Step By Step! (8)

The port construction period had been twelve days in total. In the end, I spent one more day shaking off my lingering attachment, but it truly was time to turn back to bridge construction now.

And as we headed toward the boundary of the Forest of the Demon Dragon, I asked.

“What if I go in and the Demon Dragon shows up and says something?”

“With the goddess supporting you, my lord, even the Demon Dragon won’t be able to easily do anything to you.”

I recalled that time I had caused trouble in the domain. If she flew off to vent her anger on the domain instead of on me, it would be troublesome in every way—so, just as the trees in the forest began to grow rapidly, I asked.

“Looks like that’s where the Forest of the Demon Dragon starts, right?”

“That’s correct. It’s land that promotes the growth of living things. There’s quite a dense concentration of magic power scattered through the air, so you may need to be cautious.”

“Why?”

At Wijel’s words, curiosity lifted its head.

“You may already know, but if you use magic power well, it becomes tremendous strength. But conversely, for humans—aside from a certain small few—it isn’t a beneficial energy.”

“Sure… I know magic power can become poison. But are you saying just going in and breathing could cause trouble…?”

“You can use magic power, my lord, so once you step into the Forest of the Demon Dragon, you’ll understand.”

The warning alone made me uneasy. Still, I had no intention of digging too deep.

If magic power really was a problem, we could simply install the bridge along the Forest of the Demon Dragon’s border. But the reason we insisted on passing through the forest was because of outsiders trespassing.

‘If she realizes someone’s trying to use her, how will she react?’

I was seriously weighing whether it wouldn’t be better to ask for cooperation, when—

“You were here?”

How had she known we were here?

I couldn’t help being a little surprised at Hare’s appearance.

“How did you get here?”

“I stopped by the port, but no one was there, so I ran here to the Forest of the Demon Dragon in a hurry. Good thing.”

“…You’re telling me I’m supposed to believe that?”

“Even if you don’t believe it, if it happened in reality, isn’t that the truth?”

Yeah, she wasn’t wrong. So I asked Hare, who seemed to have come looking for me.

“What is it?”

“The Demon Dragon visited the domain.”

The words made my vision go dark. I saw that Wijel and Demina also tensed at Hare’s words, their expressions hardening—but aside from that, I was worried too, so I asked.

“Do you know why?”

“No one knows what she’s thinking. So first, come with me. Now.”

“How…?”

“We can use warp.”

“Warp? That’s possible too?”

“I can’t do it, but I can draw a magic circle. Instead, it can activate on the condition that the Demon Dragon bears all the magic power.”

I thought that she really was an insane, all-powerful dragon. When I told Hare I understood, she said the other beastkin couldn’t come and began drawing the magic circle, and she spoke to Demina and Wijel.

“Since we’re coming back, can you wait here?”

“How are you planning to return?”

“We’ll ride Debik, I guess.”

Wijel said that put him at ease. After that, thanks to Hare completing the magic circle quickly, we used this “warp” and moved straight to the lord’s castle—and the strange thing was that unlike Teleport Scrolls, there was no nausea.

“…Y-Yureka!”

“What does that mean?”

I shouted, and then a familiar voice spoke right beside me, making me whip my head around. There stood a small girl—the Demon Dragon.

“L-long time no see, Karhenis.”

“Hmph, hmpf, I see. And when were you planning to keep your promise?”

At Karhenis’s sudden talk of promises, I tried to recall what she meant—and realized it with a start.

“I’m sorry. Things were so chaotic that I forgot. So instead, I’ll prepare something grand—could you forgive me?”

“Only once. Next time, there will be no forgiveness.”

“Th-then… sorry, but when you say ‘next time’…?”

“You must bring me what you make, regularly.”

“Wasn’t it a one-time deal?”

“It is periodic. If not, I will burn your fields to the ground.”

Right now, I was maintaining a fairly large sugarcane field.

Moreover, the sugarcane grown there had high sweetness and excellent quality. The amount of juice was also tremendous, so we could obtain high-quality raw sugar—but losing the field would be a problem.

‘Is it time to negotiate… with this crazy dragon?’

After running through various possibilities, I steeled myself and said.

“Then I can say I’m leasing that land, can’t I?”

“Leasing…?”

“Yes. Isn’t it right to view it as borrowing that land in exchange for proper payment?”

“…If you insist, then that’s what it would be.”

“Then I’d like to lease a bit more land, generously. And in the land I borrow this time, humans may intrude—if you prepare a few safety measures, I will strive to offer an even more splendid price.”

“Are you proposing a deal with me now?”

Karhenis looked amused, but it was a problem that had to be resolved. Relying on the goddess’s protection alone left too many uncertainties.

