The forests around Carcathia were very small, made up of mostly thin birch-like trees. The space between each tree was wider than in Tortea, which we were told was because people managed it properly. It was an artificial forest system created by people.
Thick ivies crawled between the white, bamboo-sized trunks. They were light blue and the perfect size to hold in your hand, where it would look just like a water hose. In the middle of its winding stems were wintermelon-like fruits growing even lengths apart from each other.
Though, those ivies, they had a very disturbing name.
I tucked my knife sheath into my waist pouch, which I then rotated to sit on my back so it wouldn’t get in the way. I grabbed one of the oval-shaped fruits with both hands and gave it a jerk. Heavy. Sensing the vibrations, the water hose began to squirm. Fikar nodded, unsheathing his sword.
“Starting–”
I used my blade to slice through the stem at the base of the fruit, causing the tangle of ivy to writhe in pain. The tip of the vine, which was swinging the most violently, snapped its mouth open. It tried to bite me as mucus spilled everywhere, but Fikar blocked its every attempt with his blade.
Even while looking like that, eastern man-eating melons were one of the more well-behaved members of the man-eating vine family. Their big fruits were full of what was basically liquor, but they would try to attack you while you collected them. The tip of the thickest ivy was shaped like a snake’s head and, if it managed to bite you, you’d become paralyzed, then eaten. It’s not like the head moved very fast, but if you cut off the head, the liquor inside the fruits connected to it would immediately turn bitter and unusable. Therefore, someone had to distract the head while someone else gathered the goods.
The liquor itself was known as “biting wine”, and when aged for a few years, it became a high-class drink with an equally high alcohol content. Since its flavor changed based on the region and local habitat, many biting wines were harvested and distributed throughout the country each year.
Su was pulling a wooden cart that had been left at the edge of the forest. While I was distracted by the vine’s tortured thrashing and attacks on Fikar, she helped load the harvested fruits into the cart.
The first time she picked one up, she bit down with too much force and ended up drinking all the liquor inside. She looked flustered for a moment, her eyes darting back and forth in confusion, but she must’ve decided she didn’t like the taste since she now carried them very delicately. Each fruit weighed around two or three kilos, so it was a relief to have such reliable help.
After collecting all the matured fruits and leaving the vine alone for a while, the tip of the ivy slowly settled down and returned to acting like a normal plant. We walked to the other patches of eastern man-eating melon vines scattered around the forest, piled their fruits into the cart, then attached Su’s reins to the front of the cart and nudged her from behind to head back. In reality, we had to go back and forth several times to complete our harvest, but my team was lucky to be able to be so efficient thanks to Su.
When we got to the drop-off area for the last time, Su was out of breath, but when I stroked her head and praised her, she was so cute, making a proud noise in her throat. On the day I first met her, I never could’ve imagined the day where I would find the dinosaur-like Su so adorable.
Shortly after, one of the people monitoring the progress of the harvest for the guild branch in Carcathia told us that the morning’s work period was over. The rest of the work, like watering and fertilizing, would be done by the local farmers based on the conditions of the remaining crops and fruits.
“Sumire-kun, thanks for your work. Could you take care of the biting wine in the shed this afternoon? Fikar, would you help me repair the farm equipment?”
“Will do.”
Holding the less-than-thrilled Fikar’s hands, we walked back to the inn. Su was a good girl, following us over the rooftops and staying put once we went indoors.
Walking through town, it felt as if stares were constantly piercing me.
They were mostly for Fikar, though.
On a sunny day, Fikar’s hair shone especially beautifully, and his slender, elegant face attracted the eyes of even Tortea’s women. And now he was a 10-star rank on top of that. Although there were people who approached him while we were working, while we were being briefed at the guild office, and so on, Fikar’s main method of communication was shaking his head, so the ‘conversations’ never went anywhere.
When we reached the inn, it was crowded with guests who had just come in for lunch, and the hostess was in a very bad mood.
“Dining room’s full! Take your plates and go somewhere else!”
The inn was divided into several lodgings, where a room could come with breakfast, lunch, and/or dinner depending on the price of the lodging. But, since the guild also had a hand in those lodgings with meals included to accommodate people coming to Carcathia on a request, there were more hungry people than usual, so the place became jam-packed when the inn’s and guild’s times overlapped.
As I was walking down the hallway after getting two heaping bowls of fried rice, an unfamiliar face approached Fikar. It was a beautiful woman with flashy emerald-green hair. Her large, cat-like eyes blinked, and her cheeks held a hint of red.
“Um… I’m Tussa, would you like to have lunch together?”
