Chapter 2: Contract

「I’m sorry, Sensei...」

With an unusually meek look, Rin apologizes to me.

After taking her water shot and going down, I was carried straight to the clinic and treated by Nina. Honestly I don’t think I’m badly hurt, but they’re being cautious.

「No, don’t worry about it.」
「Don’t move yet.」

When I tried to raise my upper body while lying on the bed, Nina cut me off in an especially sharp tone. I hadn’t even actually started to move—did she develop mind‑reading magic or something?

「Well, Onii‑chan, you’re partly at fault too—for not even dodging something like that.」
「...Looks like you still haven’t reflected enough.」

That stabbing gaze shifted from me to Yuuka, who’d been cracking jokes. She’d just been thoroughly scolded moments ago for barging into the clinic without even knocking.

「Eh, why!? Onee-chan, you said something similar to Mother before too!」
「What are you talking about?」

Nina asked, looking perplexed, as Yuuka hunched her shoulders as if to dodge that gaze. I remember that story too.

「Ah, wasn’t it right after we opened the university? When the wooden slip Yutaka launched hit Light Blue. You did say it was Light Blue’s fault for not dodging, Nina.」

Nostalgic. How many years ago was that? Over two hundred already.

「...It’s different with Light Blue, who was Warden of the Forest, and this one. This one is especially dull.」

Harsh. But I couldn’t deny it at all, so I held my tongue at Nina’s biting assessment.
...Huh? But Yuuka wasn’t even born back then, was she?

「Hey, Nina‑sensei, isn’t it about time?」
「...Right.」

At Tia’s bored tone, Nina shot me a quick glance.

「Fine. Just don’t do anything too reckless.」
「Of course.」

If anything, I’m terrible at dangerous stuff.
When I nodded with full confidence, Nina, for some reason, let out a deep, deep sigh.


* * *


「Huh? The candy shop that used to be here—gone? It was so good.」
「If you mean Kido‑san’s place, they moved over to the main street.」
「Heeey... Ah, what’s that!?」
「That is—」

Rin and Yuuka romp about as they window‑shop through town. Sandwiched between two cute girls, I somehow felt strangely ill at ease.

「Ah! Sensei, look a sec! What’s that guy doing?」

I’d get my hand yanked by Rin and then we’d go watch the street act.

「Hey, Onii‑chan, would this look good on me?」

Clinging tightly to my arm, Yuuka tried on the accessories laid out at a stall.

People around us watched the scene with warm eyes. Even Tia and Ruful were keeping a touch more distance than usual, whispering in voices so low even my ears could barely catch them, then tittering.

We’re celebrities, after all. Hiiro has gotten pretty big, but most villagers know my face, and I know theirs. We’re like family.

I wondered how I looked to them right now. Judging by the glances, probably like an uncle on his day off being climbed all over by his nieces...

From my personal point of view, though, it wasn’t like that at all.

「Hey, Onii‑chan. What do you think?」
「Ah, uh... Maybe a different color would suit you better, Yuuka.」

Yuuka held a red hair ornament up beside her head and I felt my heart jump. It looked just like the one Yuuki used to wear.

「Hey, Sensei—here, half and half!」
「Mmph—... th‑thanks.」

When I turned at a tug on my sleeve, Rin shoved a baked sweet into my mouth. With the fingertips that had just brushed my lips, she popped one into her own mouth as well.

Lately the two of them mirror, all too vividly, the figures I once loved—Yuuki and Rin.

Of course, the two before me are different people. Rin has lost all her former memories and is effectively reborn; as for Yuuka, she’s just a distant relative.

I know it’s pathetic to mope and unfair to the two of them... but still.

As I was sighing in my heart, a scream suddenly rose from behind us.
At the same time, a deafening clatter rang out.

「Runaway carriage.」

Yuuka’s voice, hand on her sword hilt, sounded strangely loud as she murmured.
Just as she said, a spirit horse pulling a carriage was tearing down the road at terrifying speed.
Yuuka moved to cut it down as it passed—

「No, Yuuka!」

Without thinking I pulled her into a hold and stopped her.

「Onii‑chan, what are—」
「There’s a child inside!」

The carriage thundered past beside us. The driver had apparently already been thrown; no one sat on the box, but I could see a child inside the cabin, face pale with fear.

Yuuka must have seen the empty driver’s seat and planned to cut the harness or the spirit horse itself. But if she did, the carriage would lose all control and, at worst, roll over or smash into a wall. The passenger inside wouldn’t come out unscathed.

「You two—on my back!」

Saying that, I shifted into dragon form. Even so, my full size is too big for inside the village. Before the change completed, I beat my wings and took off without even checking if the two had gotten on.

「Sensei—what are we going to do?」

Rin’s voice by my ear. Good—sounds like she grabbed on properly.

「We’ll set up at the square ahead. Rin, transform into a bird and get the child out. Yuuka, I want you to stop the carriage itself.」
「What are you going to do, Onii‑chan?」

Maybe she’d half guessed what I meant to do; Yuuka asked in a hard voice.

「Stop the spirit horse.」

No sooner said than done: I folded my wings and dove for the carriage. Matching its speed as it pounded along the road, I heard a light whap of wings from above my head. Rin transformed her arms into bird wings and latched onto the carriage, then slipped smoothly in through the window.

「Yuuka!」
「Honestly! Don’t overdo it!」

Shouting in irritation, Yuuka leapt from my back and flashed her stone sword.

