“Have you noticed, Baze?”
“Of course.”
Tiamat and Baze were conversing. This was our second day out in the field. With some tips and tricks under their belt the workers were much more efficient, steadily increasing our yield. Our goal, for the time being, was 1000kg, or a metric ton. While that wouldn’t be enough to completely fill four carriages, we weren’t going to ditch our water and food for the trip home to make room for more.
At this rate, I guessed that we would reach our goal in the next day or two. The morale of the workers was high with plenty of pay, food, and rest. Mister Garish would never recommend anyone that wouldn’t be dedicated to the work with these conditions, and Mister Milon would have never paid for their services.
Because the workers were hard at work, the rest of us were left with less work to do. Tiamat’s anatomy wasn’t well-suited for farmwork, and I would have only gotten in the way. While Baze was good at digging up dirt and had plenty of physical endurance to keep at it, he was casually sent down to the minors since his work was too... rough around the edges. What a useless trio of a human, dragon, and Fenrir we were.
It didn’t seem right to just stand around doing no work, so we were keeping watch for the time being. Not that we were at risk of being attacked, but we couldn’t leave the site completely unguarded. There was the added bonus of the workers’ piece of mind in knowing that they were protected. While on our watch, Tiamat and Baze held that exchange quietly.
“Of course, what? Mister Baze?”
Naturally, I hadn’t noticed anything. I wondered how I could acquire the special skill of picking up on the presence of something.
“Someone has been watching us since yesterday.” he informed us nonchalantly. I couldn’t help but turn to and fro in search of said figure, but all I could see was waves of green as far as the eye could see.
There were many short trees around, which provided countless spots for someone to hide, and the grass wasn’t short either. If someone could conceal their presence, I imagined it would be difficult to notice that character until they were extremely close to us. Tiamat, Baze, and Syfer’s team were another story, but the workers were in a very precarious situation.
“We should warn everybody that—”
“No need. I don’t sense any animosity. The eyes pointing our way are filled with curiosity,” Tiamat interrupted me.
“I see...”
What’s a dragon and a Fenrir doing with some humans? might have been what they were thinking. That was easy to understand. From a bystander’s perspective, we were clearly a weird group of characters. We were the kind of gathering that one would be extremely intrigued about, but not really want to approach. Uh-huh. And tragically, I was the leader of the bizarre bunch. Were there any volunteers to take my place?
“But it’s kind of embarrassing to have them just stare at us. Let’s let ‘em join the club, while we’re at it.”
“Why did you say the last part in the Hokkaido dialect, Tia?”
“The word I just used originated in Tohoku, around Tsugaru. The Hokkaido dialect is a melting pot of dialects from all over.”
“We didn’t really need that tidbit, though, did we?”
“Just a little wit for you. So, why don’t you join us? Let us share a meal.”
Tiamat called out towards a direction with no creature in sight. Eventually, a face peeked out from the tall grass.
“Woah!”
I was surprised. It was a cat. Well, a little more wild-looking than that. From my quick estimation, it was about two meters long, and it had large ears with a body full of grey fur. Imagine a giant Russian Blue.
“Hm. A Cait Sith. A rare creature to sight in a field,” Baze explained.
While they were magibeasts, Cait Sithes rarely attacked humans, and mostly lived each day as they pleased. They had a curious and trickster nature. Though they were both intelligent and physically gifted, they were not very aggressive.
“Uh-huh.”
As I took in the characteristics of Cait Sithes being explained to me, the one I was looking at disappeared. In an instant it was right in front of Tiamat, making an incredible jump. We were at least twenty meters away.
“An incomparable honor to receive your invitation, Dragon Princess,” it said with a smoky baritone, and bowed its head. What an elegant cat.
“And it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance too, King of the Forest, Human.”
Its long tail swung to and fro, elegantly. Baze had a sense of royal presence, and while Tiamat appeared coquettish, she had a sense of authority, somehow. In contrast, this Cait Sith had the aura of a nobleman.
“I am a little fool by the name of Hieronymus. The pleasure is all mine,” he introduced himself. No wonder he was elegant. He shared a name with the famous Baron Munchausen, after all.
And so, my team grew to four, just like Syfer’s. With the same male to female ratio, too, at three to one. The definitive difference was that I was the only human on my team... not that I was bothered by that or anything, dammit.
“Hold on, Sir Eiji. There’s no comparison when it comes to combat strength. I don’t even know if the four of us could take on Hieronymus together.” Syfer offered as consolation.
As a guideline for combat strength, apparently about ten Hieronymuses would be a good match against Baze, and about ten Bazes would be a good match against Tiamat. Leading these creatures alone put me in great light... or so he said. I wasn’t too sure. It seemed more like the fifth installment of the most famous JRPG in the world. Well, come to think of it, the protagonist from that title was pretty strong. And the same definitely could not have been said about me. Which meant...
“I’m the flower child?”
“Your name is Eiji. I don’t think I’ll be going to your town one day.”
Tiamat, the magic girl, tied up my insane rambling. Thanks for that.
“You shouldn’t be old enough to know that one, though,” she added.
“All hail the internet.”
In any case, my party ended up being mostly comprised of non-human creatures. As Syfer pointed out, we collectively boasted incredible strength in combat; that was sure to cause its own set of problems. I was just an ordinary human, after all. Albeit with the bizarre status of a Hermit.
A Hermit, dragon, Fenrir, and Cait Sith. Drawing attention to ourselves was becoming unavoidable. Since we were on a quest to save lives, I could foresee the potential of us being worshiped or idolized.
“There you go overthinking again. Who would look at you and think you were sent by a god?” Tiamat cackled. Thanks for the honesty.
I had to wholeheartedly agree, though. If one were to peg a puny bureaucrat like me as a god, they should head straight for either the optometrist or psychiatrist.
“But that wasn’t what I was getting at.”
Things were fine, now. While I stayed at Lishua, and displayed my shortcomings for the world to see, there wasn’t a problem. One could arise after I leave. The rice the hero introduced to this world started an epidemic, which was to be quelled by the Hermit Beans and gagd meat I introduced, and their quality of life would improve with beet sugar.
In the end, what would the people of this land have done? With the right answer given to them from the start, they would only reap the benefits. Was I not about to rob these people of their brain power, imagination, and willingness to take on a challenge? If they were to grow accustomed to some hero or Hermit saving the day every time they were in a dangerous situation, they would all be doomed.
“That’s what I mean when I say you’re overthinking.”
Exasperated, Tiamat bit down my head. Chomp.
“W-W-W-W-What are you doing!?”
It was more of a nibble, and didn’t really hurt. Just stupidly scary.
“I thought if I bit off a piece of your head, it might take away some of that bad brain of yours that keeps complicating things on its own.”
“Please don’t. I’ll die.”
Humans, as far as I knew, would die if a piece of their head was bitten off. We were thinking reeds, after all.