Chapter 97: Latte is horse...(5) "Uh..."
Jinseo could only stare blankly at Charlotte as she flew off through the sky.
She had left without any detailed explanation, so he had no idea what was going on, but one thing was clear.
If she—a dragon—was moving in a hurry, then something huge was about to happen.
"If it's 'insignificant creatures'… could it be a horde of monsters?"
"If it's that, we wouldn't have to worry too much, but it could also be people. This… makes me very uneasy."
Unlike Fedora, Jinseo assumed the worst and agonized over it.
Charlotte's definition of "insignificant creatures" was so broad that it was hard to judge which was correct, but either way, it was not a situation where they could sit still.
"I'll go first. With the food truck's speed, we can catch up to Lady Charlotte even if it's late."
"I'm coming too!"
"We'll go with you as well!"
As Jinseo climbed into the driver's seat, Geshtain quickly took the passenger seat.
In the additional trailer, the knights including Aston and Fedora boarded one after another.
"Lord of the Castle! Then we'll depart first!"
"Be careful! Absolutely don't push yourselves! And you must never go against Lady Charlotte!"
Vroooom.
With the nitro booster on, the food truck charged straight east after Charlotte.
The territory of Count Magus, located in the southeast of the Doren Kingdom, was divided by a long lake that ran sideways, with forest on one side and plains on the other.
In the forest to the south, many underground dungeons were clustered, so adventurers seeking a sudden fortune often came there, but aside from that, it was normally a quiet region without much happening.
But for reasons unknown, a situation occurred where dungeon monsters poured out in large numbers.
The report that those monsters had gathered and begun moving north had come in a week ago.
To stop the horde, Count Magus's knight order hastily deployed with soldiers, and mercenaries were urgently hired to fill the lack of manpower.
With the long lake between them, Count Magus's forces coming down from the north and the monster horde coming up from the south were on the verge of clashing.
But the instant a gigantic presence appeared from the sky with a roar no one had expected, silence fell over the area.
The moment humans saw Charlotte, they instinctively knew what she was.
A being that threw you into fear just by looking at it—other than the dragon that had awakened from a long sleep and left its lair a few months ago, what else could it be?
"Hey. You insignificant creatures down there."
At Charlotte's voice overhead, humans—and even the monsters—flinched and took a step back.
"Honestly, I had a lot I wanted to say before coming here, but it's a hassle, so I'll keep it short."
Charlotte's blood had boiled the whole time she flew here in dragon form, but once she arrived at the lakeside, she suddenly felt drained.
There were many humans and monsters gathered, but from her perspective they were insignificant creatures.
They were far too trivial to receive her anger.
"While I'm being nice, go back to where you came from."
Her tone sounded light, but it carried fear and terror that could not be ignored.
"I can understand being too scared of me to leave right away, but... don't turn this place—a place holding memories of friends I'll never meet again—into a mess."
Whoooosh.
A sharp wind skimmed over the ground and looped around the lakeside in a full circle.
"Everyone saw it, right? Don't cross that line and come in. If you come in, I'll turn you into a mess. Okay?"
Charlotte lowered her face until it was almost touching the ground and pointed with the tip of a sharp claw at the boundary line the wind had left behind.
The humans all understood and slowly retreated while keeping formation.
As if that was not enough, they laid down all their weapons and raised both hands to show they had no hostility.
Because the opponent was a dragon—stronger than any other living being.
But the monsters were so terrified of the dragon that they could not even think of running, and only trembled in place.
"You're not leaving?"
The monsters did not flee even after Charlotte's repeated threats, and worse, they ended up doing something that went against the instinct to survive.
Thunk.
"Hah..."
Charlotte stared, dumbfounded, at a spear that had tapped her nose tip and fallen to the ground.
"You just attacked me? It was like that when I was asleep in my lair too—are insignificant creatures these days really that fearless?"
For her, the pain was far less than being bitten by a mosquito, but it was still enough to make her furious again.
Count Magus's soldiers—who had already put down their weapons from the start—desperately waved their hands, insisting it was not them.
"Fine. Fine, so humans, move farther back. More. More..."
Charlotte turned her head toward the south where the monsters were gathered—not toward the north where the humans were—and opened her mouth wide to breathe.
But she belatedly realized her breath could engulf the place of memories as well, so she shut her mouth and cast magic instead.
Whoooosh.
A gigantic vortex shot up toward the sky from the very center of the monsters' formation.
Every last monster was swallowed into the vortex, and Charlotte sent the vortex far away to the east.
The vortex crossed forests, passed plains, even cleared a high mountain range, and only dispersed in the middle of the sea.
"Now I can breathe a little. Damn it, I'm so pissed I could die."
Charlotte returned to human form and plopped down on a stump near the lakeside.
Even after flinging all the monsters far away, there was only one way to cool her still-unsettled rage.
