Otherworld Adventure 257 Aira Family's Thousand Fiend Monster Ranch

Just behind him was a bustling city, but all of a sudden it hard turned into a vast prairie with monsters roaming about peacefully.

Cecil was surprised to see the mult.i.tudes of ferocious monsters grazing on the prairie so tranquilly. In the wild, these monsters should already be at each other's throats. Seeing the monsters acting so docile caused Cecil to be amazed and at the same time worried.

As they made their way down the large and wide pathway in the middle of the prairie that was surrounded by tall wooden fences, Cecil and the rest pa.s.sed by adventurers, mercenaries, merchants, and people from all sorts of occupations and standings.

As he saw the monsters' behavior as these people brought them out of the ranch, Cecil's worries grew more and more.

"This...may be bad..."

"What's that Cel?" Lucia, who was sitting next to him on the driver's seat asked.

"The monsters....don't you think they're all too docile?"

"Y-yeah...I kind of had that feeling. Though it's a bit cute, but are they going to be okay as battle pets? They seem more like normal pets to me..."

"Exactly, that's what I'm worried about..."

"Should we turn back and go capture one by ourselves?"

"Nah, since we're here, let's take a look around first before we make our decision. We might luckily find one that's suitable for our purposes. If not, then we can just head out of the city and capture one."

"Mhm... Well I just hope that this isn't a wasted trip!"

"Come on Lulu, aren't you also fascinated to see all these monsters acting so amiably despite some of them being the predators of others? I mean, look at that over there!" Cecil exclaimed as he pointed towards a pack of monsters in the distance.

It was a pack of velociraptor-shaped monsters called Venomfang Raptors. These were B-ranked carnivorous monsters that ate anything with meat on it, monsters and humans alike. Black Borgres, large boar-type monsters, were naturally their prey, but what Cecil was pointing at was a pack of these Venomfang Raptors running around a small herd of Black Borgres.

Normally, these raptors would pounce on the boar-like monsters without a moment's hesitation. But here they were, coexisting peacefully.

"I-it's a little interesting..."

"I know right, I wonder just how they tamed these monsters!"

"...Yeah, but the people running this ranch have basically pulled their claws and teeth out. What good are they in battle if they're all so meek?"

Cecil could only nod at her words. She was right. What they needed was a multi-purpose battle pet that could pull their wagon and fight alongside them. However, he couldn't help but wonder why during his time on Urrugdrasil, he hadn't once seen these kinds of large scale monster ranches.

He'd only seen ranches for people to leave their monsters at when they entered a town or city, but never one like this which directly raised monsters and sold them to the public. Well, it wasn't like he was going to pry into it any further so he just threw the thought to the back of his mind.

Cecil wasn't going to begin an internal debate about the differences between two different species of people. It'd be pointless because humans and demi-humans were naturally, not the same. He'd be stupid to try and weigh the differences between them.

In the distance, Cecil was able to see a large establishment in the middle of the prairie which had multiple wagons and carriages parked around it. This was most likely the management and reception office of the monster ranch.

There was a large sign near the establishment that read: 'Thousand Fiend Monster Ranch'.

Cecil had Silver park their wagon near the large mansion that plenty of people were walking in and out of. As Silver arrived, his might and majestic presence naturally attracted the gazes of people in and out of the mansion.

Up on the mansion's third floor balcony, a young lady wearing a fas.h.i.+onable dress was curiously observing the large white wolf in fascination.

"Such beautiful well-groomed fur, coupled with that mighty aura. This is without a doubt a top-quality monster raised not in captivity but in the wild."

When the young lady saw the teenaged boy and two girls step down from the wagon, she took a closer look at their attire and noticed that they were adventurers, but she deduced that they were of n.o.ble peerage.

"A group of n.o.bles playing adventurer~ I wonder what they could be doing in my establishment?" the young lady said playfully before calling out, "Mora!"

From behind her, a maid stepped forward and asked gently, "What can I do for you, my lady?"

