Chapter 108: 108

“W-w-w-what are you talking about, furball? Isn’t that stupid, really? Kah! What a nasty thing to say yah. What the heck. What’s wrong with you. How could you say that? I was so surprised. Nirindo-ya!”

“Calm down, what’s with the dialect?”

This is bad.

This is bad, this is bad!

I made a mistake! This is my fault! I let my guard down a little too much!

It’s not surprising.

It was over as soon as Aoi showed up in front of these guys.

What to do?

What should we do?

What can I do!

Help me, Mikuma-san! Shouhei-kun!

I don’t have a clue what to do because the brain of our household is away!

“I-I-I-I-I don’t know what you’re talking about, Kunpei doesnt get it!”

“You’re not very good at lying, are you?”

Shut up!

Don’t look at me like I’m pitiful!

“Wah! Oh! Nah! Hey! What? That’s not it!”

“Calm down, okay? Let me finish.”

Gasara grabbed me by my shoulders to calm me down.

“Kunpei-san! What’s wrong? Is that criminal lion bullying you!?”

“Kunpei, what’s wrong?”

“Hii!”

Aoi and Rouge, who had been watching me from afar, ran up to me.

As soon as Gassara saw the two of them, he let out a short scream and backed away from me.

”Hmm. Kunpei, take a deep breath. Inhale, exhale.”

Suuu, haaa.

“What did he do? It’s okay! I’m here for you!”

Rouge grabbed me by the shoulders from behind and held me in place.

Aoi grabbed my hands from the front and pulled them up to her chest.

“No, uh Gasara, you see, so…”

“Kazamachi! Really, calm down! I’m not going to do anything!”

Gasara raised his voice frantically from a distance.

Huh?

What’s he panicking for?

“I just wanted to check! We weren’t really into this job to begin with! We decided from the beginning to just kill time and get the hell out of here! If we find a dragon, we’re not going to touch it, we’re going to leave it alone!”

“Eh?”

Seeing Gasara like that, I calmed down somewhat.

What do you mean?

Didn’t he and his siblings come back for the dragon?

At the very least, the Western Treasure Hunters Association planned a major survey for Aoi, right?

“Ah, um, Gasara. Sorry, I calmed down. Can I hear more?”

That’s right. Calm down. Think and act.

Be cool, Kunpei.

What I should do now is to gather information.

To make sure that Mikuma, Shouhei, and my father who’s in charge of the brain can make a clear decision.

I pulled off Aoi and Rouge and approached Gasara.

Gasara seems somewhat frightened by the two of them, and he’ll only be able to talk without any hesitation if it’s just me.

After working together for the past few hours, I know that this lion is not such a bad guy.

Leaving out the fact that he’s a treasure hunter, there’s no reason to be wary of this guy.

Just because our first meeting was the worst, I shouldn’t identify him as an enemy from the start.

Let’s talk about it.

Dialogue is important.

“Sorry, I think I understand why you’re so wary of us treasure hunters and why you’re hostile to us. It all makes sense now that I’ve seen the girl.”

“I’m the one who’s sorry. I’d like to hear it for now and I’ll decide after that.”

Finally slumping to the ground, Gasara looked up at me with an apologetic look.

Gasara continuously glanced at Aoi with vigilance.

Well that would be, when I saw him for the first time, he was running away while crying, and even though he didn’t die, he was hit by a pretty powerful thunderball.

“I’ve decided that we, the Paradise siblings, will no longer have anything to do with the dragon. In the first place, it was from an anonymous tip, and it was mainly the result of me being in high spirits, but Aniki wasn’t enthusiastic about it from the start. It was also the first time that that battle junkie sister said she didn’t feel like she could win.”

“Hmm? Is that about the egg kidnapping?”

Come to think of it, Aoi beat Nanairo-san, didn’t she?

According to what Alba told me, it seems that a dragon is weakened before and after laying eggs. But even in such a state, Aoi was still able to compete with Nanairo-san.

Seijitsu-san is apparently a person with a lot of ability and judgment, so he wouldn’t make the decision to become an enemy again with a creature with such a difference in ability.

”Yeah, there was suspicious information sent to the Hunter’s Association several times over the past few years. We and the other hunters didn’t take it seriously either. We were just bored after a big job, so we went to check it out casually, and we really freaked out when the dragon was there.”

“Information?”

Who else knew that Aoi and Yule were atop Tusk Crag?

And from quite a while ago?

