Chapter 278 - Widow
"Geez. First I'm wiping my daughter's mess, now I'm wiping her ass?"
"I told you I'm sorry!"
The next morning.
I climbed the mountain where the wyvern had been sighted, together with Chloe.
We deviated far from the hiking course tourists would take, forcing our way up an animal trail.
To reach the summit, where the nest was believed to be, by the shortest route, this was the best way.
I took the lead, breaking twigs with my own body as I pushed straight ahead. Thanks to that, Chloe, following behind, had an easier time of it, and it seemed she was somehow moved by this fatherhood demonstrated through self-sacrifice, as a message appeared every few dozen meters: [Party Member Chloe's Affection Level has increased by 100].
Chloe's Affection Level had apparently already reached a value that allowed for marriage or sexual intercourse, but I wasn't beast enough to engage in such acts with my own daughter.
Sure, I'd bathed with her yesterday, and this morning I'd even helped her insert a tampon, but it was still impossible to be conscious of her as a member of the opposite sex.
The instinct to avoid incest was that strong.
"...Animals are slaves to instinct, after all."
Those broken-brained daddy-con daughters seemed to be messed up in that regard, but that was probably an exception among exceptions.
Most living creatures live according to impulses that arise from within.
The same went for wyverns.
This small dragon species was characterized by having wings for forelimbs, and its silhouette was very similar to that of a bird. Moreover, its ecology was also almost identical to a bird's, possessing the convenient traits of building nests, raising young, and becoming attached to humans.
Hence, they were valued as flying warhorses, and could be considered standard aerial power in otherworld nations.
"I think you don't need to worry so much. I'll do whatever you say."
"No matter how obedient a wyvern is, once mating season comes, it'll prioritize its mate over its owner."
"It'd be a shock if Aurora chose a male over me."
Chloe's wyvern was apparently named Aurora. It was a name that reminded me of a foreign car.
"Aurora! If you're there, come out!"
I shouted the name I'd just learned, continuing to run toward the summit.
"Aurora!"
It was just as Chloe raised her voice in turn.
From deep within the forest, a faint, suppressed-sounding cry, kororororo... could be heard.
This growl, like a large carnivorous beast, was not the cry of a bear or boar.
"It's Aurora!"
Chloe passed me, running over while crunching through the fallen leaves.
I followed behind, checking our surroundings, and then, I encountered a single dragon.
It stood about two meters tall at the shoulder, had two horns and sharp claws, and its scales were a vivid green.
It must have been subject to selective pressure in the direction of reducing air resistance. Its overall form was streamlined, somehow reminiscent of a European sports car.
"Auro—"
I grabbed Chloe's arm as she tried to run over excitedly, forcibly stopping her.
"Why!?"
"Look at its feet."
"...?"
At Aurora's feet, a human corpse lay sprawled. It was a young, white male.
A slashed-open abdomen seemed to have been the fatal wound, and the smell of blood and entrails drifted around it.
"No way..."
"A dragon that has tasted human flesh must be disposed of."
The moment I stepped forward, Chloe spread her arms and stood in my way.
"That girl would never do something like this!"
"If you can't deal with it, I will."
"Lord Father!"
Tears welling up in the corners of her eyes, Chloe shook her head.
"...Maybe it was some kind of mistake."
"You're saying it was an accident?"
As if something like that could happen.
Looking again at the corpse lying at the wyvern's feet... it was dressed in medieval European-style clothing, and didn't look like a modern person at all.
"That's strange."
"What is?"
"Doesn't that corpse look like an otherworlder to you?"
"...Huh?"
After rubbing her eyes vigorously, Chloe stared hard and muttered, "You're right."
"The one attacked wasn't an Earthling...?"
I chanted Status Open toward the silent corpse.
[Name] Romeo
[Level] 47
[Class] Wyvern Corpse
[HP] 0
[MP] 0
[Attack] 0
[Defense] 0
[Agility] 0
[M.Attack] 0
[M.Defense] 0
[Skills] None
[Notes] A wyvern carrying the blood of the Dragonewt race. When it used its Human Transformation Ability to search for food in a human settlement, it encountered a wild bear. It suffered a fatal abdominal wound and bled to death.
"A humanized wyvern?"
In other words, this thing wasn't even an otherworlder; it wasn't even human.
"I see, selective breeding."
Crossing an obedient, highly flight-capable wyvern with a highly intelligent dragonewt would produce the ideal military wyvern.
Otherworld armies conducted dragon breeding programs with the same mindset as they did for horses.
"...You were unlucky too."
While humanized, its physical abilities would drop to human level, so it must have been killed by something as trivial as an animal.
As I cast a pitying look at the pitiful wyvern, Chloe asked me worriedly.
"Did you figure something out?"
"Relax, your Aurora is innocent."
"Really!?"
"Yeah. But, it looks like she's become a widow."
Perhaps because I knew her husband had died, the wyvern in front of me now looked incredibly pitiful.
There seemed to be eggs in the nest behind her, but how was she going to raise them from now on?
"This guy was a humanized wyvern. It seems he had a transformation ability thanks to carrying dragonewt blood."
"So that's why his clothes are weird."