She opened subspace storage and pulled out a can of cola.
Gulp, gulp.
Since bunsik had not spread to Count Magus's territory yet, the knight order and soldiers had no idea what she was drinking.
But Malcolm, the captain of the Raven Mercenary Corps, recognized the distinctive shape and color of a can of cola and cautiously approached her.
"E-Excuse me, could it be...."
"What? I'm not giving this to you. I don't even have enough for myself."
When Charlotte gripped the can with both hands and hid it behind her back, Malcolm was left utterly bewildered.
"Anyway, humans really do have a knack for recognizing tasty things."
"Was that cola… purchased from the food truck?"
"Uh… yeah. Anyway, I'm not giving you cola, so give up. Other things, maybe, but not this."
"O-Of course. How could an insignificant creature like me dare to covet what a great being is drinking?"
"Still, for a human, you've got quite a bit of nerve."
Even transformed into a human, she was still a dragon, and Charlotte looked at Malcolm with approval for finding the courage to speak to her.
"But if you recognized cola, you must have visited the food truck often?"
"No. I did buy quite a lot a few months ago. Honestly, I wanted to stay there and keep eating bunsik."
"True. The food truck's food never gets old no matter how many times you eat it. I know that feeling too."
"Especially the taste of choco X pie—I still can't forget it."
Malcolm and the Raven Mercenary Corps members had bought a whole lot of choco X pie from Jinseo.
But now, months later, those red boxes had long since run out.
"Actually, we planned to stop by the food truck again after finishing this monster subjugation request, but with things turning out like this..."
"I have choco X pie."
"E-Really?"
At Charlotte's words, Malcolm's eyes lit up.
"I can't give you cola, but I can give you that. Normally you insignificant creatures should be offering tribute to me, a dragon, but I'll be generous this time."
Charlotte opened subspace storage and tossed out boxes containing thirty choco X pies each, one after another.
In an instant, Malcolm froze in place like he had turned to stone.
The red boxes packed full of choco X pie—something he had missed even in his dreams.
He could not tell if the scene of the boxes piling up was a dream or reality.
"What are you doing? Don't want to eat it? Then I'm taking it back."
"N-No! I'll eat it! Guys! The supreme being has bestowed choco X pie!"
Despite Malcolm's shout, silence still hung over the mercenaries.
They, too, could not tell if the scene of choco X pie boxes piled high before their eyes was a dream or reality.
But the moment they saw Malcolm tear open a choco X pie wrapper and put it in his mouth, the mercenaries swarmed the boxes all at once.
"It's choco X pie! It's really choco X pie!"
"Yeah, this is it! This is the taste! This taste!"
"Hey! One each! One each! Don't eat two at a time!"
Those who had already experienced choco X pie had forgotten all fear of the dragon long ago.
People started choking from eating too fast, hurriedly pulled out their canteens to drink water, then went right back to eating choco X pie again.
"What in the world… is that?"
"Does it have drugs in it or something?"
Count Magus's soldiers could not understand the mercenaries, who did not seem afraid at all even with Charlotte—the dragon who had wiped out a huge number of monsters with a single spell—so close by.
Some approached out of curiosity, but they could not muster the courage to get close to the dragon, so they only watched from afar.
"Haha… cute little things. Yeah, it's the age when you eat a lot."
Charlotte propped her chin on her left hand and watched the mercenaries inhaling choco X pie.
With the gaze of a grandmother looking at childish grandchildren.
"Insignificant creatures, should I bring out white milk too?"
"Yes! Guys! You heard that? She's giving white milk too!"
"Waaaah! Thank you so much!"
"...Lady Charlotte?"
"Huh? You're already here?"
She waved calmly at Jinseo as he got out of the food truck.
Jinseo, who had driven at maximum speed for over an hour, forgot how to speak when he saw Charlotte sitting on a stump like nothing had happened.
It was such a relief that her anger seemed to have cooled without any major accident, but the choco X pie boxes scattered everywhere—and the people eating them—bothered him too much.
"What happened here?"
"Ah, they said they wanted choco X pie, so I gave it to them. Nothing else happened. Really."
"I was so worried— I thought something terrible was about to happen."
"You mean the humans, not me, right?"
"Well, I was obviously worried about you too, but..."
"Come on, I've told you so many times I'm not some scary dragon—did you forget already?"
Charlotte casually put a hand on Jinseo's shoulder and lifted the corners of her mouth.
"And I made a promise with that hero brat, so I can't treat humans recklessly. Oh, right—there's a human here who says he knows you. Malcolm! Stop eating choco X pie and come here!"
"Huh? Mr. Jinseo?"
Only then recognizing Jinseo and the food truck, Malcolm hurriedly ran to Charlotte.
Stuffing uneaten choco X pie into his pocket as fast as he could.
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