Shining In The Storm

We were heading for the dragon kingdom, Sky-Foshwa.

Apparently, there was a path leading to the dragon country inside the cumulonimbus cloud.

We sent Errand Boy Number One, the whale Triton, charging into the cloud.

We were inside Triton’s body.

“Auu…… Big Sis, the rumbling outside is scary~……”

“…………” Squeeze.

The frail duo of Sui-chan and Daphne-chan clung to me as I sat on the sofa.

The sight of the two tiny girls trembling made my protective instincts flare up all on its own.

I hugged the two of them tightly. They took on warm, relieved expressions, and I ended up feeling all warm and fuzzy too.

Crack……!

Rumble, rumble……!

“Eek!”

Looks like thunder scared Daphne-chan.

I patted her gently. But she was still trembling.

“Master.”

“What?”

The damn-heavy, doting, attention-seeking, useless maid came over to me.

“It seems this lightning somehow has a will of its own.”

“Oh. So it’s a monster’s attack?”

“Yes. Most likely an attack from something like a gatekeeper that rejects intruders.”

Tch! How annoying!

“How dare it get in the way of where I’m going! Cherge! Go fire this into it!”

I made a potion on the spot and handed it to Cherge.

“Master.”

“What?”

“Do you not think I might get struck by lightning and die? Teary-eyed.”

“What nonsense is a robot spouting?”

Even if she was struck by lightning, a robot would not die.

Cherge puffed out her cheeks, then slapped my shoulder repeatedly.

“Hurry up and go.”

“Will you give me a reward once I come back?”

“I’ll think about it.”

“That means you definitely won’t, doesn’t it?”

“I’ll think about it.”

Cherge puffed out her cheeks again, then slapped my shoulder over and over. Just hurry up and go already.

“Good grief, you are a rough master when it comes to handling robots. In this wide world, only I, a robot, can handle such crude treatment from a domestic-violence master. Please understand that.”

“If you don’t go within the next three seconds, I’ll send Number Two over there into the lightning instead of you.”

Errand Boy Number Two, Vivre, trembled and went, “Eek……!”

Cherge shook her head with a good-grief gesture and went outside.

“……Will Lady Cherge be all right?”

Zenith-chan asked that worriedly.

“She’ll be fine. Even if her body takes a direct hit, she won’t die.”

Cherge fired the potion I made from her launcher.

Flash……!

With that sound, the lightning stopped.

“It stopped?”

“Yeah, it’s all right now!”

“Yay!”

The potion had been dispersed through the cloud.

Even Master never really understood the mechanism behind lightning in the end, but apparently, the moisture inside the cloud was involved.

The potion I made was a Heat Potion that manipulated temperature and evaporated the moisture inside the cloud.

Using it, I evaporated the cloud itself.

“Master. I am soaked.”

Cherge came back drenched.

“I must go to the bath immediately.”

“Yeah, yeah, go ahead.”

“Master. Since your servant worked hard, I believe there ought to be a reward, such as bathing together.”

“No. When I bathe with you, you touch my body way too much, and it’s gross.”

“S-Shock……”

Cherge collapsed to the floor with a dramatic sob.

“Ah…… even though I worked so hard~…… Glance, glance.”

“Ugh, so annoying. Just go take your bath already.”

Cherge stood up and headed for the bath, saying, “You must not peek at me in the bath, okay? This is a setup, okay?”

Since she told me not to peek, I did not peek, and then she snapped at me, “Why did you not come in?”

Ah…… What a pain.