Chapter 55

Base Perseron.

I returned and was eating voraciously.

Using the unnecessarily spacious outdoor area of the former estate, I was having a barbecue.

It was a simple setup, placing a grill on top of stacked rocks and starting a fire underneath.

On that grill, I kept roasting meat endlessly.

I lined up and grilled thick steaks, at least 2 centimeters thick, and kept eating them.

“Sir Cyril, is it okay to sprinkle Larc en Ciel on everything?”

“Munch munch… Yeah, I’ll leave it to you.”

“Yes!”

Jeanne, who was putting all her effort into supporting me, sprinkled the rainbow-flavored seasoning, Larc en Ciel, on the meat on the grill.

Jeanne sprinkled it, and Emma, Chanel, and Rea flipped the meat.

When it was cooked just right, they brought it to me.

I kept eating the meat they brought, non-stop.

First, energy, just energy.

I kept eating to store energy for the next test.

☆

“Phew… Thank you for the meal.”

After about half a day, I had devoured the meat from two whole cows.

“Amazing, Sir Cyril… To eat all that meat by yourself…”

“Larc en Ciel was great. Thanks to it, I didn’t get tired of the taste and could keep eating until the end. Thank you, Jeanne, for telling me about it.”

“I’m glad… I could be of help to Sir Cyril.”

Jeanne blushed and smiled happily.

“Hey, is this good enough?”

Meanwhile, Colette asked from a distance.

When I looked over, there were two “dolls” made of dirt next to Colette.

They were about the size of an adult human.

They were barely in the shape of a human, and from a distance, they looked like scarecrows or something.

These were what I had ordered.

“Yes, perfect. How did you make them?”

“It’s easy. I swallowed the dirt and squeezed my stomach.”

Colette said this while making a gesture with her front two legs, as if crushing something with her hands.

“Like clay?”

“Maybe. I hardened it and spat it out, and it turned out like this.”

“Wow, you’re amazing. I didn’t know you had such a special skill.”

“Hmph. This is child’s play.”

Colette said this, but her face looked happy.

“Master, what are you going to do with them?”

“A small test. Everyone, please stay back. Jeanne too.”

“Yes.”

“Understood.”

“Well, I guess I have no choice.”

As I asked, the dragon and human alike mostly moved away from me.

“Daddy, what are you going to do?”

Only Rea, the original, stayed by my side, looking up at me and asking.

I squatted down and stroked her head.

“A small test. Rea, be a good girl and wait over there with everyone else.”

“Yes, I understand.”

Rea, who I had stroked, smiled happily and ran to where everyone else was.

As I watched her go, I noticed Colette looking sulky for some reason.

She had been so proud just a moment ago. What’s up with her?

“Colette, what’s wrong?”

“Huh? N-nothing.”

“Hahaha, maybe if you had been a bit more demanding, you could have gotten a pat from your friend.”

“—!! Grrr!!”

A little distance away, Chris was in spectator mode.

The moment Chris said this with a teasing tone, Colette lunged forward and bit her.

Of course, it did no damage to the phoenix-type Chris, and it was a familiar scene of the two playfully fighting.

It’s good that it’s a familiar scene.

“Colette, I need you to hold off on that. Chris, please.”

“Hahaha, no problem, my friend. Even if I’m bitten, I can still do ‘that’.”

“Alright, then I’ll leave it to you.”

“Alright, let’s go.”

“Yes.”

I said this and nodded.

The next moment, Chris opened her mouth.

She spat out swirling flames from her mouth.

The flames flew toward me.

“Sir Cyril!?”

“Master!?”

“—!!”

Most of those present were shocked and cried out when Chris suddenly attacked me.

“…Transformation”

I muttered and transformed into a dragon person.

I transformed and deployed a barrier using the scales of Mizuchi.

I deflected Chris’s flames with that barrier.

“…Gah”

In an instant, I used up more than half of the energy from two whole cows.

I hurriedly reverted from the dragon person transformation.

