POV: Rian
Listening to Kaito's story, it was clear—this kingdom had the thickest two-faced hypocrisy I'd ever seen.
Summon him here, beg him to be a hero… then toss him aside? Trash move. And the cherry on top? They stole his uniform and glasses with the excuse: "Your clothing will interfere with your battles."
Pfft. What a joke.And this kid? He handed over his uniform and glasses willingly. So damn naïve.
Sigh~… I can't believe my first student and my first employee is this naïve high schooler…
"Alright, I more or less get your situation now. Normally, I always carry a spare pair of glasses when I fight. If I'm not mistaken, it should be in my storage dimension… etto, what was the spell again? Ah, right—Dimension, open!"
From my dimensional storage—powered by my own spirit energy—I pulled out a spare pair of glasses and handed it over.
"Th-thank you so much, Mister Rian…"
Aish! Mister Rian?! Do I look that old to him!?
"Oi. Cut that out. Don't call me 'Mister' or 'Uncle.' Just call me Rian."
"But…"
Ergh! Stubborn brat.
"Fine. Then call me bro,big bro, or whatever. Just not 'Mister.'"
"Oooh! Then… how about Big Bro Rian? How does that sound?"
"…Better. Anyway, time to introduce you to my dragon partner."
We walked toward Stranova, who was—as usual—sleeping.At first, Kaito looked terrified, hesitant to even get close. But once I explained that if this dragon tried anything funny, I'd beat her down myself—he seemed reassured enough to follow.
When I woke Stranova, she stretched her massive body like a cat, yawning wide before arching her neck.
"What is it, Rian? I told you, wake me in three centuries, not now."
"Three centuries? The world and demon lord would be dust by then… haa~. Anyway, meet Kaito—the new employee I mentioned."
"H-Hello, m-my name is Kaito Reiwa… n-nice to meet you."
Stranova leaned her massive head down close to his face.Kaito stepped back, but didn't run. Brave enough.
"Hooh… looks like you've found yourself a promising hire. And if I may guess… is he one of your students as well?"
Tch! Why is her intuition sharp only when it doesn't matter?
"…Yeah yeah, he's my student too. So what?"
"Haah! Did you see that? The legendary dragon's super intuition at work! Impressive, isn't it?"
Yeah yeah. Who cares. I'd rather get straight to the point with Kaito inside the minimart.
"Let's leave this narcissistic lizard. She'll go back to sleeping anyway."
"A-Ahahaha… e-excuse us…"
Kaito and I walked off, leaving Stranova frozen in disbelief. Only after we entered the minimart did her delayed rage echo behind us.
Inside, I made the offer."If you want… I can give you a room, meals, even money. In return, you work here as a cashier. What do you say?"
Kaito froze.Maybe it was too much for him—that someone actually cared enough to make him an offer like this, especially after what he'd been through.
"…What's wrong? Don't you trust me yet?"
He stared me straight in the eye, then nodded slowly.
"Yeah… I mean, think about it. Some random stranger barges into a dungeon, gets treated like a god by monsters, then casually introduces me to a dragon? There's only so much nonsense I can handle. But… let's talk about my past first. Maybe then I'll be able to trust you more."
I sat on the cashier's chair, grabbing a hot sausage from the grill rack.Meanwhile, Kaito sat cross-legged on the floor, ready to listen.
I didn't plan to share everything—just the important parts.
End of Chapter 9