High Protection

After finishing a roughly twenty-day construction job away from home, we returned to where our house had originally stood.

Once we were back, I realized that this place really was soothing.

After breakfast, we set about putting various things back in place.

We set up the treehouse, installed the scaffolding for climbing the cliff, and set up Nyamena's hut.

Oh, right—we had to set up the solar panels too. Even without them, we could manage a reasonable life with the gasoline generator, though.

Primula had gone to the viscount's mansion with Nyamena. They were checking its financial condition.

They hadn't allowed beastfolk into the mansion before, but ever since my incident, Nyamena seemed to be allowed inside as Primula's bodyguard.

They didn't seem willing to let her wander freely around the mansion, though.

I had avoided getting involved with nobles, but after reluctantly associating with the lady of this territory, I had learned something.

Viscount Eupatorium, who ruled this territory, apparently wasn't a particularly sharp man.

His wife was an unworldly young lady too. If I could get rid of the insects swarming around the viscount's territory—the merchants—I could put various things in the territory to convenient use myself.

The viscountess mentioning my name had probably made me known to other nobles too, but if I were considered under the protection of the Eupatorium domain, the other nobles shouldn't be able to lay a hand on me.

This would make a good cover. The irrigation canal project had been one absurdity after another, but perhaps it had turned into a lucky windfall out of nowhere.

Well, I'd leave the nobles to Primula and work on the fields.

Before we left, I had planted corn in the field and had Anemone use her magic on it, and it had grown quite nicely.

The plants had grown straight and green, with flowers blooming at the tops. This was sweet corn, so it was short.

The flowers blooming at the top were male flowers, while the corn with the silky tassels was the female flower.

When you travel around Hokkaido, you see tall cornfields, but that is dent corn for livestock. It tastes fucking awful.

About three ears were beginning to form below, but I plucked all but the lowest one. That way, all the nutrients go into a single ear, increasing its sugar content.

Bell was sniffing and sniffing at the pile of corn I had plucked.

"Huh~ That's an unusual plant!"

Anemone picked up an ear of corn, looking puzzled.

"Haven't you ever seen grain like this?"

"No!"

"Me neither, nya."

There might not be any corn in this world. I could probably make money just by selling dent corn, but...

But if I gave them the seeds, that would be the end of it... Hmm. Just because it was a rare plant, it wasn't as though anyone would pay tens of millions of yen for seeds.

I pulled out the weeds around the plants and gave them plenty of fertilizer and water. The river flowing from the waterfall was nearby, so the soil didn't seem likely to dry out too much.

"Anemone, use your magic on the plants."

"Mmm! Growth Boost!"

If we did this a few times, they might be ready to eat soon.

"Why are you picking the ears off, nya?"

"To concentrate the nutrients in one ear and make it tastier."

"Nyaa, ordinary people can't afford such luxury, nya."

"Yeah."

Farming in this world meant letting plants bear as much fruit as possible without thinning them.

If so, perhaps even Linkers and the like sold in the market would grow larger and tastier if they were cultivated with some thinning.

"Myaree, if you find a young linker tree in the forest, could you dig it up and bring it back?"

"Are we planting it near the house, nya?"

"Yeah. They're delicious."

It was amazing that such delicious fruit grew wild throughout the forest.

"Got it, nya. But they get covered in bugs, so we'd better plant it a little way from the house, nya."

"I see..."

There were probably many things we wouldn't know until we tried cultivating it.

Using insect-repelling magic stones on a tree seemed a little extravagant too... But if it really became covered in a black mass of insects, we'd need one.

But looking at the corn reminded me of popcorn, and I wanted some.

When people hear "corn," some might imagine corn roasted on a wire rack, but nobody back home eats it that way. Of course, dissenting opinions are welcome.

When I searched Shangri-La, I found bulk popping corn for sale. I had to buy it—five hundred yen per kilogram.

It was a little early for lunch, but let's give it a try. I took a table and a cassette stove out of my Item Box and put plenty of butter in a frying pan.

Then I added the popping corn—the amount was approximate. I shook the pan so the melted butter coated the kernels.

"When you heat these kernels, they pop and become ready to eat."

"Oh! Then I'll heat them with magic for you."

"Wait, hold—"

Before I could stop her, Anemone used her magic.

