Chapter 335
I logged in. A day had passed, and when I rose from my bed, I froze at the sight of what was before me. It was the flowerpot I'd left by the window.
"Hey, hey, it grew this much already...?"
I looked at the young beech tree growing from the flowerpot, and my face tightened. Yes, it was a sapling. In a single night—or roughly four days in-game—it had grown from two tiny leaves into a sapling about thirty centimeters tall. I suppose a goddess's special event-exclusive item wasn't just for show.
As the beech sapling grew, it underwent an unexpected change—one that was welcome. Its leaves were gray, with red veins and pointed edges, just as they had been when it only had its first two leaves. However, the once plain-black trunk had developed a striking feature. Its bark had become like a dragon's—or, more specifically, like Cal's scales.
I cautiously reached out to touch it, and the scaly bark split open with a sharp crack, turning into a bed of spikes. Oh, it has a function that automatically counterattacks external threats? How interesting! This is fascinating!
I hurriedly filled a glass bottle from the pool that was supposed to become a fountain and returned to my room. I watered the beech sapling while its bark was still raised. At once, its leaves, branches, and bark began rustling all over.
Apparently, it was pleased. After I watered it, it no longer raised its bark even when I reached toward it. It seemed to have decided that I wasn't an enemy. Oh, it possesses advanced intelligence despite being a plant! Wonderful!
"Intelligence, huh...? In that case, it might be worth testing."
I carried the flowerpot out of my room with both hands. I headed into town and walked over to Cal. As always, Cal was popular with the children, and many of them were gathered around him. Some of them came running when they saw me.
"The king!"
"King, over here!"
"What are you carrying?"
The children took me by the hand and led me to Cal. They knew that Cal was in a better mood and played more energetically when I was around. As they had hoped, Cal seemed delighted to see me, and perhaps for that reason he lifted his head and brought his snout close to me.
As I stroked him with one hand, Cal noticed the flowerpot in my other hand. He curiously brought his snout close and sniffed at it. When the sapling's bark bristled in response, Cal shuddered in surprise.
"Grrr...?"
"What's that?"
"Funny tree!"
"It's all right, Cal. This tree isn't an enemy. I'm growing it."
"I want to water it!"
"I wanna try!"
"You can, but be careful when you water it. It's dangerous."
Cal and the children observed the sapling with great interest. When I explained that it was a tree I was growing, some of the children said they wanted to take care of it too. I handed one of them the glass bottle, which still contained some blood. The child cautiously watered the sapling, and it lowered its raised bark.
Once the bark had returned to normal, the sapling did not change even when the children reached toward it. It really seemed to possess the intelligence to recognize that someone wasn't an enemy and refrain from threatening them. This was genuinely fascinating.
"All right, everyone. What shall we play now?"
"Read us a storybook!"
"The big sisters' storybooks!"
Storybook readings were currently popular among the children. Shifune had tried retelling fairy tales using the game's terminology, and the children had loved it. Since then, Shifune, Shio, Ruby, and the other women, along with a few of the men, had worked together to write several storybooks. Apparently, the children wanted me to read one of them.
Storybook readings were primarily handled by the women, but it was fine for a man to do it once in a while. Besides, this was the perfect opportunity for an experiment. I took the storybook from a nearby boy from the Scars, sat on top of Cal's forepaw, and began reading aloud.
The title was 'The Cat with a Handgun.' An old man died, and his inheritance was divided among his three sons. The eldest son received the mansion, the second son received the handgun the old man had treasured, and the third son received the cat that had been the old man's friend.
Compared to the eldest son's inheritance, the second and third sons had received far too little. Out of jealousy, they plotted to assassinate their elder brother. Their plan was to give the second son's inherited gun to the third son's cat and have it shoot the eldest, while they created perfect alibis for themselves.
However, the eldest son knew his younger brothers' thoughts all too well. He had hired mercenaries and lain in wait so that he could turn the tables on any assassin who attacked him. But he had never imagined that the assassin would be a cat thoroughly familiar with the mansion. It approached from the roof without making a sound and killed the eldest son. The eldest son died, and the mansion became the property of the second and third sons.
However, their joy lasted only a moment. The cat used the handgun to shoot the second son as well. The third son had ordered it, believing that once his co-conspirator was gone, he could claim everything for himself.
The third son cheered as events proceeded exactly as he had planned, but a merciless bullet pierced his chest. The cat had shot him as well. The old man had secretly left the cat a will, without telling his sons. His three sons were greedy, and no matter how he divided his inheritance, they would surely fight over it. There was surely no way to prevent that.
