Chapter 24: Dragon Era/Anno Doraco

「Sensei, this is bad!」

At Violet-san’s scream-like shout, I sprang to my feet. At some point Nina had flopped onto my back; she rolled off with a thud and let out a weird “fugyu,” but I ignored it.

「What’s wrong!?」
「The fields…!」

Shifting into human form as I stepped outside, Violet—wearing an unusually grave expression—pointed toward the fields.
I went with her toward the fields, and what I saw was—

Scores—hundreds—of wheat stalks flattened, a field savaged beyond recognition.

「Why… did it end up like this?」

As I approached in a daze, something odd caught my eye: several—no, dozens—of branches laid across the irrigation ditch.

「This is…」
「I left it as is so you could see it, Sensei. Some people saw it happen.」

Violet said in a hard tone.

「We saw the rats carrying branches in their mouths and building this.」
「No way…」

I was about to say, “That’s ridiculous,” but clamped my mouth shut.
A fire dragon that exhales flame instead of breath. Elves who live for millennia. Mermaids, Lycos Centaurs, lizardmen. In a world where such beings exist, rats throwing together a bridge is hardly strange. Precisely because they’re familiar creatures, I’d let preconceptions blind me to the obvious.

「…For now, let’s clear it away.」
「Right.」

We removed the branches and burned them. But simply cleaning up would only invite a repeat. We had to take measures.

「Let’s think up countermeasures. Could you fetch Sig and Rin, and Luka and… Yuuki?」
「Understood.」

Violet nodded and dashed off.

「Um, I’m… right here. Good morning, Onii-chan.」

As if swapping places with her, Yuuki poked her face in, looking ill at ease.

「Morning. Right, you’re on field duty too.」
「Yeah…」

She gave a small nod, lacking her usual energy. A heavy air settled over us.

「Yuuki, about—」

I had to break this mood.

「What is this!?」

My attempt to speak was drowned out by Nina’s scream. I’d completely forgotten about her—she’d been rolled awake and probably followed me in a foul mood. Seeing the ravaged field, her willow brows shot up.

「Rats tore it up. Looks like they crossed by laying a bridge over the irrigation ditch…」
「A bridge?」

Come to think of it, I hadn’t explained it to Nina yet. I’d thought the first incident was just a prank or something and not worth bringing up.

「…About that. Is the storehouse all right?」

After hearing my explanation, Nina asked that.

「The storehouse? No, that side is…」

It’s a raised-floor granary with Hihiirokane rat-guards; there shouldn’t be a problem—or so I started to say, then realized: if they can throw a bridge over an irrigation ditch, they might be able to bridge to the granary too.

「Right away—!」
「I already checked. That side’s fine.」

The one who stopped me as I hurried toward the granary was Sig.
Rin, Luka, and Violet came up behind him.

「I see—good. Thanks, Sig.」
「It was Luka who noticed.」
「Was it? As expected of our Class Leader… or rather, our teacher now. Thanks, Luka.」
「Please don’t call me Sensei, Sensei.」

When I patted her head, Luka shrank her neck in embarrassment—but not displeased—tilting her head to a handier angle for patting.

「Still, a bridge, huh… Aren’t rats smarter than Rin?」
「I can swim!」

For some reason Rin puffed out her chest proudly at Sig’s sarcastic remark.

「At this point… I feel like our only option is to put up a tall wall.」
「And build it out of what? If it’s wood they’ll gnaw holes through it. There’s no way we have enough Hihiirokane.」

I nodded at Sig’s perfectly reasonable point.

「We could post a night watch. If they’re laying bridges, even small rats won’t go unnoticed.」
「If nothing better comes up, let’s do that.」

As expected of Violet—practical as ever. She has guarded the elf forest for a long time.

「Rin, anything come to mind?」
「Hmm…」

Put on the spot, the mermaid girl knit her brows and fell into thought. For her—who usually speaks without thinking—that was unusual.

「I think Violet’s plan is good…」

Her halfhearted tone must have caught Sig’s attention; he glanced her way.

We asked Luka, Yuuki, and Nina for ideas as well, but nothing noteworthy came up, so I decided to adopt Violet’s plan.

「All right, we’ll have the villagers help and take turns on watch. How long per shift would be good…?」
「Perhaps about two Dragon-Koku.」
「Two… Dragon-Koku?」

I tilted my head at the unfamiliar unit that popped out of Violet’s mouth.