With a series of explosive pops, every kernel burst at once, and popcorn spilled all over the table.

"Fwah!"

Startled by the loud noise, Myaree jumped backward in a panic, her fur standing on end.

Bell must have been startled too, because she hid in the forest.

"What's this?! It's fun!"

"It spilled everywhere, but it looks all right."

I took a large plate from my Item Box, picked up the popcorn and put it on the plate, then tried a piece myself.

"Yeah, it's fragrant and delicious."

"It's delicious!"

"Nya? It's good, nya?"

Hearing the two of us, Myaree immediately pounced over.

"Myaa! It's salty, but this is fragrant and delicious, nya!"

"It's good, isn't it? Is this the corn you were growing in the field?"

"Well, yes, but it's a slightly different variety."

"Hmm."

Anemone nodded while continuing to munch on the popcorn.

"Nya! Nya! This is tasty, but something's stuck between my teeth, nya!"

Myaree worked her mouth around, then began picking at what was stuck in her teeth with one claw. It seemed to be bothering her a lot.

"I want Primula and Nyamena to try it too, so should we make a little more?"

"I want more too!"

"All right, all right."

She seemed to have taken a liking to popcorn. It wasn't that famous can't-stop-eating snack, but its simple flavor was addictive.

Even if we made a lot, we could store it in the Item Box and enjoy it whenever we wanted.

I decided to make a large batch in a stockpot. It was easy: coat the popping corn in heated butter and roast it with Anemone's magic.

The result was a huge amount of popcorn, enough to overflow the stockpot.

I offered some popcorn to Bell when she returned, but she only sniffed it and refused to eat. Apparently, it wasn't to her taste.

I stored the remaining popcorn in my Item Box, and Anemone apparently planned to go hunting with Myaree.

Well, perhaps I would do some tinkering—the subject was expanding our arsenal.

I had learned that a pressure-cooker bomb using ANFO explosives was powerful and useful, but difficult to detonate.

Without Anemone, who could use the Explosive Magic needed to detonate it, it was unusable.

I wanted something a little easier to use... Which meant a hand grenade using black powder.

In any case, I had to test it first.

I bought some what-have-you that could serve as an oxidizer from Shangri-La, dismantled it, and extracted potassium perchlorate.

It would produce a greater blast than saltpeter, which was commonly used in black powder.

Heh-heh-heh—I had been doing this sort of thing since I was a kid, so I knew this stuff inside and out.

Explosions were a man's romance, after all.

Then there were sulfur and charcoal—both were readily available from Shangri-La too.

Charcoal apparently became more powerful when soaked in alcohol, so I decided to try it.

Since Anemone and the others weren't around, I took out a digital scale and weighed everything precisely. The proportions were important when mixing gunpowder.

Making a large batch would make an accident disastrous, so I divided it into small portions and immediately put anything I wasn't using into my Item Box.

This made it safe. As long as I put it in my Item Box, it couldn't explode.

Gunpowder was scary in that respect. Even static electricity could ignite it, so I couldn't let my guard down.

There were endless stories of people making explosives and blowing up their rooms by accidentally blowing themselves up.

It was finished for now, so I decided to test the ignition.

I placed a stainless-steel dish on the table and put the finished black powder on it. Then I brought a flame close to it—

"Oh!"

Red flames sprang up, and the powder burned away in an instant as thick white smoke billowed upward. The smell of gunpowder drifted through the air.

All right! It worked.

Now, how should I ignite it...? A normal fuse would do, but I wanted to make it more convenient to use.

Hmm, a timer ignition seemed best.

I used a 1.5-volt miniature light bulb. First, I broke its glass. Then I coated the exposed filament with gunpowder and connected it to a battery.

A red flame appeared. I could use this as an igniter.

For the timer, I used an ordinary digital kitchen timer sold by Shangri-La—eight hundred yen.

You set the time with the buttons, and when it reaches zero, current flows to the alarm, making it sound.

I just had to run wires from the alarm's contact points to the miniature bulb. Then it would detonate when the timer reached zero.

With a digital timer, the timing was accurate. It could even be set to the second. The maximum was... How many minutes was it?

I tried it—it seemed to be ninety-nine minutes. One hour and thirty-nine minutes. After ninety-nine minutes, it returned to 00. That must have been how it was designed.

