Chapter 37
At the height of summer, with one sweltering day after another, ears of grain have begun to appear on the rice plants in the paddies.
From here, the grains will fill out and swell inside these ears, leading to an abundant harvest in autumn. It's a crucial stage. Rice farming is important from spring through autumn, but once the ears start appearing, I have to be especially careful.
Last year, I skimped too much on the fertilizer that helps the grains fill out, so we ended up with a lot of lightweight rice. This year, I'm spreading more of it than I did last year.
With no new chemical fertilizer being produced anymore, effective fertilizer is precious. Before the Gremlin Disaster, I could spread it liberally, counting on a reliable increase in yield, but now I have to conserve it, carefully judging how much I can spare.
I'm also trying to produce organic fertilizer using compost made by fermenting human waste and food scraps, but it isn't going very well. Apparently, the amount of waste produced by one person living alone is fundamentally insufficient.
The compost heap made from one person's household waste is small.
When the compost heap is small, the heat produced during fermentation escapes immediately, and the temperature doesn't rise.
If the temperature doesn't rise, the bacteria and parasites in the compost don't die.
If the bacteria and parasites don't die, it won't become good compost.
If I force the temperature up with fire or boiling water, I end up killing microorganisms that shouldn't be killed.
For these reasons, producing good compost while living alone was difficult.
Lately, with the addition of the fire lizards, we're a household of one person and three fire lizards, but those guys eat charcoal as their staple food and don't poop. They only burp something like exhaust fumes.
Apparently, fertilizer production is going well in urban areas, where huge amounts of household waste are generated. I could simply have them export fertilizer to me, but I didn't want to make my livelihood too dependent on outside sources. It would be a problem if they started saying things like, “If you want fertilizer, do this! Do that!” Though maybe that's just paranoia.
One day, while tending the rice paddies and working on the design of a mechanical contraption that used insulation, steam pressure, and a brazier to keep the temperature inside the compost bin constant semi-automatically, I received a letter from Professor Ohinata.
It began with the usual seasonal pleasantries, followed by news from the cities and answers to my questions, but then I read that they wanted to come visit me soon, and my eyes went wide.
Professor Ohinata understood very well that I wasn't comfortable around people and was always considerate of that. So I wondered what had happened for them to say something like this, but the next line said, “I succeeded in stabilizing transformation magic.”
What?!
Does that mean you can freely switch between stoat mode and beastfolk mode now?!
Woooooo! That's insanely awesome!
If they were coming to visit as a small, fluffy, adorable stoat rather than in human form, I had no reason to refuse. I eagerly sent back a letter giving them a fervent welcome.
The Blue Witch, who delivered the letter, had already seen the professor's transformation and given it her seal of approval, saying, “Kei-chan was adorable as a stoat too,” so I was even more excited.
Professor Ohinata was extremely busy as the president of Tokyo Magic University, a professor in the Department of Linguistics, and even a respected voice at witch gatherings, but they managed to clear their schedule and visited Okutama for the first time in ages at the beginning of September.
When I saw the white stoat come toddling out from beyond the fog of confusion at the Blue Witch's feet, I couldn't help but smile. Welcome! Welcome to Okutama Park!
"Professor, it's been a while."
"It has, Oori-san. I'm so happy to see you again!"
I crouched down in front of the stoat that had run up to my feet and shook one of their tiny forepaws.
An amulet locket hung against the chest of the glossy-furred stoat, its chain shortened to fit.
I see. I thought they'd suddenly turned back into a stoat, but apparently they'd been researching it for some time.
Professor Ohinata's locket pendant was the amulet I'd given them six months earlier.
Besides requesting a locket pendant so they could keep a picture of their father inside, they'd also asked for the chain length to be adjustable.
I hadn't thought anything of it and had made it as requested, but there had been a proper reason. They wanted the chain length to be adjustable so they could continue wearing the necklace even when their body changed size between human and stoat forms.
