Chapter 101
* * *
As soon as Asil returned to the Monlepe ducal house, she began making a doll by winding golden yarn around her front paws.
After exactly two full days, she completed a yarn doll that looked exactly like Elkai.
Asil proudly held up the finished doll high.
“I made it, but it really turned out well.”
Thanks to her skills improving with each one, the quality became truly excellent toward the end.
“Since Grandpa’s doll came out this well, the husband doll I make last will definitely turn out much cooler, right?”
If there’s time left, I should make an Asil doll too.
With those thoughts, with the baby rabbit’s help, she tied the completed doll to her back with yarn.
Then she dashed off toward where Elkai was.
Elkai was leisurely drinking tea in a quiet garden.
His complicated expression as he stared into the distance made it seem like he had some worry.
Asil lightly jumped up onto the tea table.
“Ppiya ppiya!” (Grandpa!)
“Yes, yes.”
He greeted Asil with a face that somehow looked troubled.
“Ppiyat ppi!” (Here, look! Guess what Asil brought!)
The baby dragon, now brimming with confidence, quickly turned around.
“Ppiyat!” (Ta-da!)
“…Is this for Grandpa?”
“Ppit!” (Yes!)
“Hmm…”
Contrary to the expectation that he would be happy, Elkai let out a long hum.
He only stared blankly at the doll that resembled him and didn’t even touch it.
Then suddenly he spoke in a low, subdued voice.
“You’re not actually terminally ill or something, as the knights say, right?”
“…Ppit?”
“I heard you gave Ikart a mysterious flower that can fix runes.”
“…!”
How in the world? How does Grandpa know that?
As she froze stiff, Elkai lightly clicked his tongue.
“He doesn’t live completely cut off from contact, after all. That guy seemed to know why you’re acting like this. He said you have to go somewhere far away?”
“…”
“And you didn’t even tell this grandpa. Hmph.”
While saying that, he gently stroked her head with his large, wrinkled hand.
Uung… I didn’t mean to discriminate, but I suddenly felt terribly sorry toward Grandpa.
Asil likes both Daddy and Grandpa equally.
So without realizing it, she opened her tiny mouth.
“Ppiya ppi…” (Actually, Asil is…)
“That’s enough.”
But Elkai cut her off.
The eyes he looked at Asil with were full of trust.
“If it’s difficult, you don’t have to say it. Sometimes it’s better not to know. You’re not sick or anything, right?”
“Ppit. Ppiyaa ppii.” (Yes. Asil is always a strong black dragon.)
“That’s good then.”
Elkai, returning to his usual expression, lightly tapped Asil’s back with his finger.
“Ever since Edenber said he wouldn’t make the oath, I thought a day like this might come. Though it feels like it came much faster than expected.”
“…”
“If you go, there will be some confusion for a while. But if Rain, who was originally Monlepe’s divine beast, returns, there won’t be any big problem.”
So don’t worry and go, Elkai laughed heartily.
But that laugh somehow looked sad.
“It feels exactly like the wind that comes quickly and leaves quickly. I’m starting to wonder if the time I spent with you was even real.”
“Ppi…”
“Take care wherever you go. If you get bored, at least write a letter. Here, this is something Grandpa was keeping for you. Take it.”
He took something out from under the table.
When she looked, it was the hair growth tonic Selena had given her long ago.
Asil quietly looked at it, then shook her head and gently pushed it away with her front paw.
“Ppiyat ppi, ppiya. Ppiya ppiya.” (No, give it to me later. Asil will come back once she becomes a potato.)
“…What? Potato? What’s that?”
“Ppiya ppiya ppiya?” (Grandpa doesn’t know potatoes?)
“No, I know what it is. But you can’t become a pota—”
“Ppiya! Ppiyaaaa! Ppiyat ppiya!” (No! Asil will definitely become a potato! Don’t crush Asil’s dream!!)
Asil, clenching her front paws tightly, glared at Elkai.
I have to become a potato to return to the human world!
“No, no matter what, you can’t say something impossible is possi…”
Elkai let his words trail off.
