by CHIROLU
“What is it?”
“Is it alright for Latina to stay with Dale forever...?”
“If you disappeared, then Dale would run around frantically looking for you.”
“Frantically?” questioned Latina, tilting her head upon hearing a word she didn’t know.
“It means he’d be desperately worried.”
Latina searched for words again.
“Latina... she got driven out of where she was born because she was bad. Even though Latina was the only one they threw out, Rag went with her, and then he died.”
Kenneth continued on with his work nonchalantly, trying his hardest to make sure she didn’t see him falter. She really did understand that she was exiled from her village, after all.
“Who was Rag?”
“Latina’s parent. He was sick, but he went with Latina. Only Latina’s family said she wasn’t bad. When Rag died, Latina thought that she really was a bad girl, after all,” said Latina, once more casting her gaze downwards. “Dale was the first who said Latina was a good girl... He was the first to say it who wasn’t her family.” And in a tiny voice, like she was telling him a secret, she continued, “Dale is special to Latina, too.”
“...Is that so?” said Kenneth, feeling that he was a terribly pathetic adult, since he was unable to come up with any sort of decent response. Just how much had this little girl locked away in her tiny body?
“Why didn’t you tell Dale any of this stuff about yourself, Latina?” He’d heard that when Dale asked her before, she hadn’t seemed like she wanted to talk. So why was she opening up to Kenneth like this?
In response to his question, Latina said, “If Dale knew Latina was bad, he’d hate her. Latina’s... scared of Dale hating her...”
“I see. So you couldn’t talk to Dale because he’s so important to you, huh?” said Kenneth, and Latina nodded. Even though Dale had already guessed what she had just told him, he wanted this young girl to stay by his side.
However, Latina didn’t know that, and she was even scared of him knowing and wanted to hide it desperately.
Still, Latina ended up talking to me about herself like this... Just what would happen if Dale found out...?
He’d be a real pain, and it certainly wouldn’t be fun to see. Dale really needed to learn from this girl’s concern for others, even if only just a bit.
“Hey, Latina, do you want to try learning something before Dale gets back?”
“...Learning?”
Kenneth suddenly suggested this because he was worried that otherwise, she’d just stay depressed and wilting away until Dale returned. It would be better to give her something else to focus on. Of course, the greatest possible motivation for Latina was Dale.
“Dale’s definitely going to be starving when he comes back. It takes a while to make it from the capital to Kreuz, after all. You said that you wanted to learn how to make a meal for him, right? This is a good opportunity, so I’ll help you practice. Dale’ll be totally shocked and happy when he hears that you made it.”
“...Latina can do it?”
“It’d still be a bit much for you to do everything, but there are parts that you can handle. How about it? Wanna give it a try?”
Seeing Latina brighten up a bit, Kenneth felt relieved to the bottom of his heart. For better or worse, it was clear that Dale was immensely important to this little girl.
“Latina wants to do it. Kenneth, please teach Latina.”
Even though he wasn’t that doting idiot Dale, he still wanted to do something for this girl after hearing her say “please.” She was just too cute.
†
Not long afterwards:
“Here, it’s a shepherd’s pie. I’ll give you a discount, so eat it.”
“So you’ve finally started using high-pressure sales techniques here, huh?”
Kenneth stood dauntingly before the bearded adventurer who was a regular, holding a plate with an item he hadn’t ordered. He remained unshaken, even with the regular’s astonished response.
“And why is it so misshapen? And aren’t the insides leaking out?”
“Hey, she’s still practicing. It’s to be expected.”
“Practicing?” repeated the bearded adventurer, who then realized who’d be “practicing” in this shop. There was only one possibility, after all. Only one little girl lived at this inn, so... “The little lady made it, huh?”
“Right, it’s a work in progress from Latina.”
“Alright, then. Leave it here.”
Such exchanges occurred many times over the course of that day.
After thinking about what Latina could currently handle, Kenneth ended up settling on having her make a shepherd’s pie. In order to have her improve as quickly as possible, it was best to have her make as many as possible. There was a limit to how many meals they needed for lodgers, but this shop was also a gathering for men who were unrefined and didn’t fuss over things like how beautifully their meals were plated, so it made for the perfect testing ground.
Shepherd’s pie is a dish made by spreading mashed potatoes on top of a meat sauce and then baking it. Though it has pie in its name, it uses no pie crust, nor is it a pastry.
Latina’s job was to make the mashed potatoes, spread them on a plate with the meat sauce Kenneth made, and finally, sprinkle cheese on top. Kenneth put it into and took it out of the oven, but Latina kept track of how long it baked with a serious look on her face.
Since Kenneth was the one who made the meat sauce, which was the main flavor, there weren’t any huge failures. But still, the results were slightly awkward at the start, with sauce dripping out the sides, or the potatoes coming out lumpy. But as the days went by, Latina continued to improve.
After the first day, the regulars all readied themselves to help with Latina’s practice without a single word from Kenneth. After all, this dish came with the bonus of a tiny waitress carrying it out. Latina had wanted to help wait the tables for a while now, but the Ocelot had customers pay their bill when they got their food, so it wasn’t like they could have a young girl like her handle it. But this shepherd’s pie campaign was limited to just the regulars. This meant it only involved people who were trusted enough to settle their bills at the end, so Latina was able to do the job without needing to handle the money.
