23 Dragon-chan meets an old foe, and a request

"Let's see, are there any good quests today?" (Nene)

I, as usual, was checking the C-A rank boards bright and early, when a man called out to me from a harem party...

"Oi, girlie, you must be new to this whole adventurer thing. That there is the C rank board, you want the one next to it, otherwise, you're just wasting your time looking at tha- bfuoo! Weiss! What'd you do that for? That hurt! Anyways, as I was saying, you want the- OW!!!" (Man)

The one currently grinding her heel into the young man's sandaled foot, a short girl with white hair that makes one not believe that she's seventeen years old, was the B ranked Ice mage I beat in the first round of the tournament. With the two of them are a skirt-wearing spearwoman (well, she was holding a scythe, but...) in red who looked like she might be too young to be an adventurer, and a top-heavy blonde who was wearing a golden pair of brawler's gauntlets... Never seen that combination before... nope, never... absolutely never...

"Lady Nene, I apologize for this damned idiot. He's a great healer and a fine swordsman in a pinch... but, his memory and personality are both rather bad, and he can't judge a person's strength for the life of him" (Weiss)

"Please, it's just Nene. I don't care for honorifics... like, at all. So, what are you doing here?" (Nene)

"Weiss, who is this little girl who can't be old enough to be an adventurer, or maybe an F rank at most, and why do you address her with such respect?" (Man)

"She said Nene, didn't she? Isn't that the name of the adventurer who beat Weiss in round one, and went on to win the entire tournament? The one who placed some sort of restriction on herself in every round, and who beat Astra by shattering her mithril greatsword just by gripping it with one hand? That Nene?" (Red girl)

"Yeah, that's the one. Thanks for that rundown, and for not mentioning exactly how I lost pitifully... Anyways, so, Jaune, you have a few issues with your analysis: First, she's a D rank adventurer, seco-" (Weiss)

"C rank, now, but... whatever" (Nene)

"C rank... As I was saying, second, she's not old enough to be an adventurer at all, under the rules of this country. However, under the rules of... where did you say you were from again?" (Weiss)

"I don't think I did, but the answer is, I'm from the Drachen Empire... and one of the few survivors of the natural disaster that destroyed it about half a year ago" (Nene)

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Anyways, under the rules of the Drachen Empire, age is not an issue, the only requirement to become an F rank is to have strength equivalent to what a low D or high E rank here would have. The last error you made is that she's not at all new to this, as evidenced by her armor, which is from a God Dragon... oh, and the miniature God Dragon curled up in her hood" (Weiss)

"Speaking of, do you want to come talk with me in my shop? I'm sure you'd like the food I've got there, and you'd get a kick out of seeing the staff. It's even one of the days when you can watch the cooks, and in about half an hour, you can watch something else interesting at my house... or the land it's on, at any rate" (Nene)

"I don't really care to watch the method in which food gets prepared, but..." (Weiss)

"Nor do I" (Jaune)

"It's not about the method, so much as who and the unique ways in which they do so. C'mon, this way. There aren't any good requests on any of the boards. The best one is for the subjugation of an Ent, but... Ice magic and fists won't do much, nor will a scythe like your skirt-wearing frontline fighter has" (Nene)

"Who the chefs are? A unique way to prepare food? This better not be a letdown..." (Blonde)

I led them to the Roost, where they were surprised by the Dragon-shaped buildings, and the Dragons just lazing around on various parts of the buildings. They were more surprised when I led them into the viewing area of the kitchen, where they saw Dragons roasting meat with controlled bursts of Dragonflame, and cutting up vegetables with their claws. Even using their tails to hold a pan over the fire, or to slide some food onto plates and set them where the servers would take them to the tables they go to, as well as using magic to wash dishes and more breath to dry them, and plunging their bare arms... their claws, and the parts attached to said claws... into boiling oil to fish out Kraken rings, among other things. They were also surprised by the fact that young children were working the roles the Dragons couldn't, such as making bread dough for curry bread, and baking it for sandwiches, and looking like they thought that Dragons were something normal to find in many kitchens. The Dragons were also making Udon, Ramen, and many other dishes, as well as non-Japanese things from Earth, like pasta and even things like Ice Cream, made by pouring cream into a ball made from their own (cleaned) scales, which were enchanted with {Frost Aura}, as they would move around while kicking the balls as if they were footballs. There were also a dozen other people watching, but I left to check on how the front was doing, as everyone in Weiss's party was busy being mesmerized by the show. I came back soon after, and informed the watchers that the other show was going to be starting in a few minutes, if they wanted to head over there. A few did, and I had to drag Weiss and co with me as I went, saying that the cooking was something that could be watched in half an hour, but the other thing could only be watched at that moment, unless they wanted to wait for three days. As they didn't, they came with.

