kscans

Chapter 299 - The Master and Servant Relationship

The next day, Surya came to the base.

And Cecil was with her.

Cecil was wearing a white long-sleeved shirt with a brown harness-style vest over it, her sleeves rolled up. Her pants were the same color as the vest, made of leather. Her armor was light, but she was equipped with five swords and katanas. Anyone who didn't know her would wonder what she intended to fight all by herself.

She seemed to have taken a liking to the replica weapons Hayato made. The Excalibur Replica was at her right hip, the Arondight Replica at her left, and the Dragon Eater Replica was slung across her back. The katana at the back of her waist and the other two-handed sword on her back were ones she had owned previously.

According to Cecil, there was a cool balance to equipment.

It was so cluttered that he wasn't sure if it was cool or not, but she seemed to be taking good care of them, so Hayato made a point not to say anything.

Cecil herself had an apologetic look on her face.

It wasn't as if she had done anything wrong, but she had seemed sheepish ever since she arrived. Anyone who knew Cecil would find this unusual.

Some time had passed since he served Cecil a melon juice and Surya a coffee, but they hadn't gotten to the main topic, so Hayato decided to speak up.

"Cecil, and Surya-san. Is there something difficult to talk about?"

Surya nudged Cecil in the side with her right elbow. At this, Cecil said, "I get it."

"First off, my bad. I told Surya about you, Hayato, without asking. I was planning to give you a heads-up, but I was getting an earful from my boss and it slipped my mind."

As it turned out, Surya had consulted with Cecil about a week ago. That’s when she told Surya about Hayato, promising that she would give him a quick heads-up herself.

Cecil forgot. The reason was that her boss had been chewing her out. Cecil’s boss was a person known as the Grand General, a former member of "Blackjack." Since they were originally clanmates, he apparently didn’t hold back with Cecil.

She said there were too many reasons for the scolding to list them all, but the biggest was that Cecil had become the team leader of the "Dragon Busters."

She was told that now that she had subordinates, she couldn’t just do whatever she wanted on her own anymore.

Cecil had always been the type to charge in alone, so she had been left to her own devices, but she was told that wouldn't fly anymore and was given various lectures. On academics, of course.

That was the story of what had happened since she returned from the floating island, but in the end, the Grand General threw in the towel.

He had decided it was impossible to make Cecil think and act strategically, and instead asked the other members of the Dragon Busters to support her.

Cecil was the type to fight on what could be called wild intuition. She could understand a basic plan, but the more conditions there were, the weaker she became, so they decided to stop trying to restrict her.

As soon as that was decided, her disciplinary confinement was lifted. That was yesterday.

Hayato felt a little sad, but he did his best to sound cheerful.

"It sounds like you had a rough time, so it’s fine. Though there are a lot of things I’d like to say."

"Sorry about that. It helps to hear you say that. So, uh, while I’m at it, I have a favor to ask. Is that okay?"

"I don’t like the sound of a ‘while you’re at it’ favor, but go ahead and say it."

"Could you let me and Surya stay at this base for a while? We’ll pay, of course."

"Both of you? Why?"

"I don’t want to go back to the Imperial Capital for a while. This time, I’m officially on duty helping Surya, so I can stay wherever for as long as I want. Besides, everyone in the Dragon Busters is training right now, so I’m super free. It’d be a huge help if you let me stay here to enjoy this freedom."

"Is that your reason? Surya-san?"

"I don’t necessarily have to stay, but I’ll probably be working with you a lot, Hayato-san, and there will be times we go somewhere overnight, right? I thought I’d like to get used to it now."

"I see. I don’t have a particular reason to refuse either of you. Sure, stay as long as you like."

When Hayato said this, the two were delighted.

Cecil, in particular, was overjoyed. She really must not want to go back to the Imperial Capital.

This base had ten rooms available for sleeping. Six of them were occupied, leaving four. It wouldn't be a problem to accommodate Cecil and Surya.

Just as he thought that, Hayato remembered that Surya was a Tamer.

"What should we do about your dragon, Surya-san? We don’t have any stables at the base."