"I'm glad you came back as a stoat, but are you okay with this, Professor?"
"What do you mean?"
"You like being in human form, don't you? Ah, or does stoat mode give you some special abilities?"
For example, the Dragon Witch used transformation magic whose default form was humanoid, but she was always transformed into a dragon, which had become her byname.
A dragon could breathe fire without chanting a spell, fly through the sky, and had tough scales. It possessed all kinds of powerful and useful abilities. Besides, her temperament apparently matched the nature of a dragon, so it felt right to her.
I wondered whether stoat mode had some kind of advantage too, but Professor Ohinata shook their head.
"No, there aren't any special abilities. Humans have sturdier bodies, are more dexterous, and move faster. I get hungry more easily, there are fewer things I can eat, and I shed more."
"There are no benefits at all..."
"There are benefits, you know?"
"What kind?"
"I can meet you like this, Oori-san."
Professor Ohinata said it with a cheerful smile and not the slightest trace of embarrassment.
Huh...? Was that really a benefit?
"What, do you like me or something?"
"Yes! If I'm like this, can we be friends?"
I'd meant it as a joke, but they fired back a bright, straightforward counterpunch, and I was genuinely intimidated.
Yikes, extroverts are scary! We were supposedly speaking the same language, but light seemed to blaze from every one of their words. Terrifying. As expected, I couldn't understand sunny people.
"You worked on being able to switch freely between human and stoat forms just to become my friend...?"
"Yes."
"Why? I mean, speaking for myself, I'm not exactly the sort of person anyone would want to be friends with."
When I voiced my genuine confusion, the Blue Witch, who had been watching us, rudely nodded deeply.
I'll beat you at Jenga later.
"Hmm. The reason I wanted to become friends is that I wanted to become friends."
"Huh?"
"Ever since we first met, I've wanted to get along with you and become friends. Is that really so strange?"
"It is."
"Kei-chan is just like this. Oori, have you never met anyone like Kei-chan?"
Perhaps sensing that our conversation was about to go in circles, the Blue Witch cut in.
Since even the supposedly brilliant Professor Ohinata was saying something so incomprehensible, I decided to ask a third party for their opinion.
"I seriously don't get it. What does that even mean?"
"There isn't any logic to it. In short, Kei-chan is friendly and sociable. You know that, don't you? Even when the other person is a hopeless case like you, they want to become friends and work hard to make it happen."
"You don't become friends by working and making an effort. You hit it off, naturally grow close, and before you know it, you're friends. That's what a real friendship is. Like you and me."
"...Well, there are friends like that. But that's not what friendship means to Kei-chan."
"?????"
They explained it gently, as though trying to teach a child, but I still didn't understand.
What exactly did that mean? It was beyond my comprehension.
I had been able to properly understand and deal with the complex, fractured web of relationships that started with Tsugihi's Arson-mess, but I couldn't understand Professor Ohinata's way of thinking.
As I held my head, Professor Ohinata nervously wagged their tail. The Blue Witch sighed and summed things up.
"Just follow your heart. Forget your definition of friendship for a moment. How did you feel when Kei-chan asked you to become friends?"
"I thought extroverts were terrifying."
"You really are something... Anyway, did you dislike it?"
"I didn't dislike it... I guess?"
We had been corresponding for years, so I knew Professor Ohinata was a good person.
Their letters were always clear and thoughtful, and they included sweets every time. Our temperaments didn't mesh, but they were unquestionably a genuinely good person with no ulterior motives.
Being asked to become friends had scared me, but it hadn't made me uncomfortable.
"I see. I think I understand what you're trying to say now."
"Good. Then you already know how to answer Kei-chan, don't you?"
Prompted by her, I turned back to the stoat.
Professor Ohinata's tail stood straight up, and they seemed a little tense as I spoke to them.
"I didn't mind it. I'm okay with being friends."
"You'll become my friend?"
"Sure, I guess."
"Thank you! Let's be friends!"
