The weekend afternoon stretched longer than I expected. Maybe it was because of all that commotion first thing in the morning.
After dragging Hathor back from the shopping district, I threw my exhausted body onto the couch. For a while, I did nothing but stare at the ceiling. I was still breathing a little hard, and my head was even starting to throb.
Just today, I’d nearly lost that nerve-racking dragon several times already. As if getting into a confrontation with people wasn’t enough, I’d almost ended up bringing the police in, too.
How on earth did I meet someone like her? Well, she wasn’t exactly a person.
Lee Hae-na turned her head to look at Hathor.
Hathor was standing in front of the refrigerator as if nothing had happened.
“What are you doing?”
“I am searching for food.”
“……There’s no cake.”
“I know.”
“You ate it yesterday.”
“So I thought there would be some today as well.”
“How does that follow?”
When I answered incredulously, Hathor closed the refrigerator door without replying. Then she sat down across from me on the couch.
A brief silence passed.
I suddenly remembered what I’d said yesterday.
Hathor had no money right now, and she had no job, either.
Until now, I’d only been thinking about helping Hathor adapt to the human world, but that alone wasn’t enough.
If she planned to keep living in Japan, she would eventually need money. Of course, you needed money no matter what country you lived in. And to make money, you had to work.
“Hathor.”
“What?”
“You really need to get a job.”
“I know.”
“We saw a few jobs in the shopping district yesterday, remember?”
“We did.”
“But I don’t know what you can do.”
Hathor narrowed her eyes.
“Do you think there is a task I cannot perform?”
“Lots of them.”
“First, we need to find something you can do in human society. And…”
“I told you to fix the way you talk first. If you keep talking down to people like that, you’ll never make it.”
“I shall endeavor to do so.”
“Repeat after me: ‘I’ll try.’”
“Repeat after me: ‘I’ll try.’”
*She definitely knows exactly what she’s doing.*
I got up and brought over my laptop. I opened it on the dining table, pulled a chair over for Hathor, and sat beside her.
“What we’re doing now is job training.”
“Training?”
“Yeah. Something like a mini KidZania.”
“What is KidZania?”
“It’s just… something like that.”
I gave her a rough explanation and opened a search window. Showing her would be faster than explaining it.
“Let’s start by looking up the things you’re interested in.”
At some point, I’d started speaking casually to Hathor without even realizing it, but I decided not to worry about it. She didn’t seem to care, either.
Hathor folded her arms and stared at the screen.
“Very well.”
“What should we look at first?”
After thinking for a moment, Hathor spoke.
“Something we saw yesterday.”
“We saw more than one thing. What exactly are you talking about?”
“The box that made sounds and shone.”
When I played her the little siren sound it had made, I snickered despite myself.
“Ah… You mean the police car?”
“Yes, that. What do those humans do?”
“They’re police officers.”
A video explaining the duties of police officers began playing.
People in uniform went on patrol, responded to calls, and restrained people at the scene. All of it appeared on the screen.
Hathor’s expression gradually grew more serious.
“Hmm.”
“What?”
“It does not seem bad.”
“What doesn’t?”
“Restraining people.”
Hathor said it as casually as if she were discussing the weather. She was obviously thinking about dealing with those men yesterday.
“That’s not all this job involves.”
“They do such things and receive money for it?”
“That’s right.”
“Then I should be able to do it as well.”
I hurriedly shook my head.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“To become a police officer, you have to take an exam and go through training… And more importantly, it would be a huge problem if people found out your identity.”
Hathor gazed at the police car on the screen.
“What a shame. I wanted to ride in that box.”
I clicked on the next video to divert her attention.
“Then let’s try cooking.”
On the screen, someone was stir-frying food in a large frying pan. Flames climbed up the sides of the pan.
Hathor’s eyes lit up.
“Fire.”
“Yeah. You said you were good with fire.”
“I am not merely good with it.”
Hathor spoke as though it were obvious.
“I am a dragon. I was born in the flames.”
There wasn’t the slightest hint of boasting in her words.
If anything, she acted as though the fact that she was a dragon was the most natural fact in the world.
I watched her for a moment, then went into the kitchen.
“Then try it yourself right now.”
“Now?”
“Yeah. You should be able to make fried rice, at least. It’s what they were cooking in the video.”
“I can manage something of that caliber.”
I took the ingredients out of the refrigerator.
Hathor looked at the potato, carrot, and onion one after another. Once I laid out all the ingredients, it actually looked like a proper cooking lesson.
I tied an apron around Hathor and had her stand in front of the frying pan.
When Hae-na turned on the burner, Hathor spoke.
“May I take over now?”
“Yeah.”
Hathor held out her hand. More precisely, she held it near the burner. A small flame sprang to life. Then, as her fingers moved, the flame shrank just a little, only to grow again when she moved them.
My eyes went wide.
“……You really are good at this.”
“This much is basic.”
