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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 46
Chapter Title: Nini's Territory
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Like a cat whose mood had soured terribly.
"Waaah...!"
Nibelria let out some mysterious babble from her mouth and hunched her back into a perfect arch.
Her white, cotton-candy-like silver hair even seemed to bristle up into spikes.
Suddenly, Nibelria charged straight at the kitten.
"Scram!"
It was a headlong rush that would have sent even a wild boar bouncing back.
The startled kitten bolted away in a flash.
It vanished back into the bushes at the forest's edge where it had first emerged.
But Nibelria, still unsatisfied, raced after it and kept snarling viciously.
"Haaack! Haack!"
"Nini!"
Solles, who had frozen in shock, finally snapped out of it and grabbed hold of Nibelria.
But Nibelria, thoroughly riled up, shook off her brother's hand.
"This is Nini's turf! Don't come hereee!"
"Nini! Technically speaking, this is Dayamor family territory."
Even in the midst of the chaos, Solles corrected the inaccurate statement.
"Scram! If you show your face again, I'll rip your throat out...!"
"Gyaack! Nini!"
Solles's scream echoed deep into the forest.
"......"
"......"
Kaleo and Seletrina, who had rushed over at the commotion, were at a loss for words.
The first thing that caught their eyes was their youngest daughter, Nibelria, huffing and puffing in fury.
It was rare for the usually even-tempered Nibelria to be this enraged, her hair standing on end.
"Arep! That's not allowed!"
"......"
"Nini is Arep's cat! So, should you reach out to other cats or not?"
"Uh, no...?"
"Then why did you reach out!"
After chasing off the intruder from her territory, Nibelria laid into Arep until tears welled up in his eyes.
Arep, meanwhile, looked utterly confused about why he was getting scolded.
Solles, on the other hand, was still reeling from his little sister's unexpectedly savage vocabulary—something he had always thought was just cute and quirky.
Unable to shake off the shock, Solles clung to Ardores and fretted endlessly.
"Grandpa, Nini is using such rough language...!"
"I-is that so...?"
"We shouldn't send her to kindergarten, right? Where did she pick up such cruel, gruesome words...?"
"No, it's not the kindergarten's fault."
It's mine, actually.
Ardores reflected on his own crude speech habits from his holy knight days, something he was only now regretting in his old age as a grandfather.
"Kuh... kugh...!"
"Pfft...!"
The witches clutched their aching sides, struggling to stifle their laughter.
"Waaah! Wahh!"
Azel even burst into tears.
The scene was pure chaos, as if sculpted from disorder itself.
Amid it all, Muniel stood alone, silently gazing toward the forest entrance where the kitten had disappeared.
"Mother."
Kaleo approached and asked,
"What happened?"
"......"
"...Mother?"
Are you alright?
Growing worried at Muniel's lack of response, Kaleo called out to her several times. With no reply, his heart sank.
"Oh my...!"
"Quiet."
A wrinkled hand clamped over Kaleo's mouth.
"I'm thinking. Be silent."
Muniel was simply lost in thought.
Kaleo let out a relieved breath and exchanged glances with Seletrina, who had been equally concerned and now did the same.
They both turned to look where Muniel was staring.
"Mother-in-law, is there something there?"
"The cat Nini chased away."
Actually, something else pretending to be a cat.
"Ah..."
Only then did Seletrina understand the root of this chaos.
"Nini has never liked other cats much since she was little."
Even while insisting she herself was a cat, she didn't care much for real ones.
Back when she was younger.
Back when she had just started crawling around.
Seletrina had once shown baby Nibelria a litter of kittens the maids were secretly raising in the stables.
"Haaack!"
Nibelria had snarled and flailed her arms as if to strike them.
In the end, the stablemaster adopted the kittens and took them home.
After that, no cats were allowed in the Dayamor mansion.
"Cats are territorial animals, you know."
Muniel withdrew her gaze from the forest.
"They don't like other cats in their domain."
"She sounds just like some thug."
"Kaleo."
Seletrina shot him a stern warning to watch his words about their daughter.
Embarrassed, Kaleo apologized to his wife. Still, her expression didn't soften easily.
"...She's changed."
