Chapter 38
Autumn, when the skies are high and the horses grow fat.
I finally finished harvesting the rice in the paddy I'd longed for, so I slept in luxuriously and gave my overworked back and limbs a chance to recover.
I had gotten used to the harvest itself each year. But things that are hard remain hard even after you get used to them, and I still worried about the weather. I knew it wouldn't happen again, but I couldn't help fretting over the possibility of a dragon diving out of the sky and abducting me again. How can something that looks that cool have such an awful personality?
Wrapped up snugly in my futon, I was eating rice directly from the rice tub in a thoroughly uncouth manner while reading the latest issue of a precious manga magazine when I heard a series of meows from the entrance. It was Mokutan's startled, wary cry.
The fire lizards had built their nest in the reverberatory furnace and made it their base, but they also remembered the route from the back hills where the furnace stood to my house and sometimes came over to play.
Lately, they had even broken through the screen from outside, invaded the house, and scattered the ashes from the furnace in my workshop all over the room. They were not creatures I could afford to let my guard down around.
I wondered if Mokutan had been startled by its own reflection in the window again, but then the doorbell rang, proving that wasn't it.
It was the delivery of the Ironsteel Sheep wool I had ordered.
"Mokutaaaan! Don't breathe fire!"
"Mii!"
As I called toward the entrance while crawling out of my futon, I got an energetic reply.
But I couldn't trust it very much. Mokutan cheerfully replies whether it understands me or not. Good boy for answering!
When I slipped on my slippers and went to the entrance, I found a troubled-looking stoat being menaced by Mokutan, who was standing on its hind legs, and Hiyori crouched behind the stoat, ready to shield it at any moment.
"Oh, welcome."
"Hello, Dairi-san. Who is this?"
"This is Mokutan. It's the most curious and people-friendly one."
If Professor Ohinata had encountered Tsubaki, the most overbearing one, they would have been hit by flames or scratched by now. Of course, with Hiyori there, there was no chance the professor would actually be injured.
On meeting one of my pets for the first time, Professor Ohinata stayed low on all fours and politely bowed their head so as not to provoke Mokutan.
"Mokutan-san, I am Ohinata Kei. It's nice to meet you."
"Mit!"
"Mit!?"
The instant the professor lowered their head, Mokutan tried to scratch the professor's head.
But before its little claws could reach, Hiyori swiftly grabbed the stoat and pulled it close, shielding it.
"Kei-chan, it's no use. You can't befriend a monster without a Gremlin implant."
"S-so it seems. That startled me."
Professor Ohinata's tail trembled violently in Hiyori's hands.
Can't be helped. That's how monsters are. They don't warm up to humans, and being a stoat probably doesn't raise their affinity, either.
I retrieved Mokutan for the time being, put it inside the workshop furnace with some charcoal, and left it there to keep it quiet.
Then I served them tea in the living room and accepted a paper bag full of yarn balls.
I had ordered enough medium-thick yarn for a complete outfit, along with fine yarn for gloves.
Ironsteel Sheep yarn was pale gray, fluffy, and light. According to Professor Ohinata, if even part of the yarn was exposed to high temperatures—bonfire heat or higher—the whole thing would harden all at once. Apparently, it remained flexible even after hardening. It was an absurdly powerful material.
"Ironsteel Sheep wool products are currently being made into clothing by knitter-sans and distributed preferentially to important people who aren't witches or wizards. Since the supply is limited, I'm afraid we can't allocate any more to you, Dairi-san..."
"No, this is plenty. Professor, do you have Ironsteel Sheep clothes, too?"
"I have one outfit. I had it made a little large to account for my growth, but I haven't gotten much taller since I became a beast-person."
"Oh. But wasn't it that you can freely switch between human and stoat?"
"Not quite. I become human with the magic that transforms me into a human, and I become a stoat with the magic that transforms me into a stoat. I rearranged the words in my indirect incantation to make it more stable, but it seems that, because of the first accident, the word 'human' was redefined for me as this form with animal ears and a tail..."
"B-but Kei-chan is cute with animal ears, too."