Fikar shook his head with a blank expression and held up the two bowls of fried rice. Tussa-san glanced at me. Those eyes, the same color as my hair, made me feel like a mouse.
“You’re welcome to join us…”
“Err… I’ll eat in my room…”
Well, of course that would be awkward, wouldn’t it?
I wanted to take my bowl and run away, but Fikar wouldn’t let go. I was worried that, if I tugged any harder, its contents would be flung out. Fikar was staring at me as if he wanted to say something to me. Tussa-san was staring at me, too. It looked like I was being asked to be their translator, but it’s not like I knew what they were thinking either.
“… The two of us need to talk about some other job with the guild, so let’s talk another time, okay?”
Tussa-san acknowledged my lame excuse with a hateful nod. Although I felt relieved to continue walking, I could tell we were being followed by the sound of her footsteps. I awkwardly poured some water from a pitcher, climbed the stairs, made my way down the hallway, and opened the door for Fikar, whose hands were full. He entered the room first and, as I turned around to close the door behind me, my eyes met Tussa-san’s, who was glaring at me through the gap, so I swiftly shut it.
So scary!
Finally, I felt comfortable in our barren room — only a bed and a table. The food contained lots of diced vegetables and meat, and the healthy servings of salt and pepper made it even tastier. As I was munching on it, I noticed Fikar staring at me.
“I mean, I think it’s a type of kindness to cleanly refuse…”
That said, Fikar barely ever opened his mouth. And when he did, it was done reluctantly only because the other person was so insistent that he speak. I could see that he was sometimes vaguely interesting, so maybe he didn’t like talking to begin with.
How about writing replies on some kind of card, then? Ah, no, he would probably just hang one around his neck saying “Don’t talk to me.”
“Well, there’s only six days left. Let’s make something delicious when we get home.”
Fikar nodded, pulling out a snack from his pocket and offering to share some with me. The way he grasped and crushed the walnuts that he probably picked up in the forest was impressive no matter how many times you’ve seen it before. Though, if he showed it to the girls that approached him, I wondered how many would be turned off…
I thought the day would pass peacefully after that, but that’s not what fate had in store for me.
I’d been told that I would be going to a shed to work in a small group that afternoon, and I’d later learn that one of the people in that group was Tussa-san.
The forests around Carcathia were very small, made up of mostly thin birch-like trees. The space between each tree was wider than in Tortea, which we were told was because people managed it properly. It was an artificial forest system created by people.
Thick ivies crawled between the white, bamboo-sized trunks. They were light blue and the perfect size to hold in your hand, where it would look just like a water hose. In the middle of its winding stems were wintermelon-like fruits growing even lengths apart from each other.
Though, those ivies, they had a very disturbing name.
I tucked my knife sheath into my waist pouch, which I then rotated to sit on my back so it wouldn’t get in the way. I grabbed one of the oval-shaped fruits with both hands and gave it a jerk. Heavy. Sensing the vibrations, the water hose began to squirm. Fikar nodded, unsheathing his sword.
“Starting–”
I used my blade to slice through the stem at the base of the fruit, causing the tangle of ivy to writhe in pain. The tip of the vine, which was swinging the most violently, snapped its mouth open. It tried to bite me as mucus spilled everywhere, but Fikar blocked its every attempt with his blade.
Even while looking like that, eastern man-eating melons were one of the more well-behaved members of the man-eating vine family. Their big fruits were full of what was basically liquor, but they would try to attack you while you collected them. The tip of the thickest ivy was shaped like a snake’s head and, if it managed to bite you, you’d become paralyzed, then eaten. It’s not like the head moved very fast, but if you cut off the head, the liquor inside the fruits connected to it would immediately turn bitter and unusable. Therefore, someone had to distract the head while someone else gathered the goods.
The liquor itself was known as “biting wine”, and when aged for a few years, it became a high-class drink with an equally high alcohol content. Since its flavor changed based on the region and local habitat, many biting wines were harvested and distributed throughout the country each year.
Su was pulling a wooden cart that had been left at the edge of the forest. While I was distracted by the vine’s tortured thrashing and attacks on Fikar, she helped load the harvested fruits into the cart.
The first time she picked one up, she bit down with too much force and ended up drinking all the liquor inside. She looked flustered for a moment, her eyes darting back and forth in confusion, but she must’ve decided she didn’t like the taste since she now carried them very delicately. Each fruit weighed around two or three kilos, so it was a relief to have such reliable help.