“And then we ended up in that state, right? So we’ve reflected a lot. We didn’t have enough ability to get involved with a dragon. We couldn’t refuse the request because someone from the Hunter’s Association had cleared us of the minor offence, but there’s not much we can do about it if we can’t get into the dungeon. So we were going to pass the time at random. We really didn’t come back to look for the dragon.”

I put my finger on my chin and thought about it.

Nanairo-san and Seijitsu-san, who I saw earlier had enough ability to be instantly recognizable as strong, even to an amateur like me

No matter how much Aoi is a dragon, and even though Rouge will be here from today, I don’t want to antagonize them too much.

Even Gasara is a professional hunter, albeit clumsy, rough, temperamental and slightly unreliable.

If you can really get them to let you off the hook about the matter with the twins, can you explain the situation?

Hmm.

What to do.

I just can’t decide whether or not to trust these guys so easily.

Well, I don’t hate them personally.

In fact, I’d say I have a good impression of them as far as Gasara is concerned.

It’s just that I’m not sure I’m a good judge of character, you know?

I’ve never looked at anyone in terms of whether or not I can trust them.

Because outside of my family, the only thing I’ve ever been able to do was to be disliked or feared by people.

Of course, there were some friendly people who didn’t know about my rumors, but they weren’t that close to me.

When it comes to Jaja, Nana, and Aoi’s future, I have to question my judgment.

“Kunpei, I don’t understand what you’re talking about. Can you explain it to me?”

“Uwah, Rouge.”

Rouge appeared in my field of view while I was thinking about it.

“Well, they were the ones who tried to steal Aoi’s eggs.”

I whispered to Rouge so that Gasara couldn’t hear me.

“Hm.”

Rouge snarls with a frown.

“Aoi, were you abused by this lion?”

Rouge turned her head and looked at Aoi.

Aoi seemed a little startled and shrugged.

”Eh? Not really? It was some kind of colorful bird lady who actually fought me.”

Aoi replies, shifting her gaze to Gasara.

“But it was this lion who escaped with Jaja and Nana’s eggs.”

She wrinkled her brows, which was unusual for Aoi who was always smiling.

Yeah.

Well, I understand how you feel.

Just a while ago, I was feeling exactly the same way towards Gasara.

When the twins come to mind, I still have some mixed feelings.

“Eh, no! That was! Help me, Kazamachi!”

Sensing something, Gasara escaped from Aoi’s gaze.

This guy, he’s traumatized by Aoi, isn’t he?

“We’re the only ones who know you’re a dragon, little girl! As for my Aniki, he’s only seen your dragon form! Aneki doesn’t remember too many details, and I never told anyone! The police wouldn’t believe me, and I didn’t even give them the information because we, the paradise siblings, are hated by the big shots in the association to begin with! Trust me!”

“Aoi, did he see your appearance then.”

“It was just Kunpei-san. When I was attacked in the nest, I felt a presence for quite a while, so I changed to my dragon from. After I fought them off once, I’ve been in that form ever since I realized the eggs were gone. This lion has probably only seen this form of me in front of the supermarket.”

Hmmm. There’s not enough to judge.

In this kind of situation, I’m going to need Mikuma’s advice.

My smartphone is out of battery, and from what I’ve heard, the phone at the community center won’t be available for a while.

There’s nothing we can do about it.

“Lion person. A child, no matter what kind of creature it is, should be protected. What you have done is very bad. There won’t be a second time. Never again.”

“I get it! I was out of my mind! I’ll never do it again! Kazamachii!”

Gasara, trying to get away from the Rouge’s pressure, was looking to me for relief.

As for me, I think I can trust what this guy says.

While coming here, Gasara had been distancing herself from Hina-chan and the children, but he cared a great deal about them.

Or rather, if he’s the only one who knows what Aoi looks like, then there’s no advantage in antagonizing him.

If we can get Gasara, Nanairo-san and Seijitsu-san on board, then there will be no one who knows what Aoi looks like.

Then we definitely need to get these Paradise siblings on our side.

So how do we convince them to join us?

I don’t have a clue about Gasara’s personality, let alone Nanairo-san and Seijitsu-san.

If this thing about dragons is worth a lot, it would be troublesome if they got greedy and sold the information to the association or other guys.

There’s got to be some way to make it impossible to do that.

For example, make them feel guilty.

Hmm?

Guilt?

Ah, I see.

What the hell. It’s pretty easy to do.

I think this method I just came up with would work.

There’s a good chance we’ll be able to do this with our toy line-up. Let’s thank my dad for buying it.

Yeah, I’m sure it’s the only way to go.

If you want to know why, it’s because my daughters are super cute.