Chapter 12: The Embodiment of Fortune and Calamity / Currency

Dragon Era 646

It happened one day, on a holiday afternoon.

「Oooooooh...」

I was shaking with emotion.
Its dazzlingly white crumb was pocked with bubbly holes; tearing it with both hands gave a fluffy resistance. Bite down and you get a springy chew with a faint tang, and the more you chew the more a delicate sweetness comes through.

Before me was the very image of leavened bread I knew so well.

Where on earth was I supposed to get the yeast to leaven bread?
The question that had vexed me for decades since we succeeded in growing wheat was suddenly solved one day.
I baked a porridge of bread we’d carelessly left uneaten until it spoiled, and it puffed up hugely into soft bread. Sometimes Nina’s slovenliness is useful.

I recalled the saying that there is no essential difference between putrefaction and fermentation.
We simply call what benefits humans fermentation and what harms us rot.
The bread yeast I’d been seeking all along was everywhere in the air.

As the people of Hiiro often say, ‘Treasure is always lying at your feet’—it was precisely true.

「...Is it really a flavor worth getting that worked up over?」

Chewing bread beside me, Nina shot me a cool look.
Hah... enjoy that face while you can.

I’ll show you what it means that we can bake bread!

I scraped down some bread I’d dried beforehand, then cracked the eggs of the recently domesticated chicken into another dish.
Then I dusted my prized Behemoth meat with salt and flour, dipped it in egg, coated it with crumbs, and fried it...! Behold, probably this world’s first cutlet!

「Go on, try it!」
「Why are you so desperate...?」

Exasperated, Nina cut a piece with a knife, speared it with her fork, and brought it to her mouth.

Sakuri.

The glory of a fry, first and foremost, is its texture.
Nothing in nature offers such a delightfully crisp bite.
Then, as you bite through, the rich savor of meat fat sealed inside the crust seeps out! Tangling with the slightly heavy hand of salt and ravaging your mouth—an overwhelming tyranny of taste.
It was a slight shame we had no sauce, but its ruinous deliciousness made such things unnecessary.

Nina chewed in silence, then immediately reached for a second piece.
A third, a fourth—her hands and mouth didn’t stop, and after polishing off the whole cutlet in no time, she said:

「...Not bad.」

Still won’t admit defeat? Fine—then I have another idea.
Without the slightest mercy, I took my untouched Behemoth cutlet and—sandwiched it in bread.

Fat. Meat. Carbohydrate. There’s no way a cutlet burger built solely of those could taste bad.
Sink your teeth in and the crisp snap spreads through the fluff, the mingled savor of bread and meat multiplying each other many times over.

「Ah—ah, aah!? Hey, what do you think you’re doing!?」

She must have sensed its greatness on instinct. Seeing the cutlet that had vanished from her own plate and me in turn, Nina cried out.

「It’s not a flavor worth getting that worked up over, right?」
「Hey—hey! That’s cheating! Don’t hog that way of eating all to yourself...! Let me have some! At least one bite!」

I held my arm high and kept the cutlet burger out of Nina’s reaching hands. She didn’t give up—she leapt at me, and...

「Um... it’s been a while.」

A familiar face looked down at us—right as Nina had me pinned and was savoring the cutlet burger she’d captured.

「You’re as close as ever, I see.」

Saying that, Luka wore a somewhat troubled yet gentle smile.


* * *


「Ah—sorry you had to see that. How embarrassing.」

Dragging out a four-legged-species chair that had been gathering dust in storage, I apologized to Luka.
In peaceful Hiiro we don’t bother locking doors, but leaving even the door standing open because Nina said it was hot—maybe that was a mistake.

「No, not at all. I’m the one who came without notice... ah, excuse me.」

Luka settled her four legs onto the chair I’d pulled out.

「We do see a lot more other races around the village nowadays, but the four-legged kind—centaur types—are just built differently, so it’s tricky. There aren’t many of you, so this is still the only chair I made for you back then... Awake.」

I set a Hihiirokane kettle on my palm, poured in stored water, traced the characters etched on its surface, and activated it. The kettle heated at once and the water began bubbling to a boil.

「Asleep. Nina, if you would.」
「Yeah, yeah.」

If you cancel the spell once the water reaches a boil, the kettle itself—heated by magic—cools immediately. It’s a very safe water boiler since it uses no fire. I handed it to Nina, and she added tea leaves to let it steep; I’m hopeless at that part—the balance always turns bitter on me no matter how many times I try.

「Mm... it’s ready.」
「Thanks. Awake.」

I poured it into another pot Nina handed me and activated the spell carved there. Frost whitened the metal at once, and the steaming tea chilled in an instant.

「Here you go. You must be thirsty.」

I poured it into a glass and offered it; Luka took it, eyes wide.

「I spread what I learned from Sensei to everyone, and we’ve come to live much more civilized lives... I thought we’d caught up quite a bit, but we still have a long way to go, don’t we.」

After swallowing the chilled tea with little gulps, Luka murmured pensively.

「No—I’ve heard plenty. I think you’ve worked very hard, Luka.」

She had unified the Lycos, who had been living scattered in family units, and introduced and established pastoral nomadism to stabilize a life that had relied on hunting. I’d often heard of her achievements from her younger siblings and nieces and nephews.

「You graduated and left the school... Right. It’s been over a hundred years already.」

Even for a long‑lived race like the Lycos Centaurs, that’s no short span. The innocent girl had grown into a refined, beautiful woman.
But for humans, a hundred years is longer than a whole life from birth to death.

「We call these magic‑powered devices. Rin made them.」
「Rin‑chan did?」

When I showed her the kettle and pot we’d just used to heat and chill the water, Luka examined them intently.

Rather than fitting a wooden ring inscribed with characters onto the millstone, it’s quicker to carve the characters directly into the stone itself.

The self‑turning millstone we made from Rin’s idea worked far better than expected.
Threshing and milling that used to take hours by hand now only require a moment to activate—after that you can just leave it.

And above all... what I named enchantment was overwhelmingly more stable than magic that involves spirits.

Spirit magic that meddles with natural energies—manipulating water, producing flame, stirring wind—varies wildly in aptitude and affinity.

I still can’t produce even a drop of water; making ice is a pipe dream—probably something I’ll never do in my life.

Even so, I could lower the pot’s temperature itself. It seems the underlying principles of spirit magic and enchantment are different.

Machines that run on magic combining character‑based enchantments with magic circles—magic‑powered devices—have exploded in popularity these past few years, with all sorts being conceived and made. This kettle and pot are among them.

「So these are those... magic‑powered devices, then.」

After my explanation, Luka took a small metal piece from inside her garments and set it on the table.

「What’s that?」

Nina tilted her head at the unfamiliar item.
She probably had no idea how it was meant to be used.
It was my first time seeing one too—however...

「In our village we recently started growing wheat for fodder, but we harvested more than expected... the Lycos don’t eat wheat, so I brought the surplus to trade for meat—and they gave me this.」

However, I knew exactly how it was to be used.

「They called it a mon.」
「Hmmm...? I’ve never seen one—what does it do, exactly?」
「It’s probably not a magic‑powered device.」

I told Nina, who was picking up the little metal piece and turning it over and over.
It did have characters engraved, but not as an enchantment—just a stamp.

「That’s surely money—a currency.」