Dragon Witch

'As autumn deepens and the air turns chilly, how have you been, Oori-san?

Bunkyo Ward has begun to show a modest Halloween spirit.

Last year, we had no time for such things, but this year I made jack-o'-lanterns from the pumpkins we harvested and decorated the university with them.

I have enclosed a batch of pumpkin cookies I'm planning to give the students on Halloween. I would be delighted to hear what you think of the taste.

Now then.

Regarding the matter you asked about in your previous letter, to get straight to the conclusion, the cause is probably the unique view of life and death held by magical civilization.

In the magical language, there are quite fine distinctions in how life and death are expressed.

For example, the "You" in the Great Glacier Magic incantation is "Zei," and is used when addressing the living. When addressing the dead with "You," one says "Kukeff."

These kinds of fine distinctions affect the conditions for activating magic.

The Zombie Witch's Dead Subordination Magic works even if the heart is beating, so long as the person is brain-dead. I'm told the Iruma Wizard's Puppet Magic stops working on living creatures whose hearts have stopped.

There is also a concept of "magical death," with a word expressing the state of having lost one's magical power and being unable to use magic ever again as "death."

Magical death can be rephrased as "irreversible death" or "great death," and seems to be treated as something more serious than brain death or cardiac arrest. Judging from these differences in expression, I suspect that brain death and cardiac arrest may have been considered reversible deaths by magical civilization.

In other words, even if we simply don't know the incantation, I think resurrection magic may exist.

I've gone off on a tangent.

For the reasons above, the same magic may have different effects when used on a living creature and when used to shoot a corpse.

If you fire a spell specifically designed to attack living targets at a corpse, the target is unsuitable, so the spell's full effect will not manifest.

Is this explanation sufficient? If there's anything else you don't understand, please feel free to ask. Your observations are fascinating, Oori-san, and they provide good stimulation for me as well.

As for the delivery of magic wands for the students of Tokyo Magic University, I am currently discussing it with Foresight-san and Blue-san. Please wait a little longer. I believe I will be able to enclose the official order form with my next letter.

Finally, I hear your rice paddy will be ready for harvest soon! Taking care of a rice paddy all by yourself must have been quite difficult.

I pray that you have a bountiful autumn.

Ohinata Kei'

I tossed the letter I'd finished reading into my letter case, then devoured the pumpkin cookies wrapped in oil paper.

Hmm, not bad! They don't seem to use butter or sugar, so they're nowhere near sweet enough. Fifty points.

But considering that these cookies were baked while food rationing is still in effect, I'll give them 120 points. Mmm, tasty.

Professor Ohinata attaches sweets to every letter, so I feel like I'm being fattened up.

Still, I occasionally send her gremlin accessories I've made by carving gremlins. Getting a woman's perspective, even if she's just a kid, is honestly very helpful.

The circulation of magic wands is inevitably restricted because of their capabilities, but pretty accessories are another matter. I want to use her opinions to improve my skills and gradually sell them as a side business alongside making magic wands.

Incidentally, I once gave the Blue Witch an accessory too and asked for her opinion, but she looked utterly perplexed and said,

"...Are you hitting on me?"

She made such a skin-crawling leap of logic that I decided never to give her another one.

After stuffing myself with cookies and taking the edge off my hunger, I put on a straw hat, wrapped a tenugui around my neck, tucked Henden Sho into my waistband, slipped a water bottle into my back pocket, slung a sickle over my shoulder, and set off to harvest the rice.

It had rained lightly the day before yesterday, so I couldn't harvest then, but the clear weather yesterday and today should have dried out the rice that got wet.

Autumn, when the skies are high and the horses grow fat. At last, it was time to harvest.

I stood on the levee of the drained rice paddy, raised Henden Sho, and chanted Fertility Magic.

"The season of crystals comes around. O you, may there be blessings from those who are not edible, from a world unlike the one reflected in your eyes!"

A sparkling, fluffy wave of energy poured from the wand and spread out in a fan.

The rice ears bathed in the sparkling shower swelled dramatically, and the stems, unable to bear the weight of the heavy ears, snapped one after another and toppled as if mowed down by a strong wind.

Hmm, good. Harvesting will be harder now, but the yield is more than double. This magic is seriously busted.

I cast Fertility Magic over the entire two ares, or 200 square meters, of the paddy in four sections, then immediately began harvesting. According to my calculations, that would produce four koku, enough rice for four adults for a year.

I had grown two koku's worth of rice to account for losses from animal damage, disease, and poor growth—I kept the planting to a reasonable scale because there was no way an amateur could care for a large paddy right away—but even after deducting the considerable amount the birds and beasts had eaten because the harvest was two days late, the result was more than satisfying.

Thank goodness, thank goodness. I really ought to build a shrine to the Agricultural God, Ohinata Daimyojin-sama.

Singing the rice song I'd learned from a rice-farming game, I happily cut the rice and hung it on wooden drying racks. My hands and back hurt, but so what? The more work I put in, the more food I got. There was no happiness like this.