Chloe made the sign of the cross in front of her face, saying "How sad." It was a contrast to me, who simply pressed my hands together in front of my face.
As we performed this simplified funeral, Aurora seemed to realize we meant no hostility, and rubbed her snout against us.
"Are you crying?"
As Chloe stroked her face, Aurora let out a thin, kyuuu... cry. Its tone carried a somehow lonely melody.
"Kyuuu. Kyuuu..."
"Yeah, I know. Your husband died, after all."
As I stood silently, my gaze met Aurora's yellow eyes.
In her vertically slit pupils, if I wasn't mistaken, a color of sorrow was floating.
"Kyuuu... Kyukyuu..."
"...Are you talking to me, by any chance?"
"Kyuu. Kyuu."
Aurora spread her wings and shook her long neck vigorously up and down.
"Sorry, Language Comprehension doesn't react unless it's human speech."
"Korororororo..."
"I can't understand you even if you switch to growling."
"Kyuu..."
It seemed she had something she wanted to tell me, but I had no idea what she was saying.
"It'd be convenient if she could humanize too."
"I think she can?"
"For real?"
"Yeah. Because Aurora has dragonewt blood mixed in too. But the last time she transformed was ages ago."
Chloe said this while stroking Aurora's horn. If you have something you want to tell Lord Father, why don't you try humanizing?
"Kyuu..."
The widowed wyvern nodded deeply—
Her entire body emitted a dazzling light, her nearly two-meter-tall body shrank to about 160 centimeters, and her blue-green scales transformed into pale white female skin.
"Wh—"
Standing there was a human woman.
And an incredibly beautiful, voluptuous woman at that.
She was a beauty with a delicate, ill-fated-looking face, but her plump lips were so kissable they made you want to suck on them, a widow through and through, and her softly waved blue-green hair was filled with the allure of a woman who had borne children. Her hair, pulled back and up, looked from every angle like a danchi wife who was weak to pressure.
What caught the eye most of all, however, was her bursting breasts that strongly declared, "I am of the Breastfeeding Advocacy Faction," a maternity that alone could fill three mother-and-child health handbooks.
And on top of that, her clothes were—Japanese mourning clothes.
"Why Japanese-style!?"
Aurora answered in a voice like the tinkling of a bell.
"I heard this is the formal mourning attire in this country."
A calm alto voice, similar to Philia's. It was a typical big-breasted voice, probably recognizable even over a telephone.
You could tell a voice was D-cup or above just by the atmosphere. It made you wonder if the mammary glands were vibrating to produce the sound.
"W-well, I see. A common case of a foreigner being obsessed with Japan... So, Aurora...-san, did you have something you wanted to say to me?"
"...Yes..."
Aurora stared at me with eyes swollen bright red.
"Actually, we wyverns always raise our young as mated pairs."
"...So I've heard."
"But as you can see, my husband has become a person who will not return."
Therefore! Aurora said, grabbing my hand.
"If it pleases you, Lord Hero Nakamoto, I wish for you to become this child's father!"
"Th-this child!?"
"The egg behind me."
"So that means... you're choosing me as your remarriage partner?"
"Is that not acceptable?"
"That's not good, ma'am, the mourning period isn't even over yet..."
All my nerves were focused on Aurora's breasts pressing against my chest.
They were definitely bigger than Ayako-chan's. About the same size as Philia's, maybe?
"That child needs a father! Master's father seems like a trustworthy person, and your strength is more than adequate..."
"By Master, you mean Chloe? Hey, say something! Your wyvern is pressuring me into remarrying her!"
I asked Chloe for help, but of all times, she seemed absorbed in fiddling with Aurora's egg.
"Of course, I'm not saying it would be for free. I don't know if it will be a sufficient reward, but..."
"You're going to give me gold and silver treasures?"
"No."
Aurora pressed her hand to her own chest, and announced with a somewhat embarrassed face.
"...Actually, humanized dragons have a tendency to excessively reproduce the characteristics of the human body."
"What do you mean?"
"Males become overly muscular, and females become overly voluptuous."
"I can see that."
Aurora's husband, lying at our feet, also had a brawny, muscular build.
"It's not just the appearance; the functions are the same."
"...?"
Aurora cupped her cheeks with both hands and spoke with a bright red face.
"Well... when a pregnant female dragon humanizes, it seems an excessive amount of breast milk is secreted."
Reflexively, I looked at the married wyvern's chest, and saw a dark, wet stain forming at the tips.
"A constitution that produces excessive breast milk..."
"...I'm embarrassed to say, but it seems to be leaking even now."
"S-so what about it?"
"I am confident in the taste."
Had she tasted it?
As I played a cheerful video in my head, Aurora said in a whisper-like voice.
"Lord Hero Nakamoto, would you please consider taking me and my child into your care?"
The reward will be this milk... Aurora said, lifting her breasts.
My answer was—
"Looking forward to it from now on, Aurora. Oh, let me give you a spare key now."
December 26th, Volume 1 of "The Middle-Aged Man Who Returned from Another World Melts His Daddy-Con Daughters with His Fatherhood Skill" will be released by Dengeki Comics NEXT.