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 6

Translator: Jasper Kadowaki | Editor: NovelMultiverse

After finishing a mission, I got back on Louise’s back, and we returned to the government building. 

We stopped at the main gates and I jumped off of Louise. 

I quickly went inside to make a work report, and when I came back outside…

Louise was silent.

“Louise?” I said.

There was no response. 

Something was wrong with Louise. When I called to her, she made absolutely no reaction.

“What’s wrong, Louise?” I asked.

“…Sleepy,” she said.

“What? Oh, okay,” I said, thinking that it made sense. When I took a closer look at her, I could see that her eyes were half shut. Her face was just like a child’s, right before they passed out from exhaustion.

Our mission had dragged on a bit, after all. 

“Just a little bit longer… Ah, never mind,” I said. Louise and I had a deal, and part of that deal was guaranteeing her sleeping hours. I couldn’t betray her trust on that contract. Even if it was still within the bounds of what we agreed on, I couldn’t force her to work against her nature.

I thought for a bit, and said, “Louise – Can you make it home on your own?”

“Yesh,” said Louise. She was really about to fall asleep. 

“Then, go on ahead without me,” I said. 

“Really?” 

“Yeah. Good work, today.”

“…Mmmhmm,” said Louise, and she started walking homeward, with slow, heavy steps.

If she were a dog, a cat, or especially a child, I would be worried about something happening to her on the way home, but this was in the middle of a city, and Louise was a dragon. I figured nothing bad would come of it, and I sent her on her way. 

Of course, this wasn’t something just anyone could do. Other dragon knights wouldn’t be able to tell their sleepy dragons to go on home without them. I had the power of verbal communication. 

Since I could talk to dragons, we could come to a mutual understanding on things, and I could do things like telling my dragon to go home before me and get some sleep. 

It was all thanks to my ability to talk to dragons. 

“…I bet the other dragon knights wouldn’t let their dragons go home in this situation, even if they could,” I muttered, with a bitter smile. 

Those guys over at Lindworm thought of dragons as nothing more than tools. Even if they could understand them, they probably wouldn’t show them compassion. 

“…Hm,” I mumbled, as a thought suddenly interrupted my train of thought. A spark ran through my mind. It was as if a blinding white light ran across everything, with enough vigor to slash out all other thoughts. 

What was that? What exactly was I thinking of?

“Uh…” I said to myself, desperately trying to reel in the idea from the back of my mind and form it into a clear concept. I tried to imagine it in a real-life context. 

Yes, this could work. It could work. 

It was something that would bring my methods to the next level, but… I couldn’t pull it off with a rental dragon.

Rentals would always be hired dragons, and while they were rented out, they had to be “on”. Those were the rules that dictated their behavior. Therefore… This would have to be done with my own dragon. 

“I need a new dragon,” I muttered, and began to think about what I would need to do next. 

☆

I arrived at a dragon seller’s store. It was the same one as last time, and the same slender shopkeeper came out to welcome me. 

“Welcome… Oh!” he said. 

“Hi,” I said. 

“Thank you for your business the other day. That little one is doing all right, I hope?” 

“Yeah… hm,” I said, nodding and picking up on a strange vibe. 

When the shopkeeper asked if Louise was doing all right, it seemed like he was trying to remind me of something, and he said it with a sort of intensity. 

Why the hell is this guy coming at me with this pushy vibe during small talk? [Read this novel and other amazing translated novels from the original source at the “Novel Multiverse dot com” website @ novelmultiverse.com]

I thought for a second, and then I realized what this was about.

“Oh, no, listen – I’m not here to complain or demand a refund or anything like that,” I explained. Louise was a “defective product”. The shopkeeper had clearly warned me when I bought her that he wouldn’t accept any refunds. 

In other words, this shopkeeper must have thought that I had returned to blame him for a bad purchase, and behind his smile was a defensive attitude because of that. 

“No, no, of course not. I didn’t think you were,” he said. I could feel the air had cleared significantly, though. 

Oh come on, you obviously did think that… is what I wanted to say, but I stopped myself.

“Louise is doing great,” I said.

“That’s good to hear,” he replied.

“I didn’t come here for anything to do with her, though… I’d like to buy another dragon.”

“Oh, wow.”

“Do you have any more bargains?”

The shopkeeper rubbed his chin, thinking.

Yes, that was the thing. I didn’t have much money. After scraping together everything I had, I was holding just a couple hundred reals. 

It was said that an average adult could usually make about 1000 reals in a month, and a sandwich costs about 1 or 2 reals. I wasn’t struggling to make ends meet, but I simply didn’t have enough saved up for a dragon… That was the reality I faced.

Figuring I had nothing to lose, I asked about any bargains that the shopkeeper might have. 

After thinking for a bit, the shopkeeper said, “Well, I don’t have anything like that little one.”

“I see,” I said, smiling sadly. 

Well, I couldn’t say I was surprised. I had never seen a “defective product” being advertised by a dragon seller before, after all. It definitely wasn’t something you come across every day. 

I really was lucky to have come by Louise. When I thought about things that way, my situation didn’t seem so bad. 

“If you find something, though, please contact me here,” I said, and reached into my inside pocket to get a piece of paper I had written my information on. I knew that I probably wouldn’t be able to find anything affordable, so I had pretty much come just to give the shopkeeper my contact information, anyways. 

I took out the note to hand it over.

“Oops!” I said, as a thin cloth fell out of my pocket. It fluttered and floated, as if dancing, and landed on the floor. It was the handkerchief that the princess had given me.

The shopkeeper looked at the handkerchief and gasped. “Th-That’s…” he muttered. For some reason, he was shocked.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, picking up the handkerchief. 

“That emblem – its Her Majesty the Princess’s, isn’t it?”

“What? Oh, yeah,” I said, nodding.

“I helped out the Princess on a mission request just a little while ago. She gave me this as a token of thanks.”

“…Ah!” said the shopkeeper, apparently still shocked for some reason. 

I looked down at the handkerchief. This was my connection to the Princess, and I was thinking that I would use it one day to contact her. I wondered if it had some kind of other use, as well. 

“Her Highness the Princess gave it to you…” said the shopkeeper.

“…Uh, yeah?” I asked.

“…Sir,” said the shopkeeper, and then for several seconds, fell silent and looked down in careful thought. He suddenly snapped his head back up and looked at me.

“I don’t have any bargains for you right now, but, if you’d like…”

“Hm?”

“Would you perhaps be open to paying in installments?”

“Installments?”
“Yes.”

“Well, of course.”

The shopkeeper was leaning forward while he offered me the option. He had an intense demeanor, but it was different from the one he had when we were talking about Louise. His attitude had been one of pushing away, then, but now, he was clearly trying to pull closer. 

What is going on? …Oh.

After thinking for just a moment, I understood. He was the same as me, in a way. I had taken the mission request with the Princess to try to get a connection to someone in a higher position. This shopkeeper was trying to do the same thing. I was connected to the Princess, and so he wanted to make a connection with me. 

He was plotting to gain an advantage, in other words. 

I glanced at the handkerchief. It was finally paying off, this bonus prize for saving the Princess. With that in mind, I said to the shopkeeper, “I’d like to pay in installments, then, please.”

I decided I would gratefully accept the prize.[Read this novel and other amazing translated novels from the original source at the “Novel Multiverse dot com” website @ novelmultiverse.com]