Chapter 304: Wise Baby Dragon

A moment later, Lausa, who had flown high into the sky and circled behind the building, returned.

“Was there anyone inside the building?”

“77|0||?”

“Or did you hear any sounds from inside?”

Kiee.

“What kind of sound was it?”

Kkyek-seu-aak, kkakkkak.

“…Ah, I asked the wrong question.”

“7101.”

– A conversation that made me understand why Fjodra had insisted on cross‑verification.

In the original work, Fjodra had quite a few appearances, but she only entered the Demonic Realm with Reysir twice. And Lausa hadn’t done anything besides fight then, so I hadn’t known…

‘These two aren’t communicating at all, are they?’

Fjodra is currently 25 years old, and familiars are born at age 18. That means they’ve been together for seven whole years.

‘No, wait. Her birthday is next month, so actually they’ve been together for eight years!’

Should I be appalled that they still can’t communicate despite that long time? Or should I praise her for trusting her familiar enough to assign it solo missions? In combat, they seem to work together pretty well.

‘During the ribbon‑snatching training last Friday, when Liolikin and Lausa were marking Reysir, their coordination was decent too… Probably because Lausa is good at supporting on the fly?’

If that’s the case, the communication failure must be Fjodra’s fault.

“Perhaps you might try asking more specifically whether you heard human voices, footsteps, or breathing rather than sounds from machines like clocks.”

“That is a good method, but I wonder if there isn’t a more definitive solution.”

Fjodra dismissed my suggestion and turned her gaze to Yor. My wise baby dragon was a familiar capable of clearly conveying his thoughts in writing. It wasn’t hard to guess what looking at Yor at this timing meant.

‘She probably means that Yor could interpret Lausa’s words!’

Now I realized that the reason Fjodra and Lausa couldn’t communicate properly wasn’t Fjodra’s fault. It was clearly because the original author had decided to use Yor as a familiar translator.

If I noticed it, my wise baby dragon must have noticed it too.

「I≠bird」

He showed this on a Whiteboard taken from Yeouiju, meaning that since he wasn’t a bird, he couldn’t understand Lausa’s words.

‘That’s a lie!’

I’ve never described it because I never found the right opportunity, but Yor has perfectly conversed with the familiars of House Austri. If a dragon like Yor could understand what feline phantom beasts say, then of course he could also communicate with a bird like Lausa.

‘They say an Eastern dragon has features from nine creatures: camel, deer, rabbit, cow, snake, clam, carp, hawk, and tiger. From that perspective, whether or not there’s a setting that familiars can talk to each other regardless of their origin, it’s quite natural that my baby dragon can understand other familiars.’

For reference, though I haven’t mentioned it yet, the familiars of the Vestri, Sudri, and Nordri Dukedoms are respectively bovine, lagomorph, and aquatic creatures. Please don’t ask me why the Austri and Vestri familiars are classified as “-idae” while the Imperial family and Sudri are “-type” and “-order,” and the Nordri familiars are simply lumped together as “aquatic creatures.” It’s all because Author Senna decided it.

“It seems Yor, not being a bird‑type familiar, is unable to interpret Her Imperial Highness’s familiar’s speech.”

Since Yor refused to act as interpreter, I respected his will and fed that lie.

“Is that so? For a long time, scenes where familiars of different houses appeared to converse were frequently observed, so the academic consensus was that familiars could communicate with each other…”

“People and animals don’t understand each other either, but they make sounds and unilaterally talk, don’t they? It was probably something like that. A sort of collective monologue…?”

“Ah, I see. That is regrettable indeed.”

Fjodra nodded in understanding. I wonder if this conversation will create a setting that familiars based on different species cannot communicate. Even if that happens, thanks to the reason I mentioned above, my baby dragon should still be able to talk to everyone, so it probably doesn’t matter.

“In that case…”

In the end, instead of entrusting communication with her own familiar to a third party like Yor, Fjodra succeeded in obtaining the answers she wanted by carefully asking specific questions multiple times herself.

“When asked whether there were people inside the building, she responded that she wasn’t sure because she hadn’t actually gone inside and checked. The sounds from inside were, as Young Lord Karbaldr guessed, just noises from various machines. She says there was no sign of any human presence at all.”

“Yaong!”

“77|0||0||~!”

Was it the correct interpretation? Yor gave a thumbs‑up and praised Fjodra, and Lausa flapped her wings joyfully. Watching that eagle‑type familiar, I understood why Yor had refused to act as interpreter.