"So... what are we going to be watching that isn't on the grounds of the restaurant, but on those of your house? It doesn't make much sense to have more cooking going on off-site, and I can't think of anything else that you might be doing that would be very interesting..." (Blonde)

"You'll see. It's the procurement of ingredients, the ones that can be raised in the city, at least" (Nene)

"Huh... I can't think of any ingredients that are not easy to just buy, that doesn't get used up in massive quantities that would be impossible to do within the city, and that could be interesting to watch" (Weiss)

"It's not so much interesting in and of itself as just... you haven't seen anything close to similar before. You've seen Dragons, you've seen cluckers, but... Dragons raising cluckers for their eggs? Doing everything from setting out the feed to cleaning the coop to gently moving the eggs and placing them in a box for transport, and even flying the boxes to the kitchen? I'll bet you haven't seen humans raising cluckers, let alone Dragons doing so. Even so, watch it. I try to make everything interesting, otherwise, there's not much point to people watching, unless they want to raise them themselves. Not that there's anything wrong with that, just... few would want to, honestly. There also isn't much profit in having five viewers a month watch compared to none. Meanwhile, by making it interesting, by making it into a performance, I can gain a good amount of money for next to no additional work beyond training the Dragons, and that only took a few days" (Nene)

"You're right, I haven't. Was this a common practice in the Drachen Empire? Wait... Drachen Empire... Didn't that vanish a few centuries ago?" (Blonde)

"I've heard that one before... every single time I say where I'm from... No, it vanished half a year ago, also, uh... it's been half an hour since I said that's where I'm from, and you only noticed that now? Anyways, no, it wasn't very common in the Drachen Empire, it's something I introduced myself. Ah, here we are, right on time" (Nene)

When we got there, a Dragon... Opal, to be precise... was just opening the gate that led to the viewing area for the egg collections. She bowed her head to everyone as they passed, but a bit lower to me, despite my best efforts to train her out of that. After a bit, Opal left the gate open as she flew off in the direction of the Dragon nests in other parts of my land, grabbed a large barrel, and flew back, setting it down next to the coop. She took a few steps back, and the barrel tipped over, spilling out a half a dozen miniature White and Gold-bordered White Dragons. A few people laughed, but there was a gasp as they all grew to the size of a Wolf at the same time, and then Opal lifted up a section of the inner wall of the coop, revealing the insides, filled with chickens... cluckers... same difference, honestly... and... Oh right, I should explain the layout of the area: there's an inner wall, where the chickens are most of the time, and an outer wall, to keep them in while the stuff on the inside is getting cleaned, the eggs are getting collected, and so on. The inner wall is mostly opaque, with some parts translucent so there can be a good bit of light on the inside. The outer wall, meanwhile, is made from {Everlasting Ice} which, honestly, is pretty much useless outside of construction. Now, back to the show. After Opal raised the inner wall, the chickens just sat there, so one of the other White Dragons... Pearl, I think? I'll say it was Pearl... Pearl made herself shrink to smaller than a miniature Dragon normally would be, wormed her way under one of them, and grew to miniature size. The chicken just looked surprised as it sat on Pearl's head, and then they all appeared to notice that the wall was raised, so they raced out, and the Dragons brought in the egg boxes, each one with 36 slots for the eggs. They each did their own little performance, some of them just gently biting the egg and picking it up that way, one stretched one wing to the egg and rolled it along the wing, across his back, and down the other wing to the box, another used his front legs to juggle six that he threw into the group with his tail as he brought them from the nest to the box and, again using his tail, took them out of the loop one by one and placed them in the slots, and a pair used Wind magic, one to blow the egg out of the nest and into the air, with the second one using it to guide the egg and slow it down as it neared the slot. Once the eggs were all in their boxes, there were six filled boxes and one partially filled, for a total of 239 eggs. A bit lower than usual, but... Whatever, we usually have a few dozen more than we need every day. I often send them over to Yuna for her to make pudding with, unless I'm working on a new recipe that uses eggs. After the eggs were carried off, the coop was cleaned, the feed and water refilled, and the chickens herded back into the inner portion, after which the inner wall was put back in place, and the Dragons all flew to the top of the outer wall to take a bow, to the delight of those watching.