Professor Ohinata hopped up and down in delight, looking genuinely overjoyed.
Cute.
If making this cute creature so happy was all it took, then I supposed being friends was fine.
But there was one problem.
I turned to the Blue Witch, who was nodding with satisfaction, and said,
"If I become friends with Professor Ohinata, I have to reconsider my relationship with you."
"What are you planning to say now...?"
"I mean, you and I are pretty high-level friends, right? The friendship between me and Professor Ohinata, whom I just became friends with, and the friendship between you and me have different levels of closeness, right? So isn't it strange to lump them together under the same word, 'friend'?"
"Is that all? You're overthinking it, Oori. Friends are friends, aren't they? There are all kinds of friendships."
"No, I can't accept that. So from today onward, the Blue Witch is my best friend."
The Blue Witch froze at my words.
The Blue Witch freezes a lot. Maybe it's the mask, but sometimes I can't tell what she's thinking.
"...Best friend, huh? I don't mind. But now that we've gone from friends to best friends, you should also consider the possibility that we may someday become something else."
"Huh? Is there anything above best friend?"
"If you don't know, never mind. More importantly, now that we're best friends, calling me the Blue Witch is too formal. Call me by my family name or my given name already."
"Ah, yeah, I guess so. I got into the habit of calling you that. Blue, Blue, Blue... What was it again? Aomori? Aoki? The one on the nameplate at your house, right?"
"Aoyama. Aoyama Hiyori."
"Then Hiyori it is."
"You're going with my given name that easily...? What in the world is wrong with your sense of distance? Honestly."
I tugged on the sleeve of the Blue Witch, now Hiyori, who had started muttering to herself, caught the still-hopping stoat one-handed, and carried them into the house in my arms, feeling elated.
There are three of us, so let's play cards in the living room! There are only so many card games two people can play, and it was getting boring. Board games are more fun with three people too.
I'm glad I made more friends~. But I don't need any more than this.
After that, we spent the entire morning playing cards and board games.
Professor Ohinata was strong at both card games and board games. Their moves were strong, of course, but their table talk was even stronger.
Whenever I accepted one of their proposals, which seemed to benefit both sides, and did as they said, I somehow ended up with Professor Ohinata winning. On the other hand, even if I rejected their demands, I somehow still couldn't beat them. They're too strong. It's impossible.
I took out my frustration on them by dominating at Jenga and sugoroku, but Hiyori sulked after managing only second or third place in every game. Actually, she did come in first once in a board game, but she accused us of “playing to let her win!” and got so angry at the innocent stoat that she declared the match void herself, so it didn't count.
I don't know whether it really was a sympathy play. If it was, she was far too good at throwing games.
For lunch, I made simply grilled salted ayu, rice cooked in a pot, lightly pickled cucumbers, and miso soup. Everything was homemade.
Hiyori came over for lunch now and then, so she didn't react, but the stoat celebrated extravagantly and buried their face in the Japanese food I'd served on little plates.
Tasty, tasty. I'm good at cooking, and my food is delicious. When I first held a kitchen knife in elementary school home economics, I even made a realistic apple rabbit and left the teacher speechless. There are no bad cooks among the dexterous crowd.
After we finished eating and were full, the atmosphere somehow shifted away from playing games, and we decided to relax for a while.
While drinking tea after the meal—the tea leaves had been brought by Professor Ohinata—I asked about their recent activities.
"Professor, you always seem busy. Are you free today?"
"It's all right. I've left the entire day free today."
"So you really are usually busy."
"Yes. I suppose you could say I'm quite busy."
"What have you been up to lately? Teaching, researching?"
"Hmm. Let's see. As for the interesting things I've been doing lately..."
The stoat folded their tiny arms and thought.
Hiyori, who had slid her mask aside to sip her tea, picked up the conversation.
"The Nameless Epic was interesting, at least from what I know. Why don't you tell Oori about it?"
