Published at 25th of March 2019 11:40 pm

Chapter 28 - That Owl Likes Magical Food

「……And so, it born just some moments ago」

「……I thought it had gotten noisy, so this was the reason」

Elk says while her eyes were still half-opened. She looked sleepy.

No wonder. Most probably the moment she went in deep sleep, she was woken up by the first cry of this guy.

Piiiii! This baby bird had been crying happily.

The egg I picked up from among the pebbles on the outside, bore this baby bird who was perched on my right shoulder and was looking here and there.

It looked like an owl with black and grey feathers.

However, it wasn’t a normal animal, I think it must be a demon.

After all it was just born but it had more than 20 cm tall body.

The size seemed too much for a baby bird. Its eyes too were opened from the time he was born.

It even had all the feathers grown. They were somewhat dishevelled at the time it came out of egg, but now they too are completely dry and fixed.

Well, considering the size of egg this must be normal, even so……

Piiiii! Piiiiii! (flatter flatter flatter!)

Holy sheet it had already started flying. This bird has many things since birth.

It flew freely in the hut Elk and I were staying in, upon getting tired it perched on my shoulders, then rested and it once again repeats the process.

It has got quite high spirits, though it was born just now.

「Why is my shoulder being used to rest? every time」

「It saw you first after hatching out from egg, so maybe it has thought of you as its parent, right?」

Wha, sure enough that can be possible.

Certainly the birds have a habit of thinking as the first moving thing they see as their parents, or so I have heard. So that might be the reason.

No, even if it was thinking of me as parent, should it use me as the resting point?

「Apart from that, it’s crying is noisy, isn’t it hungry or something? try feeding it?」

「Ah, at first I too thought that and……」

The rain had stopped so I had went outside, searched in the bushes and caught small insects.

During that time, this guy was crying on shoulder. The damage to my eardrums ain’t no joke.

I have trained and enhanced my body, so my hearing ability was also better than other humans, so yeah that damn hurts like hell. And still, near the ears this guy continually kept on his Pii Pii Pii Pii Piii……

But, the insects I captured suffering all that, this guy, for some reason, didn’t even look at them.

I caught various like grasshoppers, earthworms, ants, caterpillars, but this guy ignored each and every of them.

I thought it must be that it didn’t want to eat hard things right after being born, so I gave them after crushing them but it too didn’t work.

……In fact, judging from the size of its body, it wouldn’t be bad because of hardness.

Having said that, if this guy didn’t eat anything, no wonder it would die of starvation right after being born. It would indeed make my morning bad.

Just what would this guy eat?

It couldn’t be helped, so I opened the backpack and took out everything edible and presented it.

Then the baby bird moved as though it had found something,

It flew towards the『Core』of Slime we picked up yesterday. Towards it which had fallen quite a distance far due to taking out everything from the backpack.

Just like that, it skillfully holding the core with the claw of its legs, started eating by pecking at it with the beak.

Eh, What, does it like that?

Though it was inexpensive, but it can be converted into money, so Elk make a face saying『Ahhh!』,but well……we can just take it once again.

It had been hungry as it finished one whole core in some minutes, and this time,

「Wai……No!? No, you can’t eat that!!」

Elk, in hurry, gathered all the cores, so this time it looked at……once again not the food but the『Magic Restoration Pill』which we bought for emergencies.

It was tablet type of medicine, it was made from medicinal plants. Downing it would recover - or rather, it would supplement - small amount of magical power. Quite an expensive item.

Baby bird looked Elk with eyes full of hate because she picked it up.

No, even I don’t think it would be good to the medicine……

……Wait a bit?

Come to think of it, the『Core of Slimes』have a small amount of magical power left in them even after the slime dies, so it had been used a lot in medicinal recipes.

That’s why, defeating a slime using magic was considered ideal rather than hurting the core.

In other words, this guy……

☆☆☆

Was the same as I had thought.

This guy liked to eat anything with magical power inside, or maybe, it could only those things.

I don’t know if this would be only for the baby period or it would continue even after growing up.

Actually currently, it was eating the medicinal plants with magical power in them, which Elk collected yesterday. Once again by skillfully using its legs and biting off little by little.

Elk also consented to let it eat, after all selling these medicinal plants wouldn’t have given much in return.

「Even so, is this, a demon?」

「Maybe it is a demon living in this area? Elk, have you never seen something like this」

「I basically keep checking the list of demons in Ritoras Mountains, but I have neither saw or heard about a demon like this. Even more, a demon who likes magical power……」

She said, that demons like that do exist, but not in this area.

In fact, she didn’t even know of a demon who looked like a black owl.

It was an egg when we found it, so maybe it was brought here from some other region?

As for that egg, I checked the wreckage of the shell, it was hard.

Not only hard, it was fucking really hard.

I took a relatively large piece of it, tried to break it by using putting power in my punch, but it didn’t break, oh fuck it, there wasn’t even a crack, almost no signs of any transformation on it.