That was why he asked his friend, the cat, for help: if his sons ever went beyond arguing and started killing one another, he wanted the cat to kill them all—for the good of the world.
After disposing of the three sons, the cat set off on a journey with the old man's treasured ten-gallon hat and handgun, to deal with brothers like the old man's sons.
"If brothers ever fight, you might be targeted by a cat with a handgun. The end. Who wrote this...?"
When I finished reading, the children's reactions split into two camps: those who thought the cat was cool and those who were frightened of it. The children who were afraid seemed to have siblings, and they appeared to be firmly resolving not to quarrel with them.
No, I had muttered that under my breath without thinking, but who on earth came up with this story? Its inspiration was undoubtedly 'Puss in Boots,' but the plot was completely different. I think the original was about a third son who inherited a clever cat and rose in the world thanks to the cat's exploits. At least, it certainly wasn't about discouraging sibling quarrels.
The ending was straight-up horror... And what's with the ten-gallon hat that appeared out of nowhere? Were they trying to give it a Spaghetti Western feel? Do they like Westerns? Now I seriously want to know who wrote this.
The story was awfully dark for children, but my reading aloud seemed to be well received. The children handed me another storybook. I accepted it with a smile—though I had no facial expression—and continued reading aloud.
I read about four storybooks in all. Aside from the first one, they had fairly harmless stories, and the children listened happily the entire time. However, anyone would get tired of nothing but storybook readings. Around then, the requests stopped, and the children moved on to tag and hide-and-seek. I did not join them. Instead, I picked up the flowerpot and spoke to it.
"Have you learned at least a few words? If so, shake your branches."
In response to my question, the sapling rustled its branches in affirmation. It really seemed to understand language. My hypothesis that it possessed high intelligence appeared to be correct after all. How fascinating!
However, if I kept this up, people would treat me as some dangerous weirdo who talked to flowerpots, so I took the flowerpot back to my room. I placed it somewhere relatively bright, then went outside. Since the children were playing among themselves, this was the perfect opportunity to go out with Cal.
"Sorry to keep you waiting, Cal. How about we go wherever you want today?"
"Gwoooon!"
Cal gave a happy cry, then soared into the sky with me on his back. He flew south toward the sea. Apparently, he wanted to eat seafood today. Cal was quite the gourmet.
I used Magic Sonar to locate a school of fish. I had hunted monsters in the sea with Ann and the others before, and there had been a few dangerous moments then. However, we had gained experience since that time. We had established a surefire method for dealing with fish-type monsters.
"First, this."
I dropped an explosive made by Shiitake onto the school of fish I had found. It was an item designed to maximize the shock wave and noise produced when it exploded. Its name was 'Big Thanks-kun.' I couldn't help wryly smiling at Shiitake's naming sense as usual, but its effect was tremendous.
A few seconds after it fell into the sea, the resulting explosion sent spray flying all the way up to Cal in the sky. Most of the fish then floated to the surface, twitching. They were Evil Fish that looked a lot like tuna, except their bodies were bright red. Cal must have thought they looked delicious, because his throat was rumbling. He wouldn't have to wait long.
This worked on the same principle as the dynamite fishing I had done earlier with 【Explosive Magic】, but it produced an even more vicious result. More than a hundred Evil Fish had been afflicted with the Stun status ailment. As expected of a bomb made by Shiitake, its power was terrifying.
"Next up is this! Star Magic Circle... followed by Thunderbolt!"
I slammed the Thunderbolt from 【Lightning Magic】 into the defenseless Evil Fish. The five bolts of lightning struck the surface of the sea and spread out, electrocuting Evil Fish over a wide area. Repeating this, I succeeded in taking down nearly every Evil Fish. There were enough to go around to the city's residents. It was a haul far larger than we needed!
"GRAAAOOOOOH!"
The Evil Fish that were still alive then became prey to Cal's claws and fangs. He chewed some while they were still alive, while he pierced others through vital points with his claws before tossing them into his mouth. As expected, the Evil Fish must have been exquisite, because Cal was eating them with complete abandon. I wryly smiled, leaped down from Cal's back, and began driving my skinning knife into them.
As I collected the items, several familiar figures appeared on the horizon. The women riding on orcas' backs were undoubtedly the 'Blue-Scaled Pirate Crew' led by Ann. I climbed onto Cal's back again and flew toward them to greet them.