Chapter 18: Deficiency

「Haaah...」

As the three bells announcing the end of class rang, I went to the classroom and found Nokia still in her seat, staring vacantly up at the ceiling.

「Hey, Nokia. How was class?」
「Let me see... It was splendid.」

The quickest way to let someone know Hiiro is to have them see the school, so I had Nokia sit in and attend classes with the students.

「Rather... I’ve seen so many unbelievable things that, to be honest, my head can’t quite keep up.」

As the dreamy look on her face gave way to reality, she slumped over her desk and clutched her head.

「What sort of things? Tell me.」
「First and foremost, that beastfolk and scalefolk live together as a matter of course.」

Among the students who attended alongside Nokia were centaurs and lizardmen. Humans are of course overwhelmingly the majority, but about a third are other races.

「I thought—no, I believed—they could not coexist with humans, had no civilization, were ferocious, savage peoples. In fact, I’ve been attacked many times in other lands. I didn’t even think they were beings we could communicate with.」

As for lizardmen, that assessment isn’t entirely wrong. They gave me quite a lot of trouble when we first met. Since the chieftaincy passed to Sig they’ve become much more civilized and easier to talk with, but that’s thanks to Sig’s personal ability. In general, lizardmen did live lives that could fairly be called ferocious and barbaric.

「And next... that all the children take class with books in hand and write as they go. Presumably they’re the sons and daughters of nobles, but I never imagined they’d be receiving such advanced education from so young an age...」
「No, there are no nobles in this village. They’re all ordinary children.」

Nokia was struck speechless.

「In Hiiro, regardless of race, everyone receives six years of basic schooling from age six to twelve. We call it compulsory education—adults bear the obligation to see that all children receive it.」
「Com... pulsory education...」

She murmured like someone feverish and swayed.

「H-hey, are you okay?」
「No... I am all right. I had realized it—there were far too many for nobles. I had suspected as much. And this isn’t the only classroom, is it...」

On the verge of collapsing, Nokia clung to the desk and somehow held on.

「In that case, the literacy rate of this village is...」
「Yeah. Almost one hundred percent.」

Of course, when it comes to reading and writing every last one of the countless characters, only a tiny handful can do that. To be honest, I’m a bit shaky myself when it comes to the new characters the villagers have invented.

「O-one hun... No, I’m fine, I’m fine... I’ll just stop being surprised by anything I hear. But what is this paper made of? It seems extremely tough and of fine quality...」

Nokia flipped through the loaned textbook.

「That’s made by stretching the hide of a creature called a Behemoth—uh, a beast bigger than a giant.」

Since then the technique has advanced and it’s become possible to make paper from the hides of beasts other than Behemoths, but the one best suited for paper is still Behemoth hide.

「Behemoth!? The land beast Behemoth!? The one said to have skin like iron and a body like a mountain—!?」

So much for not being surprised—Nokia shot to her feet.

「Ah, well, it’s quite a bit smaller than a mountain. About half the size of this school building, I’d say...」
「That is plenty big! ... Surely you don’t mean—there is one here...? A Behemoth...?」

Nokia trembled, her body quivering.

「They’re not inside the village, of course, but if you head to the southern prairie you’ll find them.」

Which means this reaction is...

「A legendary giant beast said to have perished in the distant past... an existence whose very reality had come to be doubted is still alive even now...?」

So they did go extinct after all!

Right—something that delicious, easy to hunt, and conspicuous would go extinct quickly unless protected... I’m really glad we pushed preservation, even if a bit forcefully.

「If you want to see one, I’ll arrange a guide later. If you take the highway, you should reach the prairie where Behemoths live in two or three days.」
「A highway... a road that runs a distance of days. You even have that... Would it be like the brick‑paved streets in town?」
「Yep. There’s a waterway running alongside so you won’t lack for water, and if you ride a Wave Horse Boat you can get there in half a day.」

At my explanation, Nokia swayed and sat back down.
Then she suddenly fell silent, lowering her eyes to the desk as if wrestling with something.
At that earnest gaze, I waited quietly for her words.

Children’s laughter drifted in from outside the window as classes ended, and Nokia lifted her face as if startled.

「...Sensei.」

She looked up at my face and spoke in a murmur.

「When I first laid eyes on this town, I thought it was a hidden backcountry village in the hinterlands—a small, backward country hamlet, nothing more.」

Ah. Now that she said it, that nuance had perhaps been peeking out at the edges of her words. So that’s why Nina was in a bad mood. ...Well, to be fair, we are a remote rural village. That’s probably why we’ve had so little contact with other countries.

「But that was a mistake. It may be a curious land where many different races live together... but in education, culture, and technology, every one of them is far beyond Mashiro.」

Given how astonished she’d been, that much was clear. At least in Mashiro, education is probably restricted to nobles—just a select few.

「However—」

Hesitating, Nokia nonetheless spoke plainly.

「There is one thing in which Hiiro is far inferior to Mashiro.」

I nodded. I could already guess what she meant.

「The reason I first judged Hiiro a backward country was that I saw no walls.」
「Walls?」

I echoed it back, and Nokia gave a small nod.

「In Mashiro—no, in every human country I have seen—there is always a curtain wall encircling the city.」

Names vary by region, she added, and continued.

「From the material, height, and sturdiness of the curtain wall, you can more or less gauge a country’s level of civilization. And this one had nothing of the sort.」

Come to think of it, we used to have at least a fence around the village. But at some point it disappeared. I don’t know when, but I do know why.

Because it had stopped being necessary.

Everyone in the village had come to possess enough strength to bring down an armored bear—the most ferocious beast in these parts.

And beyond that, there simply weren’t any external enemies that threatened the village. Well, there was one kind, but fences and walls couldn’t stop those.

—But other countries weren’t like that.

「I have... only spent a single day here, but I’ve come to like this country. It is peaceful and warm, and full of children’s smiles. Many races feared elsewhere and deemed evil live together. It is a very strange sight to me... but at the same time, very beautiful—like a utopia.」

I let my gaze drift to the black skin peeking from her long sleeves. It was nearly summer. Even for travel wear, I’d wondered if long sleeves under a hooded mantle weren’t too hot.

But perhaps that was the very reason she was traveling. In this country, surrounded by many races and living alongside dragons, not a single person would care about the color of her skin.

「I absolutely don’t want my telling this to make the people of this peaceful land turn against one another. But neither do I want them destroyed by people from other countries because I kept silent. So... I hesitated over what to do.」

I felt sure those were words from the bottom of Nokia’s heart.

「But, Sensei. You stopped me then. Which means, without my even explaining it, you know what my bow is, don’t you?」
「...Yeah. I know.」

The bow. A weapon that has existed since the Stone Age, alongside the spear and the axe, keeping company with human history.

「What this country lacks—no, let me be blunt. The thing I did not teach and did not allow to be made.」

In Hiiro, no one uses bows at all. The reason is simple: for hunting beasts, spears are more useful. I did try making them once long ago, but bows can’t pierce the hides of this world’s ferocious beasts. Which means—

「They’re weapons for humans to kill humans.」

In my previous life it was said that human history is a history of strife.
But in Hiiro, while there have been scuffles and quarrels, there has not been a single large‑scale war.

And that was... by no means something we could take for granted.