yemalu

Ahhhh~ The cake I ordered from them was perfect~ So perfect that I was completely lost in the sweetness and didn\'t pay attention to what else Katsuki asked Lisa.

It turned out it didn\'t matter since when I came back to myself, I found all three of them watching me with smiles on their faces.

"Umm… What? Do I have something on my face?"

"Ehehe~ Not at all, we\'re just enjoying how you look when you\'re eating your dessert~" Lisa giggled, prompting the other two to nod their heads.

What\'s so special about how I look when I\'m eating my dessert? I\'m just eating aren\'t I?

For some reason, the three of them thought I looked really interesting or something.

Putting that aside, Lisa seemed to have paid for us even though I was planning to be the one paying for it. She claimed that it was her duty as an adult to do so and we shouldn\'t worry about it.

I actually almost forgot that she\'s technically the oldest amongst us here.

After that cafe outing, I planned for us to take a stroll through the city. I was hoping that a walk together would bring all of us closer as well.

Unfortunately, I underestimated how crowded it would be considering it was the weekend and there seemed to be some kind of event going on.

"Why are there so many people here?" I asked aloud, looking at the main street that was practically filled to the brim with people.

Lisa tilted her head at me, "Eh? Does Aster not know about it? A Mercenary raid party managed to slay a rampaging dragon so there\'s a parade going on to show off their kill."

Odeta tilted her head, "Huh? What\'s so special about killing some dragon? Is it a special kind of dragon? Does it have two heads or something?"

Lisa giggled, "Ehehe~ Not really. It\'s just a monster dragon that was rampaging at the borders of the Kingdom for some time. The Guild organised a request and a raid party was formed a few weeks ago to go subdue it~"

"Ehhhh? Then why are they making a big deal out of this? It\'s just slaying a dragon."

"Well, you might not know this, but usually dragons aren\'t some monster that anyone can beat, you know? It takes a lot of people to even attempt to kill one and this party was made up of some of the strongest Mercenaries within the Kingdom. Of course it would be a big deal!"

"Really? But I killed a dragon before too… Will they give me a parade as well?"

Lisa\'s eyes sparkled, "Oooh?! You did?! You must be really strong then!"

Odeta thumped her chest proudly, "Of course! I need to be strong in order to protect sister Aster after all!"

"Ehehe~ It\'s nice that Aster has friends like you~"

"Ha! She\'s not just my friend! She\'s my sister! That\'s better than friends!"

I tried my best not to let the antics of those two get to me. Why do they keep talking like the subject of their conversation isn\'t here?

Right then, cheers started to erupt around us as a large group of people riding on top of horses came into view. Behind them was the corpse of a giant dragon strapped onto an equally giant wagon.

The size of that dragon was at least eight to ten times the size of the infant dragon I\'ve fought before, the corpse barely being able to fit through the street.

It was definitely an impressive sight and I don\'t think I would have been able to handle such a monster on my own.

The Mercenaries that were riding ahead of the dragon were smiling and waving at the crowd, accepting their cheers gracefully.

"Are they the Mercenaries?" I asked.

Katsuki was the one who gave me the answer, "That is correct, Mistress. Most of them are A rank Mercenaries who had taken the quest to hunt down the dragon and they banded together to form a raid party with other Mercenary groups to complete that hunt."

"How many people were involved in this hunt?"

"A few hundred, Mistress."

I swivelled my head to face her, "A few hundred?! But I see only about fifty or so people riding horses there!"

"I suspect a number of them lost their lives while the others are still recuperating and thus in no shape to participate in this parade either."

Oh wow, this thing got dark pretty quickly.

Now that I\'m looking properly, I realised that the ones leading the way were definitely smiling and waving happily but the Mercenaries following behind the group wore either forced smiles or were simply ignoring the cheers from the people entirely.

Those guys must have lost comrades within their own group.

Over here, death can come for you when you least expect it after all.

All three of us watched as the dragon slowly rolled past us, even Odeta admitted that the dragon this raid party killed was definitely bigger than the one she had hunted before so she gave her respect.

I\'m guessing this one was a full grown adult dragon while the one Odeta fought may still be an adolescent dragon or something.

"Where are they bringing it though?"I asked.

Lisa perked up, "Ehehe~ To the Royal Castle, Aster~ I think all of them would be given some kind of reward by the Royal family and the dead dragon should be sold or handled by the finance ministry who will decide on what they should do with it. The Academy might even be buying a few of its parts for study purposes~"

"Are dragon materials really useful or something?"

Katsuki nodded, "That goes without saying, Mistress. Any part of a dragon can be used in some way, you just need to know how to use them."

I\'m not even surprised since that would usually be the case for stories right? But that would mean the dragon parts I have inside my pack of folding are really valuable huh? LEt\'s just keep quiet about that for now.

Odeta looked at the dragon corpse wistfully, "Do you think we can beat a dragon like that one, Aster?"

I shrugged, "Maybe in the future but definitely not right now. There\'s no way the two of us can handle a monster of that size on our own."

"That means I\'m still not strong enough! I need to get stronger!"

I\'d like to say that she was already plenty strong as it is but I wouldn\'t stop her from seeking self improvement.

Now I wonder what kind of party it will take to hunt that Hell Dragon in that dungeon I found?

The procession soon passed by us and the streets returned to normal, several of the citizens opting to follow it to the castle as well so there\'s less people around now.

"So where are we going, Aster?" Lisa asked, her eyes sparkling.

I turned to gesture at Odeta, "I was thinking of picking out some new clothes for Odeta here actually. Do you know a good place?"

Lisa clapped her hands together, "Oh!! You\'re in luck! I know the perfect place for that! One of my friends just arrived here today and she sells pretty much everything! We can go look for her!"

Well, that would solve our problems considering the fact that it\'ll be especially difficult to find clothes of Odeta\'s size in a city catered to Mahuns.

Lisa led us through the streets that were now rather empty and headed towards the docks.

That was a part of the city I have yet to go to, considering I didn\'t really have a reason to go there before, but the city does have a functioning harbour a short distance outside the walls.

From what I read up about it, they built the harbour after the city was completed when the Mahuns started expanding out to other settlements around.

The reason why they don\'t extend the city walls out here was because there\'s the threat of pirate raids around here and in the event that they manage to take over the harbour, they would not gain direct access to the city.

It also seemed like the dragon we saw had also been transported from the sea as well instead of over land like I had initially thought.

Must have needed a really big ship for that.

Sure enough, we found a gigantic ship anchored at the harbour when we reached there, its size way bigger than the dragon we saw earlier.

That thing might as well have been a floating fortress instead of a ship with how big it was and I\'m even surprised it managed to stay afloat. It\'s at least three or four times the size of the biggest cruise liners in my old World! That thing is massive!!

So there I was staring up at the ship in slack jawed wonder when a voice came from behind us, "A beauty isn\'t she?"

Turning around, we found a Nekomata girl dressed in what looks like a kimono smiling at us.

Lisa immediately ran up and hugged her, "Emilia!! It\'s been so long!!"

"Nyaaaa?!! How many times did I tell you not to hug me like this?!! Let go of me!"

Lisa didn\'t listen and continued hugging the Nekomata who struggled to get away from her, "Awww~  There, there~ No need to be shy~"

"This isn\'t me being shy! You\'re messing up my clothes! Stop, nyaa!!"

So… This is the friend eh? She\'s… Umm… She\'s kind of cute~ Could I pat her, pretty please?