Chapter 33 – Washing Hands

One of the Adventurers noticed that we had returned, and he approached us.

“Welcome back. We’re almost finished with preparing lunch.”
“Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Please rest, Mr. Theo. You have more work today, don’t you?”
“Yes, thank you.”

I decided to accept their kindness.

On the other hand, Kelly said,
“Then I will help you.”
And she started to walk towards the oven.

“Oh, thank… Uh, what is that?”

The Adventurer was about to thank Kelly when he noticed the giant worm in her hands and shuddered.

“Hmm? Oh, this is a worm. I just found it over there.”
“Hey, Kelly. Surely you don’t mean to eat that?”
“No, I won’t eat it.”
“I see. That’s good to hear.”

The Adventurers looked relieved.
Even to them, Kelly was someone who was completely unpredictable.

“In any case, you should rest too, Kelly.”
“Hmm? But I can help.”
“No, that won’t be necessary.”
“You don’t need to worry about me.”
“I’m not worried about you! But if you want to help so much, you must do something with that worm first.”
“Ah, I see.”
“And then wash your hands thoroughly.”
“That’s right. There might be parasites in it.”

The Adventurers scowled when they heard the mention of parasites.
As people who lived outdoors most of the time, parasites were something they feared.

“Really, please be careful… Wash your hands thoroughly.”
“Aye, I know.”

Kelly stuffed the worm into a jar and then walked towards the river.
I suppose she was going to wash her hands.

“Fio. Shiro. Let’s go and wash up.”
“…Wuff.”
“…Wuff.”

Fio and Shiro looked like they didn’t want to go, but they followed after Kelly somberly.

“You should wash your hands too, Theo.”
“That’s true.”

And so I headed to the river with them.

“As the well will be completed by dinner time, this might be the last time we wash our hands in the river.”
“Indeed. The well will greatly improve our lifestyle.”

When we arrived at the river, Kelly taught Fio how to wash her hands.
When that was done, Kelly then started to wash Shiro’s front paws.

“Yes, now put your right paw forward.”
“Wouu…”
“Now your left.”
“Wou.”
“Let’s wash your right hind paw as well.”
“Wou…”
“And your left.”
“…Wou…”

Shiro obediently did as Kelly said.
However, he was clearly not enthusiastic about it.

Once they were done washing, I looked up stream and…
“KYUOOOO!!”
Hippolius came running towards us while crying.

As the water was too shallow to swim, Hippolius was running.

“Hippolius. Have you had enough?”
‘Yes!’

And then Hippolius open its mouth and said,
‘You can have it!’
And put down a large fish on the ground. It started flapping around.

“Woah. Thank you.”
“Kyuo!”

The fish was nearly a meter in length.
I quickly killed it and drained it of blood before slicing it up.

“This is such a big fish. Are you sure that you don’t want to eat it, Hippolius?”

Hippolius was very big, and had to eat a lot.
Once a dragon grows to adulthood, the food they require is not a lot in proportion to their weight. However, Hippolius was still a child.
And so it needed to eat a lot in order to grow.
Still, I suppose in comparison to other monsters or animals of similar size, it wasn’t that much food.

‘Hippolius ate!’
“Fish?”
‘Yes!’

Hippolius must have hunted and ate after going off on its own.
Next to me, Kelly asked,

“Theo. What is Hippolius saying?”
“That it ate fish.”
“Hoho. And how much fish was it?”
‘Three of them!’
“About three fish.”
“Hoho? That’s not a lot for a dragon.”

Kelly said as she started jotting something down in her book.

“If that’s all Hippolius eats, then at least the fish and boars won’t go extinct.”

I had a feeling that Hippolius ate more yesterday.
Perhaps being a dragon meant you didn’t have to eat every day.
Due to being tamed, Hippolius regularly consumed my magic energy.
That might be another reason that it didn’t have to eat so much.

“You work hard for someone who doesn’t eat much. Very impressive.”
“Kyuo.”

Hippolius wagged its tail happily after being praised.

“That should do it.”
After I finished cleaning the fish, I put it inside of the magic bag.

“Now, let’s go back.”
“Yes!”
“Wuff.”

And so we returned to the camp.
Victor and the others had also returned in order to eat.

When everyone was gathered, Victor did a roll call.
As there were more than twenty of us, it was possible to lose sight of someone.
And so we had to regularly confirm that everyone was counted for.

In the meantime, I grilled the fish that Hippolius had caught.
The Adventurers asked me where it was from, and so I explained it to them.

“That’s Hippolius for you. How amazing.”
“Kyuo!”

The Adventurers praised Hippolius, who clearly did not dislike the treatment.

Once the roll call was finished, the meat and fish were passed around, and we enjoyed our lunch.

Next Chapter

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