As a result, the Dancing Ocelot underwent an unprecedented shepherd’s pie boom.
“Thanks for waiting!”
It certainly wasn’t a bad thing to see Latina enthusiastically give this her all, especially considering how she’d been hanging her head in sadness since Dale left. Whenever she was feeling lonely, an aura of depression hung over the Dancing Ocelot.
There was a rather nice-looking shepherd’s pie on top of the tray that Latina was carefully carrying out. It was still just a little bit sloppy, but it would be no problem to serve it on the menu at this point.
“It’s hot, so be careful, please.”
—This young girl may have waited on customers more politely than anyone else at this shop.
Take your time, said the regulars in unison deep in their hearts, as Latina wore a smile on her face and hugged the now-empty tray.
The gruff men who made up the regulars were clearly perplexed at first as to how they should interact with a young girl like Latina, who would shoot even them a lovely smile. Normally a child would break out in tears if they came into contact with people like them, so they’d never really had such a charming girl smile at them the way that Latina did.
Occasionally, she’d come across someone foolish enough to act rudely towards her, perhaps because they were in a bad mood. When it came to adventurers, guys like that would be considered less than second-rate. But Latina’s big eyes would just go wide in surprise, and she’d distance herself from them. Then she’d observe them from far away, like she’d found some sort of large, strange creature.
“Welcome! Thanks for waiting!”
Latina’s special shepherd’s pie was in great demand at the Dancing Oc
elot again today.
†
Nearly half a month after Dale had departed from Kreuz, a shout of “I can finally leave!” rang out through the Eldstedt residence.
“I’m leaving right now! Get a flying dragon here ASAP! Latina’s waiting for me!”
“For the time being, you at least need to still attend this evening’s party. It’s part of your job...”
“I don’t waaaaaanna! I wanna go hooooome!”
“You need to look over the souvenir list the maids prepared, do you not? It’s full of things that have been popular in the capital as of late, but it means nothing if you don’t choose one yourself, yes?”
“That’s right! Will Latina be happy, I wonder?”
Dale’s expression shifted suddenly and completely, but Gregor wasn’t particularly surprised. Over the past half a month, he’d grown used to it. In fact, he’d come to accept all sorts of things, since he’d had no choice but to do so.
During this half a month, an elite group that included Dale and Gregor had headed into the mountains on the outskirts of Ausblick in order to take down members of the Seventh Demon Lord’s household. It was only just the other day that they had completed their mission and returned to the capital.
The work that Dale primarily received from Duke Eldstedt, which were jobs involving a contract from the country of Laband, involved fighting against demon lords and their households.
There was a reason only an elite few were sent on such jobs. By primarily employing adventurers, the country could avoid having to mobilize the army. If Laband used its armed forces, it would be like a declaration of war on the demon lord. The powers of a demon lord were vast, and with their household alongside them, they possessed enough strength to prove a threat to a nation on their own. If a country were to oppose them in an official capacity, a demon lord would choose to fight back alongside his house.
The seven demon lords were all independent, and they wouldn’t choose to form alliances. But even so, war with a single demon lord was more than enough to shake an entire nation down to its core.
In order to hold back the threat of a demon lord with the least amount of risk, it was best to use a small group of unspecified alliance to launch a surprise attack. In other words: assassination.
Gregor was part of a ducal household, but because he wasn’t officially in the employ of the military and was at least partly thought of as an adventurer publicly at this point, the mission had come his way.
When Dale arrived from Kreuz half a month ago and after they’d finished their preparations, Dale and Gregor had headed to their destination alongside the others who were to join them on this mission. All of the members of the party were adventurers who were known to possess extraordinary skills. In addition, because they were being directly contracted by the nation of Laband, they were considered every bit as trustworthy as they were skilled. They were no saints, but at the very least there were no worries about any of them becoming a traitor and stabbing their allies in the back. A reconnaissance party from the army disguised as adventurers accompanied them as well.
When they at last arrived at a forest deep in the mountains, they were able to confirm that several dragons had made a nest there, just as the scouts had reported. As it was a land awash in the blessing of Ahmar, Ausblick was a geothermal hotspot and also an area dragons frequently used during breeding season.
“...Those are definitely dragons that serve the Seventh Demon Lord.”
Especially fond of war and mayhem, the Seventh Demon Lord liked to employ dragons as a symbol of his great power. Devils had a high number of those with an affinity for Center magic, including tamers who could manipulate dragons as if they were an extension of themselves.
By confirming those dragons were targets, they also confirmed the presence of a tamer. There was one woman in a black robe, as well as a number of warriors. Each and every one of them had horns on their heads. Devil warrior helmets were specially made, so as not to conceal the horns that they were so proud of; while they covered the wearer’s head, their horns remained on full display. The most dangerous one in the group, though, was the robed woman.
