Creature Farm Chapter 34: Taking It Back

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Sulo

 

Great Master Mowanya lolled over the counter, his tail curled in the shape of a hook. When he heard someone coming in, his ears moved, but he didn’t even say “welcome”. He completely ignored the fact that he was the head of the store and had to serve the customers.

Then, a hand twisted the skin around his neck and lifted him up.

“Wake up! You’re really lazy. Can you really make money by running the shop?”

The great ruler was angry and could not move. “Presumptuous! Rude maniac, let me down!”

The hand suddenly let go. Fortunately, he was a cat, and landed deftly in the air. When he saw the face of the visitor, his whiskers trembled with anger.

“Augusta, it’s you, boy!”

“Is that your attitude towards guests?” Augusta folded his arms against his chest.

“Your attitude towards the master is not very good either.”

“At least give us some basic quality customer service!”

“It’s not business hours now! We don’t serve food from two in the afternoon until five!”

“I’ve never heard of such a broken rule!”

“That’s because you never come at this time!” With that, the great master stared at Augusta in disbelief, “How come you’re here today at such an abnormal time? Is your vampire maid on strike again?”

“Quentina never went on strike before!” Augusta raised his voice. “Do you deliver takeout?”

The great master gasped, “What should come will come! After years of psychological struggle, have you finally made up your mind to be a good for nothing homebody?”

“No! Damn it, how can you think that?!”

“Aren’t you? Oh, my God, this is abnormal! It must be the precursor of some catastrophe!”

“Of course not!” Augusta wanted to punch the cat, but he held back. ‘Great Master Mowanya’ was not just a name, and the cat might blow him to the moon. “I’m just ordering take-out! So do you deliver it or not?”

“In theory, we do,” said the great master.

“In theory? It sounds suspicious…”

“Every time someone calls for take-out, I tell them the store is busy and it takes two hours for the delivery man to be available. When they hear this, they usually go away.”

“Your delivery man is so relaxed.”

“I don’t have a delivery man at all, ha ha.”

“…You must have used some dirty magic to keep this restaurant around up to now?”

“I’m a decent cat. I don’t do that kind of crap.” The great master huffed, “If you’re willing to tip enough, I think Antosa would probably like to take an extra part-time job — as a cook and as a delivery woman.”

“Then ask her to make a roast lamb and send it to my house. I want the whole lamb, so prepare it now. When it is ready, send it immediately.”

The great master took another breath, “Why a whole roast lamb? Are you going to use it for a secret black magic ritual?”

“…It’s for eating.” Augusta said with a black face.

“You’re summoning some kind of hungry abyss dark monster?”

“No! Damn it!” Augusta swears again, “But it’s almost like that… Er… Anyway, tell Antosa to send it quickly.”

“Oh, oh, well, good.” The great master responded perfunctorily. As soon as Augusta left the restaurant, the cat muttered in a low voice, “Huh, it must be the abyss monster. These magicians never care about moral laws. I think it’s better to call the police.”

The door of the restaurant opened and Augusta had come back in again. The great master jumped up with his tail up, “I said it casually. I don’t intend to call the police! You’re not suspicious at all!”

The magician stared at him. “What did you say?”

“…Nothing! Why did you come back all of a sudden?”

“Forgot to take things.”

“You came here empty handed. How could you forget something? Ah, have you left your conscience in my shop?”

Augusta cut off the cat and walked to the photo wall of the restaurant. There were colorful papers and countless photos on the wall, all of which were pictures of lovers (or people pretending to be lovers) kissing. 

It seemed that Mowanya’s “Spring of Love” activity had been fruitful. It took Augusta a long time to find the picture of him kissing Kyfayar from a pile of photos. Kyfayar looked excited and flushed, while Augusta looked sad, as if he had been stung by some insect. He tore the picture off the wall, looked at it, and stuffed it into his pocket.

The great master was startled, “How can you take things from other people’s stores?” 

“Because I lost my conscience.” Augusta, with his hands in his pockets, pressed the photo deeper in his pocket to prevent the great master from jumping over and grabbing it shamelessly. But the great master just slouched over the counter and seemed to have lost interest in reprimanding him.

Augusta left Mowanya. The sky was overcast and it drizzled lightly. He snorted angrily and put a magic barrier over his head to keep out the rain. Some passers-by who hid under the eaves of roadside buildings for shelter from the rain looked at him enviously, but this did not put Augusta in a good mood. 

In fact, since the dragon came to his home, his mood had never risen like a manned spacecraft returning to earth. He thought that it would be good to deal with it for a few days, but on the first day he fell into a big trouble — the dragon was a chowhound! He had eaten up most of the food in the house and was sitting in the dining room, beating the smooth plates with his fork and urging Augusta to go out and bring food, as if they were miserly masters who did not feed their guests.

He sighed as he walked up the hillside, through the thick woods, and saw his house, and the unicorn — who was coming at him in a full gallop.

“Au — Gu — S — Ta –!” The unicorn screamed, “How can you let a dragon live in our house?! Are you crazy?”

“Thank you for reminding me of the fact that I’m crazy,” said the magician darkly.

“You’re still in the mood to joke! Do you know what he did?”

“Did he eat Kyfayar?”

“That would be nice!” The unicorn’s voice went up an octave. “He ate my oats! My imported premium oats!” Then he raised it by an octave, “What a shameless thing! He doesn’t know how to say ‘etiquette’! How can you let this creature enter our door?!”

…… It’s very kind of you to say that. Augusta thought gloomily. When you look at him, don’t you see yourself? People say that the same personalities repel each other. It’s not unreasonable for you to hate him.

“I’m going to run away from home!” The unicorn finally declared, “It’s either him without me, or me without him!”

“I can’t wait. I’m worried that the consumption of food at home is too high.”

“Augusta! I’m discussing a very serious matter with you. Can you stop making jokes?! I’m going to run away from home!”

“Yeah. Whatever you want. You are an adult. I can’t keep you if you want to go.”

“I’ll be gone and you won’t have a mount!”

“I’ll buy a car. I’ve calculated it carefully. It seems that the money for car maintenance is less than that for you.”

The unicorn snorted and followed Augusta to the house. “Hum, I scared you. I’m not going. He should get out of here…”

At the gate of the mansion, Prison Fire held the door frame with one hand and picked his teeth with a toothpick in the other. Kyfayar grabbed the other door frame and waited for his master to return with tears. Finally, when Augusta arrived, he choked, “My Lord! You are back at last! A few minutes later, and he would have started eating our sofa!”

Prison Fire whistled happily, “Have you brought food back?”

“I ordered takeout for you.”

Prison Fire looked at the unicorn behind the magician curiously, “Do you mean that? Can you eat that, too? That’s great. I like it raw!”

“I must run away from home!” The unicorn hissed wildly.

The magician rubbed his forehead. It’s your fault, Cavaldien! It’s all your fault! “Prison Fire, as soon as you’re full, we’ll go to Cavaldien immediately!”