"Relay to Tristan. Receive those 3, esteemed guests, into the mansion courteously and send them to my office."

"Yes, my lady."

The maid quickly excused herself from the balcony. She quickly made her way to a speaker-like instrument inside of the office and relayed her lady's orders to the mansion's butler, Tristan.

Cecil, Lucia, and Serilla were the only ones who disembarked from the wagon. Yuna had stayed behind to accompany Silver. After she took off his harness, Silver immediately transformed into his pet form and jumped into Yuna's arms. She then took the wolf back into the wagon.

Naturally, this surprised the young lady still observing the party from the balcony.

"Oh my~ how interesting, a shape-s.h.i.+fting wolf!"

When Cecil and the girls walked into the mansion, a young butler walked up to receive them.

"Mister and the two Missuses, the Lady of this establishment would like to invite you 3 esteemed guests into her office. Please, follow me." The butler said.

Cecil looked at the two girls beside him in question, but they only shrugged back at him so Cecil decided to just follow the butler.

Whoever this person was that wanted to meet them seemed to be the owner of the monster ranch. Cecil didn't see any harm in meeting up with the ranch's owner. This way, maybe things will proceed much faster and he'd probably be able to strike a good deal with the owner.

And obviously, he'd be able to ask the owner where the 'real' battle pets are. He didn't categorize those docile monsters that he saw out on the prairie as 'real' battle pets. They were only 'pets' in his eyes.

The butler brought the party up to the top floor of the mansion, the third floor, and brought them to a room. When he opened the door, he immediately gestured respectfully for Cecil and the girls to head on in.

"Please, the Young Lady is already waiting inside."

"Mhm, thank you," Cecil nodded at the butler and said his thanks. The two girls behind him also did the same and this caused the butler to awkwardly stand there not knowing what to do.

Normally, n.o.bles wouldn't talk to a servant. They'd just follow after them aloofly and say nothing. They were of different statuses so this was a given. Receiving thanks from not 1, but 3 n.o.bles caused the butler to be at a loss.

"Y-you're welcome?" By the time he responded, Cecil and the girls were already inside the office. He could only chuckle at himself awkwardly and think, 'What a strange bunch of n.o.bles'.

Well, of course they were strange. First of all, they weren't n.o.bles, they were adventurers. There's no way they would know how n.o.bles acted here on Midgard. Serilla was an aristocrat herself, since she was part of the Lunarts Family of Anglaria, but she wasn't one to carry herself in that kind of mannerism. What more Cecil and Lucia?

Butler Tristan walked in and quickly closed the door behind him. He began preparing tea for his lady and the guests. The maid called Mora from earlier was already preparing some confectionery to go along with the tea.

Cecil looked around the lavishly decorated room and finally noticed the young, blonde-haired lady walking in from the balcony.

"It is not every day that my establishment receives such esteemed guests like your n.o.ble selves. My name is Benedicia Aira. I am the owner of this establishment, the Aira Family's Thousand Fiend Monster Ranch. May I ask what you 3 are looking for today?" The young lady said as she hid her part of her face behind a folding fan.

"Well, we're here to purchase a battle pet. Your STRONGEST battle pet," Cecil emphasized.

The young lady only let out a peal of laughter in reply, "My, my~ of course, our strongest yes?"

"Yeah..."

"So~ shall we get down to business, right away? Or would you like some tea before that?"

"Let's just get straight to business," Cecil replied instantly. He wasn't one to waste his time doing something other than what he had already planned.

If he had come here without any objectives, then he wouldn't mind thinking about it through a round of tea, but he already had a clear objective to why he came.

"Okay—but before that, if I may ask, who is it that raised that splendidly majestic wolf that was pulling your wagon?"

This was a no-brainer and Cecil immediately replied, "Me."

"I see...you don't perhaps have any intention of selling that wolf? Why not sell it to me? I will naturally give you a wonderful price for such a wonderful wolf." Benedicia said as she pulled out a golden rimmed Bank Card.