Chapter 25: Foreign Enemy

Zombie Powder.

It’s a real drug on Earth, used in a folk religion known as Voodoo.

It’s a preparation blended from several poisons with tetrodotoxin—the pufferfish toxin—as its main ingredient, and in proper doses it’s said to induce a state of suspended animation. I even obtained some in my previous life, though of course I never actually used it.

On Earth it was, after all, nothing more than a poison. Depending on the amount used it could indeed put someone into a deathlike trance, and if one were lucky—no, unlucky, perhaps—part of the frontal lobe might happen to be damaged in the process, making them look like a zombie. That’s about the extent of it.

It isn’t a drug that turns humans into something else, and it certainly doesn’t extend life. But in this world—where magic truly exists—things are different.

『So basically, you’re saying you lengthen a lifespan by putting the body into a deathlike state and then breathing a tree’s life into it?』
『...I believe so, most likely.』

Putting together what we pried out of our elven guide, that seemed to be the gist of it.

『Can’t you skip the drug and just breathe tree-life into them?』
『No. If they don’t drink this drug, it’s impossible.』

Judging by his certainty, they must have tried it. He stated it flatly.

『In other words, aren’t you in effect killing the original life—the soul, if you will?』

When I said that, the elf blinked, as if the thought had never occurred to him.

From the way he talked, he wasn’t acting on any theory or principle—just experience: do this and you get that.

『A soul? Do livestock even have souls?』

It wasn’t said with scorn—just honest doubt.

The elves themselves are long-lived to begin with; they’ve no reason to use Zombie Powder on their own kind.
It was originally meant for livestock like goats and cattle, he said.
Used that way, you can draw milk for far longer than if you kept them normally.

It sounds cruel, but when I think back, we weren’t much different in my previous world.
With pets like dogs and cats, neutering and spaying were commonplace. Neutered males were said to grow more docile; spayed females were thought to avoid unwanted pregnancies. There was even a trend that loving, responsible owners naturally had the surgery done.

From the standpoint of human society, perhaps that was right and proper—but for the animals themselves, it must have been intolerable.

And while they aren’t literally domesticating humans, to the elves we fall into the same category. They meant no harm in offering it to Ai; when a dragon—an equal to them—said he wanted his pet to live longer, they simply recommended it.

『Thanks. I’ll go ask the Elder about other methods.』

He had said he knew several ways to extend life.
So this clearly wasn’t the only option.

Besides, I still couldn’t stop worrying about Nina.
We took our leave of the guide and decided to head back to the Elder’s hollow.

As we walked through the woods, a sudden kon—like something being tapped—rang out.
It sounded like two hard objects knocking together. But in a forest of nothing but trees, leaves, and grass, where would such a sound come from?

I went on, thinking it might be my imagination, when a louder gon thumped.
It was sounding quite close, yet no matter how I looked around, I couldn’t tell where it was coming from.

「Sensei, what’s wrong?」
「No, do you hear a strange sound? It’s been going on for a bit now.」
「A weird sound… you say? Can’t say I hear anything.」

Ai peered up at me, puzzled by my behavior, but it seemed neither she nor Dalga heard it.
As I tilted my head, a fist-sized stone smacked into the side of my face with a thunk.

『Ah—damn it.』

I turned toward the direction the stone had come from and locked eyes with Ultramarine, wearing a face that all but said, I screwed up. So that was the source of the sound.

『F-finally noticed, did you, you lizard!』

Apparently she’d been throwing stones more than once to get my attention. But a dragon’s scales are so hard that pebbles not only do no damage—they don’t even register. Even that fist-sized one, I could tell it hit, but it didn’t hurt.

『—san!』

When I shot her a glare, Ultramarine hastily tacked an honorific onto my name.

『What do you want?』
『You planning to go see the Elder?』

Come to think of it, she’d been trying hard to keep us from the Elder.
Seeing Nina gone, was she planning to resort to force?

『That’s the plan. Is that a problem?』

I thrust my head forward and try to look menacing.
So this is how Dalga felt when we first met, I realized.
You can read the other party’s fear more clearly than you’d think.

『You’re going to rescue the dropout?』

But what Ultramarine said next was the last thing I expected.

『Rescue? Is Nina in some kind of danger?』
『Idiot! Who told you you could toss around her name so lightly! Call her the dropout!』

She cut me off with blustering vehemence.
What I heard in it wasn’t contempt or scorn, but something like concern and unease.

『What do you mean by “dropout”?』

I’d taken it as a slur for someone inferior.

『What else would it mean? It’s exactly what the word says.』

Ultramarine said, looking perplexed.

『Something whose leaves and petals have fallen. It means the princess-priestess offered up as a sacrifice.』

How would I possibly have known that? I thought.





But I should have realized.
When Ai came to us, Nina called her an “offering.”
If that term existed, it meant the elves had the same custom.

『Elder!』
『You’ve come to ask about another method of life extension… or so it would seem not.』

Just as Nina seemed to know the surrounding forest without missing a thing, the Elder no doubt already knew any conversation held within the woods. Ultramarine’s needlessly roundabout contact—throwing stones—had been meant to lure me outside the forest proper; she was simply too clumsy for it to work.

『Nina is a dear friend. I can’t have her made an offering.』

So I didn’t hide it; I said so plainly.

『Then will you destroy us, child of dragon?』

At the Elder’s words, I let out a choked groan.

『We have many external foes. To the north, the shadowfolk; to the east, the lizardmen; to the west, giant beasts; to the south, fishmen… and you dragons as well. For us to survive, offerings are necessary.』

I couldn’t possibly say, Then perish, in that case.
Sacrificing the individual for the whole is not, as a survival strategy, necessarily wrong.
It just so happens that this time, that individual is my friend.

I couldn’t force destruction on them for the sake of my personal ego.

『Then… I’ll protect you.』

But even so—
More than that, I couldn’t abandon Nina.

『I’ll protect you from your external enemies. Then you won’t need offerings at all.』

The Elder drew his brows together in pained concern.

『I appreciate the sentiment, child of dragon. But it is impossible. Fire dragon though you be, you are far too young. In that small body, you will not live even a hundred years. At that, you could not protect us—indeed, you could not even defeat us.』

He might well be right.
Even so, I couldn’t accept it.

『I see. Then it’s simple.』

The one who cut in so abruptly was Dalga.

『All we gotta do is beat you lot, right? That’ll prove we can protect you—and even if it doesn’t, it makes us a big enough outside threat. Then you can hand over this “offering” of yours.』
『Mortals do prattle so, once they learn a few words. A dragon might be another matter, but you will never stand against us.』

It wasn’t mockery or carelessness.
Indeed, there was no way a human could match an elf.

『Try me.』

Dalga set his fists and flashed a fearless grin. He hadn’t even brought his stone blade this time.

『…He’s with a dragon to whom we owe a debt. Do not kill him.』

At that, an elf stepped forward.

In the same instant, countless tree roots crawled up from all around and bound Dalga’s arms and legs.
Every elf is a born mage. A human can’t possibly win against that.

—Unless, of course, that human happens to be a mage.

『He’s the one we’re talking about protecting. I didn’t kill him.』

Dalga spoke as if returning a favor in kind. Even I could barely follow his motion from rending the roots to sinking his fist into the elf’s gut.

『Alright, who’s next?』

Dalga bared a feral grin, like a tiger in the jungle.