Fertility Magic is a ridiculously overpowered spell that, with a single casting, makes the edible parts of crops swell or split, increasing the yield to more than double.

However, it doesn't let you increase the harvest without limit. Casting it twice or more has no effect.

For example, if you cast Fertility Magic on rice before it flowers, the stems become absurdly thick and the leaves grow huge.

I don't know the exact mechanism, but apparently some kind of balance is disrupted. Even after the rice flowers and bears grain, the stems and leaves just keep getting bigger, leaving no nutrients for the important part—the inside of the rice husks—which ends up hollow.

The same rule applies to crops such as tomatoes and eggplants, whose edible parts are fruits that flower and bear fruit. To avoid these failures, it's best to cast the spell just before harvest.

With crops whose roots are edible, such as sweet potatoes, daikon, potatoes, and turnips, you need to pull them out once before casting the spell.

If you cast Fertility Magic while they're still buried in the soil, the edible parts will incorporate soil as they swell. Also, for some reason I don't understand, if you cast the spell and immediately try to harvest and store the crop, it rots extremely easily.

So you have to pull them out, cast the spell to make them swell, bury them again, wait three or four days for them to settle, and then harvest them a second time.

There are also tricks for applying Fertility Magic properly depending on the type of crop, such as fruit trees and leafy vegetables.

It's also important to note that Fertility Magic doesn't work on mushrooms, while it does work on some shellfish, meaning there are slight differences between what we consider crops and what Fertility Magic considers crops.

The manual's basic precautions are based on what the Foresight Wizard heard when learning magic from the Flower Witch, but apparently more and more fine points are turning up that even the Flower Witch didn't know and that aren't covered by the manual.

It looks like it will be a while before humanity can use Fertility Magic reliably. New technology always takes time to spread.

Harvesting rice that a combine could finish in no time takes a long while by hand. Once I'd finished about half, I took a break, sat on the levee, and poured some cold-brewed sencha from my water bottle into a cup.

"Freeze."

I drank the green tea I'd chilled ice-cold with magic and let out a satisfied sigh.

Civilization declined after the Gremlin Disaster, but being able to use freezing magic anytime and anywhere is more convenient than it was before the disaster. It's fun to use, too.

When I looked up, I saw white clouds, a deep blue sky, and a bird slowly circling overhead.

Man, it's peaceful.

...Peace...?

As I leisurely knocked back my tea, I narrowed my eyes while looking up at the sky.

The bird soaring through the sky stopped circling and began descending toward the ground.

However, the scale was wrong.

What had been no larger than a black speck grew rapidly as it approached in a steep dive, and its silhouette became clear.

It wasn't a bird.

It was a vivid crimson dragon, bright as flame.

"!!!!!"

I tumbled off the levee, clamped one hand over my mouth to keep from screaming, and crawled beneath the bundles of rice hung on the drying racks to hide.

This is bad, this is bad, this is bad.

It's a monster. A dragon.

This was nothing like the mutant tanuki and rabbits.

It was an incredibly powerful monster that humans couldn't defeat, the kind the Blue Witch had warned me about: "If you encounter one, hide and pray."

I held my breath, drenched in cold sweat, until I heard something land nearby with a light tremor of the earth.

No, it's close. Too close. Didn't it land really close? Is it safe to keep hiding like this? Should I take a chance and run for it at full speed?

I cautiously peeked through the gaps between the weeds growing on the levee, and the dragon was, of all places, right in front of my house.

N-nooo! This is the worst!

Compared to the house, the dragon's size was easy to understand. It stood about seven meters tall, just below the roof of the two-story house, and was even longer from snout to tail. It was a sturdy, Western-style dragon with a pair of wings, and sunlight flashed fiercely off the tip of its sharp, blade-like tail. A large gem that looked like compressed flame was embedded in its chest.

The wind carried the smell of something burnt, and I couldn't relax for a second. Hey, you're not going to start a forest fire, are you?

The dragon pressed its reptilian face against the wall of my house and sniffed for a while before suddenly slamming its tail into the building and blasting away part of it.

Aah!? You bastard! What the hell are you doing to my house!?

I almost shouted, but managed to hold it in.

Calm down. Think positively. If it just plays with the house, breaks it, feels satisfied, and leaves, that's fine. At least I'll still be alive.

I held my breath and watched.

The dragon seemed interested in my house. Wagging its tail as if in a good mood, it shoved its massive head into the collapsed section and rummaged around.

Then it let out a happy cry and dragged out the large junk box I'd used to collect and store gremlins, holding it in its teeth.

Using its forelegs skillfully, it stuffed the box into the kangaroo-like pouch near its belly. Then it shoved its head back in and, this time, grabbed and stole a Medusa statue I'd made in the image of an old anime character, with rubies embedded in its eyes.

I trembled with anger.

Y-you bastard! Thief! Robber!

Dragons love treasure. It's a standard trait of dragons in fantasy.

True to form, this dragon seemed to love anything shiny. It busily rummaged through my house, stealing one after another of the things I'd collected and made.

I-I can't forgive this. I can't forgive it! I want to run out there and beat the crap out of it right now.