If I set it for a somewhat longer time, I might even be able to use it for a diversion.

The problem was the grenade's body. When I searched Shangri-La, I found a replica of an iron hand grenade for sale.

I bought one to try. Apparently it had been cast from a real grenade, but there wasn't much room for gunpowder.

Hmm... I pondered it for a while, then decided to cut a section of the steel pipe I had used for the scaffolding and pack the powder inside it.

To seal both ends of the pipe, I bought a welding machine—eighty-five thousand yen.

Then, to make lids out of steel plate, I bought the plasma cutter I needed—one with a built-in compressor, also eighty-five thousand yen.

I had used a welding machine before, but this was my first time using a semiautomatic welder. It was also my first experience with a plasma cutter.

Nervously, I placed the cutter's nozzle against the steel plate and pulled the trigger. Sparks showered out in a blue flash.

"This is amazing! It cuts through steel plate like paper!"

However, cutting the steel plate into a circle was difficult. But if I fixed the nozzle in place and rotated the steel plate, it worked.

I also bought an auto-darkening welding helmet. Its window was liquid crystal and automatically darkened to block the light when it detected a strong flash—ten thousand yen.

I could buy all sorts of tools I'd wanted in my original world. This was irresistible. I was spending money like crazy.

Normally, buying this much would fill the hut, but putting everything in my Item Box meant I didn't have to worry about that.

Now that I'd come this far, I wanted a lathe and a milling machine too... The list of things I wanted kept growing, but that could wait.

After using the welding machine to seal both ends of the steel pipe, I bought a drill press from Shangri-La.

I drilled a hole for the bolt, tapped threads into it—and drilled a hole lengthwise through the bolt.

The drill press was somewhat expensive, but I bought a Japanese-made one.

There were cheaper models from that country, but their bearings died quickly and their precision was poor, so buying an expensive one from the start was ultimately less risky.

I threaded the igniter made from the miniature bulb through the hole in the bolt and fixed it in place with epoxy putty.

I filled the hand grenade with gunpowder, screwed in the igniter bolt, and it was ready to detonate.

I set the timer, pressed the start button, and when the displayed numbers reached zero, it would explode.

I became so absorbed in my work that the sun was already slanting low.

Primula and the others, who had gone to the viscount's mansion, had returned as well.

"I'm back."

"Boss, are you making something suspicious again?"

"I'm developing a new weapon."

"A weapon? That weird thing?"

Nyamena cast a suspicious glance at the strange, misshapen object on the table.

"Nyaa! I'm back!"

"I'm back~."

Anemone and Myaree had returned too, but I wanted to conduct one test.

I took a polycarbonate shield from my Item Box.

"Everyone, it's dangerous, so get behind this shield."

"Nya?"

I bought one more timer. I set the grenade's timer to one minute, placed the grenade in a hollow tree about a hundred meters away in the forest, and pressed both start buttons at the same time.

Then I ran back at full speed and threw myself flat on the ground with everyone else.

"Boss, what are you doing?"

"It's Explosive Magic made with alchemy."

"Like the one from before, nya?"

"This time, it will explode even without Anemone's magic."

The timer in my hand counted down—thirty seconds—ten seconds.

"Five, four, three, two, one—"

With a tremendous boom, the tree trunk was blasted to splinters and toppled over with a series of cracks.

"Yes! It worked! This is useful!"

For the real thing, I could improve its killing power by wrapping iron nails around the pipe, just as I had with the pressure-cooker bomb.

"Magic, nya?!"

"Whoa—what the hell is this?!"

"It explodes without magic power, so beastfolk can use it too. I'll teach you how."

"No way—we don't need something that scary. If it explodes while we're carrying it, it'll blow us to pieces!"

"Well, I can't say that isn't possible."

"Nyaa, I don't want one either~"

"Then I'll hand them out before a battle and just teach you how to use them."

"..."

The beastfolk didn't seem to trust this new weapon.

Well, it was an unfamiliar technology, and I could understand not wanting to use something they couldn't make sense of.

We all prepared dinner and sat down to eat.

While we ate, I asked Primula what things had been like at the viscount's mansion.

"It was worse than I expected... It was awful."

According to her, the merchants had dictated the budget for purchasing supplies. There were many items not recorded in the ledgers, and supplies seemed to have been diverted and sold off.

