23
After disciplining the duo, Kariette wasn’t ready to let them off easy.
They still owed a debt to another, Uncle Sun, who would decide their fate.
If Uncle Sun opted for their execution, she would freeze them; if he chose life, they would become slaves of the Coford family, possibly sent to labor in the company’s iron mines.
“Ha!
You’re insane, feeding a dragon vegetables!” Faker laughed uproariously after Kariette gave him a brief account of Gavin’s earlier antics.
Gavin, a bit embarrassed by his friend’s mockery, sighed in resignation.
“It’s quite troublesome, really,” he explained.
“Meat spoils faster than vegetables; it’s common sense.
My alternate dimension isn’t a fridge, and I can’t halt the decomposition process, nor can I store living beings.
So, I only prepared enough meat for six months before returning to the human world.
Initially, I planned to use it to cook a magical hotpot for my sister, but who would have thought!
This glutton devoured it all in just a month.
Even its master didn’t consume a hundredth of that amount.”
Gavin glared at Happy, the voracious creature, who, far from showing remorse, puffed out its chest in pride, leaving Faker speechless.
“It deserves to eat only vegetables!”
“Can’t it eat meat in the human world?”
“It can, but apart from being nutritionally inferior, the taste is appalling to it.
So, it chooses not to eat.
Probably thought the flesh of sorcerers would taste better than market meat.” Gavin made a bored expression.
“The health of those two isn’t great either.
Alcohol, drugs…
crazy if it’s good meat!
That’d be like swallowing poison, but it wouldn’t listen to me.”
“Ah…” Faker gaped at the dragon, initially sympathetic, but now finding it deserved its plight.
Six months’ worth of meat was eaten by one creature in just one month.
His friend mentioned that he had arrived half a year ago.
This implies that if it hadn’t been greedy before, it would likely still have meat to eat.
Deserved it.
“It’s not good, you know?
I’m no beast trainer, but I understand feeding a dragon only vegetables isn’t healthy.”
“I’m aware.
That’s why even without Eris’s situation, I planned to establish a food source from the magical world to sustain it.
But family matters kept delaying it, so I rationed its diet, especially now that I have to share resources with Eris, necessitating even more frugality.” Gavin cradled Happy in his lap, stroking its scaly yet warm skin.
“You keep it close to Eris, huh?
Never took you for the pet-loving type,” Faker chuckled.
His friend had always been stingy with magical ingredients, except when cooking for Eris.
Yet here he was, sharing them with a pet, even in times of conservation.
“It’s like my own child.
Look here,” Gavin said, pulling out his wallet to show a few small photos.
Kariette leaned in to see images of Gavin with a red-haired girl sporting tiny horns, around seven or eight in one, thirteen in another, and seventeen in the last—all appearing perfectly fatherly.
“Wow!
So cute!
Don’t tell me, all these photos are of the dragon sitting on your lap?”
“Yes,” Gavin nodded, returning the photos to his wallet.
“After it became tame, Happy could transform into a human.
So, I raised it as a part-pet, part-adopted child.
I’m deeply attached to it, though it’s a different bond from what I feel for Eris.”
“How so?”
“When I first met Eris, it felt like something clicked in my mind.
It wasn’t just affection, but something that made me want to be close to her forever.
Maybe it’s the blood relationship, but even if that weren’t the case, I think I would still adore that child,” Gavin spoke with a gentle smile while the little dragon looked up at him, curious.
“Oh!
I haven’t told you yet, I have a daughter now.
Her name is Eris.”
[A daughter?] Happy pondered, tilting its head.
[Can I eat her?]
“Damn!
How could you ask whether you can eat her?
That’s my daughter, your little lady!”
[Little lady?] Happy narrowed its eyes slightly.
Its master was furious about the question of eating, indicating that this ‘little lady’ must hold significant importance to him.
Hmm!
How dare it think of encroaching on my master.
Poke.
“What do you think you’re doing to my daughter, huh!” Gavin said irritably, thumping the little dragon’s head.
Though it didn’t verbalize its thoughts, there was no way he wouldn’t understand what it was contemplating.
How dare anything threaten his daughter.
[Master, have you abandoned me?]
“I’ll take you to meet the little lady soon.
I believe you will like her.”
[Hmm.]
“Is it sulking?” Faker asked.
“It seems so.
When I was stranded in the magical world, it was just the two of us.
We adventured together, ate together, and slept together.
We did this until we returned to the human world.”
“So it followed you to the human world even knowing it might not have food here,” Faker nodded appreciatively.
Dragons were proud creatures; they could be loyal, but only when they formed a pact.
It seemed Happy followed Gavin without considering any agreement, which indicated a deep affection for its master.
Kariette remembered the three photos Gavin showed.
Given a dragon’s lifespan far exceeds humans, it should age slowly.
But Happy was depicted from ages six, thirteen, to seventeen, indicating significant time passed for its upbringing.
‘How many years was he in the magical world?’ Kariette wondered, deciding not to ask if Gavin was unwilling to share.
Faker thought similarly.
As Faker’s ordinary car approached a small town, the initial investigation revealed the duo was acting under orders from a gang leader, part of the Venomous Cobras gang, which included two mages and one sorcerer.
The mages, responsible for the hospital incident, specialized in erasing magical traces and in using [Thunder] magic, although they weren’t born into sorcerer families, hence their lower status.
The gang leader also wielded thunder magic, belonging to the sorcerer class.
In the hierarchy, mages and sorcerers differed significantly; achieving sorcerer status meant fully entering the shadow society and being recognized as an expert.
If it were an ordinary gang, there wouldn’t be a single sorcerer among them.
However, this gang seemed somewhat competent, boasting a sorcerer in its ranks.
Unfortunately for them, this car alone carries three sorcerers!
“How shall we raid them?”
“They said they would be celebrating at a club tonight, one under their control.
Should we just storm in?”
“Charging in would cause too much commotion, plus they outnumber us by twenty to one.
Remember the rules of the shadow society, right?
If possible, let’s avoid using magic.
If caught on camera or spotted, the national security agency will be knocking on our doors.”
“True.” Gavin nodded, understanding.
Unlike Kariette and Faker, who were immersed in the shadow society from birth, he was a commoner adept in magic.
The national security agency played a crucial role in safeguarding the country’s stability and security.
Only a tiny fraction of the world’s population was aware of magic.
In this era, using magic in public was against the shadow society’s policies.
Hence, countries had bolstered the roles of their security ministries, also known as [Ministry of Magic], established to suppress or regulate the sorcerers’ powers.
Even today, while the Ministry of Magic didn’t hold absolute authority, it could still exert control or impose rules on many sorcerers.
Those not of the elite class should not expect to escape the Ministry’s power.
Faker and Kariette were no exception to resisting the Ministry’s authority.
“Let’s go.
I told you to bring the equipment, right?” Gavin smiled.
“Heh,” Faker chuckled weakly.
Once they parked, they opened the trunk to reveal the equipment Gavin referred to.
Upon seeing it, Kariette was bewildered, pondering what these two men were thinking.
Crowbars, nightsticks, stones, duct tape, ropes, candles, oil…
“…” Kariette fell silent, looking at the two men.
Were you guys sorcerers or street thugs?
————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————Read ‘The Return of Asura Who Suddenly Becomes a Father’ before anyone else with more chapters at http://www.jinovel.com/en