Chapter 30 - The Duck That Lays Golden Eggs

Translator: Roshi

The duck decided to run away.

Because it had overheard what its owner said.

-Tch, why can't it lay anymore all of a sudden? This won't do. If it can't lay again today, I'll have to cut its belly open and take out whatever's inside. I can't just let it sit around eating my food for nothing.

The duck had been laying Golden Eggs just fine until recently.

Beautiful, perfectly smooth Golden Eggs.

It had felt so proud.

Watching its owner beam with joy at the sight of the Golden Eggs made the duck happy too.

Being praised made it happy.

But the moment it could no longer lay eggs, its owner's attitude changed completely.

The other ducks began to ostracize it as well.

A duck that couldn't lay Golden Eggs.

Some bullied it, calling it a disgrace to the clan. Others simply looked at it with open mockery and ignored it entirely.

At first, the duck thought it was just a temporary condition, but it soon came to vaguely understand what was happening to its body.

Every time it laid a Golden Egg, something inside was being depleted, and it wasn't recovering back to normal.

Normally, eating should have provided a steady recovery.

But for some reason, that just wasn't happening for the duck.

Still, figuring out what was wrong didn't matter right now.

Soon, the duck's owner would slit its belly open and it would die.

So the duck seized the chance while its owner was out and made its escape.

'Now's the time!'

The other ducks around it were napping too, so this was the only opportunity to sneak out.

The duck slipped out of its pen.

Quietly, carefully.

Waddling along.

And once it was completely clear, it ran with every ounce of strength it had.

Its owner had clipped its flight feathers, so running as hard as it could was the only option.

'Huff, huff, haaah.'

The duck ran blindly until its strength gave out.

Once its strength was gone, it walked again.

Having never been outside the pen before, it waddled aimlessly with no destination in mind.

But how far had it walked?

Its owner, returning from the outing, came into the duck's line of sight.

'No! Of all times....'

Its feathers bristled with dread.

If it was spotted, it would certainly be caught and killed.

But it couldn't move.

If its owner so much as turned its head, the duck felt it would be found immediately.

'What do I do?'

So this was the result of its life-or-death escape.

The duck trembled as it waited for its fate.

And then.

"Come over here, yom."

A voice came from right beside it.

The duck was startled, but thankfully didn't make a sound.

When it looked, some otter was speaking to it.

The otter came closer, pulled something like a cloak out of its Subspace, and wrapped it around both the duck and itself.

"Hm? I thought something moved just now."

The owner turned its head toward the duck's direction.

But nothing was visible to its eyes.

"Did I see wrong?"

The owner muttered that it was strange and headed back home.

A moment later.

"It's gone, yom."

The otter put the cloak back into its Subspace.

"It's called the Cloak of Concealment, yom. It can hide you from sight, yom."

Quack...? Something like that exists?

"Yep, yom. You seemed scared, so I hid you. Could you explain what's going on, yom?"

Quack. Quack. The truth is....

The duck explained what had happened to it.

As it told its story, its emotions must have overwhelmed it, because teardrops fell from the duck's eyes, plopping into the grass.

Quack.... I'm a useless duck now.

Quack, quack.... I ran away for now, but I have nowhere to go, and there's no place that would take me in....

The duck hung its head low.

"Aww.... Then, Duck-ssi, would you like to come with me, yom?"

Quack...? With you?

The otter nodded.

"I know a dimension, yom. If it's that place, they'll take you in, yom."

Quack. But I'm a useless duck....

"There's a person there named Shin-hu, yom. Shin-hu-nim might be able to fix you so you can lay eggs again, yom."

Quack, quack?! So I can lay Golden Eggs again?!

The duck's bill fell wide open.

"Yep, yom. He's someone who can fix anything, so I'm sure he can make it so you can lay Golden Eggs again, yom. Would you like to come along, yom?"

Quack, quack! P-please, take me with you!

The duck's eyes filled with hope.

It didn't know who Shin-hu was, but if he could truly make it so it could lay Golden Eggs again...

The duck felt it could do anything for him.