"You trained them well. I now see why you have the names of [Draconic Empress] and [Miniature Dragon]... Though I wish there was a title for your skills at training them..." (Weiss)

"Eh? There is one somewhat like that that I have, the Dragontamer title. It is MUCH harder to get than the Dragonslayer title, as the way to get it is to calm down two rampaging Dragons or one rampaging Elder Dragon, and to have the Dragon or Dragons willingly place themselves under your control, either through magic, a magic item, such as a {Collar of Subordination}, or a magical contract. To put it simply, the number of people with this title is about... well, just me, I think. Honestly... If I wasn't already a summoner controlling several Dragons, as well as someone they instinctively want to follow... when they're sane, at least... I would've never tried to get that title. As it was, I just had to wake one of them up, and the title was mine" (Nene)

"Wow... That kind of title... if people knew how hard it is to get that title, and they could see that you had that title, nobody would think twice about you being an S rank, even at twelve. Someone like that may well have been strong enough to stop the war with Reg... you... You wouldn't happen to know the one who leveled the imperial castle in Regulus the day they declared war on us, would you? There's no way, right?" (Weiss)

"There's absolutely no way that could be the case... I was busy with the fleet they sent, a few day's travel, even on Dragonback. As I didn't attack them before war was declared, I couldn't've done so" (Nene, in a monotone)

"You know, your words are saying one thing, but your face and tone say the opposite" (Jaune)

"Shut it, you. You couldn't even tell that I was stronger than an F rank when you saw me looking at the C rank boards clad in Dragonscales, just like the girl my race, height and hair color who won the tournament" (Nene)

At that, the three girls laughed while Jaune hid his face in his hands. Just then, I heard a roar from outside the city walls, and I raced over there, trailing Weiss and co. When we got there, I saw a large pack of Wyverns in the air over the forest, and Weiss looked like she was about to attack, when I stopped her.

"Let me take them on, so Jaune can see my power with his own eyes" (Nene)

"Sure, why not. I'll bet you eat Wyverns for breakfast..." (Weiss)

"I think of Wyvern steaks as more of a dinner kind of food, but... Whatever, I'm off!" (Nene)

I jumped into the air, purple wings spreading from my back, and I flew over to where the Wyverns were. I downed them by freezing their wings with bursts of liquid nitrogen from a range-restricted {Niflheim}, and then I drowned them with {Water Grave Prison}, or as I call it, {Davy Jones' Locker}, after which I slowly, ever so slowly, thawed their wings out. I put them into my Hoard after I thawed their wings, and returned to show them off to the guild, selling everything but the meat. While we don't go through Wyvern meat as quickly as Kraken parts, there's a lot more edible parts on a Kraken than on a Wyvern, and I don't have any need of funds from selling things. If needed, I could always just take a request to guard some nobles, considering that I have the eye of just about every noble in the Kingdom after winning the tournament like that. Honestly, the amount of money I have saved is several times more than enough for me to retire extremely comfortably, even accounting for my lifespan of 1 to 5 thousand centuries, maybe as long as a million years if I'm lucky... You know, I really ought to look into ways to let Yuna live longer than she normally would have, because I'd like to have someone to talk with who understands references from Japan, and who knows me and my interests well. After I sold the parts of the Wyverns, and deposited the meat in the Frost Box, as some of the children had named it, I rejoined the group of adventurers, before I treated them to breakfast at the Roost... I say that, but in reality, I and my guests eat there for free, as, despite my attempts to pay for it, they won't take my money... I would've expected Dragons to be stubborn about holding to a hierarchical relationship, but the kids? No, I never would have expected they would refuse even after I told them to accept the money. I only once made the mistake of trying to say that if they wouldn't take my money to pay for the food, the price would be taken from their wages instead. The damn, lovable, foolish brat just shrugged and said "If that is what it takes to show the extent of my gratitude to you for letting me work here and for teaching me how to manage a shop like this, I will give up more than that much happily" ... and I had to follow through with that statement, but... I didn't do so on the future times I went to eat there.