After collecting all the matured fruits and leaving the vine alone for a while, the tip of the ivy slowly settled down and returned to acting like a normal plant. We walked to the other patches of eastern man-eating melon vines scattered around the forest, piled their fruits into the cart, then attached Su’s reins to the front of the cart and nudged her from behind to head back. In reality, we had to go back and forth several times to complete our harvest, but my team was lucky to be able to be so efficient thanks to Su.
When we got to the drop-off area for the last time, Su was out of breath, but when I stroked her head and praised her, she was so cute, making a proud noise in her throat. On the day I first met her, I never could’ve imagined the day where I would find the dinosaur-like Su so adorable.
Shortly after, one of the people monitoring the progress of the harvest for the guild branch in Carcathia told us that the morning’s work period was over. The rest of the work, like watering and fertilizing, would be done by the local farmers based on the conditions of the remaining crops and fruits.
“Sumire-kun, thanks for your work. Could you take care of the biting wine in the shed this afternoon? Fikar, would you help me repair the farm equipment?”
“Will do.”
Holding the less-than-thrilled Fikar’s hands, we walked back to the inn. Su was a good girl, following us over the rooftops and staying put once we went indoors.
Walking through town, it felt as if stares were constantly piercing me.
They were mostly for Fikar, though.
On a sunny day, Fikar’s hair shone especially beautifully, and his slender, elegant face attracted the eyes of even Tortea’s women. And now he was a 10-star rank on top of that. Although there were people who approached him while we were working, while we were being briefed at the guild office, and so on, Fikar’s main method of communication was shaking his head, so the ‘conversations’ never went anywhere.
When we reached the inn, it was crowded with guests who had just come in for lunch, and the hostess was in a very bad mood.
“Dining room’s full! Take your plates and go somewhere else!”
The inn was divided into several lodgings, where a room could come with breakfast, lunch, and/or dinner depending on the price of the lodging. But, since the guild also had a hand in those lodgings with meals included to accommodate people coming to Carcathia on a request, there were more hungry people than usual, so the place became jam-packed when the inn’s and guild’s times overlapped.
As I was walking down the hallway after getting two heaping bowls of fried rice, an unfamiliar face approached Fikar. It was a beautiful woman with flashy emerald-green hair. Her large, cat-like eyes blinked, and her cheeks held a hint of red.
“Um… I’m Tussa, would you like to have lunch together?”
Fikar shook his head with a blank expression and held up the two bowls of fried rice. Tussa-san glanced at me. Those eyes, the same color as my hair, made me feel like a mouse.
“You’re welcome to join us…”
“Err… I’ll eat in my room…”
Well, of course that would be awkward, wouldn’t it?
I wanted to take my bowl and run away, but Fikar wouldn’t let go. I was worried that, if I tugged any harder, its contents would be flung out. Fikar was staring at me as if he wanted to say something to me. Tussa-san was staring at me, too. It looked like I was being asked to be their translator, but it’s not like I knew what they were thinking either.
“… The two of us need to talk about some other job with the guild, so let’s talk another time, okay?”
Tussa-san acknowledged my lame excuse with a hateful nod. Although I felt relieved to continue walking, I could tell we were being followed by the sound of her footsteps. I awkwardly poured some water from a pitcher, climbed the stairs, made my way down the hallway, and opened the door for Fikar, whose hands were full. He entered the room first and, as I turned around to close the door behind me, my eyes met Tussa-san’s, who was glaring at me through the gap, so I swiftly shut it.
So scary!
Finally, I felt comfortable in our barren room — only a bed and a table. The food contained lots of diced vegetables and meat, and the healthy servings of salt and pepper made it even tastier. As I was munching on it, I noticed Fikar staring at me.
“I mean, I think it’s a type of kindness to cleanly refuse…”
That said, Fikar barely ever opened his mouth. And when he did, it was done reluctantly only because the other person was so insistent that he speak. I could see that he was sometimes vaguely interesting, so maybe he didn’t like talking to begin with.
How about writing replies on some kind of card, then? Ah, no, he would probably just hang one around his neck saying “Don’t talk to me.”
“Well, there’s only six days left. Let’s make something delicious when we get home.”
Fikar nodded, pulling out a snack from his pocket and offering to share some with me. The way he grasped and crushed the walnuts that he probably picked up in the forest was impressive no matter how many times you’ve seen it before. Though, if he showed it to the girls that approached him, I wondered how many would be turned off…
I thought the day would pass peacefully after that, but that’s not what fate had in store for me.
I’d been told that I would be going to a shed to work in a small group that afternoon, and I’d later learn that one of the people in that group was Tussa-san.
