I’m a humiliated, incompetent person, but I alone can talk to dragons, so I can choose all the SSS skills and loophole items I want to. I’m going to become famous and respected, so, to the people who humiliated me – Go die in a ditch - Chapter 7

Translator: Jasper Kadowaki | Editor: NovelMultiverse

“Right this way, please,” said the shopkeeper. I followed him to the back of the store and out into the yard.

This was where I had met Louise. On that day, the shopkeeper knew I was interested in his “defective product”, and had taken me straight to her. 

“Please, feel free to browse all the merchandise,” said the shopkeeper. He took a few steps back and left me to take a look around.

I turned about in a circle, and asked the shopkeeper, “Do you have any Mushkhushushu-types?”

“Mushkhushushu… you mean those ones that have four stomachs, yes?”

“Yeah.”

“Yes – we have one of those. This way, please,” said the shopkeeper. I followed him.

Mushkhushushu-types were small-sized dragons, and as the shopkeeper had just mentioned, they had the unique characteristic of having four stomachs.

While they were considered small-types, their bodies were quite elastic, and under some circumstances, they could expand to what could be considered a semi-medium size. 

They expanded in accordance with what was stored in their stomachs. They were called stomachs, but out of the four stomachs these dragons had, three of them were not used for digestion. These three stomachs were not even attached to what would be called the dragon’s intestines, either. 

They were dead-end stomachs and had no ability to break down any food. Put simply, they were used for storage. In the same way, a bear or some other hibernating animal would stock up on fat before starting a winter-long sleep, a Mushkhushushu-type dragon could stock up its three stomachs with large amounts of food to eat, later. 

The shopkeeper showed me the one Mushkhushushu-type dragon he had.

It was about half the size of Louise. However, I knew that if it filled its three storage stomachs up to maximum capacity, it would expand to be many times larger than her. They were like balloons. 

“Here’s the little guy,” said the shopkeeper.

“Yup. Could you maybe leave us two alone, for a second?” I asked.

“Of course,” said the shopkeeper, nodding. He gave us some space by walking away completely. This was standard protocol, as he wanted to show me that he wasn’t trying to spy on my dragon selection technique. 

Once I saw that he was gone, I turned to face the Mushkhushushu-type dragon.

“Hey. My name’s Cyril.”

It didn’t respond.

“Are you a boy? Or a girl?” I asked.

It still did not respond. I made sure to ask it simple, inoffensive questions to start, but the Mushkhushushu-type looked over at me with an icy gaze, and refused to answer anything.

“It would really help me out if you could talk to me,” I said.

“Talk to you? There’s no point in talking to a human. What a dumbass suggestion.”

“That’s not true. There are humans who can understand dragons.”

“The hell are you talking about? There’s no way that a hu… I mean, wait whaaat?!” The little Mushkhushushu-type stopped mid-sentence and looked at me with a shocked expression.

“What was that? You can understand me?” it asked.

“That’s what I’m saying.”

“No way! How?”

I grinned. I was used to this back and forth by now.

“I was just born like this. Before you ask, I wasn’t raised by dragons or anything like that.”

“I can’t believe it… Are there really people like that?”

“I’m living proof of it.”

The Mushkhushushu was at a loss of words, as it narrowed its eyes.

“But, hey. Answer my question – are you a boy or a girl?” I asked.

“What are you talking about? I’m obviously a female. Anyone can see that from any angle.”

“So, you’re a girl,” I said, letting out a chuckle. “I’m thinking about buying you. What do you think?”

“The hell do you mean? If you want to buy me, buy me.”

“You’re fine with it?”

“You’ve taken the conversation this far, so what the hell are you even talking about? Even if I say I don’t want you to, you’re gonna buy me, anyways. Humans are disgusting brutes.”

“I’m a little different from your usual dragon knight.”

“Say what?”

“I wanted to talk to you, and have you come with me on your own free will. I mean, I can understand you, after all.”

“Understand me, huh…” The little Mushkhushushu-type twisted her mouth around after repeating those words back to me as if she were testing out how it felt to say them. She stared back at me.

“That’s right – because we can talk. Since I can understand what you say, if you were to talk about how you hated living with me all day, it would get to me. That’s why I want to discuss this decision with you, and only have you come with me if you’re cool with it.”

“You say that, but in the end, I know that you’re going to force me to come with you, either way.”

“I won’t. If you say you don’t want to, I’ll be disappointed, but I won’t force you to come with me.”

“What?”

“I do want you to be okay with it and come with me, though.”

“W-Why?”

“You seem fun to talk to. You’re cute, too.”

“Hey, wha-!” said the little Mushkhushushu-type, twitching and unsure of how to respond. “What kind of a human are you, saying stuff like that?”

“Oh, do you not like being called cute? Maybe you’d prefer beautiful?”

“Ack!” She was struck speechless, yet again. She frowned, narrowed her eyes, and glared at me.

“So, what do you say? If you don’t want to, just say you don’t want to. I won’t force you to do anything.”

“I-I didn’t say I didn’t want to!”

“Oh? So, will you come with me, then?”

The little Mushkhushushu-type looked at me for a while, and then said to me, with a serious expression, “I have just one demand.”

“What?”

“Don’t give me a name.”

“A name?” Now, this was a strange demand. “Why?”

“Because I already have a name.”

“Oh, really? Well, in that case, sure, yeah. I understand.”

“You’re fine with that?”

“Well you already have a name, right? What is it, anyway?”

“Colette.”