And whether she understood my thoughts or not, the Demon Dragon—smiling as if entertained—nodded and said.

“I cannot be satisfied by ordinary things. Then what is the ‘special’ thing you made?”

At Karhenis’s words, I told her to wait a moment, rushed straight to the kitchen, gathered various foods from there, and returned to Karhenis.

A dragon would surely be accustomed to treasures and such. So I meant to try trading with food from another world.

If it failed?

Then I’d find something else. I wasn’t sure whether alcohol or medicine would work… but in any case, I would provoke her with something that didn’t exist in this world right now.

‘All I can do is hope the hit lands…’

If she wanted jewels or gold and silver, I thought I had the wealth to prepare that too. But the best option was still food.

A moment after we entered the room, the maids brought chocolate, cookie bread with chocolate in it, and other foods, and Karhenis asked me.

“You tried to trade with me over mere food?”

“It is not mere food. It will be a new taste you have never experienced even once. Starting with this, I will find many different kinds of new flavors—and you, Karhenis, will not only secure them first, but I will also ensure you can eat your fill. As the condition of our deal.”

I spoke boldly without bending, and at my demeanor, she gave a small snort of laughter and said.

“I have lived for far longer than you can imagine. Do you think there is a taste I do not know?”

“That, I don’t know. If you taste it and say it’s a flavor you already know, then you can undo the deal. And you don’t look like someone who would lie out of pride—so someone as insignificant as me will simply believe whatever Karhenis says.”

Karhenis began laughing loudly. Each time, I saw the maids struggling—perhaps even if the dragon lowered and lowered her power, she couldn’t hide what leaked out with even small emotional shifts. Or perhaps she was deliberately letting a faint trace spill out.

Sweating profusely, the maids tried not to drop the food they were holding. I glanced at them and said.

“Is this crude thing made by a lowly human not to your taste?”

“No. It was amusing. I never even imagined there would be a human like you. Bring it.”

And then Karhenis examined, one by one, what the maids set down.

But the interesting thing was—I could feel curiosity gathering in her eyes. Even for a long-lived race, I thought food was something hard to advance without a trigger.

And when I recommended tasting it to others, it turned out chocolate was a novelty that didn’t exist in this world.

So rather than showing her the most intense flavors first, I began by recommending milder tastes, introducing them to Karhenis one by one.

Karhenis took a bite at a time as she listened to me. I didn’t know what she was thinking, but I felt her reaction wasn’t bad. After she devoured most of the breads, she asked me with a slightly surprised expression.

“What kind of magic did you use? This kind of food does not exist in my memory…”

“It isn’t magic. It’s merely the result of humans struggling desperately. This is only the beginning. Through our deal, I’m certain you will come to know the tastes of a new world, Karhenis.”

I intended to show her the tastes of Korea. For now, I had stimulated her mainly with the intense sweetness of chocolate, but I planned to seek out many ingredients, devise and develop them, and draw out as splendid a flavor as possible.

Then I saw Karhenis’s expression soften slightly as she picked up a cookie and tasted the moist, melted chocolate within.

Thinking even a dragon was weak to sweetness, I offered fresh chocolate as the final finishing blow and said.

“The reason I told you to eat this last is because it has the strongest, boldest flavor among these. Not only the aroma—its sweetness can even sting the inside. If you eat this first, there’s a risk the other breads and cookies will taste bland, so I had no choice but to decide the order myself. So now, I would like to say you may finally eat it.”

Karhenis made a strange expression, then picked up the fresh chocolate with eyes that seemed to anticipate it. She smelled it, pressed it lightly to feel the texture, then put it into her mouth.

A moment later.

I had to watch Karhenis squeeze her eyes shut and let out, “Mm….” Then she snapped her eyes open and spoke to me with a madness-filled gaze.

“We will do a one-year contract. Once a month, I will take a grand price. Prepare one hundred times what is set before me now. The deadline is the first day of every month. And any human who carries this may set foot in my territory and be spared death.”

Karhenis pulled out about a dozen from empty space and handed them over.

It was the moment my gamble succeeded.

After that, so her departure wouldn’t feel lonely, I scraped together and handed over plenty of what we had, then asked for a warp and moved back to where Wijel and Demina were. Hare, who had followed along, said to me as if astonished.

“Congratulations on becoming the only human who ever got something out of the Demon Dragon.”

“The only human? There was no precedent until now?”

“Of course. The Demon Dragon treated humans as less than insects.”

“Interesting. The first… that sounds pretty good. Well then, since we’ve got permission, shall we do whatever we want?”

It was the moment I put a sly smile on my lips as I looked at the bewildered Wijel and Demina.