Chapter 645: A Song After A Boss Fight
"Coward!! Come back here and let us kill you, you stupid monster!!" Odeta shouted at the ceiling after the Fire Drake disappeared through the hole.
"Noooo!! My moneyyyy!!" Emilia cried, her hand reaching out to where the drake disappeared.
"Noooo!! My alchemy parts!!" Lisa cried as well, in a similar pose as Emilia.
I felt a little silly, seeing that I've never actually fought a monster where it actually ran away from us when we fought them.
I suppose even monsters would realise when they were outclassed and prioritise their own survival to run away from a fight they cannot win.
The only people who looked nonplussed at the drake flying away were Delmare and Katsuki.
I guess that also included myself as well since I don't particularly care about killing it in the first place. I only joined in the fight to support the others.
No, no, just now didn't count, I was just surprised, that's all!
As for the three girls who were pissed, Odeta simply huffed in annoyance before returning back to her normal self, but Lisa and Emilia were both crying while kneeling on the floor.
Ok… They're more affected by this than I thought… Did they really want the drake parts that badly?
"Is there a need for you two to overreact like this?" Katsuki asked.
Both Lisa and Emilia turned to my Inugami maid at the same time.
"You don't understand, Katsuki!"
"Overreact?! This is a perfectly normal reaction, I'll have you know!!"
Katsuki scoffed, "It's merely a drake, not even a dragon."
"That's precisely why!!" Lisa sobbed.
On the other hand, Emilia was rubbing her thumb and index finger together, "Do you know how much money I could have made from the sale of drake parts?! It would have been enough to pay off my debt!!"
Lisa reacted to her words almost immediately, "Hey! That's only if you sell off the entire Fire Drake! I need some of the parts for myself!!"
The Nekomata frowned at her, "What do you even need its parts for? What are you even trying to make?"
"That's for me to know and not you to find out!"
"Hey! You'll be taking away a part of my profits! I have a right to know!"
"Nuh uh! We would have worked together to take down the Fire Drake so you don't get full claim on the kill!"
Geez… And here I thought that Emilia quarrelling with Katsuki was bad enough… I didn't think she would also butt heads with Lisa over this too…
And yes, I can see that it's mostly because of money that Emilia is like this… But I suppose I already knew that something like this would happen when I took her in.
Since, you know, she has been very vocal about her love for money and that she would definitely pick money over friends if the price was right.
I cleared my throat to get their attention, "Ahem… Alright, alright. There's no use arguing about it now since the monster already left anyway. Why don't we just look around here to see if there's anything worthy of note? Maybe we might even find some scales or something that belonged to the Fire Drake. The fight was quite intense so I wouldn't be surprised if some of it broke off during our battle."
No sooner had the words left my lips, the two of them were already on their feet and running around the cavern looking for parts that might have fallen from the Fire Drake.
I wasn't even sure if there were any but it was true that we did do a number on it so I wouldn't be surprised if there really were drake scales scattered around the cave.
It didn't even take a minute to pass before Lisa let out a squeal of triumph as she lifted a Fire Drake scale from the ground.
"Yessss!! I've found some!! Take that, Emmy!!"
When my Infrid tried to show off to Emilia, she realised the Nekomata had already gathered a small pile of said scales in her arms. Emilia had just chosen to stay silent while gathering them all this while.
That only spurred my Infrid to redouble her efforts in searching for materials, going so far as to crawl around to look for them.
While they were doing that, I turned to the other girls, "I think you girls can go back to camp if you want… Let Mother and the others know about what we found here so in case the drake comes back, we would not be caught unprepared. I'll watch over the two of them in case they start fighting again."
Katsuki bowed, "I shall inform the Madam, Mistress."
Odeta laughed, "Wahaha! Then I'll go back and do some training too! Maybe one of the others can have a spar with me!"
Delmare scribbled on her notepad before showing it to me.
'I want to stay with you. Please?'
I giggled and patted her head, "Ok, ok~ You can stay with me."
She let out a soft purring noise before hugging me.
Before Katsuki left for the camp, she spread out a mat so that we could sit on it while watching over my Infrid and Nekomata scurrying around the cave looking for drake parts.
As Delmare and I settled down on it, my Siren released her magic and allowed her legs to transform back into her tail.
I watched as she stretched her arms above her head before resting her head on my shoulder while right hand slipped into mine.
"This is nice~" She whispered, squeezing on my hand with hers. "This reminds me of our little sessions back at home."
"The ones where you would first serenade me before we would cuddle and then slowly move to having me carry you to my bed?" I teased.
Her face flushed red, "Umm… I suppose that sometimes happens… Ehehehe~"
She's so cute~
Delmare then shifted herself to stretch her arms towards me in a hugging motion, which indirectly told me what she wanted.
I picked her up gently and set her down on my lap, letting the Siren cuddle me in that position.
In the meantime, it seems like Lisa and Emilia had found something at the same time and they were now arguing over who gets to keep it.
"I found this first!"
"I reached it first!"
"Why do you even need drake's blood for?! You can already sell the scales, just give the blood to me!! There's not even a lot of it!!"
"These are worth more than the scales!! And I should be asking you why you need the blood for instead! It's already mixed with impurities for being on the ground isn't it?!"
"I can purify it! I need this!! I seriously need this!!"
"No you don't! What potion even needs drake's blood?!"
"Wouldn't you like to know?!"
Geez… Those two are really going at it, huh?
"Should I sing?" Delmare asked, completely ignoring the two girls that were shoving their boobs into each other's chest.
I nodded at the two girls who were still arguing with each other, "You're going to affect them too if you do, aren't you?"
She blushed, "Ah… That's true…"
I giggled before concentrating for a moment to cast [Air Pocket] around us, blocking us off from the outside.
"There~ Now we don't need to worry about your song reaching them~"
Delmare looked around us. She definitely could not see the invisible layer of air but she must have felt that something had changed to accommodate us.
She then turned to me with a smile, "Thank you, Aster."
"No, no, thank you for always singing for me."
"Ehehehe~ Then shall I begin?"
I nodded, activating my [Mind Shield] at the same time.
My Siren then straightened herself while still seated on my lap, her eyes closing to concentrate for a moment before starting her song.
A soft melody escaped from her lips and I was immediately entranced by her voice, forgetting about our surroundings to immerse myself in her song.
This time, she was singing a calming tune about two lovers cuddling in a dark space while a storm blew outside. They were huddled together to stay warm before they got lost in each other's embrace.
Yes, I can draw the parallel to our current situation myself, no need to tell me.
The song then continued where the night got colder and the two lovers decided that holding each other in the nude would be a better way of keeping themselves warm.
Then the two of them shared a kiss before their passions drove them to want for more.
I could already tell where this was going when a face suddenly appeared in my peripheral vision.
"Aster!! I asked if you think… Think… Eh… Eh?"
I recoiled slightly in surprise and realised it was Emilia who had appeared beside me.
Delmare didn't even notice and was still singing while Lisa was smirking behind Emilia and outside of my [Air Pocket].
It took me a moment to realise what had just happened before the Nekomata's eyes dilated and she tossed the scales she had gathered aside to pounce on me.
Ahhhhh!! Don't just stand there, Lisa!! Get her off me!!