“Colette, huh? That’s a good name,” I said, nodding and looking straight at her.

“Will you come with me, Colette?” I asked.

Colette watched me in silence for a while, yet again. Then she laughed, and said, “Ah, well. I guess I’ll do you a favor and go with you.”

Really?”

“Don’t get it twisted, though! It’s not because I care about what you think of me or because you called me cute!”[Read this novel and other amazing translated novels from the original source at the “Novel Multiverse dot com” website @ novelmultiverse.com]

“Oh, I know that.”

It appeared her name was very important to her. In that case, I decided, I would always call her Colette, no matter what happened. When I thought about it, though, I realized that this was just a case of calling someone by a name they already had in the first place. It was actually just a normal thing to do.

“Well, then. It’s decided,” I said, and called over the shopkeeper. 

The shopkeeper, realizing that I had finished my selection process with Colette, came walking over with a smile across his face.

“I’ll take Colette with me.”

“You’ve given her a name already?”

“No, she’s already had that name for a while, now.”

“…I see. I didn’t know about that,” said the shopkeeper, and he pressed no further. 

He may have been a bit pushy in the beginning, but I was starting to think that he was actually pretty good at his job.

“Well, then. Please just take her with you,” he said. 

“What about payment?” I asked. 

“Well, since we agreed on installments, I’ll send you an invoice tomorrow. You can pay whenever you’d like.”

“I see. Thank you,” I said. This was all thanks to the connection I had with the Princess… I could understand the shopkeeper, though. I decided that I shouldn’t say anything unnecessary, and just agree to take Colette with me. 

　　　　　☆

Colette and I did not go back to my house. Instead, we left town and headed for the mountains. 

We went to Mount Milleaf, which was a nearby mountain that could be seen from the city. This was where Colette had followed me.

“What are we doing here?” she asked.

“Mining, I believe it’s called.”

“Great?”

“You’re probably picturing something very different from what we’ll actually be working on, today,” I said, smirking. I couldn’t help it, under the current circumstances.

“I mean we’re going to look for some jewels,” I said.

“Jewels?”

“Yeah. I heard that this mountain has tons of natural Kebanium… Ah, here we go.” 

After walking for a bit along the mountain path, I picked something up. 

At first glance, it just looked like a regular rock, but upon closer examination, one could see that it was glinting a blue light on certain parts of it.

“Kebanium is unique in that it glows blue like this,” I said.

“Hmm, can you do something with it?” asked Colette.

“Who knows?”

“Who knows?!”

“I’m no expert on the subject,” I said, “But, I know that when I bring it to this one market in Boisrussel, they buy it off of me at a decent price.”

“Really?” asked Colette.

“Yes, that’s what I said,” I said, as I offered up the Kebanium to Colette, and said, “Swallow it.”

Why?” she asked.

“Mushkhushushu-types have three storage stomachs, right? I want you to take this back to town.”

“So it’s like that, huh?”

“What? If you can’t do it, I can think of a different plan.”

“I can do it! It’s stupidly easy.”

“Oh, all right, thank you. I’m glad you’re here with me.”

“I-It’s not like I’m doing this for you, you know?! I’m just working for you so that I can keep my name. You get that, right?”

“Yeah, yeah. I get it.”

Colette mentioned her name again. It was like she was obsessed with it. 

She kept saying she would never change her name. I wondered if names really were that important.

Then again, not a single atom within me wanted to change her name, anyways.

“All right, then. Please get to work.”

“This’ll be a piece of cake.”

“Really? Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you one more thing. It’s important.”

“What is it?”

“I’ll spend all day explaining all the details to you, but after today, I want you to do it all by yourself.”

“…What, now?”

Pausing and trying to understand, Colette looked upon me with an expression of complete confusion and disbelief. 

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“So, I want you to do all of this by yourself. I want you to come here and mine the Kebanium on your own, and I’ll take you to Boisrussel, and I’ll help you sell it at a market. I want you to do what you can with it, anyways.”

“B-By myself? Like me? By myself?”

“Yes.”

“What about supervision?”

“Supervision?”

“Yes. Usually, humans assign a supervisor for things like this.”

“I won’t.”

“Whaaat? Well, what if I act lazy and waste time?”

“I believe in you.”

Colette looked at me for a moment, and then said, in exasperation, “…What are you, stupid?”

“Stupid’s a little harsh.”

“You’re stupid. What do you mean, you believe in me?”

“Well, that’s because this is you we’re talking about, Colette.”

“What?”

“I think it’ll work out since it’s you.”

Colette went silent as if her mind was blown. She simply stared at me, unable to speak.

“So it’s impossible, huh?” I asked.

“I-It’s not impossible.”

“So you’ll do it, then?”

Colette laughed, softly, and said, “All right. I’ll do it, for you.”

“Really? Thanks.”

That concluded the conversation, and I taught Colette exactly how to do the mining. 

She would obtain the Kebanium from Mount Milleaf, bring it into a market in Boisrussel, sell it, and bring me the money. I made sure to make arrangements at the market, as well. I told them that Colette would come with the Kebanium and produce it from her stomach, and had the merchants agree to give her the money in return. 

It was a simple transaction, and so with the help of Colette and the merchants, I was able to set up a system.

After that, I stayed by Colette’s side and watched over her as she performed a single cycle of this system. She succeeded every step of the way – from the mining to getting paid.

Using Colette, I had managed to make a new source of stable income.[Read this novel and other amazing translated novels from the original source at the “Novel Multiverse dot com” website @ novelmultiverse.com]