”.

“Ahh—…”.

 .

I wonder if we should spoil the gift to her?.

She says she’s going to be tagging along anyway, so we probably can’t keep it quiet

 .

“So uh… Will this really be okay? I mean, I don’t doubt you or anything, but I’ve got my responsibilities to the troupe members after all . ”.

“I get how you feel, but… Even if we told her no, I don’t think she’d listen . ”.

“Guess ya got a point . ”.

“Besides, Eir will take good care of her . ”.

“Eh? Me?!”.

 .

This is the first I’m hearing about this, Master!.

 .

“What do you expect? n.o.body else can stand against her . ”.

“Well… Yeah, but…”.

“I’ll be in your hands, Chief!”.

“You’re gonna keep calling me that, huh…”.

 .

I hang my head . I drew the short straw

 .

~*~.

Translated by Soyokaze Translations: soyokazetranslation . Com.

We didn’t go any further that day, and set up camp on the spot

After all that happened, everyone’s willpower to keep moving was torn up by the roots

I only noticed it later, but the battle on these plains caused enough damage to change the landscape

So a lot of wild animals got caught up in the fight, which gave us a lot of meat to make our dinner a little more extravagant, so it wasn’t all bad I guess?.

 .

The next morning we move with the sunrise, and arrive at the next post town

We’ll be here two days to perform before getting back to the trip

Since we’re performing at every big stop, it seems like we should be behind on our itinerary, but a normal merchant caravan would have rest days tossed in too, so we weren’t really so behind

In fact, with our large numbers to stabilize us, we might even get there ahead of schedule

 .

And so we reach the town in the morning

When the theater troupe arrives at these post towns with so few pleasures to be had, they tend to have a welcoming mood, but that day there was an exaggerated atmosphere coming off the place

 .

“Seems kinda noisy around here . Something happen?”.

 .

The troupe leader engages the gatekeeper in small talk, and asks about it

 .

“Ah, you guys . Glad you’re safe . ”.

“Safe?”.

“Yesterday, just over in those plains, a dragon went on a rampage . ”.

“Bufuh?!”.

 .

I-I can’t say it… That rampaging dragon is standing next to me smiling happily….

 .

“What’s the matter young lady?”.

“N-no, well, that thing yesterday, a dragon?”.

 .

This is as far as my feigning ignorance will go . Need help, Master

At times like this it’s best to rely on Master’s good front and ability to spin his words

 .

“And even worse, it was apparently the disaster beast Fafnir . ”.

“Aaah, that’s…”.

 .

Then Master looks at the source of the calamity, Yig, then at myself, who defeated her, and nods firmly two, three times

 .

“If you’re talking about the Fafnir, then it was beaten—”.

“S-say what?!”.

 .

I feel utter shock at Master’s honest confession

He was trying so hard not to stand out, so what’s with this sudden turn?.

The gatekeeper is astonished at hearing the Fafnir was chased off, and has his eyes wide open

 .

“—by Kevin here . ”.

“Uhhhhh?!”.

 .

Master, you’re planning to pin it all on Kevin again . You fiend

 .

“Kevin! The guy who took down a disaster beast all by himself at Sokaris a little while back?!”.

 .

Just as they say, rumors travel faster than horses . His fame seems to have spread here already

 .

“It went just as you’d expect from someone with the nickname “Disaster Beast Slayer” . He scattered the breath with his large axe, cracked open those harder-than-iron scales…”.

“Wh-whoa… Awesome . Woulda liked to see that . ”.

“But that beast was of the highest cla.s.s . It was too tenacious, and he couldn’t deliver a finis.h.i.+ng blow, but he managed to drive it away . ”.

 .

Master weaves a whopper of a tale . Kevin, the subject of the tale, opens and closes his mouth, dumbfounded

Yig seems to have grasped the situation . She takes something like a black board out, and shows it to the gatekeeper

It looks to be about twenty centimeters in all directions . It’s rather thin, and has a sparkle to it

 .

“This is a scale from that dragon . Thin though it is, it’s sharper and harder than iron . An unbelievably good product . ”.

“He-, wai-…?!”.

“Hohoh, so that’s what this is!”.

 .

Yeah, I’m sure it is… That scale came from the person(?) herself, so it’s undoubtedly Fafnir’s

With Yig backing up Master, Kevin further loses his head

But he’s dealing with a demon dragon . Since he’s worried over weather he should counter or not, I guess he still has some of his senses remaining?.

It backfires in this case though

 .

“Its solidity is as you see here… Hyah!”.

 .

Upon lightly swing the scale, Yig cuts straight through a portion of the fence surrounding the town

 .

“Whooooa?! No way!”.

“Does this prove it to you?”.

“Of course! This is definitely a dragon scale! S-sorry to ask, but could we have sir Kevin stop by the guild branch later to discuss this?”.

“Naturally, that would be no problem . ”.

 .

The beautiful little girl smiles . I’m sure that behind her smile is the grin of a devil

 .

“Sorry for the trouble, we just gotta hear about the situation is all! Oh, sorry to hold you up here; you can go on through . ”.

“G-great… Then we’ll be on our way . ”.

