"Alfia..."
His old room had been thoroughly wrecked, so Riveria had arranged a new one for him.
Now, standing inside it and staring at the scene before him, Shiro felt the corner of his eye twitch.
"Was it really necessary to go this far...?"
"She kept making noise all the way back from the Dungeon. This was necessary to keep anyone from noticing."
Alfia had already used Magic to return to human form.
Her slender arm held a thick rope that looked completely out of place in her hand. Tied to the other end was the target of her mission, an intelligent monster.
Judging by the monster's current condition, however, it was difficult not to suspect that Alfia had mixed a little personal irritation into the kidnapping.
The Vouivre had been roughly dumped onto the floor.
Her entire body was wrapped in some ragged cloth Alfia had obtained from somewhere, then bound so tightly with rope that she looked like a giant rice dumpling. Even her mouth, the only thing left free for breathing, had been stuffed with a strip of cloth.
Seeing the tears in her eyes and the deeply wronged expression on her face, Shiro could not help wondering whether she would immediately burst into tears if he removed the gag.
"Compared with other adventurers, I've already been quite merciful."
Alfia looked at him coolly.
"Or do you share Zeus's strange preferences and simply dislike seeing her body injured? If so, please at least allow me to leave before you do anything like that."
"Who would ever lay a hand on a kid that young?!"
Under Alfia's openly contemptuous stare, Shiro immediately raised his voice in protest.
Alfia was now a spirit contracted to him. They were going to spend a great deal of time together in the future, and he absolutely did not want her developing some bizarre misunderstanding about his tastes.
People were free to have whatever preferences they wanted.
But anyone who went after children had gone far beyond something that could be fixed by seeing a doctor.
That called for immediate execution.
And they did not even deserve the smallest bullet.
"She was created from the same Authority as the one I possess. Isn't it normal for me to be curious?"
"Heh."
"I heard that keeping a cute animal in a tavern can attract more customers."
Shiro smiled.
"I think a cat that can do backflips would be pretty popular. What do you think, Alfia?"
Alfia immediately closed her mouth.
She did not actually believe Shiro would throw her into a tavern and force her to work there.
But...
What if he did?
She would rather enter the Dungeon and fight monsters ten thousand times, repeatedly pushing herself past her limits on the edge of death, than perform backflips in front of girls she had once regarded as children.
If that ever happened, her life as a "person" would probably end right there.
Satisfied when Alfia stopped talking, Shiro nodded and crouched beside the dragon girl lying on the floor.
"Let's make one thing clear. When I take the cloth out of your mouth, don't scream."
He pointed beside himself.
"Otherwise, this Al... big sister here might get angry, and I won't be able to stop her."
Halfway through saying Alfia's name, Shiro suddenly felt a needle-like stare stabbing into his back.
He immediately corrected himself.
The pressure vanished.
"..."
The Vouivre neither nodded nor shook her head.
She merely curled in on herself slightly and continued staring at him with tear-filled eyes.
"You don't understand me?"
Her reaction made Shiro pause.
Then realization struck.
Because of her appearance, he had subconsciously treated her like one of the demi-humans in the Dragon Kingdom of Lugunica who leaned more toward animal traits.
He had completely overlooked the fact that she had been born inside the Dungeon.
There was a very real possibility she did not understand human language at all.
'Does she completely lack the concept of language, or does she just not understand the words?'
If it was the former, things would become troublesome.
Teaching a living creature language from scratch was an enormous project.
Worse, she probably had no idea how to use ordinary household items either.
By the time she learned everything necessary to live like a normal person, whatever Shiro wanted to accomplish would already be long over.
Still, he did not dare simply remove the gag and test it.
Crying was one thing.
If she made enough noise to attract Ais, explaining this situation would become nearly impossible.
Shiro had no idea whether Ais would classify an intelligent monster like this as a demi-human or simply as another monster.
The easiest solution was therefore to make sure Ais never saw her in the first place.
Before anything else, this dragon girl probably needed someone to teach her a normal person's basic values.
"I'll say this in advance. I'm not raising a child."