Looks like the egg wasn’t buried there, but it came there along with the dirt and sand. It makes sense with this damn hardness.

Even the attacks from Elk’s dagger gave at most only some scratches, unless I punched with quite more power it didn’t break. You know this, this is more harder than steel.

Just how did this guy came out of that shell.

It finished eating, and had been on my shoulders for a while, but I couldn’t even the ridiculous power from the claws on my shoulder.

Then, leaving me the work of tidying up the hut, Elk finally came back after surveying the surroundings. Along with a troublesome report.

What? Well, due to the rain yesterday, a landslide occurred.

It wasn’t near the hut, so we didn’t had to feel any danger, but do to that the road to going back completely collapsed.

Flat levelled trees, crumbling land, yeah seems pretty terrible.

The scene only stretches, if we tried to pass by there the land collapse at any time, so we couldn’t use that place to go back.

That’s why, we now had to find a new way back.

According to Elk, there were 3 roads to go to the bottom of mountain.

One of them was the ones which got into party with landslide.

One of the rest 2, goes in between the woods, it has quite a lot of slopes, moreover the ground was muddy, so equally dangerous.

I would be fine, but the same couldn’t be said for Elk. It wouldn’t be good if she tripped, and neither can I carry her on my back on a slope.

The last one was quite a roundabout route, but it was slightly-sloping, but there wasn’t any terrain related dangers, neither can one trip even with the muddy ground.

However in that case, we would be out of Ritoras Mountains en route.

And we would have cross another place to come back.

And name too……『Crimson Forest』

The leaves of the trees, all year have the red color like that of autumn leaves, so it got its name.

That place has more higher level and frequency of demon appearances compared to Ritoras Mountains, so that place was dangerous area in that sort of meaning.

Even so, the danger levels were the same as that of『Labyrinth of Naga』unless we tread in too deep, furthermore Elk and I have already to completed the exploration of『Labyrinth』to the lowest floor.

And so, we choose the route via Crimson Forest, with safe terrain, not so safe demons for adding up the experience.

……Furthermore, the owl came with us as though it was natural, it perched on my shoulder and sometimes flew here and there.

☆☆☆

In reality, the Crimson Forest had more demons, and also felt like a place with more danger than there.

In Ritoras Mountain, 2 or 3 demons would come out within an hour or so, but here even at most within 10 minutes numerous demons appear.

And, though they didn’t had much difference. the demons that came out had more high levels compared to the guys in the mountain.

Of course, it wasn’t even enough fo us to break a sweat.

There was red leaves that felt like a bright autumn, it somewhat felt good seeing it. So it remains the whole year like this.

Meanwhile, in that calming place there was a single demon who assaulted.

It was the red-colored lizard『Red Lizard』.

It was slightly bigger than a『Lizard』, it had grown larger with the help of magical power inside its body, and can throw fire from the mouth.

I who was calming absentmindedly, reflexively dodged that guy who came from the shade of trees and tried to swing the heel for counter attacking.

But my aim wasn’t that good, so I smashed its tail.

At that moment, maybe it knew it can’t win against me, so it literally cut the tail and ran off.

The scales of red lizard can be used as materials in producing ornaments, so it was little disappointing. I need to be on guard. Elk too warned me.

As for the left behind tail was also quite big considering the size of red lizard. It was about the size of a root vegetable.

And, naturally there was magical power left in the tail, so……

「How is it? Good?」

PiiIIIIIIIIIiiiiiiiiiiiiIIIIIII!

Just like before, I presented it to this guy. This time it was little big so I cut it in proper sizes with the help of knife.

No, it wouldn’t be good to go back with only a tail. So yeah, to not feel embarrassment and for this guy to fill its stomach.

The baby bird, as expected skillfully……(omitted).

It was little but it seemed to use the legs, claws and beak a little more skillfully than before. This guy surely grows fast.

And surprisingly, it even ate the whole tail which should of the same volume as it. Just where the hell did it enter into!?

Demons are strange……there are still quite a lot of thing I don’t know of, yet.

Now that I think about it, I’ve been calling it, ‘it’, ‘this guy’, ‘baby bird’, but……yeah that sure can be tiring.

Furthermore, don’t you feel sorry for it that it doesn’t even have a name even after being born. I’m calling it baby bird, in human language it might be something like『Brat』or『Lil’ Lad』.

And so, I have given it a name『Alva』

For a test I tried to call it, it seemed happy, after play-biting my ears it flew overhead and did a revolution. Yeah Yeah, it’s good that you like it.

In fact, though this came late, but this guy is really cute.

I suddenly realized that the sound of wings flapping stopped.

Just like in my previous world, the owls don’t make sounds while flying, and can catch their prey while flying in the darkness, just like assassin.

So it reached that level in only a hour and some minutes from birth. You’re good to go, Alva.

「……Sigh, you completely look like you want to keep it. Well, the moment you gave food to it, you got recognized as the parent……」

Elk sighed on my curiousity and whim. I’m really sorry.

Share