"Well... That was surprising. I didn't expect you to grow wings and a tail of all things, and your control of them seems to be as good as the control of someone who was born with them... Like, what was that magic, anyways? I've never heard of anything that lets one grow additional body parts like that" (Weiss)

"Yeah... See, I'm not fully human, or rather, not fully humanoid. I have a little bit of the blood of a certain kind of demon flowing through my veins, which is why I can do that..." (Nene)

"Lemme guess... Changeling blood, right?" (Blonde)

"Yep... Actually, I just realized, we never did introduce ourselves fully. My name, as you know, is Nene. At one point, I had the family name of Kurosaki, despite being neither nobility nor royalty. Now, my family is not in this world, and as having a family name in this country is something that is more or less exclusive to nobles... I decided to leave my name behind" (Nene)

"Hmm? Nene, wasn't your family name Drachen, not Kurosaki?" (Waiter/Orphan, his name... Bert, I think?)

"Ah... Shit... Yeah, I ought to explain that too... OK, so... Uh... Kurosaki is more of the name I would've had at this point in my life, had something not happened which would take way too long to explain... Drachen is the name I've had for the majority of my life, and... well, you know how my home country no longer exists?" (Nene)

"Yeah, the Dra... Oh... Oh... OH..." (Weiss)

"Damn, I wouldn't have thought that you... I mean, you don't seem any different from normal folk" (Blonde)

"Sis, normal isn't the right word... try commoners" (Red girl)

"I see you three figured out who I am, or was, at least" (Nene)

"Can someone please tell me what you all figured out?" (Jaune)

"Imperial Princess, or Empress?" (Weiss)

"Oh... CRAP... sorry... I should mind my manners, I'm in the presence of royalty... please forgive me" (Jaune)

"It's fine, I myself have a tendency to swear like a sailor when I'm not paying attention to it... and to answer your question, I hold the title of Empress, but... I have no desire to rebuild the Empire... I'm lazy, and I hate politics, courtly manners, and all of that other crap. Don't worry about it, nowadays, I'm just Nene, unless I want to make people cower in their boots, or if I am talking to some of those damned asshole nobles who look down on people, including the adventurers hired to guard them, just because they are commoners" (Nene)

We talked more after that, and they were incredibly impressed with the food, but we bid eachother farewell, as they needed to find somewhere to stay, and they had to report their subjugations to the guild. After that, I looked at the board again, to discover that there was a request for some adventurers to escort the head of the Salbert family to the capital, as the adventurers who were guarding him got injured on his way there, and so, as they couldn't guard him on the way there, he went here, to the nearest city. I decided to take the request, as I wanted to go out for a while, and this provided a good excuse to do so. It seemed that he wasn't at the tournament, and he hadn't hear much about the one who won it, which was fine by me. I don't need him to be all respectful the way many others would have been. He was surprised by my being an adventurer, but when he learned that I was actually a C rank, he decided that I should be enough, with the other group hired by him... namely, Weiss's group, which I learned is actually a C rank party (Weiss, a B rank nearing A rank, two C ranks, and Jaune, a D rank nearing C) named [Frozen Beacon] for some reason... I wonder what it's a reference to? It also seems that the leader of the group is not Weiss, but the girl in red. I also learned that Weiss is nobility from another country, heiress to the Schnee family, here to get away from all that.