After looking at the aquarium, I happened to be hungry, so I decided to have a meal and explore a bit more.
Luke wondered if there was anything more to see here, but he nodded his head nonetheless.
Even if it wasn’t about him, Diana was enjoying herself.
Yerna wanted to order a children’s meal for Luke and Diana, but Dayton stopped her and said.
“That won’t be enough. Lately, his appetite has been huge. He eats a lot. Ever since that transformation.”
Yerna’s eyes widened in surprise at Dayton’s whisper.
“What? Really? Is Luke gaining weight…?”
He wasn’t originally the type to eat that much…
That’s strange.
“I haven’t weighed him, so I don’t know.”
“What if he becomes obese from eating like that?”
“Well, at a glance, he doesn’t look much different. It might be because he’s half-dragon, after all. He used to be really big.”
“That’s true…”
Thinking about it, since Luke became a dragon, they hadn’t been able to eat meals together at all.
He would eat breakfast in a hurry and often come home late at night when Luke was already asleep…
That was understandable since the day he realized that Dragon Heart was implanted in Luke, he started investigating the distribution channels of Dragon Heart.
Looking back, he realizes how foolish he was.
“Didn’t we even have meals together?”
He thought he knew Luke well enough by now, but how arrogant that thought was.
Yerna sighed and looked back at Luke.
“A meal eaten in a place like this is special.”
“Special? What do you mean?”
“Well, it’s something special.”
“Ah~. I see! You know a lot of hard words, sister!”
“Haha… Is that so?”
Seeing Luke and Diana happily chatting and laughing made Yerna’s heart feel warm.
It felt like it would be the same if she saw Diana getting along with other kids her age.
Yerna put a light smile on her lips and ordered food.
One children’s meal, three steak sets. One in elven style.
——–
“Wow, this is so cute…! What is it?”
What Diana pointed to was her serving of omelet rice with a cat’s face drawn in ketchup.
It seemed she really liked it, as her eyes sparkled with delight.
Yerna thought it was like seeing Luke when he first saw a smartphone and couldn’t help but chuckle.
“It seems they draw pictures with ketchup on omelet rice here.”
“Brother, why didn’t you do something like this for me!”
“You’d cry if I tried to do that with my skills.”
Dayton’s skills didn’t apply to everything.
Especially with drawing, he hadn’t improved at all since he was eight.
Dayton was well aware that if he tried to draw a cat on an omelet rice, it would end in an irrecoverable disaster.
Even when he tried drawing a smiley face, the outcome looked like the face of a dying soldier vomiting blood.
At that time, he had no choice but to cover that nightmare face with ketchup on the spot.
But what a cat might turn out like lost his confidence entirely.
Seeing this, both Luke and Yerna were smiling.
The sibling bond was certainly heartwarming.
Just as they all raised their utensils to eat, only Diana sat with a sullen expression, staring down at her plate and hesitating to lift her spoon.
Seeing this, Luke questioned her curiously.
“What’s wrong? Don’t you like the meal?”
“No… It’s just too cute, so I can’t eat it…”
Diana’s dilemma might seem trivial to others, but it felt like a serious issue for her.
She couldn’t even eat…
Luke thought briefly about what to do.
“What’s with all this… Just eat quickly. You have to finish this so we can go feed the animals.”
“…Okay.”
Reluctantly, motivated by hunger and the mention of feeding the animals, Diana finally picked up her spoon to tackle the cat-faced omelet rice.
After that, the meal went smoothly.
It was undeniably delicious.
Besides, she was likely very hungry too.
——-
The areas where normal animals were kept didn’t require any magical treatment, so Luke didn’t feel the need to use magic sight.
However, the world was indeed vast, and the types of creatures were innumerable.
The classification between magical and ordinary animals wasn’t determined by looks but by whether the animal possessed magical abilities.
In other words, there were plenty of ordinary animals that looked as extraordinary as magical ones.
Diana was in a state of excitement.
“Wow! It’s so big! Are we feeding that one?”
Dayton and Yerna nodded at Diana’s excitement, while Luke pondered the appearance of the animal.
It had horns on its head and looked to be around 4 meters tall.
It somewhat resembled a horse but simultaneously looked not like anything else.
It was a giraffe.
At first, Luke even thought it might be a magical creature due to its bizarre appearance.
In the past, because of its odd shape, he had actually wondered why it didn’t exhibit any magical reactions.
That’s why he had once simply researched giraffes.
In the end, he determined that it was simply a strangely-shaped animal.
However, although it looked comical, it had decent physical combat power in the wild and had no major natural enemies.
If he had to choose, maybe a giant sandworm could be an enemy, as that creature was basically a natural predator of all creatures on the plains.
Aside from that, structurally organized hunts by desert orcs would probably be able to catch giraffes more readily.
“Anyway, they have creatures like that in the zoo.”
When he finished pondering, Diana had already approached the railing, lifting food up to feed it.
The giraffe extended its long tongue and skillfully received the food.
Its tongue was as long as its neck.
The giraffe used its tongue like a tentacle, snatching the food up to its mouth.
