It was already evening by the time we returned from reinforcing the levees. We’d leisurely moved along the river, and it seemed that the time had passed before I even knew it.
Lord Nazel had alighted from Geni and stood in our garden with his arms spread wide. I jumped down from Charite’s back and into his embrace.
“Good work, Agnes. Thank you for everything you did today, truly.” Lord Nazel caught me in his arms and started spinning around.
“I’m glad I could be useful. I also want to thank you for constantly making every effort for everyone’s sake. I know I’m repeating myself, but please take care of your health.”
“Agnes!” Lord Nazel stopped spinning and hugged me even tighter. “Haaah, you’re such a kind woman. You always worry for me.”
“Lord Nazel, you always put yourself last. If it seems like you’re pushing yourself too hard, I’ll force you to rest.”
“I bet you’d also be cute when making me take a break. That might be fun in its own way.”
“Lord Nazel... Are you really not tired if you’re saying things like that? Please go back to your room and sleep tonight.” I pushed Lord Nazel’s back and urged him into the manor. Behind us, Geni and Charite lumbered back toward their stable.
Once I entered the manor with Lord Nazel, Kelly noticed our arrival and came over.
“We’re home, Kelly.”
“Welcome back, Lord Nazelbart, Lady Agnes.”
I was a bit concerned about the way Kelly had acted this morning, but she was now talking to Lord Nazel in her usual nonchalant manner.
“Master Ryuk has come from the fortress regarding the research topic you requested, Lord Nazelbart. He mentioned that he’d like to discuss the results of his research. For now, I’ve shown him to a small drawing room.”
“Ryuk is here? Very well, I’ll see him right away.”
Ryuk was a Polpystani noble—the third son of Viscount Simble—and Paul’s classmate at Masroono National School. He was well-versed in history, and even when he’d just been a student in Polpystan, he’d been so talented that he’d been allowed to visit the school laboratories where specialized research was conducted in various fields. After graduating, he’d come with Paul to Sutrena where they worked together as government officials.
Since Ryuk was so studious, Lord Nazel had entrusted him with research on big hoppers: manabeasts that polluted the earth with their mana. Since the biological investigation into them had come to a standstill, Ryuk was now conducting historical research to determine if something similar had happened in Sutrena in the past.
He’s most likely made some progress.
Big hoppers had caused huge damage inside Polpystan in the past. They were green manabeasts that closely resembled grasshoppers. They normally lived in grasslands and occasionally damaged crops, so farmers treated them like pests. However, they exhibited polyphenism that changed their color to black with orange stripes and made them ferocious. In that state, they ate all kinds of vegetation they could find, and in the end they even attacked humans. They also unconsciously leaked mana from their bodies which turned their surroundings into barren land.
Manabeasts were animals that possessed mana inside their bodies. The way they utilized that mana differed from species to species. When it came to humans, we could deliberately use our magic and its effects for good or ill. It would be a catastrophe if Lord Nazel created poisonous plants or ones that ate humans. Master Robin was a case of someone maliciously applying their magic; he’d been able to cause harm by exploiting the absent-minded state people fell into during his healing magic. Humans considered those kinds of uses harmful magic.
But things were a little different for manabeasts. For example, wyverns or granis could deliberately use their mana to fly or create barriers to block the wind. However, big hoppers’ mana unconsciously overflowed from their bodies and into their surroundings, polluting the earth. This was also a different scenario from when I’d unconsciously used my magic to reinforce something I hadn’t intended to.
Big hoppers probably didn’t realize that they were expelling mana, nor did they realize they were using magic; they weren’t particularly intelligent manabeasts to begin with. As a result, they contaminated their surroundings just by being alive. In the Duchy of Masroono in Polpystan, big hoppers had polluted the earth and made it impossible for ordinary vegetables to grow there. That was a state similar to the one Sutrena had once been in.
Thanks to Lord Nazel’s improved crops, the food situation in the duchy was getting better these days. Even in the rest of Polpystan, there was currently an effort to combat the food shortage with Lord Nazel’s cooperation. For now, we’d started exporting vegetables that could grow even in barren land. Apparently, the Polpystani had gone through the second harvest of the sunchokes we’d given them previously. We’d also sent over improved varieties of crops such as groundnuts—which were originally native to Polpystan—that Lord Nazel had selectively bred here in Sutrena. Ultimately, the best-case scenario would be for the land itself to be restored from its barren state, but no solution had been found yet.
In short, the northern part of Polpystan is in the same situation as Sutrena.
As research on big hoppers and contaminated soil progressed, perhaps Polpystan and Sutrena would one day return to being lands where ordinary crops could grow. Ideally, the land would become the kind where crops grew big and healthy without magical intervention from Lord Nazel and me. I hoped that day would come soon.
It would be nice if we could also get closer to solving the mystery of the manabeast rampages on new moons. After the big hoppers polluted the land with their mana, manabeast rampages like the ones in Sutrena had also occurred in Polpystan. Perhaps there was some kind of connection between the barren land and the manabeasts’ behavior. But that’s just speculation on my part; I don’t have any concrete evidence to back it up.
When Lord Nazel and I entered the drawing room, we found a tense Ryuk inside. Although he was impeccably skilled, he lacked self-confidence and was a bit timid.
“Hello, Ryuk. I’m sorry I kept you waiting,” Lord Nazel said.
Ryuk shook his head vigorously.
“No, I should be the one to apologize. I was in a hurry to tell you my new discovery... Besides, I was told that you went together to work on the embankment repairs. You were working for everyone’s sake, so it would be unthinkable to blame you for this.”
Ever since coming to Sutrena, Ryuk had escaped from his family, which emphasized strength above all, and gotten livelier. I felt relieved watching him conduct research peacefully.
“Now then, can you share your discovery with us?” Lord Nazel asked in a gentle voice once we had all taken our seats.
“Yes, sir!” Ryuk responded with a vigorous nod and spread out the documents he’d brought on the table.
Are these copies of other documents? The letters on them were different from the ones we normally used. Perhaps they were a foreign or archaic script.
“I’ve actually discovered that Sutrena may have also suffered damage from big hoppers in the distant past! One of the townsfolk had a written record from one of their ancestors in their home! It took a lot of effort to decipher it, but according to it...” Ryuk pointed at the documents. “Before the founding of Desnim, manabeasts similar to big hoppers appeared in the land that’s currently Sutrena. There are similarities with the biography we examined back in Polpystan. It’s possible that a similar event is described here.” He pointed at the part he’d just talked about, but I couldn’t read a word of it.
Lord Nazel is silently gazing at the documents. Based on his expression, I think he can partially understand them. This was Lord Nazel we were talking about. There were few things he couldn’t do. There was a high chance that he would master this mysterious script in the future.
I can’t read this text, but I remember the biography we saw in Polpystan. If my memory served me right, the book had talked about the current desert region in the southern part of Polpystan. Around a century ago, an outbreak of big hoppers had caused that entire region to become completely barren; a fact that was still true to this day. Before that, the climate in the south had been similar to that of northern Polpystan or Sutrena.
“Sutrena suffered from the big hoppers long before Polpystan did. The fact that some plants naturally grow here—even if they’re all inedible—suggests that nature is regenerating with time,” Ryuk explained.
Lord Nazel and I nodded.
I thought the same back when I saw that biography in Polpystan, but it seems that really is the case. We’d gained conclusive evidence thanks to Ryuk’s research. Crops necessary for human survival couldn’t grow here yet, but hardy species of wild plants did just fine. It seemed that the land’s regeneration was starting with the tougher plants.