Chapter 109

March… March has already arrived.

It’s the time when spring is slowly preparing to come.

Even though it’s spring, it’s still early spring, so even if the temperature is above freezing, it’s often below 10 degrees, so you still need something to throw on.

Not that I care.

“Back to school…”

“Annoyed?”

“Yeah…”

“When you become an adult, you’ll actually miss that the most, so just relax and enjoy it. Stop worrying about the future. You can pretty much do whatever you want anyway, right?”

“…That’s true. I guess I forgot because I never check my magical girl account.”

“That’s all your money, you know…”

I’ve seen people forget a lot of things in life, but forgetting about their own money? That’s a first.

Why don’t you understand that money is the most important thing in life?

Anyway… you’ve got plenty of money, so don’t worry about future jobs or anything.

And since you’re treated like a fairy, if things go wrong, you can just stick to the Fairy Realm.

They probably won’t think it’s weird.

They’re not the type to care about what they eat, but they’re oddly interested in cooking, so there are plenty of chubby ones who’ll take care of it for you.

…Well, it might turn into more of a cooking torture than actual eating.

In that sense, make some bread, you chubby brat.

“Anyway, hurry up and go to school. You’re going to be late.”

“Okay~…”

Hmm… Speaking of which, it’s raining pretty hard today.

My shoes and socks are going to get soaked.

Well, she can openly use magic with her mascot, so she can just dry herself off with magic when she gets there.

“Meow…”

“At least don’t sleep on my lap when I’m trying to sleep…”

By the way, why is Max sleeping here…

If he sleeps there, I can’t move.

…Whatever.

Just keep sleeping there.

I’ll just watch TV.

“Chubby. Bring me some beer and snacks.”

“Got it!”

Ah~… It’s been a while since I’ve had morning beer.

During the kids’ vacation, I didn’t even drink until lunch, let alone morning beer.

It’s not like I’ll get drunk, but I feel like I shouldn’t drink in front of Diamond Dust…

“…Drinking beer like this makes me want some Pork Knuckle.”

“Should I try making it?”

“Can you?”

“If I reference some recipes, I can do it!”

“Oh… Then give it a try next time.”

“Got it!”

By the way, chugging it down in the morning feels great.

Plus, cute Max is sleeping on my lap.

Really… I feel so at ease…

“…Ah! Rampage!”

“What?”

“They say the dragon you’ve been waiting for has appeared!”

“Dragon?”

Ah~ They said monsters would appear sporadically because of that incident back then…

This time, luckily, it’s a dragon…

I should hurry and hunt it down to eat it.

“Coordinates?”

“Here!”

“Got it. Let’s go quickly. Before someone else gets it.”

“Got it!”

Sorry, Max, but keep sleeping on the couch.

I can’t wait to try dragon meat.

Well, for that reason… I took the [Gate] straight to where the dragon was.

There are already soldiers stationed everywhere, and they’re shooting at something, but I wish they’d stop.

That’s my prey.

“Just cut off its head, right?”

“That should do it!”

Judging by its level, it’s way below a divine dragon or the Dragon King.

So, without worrying about catching the wrong thing, I’ll just cut off its head… and put it straight into the Magic Pouch.

But… why are they shouting so much in this direction?

From the accent, it sounds like Russian?

Whatever, I don’t care.

No matter what they’re yelling, I’m not talking to the military.

“It’s so noisy!”

“Yeah. Let’s get out of here.”

I’ve never had a good experience dealing with the military, so I don’t want to engage.

They’re just a bunch of stiff-necked idiots spouting nonsense.

Not that I don’t understand the necessity of the military, and I do think it should exist, but the higher-ups are just so disgustingly stupid that I can’t help but hate them.

Anyway, I got the dragon, so I headed straight to the Fairy Realm.

If I were to take it out and dismantle it in the human world, I’d just get photographed and have articles written about me, so it’s better to dismantle it entirely in the Fairy Realm and just take the meat.

Plus, the mascots would probably even dismantle the dragon for me if I asked.

Because I can kinda see how the Fairy Realm treats me, so I get the gist.

How far I can push my requests.

“…The mascots are better at dismantling than I thought.”

“They use magic to understand the structure of the scales and muscles, so that’s why!”

“Using magic makes it that easy, huh…”

The mascots have lived with magic since birth, so they’re good at using it in such ways.

I should live with magic like that until my thinking becomes more flexible.

I can’t use it outside, but at least at home, I should use it in my daily life.

Especially telekinesis—I should use it as much as my hands.

“But those guys who looked like the Russian military, what did they say? Were they even Russian?”

“They were Russian! And from what I heard… they wanted to take it for research! That’s why they were cursing at us so much!”

“…Should I have just killed them all?”

“Please don’t!”

Especially since it’s Russia, it feels like they’d use it for war.

Hmm… It’s better if we handle the monsters ourselves.

If they research the magic stones or something and a magic revolution happens too quickly, who knows how much chaos it’ll cause.

