"Mrah... Spyare me..."

  If they were so powerful, then why did they let the adventurers get beaten up?!

  I am currently being hugged by the over-energetic child. Yes, she traded her ugly, terrifying doll for me. Its gaze is now filled with malice and jealous rage. That amalgamation of evil glares IS directed towards her...right? Then why...nonono!

  I saw it glaring at her just a few moments ago. I'm safe!

  "Let the cat go, Reina."

  "But~"

  'Reina' squeezes tighter, suffocating me. Oof, why is her tiny grip so strong? Leave it to a fantasy world to break the laws of physics. The elf sighs, as if exaggerating how tired she is from dealing with Reina's antics. Her skin seems to faintly hide a golden string of symbols tatood all over, different from the 'Runes' I've grown familiar with. They just...subtly appear and then fade unter the sun's light. The old man that looks like a short human rather than a dwarf hobbles up to Reina and pats her shoulder. She seems to sulk a little while before dropping me on my butt.

  "MRAH!! Gentler!!"

  The-The nerve! No wonder your doll hates you! I quickly check the egg in my hands, but nothing's different. Mrah, probably a few new cracks here and there. It still isn't hatching.

  "Mr. Reagan. Did you see? The egg..."

  "Hoho, yes indeed. This rambunctious brat was deemed a lost cause for being so tiny and picky. Even I almost gave up on it. But now it's actually trying to break free!"

  The old man, Mr. Reagan, laughs as he sends an energy thing from his hand into the egg. Whatever as trying to hatch stopped breaking out, and he carried on speaking with the tanned elf. She laughs and looks upon those cracks carefully.

  "When you told me that the egg had been abandoned by its mother, I thought it was done for. Perhaps we could fool a noble boy with dreams of riding a dragon or owning a phoenix to giving it a home, but we'd be biting the end of a fierce retaliation if it never hatches. Especially with it being so...tiny, considering its lineage normally hatch from eggs the size of boulders."

  WOAHHHH! Eggy, you're so big! Oh, well YOU aren't, but your brothers and sisters musta been GIANTS! Now I feel bad for you. You barely fit in my paws.

  "Hmm, You're right, Andel. I had half a mind to keep it for myself if this brat didn't kick the egg soon. After all, one shouldn't force a child to leave the egg, it must be willing. But...indeed. I was thinking of burning it."

  WHAT?!

  "Maybe with a little heat that punk would break out faster, ohohoho-hm?"

  How dare you almost cook eggy! At least let him hatch in peace! NYAH!

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  My powerful feet kick his ankle with fury! Though he doesn't look all too bothered. Reina picks me up again and begins talking with an air beyond what I'd expect from an ordinary child.

  "That mother...she covered this tiny egg in her own downy. It seems like the environment they lived bordered on another territory, and it became hard for her to find food. Only when food is scarce do Mother Rayverns abandon the most fragile and unlikely to survive among their young. When food is plenty to take, they don't mind a runt or three."

  "Ray-vern?"

  I try mouthing the word carefully. I've never heard of that one before. Not back as a human, nor living in Adventurer's City.

  "Yeah, R-a-y-v-e-r-n. Like combining the two words 'Raven' and 'Wyvern' because that's essentially what they are. And they are one of the most diverse and complex species studied to date, given they can highly differ even from each other depending on whether they inherited more Avian or Dragonic genes. There's little known about them, since they hold incredible grudges that span generations of kin."

  ...I almost drop the egg after hearing that. Almost. My eyes subconsciously veer down to the egg in my arms, happily resuming its cracking at a slow pace without a care in the world.

  If I yell at it one day...will it also hold a grudge?

  The gorgeous tanned elf claps her hands together, bringing the conversation back.

  "We got off track! Thank you so much for helping us back there! You are our savior, little cat."

  "Nyot really! Ehehe~ if that old guy sneezed on them like he did to the advyenturers, those bigfoot-looking things wyould have died without a fight! Ehehe~"

  ...This is my tactic. A two-pronged assault filled with scorn!

  The old man is hiding his powers! One of you summoned a giant Pelican! Its wings flapping blew adventurers away! So why did you not make any moves sooner? HUH?!

  ...these three are suspicious.

  As if reading my expression with finesse and figuring out my thoughts, The elf, Andel, chuckles.

  "(What's a Bigfoot?) ...such a convenient way of living sounds nice, huh. If the world were so simple, the strong would have no trouble wandering these lands. It's because we three are a tad too strong that we needed protection."

  ...What.

  "...? Are you Styupid or something? That makes Nyo sense-GAH!!!"

  The child with a hat shaped like a stack of pancakes, Reina, grabs me and hugs really tightly. TOO tight, in fact, I'm about to suffocate!

  "Ohhh YOU!"

  "AHHH! HYELP!"

  "Huhuhu~ Reina, Mr. Reagan and I...If we were to actually summon our magic on those lower beasts, then we would have caused a war."

  Huh?

  I stop fighting after the word 'war' drops. Reina also eases her hug. She gazes at Andel, with a look of worry.

  "That's right, a 'war'. The monsters were clearly sent by something...or somebody. This happened to a friend of mine within the merchant business, unfortunately. They were attacked by monsters while travelling through the border between the territory of Demons and a neutral zone. She fought back, using their own strength instead of relying on protection, since her strength was well within the top 100 of this continent. She went overboard and demolished the route merchants would normally use to basically give the middle finger to the demons that send the attack. On the surface, it seemed like a foolish attempt to steal her goods, and we were all expecting the Demon King to punish the would-be thieves who attempted to break the treaty by sicking their pet monsters on her, ESPECIALLY when she was making a huge delivery to HIS country. However..."

  Andel's fists clenched tight, her nails lightly digging into her skin for a moment before releasing with the faintest smell of blood coloring their tips.

  "She was accused by the Demon King of releasing her power with wanton abandonment on his territory, and decimating a key trade route for his people! Even though it was the border between his territory and a neutral zone, So technically not HIS trade route, AND those monsters were known monsters all Demon nobles held under their care like housecat-err, like the common pet dog!"

  ...I'll forgive that slip-up since this is getting interesting.

  "All the countries have a peace treaty signed that predates nearly 500 years ago after the great Continental war almost gave our neighboring continent the excuse to invade. We don't ever wish for a second world war to occur."

  "Continental wars? World wars? Hm, syounds complicated. What's that got to do wyith-"

  "War. The countries are trying to avoid a war. The problem with my friend releasing her power and destroying the trade route after she felt betrayed by the demons is that even after extensive investigating by the other countries and their greatest minds, none could tie the attack back to the Demons. This gave the Demon King the right to punish her as he wished. She was essentially handed over to them by her home country! But nobody panicked about it. The Demons were brutal, but they had been 'fair' since the treaty was signed. They knew an extremely popular and powerful merchant falling into their laps was a goldmine, right? She had been sponsoring several of their key sources of growth and funding countless schools. She only needed to sign an unfair contract and continue supporting them, even if she felt furious with the outcome. But... instead, the Demon King didn't do that. He challenged her to unarmed combat and...tore her in half. One of the greatest merchants of our lands, an advocate for peace with the Demons, was killed without mercy over a mere trade route...!"

  Her magic settled after fluctuating for a second. My fur bristled feeling her strength.

  "What unfair contracts? What peace treaty? They're probably already being supported by another continent! The demons are only looking for an excuse to start a war."