by Hiro Ainana
“Let’s go, then—”
“Wait.”
“Water Stone.”
The two single-word elves stopped me and headed over to the shore.
“… Call Water Sui Yobi.”
One of them, Miss Gia, used a short incantation that sounded like Spirit Magic. The surface of the lake rippled, and a small lump that glowed blue floated up from the surface. According to the AR, it was called a Water Stone.
Looking at it with “Spirit Vision,” I could see that water spirits were wrapped around the Water Stone, carrying it toward the shore.
“Need.”
“Dismantling.”
Miss Gia picked up the Water Stone when it arrived, flowed magic into us, and showed us how it produced water. She seemed to mean that they used it for butchering prey.
“All right—we’ll be back.”
“Make sure you bring home a big one, ’kay? Whoever nets the biggest catch wins a flower crown and a kiss from the adorable Arisa!”
Arisa struck a strange pose from the little camp they’d set up near the flower garden.
I didn’t say it out loud, but I was pretty sure the “sassy pirate” pose worked only if you had a shapely figure. Arisa’s jokes were always so out-of-date.
“It’s a little chilly around here, so I’ll prepare some nice warm soup, too.”
“Master, I shall make garlands for your exclusive use, I vow.”
What am I supposed to do with garlands? Throw a grand opening for a store?
Again, I kept my comments to myself, since Nana seemed to have taken a liking to the flowers. Instead, I let her stay behind with Lulu and Arisa.
Mia, the beastfolk girls, and I all followed the elves away from the camp.
“Master, that is a fine herd of horned buffalo.”
“Lots of beeeef?”
“I couldn’t eat all that, sir.”
The beastfolk girls were staring at a herd of Great Bolenan Buffalo, their eyes gleaming. The buffalo, which looked more or less like American bison, were munching away at the grass on the plateau.
They were about three hundred feet away, just barely within the range of a short bow.
One of the elves put up a sound barrier with Wind Magic so the herd wouldn’t hear us talking strategy.
“Thin out.”
“Ten.”
I didn’t understand what the short-spoken elves were getting at, so I turned to one of the more loquacious elves for an explanation.
“This area is particularly scarce on carnivorous predators, even for the Bolenan Forest. Without any natural enemies, the buffalo population can grow too large and consume all the vegetation if left to their own devices. Thus, our hunting goal today is to thin out the population to a certain amount. We will startle the herd into fleeing and cull ten of the slower buffalo.”
I see. That’s a lot of information to narrow down to three words.
These elves were awfully deep.
“Mia!”
Just as we’d determined the number of our prey and were about to start the hunt, a familiar-looking elf boy ran up to us.
If I remembered right, this was Mia’s childhood friend Goya. I felt bad, but his name just made me want some goya melon stir-fry. There was a really good place for it near my work…
“Goya?”
The boy nodded and showed Mia his bow, then he glared at me and declared, “Contest!”
I wished he’d learn from the sentence-using elves a bit more.
“Erm, are you saying you want to have a hunting competition with me?”
“Yeah.”
Could you not look at me like I’m the idiot here, please?
Most people can’t understand everything you mean if you only say a single word, you know.
“How will we decide who wins?”
“Size.”
Hmm. The boss of the herd would be the biggest, of course, but that would detract from the purpose of today’s hunt.
My best bet would be to aim for the biggest of the ten who lagged farthest behind, then.
“All right. You got it.”
“Let’s go, then. Guya, you use Guiding Wind on everyone’s bows; Gia, you use Noise to scare the herd.”
“Mm.”
“Uh-huh.”
“No Guiding.”
“Does that mean you don’t want hit correction magic on your and Mr. Satou’s bows, Goya?”
“Mm. Right.”
The longer-spoken elf looked to me uncertainly, so I nodded to let her know that was all right.
Even if Goya missed, Mia, the sentence-using elf, and I could take his prey down.
At only 130 years old, Mia was already an excellent shot, so I was sure the sentence-using elf with over a millennium of experience could hit a buffalo with ease.
I gave a simple explanation of the strategy to the beastfolk girls, warning them not to be surprised by the loud noise the magic would produce.
Since they were planning to attack the buffalo directly, they’d changed from their safari outfits into whale leather armor.
“Start. …”
Guya began his chant, followed shortly by Miss Gia.
Mia and I nocked arrows to our short bows.
Goya and the other elves were using longbows. All of the elves’ bows, including Mia’s, were elegant in design with decorative carvings and strings.
According to the AR display, they were all elf-made fairy bows with various perks like improved accuracy and range.
I was using a short hunting bow I’d made myself, not the magic bow I got in the giants’ village. It didn’t have any special effects, but that was hardly necessary for a distance of around three hundred feet.
“… Guiding Wind Michibiki no Kaze.”
When Guya’s spell was complete, a breeze started up around Mia and the long-spoken elf, flowing toward the herd.
“…Now!”
“… Noise Souon.”
On the signal of the verbose elf, Miss Gia’s magic created an explosive sound that reverberated across the plateau.