“Phew… Alright, it worked.”

I reverted from the dragon person transformation, looked around, and was satisfied.

The two dirt dolls, the decoys Colette made, were unharmed.

I had protected them with the barrier of the dragon person transformation.

The ground outside the barrier’s range had instantly melted and turned into lava.

Still, the two dirt dolls inside the barrier were completely unscathed.

“Now I’ve tested that I can protect things properly. Thank you, Chris, thank you, Colette.”

“Hahaha, no problem at all.”

Chris laughed heartily.

“I see, that’s what it was.”

Meanwhile, Jeanne, who had recovered from her shock and understood the situation, approached.

She looked like she wanted to run to me immediately, but the ground was still mostly lava, so she couldn’t.

Jeanne looked at me with a moved expression.

“Just as I expected, Sir Cyril. You don’t hesitate to put yourself in danger, but you don’t push us into danger… I’m moved.”

“Huh? Ah, yeah, of course.”

This was a comment only Jeanne, who knew about my previous experiments, could make.

It would have been fine even without the dirt dolls.

I have a general sense of the effectiveness of the Mizuchi barrier, so it would have been fine with any of my companions, but… I felt it would be better to use the dirt dolls.

“But, my friend, you are truly remarkable.”

“Huh?”

“I have seen countless humans over the long years. You are undoubtedly the strongest human.”

“Is that so?”

“Amazing, Master!!”

Chris’s evaluation was gratifying.

It was gratifying, but… only for a moment.

“No matter how strong, if the energy consumption is this bad…”

“Is it that bad?”

“Yes, even with the most energy I’ve ever stored, it wouldn’t last more than three seconds.”

“Three seconds…”

Jeanne frowned.

It was a natural reaction.

No matter how strong, three seconds is not enough.

“Ideally, I need at least three minutes, or at least thirty seconds to be useful in a real battle.”

“Storing and consuming energy in large amounts is the next challenge.”

“Yes.”

I nodded at Chris’s words.

That’s exactly it.

With Larc en Ciel, I could eat without getting tired as much as before.

I could store more energy.

However, because I obtained Mizuchi’s scales in the process, my energy consumption became even more intense.

If Chris says so, I am undoubtedly and unquestionably the strongest human, but…

“Hahaha, don’t worry, there’s a way.”

“Really? What is it?”

If Chris says so— I was hopeful.

I looked at Chris with hope.

The other dragons also looked at Chris.

Even Jeanne, who didn’t understand the words, looked at Chris in silence, following the flow of the situation.

“Yes, one way is to eat dragons.”

“…Eat dragons?”

“Yes, by eating dragons, including their souls, you can—”

“I’ll get really angry.”

I glared at Chris with a serious face.

To suggest something like that, knowing my motto, “Dragons First,” is like mocking me.

Just suggesting it is like mocking me.

So I glared at Chris with the most serious face I had ever shown her in all the time we had spent together.

“Hahaha, just kidding.”

“Good to know.”

“Just kidding, but I can see that you truly care about dragons.”

“If you say that, I’ll get really angry—”

“No, that’s not it.”

“Huh?”

What does she mean by “that’s not it”?

“You were so seriously angry that you didn’t even notice the meaning of my words.”

“The meaning of your words?”

“What did I say?”

“…Um”

“One, perhaps.”

Louise spoke up.

“That’s right. What does that mean?”

“…Oh!”

So that’s what she meant.

Indeed, Chris said that.

—One way is to eat dragons.

That means there are other options.

I got so mad that I didn’t even notice.

“Grr!! Don’t set up such a weird trap!”

“Hahaha, I had no ill intentions, forgive me.”

“That’s fine, but what do you really want to teach me?”

“Yes.”

Chris, still being bitten by Colette, nodded clearly.

“Use dragon orbs.”

“Dragon orbs…”

“That will solve it.”

Chris stated it definitively.

Her certainty brought a sense of relief and assurance.