Muniel murmured something in the meantime.
But no one heard her.
"Oh dear, our Nini."
Time to calm down?
Muniel had already scooped Nibelria up into her arms to soothe her.
In the end, Nibelria let out a bold cry of "Gotta mark my territory!" and hugged Arep with all her might.
The kitten chased away by Nibelria tore through the forest like mad.
Along the way, wild animals like boars, weasels, and raccoons came into view.
The creatures glanced at the sprinting kitten before quickly looking away.
Only after reaching deep into the woods did the kitten finally stop and gasp for breath.
"What the hell was that brat!"
A very low, sinister voice emanated from the kitten's mouth.
Its fluffy black fur instantly transformed into sleek scales.
Its stubby tail grew much larger, and its pudgy paws expanded fivefold.
A black-winged lizard-like thing chirped like a chick.
But the gravelly voice rumbled as deeply as if echoing from a cavern's depths.
"Told me to guard that damn thing? I nearly got my throat ripped out! That little shit tried to kill me!"
The evil dragon Ater had remained in egg form all this time.
In truth, it could have hatched much earlier. But it had stayed asleep inside the egg because it despised its location at the time.
A dragon of legend.
The last remaining great dragon.
To hatch in the arms of a mercenary reeking of sweat and muscle?
The mere thought was horrifying, so the dragon figured it might as well stay asleep forever.
It vowed never to hatch against that mercenary's rough, grimy muscled chest.
As its consciousness began to fade, a sudden recollection jolted it awake.
Something was cradling it.
"Whoa, is this really a dragon egg?"
The mercenary king selection tournament must have finally ended.
"Looks like just a shiny rock to me? Hey, you're not scamming us, right?"
"N-no, sir! It's genuinely the egg of the evil dragon Ater!"
"Eh, doesn't matter if it's not. I didn't win it for myself anyway. Go grab a box or something."
The new mercenary king was a young woman.
One eye of the voluptuous redhead bore a knife scar, though the eyeball itself was fine.
"Evil dragon or whatever, I don't care."
The woman whispered directly to the egg.
"I've got a little niece. Her birthday's coming up soon, so you're going to her. Go protect Nini."
And so, the evil dragon's egg, packed in a box, arrived at the Dayamor mansion well after Nibelria's birthday had passed.
But the box was empty.
Ater had broken out of the egg during transport and escaped.
Yet even in freedom, Ater lingered at the Dayamor mansion.
Even as an evil dragon, it couldn't outright ignore the request of the mercenary king who had freed it from those horrific mercenaries.
So it observed "Nini."
"Nini" was a little girl.
Nibelria Dayamor.
A four-year-old who strikingly resembled the saintess Muniel.
And something peculiar that remembered its past life.
Remembering a past life wasn't particularly extraordinary.
Dragons remembered theirs too—or more precisely, they inherited the knowledge and lives of their ancestors like a legacy.
When the evil dragon Ater first gained consciousness, it recalled how the previous evil dragon had cursed a human 180 years ago.
Anyway, that wasn't the point.
Something ominous hovered around Nibelria.
Something writhing as if it would devour and destroy this world was targeting her.
And it wasn't just Nibelria.
A closer look revealed that the eerie presence blanketed the Dayamor mansion, the capital, and the entire Drameno Empire.
This "thing" that even chilled the mighty evil dragon to the bone wasn't of this world.
"......"
Lost in thought, the evil dragon Ater shuddered.
It looked up at the sky.
The witches' forest was exceptionally dense. Branches laden with fresh green leaves wove a net that blotted out the blue sky.
A single ray of sunlight pierced through the leaves and touched the evil dragon's forehead.
The dragon curled up, closed its eyes, and basked in the warm light.
"What in the world happened while I slept...?"
"Something terrible is clearly unfolding."
Ater cracked open its eyes.
A glance sideways revealed a massive stag leading a herd of deer.
"When did you awaken, evil dragon?"
The stag approached and offered its head.
Ater stared grumpily before rubbing its head against it in response.
"Not long ago. What brings the great spirit of the forest?"
"The daughters of the earth have returned."
So we've simply returned to our places as well.
The great forest spirit replied with a quiet chuckle.