Maybe in the distant future, but now… it’s too early.

Only a few powerful nations would monopolize it and grow unimaginably.

“We should probably control it like superhumans.”

“The Fairy Queen is already considering it!”

“Is she? Then we can just push it aside. But… it’s a dragon, so the amount of meat and bones is insane.”

“Yeah!”

“…Can we even eat all of it? I feel like I’d get sick of it.”

“We’ll have to see, right? Maybe we should call Pretty Heart and Gravity to help finish it!”

“Ah, that’s a good idea.”

With so many people working on dismantling it, they’re getting through that huge body in no time.

At this pace, they’ll be done in less than 10 minutes.

“But does this need to be aged to taste good?”

“I’m not sure?”

“Should’ve asked that earlier…”

Usually, meat tastes better when aged, but who knows how it works with fantasy creatures.

Ah, maybe if it’s not aged, it’ll be too tough to eat, regardless of taste.

Hmm, that’s a possibility.

Then aging is probably the way to go.

But aging takes a while, so does that mean we’ll have to wait to eat it?

Tch, that’s a shame.

I thought I could take it home and eat it right away.

…Wait, no. Just in case, I should try grilling some now.

“Let’s grill some as is and see. If it’s too tough, we’ll age it. If it’s still too tough, we’ll tenderize it or cook it with lots of spices and seasoning.”

“Got it! Once the dismantling is done, I’ll grill some for you!”

Anyway, the dismantled dragon meat was all packed into the Magic Pouch, and I returned home.

By the way, the scales? Organs? That kind of stuff is basically trash, so I left it behind.

They’ll probably use it for research or something.

Not that the Fairy Realm has much use for research.

“It’s all grilled!”

“Oh…”

Anyway, right in front of me is a freshly grilled dragon steak.

The part we grilled now is lean, so it’s medium rare.

I’m half excited, half worried.

Since it’s freshly cut meat that hasn’t been aged, I can’t predict how tough it’ll be.

“……”

I stabbed it with a fork and slowly cut it with a knife.

…It feels tough just from stabbing it with the fork, and the knife isn’t cutting as smoothly as I expected.

This… it’s definitely going to be tough.

“Ugh, um…”

“How is it?!”

……It’s really tough.

If it were just dry, that’d be one thing, but this is something else.

It’s literally chewy.

Of course, the juices bursting out and the flavor on the surface are top-notch.

But with it being this tough…

“…Chubby.”

“Yes!”

“Age this properly and tenderize it.”

“Got it!”

Sigh~… As expected, the texture is exactly what I thought…

In this state, it’ll take at least a week before it’s edible.

It needs to age to relax the rigor mortis, and then it needs to be tenderized.

Ugh… It’s a shame, but I’ll have to throw away this grilled meat.

It’s not like it can be reused.

“But the flavor itself is amazing. I wish dragons would appear more often.”

“Even if you say that, monsters are so rare that only one or two appear worldwide occasionally!”

“Well, we did seal them off pretty quickly. Plus, they’ll probably disappear in about a year.”

I should hope for a bunch of dragons to appear within the next year…

Since it tasted so good even when tough, I’m really looking forward to it.

[Hey, Dabin.]

…Huh? What’s this, Daeyoung?

Why’s he suddenly messaging me?

[What?]

[Well… On my way back, I found this black crystal stone. Is this a magical girl crystal stone?]

[Huh? Send me a picture.]

[(Picture) Here.]

A black crystal stone… And he just found it on the street? What’s going on now…

[I’ll come get it right away, so stay where you are. Ah, just in case, stay away from the crystal stone.]

[Got it.]

After sending a quick message to Daeyoung, who suddenly found something strange, I opened a [Gate] to his location.

Of course, in my transformed state.

“Hey, where’s the crystal stone?”

“I left it over there. I was keeping an eye on it so no one would take it.”

“Thanks.”

“But what is that thing?”

“I don’t know. It’s my first time seeing it.”

After arriving, I immediately went to where Daeyoung pointed and picked up the black crystal stone.

It feels like it’s tightly sealed, so I can’t sense anything from the outside.

“……”

“Rampage. Do you know anything?”

“…No. But didn’t those witches usually have these crystal stones? On their chests?”

“…Ah!!”

Seeing Chubby react like that, my memory isn’t wrong.

Then… it’s probably related to witches.

Once we confirm it’s safe, it wouldn’t be bad to have the Fairy Realm research it.

I don’t plan on using it, but knowing how it works would be good.

“Daeyoung. You can go back. We’ll take this to the Fairy Realm for inspection.”

“Really? Then I’ll head out. Ah, and I’m coming over next weekend, so prepare some whiskey.”

“Whiskey? …Sure. But are the others coming too?”

“Probably? We always hang out together. Alright, I’m off.”

“Alright.”

Next week, huh… I’ll be busy preparing drinks again.

I hope nothing big happens that day.

When I’m with my friends, I just want to forget everything and relax.