"Great, yom. I'm going to open a Dimensional Portal now, yom. Don't be scared and just follow me, yom."

Quack! Thank you, Otter-nim!

And then.

Vwoooom—.

The duck followed the otter, waddling through the Dimensional Gap.

*

'Yom's here!'

How wonderful it was to see him.

It had only been two days since they'd last met, same as with Serintia.

But perhaps because Yom had left without saying when he'd return, the reunion felt especially welcome.

'Accept! Add to the Access Permission List too!'

[Access for the target has been granted.]

[Would you like to add Descendant of the Otter Clan, Dimensional Explorer 'Yom' to the Access Permission List....]

[Added to the Access Permission List.]

[You may remove and expel entries from the list at any time.]

Vwoom.

The gate opened, and a round little face popped out from within.

"I'm back, yom."

"Yom, welcome back!"

I immediately gave Yom a warm welcome.

Yom looked around the area and nodded.

"I thought the coordinates seemed a bit off. So you were in a Sub-dimension, yom. Looks like your wish for a bigger waiting room came true this way, yom."

"That's right."

Yom, as expected.

He grasped the situation incredibly fast.

Even the fact that he hadn't panicked when his access was blocked and had sent an access request along with his companion.

'Oh, right. The companion!'

He'd said he was coming with a companion.

I looked toward the gate still open behind Yom.

Wobble.

What soon waddled out of the gate was...

'A duck?'

A cute duck with bright yellow feathers.

'Looks like an adult, but it's so vivid yellow.'

Normally, ducks have yellow down as ducklings, but as they mature, their feathers change to adult plumage resistant to water and cold, turning white.

There could be slight differences depending on the breed, but at least as far as I knew, no adult duck kept such vivid yellow feathers.

'Well, Yom brought it from another dimension, so it's obviously not a normal duck.'

I moved a little closer and focused on it.

Ding!

[Golden Duck Clan Duck]

'Golden Duck Clan?'

Ah.

So that's why its feathers were golden?

Quack. Quack?

The duck looked around nervously, apparently unsettled by the unfamiliar surroundings.

Kkiing! A new friend?

Cer came bounding over toward the duck, clearly excited.

Quack, quack?!

The duck must have been frightened by Cer's sudden approach, because it stumbled backward and fell on its rear.

"Cer, you're scaring the duck."

From the duck's perspective, the Hell Hound Cerberus was charging at it with gleaming eyes, so being scared was perfectly understandable.

Kkiing? Kking! Sorry!

Cer then backed off a little and sat down neatly, wagging only his tail, as if to show he had absolutely no intention of attacking.

The duck blinked at this, then got back up and cautiously approached Cer.

Quack quack.

Kkiing!

The two of them seemed to have worked things out amicably.

Cer rubbed his face against the duck in greeting.

He also went over to Yom, who had brought the new friend, and gave his round face a lick.

"...This duck here ran away from its previous home, yom."

Yom explained resolutely while enduring Cer's licking.

After hearing the story, I nodded.

"That's terrible.... It's incredibly lucky it ran into Yom."

I looked at the bright yellow duck.

It seemed that being a Golden Duck Clan member didn't just mean having yellow feathers; it was apparently a species that actually laid Golden Eggs.

'A duck that lays Golden Eggs.'

Wasn't it supposed to be a goose, traditionally?

Well, it wasn't like there were only one or two dimensions out there.

There was probably a goose somewhere in some other dimension.

Anyway, what mattered was that this Golden Duck Clan duck could no longer lay eggs.

"Hey there, want to come over here? I'll fix you up."

If it wasn't that the duck had never been able to lay in the first place, but rather that it had been laying just fine and then stopped...

There was a high chance Restoration could fix it.

[This target is eligible for treatment and Recharge.]

Just as expected.

The message appeared as the duck waddled over.

I reached out my hand to the duck, which seemed somewhat nervous.

The duck squeezed its eyes shut.

"Restoration."

Flash!

Shwaaash!

A cluster of light seeped into the duck.

Ding!

[EXP increased by 140.]

[Restoration Lv.10 (Stage 3) effect slightly increases EXP gain.]