Hiyori anxiously encouraged the stoat, whose whiskers had drooped.
I almost said, 'Don't let it get you down,' but swallowed it at the last second. This didn't seem like something a few words of encouragement would fix.
Having one's definition of being human change was terrifying. Considering that the professor had stopped growing at around elementary- to middle-school age, the professor's lifespan might have lengthened—but it could just as easily have shortened.
When Tsugibi became a witch, her species changed and she shrank from roughly middle-school height to hand-sized. The Hell Witch had even developed a cannibalistic urge. Once your species was warped, there was no telling what might happen. Terrifying.
I'm glad I'm an ordinary human! I want special superpowers, but I want nothing to do with having my tastes or lifespan warped because of them. My dexterity is more than enough for my superpower.
Professor Ohinata was a little down, but recovered while licking tea from a miniature cup meant for playing with dolls.
After tidying its damp mouth with its forepaws, the stoat broached the subject.
"By the way, Dairi-san. You make amulets in addition to wands, don't you?"
"Yeah, as a minor side business. I plan to make wands my main focus."
"Then, as one of your side businesses, would you be interested in making the dies for a new currency?"
"Oh? Tell me more."
Intrigued, I leaned forward.
New currency. Dies. Now that sounded interesting.
"The Tohoku Hunting Association, the Hokkaido Magic Beast Farm, and the Tokyo Witches' Gathering—the three large-scale survivor communities—have reached an agreement, and we've decided to issue a common new currency around the beginning of next year. As exchanges between us are expected to grow more active, we can't keep relying on barter forever. We need currency that doesn't take up much space and is easy to store."
"The fact that we've managed with barter until now is amazing."
It wasn't entirely pure barter. IOUs and ration tickets apparently served a role similar to paper money. I even have the title deed to a metalworking factory in Shinagawa Ward.
"So we're going with coins? Why not banknotes? Paper would take up less space."
"Hmm. That's true, but banknotes are difficult to print..."
"Ah, right. It would be tough if we couldn't get a printing press running. Waterproofing them would probably be a pain, too."
"Exactly. That's why we're currently collecting the old one-, five-, ten-, fifty-, one-hundred-, and five-hundred-yen coins. We'll keep their face values the same, melt them down, and give them new designs to create the new currency."
"So, uh, we're issuing six kinds of new coins?"
"That's right. We've decided to include reasonably complex patterns in the new currency to prevent counterfeiting. I was wondering if you'd be interested in making the master models—the original models used to make the dies."
"I'm interested. I want to do it."
"Really? Wonderful! If it's Dairi-san, I'm sure you'll make something amazing!"
Professor Ohinata happily slapped their little forepaws together, but Hiyori looked skeptical and threw cold water on the excitement.
"You're going to overdo the detail to a creepy degree, aren't you?"
"Huh? Don't underestimate me. I'm a craftsman, you know? I've already thought this through. Coins wear down and get dirty, right? If the design is too fine, the pattern will become impossible to recognize as it wears away, which would defeat the purpose. There's a reason coins have traditionally used human faces, plants, buildings, and living creatures: they're recognizable, have a certain level of complexity, remain identifiable even after some wear, and any distortion in the lines is easy to notice, which also makes counterfeiting harder, because they're coins, after all—"
"O-okay, okay, I get it. Sorry for interrupting. Dairi, you're a first-rate craftsman. No one is better suited to be the master modeler for the new coins."
"Told you."
After proving Hiyori completely wrong, I asked Professor Ohinata about the design requirements for the dies, received the reference materials, and immediately got to work drawing blueprints.
At the request of the Tohoku Hunting Association, the design of the ten-yen coin had been decided on: Sendai Toshogu. Apparently, it was the building where the Tohoku Hunting Association's administrative center was located. There were photographs taken before the Gremlin disaster, so I could use those as references for the design.
The Hokkaido Magic Beast Farm owned the design rights to the one-hundred-yen coin, and they had designated the Great Magic Beast 'Mountain Bear.'
The reference materials included a realistic painting of Mountain Bear, apparently by a skilled painter, but the scale was obviously wrong. Comparing it to the Sapporo TV Tower painted beside it, Mountain Bear was clearly about forty meters long.