“...There’s no mistaking it. That woman’s a demon,” Dale quietly warned his allies. Knowing his skill, they immediately accepted what he’d said rather than bothering with unnecessary questions.
From there on out, they didn’t bother with any pointless conversation. As a group that had taken on dangerous missions together numerous times, they had naturally prepared a number of hand signals in advance.
It was Dale’s magic that kicked off the battle.
“Oh earth and the spirits dwelling within you, by my name of Dale Reki I order you, shift your form according to my wishes, and swallow up all around you. 〈〈Ground Transfiguration〉〉”
The mana called forth by this chant vastly eclipsed that of a basic spell. A thunderous roar filled the air, and the ground beneath his target collapsed. The demon woman and warriors realized the attack was coming in time to get out of the way, but the heavy dragons were caught up in the thick of it. If Dale were a normal magic user, it wouldn’t have been strange for this attack to exhaust him completely, but he didn’t show even a hint of fatigue. In fact, he had smoothly unsheathed his blade, and cut his way into the midst of his confused enemies.
With that signal, Gregor, holding a scarlet, Eastern longsword in his grasp, leaped into action as well. The blade had been enhanced with magic to strengthen its sharpness, and the shine coming off of it danced through the air. When it came to pure sword technique, Gregor was on a whole other level compared to Dale.
“Oh earth, by my name, I order you to strike my foes. 〈〈Stone Spears〉〉” In the instant that all attention had gathered on Gregor, Dale chanted this close-range attack spell. This sort of coordination was only possible because they both knew intimately how the other fought.
Sharp spears made of stone rose from the ground with such precision that it was hard to believe that this spell was the result of such a simple chant. Having been thrown off-balance, the devil warriors were then cut down by Gregor.
“Protect me!” yelled the demon woman, scolding her underlings. Pushing through the rubble, a dragon came forward to defend her. Shortly afterwards, fireballs came flying and hit the dragon in its head, scattering a great deal of heat through the surroundings.
But that wasn’t the end of the magical assault. Next up, an electrical shock came running across the ground. At this point, the woman’s primary goal would be to stop this wave of attacks coming from multiple magic users.
The demon woman nervously realized that the soldiers under her command had been defeated so quickly by just two humans, and the rest of her dragons were still in the depths of that unbelievably deep hole. The one by her side now had only managed to crawl out by climbing over its brethren. She wouldn’t get the rest of them back so easily.
“Kill them!” she yelled, having no other options left. Even though she knew it was a poor move, the woman gave that order to the sole underling she had left. Her plan was to buy the time needed to escape on her own.
She ordered the dragon to create an escape route in the magic users’ blind spot... or at least, that was her intention. But before she knew it, the warrior in the black leather coat was closing in on her. Her eyes opened wide in surprise as she saw her dragon stopped by the other adventurers.
The woman was shocked to realize that this man had been aiming for her alone from the very start. It was the unfaltering move of a man who had absolute faith that his allies could handle a dragon without him.
Even so, the woman pulled out a dagger in an instant, and swung it down at Dale in a blow far quicker than that of the warriors. Dale didn’t falter in the slightest, stopping her attack with his left arm. A dull, metallic sound resounded from his gauntlet, and the knife slid across its surface without leaving so much as a scratch. Without even stopping to look at the despair in the woman’s eyes, Dale slashed his sword to the side.
That was how it went. Both in tense situations and in battle, Dale did nothing that would shame his reputation as a first-rate adventurer. There were no issues with the way he handled his work, either. But in between all of that...
“Maaaaan, I have a serious Latina deficiency! Latinaaaaaaaaa!”
“...What is it that you’re lacking?”
“Latina, I said. I’ve had way too little Latina lately....” Dale said in a strange voice as he suddenly flailed.
“I wanna see Latina... How is she doing...?” he asked when he was gazing up at the sky, tears streaming down his face.
“Latina...” he muttered when he was stirring a campfire.
To sum it up, he was emotionally unstable.
The others grew distant from him as a result. After all, these attacks generally came as fits, and anyone who was dragged into them found it nothing but uncomfortable.
He was just blowing off steam, or at least that’s what Gregor decided, choosing the most favorable explanation possible for his friend’s actions. That was his small bit of pity towards the poor man.
And now, Gregor’s greatest task was to stop Dale before he amassed a mountain of souvenirs so huge that it would be too much for a flying dragon to carry.
†
“Latina!!” Dale screamed out in joy as he flung open the door to the Dancing Ocelot. In his other hand he held his luggage, which had clearly increased since when he’d left.
“That’s the first thing that comes out of your mouth?” Rita responded, disgusted that that was all he’d have to say upon seeing her for the first time in half a month. He’d clearly gotten worse in that span of time, in pretty much every way.
“Oh, it’s you, Rita. Where’s Latina?”
“Latina’s with Kenneth,” she answered.
Just then, apparently hearing the ruckus, the person in question suddenly poked her tiny head out from inside the shop. Latina broke out in a brilliant smile and came running to his side.
“Dale, welcome back!!”
Compared to how she’d looked half a month prior, Latina had filled back out to a size closer to an average child, and now she appeared even more adorable than Dale remembered.