It was because Asil’s round eyes were starting to well up with tears, looking wronged.
“No, you will definitely be able to become a potato. Of course you can become a potato. What’s so hard about that?”
“Ppii? Ppiya ppi?” (Right? Has Grandpa ever been a potato?)
“…Humans cannot become potatoes.”
I see. Then only beastmen can become potatoes. Because Daddy said potato!
“Asil will definitely become a potato!”
Potato Asil! Asil nodded her head vigorously with a face full of hope.
Elkai barely swallowed the words that even lizards can’t become potatoes.
Instead, he looked away and picked up the hair growth tonic Asil had pushed back.
“Then I’ll keep this and give it to you when you return.”
“Ppit! Ppiya ppiya!” (Yes! Asil trusts only Grandpa!)
Ppihahyahya! Asil smiled brightly at Elkai.
* * *
Finally, it was time to make the last doll.
Asil skillfully made the Edenber doll with deft movements of her front paws.
Even though it was the fastest she had ever made, the quality was the best.
Thanks to that, she had plenty of time left, so with black yarn she made a baby dragon doll, and with white yarn she made a rabbit doll.
She planned to give the baby dragon doll to Edenber and the rabbit doll to her rabbit friend.
Asil carried the completed dolls on her back and headed to Edenber’s office.
Having sorted out her feelings and received advice from Dylan, she intended to say goodbye with a smile.
“Ppiya ssit—!” (Husband—!)
So the door wouldn’t break, she knocked lightly with her front paws—knock knock knock.
But there was no answer.
Strange. She definitely heard someone inside.
Perhaps, just like the last time Asil avoided her husband, he might feel awkward facing Asil now.
Back then he pretended not to notice, so now it was Asil’s turn to pretend not to notice.
Asil quietly returned to the divine beast’s room, thinking she would come again tomorrow.
But the next day too,
“Ppiiya—!” (Husbaaand—!)
And the day after that,
“Ppiyat ppi!” (Asil is here!)
Edenber showed no reaction.
Meanwhile, the day to return to the forest drew very close.
Asil looked up at the firmly closed office door that stood like a high castle wall, unopening.
Tomorrow Asil had to leave, yet she still hadn’t met her husband.
Moreover, today he had dressed up splendidly as if going to a ball and went out.
“Could it be that husband really doesn’t know when Asil is leaving?”
Is that why he’s dressed up nicely and going out to play?
Even if that were the case, it was no good now.
She couldn’t wait any longer.
“Ppiyat ppi! Ppiiya!” (Husband! Asil is coming in!)
In her urgency—BAM! She broke the door and entered.
As expected, Edenber was not inside.
Asil waddled across the office and smoothly opened Edenber’s desk drawer.
She planned to leave the husband doll and the Asil doll so he would find them later.
But inside the drawer was an item she had never seen before.
It was the jewel that shines in seven rainbow colors that she had missed at the last auction.
“Ppihya……”
Asil gulped at the sight of it sparkling brilliantly in the sunlight.
With her mouth wide open, she unconsciously took it out and stared at it for a long time before hurriedly shaking her head.
“No. This belongs to husband!”
A beastman who takes someone else’s things is a very bad beastman.
Asil firmly resisted the jewel’s temptation and put it back where it was.
After that, she tapped on a piece of paper rolling on the desk with her front paw and wrote a letter in the continental common language.
Originally she started writing in beastman language, but remembering that humans can’t read beastman language, she quickly crumpled it and rewrote it in common language.
Since she couldn’t say goodbye face-to-face, she had to at least leave it like this.
After diligently scribbling for a long time, she placed the two dolls and the letter on top of the seven-colored jewel and closed the drawer with a snap.
“Departure is early tomorrow morning, so today really is the last day.”
Just in case, Asil waited until very late at night for Edenber to come.
She sat on the windowsill, rubbing her sleepy eyes, almost falling to the floor.
But no matter how long she waited, he did not come.
In the end, without seeing Edenber until the very last moment, the day dawned when she had to return to the beastmen’s forest.
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