Noticing Shiro's gaze shift toward her, Alfia crossed her arms and rejected the idea without even thinking.
Those Astraea Familia girls from several years ago had already been more than enough.
Remembering their personalities, Alfia rubbed her brow with a headache.
If she had to go through something like that again, even she was not sure she could tolerate it.
Although, to be fair, she had failed to tolerate them back then too and ended up beating all of them.
"I wasn't expecting you to raise her from the beginning anyway. We don't have enough time for that."
Shiro gave a simple reply before looking back at the teary-eyed Vouivre.
After thinking for a moment, he continued,
"For now, I'll try something."
The instant those words left his mouth, an invisible fluctuation spread outward from his body.
The Vouivre, whose gagged mouth had only been able to produce muffled whimpers, suddenly became completely still.
The anxiety vanished from her expression.
In its place appeared a peaceful, relaxed smile.
"What did you do?"
Seeing an effect comparable to a powerful sedative, Alfia raised an eyebrow in curiosity.
"Divine Aura."
Shiro explained calmly.
"At its core, it's the fluctuation produced when a god uses divine power. It naturally suppresses other living creatures."
"But since she's a monster created by the Dungeon, I guessed the Divinity inside me might do more than suppress her."
He looked at the now tranquil Vouivre.
"I thought it might also calm her down."
"The effect is even better than I expected."
The reason Divine Aura suppressed mortals of the Lower World was ultimately simple.
Gods existed on a fundamentally higher level of life.
It was similar to how a cat might instinctively fear a tiger.
A natural physiological response.
But this monster was different.
She had been born from a divine Authority.
Rather than the relationship between a superior species and an inferior one, the connection was closer to the complicated instinct a child might feel upon seeing a parent.
"So, on some subconscious level, she regards you as her 'mother'?"
Alfia immediately understood where his explanation led.
She turned her head away, leaving Shiro only a side profile with the faintest upward curve at the corner of her lips.
"Well, that's certainly..."
"...Alfia."
Shiro stared at her.
"Back when you were in Hera Familia, did anyone ever tell you that you're really bad at talking to people?"
"No."
Alfia answered without hesitation.
"Anyone who dared make too much noise beside me was blasted away with magic."
"Great. Now someone has."
The moment Shiro finished speaking, the bed against the wall, the paintings, the bookshelf, and everything else around Alfia seemed to begin expanding.
They grew taller.
Larger.
Until they filled nearly her entire field of view.
Even the quill resting on the desk became something so enormous that she could not see its tip even after tilting her head all the way back.
A moment later, two enormous hands slipped beneath her front legs and effortlessly lifted her into the air before placing her on the soft blanket.
Alfia instinctively tried to strike with a hand chop powerful enough to dismember a person.
Her body refused to respond.
The overwhelming weakness running through every limb froze her completely.
"...What exactly are you planning to do?"
She calmly raised her head.
A cold smile hung on her lips as she stared at a face larger than her entire...
Larger than her entire cat body.
"They say that once your voice sounds, all creation falls silent."
Shiro grinned.
"That's where your epithet [Silence] came from, right?"
"Today, I'm going to personally verify whether the legend is true!"
"Gos— Eek?!"
A completely adorable squeal, utterly incompatible with Alfia's usual image, escaped her mouth.
"It's useless!"
Shiro laughed.
"Don't forget, your Magic comes from me. If you want to cast anything, you need my permission first."
"Prepare yourself for punishment!"
"Are you truly planning to attack a defenseless young woman with no strength to resist?"
"Sorry."
Shiro replied without hesitation.
"I believe in gender equality."
"Wait—"
"Too slow!"
"..."
Outside the room, Riveria stood frozen with one hand suspended in the air, just before knocking.
If she had not misheard...
That really did sound like Alfia.
That woman could actually make such a...
Cheerful?
Laugh.
For some inexplicable reason, Riveria suddenly felt that if she entered this room now, she might never come back out.
After several seconds of silence, she quietly lowered her hand.
Then she turned around and left without making a sound.
…