There are quite a few instances in the world where baldness is made fun of.
Weren’t there such memes in my previous life too?
Things like “Grow, hair, grow” or “baldness beam” and such.
Personally, I don’t really like those memes.
It’s certainly not because my father was bald.
Of course, since I was reborn as a snake, I didn’t have to worry about losing hair.
Now I even had luxurious horns, no, a crown on my head.
“Hehe, somehow I couldn’t just leave it alone.”
But this dwarf was feeling a sense of kinship with me.
This bald guy!
Rustle rustle-
I raised all the scales on my body.
“You’re not… smooth… after all.”
The dwarf was taken aback.
“Did I upset you? If so, I’m sorry…”
No, why are you apologizing again?
When you react like that, it makes me feel a bit sorry.
“My name is Dunkel. You seem to be from the outside, let’s go to my house for now.”
His face is round, so maybe that’s why he’s Dunkel.
He seems like a dwarf with a mellow, gentle personality.
Oh well, whatever.
I lowered my raised scales and relaxed my body.
Maybe because I drank too much, my head is spinning.
I need to get some sleep.
==
Argh.
There must be a small snake inside my head.
A ‘brain-eating snake’ is wriggling in my head.
If not, my head couldn’t hurt this much.
The name of that snake is surely ‘Hangover,’ the snake of headaches.
I writhed.
This was on a bed.
Dunkel, that dwarf, had laid me down on the bed.
“You’re awake.”
Dunkel was sitting in a chair.
Wearing cute pajamas.
“It’s the first time I’ve seen a monster that drinks alcohol. Drink this at least. It’s honey water.”
Dunkel kindly offered me honey water in a cast iron cup.
I carefully drank the honey water, wrapping my tail around the cup handle.
Dunkel watched in admiration.
“You’re really smart, unlike a monster.”
What’s the big deal about this much, I’ll gratefully drink the honey water.
Dunkel, true to being a dwarf, was short and stout.
It’s not just fat, but there must be solid muscles under the layer of fat.
Traditionally, dwarves should have lush beards covering their faces, and hair bristling on their forearms.
But Dunkel’s face and even arms were smooth.
“He must have been born that way.”
‘Is that so?’
“Yes, or he’s sick.”
There’s something called alopecia.
It means having no or little hair all over the body, including eyebrows.
Dunkel had eyebrows but almost no other hair.
‘Ugh, I feel a bit better after drinking the honey water.’
It felt like the sweet honey water was spreading through my sour stomach.
The scent of the honey water was peculiar. Not just honey, but there was also a scent similar to herbs.
“I added some galflower juice. It’s good for hangovers.”
Dunkel said.
Pelerian added an explanation.
“Dwarves are as expert in hangover cures as they are fond of alcohol. It’s natural since they’re such heavy drinkers.”
But Dunkel said something unexpected.
“I’m not good at drinking, so it’s been a while since I made this.”
He says he doesn’t drink well.
I thought, ‘I see,’ but Pelerian seemed to find it very strange.
“No beard and can’t drink well… I can imagine what this dwarf’s life has been like.”
‘What has it been like?’
“He must have been treated as deficient somewhere.”
That’s a merciless evaluation.
He seems like a kind-hearted dwarf, is this really something that deserves such a harsh judgment?
What’s so important about a beard?
“Even female dwarves grow beards. And beards are honor and strength. The more lush and good quality the beard, the more respect one gets in that race.”
Could it be.
What kind of terrible beard fetishists are they?
Come to think of it, the name of the dwarf king we’re supposed to meet is also Bluebeard.
Is the beard that important?
“How would someone without even hair, let alone a beard, be treated? Think about it. If there was an individual born without scales among your siblings in the snake den. Could that one survive?”
Thinking about it, it might feel a bit creepy.
But well, I was born alone as a lower species, Little White Snake…
“Not being able to drink is the same. For those born with eccentric and dogmatic personalities, the only way to socialize is through drinking sessions. If they can’t even do that, it’s natural to be ostracized. What a pitifully pathetic birth…”
The words evaluating Dunkel are nothing short of harsh criticism.
I looked at Pelerian, thinking he was speaking offensively again.
I thought he might be looking at Dunkel with contempt, befitting his elf supremacist attitude, but no.
Pelerian had a distant look in his eyes, as if gazing far away.
“Whose sin is it, this curse received at birth…”
He might have seen himself in Dunkel.
A dwarf without a beard.
And a fairy born with the appearance of a withered old man.
I threw a joke at him.
‘Oh, empathy, fellow sufferer.’
“Yes.”
I thought he would lose his temper, but Pelerian rather grinned.
“Snake, you were born with the inferior white color, so you should know how it feels.”
‘…’
Could it be, when my brother tried to kill me as soon as he saw me before. Was it because I was white?
I was hit hard by Pelerian.
‘White is not inferior.’
Pelerian just smiled mischievously.
Dunkel approached.
Not knowing what we were talking about him, he gestured for us to follow.
“Come this way, I’ll show you around.”
The dwarf’s house was built by digging into the earth and rocks underground.
Although it’s narrow, it’s quite cozy, but it doesn’t seem like there’s much to see?
While I was thinking that, Dunkel took a lamp and left the room.
I followed Dunkel.
“It’s my own secret space… You can stay here for a while.”
A dwarf’s secret space.
Is it a workshop or workspace where he makes something?
Thinking that, I followed Dunkel.
Dunkel’s house seemed to be located on the outskirts of a vast mine, as there was no sign of other dwarves.
A narrow staircase appeared.
Because of the hangover, it was hard to climb the stairs, so I just climbed onto Dunkel’s shoulder.
Dunkel seemed a bit surprised, but soon his face became rather moved.
As we climbed the stairs, the interior became brighter.
It was bright enough not to need a lamp.
“Here it is.”
And for good reason.
There was a space where sunlight shone in this underground.
“It’s my secret garden.”
An underground garden.
It really existed.
Various grasses and trees were growing in the cavity.
Without sunlight, these green leaves couldn’t be so lush.
But the sunlight from the sky had come into this underground.
“There’s a vertical cave.”
Looking up, there was a hole pierced in the ceiling.
It seemed to lead to the outside. Raindrops were also falling.
“I grow edible fruits here… and the honey was also harvested from here.”
Bees were buzzing around.
It’s quite amazing.
Even with sunlight, it’s not an easy task to maintain a garden like this.
This friend Dunkel seems to have a personality closer to an elf than a dwarf.
He picked a raspberry and put it in his mouth.
And he picked another one and threw it to me.