The base could have stables built. They could be used to manage pets and such, but since Kokuryu had no Tamers, they had never built any.

"That’s alright. I’ll leave it at the Tamer Guild in the Royal Capital."

"Sorry about that. It’s a bit of a hassle, but please do."

Maris is here too, maybe I should expand the base. No, that’s a bad idea. Esha is here. I’ll pass.

He could just imagine Esha being targeted by the animals in the stables. She would probably be delighted, but he felt it would just lead to unnecessary trouble, so he dismissed the idea.

"Alright, you can stay, but there are other people living here, so please, no trouble."

"Yeah, leave it to me."

"Of course, I’ll be on my best behavior."

Hayato nodded.

Since they were staying starting today, he asked Rose, who was minding the shop, to prepare their rooms.

Rose seemed happy to have maid duties to perform and immediately went upstairs to start the preparations.

"Now then, about the Monster Sealing Encyclopedia. May we move forward with the discussion?"

"Right. It will help us plan for the future, so could you tell me what you’d like to do?"

"First, I want to go to the floating island. Cecil told me there are dinosaurs there, right? I’d like to start by sealing monsters that aren’t seen very often, if possible. And I want to check if they can be tamed."

Hayato couldn’t help but smile a little at her words.

Surya furrowed her brow suspiciously.

"I’m sorry. It’s just that Maris said almost the exact same thing. It seems your ways of thinking don’t align, but I was just thinking that you’re both Tamers, after all."

Surya made a complicated face. It was obvious even with the right half of her face hidden by a clown mask.

She let out a small sigh and then met Hayato’s gaze.

"We may both be Tamers, but Maris probably doesn’t speak highly of me, does she?"

"She did say she doesn’t like your philosophy on pets. But she also said your love for them is second to none, and that she respects you."

"She said that? I think being able to pour the same amount of love into any pet is more amazing. For a Tamer, a pet’s strength is directly linked to their own. If they’re not strong, you can’t do anything, yet Maris is an ace at the Royal Capital Tamer Guild with a weak pet. I think that’s more worthy of respect."

"Maris has the Elder Griffon, Lancelot, as her pet. I think he’s quite strong, though?"

"There are plenty of Tamers with pets of that level. And she was an ace even before she got that one. That would be unthinkable at the Imperial Tamer Guild."

"The Empire has a ‘strength-first’ mentality. But hey, do all Tamers think like that? Shouldn’t they be free to think about their pets however they want?"

Cecil chimed in, chugging from a bottle of melon juice.

"That’s true, but Maris and I are similar in some ways, which is why we clash. If Maris trained her pets the way I do, she could become a Tamer so great I wouldn’t even come close. Doesn’t it get a little irritating when someone with power doesn’t use it, like they’re holding back? That’s why I have this feeling that I don’t want to lose to a Tamer like her."

"So it’s like a rivalry?"

"It might be close to that. Not placing pets on a hierarchy is certainly an ideal, but I can’t quite accept her philanthropic attitude. A Tamer is a professional who controls pets. We’re not ordinary people, so just being cute isn’t enough. A pet is a pet. We should establish a proper master and servant relationship, and they need to be trained to execute any command, or else the pet will hesitate when it counts. That girl, it seems more like her pet is the master."

"So Tamers have all sorts of philosophies."

There were some theories he didn't quite understand, but Hayato thought that the conflict between the two might stem from their different approaches to being a Tamer. He also sensed a mutual desire not to lose to the other.

Maris seemed to believe in loving all pets as equals, while Surya held the view that a Tamer must establish a firm master and servant relationship with their pets.

This delved into the very definition and significance of a Tamer, so he couldn't step in too deeply. He leaned more toward Maris's way of thinking, but as a Tamer, he was an amateur. It was simply that his way of thinking was different from Surya's as a Tamer.

"Your philosophies may differ, but since you’ll be working together, please avoid any conflicts with Maris."

"Don’t worry. And I want to learn Maris’s methods, too. Our ways of thinking are different, but I do want to understand."

Hayato thought about how they were so similar in this regard, yet their philosophies on pets and Tamers were completely different.