"Oh? The Nameless Epic...!"
I had no idea what it was, but the name alone was already funny.
It felt as though my middle-school sensibilities had come roaring back—the days when words like “nameless” and “unmatched” made my heart race. I was intrigued!
"Are you interested? Then shall I give you a quick explanation?
The Nameless Epic Hypothesis is a hypothesis that may concern the very foundations of magical linguistics. It came to light when the number of samples of magical incantations increased through the messengers from the Tohoku Hunting Association and the Hokkaido Magic Beast Farm.
Apparently, some of the magical incantations revealed a chronology and connections between them.
The content of one spell's incantation was linked to the content of another spell's incantation. Their magical effects were related as well.
From this, they hypothesized that the countless magical incantations might actually be excerpts from one enormous text.
"The biggest trigger for proposing the hypothesis was the death curse and the reflection spell.
There is a death curse that kills the target, and its incantation goes like this.
I love you. But I'm a demon, so this is the form my love takes."
As they spoke, the professor wrote a Japanese translation of the spell on a memo pad.
I read the translation and was appalled. The effect was a death curse? Wasn't that incredibly brutal?
"Demons are messed up. Their idea of love is way too twisted."
"I thought so too. And the spell used by the witch from the Hokkaido Magic Beast Farm for magic reflection goes like this.
Before anyone else, love yourself first."
As they spoke, the professor wrote the translation of the reflection spell beneath the translation of the death curse.
When I looked at them side by side, the connection—or rather, the exchange between them—was unmistakable.
First,
"I love you. But I'm a demon, so this is the form my love takes."
the demon says, as they try to curse someone to death.
In response, the person who was cursed says,
"Before anyone else, love yourself first."
and reflects the curse back at the demon along with their warped affection.
"Look, the demon confessed their love, and whoever they confessed to—probably some kind of cleric—rejected them. It sounds like something a cleric would say."
"Exactly! It works as a response in a conversation, and as a magical effect, it reflects a death curse.
Apparently, the witch who uses this spell wondered why an incantation telling someone to love themselves would result in magic reflection. But once you consider it in light of the death curse's incantation, isn't it completely obvious?"
"Wow. I see."
This was incredibly interesting.
I'd always thought the translations of incantations sounded poetic.
But I had never imagined that they were literally poetry—or parts of poetic writing.
Once they pointed it out, it seemed impossible to interpret them any other way.
"In the Department of Magical Linguistics, the prevailing theory is that every magical incantation is quoted from a single epic poem. We call this grand epic, whose title is unknown, the 'Nameless Epic' for now."
"That's the best name ever. I want to give a wand to whoever came up with it."
"Ha-ha, I'll pass that along."
The glimpses of the Nameless Epic revealed by the incantations were far too fragmentary to reveal much, and we still had no idea what the whole thing looked like.
Still, it seemed certain that a demon and a cleric appeared in it, and that someone became a king partway through the story.
The Nameless Epic, the source of all magic. I wanted to read it so badly.
"If you ever figure out the entire Nameless Epic, let me know. I'm seriously interested."
"Of course. I hope that uncovering the contents of the Nameless Epic will also reveal the history of the Shantak meteor shower that caused the Gremlin Disaster. The disaster has already happened, but that doesn't mean there can't be a second or third one. It can only help to know the cause.
...And actually, I desperately want to know the entire Nameless Epic too!"
"The incantation for the freezing spell I know is pretty sad. Do you think there's any hope in it?"
"Oh no. So there's also a possibility that it's an epic with a bad ending? I don't like that."
"What do you think? I don't believe it would be a simple bad ending. Even if it does end badly, it should contain some kind of lesson at the very least. Of course, I'd be happy if it were an epic with a happy ending."
After that, we spent quite some time enthusiastically discussing the mysteries of the Nameless Epic.
Working with magic stones and Gremlins is a deep subject.
But magical linguistics is just as deep.
I look forward to seeing how research progresses from here.