Chapter 2: The Magic Goat / Tanngrisnir

「Waaah! Amazing—so high!」
「Hold on tight, Yuuki!」

Her excited voice above my head made me sweat as I beat my wings. It had been, what, three years? I was back in my original dragon form, racing through the sky.

Dragon and human. The magic Ai left me lets me move freely between two forms. It would be even handier if I could, say, sprout just wings in human form or make only my fingertips human in dragon form, but no matter what I tried that wouldn’t work. It’s probably bound to my dragon name and my human name.

「All right, we’re landing.」
「Yeah!」

With that spirited reply in my ears, I touched down before our target forest. At the same time my wings twisted, my scales unraveled and spread into a coat, and I shifted back to human form, holding Yuuki by the legs so she sat on my shoulders.

「That was so fun! Onii-chan, fly again!」
「On the way back. Now, take my hand—and don’t let go, no matter what.」

I soothed the happily giggling Yuuki and held out my hand to her. She’s basically obedient and good at listening, but she’s too curious and too quick to act. If I don’t keep a grip on her, I never know where she’ll dart off to.

「Okay, Onii-chan!」
「...Can we do something about that way you call me?」
「Onii-chan is Onii-chan, you know?」

For some reason, Yuuki has called me Onii-chan since way back.
She has a proper older brother, yet she just calls him Amata.
In terms of age I’m not just her older brother—I don’t even stop at grandpa.

「Halt.」

After we’d gone a ways into the woods, a sharp voice made us stop.

「Two monkeys. What business do you have in our forest?」
「Hey, Ultramarine. Long time no see.」

I lifted a hand to the elf glaring at us, and her expression only grew harsher.

「Why do you know my name?」
「Whoa, whoa. It’s me—the fire dragon. Why do you forget me every single time?」

At that, Ultramarine’s face softened in an instant.

「Ah. Oh—right, you’re the lizard from the dropout’s place! Hah, that’s right, you can change shape. Then this one’s the dropout? You’ve both gotten awfully small!」

As she spoke, she thumped my back like it was nothing and patted Yuuki’s head.

「Why would she be? This girl’s Yuuki, from our village. Nina’s minding the place.」
「Huh? Then what did you come here for?」

No wonder Ultramarine looked doubtful. I’d visited these elf woods a few times before, but mostly as Nina’s homecoming. Come to think of it, this was my first time coming without her.

「We came to see Yellow-Green-san.」
「Hn. Whatever. Yellow-Green’s this way.」

Despite having asked, she nodded without much interest and started walking. Looked like she would guide us.

「Hey, Onii-chan, who’s Yellow-Green?」
「The one who looks after the livestock in this forest.」

Walking along, I answered Yuuki’s question. Yes—the elves should already have succeeded at animal husbandry. I’d never actually seen a ranch, but I’d heard of it.

I had no knowledge at all about starting animal husbandry. So the reason I came to these woods was to borrow the elves’ wisdom since they were already doing it. Best would be to learn how to keep livestock, but even just knowing which animals suit husbandry would make a big difference.

From what I’d seen, there didn’t seem to be such animals in this world. Even creatures that resembled cattle or pigs were absurdly temperamental and powerful, so even if you fenced them in they’d just smash through.

「Oh. Sensei—long time no see.」
「Hello; it’s been a while.」

Had it been about a hundred years since we met? Unlike Ultramarine, though, Yellow-Green-san had remembered my face and bowed politely.

「I see. I don’t mind. The Elder told me from the start to teach you that.」
「The Elder did?」

After I explained the situation, Yellow-Green-san agreed readily, leaving me tilting my head.
I wouldn’t say Nina’s father, the Elder, dislikes me, but I can’t say he’s fond of me either. I wouldn’t expect help without my asking…

「This way.」

Yellow-Green-san led us to a clearing with no fence and no sheds—just a field choked with weeds. Deer-like creatures I often hunted and goat-like ones milled there, placidly grazing. Even as we approached, they showed no sign of fleeing.

「As it happens, I was just about to take some meat.」

Saying so, Yellow-Green-san placed a hand on a tall stalk growing nearby. Instantly it grew taller and longer, and he plucked a pale yellow‑green leaf. So this was the magic behind his name.

The long, narrow leaf, tapered to a sharp point, was like a sword. Yellow-Green-san picked out a suitable goat and brought the leaf-blade down.

「…!」

I involuntarily drew breath at the sight of the goat with the haunch meat sliced off—not at the spilling blood or the razor‑clean cross‑section, but at how, even after having its flesh taken, the goat neither ran nor bleated, its expression unchanged.

When Yellow-Green-san set the leaf-sword to the wound, it clung with a supple softness, nothing like the hardness from moments before. He added two or three more leaves and deftly wrapped them around the gash like a bandage.

「Leave it like this and we can take meat again in about a month.」
「Without killing it… you take meat over and over while healing the wound?」
「Yes.」

Yellow-Green-san nodded as if it were the most natural thing.
His reaction finally jogged my memory. When the Elder told him to teach me something back when I was searching for immortality, it was how to make Zombie Powder.

These goats that neither flee nor fear and just keep chewing cud must have been put in this condition using that. In fact, that’s how I first got to know Yellow-Green-san. I’d completely forgotten.

「Is something the matter?」

Yellow-Green-san asked, puzzled.
He wasn’t cruel or callous—just an ordinary young elf.

—But our values are different.
To me, goats that couldn’t even die and would have their flesh pared away forever looked pitiful—horrific. But to the elves it was probably nothing of consequence, just as we feel nothing about plucking nuts each year and eating even the seeds.

「Onii-chan?」

I glanced at Yuuki’s puzzled face beside me.
In this age, she isn’t some sheltered girl who quails at animal carcasses; if anything, she hunts with glee. Even I sometimes bite into a live beast and eat it.

Perhaps it’s better to keep living, whatever the state, than to be killed.
That efficient method might save hundreds, thousands of human lives.

And yet, I simply couldn’t bring myself to adopt it.
I didn’t want Yuuki growing used to such acts. That’s what I felt.

「...It seems this wasn’t very helpful.」

He must have gleaned my feelings from my expression. Yellow-Green-san’s shoulders slumped slightly, crestfallen. He had meant to help in his own way.

「Right… we don’t have anyone back home who can slice meat that cleanly or use healing magic like this.」

Putting taste aside, it was also a fact we couldn’t do this in Hiiro. Yellow-Green-san’s magic was that superb. I can heal minor wounds with magic, but I couldn’t possibly return a gash this big to normal in a month.

As for the cutting, even a dragon’s claws would struggle to make it this clean.
Nina could probably manage that sort of finesse, but I can’t burden her—she’s busy working as the children’s teacher.

「Then why not have her teach you? She’s better at cutting than Yellow-Green.」
「True—that might be best.」

Ultramarine, who had been silently listening, said this out of the blue, and Yellow-Green-san nodded.

「“Her” who?」
「You’ve met her too—Violet.」

And she named the strongest woman in this forest.