Chapter 27: The Sixth Student

I beat my wings in haste, brought Hiiro Village into view, and was struck speechless.
The scene spread below was blacked out as if someone had spilled ink over the entire village.
No way—are all of those rats!?

As I quailed at the sight, a burst of fire shot up like fireworks from the village center, the plaza. Someone must have seen me circling and sent a signal. Only one person would do that.

「Nina, are you all right!?」
「You’re late, idiot!」

Good—she sounds lively.
With her grumbling in my ears, I touched down in the plaza without shedding my dragon form.

At once I swept my tail, mowing down the rats swarming from every direction. My dragon tail flicked the little creatures away with ease, yet their numbers didn’t seem to diminish at all—like a black carpet.

「Yuuki, do not get off my back, no matter what!」
「Got it!」

If she jumped into this, even Yuuki wouldn’t last. Countless rats swarmed me and bit, but teeth that can’t even scuff a Hihiirokane rat guard won’t so much as nick my scales.

「Nina, what on earth happened!?」
「How should I know—they rushed us all of a sudden!」

She must have been holding this spot alone the whole time.
Piles of rat corpses were heaped around Nina, yet the rats showed no sign of stopping.

「Stop! You can understand speech, can’t you!? Why are you doing this!?」

There was no response to my call; the rats hurled themselves at us blindly, and I had no choice but to answer with flame. Do they really understand words?

How long did that go on? Their numbers still didn’t seem to thin, but perhaps realizing they couldn’t win, the assault gradually slackened.

「What about the villagers?」

With enough breathing room to talk at last, I asked Nina.

「I evacuated them to the icehouse. Amata’s guarding them.」
「Then they should be safe… or maybe not.」

Yuuki’s the same, but the Sword Clan excels at fighting a small number of powerful foes—giants, elves, lizardmen… dragons.

Conversely, they’re not suited to wide‑area, burn‑everything magic. Individually the rats are frail, but in these numbers even Amata may struggle. That’s why Nina stayed here—this plaza lets her face many at once. You have to pass this way to reach the icehouse.

Just then—tock—something struck my head.

「Onii-chan!」

As the patter came down in a shower, I reflexively spread my wings to shield Yuuki.
What flew at us were tiny stones.

「Stone‑throwing…!?」

They were like little adzuki beans—tiny, tiny pebbles. Frankly, even if one hit me it wouldn’t hurt or cause any damage. And yet I couldn’t hide my shock.

The rats were picking up the pebbles and throwing them.

「Ow!」

Nina cried out. Blood trickled from her beautiful brow.

「Oh, you’ll pay for that—!」

At her furious shout, trees burst up from the ground. They became countless weapons and floated into the air.
But before she could unleash them, Nina’s view was blocked by a swarm of tiny bubbles.

「What is this…!?」

Nina swung her arm; wind roared. But the wall of bubbles, clinging together, only heaved under the gusts and neither burst nor blew away.
From beyond that wall of bubbles, several rats leapt in.

「How crafty!」

Abandoning any attempt to aim, Nina loosed the wooden weapons like arrows. They swept the rats away—bubbles and all—blasting them apart.

「Nina, that’s not it!」

I warned her. No matter how strong Nina’s magic is, that’s still a physical attack.
Corpses don’t just vanish without a trace. Those were moving shadows, conjured by magic.

「Kyaa!」

Suddenly Nina screamed.
Looking over, I saw several rats had somehow latched onto her body.

「Nina Onee-chan, don’t move!」

Yuuki leapt from my back and swung her Hihiirokane sword.
It didn’t so much as scratch Nina, but cleanly severed the rats climbing her.

「Both of you—hurry, onto my back!」

I started to say more when a sharp pain lanced my leg.

「…You’ve got to be kidding me.」

I glanced toward the source of the pain and groaned despite myself.
A small rat, wielding a Hihiirokane sword sized to fit its body, had driven it into my leg.

「Damn it… Nina, fire!」

At my shout, Nina instantly grasped my intent, conjured a great flame, and hurled it at me.
To me it was nothing but a pleasant breeze, but for the rats starting to climb my body it was lethal heat.

I burst through the flame, snatched up Nina and Yuuki in my foreclaws, and shot into the sky. Surely they wouldn’t pursue us that high.