It had a sun-like pattern on its belly and divine rings of light around both wrists, giving it an incredible guardian-deity-of-the-northern-land vibe. Hokkaido was amazing!
Trying to fit Mountain Bear's entire body on one side of a coin would make the design far too detailed, so it seemed best to put only Mountain Bear's face on the obverse and arrange the belly pattern cleverly alongside the number 100 on the reverse.
The design rights for the one-, five-, fifty-, and five-hundred-yen coins belonged to the Tokyo Witches' Gathering, which had spearheaded the issuance of the new currency and would bear the labor of manufacturing it.
The design of the five-hundred-yen coin alone had been decided unanimously by every member of the Witches' Gathering: the face of the Vampire Wizard.
The portrait of the Vampire Wizard in the materials showed a stereotypical, middle-aged vampire. He wore a tailcoat, had graying hair slicked back, and was a stylish, handsome middle-aged man. He had the refined air of a member of the upper class, but his expression was full of playful mischief, complete with an exaggerated wink and theatrical flair.
Even the painting made him look like a really nice guy. But this man had died during the Giant Monster invasion...
The remaining coins were the one-, five-, and fifty-yen pieces, but their designs hadn't been decided. Apparently, all the witches had completely different opinions and were arguing themselves to death.
The reference materials listed around thirty candidates and included design references for each one.
Apparently, any design would be fine because every design had some kind of problem. Since their arguments were so intense that they would never reach a decision, the Eyeball Witch had apparently quietly told the minting official, "You can decide on your own. I'll handle any complaints."
So the minting official dumped the whole thing on me through Professor Ohinata.
No wonder they wanted to dump it on someone else. Whichever design I chose, some witch would be offended. That was the worst possible situation.
Besides, my identity was unknown, and Hiyori Security meant I was safe even if one of the witches got angry.
Actually, considering how wildly their opinions differed, it was amazing that they had instantly settled on the Vampire Wizard for the five-hundred-yen coin. Even though it had the highest denomination.
It was a terrible waste to lose someone so well-liked.
Since I had been told that any design for the remaining coins would cause problems, I chose them based simply on my own preferences.
The one-yen coin gets the pathetic dragon, 'Dragon Witch.'
The dragon itself is pathetic, but I couldn't resist the temptation of its incredibly cool appearance. It isn't without popularity, either. But it gets the lowest denomination: one yen.
The five-yen coin gets Japan's highest seat of learning, Tokyo Magic University.
This was the Foresight Wizard's recommendation. I owed the university a lot, too, so it was a safe bet.
The fifty-yen coin gets the strongest member of the Tokyo Witches' Gathering, the Blue Witch.
Hiyori's mask on the obverse and Kyanos on the reverse.
Hiyori hadn't been on the list of design candidates, but this was still three times better than Blue Witch-sama's proposed candidate, 'Stoat-chan.' There was nothing wrong with choosing a design for personal reasons.
Both the mask and Kyanos were cool, and the Blue Witch was one of the great figures, in the end.
When I finished drawing the blueprints and took a breather, Hiyori and Professor Ohinata were absorbed in a discussion of a difficult subject.
They seemed to be debating issues related to currency circulation, such as credit creation, backing the value of currency, and inflation rates.
I couldn't hope to follow the conversation, so I left the two of them where they were, went into the workshop, and got to work.
Make them, make them—I'm making the new currency dies right away.
First, I would make a wooden model, press it into a sand box, remove the wooden model, and pour molten metal into the cavity it left behind. Then I would cool it until it hardened, carve it down, and shape it properly. That was the plan.
As I carved the wood to make the model, I felt a profound yet strange sensation.
Issuing a new currency felt like a turning point in history. It was refreshing to feel that exhilarating sense of something new beginning.
But from now on, I would be buying and selling things with coins whose master models I had made. That made me feel strangely self-conscious.
Still, at least I could drag Hiyori into that awkwardness with me, so it was fine!
You'd better feel embarrassed every time you see the fifty-yen coin. Gahaha!