Fairy Tale Chronicles - Volume 4.4

Volume 4.4 Extra 2.1

Editor: Weasalopes

It happened when the children had come over to harvest as per usual.

「Huh？」

Lime, who had been rustling through the thicket, found something slightly rare.

Honestly, this was not rare by itself. The area near Wulls maybe had more wildlife forward or backward than in the area she was, but this was certainly not unexpected. Also, depending on the variety, some of these were the kinds you found every day, so finding the item was nothing special.

So then why use the term rare？

「Whoa, that’s a big egg！」

Indeed, what Lime had found was a fairly large egg. Specifically, it was big enough to surpass a super large pom. Even if she was comparatively well-built for her age, Lime couldn’t carry it without hugging it with both arms. There were no large egg bearing animals in this area, so normally getting your hands on such a large egg was out of the question.

So this massive-sized egg was dropped skillfully into the thicket, effectively hiding it, and it would have most likely not been found had a small child like Lime not discovered it. Timewise as well, egg-laying peaked a little before or after right now, so that was another reason why no one besides Lime could have easily found it.

「Sis, Sis！」

Excited at the size, Lime called over Fum, who had come with her. Hearing her voice, Fum and Lumina raced over, wondering what had happened.

「The heck happen, Lime？」

「Lime-chan, what happened？」

「Look, look！Biiig egg！」

Lime showed Fum and Lumina the egg, to which they gazed at its size in amazement.

「……What kind of egg is this？」

「If neither of you know, why would I know……」

Lumina threw in the towel when she heard Fum ask that question, shaking her head. The difference in knowledge between Fum, Lime, and then Lumina was no contest, which goes to show you there was a reason why they were working at Azuma Workshop.

「Sis, do you think we could make a bunch of pudding with this egg？」

「Considering the amount of egg yolk in there, I’d say minimum ten puddings, maybe？」

「Woohoo！」

「Wow, I’m jealous……I wanna eat that too……」

If this were a fairy tale, adults would usually expect a young girl to try and hatch the egg, but instead these girls immediately thought of food. This world was not so naive.

From elders to youngsters, among every humanoid race, eggs were nothing more than food. The only exceptions were eggs that were unsuitable for food and eggs used for breeding.

Let’s also mention that Fum and Lime were living in Azuma Workshop, which handled the state of the art Farlane food. This was the first time the children saw a big egg, so of course they would only think about eating it.

「How about we go ahead and take it back with us, at least.」

「Sis, open the bag.」

「Wait a sec……Alright」

「Here we gooo」

They could count their chickens after they hatched, or after they obtained the egg, so to speak. Using mana to boost her physical strength, Lime lifted up the egg and threw it in the bag, which was directly connected to storage. The gigantic egg, which weighed just as much as it looked, wasn’t something a little girl like Lime could even tip over without a boost.

「And now there’s no worry of it breaking.」

「Sis, let’s search for some more！」

「Oーkay！」

Getting the rarest of the rare, the young’uns of Azuma Workshop beamed at each other. No one had noticed this, but the moment Lime lifted up the egg with magic, it had oscillated in a wavelike motion. For a group that was the youngest, they sure did tend to pick up the rarest items. And just like that, the group returned to base.

「We’re back～！」

「Welcome, welcome. Did you find anything cool？」

Nora greeted the triumphant children when they got back. Surmising from their demeanor that they had found something good, she asked to confirm.

「Yep, something really really cool！」

「It’s definitely something rare but neither Lime nor I could tell what it was, so I’d like it if you called over Boss Man, Haruna-san, and Mio-san.」

「Alright then.」

When she heard Fum’s request, Nora quickly went to call Hiroshi and the others. Lime was a bit on the younger side, but Fum had some pretty good judgement. If those two couldn’t figure out what they got, then Nora probably wouldn’t know just by looking at it either.

「I hear ya got a pretty rare thingamajig？」

「What kind of item is it？」

Hiroshi and the others had arrived alongside Nora. Not only had Haruna and Mio come with him, but also Tatsuya, Makoto, and Teres.

「Uhh, so yeah, Lime found a super crazy big egg. We went ahead and stored it, but we don’t know what kind of egg it is and therefore aren’t sure if it’s edible or not.」

「And so yer askin’ us to appraise it.」

「Yeah, and sorry, but I think only you, Haruna-san, or Mio-san would know.」

Hiroshi and the others nodded at Fum. Seeing this, Lime took out the egg from the bag.

「Heave-ho, heave-ho」

「Lime-chan, if it’s heavy then you shouldn’t carry it by yourself.」

Haruna held out a hand when she saw Lime trying to pull the egg out with all her might, as this could have potentially lead to the egg falling and cracking.

「Up you go…Yeah, I think this is a bit difficult for a child by themselves.」

「Prolly yeah. It’s bigger than Lime’s face, mate.」

Hiroshi simply had to agree with Haruna’s comment as she covered for Lime by taking hold of the egg and placing it on the table. Now in plain sight (and clearly bigger than not only Lime’s face, but Fum’s face as well!), the big egg roused everyone’s curiosity.

「So Boss Man, which egg would that be？」

「Unfortunately, other than the size there ain’t nothin’ that sticks out about it. I can’t quite whittle down the possibilities. Welp, regardless of which it is, there ain’t no problem eating it.」

「Okay. Can it be used for pudding？」

「Yup, you can make pudding with most shelled eggs.」

Hiroshi answered as he ran a small amount of magic over the egg, touching it, to which Fum and Lime’s faces lit up with excitement. Children do like their pudding after all.

「……Wait, c’mon you guys.」

「Wazzup, Makoto-san? Actin’ all fed up with us suddenly?」

「Wouldn’t you generally think of heating up eggs like this to make them hatch？」

Everyone but Tatsuya just stared at Makoto for her fairy tale-esque idea.

「Eh? What? Am I really saying something that’s so strange？」

「Y’know, Makoto-san.」

「Whaaat……」

「We don’t even know what kinda egg it is, so there ain’t even a way to tell if it’s fertilized or not.」

「That’s your reasoning！？」

Hearing the reason for not incubating the egg, Makoto broke into a full-fledged outburst.

It was true that normal eggs would not incubate without fertilization, no matter how much you tried. There also wasn’t a single guarantee of whether the egg would hatch, whether it would be a chick or a larva, whether it was safe or not, etc, so in other words, just eating the darn thing would be safe and avoid future trouble, and it would have the most benefit.

「Hey, Hiro……」

「Ya opposed to eatin’ it too, Bro？」

「Well, not for the same reason as Makoto, but yes.」

「Not the same reason? Then why？」

「I think with a big egg like this, the parent’s also gonna be pretty big, so what if we eat the egg and then the parent comes for revenge？」

Everyone in the workshop had new expressions on their faces, realizing that Tatsuya had a point.

「If they drop the egg in an area like this, I bet they already considered the egg might be eaten.」

However, Hiroshi responded to Tatsuya with his own blunt thinking. No revenge-seeking creature would drop their young so close to the city in the first place.

Now, assuming they had in fact stolen an egg from a creature who would get upset at the fact, such a creature should have already launched an attack on Wulls long ago. Besides, even if someone were to steal the egg, in this case it was hidden in a half-assed location.

In other words, eating the egg would not bring about any kind of obstacle.