‘It’s not easy for living beings to look like that purely due to physical conditions.’
Indeed.
No matter how one looked at it, it seemed like there must be some hidden magical abilities within its appearance.
Was this something designed and created by a god, or did it come into existence naturally after the world was created? It was hard to tell.
Perhaps it was an influential animal based on a hypothesis that a crazed wizard had conducted chimeric experiments in an undocumented era.
That’s why Luke liked giraffes.
He appreciated their mysterious origins.
Isn’t it nice to have something that sparks the imagination?
Well, Luke had too many important research topics that were far more significant than the origins of a giraffe, so he couldn’t delve too deep into it.
As he gazed at the giraffe, lost in those old thoughts, Yerna lightly patted his back and said.
“Luke, you should try feeding it quickly.”
At Yerna’s suggestion, Luke looked up at her expression and nodded.
He had fed giraffes while studying them a few times, so it wasn’t particularly special.
Luke looked down at the food in his hand.
It was a paper cup filled with carrots and bananas.
About 2000 gil or so.
He had no choice but to accept it since she had insisted so hard, even though he thought it was a waste of money.
Honestly, he shook his head at the waste, but Yerna looked as if she thought he was afraid of the giraffe, immediately taking on a regretful expression.
“Haah…”
Well, if he came to enjoy a place like this, she would worry if he just kept turning it down.
Luke approached the giraffe normally, lifting the food as others did.
However, none of the giraffes approached to eat from Luke.
All the giraffes moved away from him, leaving Luke standing there alone.
“Hmm…”
He lowered his awkward hand.
Why were the animals avoiding him? Did he smell bad? He wondered, sniffing himself.
He didn’t sense any foul odors.
Luke approached Yerna and asked.
“Yerna, do I smell?”
Seeing him, Yerna panicked and replied.
“Absolutely not! You always smell good, Luke.”
If that was the case, did he have a smell that giraffes specifically disliked? Luke looked back at the giraffes.
Then, Py quietly observed the giraffes, glanced back at Luke, and said.
– Luke, they’re scared of you.
‘Scared?’
-Literally, they’re scared.
Spirits are quite sensitive to the emotions of others.
There are no exceptions even for animals.
If a spirit says they’re scared, then it must be true.
They can’t lie.
“They’re scared of me, huh?”
Luke scratched his chin.
One particular thought came to mind when he considered fear.
‘Dragon Fear.’
Dragons exhibit an overwhelming presence over ordinary creatures.
Born as a species with the authority of a conductor from birth, they can exert influence over their surroundings simply by sheer will without relying on any human circle.
Part of that influence is termed Dragon Fear.
Though he, himself, had never been granted such authority as he wasn’t a complete dragon, it seemed a faint fear was leaking out, perhaps due to being half-dragon.
Then the question arises: why did this ‘Dragon Fear’ manifest ‘now’?
If it had always been applicable, he probably wouldn’t have enjoyed tossing a ball around with Danny before.
He certainly didn’t think that tiny dog would have overcome the fear of a dragon.
‘Then what has changed from that time to now?’
Immediately, the thought that floated to him was asserting that it was a “difference in mindset.”
He genuinely enjoyed himself while playing with Danny.
Although he was surprised at the existence of such a small dog, excitement was clearly mixed into his psyche.
So what about now?
Wasn’t he reluctantly holding up the food, unwillingly, just so he wouldn’t disappoint Yerna?
That was the difference.
“Hmph.”
Luke lightly scratched his brow.
‘Is that it? If I can’t enjoy myself, nothing will work.’
Taking a deep breath, Luke released his emotions.
With that, he lifted the food once more, but this time started to feel a slight sense of anticipation.
Then…
“Ugh, what are you doing, you guys! Stop it! Only one of you eat at a time!”
When Luke shouted in surprise, the many giraffes that had come to grab the food all retreated.
It was the influence of Dragon Fear.
Seeing this, Yerna, who had been taking pictures, hurried over, examining Luke’s arm anxiously.
“Luke, are you okay? Did you get hurt anywhere?”
“I’m fine… I just got startled.”
“Thank goodness…”
However, while he hadn’t sustained any injuries, his right arm, tainted by the sticky, long tongues of several giraffes, already felt unpleasantly moist.
Luke looked at the state of his hand and lamented.
“Ugh, my hand is all sticky now. This isn’t a good feeling…”
“Even I was surprised. I didn’t expect them to act up like that…”
As soon as he withdrew the fear, he would receive such overwhelming attention.
Luke raised his whole right arm, which was glistening with the giraffes’ saliva, and instinctively sniffed it.
It smelled terrible.
“…What is it? I guess I must have been tastier than the food. They licked my whole arm.”
As Luke frowned and pulled his nose away from his hand, Yerna burst out laughing.
“What’s so funny, Yerna?”
“No, ha…Luke, your expression…hahaha! It’s so funny!”
Luke instinctively paused, on the verge of scratching his chin.
The state of his right hand was a mess.
“….”
Luke sighed.
Why must animals either fear him or be overly affectionate?
