Chapter Fourteen: The Doctor’s Assistant and the Dragon Girl
“Gar!”
Monster tried to cheer her up, and Assistant eventually stopped crying. Monster started to creep closer to the dragon corpse.
“Don’t go any closer,” Father said. “You might get hurt.”
Assistant grabbed Monster by the tail and she stopped moving.
“Please—don’t go.”
Even though she had stopped crying, I could tell she hadn’t overcome her sadness. She snuggled up close to Monster. They were sharing their immense pain.
“Were you friends with the other monsters on this mountain?” Father asked.
“Well, with the other monsters from Father’s den,” Assistant said.
Father nodded. “Too many people have invaded this place. As a demi-human, it might be hard for you to keep living in Melromarc.”
Assistant didn’t say anything.
“Do you want to come with us?”
“You want to look after us?” she asked.
“Well, I can’t just say, ‘Bye, good luck.’”
Assistant frowned, like she wasn’t sure what to do. She certainly was immature to not know to simply accept the help of glorious Father, I say.
“But you should know,” Father said. “I know someone who you have good reason to hate.”
“Who?”
“One of the Four Holy Heroes, the Sword Hero, is the person who killed your father. I’m another one of those heroes, the Shield Hero, Naofumi Iwatani.”
Assistant watched Father suspiciously.
“Father, is it okay to tell her that now?” I inquired.
“Better to tell her ahead of time than to pull her into our group, where she might be in danger,” said Father.
“So cool, Big Bro!”
“Keel, don’t interrupt. This is serious.”
“Father told us that even if someone killed him, we shouldn’t try to get revenge,” Assistant said quietly. “And you’re not the one who did it!” She looked angrily at the crowd of adventurers around the dragon corpse.
I understood how she felt. Things weren’t easy for me either. People worshipped the heroes only when things went our way and turned against us when they didn’t. Even if I killed every last person in this world, I knew that even that wouldn’t satisfy my anger about the way I had been treated.
“I . . . we don’t have anywhere else to go,” Assistant said.
“Gar!”
Monster appeared to be saying something to her.
“Gar, gar gar!”
“Okay. Yeah. You’re right.” Assistant nodded.
So she was one of the rare people who could understand the language of monsters.
“What did she say to you?” Father asked.
“That she wants to get stronger,” Assistant said. “So strong that she could even be a match for Father.” Assistant took a breath. “I want to get stronger, too. So I won’t ever lose anyone again.”
“That’s just how I feel, Wyndia!” barked Keel.
“That’s great,” Sakura said.
Father nodded. “There are a lot of ways to get stronger. Us heroes have the ability to level up monsters quickly. If you want, we can help you get stronger. What do you think?”
Assistant looked down at her hands and back up at Father.
“I . . . I want to do whatever it takes to get stronger. Even if I have to become a demon!”
“A demon? Well, I’m glad to have you. You’re coming too, right?” Father asked the dragon.
“Gar!”
Monster held out a hand to Father.
“Nice to meet you. And your name?”
“Gar?”
“She doesn’t have a name,” Assistant said.
“No name?”
“Yes. And that’s why . . .” Assistant took Monster’s hand and closed her eyes, as if in prayer. “That’s why I want to name her after Father. So that she’ll grow up into a mighty dragon.”
Monster looked at her for a second and then growled in agreement.
“That’s right. From now on, you’re Gaelion.”
Monster howled enthusiastically.
“So your father’s name was Gaelion?”
Father tried to officially register Assistant and Monster to our party.
“Why can’t we register Gaelion?”
“The rules are different because she’s a monster,” Father explained. “We need a monster seal.”
“We need to register her with a monster seal?”
“Normally, you don’t have monsters join your party unless you hatch them from an egg,” I said.
“I think the fastest way for you to get stronger, technically, would be for you to register temporarily as a slave, like Keel is doing,” Father said. “But I wouldn’t want you to have to do that.”
“If that’s the fastest way to get stronger, I’ll do whatever it takes!” Assistant said.