 .

The troupe leader’s jaw dropped at the way things unfolded, but he managed a reply and pa.s.sed through the gate

After going a ways to where there weren’t so many people around, Kevin raises his voice

 .

“You little…!”.

“Sorry, but that’s how it is . Counting on you, okay?”.

“Don’t go pus.h.i.+n’ everything on me just because you don’t wanna stand out!”.

“Well just consider it returning the favor . I saved your life, remember?”.

“Kgh… Yeah, but…”.

“This means your rank is going up too, so it’s not all bad, right?”.

 .

Devil number one grins

 .

“Yeah, yeah, just like Boss said . If any standard adventurers told tall tales about “defeating me,” I’d go burn them to a crisp . ”.

 .

Pointing that out while breathing oddly is devil number two

 .

“Yep, I’m a good person . At least compared to Master Rimuru . ”.

“What are you talking about? You’re the root cause here . ”.

“Yeah, yeah, if you hadn’t taken the treasure from the bas.e.m.e.nt in the first place, Chief, then it wouldn’t have come to this, you know?”.

“Now that ya mention it, what’s this treasure? Somethin’ amazing?”.

 .

Urk, what do I do? Taking out all that stuff would normally be impossible

Which means I would have to talk about “Dimensional Storage” to explain it

 .

“It’s the sword on Eir’s back . Quite the sharp sword, don’t you think?”.

“Come to think of it, the thing has a nice edge . ”.

“Ooh, the magic sword Gram . That takes me back . ”.

“Magic sword Gram?”.

“A looong time ago it was used by a knight called The One-Armed Holy Knight . I kinda knew him too . ”.

 .

I’m pretty sure that’s from the War of G.o.ds and Demons fairytale . If she’s acquainted with someone from that time… I’m gradually realizing just how ridiculous a creature this thing is

The One-Armed Holy Knight, as the name implies, only had one arm, and yet he swung a two-handed sword around with it . He’s a legendary knight who fought together with the G.o.ds against the demon lord

This sword is a priceless artifact used by such an amazing person . Burns had an ancestor like that, and yet he’s running a blacksmith… Who the heck is he?.

 .

“In any case, if Fafnir was spotted, then we need to keep our story in line with that, or this whole place will fall into confusion . You know that’s not good, right?”.

“Well yeah, sure…”.

“Then if you just take the hit, we’ll find a solution… Don’t you think so?”.

“It doesn’t have to be me though! There’s a yellow rank party here!”.

“D-don’t even joke about that! There’s no way we could take down a monster like that! Our rank being high means our abilities are pretty much known . ”.

“Then the orange party…”.

“That isn’t gonna work . We’ve teamed up with other parties before, so our strength is out in the open . ”.

 .

Building up experience and contributing to the guild means their talents are more or less known, so there’s a limit to what we can attribute to them

On that point, with the lower rank Kevin only ever having done lumber transport, his strength was an unknown factor

Plus, even though he was a novice, he’d had results taking down monsters called goblins

Of course, that’s obviously nothing compared to Fafnir, but if we just say he’s grown, then it could, just maybe, be convincing

 .

“—Right?”.

“What?! No!”.

“Now, now, calm down . Let’s say we honestly tell them Eir defeated it . What then? They’ll obviously trace things back and dig up the grand hedgehog incident . ”.

“Ergh, gh…”.

“If that happens, they’ll say you tricked the guild and stole the achievements of someone else . They might even expel you… don’t you think?”.

“Y-you… You got me trapped, huh?”.

“It’s your own fault for not denying it from the beginning . Though we got our stories arranged with Gosun, so n.o.body would have believed you even if you did deny it of course .  Fufufu . ”.

 .

Master, so wicked….

 .

“It’ll allll be fine, juuuust fine! If it comes down to it, I’ll testify on your behalf, so n.o.body will find out . After all, I’m the one who was taken down!”.

 .

Yig beats her chest and agrees to back him up

 .

“If you’d like, we could even stage a play where I come back for revenge and get chased away by Kevin . Wanna?”.

“If you want a play, leave it to me—!”.

“Quiet down, would you troupe leader?!”.

 .

Morgan got excited upon hearing about a play, and gets rebuffed by Kevin

Looks like the whole employer-employee relations.h.i.+p has completely left their minds

 .

“If you get some annoying request that you just can’t refuse, you can just hire us on as a.s.sistants . Just think of it as helping out . ”.

“Rimuru, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d… Is this payback for when I gave you a tough time at first?”.

“Well now, who knows?”.

 .

Master brazenly whistles and plays dumb

Well, maybe this is one type of wire-puller? It’s not all demerits, so I’d like it to be pardoned

With his shoulders slumped, Kevin builds the cover story up with Master . I felt just a bit of sympathy

Translated by Soyokaze Translations: soyokazetranslation . Com.

 .

When Kevin showed up at the guild later, he was promoted again, up to blue rank

They extolled him for repelling the Fafnir attacking the town . Even though they weren’t attacked

As a bonus, Mister Morgan planned on a play of Kevin repelling Fafnir, which Kevin was in tears trying to stop, and naturally he felt sorry