「What… what are they?」

Nina’s voice was a mix of anger and fear.

「Onii-chan, that magic…」
「Yeah.」

I nodded.

「They’re using our magic.」

Stone‑throwing. Bubbles. Shadows. And swords. All of them were spells we had conceived, built, and practiced in the special class. There was no way it was coincidence.

The rats had been listening to our lessons.
From the corner of the room, unnoticed by us, all along.

「I never thought they’d go as far as making swords… ow.」

A throb of pain ran through me mid‑sentence, and I grimaced.

「Sorry, Yuuki—can you pull the blade out of my leg?」
「Okay.」

The rat holding it had been burned away by Nina’s fire, but the weapon itself remained lodged in my leg. Curling my body to bring the fore‑held Yuuki close to my hind leg, she reached out and neatly pulled it free.

「…Onii-chan, this isn’t a sword.」

Staring hard at what she’d pulled out, Yuuki said:

「It’s a nail. One of the nails reinforcing the fence.」

I see. They gnawed through and destroyed the fence and took it out. A nail would be just the right length for a sword at their size. The reason they hadn’t used them from the outset was simply because they’d only just pulled them from the fence.

「…That’s bad.」
「Yeah.」

If so, that Hihiirokane nail wasn’t the only one. There had to be hundreds.

「I’m worried about Amata. Hang on—we’re going.」

I set Yuuki and Nina on my back and put strength into my wings.


* * *


The icehouse sits at the village’s far edge, at the northernmost end.
It’s the first house Ai’s family once lived in—a cave on a low hill.
The entrance, usually shut by a door, now stood wide open, and walls of ice arched up around it.

Clever. There’s no way everyone could fit inside the icehouse, so they’re using the cold air pooling within to form ice walls and block the rats’ advance.

「Sensei!」

Standing like a gatekeeper at the entrance, Amata—stained all over in red—called to me.
The countless rat corpses at his feet told the tale of his desperate fight.

「Amata, are you all right!?」
「Yes. Please don’t worry—it’s all their blood.」

Landing beside him, I asked—and Amata answered offhandedly.
As expected of him… though his shoulders were rising and falling with his words.
He didn’t exactly have much to spare.

There are hardly any buildings around the icehouse now; the forest that once surrounded it has been completely cleared. Here, I can breathe fire somewhat seriously without endangering the village.

「So, you’ve returned.」

I drew a breath, ready to wipe out the rats in one blast—when it happened.

From the mass of black rats, a White Rat stepped forward.

「Why did you do this, Al?」
「There are three rea-sons.」

My words were edged with anger, but Al answered in his usual flat tone, matter‑of‑fact.

First: be-cause the op-posing force was ab-sent. Espe-cially while you—the great-est force—were ab-sent, it was neces-sary to re-duce the humans’ strength.
Second: to se-cure food. What you pro-vided was no longer suf-ficient. There-fore, we raided.
Third: to re-duce mouths. The num-ber of creatures re-quiring food is ex-cessive relative to sup-ply. Thus, we cul-led.

There was no hint of guilt in his tone, nor any note of pride or mockery—only an emotionless report of fact.
At that way of speaking, a suspicion rose in me, and I asked:

「The creatures that need food… do you mean humans or rats?」
「Both.」

Hearing his matter‑of‑course reply, I knew instinctively that I could never come to an understanding with this creature.
We used the same words, and he understood their meanings, yet it felt impossible to connect.

Al likely bore no ill will and no malice at all.
He didn’t even have the concepts of deception or breaking promises.
He acted simply because he could. That was all there was to it.

「I’m stopping you here, Algernon. Withdraw at once. And never come to this village again.」

I put force into his name and commanded him.

True names. Sometimes a name someone else gave you works; sometimes it doesn’t.
I don’t know how the system works, but I do know one thing:
If the being itself recognizes a name as its true name, then that name functions as such.

Giving him the pet name “Al” was for this very reason.
With a nickname, creatures tend to accept their original name as the true one.
That should hold for humans and rats alike.

「You’ve been call-ing me Al, but—」

But Al—the White Rat—tilted his head adorably and replied:

「If you mean that indi-vidual, he’s long since dead.」