“I underst—stood! Alright! I’ve decided! …We’ll conceal it!”
Oh, what decisive power, as expected.
“Right now, there’s a war with the neighboring country, and the matter of the Fourth Princess’s marriage. We mustn’t show even the slightest opening. We have no choice but to keep it hidden…!”
So he says.
“Andrews! That ‘Garden’ of yours, I don’t quite understand it, but it’s a technique to transport it to a small, isolated island that only you know about and confine it there, right? There really won’t be any problems?”
“Of course not. Even if Count Missgancia, or even the entire country, searched with all their might for a hundred years, they absolutely wouldn’t be able to find it, it’s that far away.”
Far away (conceptually), that is.
They wouldn’t understand things like different dimensions or alternate spaces, so I just told him it was “a very, very far place.”
“『חיבור תת-חלל, לגן הקוסם(Moving to the Garden)』…”
“Pikyu?!”
“Yes, yes, let’s put it away now.”
And so, the Dragon (Ability) was eternally sealed in my Garden.
…Let’s talk about what happened after that.
But the results are simple.
First, all the captured members of the mercenary group were publicly executed after interrogation (torture).
Apparently, these guys didn’t know the egg belonged to a Dragon (Ability), and they stole it from a distant volcanic region.
As expected, the Fire Drake, who was probably the egg’s parent, was forced onto some random town in Missgancia to deal with… or to stall, and they were planning to head south and sell the egg to the enemy Empire.
The other day, Imperial soldiers were wandering around Missgancia, so I thought it might be a strategy… but apparently, they heard information like “There are Imperials who are willing to pay a high price for a Fire Drake egg” or “The location of a Fire Drake nest” in a tavern.
Well, it’s probably one of the Empire’s scattershot harassment schemes. It’s a common occurrence, but it’s rare for it to work out so perfectly. Bad luck, Count Missgancia.
The people in that village were apparently related to a member of the mercenary group, and that’s how they got involved…
…So, they were going to use their relatives as Fire Drake bait?
Their relatives in the community that specifically gave them the job?
Wow, they really have no sense of ethics.
Well, maybe they were on bad terms, and that part is a mystery, and I’m not interested anyway. It’s the usual “that’s just how this world is” situation.
And this baby Dragon (Ability).
…Since the Fire Drake parent came after it, it’s confirmed that this baby Dragon (Ability)’s parent is a Fire Drake.
Monsters sometimes undergo significant transformations and change their appearance at a certain stage.
For example, Goblins, which are only as big and strong as human children, sometimes give birth to a superior species called “Hobgoblins.”
Even with Elves, there are stories of High Elves being born from Elf parents, or Elves who have lived for a long time “becoming” High Elves.
Therefore, it’s not entirely impossible for a Dragon (Ability) to be born from a Drake parent, or so it was concluded.
In reality, that part is quite, well, unclear.
There are many things you can’t find out even if you investigate, just like back on Earth, right? That’s just how it is.
Besides, since it’s already been put away in the Garden, even a Dragon (Ability) can’t sense it.
Even if a fully grown Dragon (Ability) came and said, “That’s my real parent! Give me back my child!” once it’s in the Garden, it’s impossible. They can’t follow.
…The Blue Comet was told to keep their mouths shut, and that was the end of it.
In the first place, “Dragon (Ability) sighting!” is a story from a different world.
In their range of activity, they’re doing their best just to live as humans, help each other, and die as humans.
Especially “wanting to die as a human” is too much of a luxury for the rootless Strider, but… they have the power to make that happen.
Well, on the flip side, that means they only have the power to live and die as humans. They can’t solve national-level problems, let alone get involved in them.
So… they.
They forget about something as grand as a Dragon (Ability) and live as humans in the human world. That’s all.
Maybe they’ll let something slip in a tavern, but… all the Strider’s stories are treated as tall tales, so there won’t be any problems.
And me…
“Pikyu! Pii, pii…, Gyau! Gyau!”
“Eh…? It’s gotten about twice as big in a week…?”
…I was taking care of the baby Dragon (Ability) in the Garden.
But it’s growing at a super-fast pace…
Scary…
“Papa! Papa!”
And somehow, it thinks I’m its parent.
Why…?
It seems to have the intelligence of a five-year-old at this stage, so when I asked it…
“Papa! Gave me Magical Power! Papa! Gave me power!”
Hmm…
Somehow…
I… sucked up my Magical Power, and it evolved into a Dragon (Ability) in the egg state…?
In other words… it’s my fault… or so it seems!
So, I concealed it with all my might.
“Okay, Maybach-kun? Forget about that story. You, for some reason, realized you had become a Dragon (Ability)! Repeat after me!”
“Eto, realized, Dragon (Ability), became!”
I’m teaching the baby Dragon (Ability), whom I named Maybach-kun, the “truth.”
Eh? The name? It’s my beloved car from my previous life.
But… Maybach-kun.
Apparently, it’s growing by absorbing Magical Power, and in the Magical Power-filled Garden, it’s growing at an absurd rate…
That’s probably because it’s not a “Monster” trapped in a vessel of flesh, but a being that’s half-spirit and half-demon.
Speaking of which, I could see, hear, and think as soon as I was born.
Even if I had memories from my previous life, it’s neurologically impossible to transfer all those memories to a baby’s brain.
But the fact that I could remember them means that I’m also half-spirit and half-human. It’s a performance that’s only possible because I’m not a pure “human.”
And so, Maybach, who has already grown from the size of a large dog to the size of a Komodo dragon, was eating the Garden’s fruits and livestock, learning magic and academics from me, and growing up healthy…
The Blue Comet’s expedition and the Dragon (Ability) incident are now over.
…As a side note, the Blue Comet gave me double the reward because I had caused them trouble, and Count Missgancia silently handed me 30 million Lido.