The startled buffalo reared back and began to flee, with their leader at the front of the herd.
“Let’s go, you two.”
“Tallyhooo!”
“Pochi is on the move, sir!”
The beastfolk girls darted out of the bushes, fast enough to put a rabbit to shame.
Their role was not to chase the buffalo but to finish off any that survived a shot from our arrows.
Pochi zipped along at the front of the pack. At one point, she stumbled and did a little somersault, but she carried right on running without letting it slow her down. Her recovery abilities were pretty impressive.
“Fast.”
“Agile.”
The elves who had cast their spells praised the beastfolk girls as they drew arrows from their quivers.
As I was watching the beastfolk girls out of the corner of my eye, the other elves fired their first arrows.
That was all well and good, but Goya was putting a bit too much power into his shots. He would probably hit his target, but I figured it would just injure the mark without killing it.
I predicted the path of one buffalo that none of the elves had targeted and fired just ahead of it. At this distance, I had to worry about the direction of the wind but not the density of the air or the temperature or any of that. Piece of cake, really.
I shot four more arrows after that and then checked to see if any of the others had missed their targets.
“Mrrr.”
“Skilled.”
The two spell-casting elves had nocked arrows to their bows, but they lowered their weapons now without shooting.
They could probably read the trajectory of the arrows.
Checking on the AR display, I saw that a few of the targeted buffalo had survived, but the speedy beastfolk girls quickly finished them off by slitting their throats with daggers or short swords. It might sound cruel, but this was kinder than letting them suffer and die
slowly, not to mention being better for the taste of the meat.
“Pochi!”
“Waaah, sir!”
A buffalo that Mia had seemingly finished off stood up and charged at Pochi with its horns.
The lightweight Pochi was tossed into the air like a ball.
Instinctively, I rushed out of the bushes, but partway there, I noticed on the AR that Pochi was unharmed. I’d crafted that armor with battling demons in mind, so of course a buffalo’s horn wouldn’t be able to pierce it.
Relieved, I nonetheless sent out a Magic Hand to secretly cushion Pochi’s fall.
“It’s maaad?”
Tama had straddled the bull’s neck and was hanging on to its horns like a rodeo star.
I hopped on behind her to try and keep her from getting hurt.
“Masterrr?”
“I’ll support you, so finish it off, okay?”
This was way harder than one of those mechanical bulls. I thought I was going to bite my tongue.
“Aye-aye, siiir.”
I grabbed the buffalo’s horn and yanked its head back, using Magic Hand to keep Tama securely in place.
Right away, Tama leaned forward smoothly and drew her dagger along the bull’s throat.
“Rest in peeeace?”
I grabbed the praying Tama and jumped off the bull to prevent any injuries to us as it fell.
I probably would’ve been fine, but any normal human would have more than a few broken bones if they got crushed under a one-ton buffalo.
“Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine, sir.”
Liza helped Pochi up, confirming that she was unharmed.
The elves arrived shortly thereafter.
“Fast.”
“Magic?”
I’d refrained from using “Warp,” but I had still run pretty close to my top speed out of concern for Pochi, so the elves were a little surprised.
The long-spoken elf was checking on the prey with narrowed eyes but then faced me with a smile.
“Very impressive, Mr. Satou. It’s rare to see anyone with such skills, even among us elves.”
“No magic.”
Mia latched onto my arm and made a victory sign.
“Indeed. I’ve never seen anyone shoot so quickly and accurately without any magical assistance.”
Mia nuzzled my arm triumphantly, evidently pleased with the sentence-using elf’s praise.
> Title Acquired: Bow Master
Oh dear. I got a new bow-related title.
“Next time…”
Hearing a dark mutter, I turned around to see Goya with tears in his eyes.
Considering his resemblance to a middle school kid, I felt kind of bad for upsetting him so badly.
“Won’t lose next time!”
With that shout, he ran away without waiting to confirm the results of the match.
“Awww.”
“Youth.”
The short-spoken elves watched him go rather fondly.
Overall, I had taken down six buffalo, the long-spoken elf three, and Mia one. Goya hadn’t finished off any buffalo, which must have been why he didn’t need to wait to find out who won.
The reason I’d finished off six when I only fired five arrows was that one of my shots went straight through one buffalo and pierced a second one.
But the huntsman who brought down the biggest buffalo turned out to be Mia.
Since boys usually wanted to seem cool to the object of their affections, perhaps the reason Goya ran off crying was because he’d lost to Mia, not me.
“Let’s drain the blood, shall we? Lift the buffalo, please.”
“Right.”
“Okay.”
One of the short-spoken elves used the Earth Magic spell Lift to put some of the buffalo bodies on an incline, assisting in the blood draining.
The other one used Plant Manipulation to use weeds and grass to lift the buffalo.
Using magic for this task was a very elf-like thing to do indeed.
Once the buffalo had been bled out, the beastfolk girls made impressively short work of butchering the bodies.
The elves initially intended to bury everything except the best quality meat and some of the entrails, but at the beastfolk girls’ strong insistence that this would be a waste, they ended up bringing back everything edible.