If he stepped up and conveyed Lausa’s words to Fjodra, she would stop trying to understand what her own familiar was saying. He must have written that lie on purpose because he knew Lausa would be very sad if that happened.

‘How kind and thoughtful…!’

Just then, Fjodra took some jerky from her Inventory and fed it to her familiar, petting its head and entering the “errand accomplished” praise time. I didn’t miss this chance.

I hugged my wonderful baby dragon tightly and rubbed his head, the back of his neck, under his chin, scratching him gently as if tickling him. I skipped giving him a treat. Yor was an independent baby dragon who kept homemade snacks in Yeouiju and took them out whenever he wanted to eat.

“Is Karbaldr a possessive type?”

It was at this moment that the Protagonist of Another Novel suddenly brought up the possession body’s attribute. To read the “Attribute” written on someone else’s Status Window, his [True Reading Eye] skill would need to go up another level. Besides, he’s wearing an eye patch right now, so I have no idea how he figured that out.

“…What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

“When Yor gave a thumbs‑up to Her Imperial Highness and praised her for doing well, it seemed like you got jealous and tried to draw attention to yourself by asking for his attention.”

From this nonsense, it seems the Protagonist of Another Novel didn’t read my information with [True Reading Eye]. If he had, he wouldn’t have spoken about it so carelessly in front of others.

“I was just showing affection because Yor is cute.”

“Ah! Karbaldr, you said the word ‘cute’! How should I say this… Hmm… good.”

The Protagonist of Another Novel, of all people, dared to copy Yor’s action by raising his thumb. It wasn’t cute at all.

“Stop your nonsense and get ready to fight.”

“Yeah, yeah, of course. In that sense, it’d be great if you or Yor could pour rain on that boss monster. When Svein shoots water spheres, it’s recognized as an attack, but rain shouldn’t be.”

Even though Reysir didn’t say it outright, that likely wasn’t the only reason. It was questionable whether Svein’s skill could even fire water spheres at such a distant golem. Even if it could, soaking that enormous golem’s entire body would require creating and throwing multiple water spheres. It would take a long time and consume a lot of Aether. After that, Svein would probably collapse from exhaustion. If they couldn’t finish the boss in one blow, someone would have to take care of Svein…

‘With a party that already lacks real combat experience doing a boss raid, having an extra burden would be a serious problem.’

In short, knowing that Svein’s abilities were insufficient, he had no choice but to ask me. Reysir didn’t explain these reasons in detail. He only mentioned the nature of the skill, probably to protect Svein’s pride.

“You want to finish the fight without the boss monster even recognizing our presence? Not a bad idea.”

I answered as if I only understood the surface reason, nodding lightly. I know the original author has no intention of fulfilling the original protagonist’s wishes, but if I insisted that it was impossible without even trying, I’d be tagged as a dislikable character by Senna’s readers.

“Yor, I’m counting on you.”

I gently stroked Yor’s cheek and activated the [Encourage] skill.

“Nyaaang~!”

The baby dragon answered cutely and cheerfully, using the [Weather Change] skill to gather rain clouds above the boss golem’s body. Was it because his proficiency had increased quite a bit and the effect of [Encourage] was added? Before long, the clouds thickened and poured down thick rain.

“Then is it my turn?”

Once the rain had sufficiently soaked into the gaps between the stones, Reysir said this. Actually, he only said it. He stood there blankly without taking immediate action, as if waiting for someone’s order.

“Everyone, stay vigilant and prepare for any unexpected situation.”

Fjodra, the highest‑ranking among us, said this while looking around at everyone. After confirming that each person was gripping their weapon tightly with tense expressions, she said:

“Begin.”

…But Reysir wasn’t waiting for her order.

“Wait, I’m not ready yet.”

If I were Fjodra, I would have blushed in embarrassment. But her face seemed quite thick‑skinned, and she only showed puzzlement with her usual expression.

“Do you need preparation? You’ve always just attacked immediately before…”

“Because Karbaldr is here now.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

I agree with Fjodra and nodded. What does my presence have to do with him not attacking immediately and needing a preparation process?

‘Ah, could it be?’

A sudden realization flashed through my mind like lightning. And sure enough.

“Karbaldr, won’t you give me a word of encouragement? If I get your support, I’ll gain strength, and it seems I can bring out the full power of my abilities.”

Such words flowed from the Protagonist of Another Novel’s mouth. Since activating [Encourage] actually improves his abilities, it was a legitimate statement with a reasonable basis. The only problem is that anyone who doesn’t know this fact would find it utterly absurd.