With a blow too fast for my eyes to follow, the tack connecting the carriage and the spirit horse shattered, and the carriage roof blew off. In the next instant, Rin, cradling the child to her chest, spread her lovely waist fin and, writhing her fish lower body, vaulted into the air... Good.

「All right, come on!」

I dropped into the square, spread both arms and wings, and met the spirit horse head‑on as it accelerated even more, freed of the carriage. The legs that could lightly pull a carriage weighing hundreds of kilos now unleashed fully, it barreled straight at me.

「Guh—!」

The charge reverberated even through my dragon body, and a groan escaped me. In terms of size it was smaller than an armored bear, but its destructive force was on a whole other level.

But somehow I managed to catch the spirit horse and pin it down.

「Easy. Your name is, uh...」

Staring into the struggling spirit horse, I raced through my thoughts. Red coat, a brawny frame. Its surface rippled and swirled, shifting from moment to moment. A single eye glared at me, blazing.

「Nuckelavee! Nuckelavee it is!」

The instant I shouted, the spirit horse stopped thrashing. The rippling coat settled, and the one‑eyed horse—Nuckelavee—looked at me with a surprisingly goofy tilt of the head. So it was an unnamed spirit...
As I thought—an unnamed spirit.

「Sensei, you okay?」

Tia appeared by the tip of my nose and asked without looking particularly worried.

「Yeah. You were the one who directed Ruful, right? Thanks—that saved us.」

I looked and saw Ruful had managed to stop the carriage—cut loose from Nuckelavee and about to plow into a shop on the main street—at the very last moment.

「I hope Ruful isn’t hurt...」
「As if she would be.」

The carriage was crushed to the point of being unrecognizable, yet Ruful was waving to us lazily.

「And the kid’s fine too! Their parents were there, so I handed them over.」

With a flutter of wings, Rin settled herself on top of my nose.

「Which means the one in the worst shape is you, Onii‑chan.」

Yuuka said in exasperation and gave my belly a light thump—right where Nuckelavee had rammed me. A sharp pain lanced through me and I groaned. I’m probably going to have a bruise once I go back to human...

「Nina‑sensei just told you not to do anything reckless, you know.」

Rin sounded faintly amused. With this injury I’m headed straight back to the clinic.
It’s not like I can skip it, and going anywhere but Nina’s clinic is pointless. She’s the teacher of every doctor in this village—if I get treated anywhere, word will reach her right away. That’ll only get me scolded more.

「...Mind helping me apologize too?」

When I petted him, Nuckelavee let out a brrr of a whinny—whether he understood or not, who knows.

* * *

「Whew...」

Leaving the clinic, Yuuka stretched and spoke with feeling.

「We got scolded like crazy, huh!」
「Yeah...」

Tia agreed, looking beat.

「When we first explained what happened, Nina‑sensei said, ‘Well done,’ and praised us, remember?」

We all nodded along at Rin’s words.

「For a second I thought we might get off without a scolding...」
「Same.」

We all felt the same, but unfortunately Nina wasn’t that lenient.
Even the kid’s father who’d been riding the carriage—the one thrown from the box and carried to the clinic—got a stern talking‑to. Well, probably because his injuries weren’t life‑threatening.

「I’d been thinking, ‘We sure have more spirits around lately,’ but I guess this kind of thing happens too.」
「It’s been a bit much recently...」

At Rin’s remark, Yuuka knit her brows. As someone in charge of village security, it must be a headache.

Spirit summoning. That magic we created changed people’s lives dramatically.

It’s been centuries since we began animal husbandry. By selecting the docile and breeding them, our livestock rarely attack humans anymore, but they still won’t obey like cows and horses do.

Dogs, cats, horses, cows, camels, dolphins—on Earth there were many domesticated animals that lent their strength, true friends to humankind. In this world, it seems not a single such animal exists, but spirits can take their place.

They turn windmills, pull carriages, haul wheat, move ships.
They never tire, obey people readily, and faithfully carry out orders—an invaluable presence, and one civilization henceforth cannot do without.

However, there are downsides.

「There are just too many people who are bad at naming, huh?」

Naming. When handling spirits, that is the most important act.

A spirit given an appropriate name stabilizes and will obey properly. Conversely, when it hasn’t been named or is given a poor name, its existence becomes unstable and it can run amok like Nuckelavee just did.

「Doesn’t your school teach how to do it, Sensei?」
「Yeah. We teach it, nominally...」

The problem is that there’s no good way to explain what counts as a good name and what doesn’t. This part comes down to feel and compatibility—the spirit has to like the name.

If you know a bit of magic and the compatibility is there, anyone can summon a spirit. Handling it satisfactorily, though, is another matter.

「Sensei. It worked out this time, but if we don’t take measures, this’ll get bad, won’t it?」
「Yeah... that might be true.」

I nodded at Tia’s words. The kind of children she teaches at school are far more likely to get caught up in accidents than adults. For her, it isn’t somebody else’s problem.

「That said, we can’t just tell people to stop using spirits.」

Spirits have taken root and blended into daily life. Telling people not to use them now is unrealistic. Besides, I knew well that as civilization advances, a certain amount of these accidents becomes unavoidable.

Efforts to reduce damage aren’t useless, but trying to roll civilization back is nonsense. There must also be many lives being saved thanks to spirits.

「I wish only the people who are good at it would use them.」

At Rin’s offhand words, a spark went off in my head.

「That’s it!」

Before I knew it I’d taken her hand and said,

「Let’s create a licensing system!」