The meat was transported using an elf-made Magic Bag, which seemed to be a contrivance similar to the Garage Bag.
The maker was a friend of the long-spoken elf, so I was able to request Magic Bags to be made for each of my kids during the course of our stay.
“Cuuute.”
“They’re very, very cute, sir.”
When we got back to the rest of the group, we were greeted by a band of flower fairies.
Arisa, Lulu, and Nana wore flower crowns on their heads and had even braided flowers into their hair.
“Hee-hee! Pretty good, right?”
“Master, I would like your evaluation and praise, I entreat.”
“Yes, you look very cute. I thought you were flower fairies.”
Arisa and Nana posed for praise, so I complimented them accordingly.
“Let me see yours, too, Lulu.”
“A-all right…”
“Those flowers look very nice with your lovely black hair.”
Lulu ducked her head bashfully, so I tilted up her chin.
She looked very cute, so it would be a shame if everyone couldn’t see.
“Tama’s a flower fairy, toooo?”
“Pochi too, sir.”
The two young beastfolk girls looked thrilled with the flowers Arisa gave them.
Darn. I should have put them all in fairy cosplay today instead of safari outfits.
“Look at thiiis?”
Tama gleefully pointed at her ears.
Since her hair was too short for braids, Arisa had stuck a large flower next to each of her ears.
“Arisa, I do not think that flowers suit me very well…”
“Compliment.”
“You all look adorable.”
Liza and Mia had very sharply contrasting attitudes, but I praised them both anyway.
Contrary to Liza’s claims, she looked like a cute flower princess.
All that being said, I didn’t think it was necessary to put flowers on me, too.
But Arisa and Lulu seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely, so I didn’t have the heart to stop them.
“Looks gooood?”
“Beautiful ever after, sir.”
Tama and Pochi pranced around me excitedly.
I didn’t want to burst Pochi’s bubble by pointing out her strange turn of phrase, so I simply sat and played the role of their dress-up doll for the better part of an hour.
“Bizarre.”
“Mystery.”
Once I was done being a doll and started preparing for lunch, the short-spoken elves came over to marvel at my cauldron.
Is it really that strange?
“I imagine this was made with a spell like Magic Mold, yes? This normal cauldron is one thing, but the sealed one is very intriguing.”
The long-spoken elf stared at the cauldron in which I was boiling the sinewy meat.
“Wow, you can adjust the temperature of this heat source freely, too?”
The transparent cauldron floating in the air was indeed made with Magic Mold, so it could be sealed so perfectly that it essentially functioned as a pressure cooker.
I had a second cauldron out, too, which I was using to cook rice.
“But normally using it like this would cause it to collapse.”
“Special,” Mia boasted, proudly watching the sentence-using elf’s stunned reaction.
If this were a manga, there would probably be little puffs of air coming out of Mia’s nose.
“M-master, the tree!”
Lulu, who was washing the vegetables in the lake, called out to me anxiously.
“My, it’s unusual to see a treant move.”
&nb
sp; Just as the long-spoken elf said, it was the approach of the treant that had startled Lulu so.
“Hallooo!”
The treant stretched out one of its withered, branch-like arms. Standing in its palm was a green-skinned little girl—a dryad.
“Mia, Formation D!”
“Mm. Careful.”
Arisa and Mia jumped in front of me with their arms outstretched, evidently guarding me from the cheerfully waving dryad.
When had they come up with these “formations” anyway?
“Oh dear. The little ones don’t like me, eh?”
The dryad looked a bit sorrowful at their reaction.
“What brings you here, dryad?” the long-spoken elf asked.
“The treants said they had business with the human, so I came to interpret. Unlike elves, humans’ lives aren’t long enough to have a conversation with a treant.”
She went on to explain that the treants had reacted to the wave of excess magic that was produced when I used spells.
Now that I’d learned “Magic Control,” I normally used it to prevent continuous magic leakage, but I hadn’t realized it happened when I used magic, too. I’d have to be more careful from now on.
“So what business do they have with me?”
“Well, it’s their budding season, so they want you to siphon some magic power into the lake.”
“Mrrr.”
“Labor.”
The two short-spoken elves frowned warily.
“Dryad, you know Lady Aaze is quite busy right now, do you not? And even the most magical of us elves have no power to spare from helping her. Can’t you ask the treants if they can wait at least a year?”
I didn’t know what this “budding season” was all about, but I was surprised to think it would be flexible enough to wait a whole year.
“Not the Holytree. They’re asking the human, silly!”
I didn’t mind giving them some magic, but I’d prefer not to have to kiss a little girl in the process.
“Sure. What do I do? If possible, give me a method that doesn’t involve kissing, please.”
Arisa and Mia nodded in satisfaction at my words, but the other elves turned pale.
“Reckless.”
“Suicidal?”
“M-Mr. Satou, dryads don’t know how to hold back. If you transfer magic to them without someone like Lady Aaze or the shrine maidens around, she might well suck you dry.”
“Oh, please. This human can handle it.”