“Gar!” Monster agreed.
I could sense their determination.
“All right then, so let’s get out of here. We can either go back to the monster tent, or maybe Elena can hook us up with someone to take care of the registration,” Father said.
“Nice to meet you,” I reluctantly called to Assistant.
Father glanced over at me with a funny expression. Did I do something weird?
“Motoyasu, I noticed that you were being pretty quiet. Is there something wrong?”
“She reeks of dragon,” I said. “I can’t help but wonder why.”
“Uh, why? Isn’t it obvious?” Father shook his head. “Never mind. Did you meet Wyndia in the first go-around, by chance?”
“As a matter of fact, I did,” I said. “She was Filo-tan’s doctor’s assistant. She took care of the other monsters in your village.”
Assistant tilted her head in confusion. But that was just a ploy to attract Father’s attention. She couldn’t fool me, I say!
“And then she helped raise the dragon that you received, Father. She even gave it the same name, Gaelion.”
“Do you know how we met each other in the first go-around?”
“I never heard the details.”
“So what was her relationship with the Filo girl you keep talking about?”
“Just like I said. She was the assistant of Filo-tan’s doctor, who was in charge of taking care of all of the monsters in your village. So she got along great with the filolials, and everyone liked her. And then—”
“What are you talking about?” Assistant interrupted.
“Uh, this is Motoyasu. He’s also one of the Four Holy Heroes, the Spear Hero. But he came from a different timeline. And in that timeline, he’s telling me about how we met.”
She looked like she couldn’t believe it. I mean, I wouldn’t have expected the daughter of a dragon to understand anything complicated in the first place.
“Hey! Wait a second!” barked Keel. “Why can Motoyasu understand Wyndia when he couldn’t understand me? Wyndia, are you a boy?”
“No, I’m a girl!”
“A girl, huh . . . So maybe he can only understand people who were close to Filo,” Father said. “Anyway, Motoyasu, just what relationship did Assistant have with Filo?”
“She raised Filo-tan’s greatest rival, I say! But Filo-tan will never lose!”
“Um . . .” Father shook his head. “So she’s a dragon girl. She took care of the monsters, was Filo-tan’s doctor’s assistant, and raised Filo-tan’s rival. That’s a lot of roles. You must be a talented girl.”
Assistant blushed and looked away. But I knew that she was just feigning it. I knew how she looked down on Filo-tan for not being able to fly like Gaelion!
Oho? I started to remember a time when Filo-tan was flying. Did that really happen?
“I don’t know what he’s talking about,” Assistant mumbled.
“Gar?”
“Yeah, don’t worry too much about it,” Father said. “Most of the time Motoyasu can’t understand women for whatever reason, but he seems to be able to understand you, so that’s fine.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
Father chuckled and then let out a long sigh.
“Regardless, I’ve noticed for a while that you reek of dragon,” I told her. “You should thoroughly wash yourself to remove the stench.”
“What’s wrong with smelling like dragon!” Assistant exclaimed. “You smell like filolial! So badly that I think my nose might fall off!”
“Bah!” I spat. “I should’ve expected that a dragon girl would never be able to comprehend the elegant scent of the filolial!”
Assistant’s face went from an angry twitch to a broad grin. She was that happy about being called a dragon girl. What nonsense.
“Yes, because dragons are the strongest monsters!” she said.
“Filolials are the strongest, I say!”
“Filolials are just birds that can’t fly!” shouted Assistant. “They’re not any different from horses! Knight’s dragons are a thousand times better!”
I narrowed my gaze.
“So it appears that you want to die young,” I hissed.
Father would probably stop me anyway, so I might as well threaten her.
Knight’s dragons? There was nothing remotely good about a knight’s dragon! They could barely fly any better than a dragonfly—lowly creatures that couldn’t even sniff the feet of a filolial!
Father was holding his head in his hands. Was this really that upsetting?
And our group became as noisy and lively as ever, I say.
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