Hathor smiled smugly.
The flame stayed perfectly even, adjusted to the size of the pan.
“So this is how humans control such things.”
“Yeah.”
“It is convenient, I suppose.”
“You’re not exactly in a position to say that.”
“Why?”
“You’re using magic right now, too.”
“It is not magic. It is power.”
“Right… A dragon’s power.”
Hathor nodded, looking satisfied.
But the problem came next.
“Now chop the ingredients.”
“Understood.”
Hathor picked up the carrot.
She picked up the knife.
Tap.
The carrot split in half.
“Observe. I did well, yes?”
“Yeah… But it’s still a little big.”
“Then I shall make it smaller.”
Thwack, thwack, thwack… Four pieces, then eight, one after another… And after that, it became a shape that was difficult to call a piece at all. I quietly took the knife away from her.
“……I’ll do it.”
“I can do it.”
“No, you can’t.”
“I said I can.”
“You can’t control your strength.”
“I can.”
“Then chop this one more time.”
Hathor glared at the potato.
After thinking for a long while, she brought the knife down.
Tap.
The potato crumbled completely.
Hathor stared at it for a moment.
“See?”
“Strange.”
“You’re just too strong.”
Hathor backed away, looking unconvinced.
In the end, I handled the chopping while Hathor took care of the fire.
The result…
The fried rice was surprisingly delicious.
Hathor took a bite, then paused.
“……It is not bad.”
“All you did was handle the fire.”
“The fire is the most important part.”
“Sure.”
Holding back a laugh, Lee Hae-na returned to the laptop.
We watched videos about various jobs, including baker and hairstylist.
And then…
“Next up is a normal office job.”
A person sat in front of a computer, working all day long. Hathor didn’t say a word until the video ended.
“Well?”
“Do they sit like that all day?”
“Yeah.”
“What?”
“Is this some form of torture currently popular in this place?”
I burst out laughing before I could stop myself.
“I think so, too.”
Hathor leaned back in her chair, looking horrified.
“I shall never do that.”
“Fine. I wasn’t planning to make you work an office job, anyway.”
We moved on to flower shops, convenience stores, bookstores, bakeries, and even animal-related jobs.
Each time a video ended, Hathor gave her own assessment.
The flower shop wasn’t bad, but it looked boring. Animals were cute, and convenience stores had too many products. Baking and cooking were interesting because they used fire.
After thinking for a long while, I organized the candidates in the laptop’s notepad.
Police — Difficult Office job — Rejected Hairstylist — Rejected Cooking — Potential Baking — Potential Flower shop — Interested Animal-related — Interested
Hathor looked down at the notepad.
“There are more than I expected.”
“We haven’t even started yet.”
“Even so, does this not mean there are things I can do in human society?”
“That’s true.”
Hathor looked quite satisfied.
Then she noticed a short video playing in the corner of the screen.
“What is that?”
“Huh?”
“Why is that human talking to himself?”
“Oh, that’s a YouTuber.”
“A YouTuber?”
“Someone who records videos and uploads them. You know the videos we just watched? Someone who records and uploads things like that.”
Hathor stared at the screen.
“I believe I would be good at that.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because you can’t let people recognize your face!”
“What is wrong with my face?”
Her face wasn’t the problem, but I thought of Hathor’s horns and tail. If she failed to hide them even once… I didn’t even want to imagine it.
Hathor thought for a moment, then snorted.
“Humans truly have no eye for beauty.”
“That’s not the problem.”
“Never mind. Let us find something else.”
Surprisingly, Hathor obediently turned her eyes away from the screen.
A little while later, she spoke.
“Let us do this again tomorrow.”
“Do what?”
“This.”
Hathor pointed at the laptop.
“Find something I can do well.”
I looked at Hathor for a moment.
“Okay.”
I gave her a short answer. The weekend lasted through tomorrow, and watching videos together wasn’t a big deal… I’d just think of it as helping my fellow foreign neighbor adjust to her first life abroad.
Hathor sat back down on the couch.
But before long, I heard the sound of running water from the kitchen.
“Hathor.”
“What?”
“What are you doing?”
“Washing the dishes.”
“……All of a sudden?”
“Did you not say that if one cooks, one must also wash the dishes?”
I got up and went into the kitchen. Then I stopped dead. Hathor was standing in front of the sink, holding a sponge covered in suds. The problem was that the suds weren’t just on the dishes. They were piled up across the entire sink like a mountain.
“……This is your first time washing dishes, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“How much dish soap did you use?”
Hathor thought for a moment.
“I used it as it came out. When no more came out, I stopped.”
“……Don’t. I’ll do it.”
Hathor looked at me as if she’d been wronged.
“Why is human life so complicated?”
I sighed, but I was still laughing. She still had a long way to go. Still… it was better than her disappearing on her own and causing trouble like she had earlier.
At least today,
Hathor was slowly learning how to live like a human.