「You called one Lycos—the time for one run of the Lycos kiln—a unit, didn’t you?」
「Ah, right.」

It had been half a joke, but I certainly did call it that.

「Most villagers weren’t used to the word Lycos. Once we taught it was a time unit, the name got slurred into what it is now.」

Luka’s the only Lycos Centaur in the village, so it’s natural they’d find it unfamiliar.
Lycos… Ryūkoku. Makes sense, sort of, and sort of doesn’t.

「Koku is the koku from ‘moment by moment,’ right? So I figured ‘ryū’ must be dragon… Luka told me the correct origin later, though.」
「So it was you!」

Yuuki gave an embarrassed little laugh—ehehe—and I forgot my awkwardness and snapped at her without thinking.
I’m pretty sure I taught her the name Lycos Centaur directly… Well, she was little then, so forgetting is understandable.

「And with that vibe, it’s already spread: twelve Dragon-Koku make one Dragon Day, thirty-four Dragon Days make one Dragon Month, and twelve Dragon Months make one Dragon Year.」
「Why!?」

I shouted at Nina’s smooth explanation. What’s the point of sticking ‘dragon’ on everything? Isn’t it hard to say?

「So, this year is Dragon Era five hundred twenty-two.」
「That’s my age!」

Dealt the finishing blow by Violet’s revelation, I felt my face heat as if I’d breathe fire. Because that would make me sound like—

「By the way, I’m the one who named it Dragon Era.」
「Of course you were!」

I yelled, half in exasperation, at Sig pointing at himself.
That naming is clearly modeled on the Common Era. But the only one I told about that was Sig. He’s always pried into my previous life, and I did talk about things like that then.

Which makes it sound like I’m pretending to be Jesus Christ…

「Everybody loves Sensei!」

Faced with Rin’s guileless smile, I couldn’t say anything back.

「…We’re off topic. Uh, two—no, four-hour rotations. That sounds about right. Two people per night shift… let’s add more field hands, and anyone on night watch is excused from farm work the next day.」
「Understood. Yuuki-chan and I will hammer out the details and report back.」
「Please.」

I let out a deep sigh and asked Violet to handle the arrangements.
Even if it was only thanks to the confusion just now, I felt like I’d managed a normal conversation with Yuuki. That might be a big step forward.

If they can’t feed for a few days, the rats will probably give up and move on. If not… we’ll have to devise another countermeasure.

Praying that both problems would resolve safely if possible, we broke up for the time being.


* * *


「Attacked…!?」

But that fragile hope was shattered the very next day.

「Yes. Fortunately, no one was badly hurt.」

Perhaps because her proposal had led to villagers being harmed, Violet answered with a pained expression.

「The problem is—they went for the granary.」

After posting lookouts at the fields, Violet remembered what Luka had said and assigned people to the granary as well.

But when night fell, the place actually attacked was the granary.
Even allowing for fewer people since they didn’t have to patrol a wide area, completely ignoring the fields was far too unnatural.

「Don’t tell me… they listened to our discussion…?」

The instant I said it, Violet turned, and thorns shot from her fingertips. They flashed like lightning and seized a small creature, which squealed, “Gyuu!”

It was a small black rat, no bigger than a palmful.

「Do you… understand words?」

Half disbelieving, I questioned the rat. No answer came; it only thrashed weakly.

「Even if it understands, that doesn’t mean it can talk.」

Nina’s point made sense.

「Rin. You’ve thought of something, haven’t you? Spit it out.」
「Mm…」

Prompted by Sig, Rin opened her mouth, still looking unenthusiastic.

「The rats probably have homes too… right?」
「Of course! Luka can track the scent and find the nest. If we wipe them out there—」

Sig slapped his knee at Rin’s succinct suggestion.
Rat nests are probably burrows dug in the earth. Rats aren’t good swimmers. If we divert river water and pour it in, we should be able to exterminate most of them.

「That would be trou-ble.」

A shrill voice rang out. Reflexively, we looked to the rat Violet had caught, but that one had gone limp from struggling.

「O-ver here.」

The voice sounded again, this time from right at our feet.
I turned my gaze toward the sound—and a pure white rat was looking up at me.

「Let’s nego-tiate.」

The white rat opened its mouth and stated it clearly.