But if I charged out there now, I'd be killed. I gritted my teeth, held myself back, and had no choice but to wait for the storm to pass.

As I clenched my teeth and endured in silence, the dragon let out an especially large cry of joy, found the treasure of treasures—the Octameteorite—and wagged its tail furiously.

Huh?

You... what?

Hey.

That's going too far.

I'd reached my limit.

I sprang to my feet, raised Henden Sho, and shouted.

"Dragon! Look this way! I'll kill you! Freezing Javelin!"

I chanted the strongest attack spell I could use, and a thick spear of ice shot out as the spell dictated. It had enough penetrating power to punch straight through a car door, but it struck the dragon squarely between the eyes with a pathetic smack and fell to the ground.

The puzzled dragon lowered its nose toward the ice spear at its feet, then melted it into water with a snort.

Crap.

I knew it, but it hadn't done a thing. It had been less effective than a mosquito bite.

It had the expression of someone thinking, Did I just do something?

Damn it! Fine, I'll do this the hard way. I'll get close, shove the wand into its mouth, and fire point-blank! If I attack the inside of its body, where it has no scales, it should feel a little pain. While it's distracted, I'll at least take back the Octameteorite and run away to hide.

All right! That's what I'll do. I don't care what else it takes, but I can't give up the Octameteorite. It's my treasure!

"Raaaaaah!"

"What are you doing out here? You're a Wizard, aren't you? Shouldn't you be at the university for class right now?"

"Oh... huh?"

I charged at the dragon with Henden Sho raised and deadly resolve in my heart, but slammed on the brakes when it spoke to me in puzzlement.

It talked? Even though it's a monster? Aren't monsters supposed to be unable to speak?

The dragon had fierce, intimidating golden eyes, but continued in the voice of a young woman that didn't match its appearance at all.

"If you're lost, I'll take you home. But give me that wand in exchange. It's pretty."

"...Wait. Are you the Dragon Witch?"

"That's right. I'm the Dragon Witch. I'll take you home, but wait a little. I need to pack up all the treasure."

After saying this, the Dragon Witch tried to stuff the Octameteorite into the kangaroo pouch on her belly.

Wait, wait, wait.

I clung to the dragon's foreleg and hung there to stop her.

I'd assumed she was a monster, but she was a witch. She was the Dragon Witch the Blue Witch had told me about.

Apparently, she had recently learned the Fertility Magic Workaround Incantation and was flying Wizards all over the country, transporting them by air.

In any case, since she was a witch, she could be reasoned with. I explained the situation.

"Wait. This isn't an abandoned house. It's my house. And the thing you're holding right now is mine too. Give it back."

"What? That sounds fishy. There aren't any witches or wizards in Okutama. No one could possibly live here."

"But whether you believe me or not, someone lives here, and that's that! Look, there's a rice paddy over there, right? That's my rice paddy. Does that look like an abandoned field left to waste? It doesn't, does it? I live here and take care of it. Got it? If you understand, give it back. Give it back! It's mine!"

"You're persistent. This is mine. A big, perfectly round, shiny magic stone like this is wasted on you."

I jumped and tried to take back the Octameteorite from the Dragon Witch, but she brushed me away with her toe and sent me flying.

The impact felt like I'd been hit by a sumo wrestler's full-force slap. It knocked the breath out of me, and I coughed. S-she's strong.

But I couldn't back down.

Witch or not, what she was doing was robbery.

I was a craftsman. If she wanted a magic wand, I could make one for her and sell it to her. But I couldn't accept being robbed.

"That one's not happening. Absolutely not the Octameteorite. If you want a wand, I'll make one to your taste! Give that back. Give it back! Hey!"

"If you keep being so persistent, I'll burn you... Hm? Did you just say you'll make this?"

When I clung to the dragon's leg and refused to give up, the dragon pointed with a foreleg at the Octameteorite protruding from her belly pouch and asked.

I nodded.

"Yes. I'll design it to order. I'm still practicing, but I can make accessories too! I'll make you anything, so give that back!"

"You really made this?"

"Yes!"

"What's your name?"

"Oori Kenshi. Now give it back. Please? For now, just give it back. If you do, I'll answer as many questions as you like."

The dragon ignored my pleas and craned her neck around to look at the nameplate on the house.

Of course, the nameplate said "Oori."

The Dragon Witch blinked.

"It really is your house. Then did you really make this?"

"I told you so. The misunderstanding's cleared up, right? Now give it back. You're stealing."

"Hmm... all right. I've decided. You'll make treasures in my lair."

"Huh?"

Having reached her own conclusion at her own pace, the Dragon Witch grabbed me with a foreleg and took off into the sky with a rumble that shook the earth.

With just one beat of her wings, she accelerated sharply, and the ground fell away in an instant.

The fear was worse than any roller coaster. All the blood drained from me.

Haaah!? Why is this happening!? I was just harvesting rice!

"Help meee!"

"Hey, stop thrashing around."

My scream was swallowed by the mountains of Okutama.

Nooooooo!

Kidnapper!