[Gained an additional 21 EXP.]

[Gained 30 Restoration Points (BP).]

This was the EXP gain from the treatment.

And then.

[Trait 'Recharge' has restored the depleted organ.]

[Gained 21,935 EXP.]

[Restoration Lv.10 (Stage 3) effect slightly increases EXP gain.]

[Gained an additional 2,540 EXP.]

[Gained 1,730 Restoration Points (BP).]

Wow.

I'd thought the light seemed a bit intense.

It was probably just like when Yom had fully depleted his abilities before and received a full Recharge all at once.

The organs that had been drained until the duck couldn't lay eggs anymore must have been fully recharged, causing the EXP to spike all at once.

On top of that, the Restoration Points earned in one go were nearly a full day's worth.

[Skill level has increased.]

[Restoration Lv.10 → Lv.11]

[Skill 'Restoration' effectiveness and proficiency have slightly increased.]

[Skill 'Restoration' restoration speed and EXP gain have slightly increased.]

[Trait 'Remote Restoration' range has increased by 10cm.]

'Oh, a level up!'

Everything else was great, but what especially moved me was the fact that Remote Restoration's range had just increased by 10cm.

Objectively, it wasn't a huge increase.

But for someone who'd been working with just 10cm, the range had effectively doubled.

'This 10cm difference is bigger than you'd think.'

I steadied my swelling heart.

Then I asked our cute duck patient.

"How does it feel? Think it's back to normal?"

The duck opened its eyes and looked down at its own chest area.

Then it looked back up at me, shifting its weight from foot to foot in a waddle, flapping its wings.

Quack quack!

Its expression was bright and excited, as though it could feel the Recharge had worked.

On top of that, the feathers that had looked rather scraggly just moments ago were now fluffy and sleek, with a healthy sheen.

Flap—!

The excited duck spread its wings wide and began flapping, soaring up into the sky.

"Oh...."

The duck was flying.

I'd known that some duck species could fly quite well, but this was my first time seeing it in person.

'When I healed it earlier, I noticed its wings had been repaired. So the previous owner really had clipped its flight feathers on purpose.'

I knew that people sometimes did that to domesticated ducks, but....

'At least it can fly freely here. Nice to see.'

The duck circled the sky once, then came back down and settled at my feet.

It let out a soft little quack and nuzzled its head against me.

"Aww, you liked it that much?"

I smiled, crouched down, and petted the duck.

The bright yellow, fluffy feathers felt wonderful to the touch.

'So cute.'

It reminded me of how ducks were always drawn bright yellow like this in cartoons from childhood, but in reality, apart from the ducklings, almost all ducks were white, which had been quite a blow to my childhood dreams.

Petting this golden duck felt like those childhood dreams were coming back to life.

The corners of my mouth rose on their own.

And then.

Ding!

[The Golden Duck Clan duck wishes to become your Contract Beast.]

[Do you accept?]

The same message as when Cer had appeared.

'It doesn't look like it has any combat ability, so even without making it a Contract Beast, it probably wouldn't be dangerous.'

But it was hard to refuse when the duck was asking.

And from hearing its story earlier, sending it back to its original dimension was out of the question.

'Accept.'

[The Golden Duck Clan duck has become your Contract Beast.]

The Contract was successfully formed.

Should I give it a name, like I did with Cer?

'A name, huh.'

Since it was a golden duck, maybe shorten it to... Gol-uck.... No, that sounded weird.

It might actually be better to just call it "Duck."

Unless something special came up, "Duck" it would be for now.

Quack?!

The feathers felt so nice that I'd been petting it when the duck suddenly raised its head.

Quack quack!

"Hm? What's wrong, Duck?"

Yom, who was beside me, translated.

"Looks like an egg's coming, yom!"

"Already?!"

Was it because of the full recharge?

It seemed an egg was already on its way.

The duck settled into the grass to prepare for laying.

I stepped back a bit with Cer and Yom and kept quiet, trying not to disturb it.

And a moment later.

Pop!

With a small sound.

"Whoa."

The duck laid a gleaming Golden Egg.