When she reported this to the viscountess, the official in charge of finances had apparently been dismissed immediately.

They were probably sons of nobles hired through connections and the like, but once they had committed crimes, dismissal was only natural. They should consider themselves lucky not to have been executed and had their property confiscated.

There was no way Primula could handle it alone, so as planned, she had asked the Marrow Trading Company in Dalia for assistance through the Commercial Guild.

"It seems the viscountess and the viscount weren't overseeing any of that either."

"It appears so. They seem to have left everything entirely to their subordinates."

"How did the administration not collapse?"

"If you suck out enough blood to kill the host, the parasites die too."

"So they kept it alive without letting it thrive..."

Once the corruption was corrected and the budget could be allocated elsewhere, perhaps the administration would be able to do more.

This might even give the city of Astrantia a chance to develop a little further.

------◇◇◇------

――One week later.

When I went into the city with Primula and the others and stopped by the old woman's tool shop, the grimoire's registered owner had been changed.

After receiving the grimoire, I immediately returned home.

Anemone had been eagerly awaiting it. She probably wanted to try using it as soon as possible.

When I rode the off-road bike through the forest, Anemone and Bell were waiting for me.

"Did you bring the grimoire?"

"Yeah, the change of ownership was complete."

"Yay!"

"However, even if you obtain a rare, expensive grimoire, that doesn't mean you'll be able to use it."

There were all sorts of reasons you might be unable to use one—insufficient magic power, no aptitude, and so on, like in an RPG.

I couldn't use anything except Shangri-La myself, after all.

"Yeah, I know."

I handed the grimoire to Anemone, and she raised it toward the heavens with both hands.

"Wow!"

Still hugging it to her chest, she ran to an open area and opened the book. Bell sat behind her, watching over her.

"Hey, are you using it right away?"

"What's going on, nya?"

Myaree heard our voices and came running over.

"Anemone is going to use the High Protection spell."

"Can she use it, nya?"

"Who knows—we won't know until she tries."

The area around Anemone's chest began to glow blue, and countless glittering points of light gathered around her. Was it my imagination, or did the air seem to waver?

'Pebbles of light, source of all things, answer my call and, in equal array, become a shield that blocks hostile force—High Protection!'

The points of light arranged themselves like blocks making up a cube, and when they vanished, something like a faintly transparent wall seemed to remain.

The air itself seemed slightly distorted too—but had the refractive index of the light changed?

"Did it work?"

"Nya?"

I picked up a stone lying on the ground and threw it toward Anemone.

――The stone stopped in midair without a sound, then dropped softly to the ground.

"Amazing! It's a barrier—a barrier!"

"Nya? What does that mean?"

"Nothing, just something from my world."

I summoned Ko○tsu-san.

I climbed into the heavy machine that appeared before me and started the engine.

"Let's see what this High Protection can really do!"

I operated the levers, raised Ko○tsu-san's arm high, and brought it down on what seemed to be an invisible barrier.

"Ko○tsu attack!"

――But the massive steel bucket stopped without a sound, as though something had blocked it.

I raised it again and attacked, but the result was the same.

"Amazing! This might really be able to withstand even a dragon's attack!"

I climbed down from the heavy machine and stored it in my Item Box, and Anemone sank to her knees as though she'd exhausted her strength.

At the same time, the invisible wall seemed to vanish.

"Are you all right, Anemone?"

When I ran over to Anemone, she was hugging Bell.

"Haaah... Yeah, I'm fine."

"This is incredible! I can't believe you can really use such an amazing defensive spell."

"Nyaa! This makes you the equal of a grand archmage, nya!"

"That's right—Nyamena, you said a grand archmage used it in Akimenes, didn't you?"

As we celebrated Anemone's successful spell, a carriage appeared beside the lake.

Apparently it had crossed the river. It was deep enough for a large carriage to make it across, but that was still quite a bold way to travel.

It was a large, four-horse carriage with a rather elaborate design, its body painted burgundy.

But this carriage looked familiar somehow...

Two men stepped down from it.

One was an older man with a mustache, wearing a grass-green outfit with a burgundy vest matching the carriage.

The other was a white-haired old man with a long white beard, wearing a deep green robe—

"Mr. Marrow! Old man!"

I was already running toward them.